Greenpeace still ranks as one of the more creative and militant organizations working on environmental issues. A key battleground for the corporations is the minds of our young people. Corporations have penetrated the public school system with commercial messages and an ideology that extols profit-making as a civic virtue. We need a major restructuring of the U.S. tax system. To spur economic growth and more equity, we should demand a tax system that transfers wealth down ward to the majority instead of upward to the minority.
Corporate power is nowhere more evident than in U.S. trade policy.
We must put the issue of inequality on the political agenda. A growing number of groups are printing their own forms of currency as a way to strengthen local economies against the power of large corporations. This strategy has worked quite well in Ithaca, New York and other places. Grassroots development organizations are building alternative economic institutions to provide jobs and include workers in decision-making. The fair trade movement helps third world producer groups market their products in rich-country markets so they can work their way out of poverty rather than being depen dent on charity.