(Peace, Love) The Gap shares board member with Lockheed Martin

[MilesColtrane]

Nice to see The Gap, Inc. is promoting peace this holiday season.

The rapper Common sashays down a forty foot peace symbol pushing crappy hoodies made in sweatshops.
Meanwhile James M. Schneider sits on the Gap's Board of Directors.

Schneider is also a Board member of Lockheed Martin, maker of the F-117, F-16, and countless other nasty missles and weapon systems.

Here's a few of the things that Lockheed Martin is "Givin' to da World", and The Gap apparently doesn't have a problem with them doing that.

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/wms/findPage.do?dsp=fnec&ti=124&cpi=13&rsbci=13

[izzybeans]

1. welcome to the world of institutional capitalism

Follow the money, damn the consequences

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/corporate_community.html

[MilesColtrane]

2. Thanks for the link.

I've known about interlocking directorates for some time. This site does a nice job of explaining them and showing some of the connections.

[izzybeans]

4. Domhoff has written (and rewritten) a book that contains updated information

on the subject. It is called "Who Rules America?" It is a fairly straightforward empirical study of power in the U.S. He connects these interlocks to policy-making circles and professional lobbies in a way that helps explain the direction of government policies. Pretty interesting stuff. He pretty much confirms what many of us intuitively know to be true.

[DireStrike]

6. "They Rule"

http://www.theyrule.net/

A Brief Explanation
They Rule allows you to create maps of the interlocking directories of the top companies in the US in 2004.
The data was collected from their websites and SEC filings in early 2004, so it may not be completely accurate - companies merge and disappear and directors shift boards.

Read more about They Rule here.

You can also read the new They Rule weblog which has links to related sites.

You can still view the 2001 version of They Rule.

[izzybeans]

7. cool. Thanks!

[mondo joe]

3. Maybe people would be happier if the Gap was promoting military fashion

with an Iraq War theme.

:shrug:

[MilesColtrane]

5. I wouldn't be happier with a military theme.

I would be happier with them showing Schneider the Board Room door.

The hypocrisy just makes me gag.

[Greyhound]

8. Just as we don't have a problem paying 1000% markup on crap that is produced

by children, indentured servants, and prisoners. If we wouldn't buy it, they wouldn't exist.

[Kelly Rupert]

9. Capitalism is fundamentally amoral.

The Gap is an entity without morality. So is Lock-Mart. So is every corporation. Both are money-making entities, not charities. It's not particularly noteworthy that one man is on the board for both corporations.

After all, in today's world you can link anything. For instance, Keith Olbermann is a face of MSNBC, which is a venture of NBC, which is owned by GE, which is an arms manufacturer.

[MilesColtrane]

10. So you're saying it's impossible for a socially responsible corporation to exist?

Almost all of them claim to be, that's for sure.

[Kelly Rupert]

11. If they're socially responsible, it's usually because market pressures

demand it. Every corporation donates money to charity and cuts down on pollution because doing so is good advertising.