The news that the Obama administration will champion targeted assistance for small U.S. businesses is a welcome turn of events after decades of public policy that has routinely favored huge multi-national corporations over the enterprising little guy. It also provides an opportunity to focus on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the insidious way its operations have been redirected to serve the interests of the powerful few rather than those of the many.
What peaked my interest was an e-mail link to a story in the Colorado Independent, that was sent to me by my friend Perry Cooper. It seems that the Aspen Chamber of Commerce has called-out the U.S. Chamber for
questioning of global warming science and other policies it's adopted that are aimed at thwarting climate-change legislation.
I quickly discovered that the U.S Chamber has quite a reputation for such activities, as reported by Sourcewatch:
U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a powerful business lobbying group in the United States, "used to be a trade association that advocated in a bipartisan manner for narrowly tailored policies to benefit its members. Since 1997 or so, it has become a fully functional part of the partisan Republican machine," with CEO and president Thomas J. Donohue "raising its budget to $150M a year from corporate chiefs satisfied with his ability to move policy through a Republican Congress," Matt Stoller wrote December 13, 2006, at MyDD.
The Chamber claims on its website that its mission is to "advance human progress through an economic, political and social system based on individual freedom, incentive, initiative, opportunity, and responsibility." It describes itself as "the world's largest business federation representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region."
However, the Chamber is "dominated by oil companies, pharmaceutical giants, automakers and other polluting industries," according to James Carter, executive director of the Green Chamber of Commerce.
As detailed in this Washington Post article, the Chamber has also taken a highly activist role in frustrating the current efforts toward healthcare reform.
They have opposed legislation that would restrict imports from countries engaged in sweatshop labor practices and fought against the Employee Free Choice Act that would make it easier for labor to organize. Trumpeting the virtues of "free trade" the Chamber has positioned itself against virtually every measure that would advance the cause of "fair trade" in U.S. and world enterprise. The end result is that there have recently been a number of defections from the U.S. Chamber in response to the sharp right turn that its activities have taken. Most notable among those departures was Apple Computers which withdrew from the Chamber in protest over its position on legislation addressing climate change.
As small business owners ourselves, my husband and I recognize that implementing public policies like universal healthcare, workers' rights, a living wage and clean environmental standards is the only way to ensure the survival of "free" enterprise and a stable economy. By endorsing a profit-driven race to the bottom without regard for the human and environmental consequences, the U.S. Chamber and it's mega-corporate handlers is courting future economic collapse. Rather than the flawed model of "trickle-down" economics, it is full participation by all sectors of the U.S. population that will be the engine of long-term prosperity.
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