Taking Care of Business: Citizenship and the Charter of Incorporation

In this commentary, Richard L. Grossman and Frank T. Adams examine the history of industry-community relations. The authors learn that those who guided the development of our country never intended business and industry to have an unlimited license to seek profit at the expense of the common weal. Grossman and Adams argue that charters can be resurrected as a tool to place corporations under citizen authority. Their study, in effect, offers the environmental, occupational health, and labor movements an exciting new strategy with many new tactics in their grassroots battles against corporate polluters and union busters. Their history and proposab should get full consideration, a good airing, and real-life testing. New Solutions is pleased to present this analysis and invites readers' responses to it. We welcome responses that take the form of either letters or full-scale commentaries. We encourage readers to purchase and disseminate the pamphlet from which this commentary is taken, available from the authors, which includes extensive notes and a selected bwlwgraphy. For information, see the box at the end of the article.

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