Help Stop Bush: Boycott GOP Companies
By Bob Schober and Jackson Thoreau
Since the 2004 election, many of us have been grasping for something to do. "What's next?" seems to be the question of the day for us liberals, now faced with a presumptive right-wing majority salivating to remake America.
So, while Bob was recently painting, Rosa Parks and the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott came to mind, and it all fell in place - we liberals CAN fight back in terms well understood by the right wing. We can boycott those companies that contributed heavily to the Republican cause. Their money helped the GOP to denigrate liberals; we can use our dollars to hit back where it really hurts - on the bottom line. The time has come to show them that their politics has an economic consequence.
We'd only be following the philosophical footsteps of Ayn Rand, whose protagonist John Galt in Atlas Shrugged convinced the productive, but vilified, members of society to drop out and let the system crash. The right wing glorifies her philosophy, and how delicious that wed be turning it back on them by withholding our dollars. And don't forget the tradition set by this country's forefathers and foremothers, who boycotted another King George and his British Empire business supporters.
We're salivating over the prospect of millions of frustrated liberals, progressives and others who oppose the Bush administration, tired of being slimed by the right-wing media and politicians, individually sending letters to the corporate offices of companies who lend major support to those causes. Imagine the Republican CEOs getting thousands of letters saying, "You have lost me as a customer until you show a balanced contribution to all political parties."
The GOP message during the campaign was that liberals are unpatriotic and anti-American - well, we'll give these companies their wish and, Galt-style, check out. These companies won't have to suffer our tainted dollars anymore. You can get donor information on such Web sites as Center for Responsive Politics (http://www.opensecrets.org) and Political MoneyLine (http://www.fecinfo.com), which compile the information from Federal Election Commission databases.
And here is some of what you'll find:
* Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and PriceWaterhouseCoopers were the top three corporate contributors to Bush this cycle.
* Wal-Mart donated 82 percent of its $1.8 million contributions to Republicans this cycle.
* Verizon Communications donated 61 percent of its $1.23 million to the Republicans.
So, guess what? We don't plan to use the financial services of Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch or PriceWaterhouseCoopers. No more Wal-Mart for us, and we're dropping Verizon for Working Assets.
But there are some companies who donated more heavily to Democrats, and for the time being, they will continue to have our support. They include Microsoft (67 percent), whose software we are using to write this column; JP Morgan Chase (55 percent), through which we have credit cards; and Walt Disney (71 percent).
But those credit card and debt financing offers from MBNA (75 percent to the GOP) will now be thrown automatically away. And were send our packages through the U.S. Post Office, where 79 percent of the National Association of Letter Carriers donations went to Democrats, rather than support either FedEx or United Parcel Service, which spent heavily (68 percent and 75 percent, respectively) on Republicans.
Analysis of the data, however, show that corporations almost always hedge their bets by contributing at least something to both sides; no doubt the percentages will change once the Democrats regain political power. The real problem, as we see it, is corporate influence, and if we want democracy long term, we have to cleanse our politics of all such influence, regardless if they support our political causes.
But that's the long-term goal; we see this initial boycott as a way of channeling the political heat to shifting some people away from corporate patronage to local, sustainable businesses.
The following are corporations that mostly support the Republican Party over the Democratic Party in financial contributions, with addresses and other info of some. If you join this boycott campaign, be sure to mail and/or fax them letters saying what you are doing and why. We also included some companies that support mostly Democrats and progressives to purchase their services and products.
Food/Restaurants
Conagra Foods: includes brands like Armour, Banquet,
Blue Bonnet, Butterball, Chef Boyardee, Chun King, Decker Eckrich,
Fleishmann's, Healthy Choice, Hunt's, Jiffy Pop, Kid Cuisine, Knott's
Berry Farm, La Choy, Libby's, Luck's, Manwich, Orville Redenbacher's,
Patio, Peter Pan, Ranch Style, Reddi-wip, Slim Jim, Swiss Miss, Van
Camp's, Wesson, Wolf.
Flowers Industries: includes brands like Flowers, Nature's Own, Sunbeam, ButterKrust, Mrs. Freshley's.
Smithfield Foods: includes brands like Smithfield, Farmfield, Cumberland Gap, Krakus, Stefano.
Safeway
Outback Steakhouse: includes Outback, Lee Roy
Selmon's, Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar.
Brinker International: includes Chili's, Macaroni Grill, On the Border. Tyson Foods
McDonald's Corp.
Health care
Baxter Healthcare Corp.
Phone services
Verizon Communications
1095 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
Phone: 212-395-2121
Fax: 212-869-3265
Toll Free: 800-621-9900
Ivan G. Seidenberg, Chairman and CEO
MCI/ WorldCom
Energy/Transportation
ExxonMobil - Exxon, Mobil, Esso.
ConocoPhillips Spirit brands include Conoco,
Phillips 66, Kendall.
ChevronTexaco - Chevron, Texaco, Caltex.
BP-Amoco
TXU Corp.
Ford Motor Company - Ford, Volvo, Lincoln, Jaguar,
Mazda, Mercury, LandRover, Hertz.
Chrysler Corp.
Toyota Motor
Delta Airlines
Continental Airlines
Goodyear Tire
Halliburton
Banking/Financial services
MBNA Corp.
1100 N. King St.
Wilmington, Del. 19884
Phone: 302-453-9930
Fax: 302-432-3614
Randolph Lerner, Chairman
Bruce Hammonds, President and CEO
Morgan Stanley
Merrill Lynch
PriceWaterhouseCoopers
UBS Americas
Credit Suisse First Boston
Lehman Brothers
American Financial Group
Cigna Corp.
High-tech
Gateway
Texas Instruments
Dell Computer
Hewlett-Packard
EDS Corp.
General Retail
Wal-Mart Stores
702 SW 8th St.
Bentonville, AR 72716
Phone: 479-273-4000
Fax: 479-273-4053
S. Robson Walton, Chairman
H. Lee Scott Jr., President and CEO
http://boycottwalmart.meetup.com
Kmart Corp.
Sears, Roebuck
J.C. Penney Corp.
3M Company - brands include Post-It, Scotch.Pepsi
Coors Brewing
Hallmark Cards
Delivery services
FedEx Corp.
942 S. Shady Grove Rd.
Memphis, Tn. 38120
Phone: 901-818-7500
Fax: 901-395-2000
Frederick W. Smith, Chairman, CEO and President
United Parcel Service
55 Glenlake Pkwy., NE
Atlanta, GA 30328
Phone: 404-828-6000
Fax: 404-828-6562
Michael Eskew, Chairman and CEOEntertainment
Univision Communications
Household products/construction
Home Depot
International Paper - paper products include
Hammermil, Great White.
Caterpillar
Cintas
Companies that mostly contribute to Democrats or progressives over Republicans to support:
Food/Restaurants
Albertsons
Ben & Jerrys
Whole Foods Market
Austin Grills
General Retail
Costco Cos.
Family Dollar Stores
Barnes & Noble
Phone services
Working Assets
High-tech
Microsoft
IBM Corp.
Banking/Financial services
Kramer Spellman
JP Morgan Chase
Health care
Solomont Bailis Ventures
Entertainment
Time Warner
Walt Disney
Law firms
Skadden, Arps
Delivery services
U.S. Postal Service
Bob Schober is a free-lance journalist in the Pittsburgh area who has worked for The Dallas Morning News, among other newspapers. Jackson Thoreau worked with Bob at the News and now is a writer/journalist in the Washington, D.C., area. If you have a company to add to this list or a question, they can be reached at boycottgopcos@yahoo.com. An updated list will be at http://www.geocities.com/jacksonthor/boycott.html.
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