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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Feb. 13, 1997
issue of Workers World newspaper
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Fortune 500 volunteer to get richer

By David Perez

The "Citizen Service Summit" scheduled for April 27 in Philadelphia is not just some political concoction cooked up by President Bill Clinton and backed by Republicans like former President George Bush.

It is an event shaped and supported by the top echelons in U.S. capitalist industry and finance. This came starkly clear in a 25-page advertisement in the Jan. 13 issue of Fortune, a big-business magazine.

In the ad section, heads of corporations like Prudential Insurance, Shell Oil, AT&T, State Farm Insurance, BankAmerica, Pfizer and American Express laud the virtues of volunteerism.

Why salute volunteerism and so-called community service? These Fortune 500 bigs explain, "Genuine change that will actually solve some of the problems facing us-hunger, homelessness, illiteracy, AIDS, and breast cancer, to name a few-cannot be achiev ed in isolation or by money alone."

There you have it. The heads of billion-dollar companies want the average worker to think that money alone is insufficient to fix the country's problems.

How convenient. Of course, these same rich folks have plenty of money to fix their own problems. Like what politician to buy off. Or what type of luxury vacation to take.

The Fortune 500 folks are really saying that their money shouldn't be counted on to address capitalist society's long list of ills. Using the word "us" in the ad is a deliberate deception. Hunger and homelessness are hardly problems facing CEOs.

And volunteerism has certainly not contained the growing crisis of poverty, racism and repression.

Clinton and Co. take this line of reasoning one step further. They say government money-also known as workers' tax money-shouldn't be counted on either.

It's better for everyone to tighten their belts, pitch in and volunteer their time, say the capitalist politicians.

The working class may very well ask the rich, "What about volunteering health-care coverage to the 37 million people in the United States without medical insurance?" Fat chance.

What Clinton, Bush and the capitalist ruling class are volunteering is to abandon poor and working people-the very people the bosses hire and their paid hacks supposedly represent.

Here are just a few of the gems from the Fortune advertisers:

American Express

"Being a good citizen in our communities is one of our core corporate values," said Harvey Golub, chair and chief executive officer at American Express. "Our company is helping more people than ever before."

American Express has indeed been very "helpful" lately. On Jan. 27, the financial-services conglomerate announced it would eliminate 3,300 jobs, or 4.6 percent of its work force.

In the last few years, American Express has cut 12,000 jobs.

This is the owners' real "corporate value."

Shell

"The people at Shell have long been committed to helping others," chimed Shell President and CEO Philip J. Carroll. "The company is recognized in communities because of our sensitivity and involvement."

Well, Shell is certainly recognized in various communities-but not because of its sensitivity. The firm's real involvement is in poisoning the environment and ripping off motorists at the gas pump.

Shell has always been committed to just one thing: helping itself to hefty profits. The oil monopoly has a long history of exploiting both the environment and workers the world over, from the Middle East to Angola.

AT&T

"A shared dedication to being the best at bringing people together will not only endure in the face of relentless change, it should flourish," beamed Robert Allen, chairperson of AT&T.

The telecommunications giant has definitely brought thousands of people together in the recent period. The problem is that it has brought them together in the ranks of the poor and unemployed.

AT&T has axed over 25,000 jobs in the last decade. Much of this, however, was done with a noteworthy volunteer program.

The company asked its employees to voluntarily retire or take a buyout package.

Contrast that to Allen's 1996 pay and bonus package: $2.5 million.

Behind Clinton and Bush's smiling faces at teh volunteerism summit will be the true movers and shakers: the Fortune 500 and the big banks. And all of them are intimately connected with the military-industrial complex--which hasn't volunteered for any cuts at all.

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