This coming Tuesday, August 23, 2011 will mark the 40th Anniversary of one of the least known landmarks in the current American Counter-revolution by those who would would rather rule than be governed.
As this same global thieving class serves their forclosure notices on our democracy, it is only right that we give credit where credit is due and give appropriate recognition to Lewis Powell, Jr., who on August 23, 1971 wrote his memo Eugene Sydnor at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in which he detailed what he identified as a growing threat to our economic system and proposed a broad and far-reaching solution.
Primary Sources:
Confidential Memorandum:
Attack of American Free Enterprise System
Date: August 23, 1971
T0: Mr. Eugene B. Sydnor, Jr., Chairman, Education Committee, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
From: Lewis F. Powell, Jr.
(Interesting to note that unless there is a typo in the name of the memo that replaced "on" with "of", the memo was actually more honest than it might otherwise appear. Is the subject of the memo the "Attack on American Free Enterprise System" or the Attack of American Free Enterprise System"? I guess that's the question.)
HT to Naked Capitalism for giving us a reminder that Tuesday is the 40th Anniversary in an article discussing how the Koch Class is still busy implementing the memo (and at least in my view, burying us as Khrushchev threatened to do, but never could, because for that kind of job, you really need a manipulating and authoritarian elite of much greater skill and resources - like the Kochs.)
As Bill Black wrote over at Yves Smith's Naked Capitalism site:
He issued a clarion call for corporations to mobilize their economic power to further their economic interests by ensuring that corporations dominated every influential and powerful American institution. Lewis Powell’s call was answered by the CEOs who funded the creation of Cato, Heritage, and hundreds of other movement centers.
This diary is not a response to the Lewis Powell Memo.
It is a call for DK to respond this Tuesday with the tsunami of responses that this Memo and this 40 year movement towards Corporatacracy so richly deserves.
Just a note of personal perspective: It is my belief that 95% or more of American businesses operate in ways that are consistent with the best parts of both our free enterprise system and our democractic system of government. The small remaining segment (which controls a disproportionate share of both our economy and our government) have not, do not and will not unless and until they are forced to by actions of the people both direct and through our government.
To the extent I have disagreements with the Lewis Powell Memo, it does not reflect a lack of respect for or antagonism towards the host of small mainstreet businesses that operate according to the rules, treat their employees with some measure of the golden rule (that represents not only a moral and patriotic stand, but also an enlightened self-interested stand embodied in concept referred to as "Fordism") and that remember that they are are part of a community of businesses and people that make up this Country.
(As a measure of which side of that line you fall, if you have not made campaign contributions of at least 5 figures in any election or spent more than 6 figures in lobbying the state or federal government for special treatment of your company or industry in any given fiscal year, you are probably as much a victim of the ones that have and do as are the rest of us. )
Now, back to our Diary.
For those not familiar with Mr. Powell's Call to Arms for the Corporatacracy, I'll give just a few tidbits so you get the flavor of the thing.
First, I have to say, the Lewis Powell Memo is truly a work of propaganda art. It is obviously written with the knowledge and intent that it will become public, while laying both the foundation of the "threat" and a detailed outline for his proposed "defense".
Miscast in the role of evil mastermind was none other than that arch-villian in the eyes of the Corporate American Right: Ralph Nader (cue scary music):
Perhaps the single most effective antagonist of American business is Ralph Nader, who -- thanks largely to the media -- has become a legend in his own time and an idol of millions of Americans. A recent article in Fortune speaks of Nader as follows:
"The passion that rules in him -- and he is a passionate man -- is aimed at smashing utterly the target of his hatred, which is corporate power. He thinks, and says quite bluntly, that a great many corporate executives belong in prison -- for defrauding the consumer with shoddy merchandise, poisoning the food supply with chemical additives, and willfully manufacturing unsafe products that will maim or kill the buyer. He emphasizes that he is not talking just about 'fly-by-night hucksters' but the top management of blue chip business." 7
...
Joining him on the corporate list of most wanted (as detailed in Powell's Business Uber Alles Memo) were luminaries such as William Kunstler, Yale Professor Charles Reich (for his temerity to write that radical screed: "The Greening of America," ), and of course, the oh-so-scary "NEW LEFT" and their familiars such as the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and last but not least, the politicians.
The sources are varied and diffused. They include, not unexpectedly, the Communists, New Leftists and other revolutionaries who would destroy the entire system, both political and economic. These extremists of the left are far more numerous, better financed, and increasingly are more welcomed and encouraged by other elements of society, than ever before in our history. But they remain a small minority, and are not yet the principal cause for concern.
The most disquieting voices joining the chorus of criticism come from perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians. In most of these groups the movement against the system is participated in only by minorities. Yet, these often are the most articulate, the most vocal, the most prolific in their writing and speaking.
Moreover, much of the media-for varying motives and in varying degrees-either voluntarily accords unique publicity to these "attackers," or at least allows them to exploit the media for their purposes. This is especially true of television, which now plays such a predominant role in shaping the thinking, attitudes and emotions of our people. ...
As evidence of this "attack" against the American Economic System, Lewis Powell raises issues that could have come straight out of today's news:
...The foregoing references illustrate the broad, shotgun attack on the system itself. There are countless examples of rifle shots which undermine confidence and confuse the public. Favorite current targets are proposals for tax incentives through changes in depreciation rates and investment credits. These are usually described in the media as "tax breaks," "loop holes" or "tax benefits" for the benefit of business. * As viewed by a columnist in the Post, such tax measures would benefit "only the rich, the owners of big companies." 8 ...
The Lewis Powell Memo seeks to cast American Business as the weak but virtuous maiden tied to railroad tracks in his little melodrama:
In all fairness, it must be recognized that businessmen have not been trained or equipped to conduct guerrilla warfare with those who propagandize against the system, seeking insidiously and constantly to sabotage it. The traditional role of business executives has been to manage, to produce, to sell, to create jobs, to make profits, to improve the standard of living, to be community leaders, to serve on charitable and educational boards, and generally to be good citizens. They have performed these tasks very well indeed.
But they have shown little stomach for hard-nose contest with their critics, and little skill in effective intellectual and philosophical debate.
..
In urging business CEOs to become more actively, collectively involved in confronting this problem as a primary responsibility of corporate management, Lewis Powell gets out the trowel and lays it on a mile thick when describing what he supposedly sees as the "impotency of business" in the arena of politics and government:
The Neglected Political Arena
In the final analysis, the payoff -- short-of revolution -- is what government does. Business has been the favorite whipping-boy of many politicians for many years. But the measure of how far this has gone is perhaps best found in the anti-business views now being expressed by several leading candidates for President of the United States.
It is still Marxist doctrine that the "capitalist" countries are controlled by big business. This doctrine, consistently a part of leftist propaganda all over the world, has a wide public following among Americans.
Yet, as every business executive knows, few elements of American society today have as little influence in government as the American businessman, the corporation, or even the millions of corporate stockholders. If one doubts this, let him undertake the role of "lobbyist" for the business point of view before Congressional committees. The same situation obtains in the legislative halls of most states and major cities. One does not exaggerate to say that, in terms of political influence with respect to the course of legislation and government action, the American business executive is truly the "forgotten man."
Current examples of the impotency of business, and of the near-contempt with which businessmen's views are held, are the stampedes by politicians to support almost any legislation related to "consumerism" or to the "environment." ...
While not conceding that the manipulative and authoritarian elite have ever been impotent (at least in terms of politics and government), in these modern times the "current examples" to the contrary would seem to line up in a queue that could warp many times around the world as reflected in the views of almost 90% of the American people:
When one thinks about how Washington, D.C. works, certain groups are always seen as being too powerful and wielding too much influence among the decision-making authorities. Almost nine in ten Americans say that big companies (88%) and political action committees or PACs (87%) have too much power and influence in Washington D.C. More than four in five U.S. adults believe that banks and financial institutions (85%) and political lobbyists (84%) carry too much influence inside the Beltway while almost three-quarters believe the news media (72%) has too much power.
Big Companies, PACs, Banks, Financial Institutions and Lobbyists Seen by Strong Majorities as Having Too Much Power and Influence in DC Small business and public opinion seen as having too littleNew York, N.Y. - June 1, 2011
Two articles referenced in the Lewis Powell Memo may deserve either special treatment or their own review (either seperately or together):
1. The Ideological War Against Western SocietyArthur A. Shenfield - 1970 (pdf)
2. Address by Yale President Brewster to Freshmen Class of 1969
referenced in the above and quoted in greater length here:
Education: Antidote for Cynicism
So hear ye, hear ye, hear ye.
Calling on DK diarists and posters:
By this Tuesday, it would be nice to commemorate this second shot heard round the world's board rooms and CEO penthouse suites with a few responses.
I hope we make Mr. Blutarsky proud.