Peace and Big Business

The National Committee for Economic Action (NCEA), at a nation-wide convention in St. Louis yesterday, voted to send an open letter to the "top 500 American corporations" encouraging them to take action against the Indochinese War and political repression at home.

Representatives to the convention-who came from 22 colleges across the country-decided not to advocate at this time any further boycotts similar to the Coca-Cola and Phillip Morris boycotts which the NCEA announced last week. Instead, the committee hopes to negotiate with corporations and to convince them that "it will be profitable for them to endorse peace."

In response to the boycott, George Weissman, president of Phillip Morris, agreed on Friday that he personally would lend his efforts to "establish a positive dialogue among business, youth, and the public to bring about an immediate cessation to the war in Southeast Asia." The Coca Cola company did not agree to negotiate with the NCEA, and its products are still being boycotted.

Coke and Phillip Morris were originally chosen as targets of the boycott because they both depend on the youth market for a large amount of their total sales. Coke, in particular, was chosenbecause it is a symbol of U. S. economic development through the world. The NOEA, therefore, hoped to cause "a direct and immediate impact" on the companies.

Immediate Goals

Stewart Halperin, a Washington University student and an organizer of the convention, said last night that the NCEA's most immediate goals include raising $21,000 to advertise its position in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Richard W. Fogg, a graduate student at the School of Education, has organized a small economic-action group at Harvard. He said the group would decide in a few days whether or not to ally itself with the NCEA.

According to Halperin, the NCEA will try to convince corporations to oppose the war in their advertising or in public statements or to lobby in Congress in favor of the McGovern-Hatfield Amendment and other anti-war legislation.

If the companies fail to take any positive action against the war, Halperin said, the NCEA may then revert to the tactic of "selective purchasing."

"We want American businesses to begin using their power for peaceful and moral purposes," he said. "If we can convince companies that their sales will improve if they oppose the war, then we can all benefit."

The St. Louis convention is the second attempt to provide coordination for all the economic action groups that have sprung up around the country in the past few weeks. The NCEA was formed at a national meeting in Washington a week and a half ago. Its headquarters are located at Brandies.