Prosperity for All: Consumer Activism in an Era of Globalization

6 Backlash

6 Backlash The Corporate Critique of Consumerism One of the more peculiar characters associated with consumer activism in the twentieth century was that of Dr. J. B. Matthews. Originally a Methodist missionary and self-proclaimed “religious fundamentalist,” an ongoing intellectual journey of self-discovery led him first to pacifism and then to the socialism associated in the United States with Norman Thomas—six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. A further radicalization of his views took Matthews to the Communist Party in 1932 and he became a fervent advocate of Marxism. At the same time, he also maintained a prominent position at Consumers’ Research, where he became a close confidant and adviser to the founder, F. J. Schlink. The creation of Consumers Union, following the strike of 1936, however, provoked a remarkable political U-turn that would see Matthews turn on his former comrades. Along with Schlink, he became a profound detester of union organizing and moved toward a political ideology that aggressively promoted the virtues of the free market and opposed all forms of government regulation. Moreover, Matthews left Consumers’ Research in 1938 to become the first research director of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), at that time chaired by Martin Dies. From his office in Washington, DC, Matthews persisted in baiting the union supporters of Consumers Union while as a writer for the magazines of the infamous newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, he maintained the charges that Colston Warne, Arthur Kallet, and their associates were running a Communistcontrolled front organization.1 The range of attitudes to organized consumerism represented by the idiosyncratic career of J. B. Matthews covers the whole spectrum of opinions that have been voiced against the movement over the last three quarters of a century . From radical Right to radical Left, consumer organizations have attracted a whole range of political sympathies. For many critics comparative testing consumerism has been a handmaiden to capitalist industry, but for others an interference which, through its promotion of regulations and protection mechanisms, has attacked the very principles of the free running of the economy . On the one hand, it can be argued that in theory at least, consumerism is good for business. It takes on many of the marketing activities of a firm, determining which goods are most suited to consumers’ needs and promoting only those manufactured by the most efficient companies. On the other hand, certain businessmen and business groups have opposed the organized consumer movement, claiming it represents an unnecessary interference in the running of an economy. Unrestrained capitalism, they argue, will ultimately ensure that the sovereign, rational, and informed consumer will get what he or she wants or deserves. In the attacks on the consumer co-operative movement, in the defense of big business amid the clamor of anti-trust reform, and in the opposition to specific regulations dealing with food and drug safety, business associations have often led the charge against consumer groups for perverting the normal course of the market economy. Does the consumer movement promote or oppose the free market? Is it the friend or the foe of business? Who are its natural political allies? Certainly, if we compare, as we have done in previous chapters, the consumer movement to other forms of new social movement and other types of political activism, then it is not an immediate associate of the 1960s countercultural radicalism or New Left political experimentalism. It would be very difficult to firmly identify consumerism as a product of the political Left, even acknowledging the liberal tendencies of much of its leadership. Consumer organizations have opposed certain business practices, but they have also repeatedly attested their faith in choice and the free market. They have opposed the lack of concern for the individual shopper and citizen inherent to many large-scale organizations, whether privately or publicly owned. They have been largely reformist organizations , which have nevertheless constituted a social movement that has deliberately sought to sidestep the complications arising from a political identity associated with either the Right or the Left. To whatever extent radical socialists and communists may once have counted among its membership, consumer groups have also courted the support of pro-business interests. Throughout the political life of J. B. Matthews, then, it is unlikely that the consumer movement ever asked for his support as a socialist nor deserved his hostility as a reawakened scourge of communism. Nevertheless, what has marked the history of consumer organizing is the almost seemingly persistent opposition...