GREEN PARTY ENDORSES SB 917, CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY CODE

GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release: November 21, 2003

Contacts:
Beth Moore Haines, GPCA Spokesperson, 530-277-0610,
Ross Mirkarimi, GPCA Spokesperson, 415-412-7526,
John Strawn, GPCA Spokesperson, 805-689-2840,
Sara Amir, GPCA Spokesperson, 323-654-2058,

The Green Party of California expresses full support and endorsement for California Senate Bill 917, The Code for Corporate Responsibility Bill, authored by Senator Richard Alarcon (D-San Fernando Valley).

The bill requires corporate directors to ensure that profits do not come at the expense of five elements of the public interest:

• The environment;
• Human rights;
• Public health and safety;
• The welfare of communities; and
• Employee dignity.

"This bill names what corporations operating in California should have been doing all along," says Point Arena School Board President Bill Meyers, a Green. "With more and more corporations violating their charters, disregarding the effects on the citizens whom they were chartered to serve, it apparently needs to be spelled out for them. This bill clarifies those expectations and establishes penalties if they don't meet those standards."

"Corporations have an immense amount of power and responsibility to the communities they serve," said Santa Monica Mayor pro tem Kevin McKeown, a Green, who last week tried to limit a corporate chain-store takeover of his city's famous Third Street Promenade.

"It is not enough for large corporate businesses simply to enrich their stockholders; they also have to be accountable to the communities where they generate that money."

The Green Party of California recently added a Corporate Accountability plank to its platform and fully supports Senate Bill 917.

The Green Party of California
http://www.cagreens.org
P.O. Box 2828, Sacramento, CA 95812
Phone: (916) 448-3437
gpca@greens.org