Posted on 06/22/2024 4:38:54 AM PDT by MtnClimber
The liberal business establishment has long supported progressive causes, even to the detriment of their bottom lines. Conservative consumers and investors often feel helpless to curtail such support in the face of the massive financial power of these firms to resist pressure from protests or boycotts.
However, a new activist has appeared on the scene, rattling corporate boardrooms. The new kid on the block is the anti-woke shareholder, who is the killjoy of shareholder meetings. These protestors oppose the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) mandates that are entering their corporations. They are spoiling the party by bringing anti-ESG measures to the floor for votes.
Although most proposals fail to pass, they do raise awareness among shareholders, forcing management into crisis management mode. To keep the peace, corporate officers are toning down or eliminating their support for liberal causes. The proposals finally provide a platform for conservative shareholders to express their legitimate concerns about woke management. The effort is having an impact that is not small.
The new tactics are largely the brainchild of conservative think tanks that have studied corporate vulnerability. They carefully phrase the proposals to make reasonable requests that will safeguard the resources and reputation of targeted companies.
Thus, groups like the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) have crafted dozens of shareholder measures readymade to question the wisdom of corporate involvement in climate, diversity, and environmental issues that clash with shareholder interest. Other measures ask for more oversight of existing ESG efforts or call for transparency on donations to LGBTQ and other controversial causes.
The results have been encouraging. ISS-Corporate, a company that monitors investor issues, reports that shareholders at S&P 500 companies have voted on 70 measures opposing ESG initiatives in the first five months of 2024 alone...
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
These corporate wokeists really harm companies. Just look at what Boeing has become.
One of the really big problems in this area is the outsized influence of ETF’s like BlackRock that push the woke crap via the shares they control. The law needs to be changed to control the abuse of these large ETF’s by forcing them to have internal shareholder votes and then following the dictates of their own shareholders, or have the shares they hold restricted to non-voting status. Why should people like Larry Fink enjoy the prestige and power of a billionaire shareholder when his firm is just a custodian?
Your comments apply to mutual funds as well. When you buy a mutual fund, you give up your shareholder voting rights.
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