Shilling For Profit: A Case Study Of ALEC’s Campaign Against Divestment From Apartheid South Africa
Could have put this under “Wingnuts,” but this happened awhile ago, so I thought “History” was more fitting. Anyone on the right who wants to claim Republicans or conservatives never supported the Apartheid regime, here’s something else you can use to debunk them. This was also motivated by profit, so whoever says greed is good, has been proven wrong in this case as well. That also argues against these people simply being Wingnuts. It sounds like the folks at ALEC were motivated more by the fear of the lose of profits than ideology.
As the movement for public and private divestment from apartheid South Africa grew throughout the United States in the 1980s, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) aggressively mobilized against South African divestment, stymying state and federal efforts to sanction, isolate, and divest from the Pretorian regime, according to documents newly uncovered by People For the American Way and the Center For Media and Democracy.
ALEC used state and federal policy papers, monthly newsletters, “fact-finding” missions, panel discussions led by lobbyists on the payroll of the South African apartheid regime, and other means to pursue an anti-divestment agenda, one that relied solely on “corporate beneficence” to pressure the country to reform. This effort, in turn, was funded by corporations that were heavily invested in South Africa and had the most to lose from divestment.