Rethinking Resistance to Corporate Rule

• In response to pressure from a community organization made up of teachers and parents in Seattle (Citizens' Campaign for Commercial-Free Schools) the Seattle School District implemented a policy in 2001 that greatly restricts corporate advertising in schools.

• In June 1999 the City of San Francisco passed the Commercial-Free Schools Act. The Act requires all long-term corporate sponsorships to be approved by the Board of Education. It also prohibits teachers from using corporate sponsored educational materials, including Channel One and ZapMe. It also forbids San Francisco from entering into a district-wide exclusive contract with a soda or snack food company. The text of the Act can be read here.

• In 1998 four corporations – Microsoft, Fujitsu, GTE and Hughes – submitted a ten-year proposal to the California State University system that would have locked the schools into a $350 million a year technology transfer. The corporate effort was blocked by a multi-campus coalition of students and faculty that was started at Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA with the assistance of Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County.

• At the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Rebok Corporation attempted to add a “no-disparagement clause” to their contract with the school’s athletic teams. The clause would have prohibited student-athletes and coaches from making any negative comments about Rebok Corporation. After students organized around the issue the UW Chancellor ensured that the clause was deleted from the contract.

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