The Stewards Newsletter is meant to provide Inspiration, Education about an issue, and Action steps.

Inspiration:

"Do you know what astonished me most in the world? The inability of force to create anything. In the long run, the sword is always beaten by the spirit."

Napoleon Bonaparte, at the end of his life

"I have only three enemies. My favorite enemy, the one most easily influenced for the better, is the British Empire. My second enemy, the Indian people, is far more difficult. But my most formidable opponent is a man named Mohandas K. Gandhi. With him I seem to have very little influence."

Mohandas K. Gandhi

Education:

A Case that Counts: Environmental activist Marc Kasky and attorney Alan Caplan (who helped end the "Joe Camel" cigarette ads aimed at children) filed a lawsuit in April of 1998 against Nike Corp., claiming the company had engaged in "unfair business practices by falsely advertising its Asian labor conditions." Kasky and Caplan had compiled a list of documented human rights violations at Nike's Asian facilities, and presented them in court side by side with Nike's own public statements describing the working conditions as good.
  The crux of the case is that Nike is fighting the suit by claiming that its ability to present a positive public image is a protected form of free speech. Lower courts have ruled that "despite Nike's economic interest in defending its corporate image, the company's statements made a valuable contribution to the public dialogue about globalization." California State Attorney General Bill Lockyer disagrees: "Image advertising is properly viewed as a form of commercial speech, and the use of deceptive statements of fact about one's own operation is not entitled to First Amendment or state constitutional protection under any legal theory."
  Corporate watchdog groups, environmentalists, and human rights workers are very interested in the case, as it will be central to corporations ongoing ability to "greenwash" their image.

-- compiled from an article by Josh Richman in Adbusters, No. 35.

For more information on this and other corporate abuse issues, visit www.corpwatch.com or www.adbusters.org.

Action:

With globalization so much into what many systems theorists consider "runaway", our attention and intention about our practices of consumption are critically important.

Prioritize patronizing/matronizing local companies, goods, and services.

If you'd like to better know where and how to purchase/invest/live "green", get a copy of the National Green Pages. Holy Organic! sells these. Contact Susan Slatky at susun@holyorganic.com -- (828) 250-9100 or contact Co-op America at www.coopamerica.com. The Green Pages are online at this site.