Waking up “Woke” corporations

By Craig Rucker

American corporations are surrendering en masse to left-wing and Green ideologues.  They think they can maximize profit through appeasement.

CFACT is pushing back hard against this disturbing trend by engaging corporations directly in the boardroom, at shareholder meetings, and by educating shareholders and customers directly.

CFACT attended ConocoPhillips recent shareholder meeting, which was held remotely, and made a devastating submission.  As you might expect, the meeting had less to do with business strategies and profits, and more to do with virtue signaling and climate.

Of the 21 questions answered in ConocoPhillips report from the annual meeting of stockholders, roughly half were political in nature. Of the questions that were selected and answered live during the remote meeting, all were political in nature, and 4 out of the 5 addressed were related to climate.

CFACT submitted the following:

We do not think the Board should appease those who want strict CO2 emissions reporting. The Board is correct in recommending a vote against the proposed shareholder resolution advocating for emissions reduction targets. Why aren’t the Board’s recommended policy votes against climate alarmism, which are good, not also reflected in the language of “official” ConocoPhillips’ reports — terrible reports that have no business supporting the UN IPCC and Paris Accords?

People naively think business funds the free market that allowed them to thrive.

Not so.

Businesses maximize short-term profit.  They happily use law and regulation to squelch competition. When harmful ideologues become a threat they seek to pay them off, without concern for the damage they do their nation.

Winston Churchill aptly said, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”

CFACT is directly engaging corporations to remind them that the Greens and the Left, though loudly vocal, are in reality a minority.

If corporations think they can go “woke” without consequences, they’re in for a surprise. CFACT will continue to confront the Big Boys on Wall Street that are caving to Leftist Green pressures, and stand by the majority of small businesses that have not abandoned American freedom and are prepared to raise their voices in its defense.

Author

Craig Rucker is a co-founder of CFACT and currently serves as its president.

From cfact.org