I've been working on the concept of taking activism from a position of relative economic weakness to relative economic strength. The idea is that if corporations wield such great power, why not cleverly co-opt them and transform their focus into more progressive, sustainable directions?

The point is not simply a more progressive service or product goal of the corporation, it is whole underlying capitalist philosophy, behavior and objective of the corporation.

Can a "for profit" corporation have activism as one of its primary goals? Sure, but few do. Imagine the different funding situation for progressive causes if more did?

Can a corporation embrace an entirely new model of Aikido Activism? Yes it can; but it will be helpful to consider and advance the concept, and to consider special cases such as IP Aikido Activism (using intellectual property exclusionary rights towards Aikido Activism rather than the traditional direction in which IP is applied -- maximizing profit, usually myopically to other social and environmental issues).

The essay on "Aikido Activism" is posted at the tribe by the same name ( aikidoactivism.tribe.net/ ), but please message me if you'd like an MSWord version with intact endnotes and graphics (these get lost cutting and pasting into Tribe).

And thanks SFUAS for your Cell Space event and for your other activities. I met a couple of you there, and hope to have a chance to get involved with you somehow.

Spidey