Fourteen state treasurers on Wednesday urged the Business Roundtable to reject woke activism and focus on making corporations politically neutral.
The 14 state treasurers, in a letter to the Business Roundtable, argued that the group’s 2019 redefining of the purpose of a corporation to focus on aiding stakeholders, including leftist groups such as Black Lives Matter, has moved corporations leftward.
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“After five years of abject failure, the Business Roundtable’s attempted redefinition of the purpose of a corporation (the ‘Redefinition’) should be discarded into the ‘ash heap of history,’” the state treasurers argued.
They continued, “As treasurers of our respective states, who are responsible for many state and retirement investments, we urge you to abandon the fatally flawed Redefinition to return to the purpose of maximizing value to the owners, your shareholders.”
The Business Roundtable doubled down on their backing of leftist stakeholders in a blog post this month, stating, “In the long term, the interests of a company’s stakeholders are inseparable. No single stakeholder will succeed unless they all do.”
“It was not a call on companies to address every societal challenge, but rather to focus on those who contribute directly to a company’s success. It was the view of Roundtable CEOs that this would make companies more successful in the long run, while advancing broader economic opportunity,” the Business Roundtable wrote.
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The state treasurers wrote that the Business Roundtable’s implicit endorsement of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies resulted in DEI metrics and racial quotas.
The state officials wrote, “A refocus on shareholders would better serve stakeholder employees by hiring and…