Thursday, June 21, 2012

Dell drops ALEC

We just got word that computer-maker Dell won't renew its membership in ALEC, the corporate lobbying group that calls itself the American Legislative Exchange Council. Woo-hoo!

Dell is the latest of nearly two dozen corporations to leave ALEC. Others include Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, Coca-Cola Co., Kraft Foods Inc., McDonald's Corp., Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo Inc. and Wendy's.

Jan Bohn in the Wisconsin State Journal today describes ALEC as,
...an extreme right-wing organization ... funded by corporations with the purpose of making the rich richer, the middle-class poorer and the poor destitute.
ALEC pays for state lawmakers to take lavish vacations, where they can shmooze with corporate donors. Those corporate members of ALEC write legislation to benefit themselves. Their political puppets then introduce the bills as their own.

ALEC's aims are just what you'd expect: dismantle unions, kneecap trial lawyers, privatize government services and protect companies that harm workers and customers.

Maybe State Farm Insurance will be next.