Start a Discussion Group

Democracy is built from below. Citizens concerned about excessive corporate power and the current corporate crime wave and how it is eroding our communities, environment, family and other values need to educate themselves about the cause of these problems and begin to take action. Local discussion groups are a perfect forum for this educational process.

Getting Started

1. Assemble a group. Invite your friends, family and neighbors to to examine corporate crime issues and figure out what to do about them.
2. Set up regular meeting times. Consistency is one of the most important aspects of having successful meetings.
3. Choose discussion items. Citizen Works has provided suggested reading and discussion questions listed below.
4. Once your discussion group is established, you might want to take the next step of organizing a town meeting.

Reading List

• Corporate Predators, Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman More information
• Frontline's “Bigger than Enron” video produced by PBS More information
• When Corporations Rule the World, David Korten
• Corporation Nation, Charles Derber
• Defying Corporations, Defining Democray, the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy More information
• Titans of the Enron Economy: The Ten Habits of Highly Defective Corporations, Scott Klinger and Holly Sklar, United for a Fair Economy
• “Enron’s Pawns: How Public Institutions Bankrolled Enron’s Globalization Game.” The Sustainable Energy & Economy Network, Institute for Policy Studies
• "Corporate Accountability: A Toolkit for Social Activists", The Stakeholder Alliance
• Corporations are Gonna Get Your Mama, Kevin Danaher
• The Corporate Planet, Josh Karliner
• The Ralph Nader Reader

Discussion Questions

1) What caused the collapse at Enron and other companies? Is this just the actions of a few greedy executives, or is there something deeper going on?

2) Will the proposals put forward by the Bush administration and the Congress solve the problem? Why or why not? What else must be done? How will it get done?

3) Is there too much corporate power in other areas of life such as media ownership?

4) What are the relationships between the debate over globalization and the current corporate scandals?

5) What should be done in your community to address this issue? Is there a connection? Who is the most affected? How have people organized during other periods of crisis?

6) What is our Congressman's track record on these issues? What companies has he/she taken money from and not given back? Has he/she made their position clear on these issues? How has he/she voted in the past?