24 Sep 2012 Free-Market Activist Group to FedEx Executives: Stand Firm Against Radical Demands

Shareholder Warning FedEx that Corporate Capitulation to Race-Baiting Pressure Groups Leads to More Problems for Business, More Pressure From Left

Memphis, TN / Washington, D.C. – At today’s annual meeting of FedEx shareholders in Memphis, Tennessee, National Center for Public Policy Research executive director David W. Almasi will congratulate FedEx CEO Frederick Smith for not caving to the demands of the organized left to drop their support of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Almasi also seeks to warn the shipping giant about problems that would arise from a capitulation to the radical activist groups.

“There is no reason for FedEx or any other company to sever ties with ALEC just because the radical left demands it,” said Almasi. “ALEC is helping to make government more business-friendly. This benefits FedEx employees, shareholders, customers and anyone doing business with the company. Anti-business activists are throwing out irrelevant and unfair accusations in hopes that their mud will stick and conservatives will lose corporate support. Companies that follow this lead set themselves up for failure.”

FedEx is a supporter of ALEC, particularly the group’s Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force. This task force “develops policies that enhance competitiveness, promote employment and economic prosperity, encourage innovation, and limit government regulation imposed upon business.”

Leftist radicals seek to choke off ALEC’s corporate donations by trying to link companies to ALEC’s past work on state-level voter ID ballot protection and “stand your ground” legislation — claiming such laws are racist and threatening to launch minority boycotts of the businesses. Even though ALEC ceased working on both issues in April of 2012, radical groups such as Color of Change continue to falsely and deceitfully campaign against ALEC on these issues.

“Founded by Van Jones – a former Obama Administration ‘czar’ who quietly resigned when it was uncovered that he is an admitted communist and 9/11 ‘truther’ – Color of Change is little more than a post office box from which professional race-baiters send out tripe to gin up fake racial narratives,” said Justin Danhof, Esq., director of the National Center’s Free Enterprise Project. “Voter ID laws are about securing elections from fraud, not racial suppression. FedEx should be proud to stand tall against these ignorant race-baiters.”

Even though ALEC stopped working on the issue, the National Center for Public Policy Research continues ALEC’s work in supporting commonsense polling place protections with its own Voter ID Task Force.

FedEx’s shareholder meeting is being held in the FedEx Express World Headquarters Auditorium in Memphis, Tennessee on September 24 at 11:00 AM eastern. Almasi is a personal shareholder in the FedEx Corporation.

The National Center For Public Policy Research is a conservative, free-market, non-profit think-tank established in 1982. It is supported by the voluntary gifts of over 100,000 individual recent supporters, receiving approximately one percent of its revenue from corporate sources. Contributions to it are tax-deductible.

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