Earlier today, we reported that Coca-Cola and PepsiCo said they would leave the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the corporate front group that pushes controversial laws like Stand Your Ground and disenfranchising Voter ID laws in state legislatures across the country. Citizen groups, led by Color of Change, have pressured the corporations that fund ALEC to quit the group, arguing that the popular consumer companies should not back laws harmful to the communities in which their shareholders, employees, and customers live and work.
Last week, the editors of Republic Report, along with Color of Change, Rebuild The Dream, and Center for Media and Democracy wrote to the 20 corporations on ALEC’s board asking them to stop supporting this controversial group. One of the 20 was Kraft Foods Inc., which initially said that it would remain with ALEC. Republic Report’s Zaid Jilani and Lee Fang visited Kraft’s Washington, D.C. lobby offices last week, asking about the letter we wrote:
Late in the day on Thursday, Kraft Foods Inc, said in an emailed statement that it would leave ALEC:
“We belong to many external groups, including ALEC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes growth and fiscal responsibility…ALEC covers numerous issues but our involvement has been strictly limited to discussions about economic growth and development, transportation and tax policy. We did not participate in meetings or conversations related to other issues…Our membership in ALEC expires this spring and for a number of reasons, including limited resources, we have made the decision not to renew.”
Other popular consumer corporations, including Wal-Mart, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Proctor and Gamble, and UPS have not indicated that they plan to follow suit and dissociate themselves from ALEC. At least not yet.
Republic Report is an investigative news blog dedicated uncovering the corrupting influence of money in politics.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
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With love, rage, and solidarity,
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