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universal coverage; a doubling of the minimum wage, indexed to inflation; a generic low-interest-rate national policy, entailing the abolition of the Federal Reserve System; statutory reversal of the court-made law that corporations are "persons"; establishment of a national public oil company; limitations on ownership of newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations to one of any kind per person or owning entity; and the halving of military spending. The new populists are, in Ronnie Dugger's words, "ready to resume the cool eyeing of the corporations with a collective will to take back the powers they have seized from us".’” The new populism draws some of its inspiration from the work of the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD), a populist "think-tank" that explores the legal basis of corporate power. POCLAD believes that it is possible to control—and, if necessary, dismantle—cor- porations by amending or revoking their charters. Since the largest corporations are now transnational in scope, the new populism must confront their abuses globally. The International Forum on Globalization (IFG) was founded for this purpose in 1994, as an alliance of 60 activists, scholars, econo- mists and writers (including Jerry Mander, Vandana Shiva, Richard Grossman, Ralph Nader, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Jeremy Rifkin and Kirkpatrick Sale), to stimulate new thinking and joint action along these lines. In a position statement drafted in 1995, the International Forum on Globalization said that it: "...views international trade and investment agreements, including the GATT, the WTO, Maastricht and NAFTA, combined with the structural adjustment policies of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, to be direct stimulants to the processes that weaken democracy, create a world order in the control of transnational corporations and devastate the natural world... The IFG will study, publish and actively advocate in opposition to the current rush toward economic globalization, and will seek to reverse its direction. Simultaneously, we will advocate on behalf of a far more diversified, locally controlled, community- based economics... We believe that the creation of a more equitable economic order—based on principles of diversity, ¢ direct public discussion toward the most vulnerable link in the corporate chain of power: the legal basis of the corpora- tion; * internationalise the movement so that corporations cannot undermine it merely by shifting their base of operations from one country to another. As Lawrence Goodwyn noted in his definitive work, The Populist Moment, the original Populists were "attempting to con- struct, within the framework of American capitalism, some variety of cooperative commonwealth". This was "the last sub- stantial effort at structural alteration of hierarchical economic forms in modern America".° In announcing the formation of the Alliance for Democracy, in an article in the August 14, 1996 issue of The Nation, activist Ronnie Dugger compiled a list of policy suggestions which comprise some of the core demands of the new populist movement. These include: a prohibition of contributions or any other political activity by corporations; single-payer national health insurance with automatic 80 + NEXUS A History of Corporate Rule and Popular Protest Continued from page 14 www.nexusmagazi ne.com OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2002