“Race, class and opportunity: John A. Powell
October 4, 2009
A very good 4 part series on race, class and opportunity done by the Real News Network. Part 1 is below.
Bio
John A. Powell: Professor and Williams Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University and Executive Director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, john powell is an internationally recognized authority in the areas of civil rights, civil liberties, and issues relating to race, ethnicity, poverty, and the law. He was previously national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, founder and director of the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota, and a co-founder of the Poverty and Race Research Action Council. He formerly taught at law schools including Harvard and Columbia University. Professor powell serves on the board of several national organizations. He holds a J.D. from the University of California Berkeley, and a B.A. from Stanford University.”
http://todayshottopic.com/2009/10/04/race-class-and-opportunity-john-a-powell/
No doubt, part of the ‘national standards’ inherent in Race to the Top funding: itself, an unfunded mandate that makes W’s K-16 initiative a piker.
“February 22, 2011
Domini, Other Investors, and Civil Society Organizations Call on Multinationals to Pay Fair Share of Taxes
Following a December meeting at Yale University, a coalition of financial and civil society organizations, including Domini Social Investments, issued a statement calling for a country-by-country financial reporting standard for multinational corporations. The conference was organized by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a non-governmental organization focused on curtailing the cross-border flow of illegal money.
According to GFI, “Tax dodging by multinational companies costs developing countries over a hundred billion dollars every year — more than the entire global aid budget — at a time when the global crisis is prompting severe cuts in states’ budgets around the world and millions of children are denied a basic education.” Working with GFI and other conference participants, we helped to draft the New Haven Declaration on Corporate Financial Transparency, which was endorsed by a coalition of civil society and investor organizations. The Declaration also formed the basis for a letter to the European Commission.
The statement’s signatories “recognize that although one of the first responsibilities of business to society is to pay its fair share of taxes, aggressive and ‘creative’ global tax strategies have become commonplace among multinational corporations, resulting in significant tax losses to both developed and developing countries.” The statement notes that “approximately $100 billion in tax revenues leaves developing economies each year due to trade-related price manipulation by corporations.” Signatories agreed to support appropriate public policies in this area, and to commit to monitoring corporate activity and raising these concerns with corporate management.
Read the New Haven Declaration on Corporate Financial Transparency, and the letter to the European Commission (December 21, 2010), supporting a country-by-country reporting standard.
Domini’s Global Investment Standards seek “fair tax dealings” and openness in corporate government relations.”