EEA Launches Change.org Petition to Keep Politics Out of Stakeholder Capitalism

that perhaps one day will have enough signatories to get the attention of politicians in both parties that the free market is the best place to determine the viability of Stakeholder Capitalism.
 
Politics has fallen to its lowest level when people simply trying to enhance business for investors and stakeholders on a completely non-partisan business basis get branded by politicians turning long-standing, practical business principles into a straw man for partisan purposes. Imagine if the total quality management movement in the 1990s to combat the market share inroads of the Japanese were thwarted by the politics of that time. 
 
As a non-partisan organization that never thought it would have to underline its political independence, the EEA will not endorse candidates, nor will we recommend against voting for or against parties and candidates, even if they oppose Stakeholder Capitalism. However, the EEA's ESM media will call out politicians who distort Stakeholder Capitalism to further their aims or put the spotlight on those who promote it in a non-partisan manner as a way to unite people across all parties.
 
Here’s a link to the petition. Below is the text of the Let's Keep Politicians Out of Stakeholder Capitalism text. While the timing of this effort is meant to coincide with a US presidential campaign in which it has now become an issue because of the entry of the long-shot GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who already has successfully drawn a lot of attention for his opposition to Stakeholder Capitalism and ESG, we welcome support from like-minded thinkers throughout the world. This is an international movement. 
 
Now that the US 2024 presidential race has begun, let's those of us on the right, left and center agree on something: politicians on all sides must stay out of the way of the non-partisan, free-enterprise Stakeholder Capitalism movement to make capitalism work better for shareholders and employees, customers, supply chain and distribution companies, communities, and the environment.
 
A growing number of politicians are now opposing a reform movement upon which most people agree by deliberately conflating it with "wokeism" or "greenwashing" to create a straw man that advances their agenda--to make or raise money and win votes by sowing division and outrage.
 
This petition asks Democrats, Republicans, and equivalents around the world, to let free enterprise pursue an organic strategy to make business better for everybody that requires no involvement of government in the US and most countries--and one that has a major impact on our daily lives because organizations dedicated to Stakeholder Capitalism:
 

• Value employees as a critical asset so they are focused on paying full-time workers at least a living wage, providing growth opportunities, and addressing basic financial and health needs, and see DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) as a business opportunity, not just a right.
• Produce products and services that provide true value and respect for the needs and loyalty for the customer, backed by understandable instruction manuals and serious customer service.
• See the solution of social and environmental problems as a business opportunity, not a guilt trip.
• Strategically support community activities that are consistent with their own purpose and goals, including the development of a pipeline of customers, employees, or distribution partners, so that everyone wins.
• Do not offload their costs on to society by underpaying and under supporting employees, acting in a fraudulent or deceptive manner, or abandoning facilities, damaged infrastructure or polluting the environment, consistent with the stated ethical principles of Milton Friedman, who has been incorrectly characterized as a shareholder capitalist. 

Provide transparency through stakeholder management reporting and let the free market decide what types of organizations people wish to do business with or invest in through transparency about their purpose and how they engage with their stakeholders.
 
Let the courts decide if the anti-ESG bills and policies enacted in many states are legal, now that banks are opposing these rules in court as a violation of their fiduciary duties. It is difficult to conceive that even conservative courts will be able to ignore the enormous body of evidence supported by logic that organizations that pursue their aims by engaging all their stakeholders will perform better time over time than those that don't.
 
Taking advantage of the confusion and greenwashing around ESG, politicians are about ready to set back the 50-year old non-partisan Stakeholder Capitalism reform movement that has a direct impact on the lives of every employee, customer, and citizen, and on every government, for-profit, or not-for profit business, and community.
 
Without any involvement of government, thousands of companies significantly improved the quality of their products in manufacturing and improved customer satisfaction through total quality management practices available to all that never got politicized, and we can do the same for the way we manage people.
 
Let's try to discourage politicians on both sides of the aisle from tinkering with free enterprise when no one is asking for their help or taxpayer dollars to advance Stakeholder Capitalism and when people are using it as a straw man to divide Americans on the one thing most can agree on.