BUILDING THE MOVEMENT

Making Ethics A Market Value

"Ethical" and "moral" corporations cannot exist for long in this unethical and amoral economic system. Ethics are unlikely to be injected into the system by shareholders (many of whom are corporations), or by corporations that can't do so without endangering their own survival. Government cannot inject ethics; it can only put up feeble barriers in an attempt to guide corporate activity. If ethical values are to survive in this system, they must be injected by customers. Corporate survival depends upon growth, growth generally depends to some degree upon sales, and who do sales depend upon? The customer. The customer can inject ethics into the entire system by demanding them and rewarding them through purchases of ethically superior goods.

Bad corporate behavior is a symptom of the system, not the cause of it. Individual corporations are not steering the ship. They did not create this system; they were simply born into it. In this system, they have limitations on how ethical they can afford to become. There is no point in having ethical corporations if they are all going to go out of business and be replaced by less ethical ones. Consequently, corporations cannot become ethical without support from us, from our purchases. We can't ask corporations to incur greater expenses for ethical policies if we aren't also willing to pay more for such policies. We can't have ethical corporations without ethical customers to support them.

This movement can create a sizeable economic force that can begin transforming amoral corporations with destructive practices into amoral corporations with benign or even beneficial practices. We can offer our support to those corporations with the best policies and practices in exchange for their commitment to continue improving. In industries where there is no clear ethical leader, we can choose a target and convert it. We can work with workers and unions, shareholder activists, alternative media and students, consumer groups, lawyers and artists, progressive business leaders, and civic and political activists in the corporation's hometown to apply strategic pressures to convert a particular target to our specifications. Worker buy-outs and corporate break-ups will be actively encouraged.

Once a number of ethical businesses begin to thrive, other corporations will attempt to ride the movement coat tails by adopting their own ethical standards. When corporations begin promoting themselves by drawing attention to their ethical qualities, we will be light years from the corporate world of today. Corporations will compete to be the most ethical. And with the increasing focus on ethics, it will be harder to get away with greenwashing - today's shallow and hypocritical efforts to deceptively portray a corporate image.

Just as quality, safety, price, and style have increased in availability, ethical production can also enter the equation. We can reverse the inverse relationship between profits and ethics, so whereas it currently tends to pay to be unethical, we can make it pay to be ethical. We can make it profitable to be good. Money will become dependent upon ethics. With such a strategy, we can begin to pull corporations out of our political system and make it work for us again. Won't it be nice to have corporations promoting societal values instead of having society promoting corporate values?

People will begin debating information on the most responsible product choice. Consumer responsibility will become a common topic in children's classrooms. Organizational newsletters will abound with new information and databases will be created to act as clearinghouses for such information. As consumers learn more about the links of the corporate state to national and global problems, they will become more resolute in their commitment to the movement. The problems they see around them will begin to make more sense. The more they learn, the clearer the past will become, as will the future. Social values will change. Instead of continuing to adopt the values of Madison Avenue - excess, competition, envy - people will begin to find their social and ethical values newly relevant in their daily lives, and begin living by values they want reflected in the future.

The marketplace has been seen as part of the problem for so long that it may feel strange to use it to promote a solution. The bizarre and morally bankrupt stock market system (whose owners are largely removed from the ethical implications of business decisions) isn't going away any time soon. And if market mechanisms can inject ethics into this system, then we should make use of them. While such an approach does not change the nature of the system, it does have the potential to change the fundamental rules of the marketplace. And it can also go even further.

Building the Alternative Economy

We can think of the economic aspect of this movement as a series of stepping stones, with each stone allowing movement supporters to shift their involvement, if they wish, to a higher level. While some movement supporters may be content to boycott, others may work to reform corporations. But as more people join the movement and learn about the corporate system, more and more are likely to begin moving to the next level, building the alternative: a non-corporate, non-growth driven economy. And, of course, many people will be active in all of these levels to one degree or another.

Once people become familiar with the concept of ethical spending and investing in one's values, many of them will stop investing their economic power in the corporate system, and to instead recycle their dollars within the growing alternative economy. The money that is funneled into the alternative, ethical economy will provide more jobs to those wishing to leave the corporate economy. Consequently, the alternative economy will grow, and the corporate economy will begin shrinking. The resulting "smaller is better" purchasing choices may ultimately make growth (such as takeovers and buy-outs, and even growth-happy co-ops) counterproductive. As more people purchase ethical products and create economic security for alternative businesses, these products will become affordable to still more people who will buy an increasing share of their purchases from ethical businesses. And there are many people who would be willing to pay extra for ethical purchases once they know their actions are in solidarity with others, as part of a movement, and not simply as an individual act removed from greater significance.

But all of this movement is contingent upon information. We cannot have successful, responsible businesses without responsible consumers, and we cannot have responsible consumers without information. The preparers of this booklet are frequently asked by casual acquaintances where to find information about which products to buy and which to avoid.

Interestingly, when the public is given names of specific companies involved in wrongdoing, the response is often swift and pointed. After the Exxon Valdez spill, dozens of boycotts sprang up around the country overnight. Exxon's image was so tarnished in the northwest that it traded its stations in that region to BP in exchange for other stations in the Midwest. When people have information about corporate practices, they use it. And people want this information.

CREATING THE TOOLS

Green Pages Community Alternative Directories

If changing corporate behavior and building the alternative economy are contingent upon people buying according to their values, then people are going to need information about business practices.If these fundamental resources aren't available, this critical effort by individuals can stall, and its supporters may lose momentum and, eventually, interest. The Green Pages Directory will provide a daily resource and inspiration for ever-greater involvement in consumer responsibility, plus foster an understanding of the corporate system and economic democracy issues.

These alternative directories establish minimum social/environmental criteria that must be met for a business to be listed. These criteria will be specific to each industry. Future editions will add more "hoops" for businesses to jump through to create direction and momentum. As more individuals use these directories, businesses will have greater incentive to alter their practices. The directories are distributed locally to provide support for smaller, local businesses and create a proving ground for the movement in that region. The first such directory can serve as a prototype for other similar efforts around the country, which can begin networking and sharing ideas to improve their information and presentation.

Smaller businesses that are interested in improving their practices may need the resources/consultation/patronage of local groups with an interest in seeing those practices altered. Consequently, the local directories must also be a resource for companies to link up with organizations that can assist them in making improvements.

Economic Democracy and Boycott Web Page

The internet is the most practical way to provide information on corporate practices, consumer actions, and economic democracy issues to a wide range of consumers and organizations. The site will network/link with thousands of other groups, and refer users to specific information and resources. Because each cause and organization has its own boycott or action against corporate activity, this web page would have a ready-made following that can be reached with the broader messages of consumer responsibility and economic democracy. Although the initial users will likely be activists in various causes, the site will help to define and pull together diverse efforts into a broad movement with common interests and goals. This web page would be the primary substructure for the movement and a vehicle for providing information and communication among participants. It is important to have it in place first, so that as the other projects bring new participation, those groups and individuals will have a place to go that will give them comprehensive exposure to the issues and concepts, and provide options for involvement.

Corporate Report Cards

This project grades corporations with comprehensive ratings designed to create market incentives for changes in corporate policies and practices. As the movement grows, consumers will seek more comprehensive information, and will be in a better position to wield their collective influence in ways that can swiftly impact corporate practices. However, corporations will be slow to respond to such demands until they can be assured that any changes will be sufficiently acknowledged and rewarded. Consequently, there needs to be a system that provides information for consumers, yet also lets corporations know that changes in various practices will result in a specified change in their rating. Through consumer use of these ratings, corporations can be made aware of consumer values and priorities and then compete to meet these new demands. When consumer values change, corporate practices will be forced to conform to such demands. Of course, initial corporate compliance will be sticky at best, and they will likely criticize their ratings. But the corporations with the top ratings will benefit from the system (and they may even promote it), and there will be growing public attention toward corporate scores, and corporate efforts to improve their standing.

Much of the information needed for such ratings has already been compiled by a wide array of groups. Instead of presenting their findings in obscure reports or only to Capitol Hill, we are suggesting they also present such information to consumers. Organizations with expertise in specific aspects of social and environmental issues should be consulted and involved in rating corporate performance. This will give them a stake in the movement, unify their efforts with those of other groups, and provide impetus to involve their members in the movement. The information simply needs to be collected, processed, and made widely available.

National Boycott News Magazine

While the web page targets those individuals already involved and active, there is a need to reach into the mainstream public to create a broader movement. A consumer boycott movement is an excellent way to empower and involve a large portion of the public. In order to utilize the unique qualities of boycotts to create such a movement, the information must first reach the public. This can be best achieved through the publication of a boycott magazine. The magazine may actually reach the public more through its capacity to generate mainstream articles and radio interviews than through newsstand sales. Such articles, interviews, and sales can plug consumers into the website where they will be exposed to the broader movement.

Conclusion

Authors and activists crisscross the country every day exposing corporate wrongdoing, but giving audiences no way to connect or take action. Entertainers involved in anti-corporate efforts reach millions, who leave their concerts and movies feeling informed but powerless. Articles and exposes regularly report on a myriad of corporate evils, but leave readers feeling like horrified bystanders.

What is missing is unification, strategy, and action. The movement will not only provide a common language in which to address the corporate problem, but its global multitude will possess tools, organization, a vast network of resources, visions of a just future, and the conviction that the common good will prevail.