Help us change the way Washington works
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My name is Robert Weissman, and I am very excited to join Public Citizen as its new president.
For nearly 40 years, Public Citizen has pioneered cutting-edge advocacy on the crucial issues of the day. As a result, we all are a lot safer and healthier, our government works for more people and our democracy functions better.
But for all we’ve achieved, powerful corporate interests have managed to shape the policy agenda. On each of the top-line issues of the day – climate change, health care and financial re-regulation – corporate interests are blocking the changes we need for a more just and ecologically sustainable future. The majority whip in the Senate even says the banks “own the place.”
We can’t allow Big Business to continue to set the agenda and write the rules. And we won’t.
As we look forward to the challenges ahead, Public Citizen will continue to do everything it has done so well for nearly four decades.
We are going to do some other things, too. We will be more creative on the Internet. We will develop new ways to work with you, so that together we build new forms of citizen power. We will invest more in organizing people, both online and on-the-ground. Together, we will innovate ways to change the way Washington works.
For the past 20 years, I’ve worked on corporate accountability projects at Essential Action and the Center for Study of Responsive Law here in Washington, D.C. I’ve also edited a magazine, Multinational Monitor, which tracks the activities of multinational corporations and reports on the global economy. I’ve seen the panoply of organizations working on consumer, environmental and corporate accountability issues. Public Citizen has always stood out for its extraordinarily talented and committed staff, with deep expertise in a wide set of issues. I’m thrilled to join this team.
Public Citizen has also been unique for its fierce independence, its commitment to advancing the public interest across a broad issue spectrum, and its insistence on focusing on root problems and solutions. I promise that we’ll maintain those characteristics as we go forward.
For 27 years, Joan Claybrook provided Public Citizen with inspirational leadership, boundless energy and good humor, strategic vision and the force of her personality. She has been deeply committed to advancing health and safety, defending victims of corporate wrongdoing, and campaigning for a better and more responsive democracy. I am deeply honored to follow in her footsteps. She remains on our board and will continue to guide us.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank you for the generosity you have shown to Public Citizen. Your commitment and dedication are what allow this organization to thrive, and I hope it will continue for years to come. Public Citizen is an organization that belongs to all of us.
I am humbled by the enormity of the task ahead but know that with your help, we will build new forms of citizen power together. Please tell me what you’d like to see in Public Citizen’s future by posting a comment below or sending an email to president@citizen.org. I’d love to hear from you.
Public citizen’s New President Weissman: Help us change the way Washington works « TexasVox: The Voice of Public Citizen in Texas
September 8, 2009 @ 10:51 am
[…] 8, 2009 by Andy Wilson We are pleased to announce that Public Citizen has a new President, so we cross-posted this from our mama blog, CitizenVox so y’all could get to know him, too. Please to […]
September 8, 2009 @ 1:48 pm
A proven and very talented advocate for social justice who very much deserves this position.
September 11, 2009 @ 3:21 pm
Thank for stepping up.. I will be watching to see if you are truly a very talented advocate for social justice in a good way.
September 11, 2009 @ 3:26 pm
Dear Robert,
It looks like the best man got the position, good luck with the corrupt government. Like so many other corporations’ issues in our America that are not being investigated. I am a victim of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill cover-up. Please view my information and help with getting the news out to the media with the press release. Thank you very much
EXXON VALDEZ OIL SPILL (EVOS) WORKERS VS EXXON
Are these the Actions of Our US Lady Justice?
Tipping Scales?
Peeking for Corporate Interest?
Accepting Bribes?
Knee Deep in Exxon Oil?
Allowing Human Life as Exxon’s Collateral Damage?
To view Lady Justice click on the site below.
http://www.silenceinthesound.com/valdez-oil-spill-workers-vs-exxon.shtml
An investigative study is being conducted into the thousands of Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (EVOS) workers’ health issues, and acknowledged as Exxon’s Criminal actions. A Longshoreman’s claim against VECO (the personnel employing agent for Exxon) was filed July 2009.
Here is the rest of the story: In 1989, while media and public attention focused on the thousands of oil-coated dead seabirds, otters, and other wildlife, little attention was given to the harm done to the EVOS cleanup workers. As workers blasted oiled beaches, with hot seawater from high pressure hoses, they were engulfed in toxic fumes containing aerosolized crude oil—benzene and other volatile compounds, oil mist, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. How does a corporation get away with using toxic chemicals in a work place? View photos at: http://www.silenceinthesound.com/gallery.shtml
It is a major concern that the cleanup workers from the 1989 EVOS are suffering from long-term health problems resulting from toxic chemical exposures. A significant number of the workers have died. Some of the illnesses include neurological impairment, chronic respiratory disease, leukemia, lymphoma, brain tumors, liver damage, and blood diseases. View stories at: http://www.silenceinthesound.com/stories.shtml
Dr. Riki Ott has written two books; Sound Truth & Corporate Myth$ and Not One Drop. Dr. Ott has investigated, and studied the oil spill spraying, and quotes numerous reports in her books, on the toxic chemicals that were used during the 1989 Prince William Sound oily beach cleanup.
A short video that exposes medical issues generated by Exxon’s toxic cleanup; http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5632208859935499100
Submitted by: Merle Savage, General Foreman during the (EVOS) cleanup attempt of 1989; email: msavage12@cox.net
Catching up on the news « Public Citizen
September 11, 2009 @ 5:55 pm
[…] over. In case you missed it, our new president, Robert Weissman, started this week. Check out his introductory blog post and leave him a comment to let him know what issues are important to you. Robert picked a great […]
September 11, 2009 @ 10:46 pm
Congratulations to Mr. Weissman and Godspeed to him and to all of us.
September 12, 2009 @ 2:43 am
Rob is admired enormously here in South Africa, where his support for our attempts to deny corporations constitutional privileges in 1996 and his research and advocacy on AIDS medicines treatment access during the early 2000s were of profound importance. Public Citizen will go from strength to strength. Congratulations!
September 14, 2009 @ 8:07 pm
APAC Shears in Hutchinson, Kansas employed me as an E/H/S Representative and I was laid off because they didn’t like my personal life. I want to know how they were allowed to ignore safety regulations, violate ADA, and ignore the Constitution of the United States. I have expressed my concern to the news media and they won’t cover my story.
September 16, 2009 @ 7:33 am
Rob,
Congratulations on a great position with an such an important organization!!! I am sure you will take the organization’s impressive accomplishments even further!
All the best,
David Bauders
SHHS ’84
September 17, 2009 @ 4:57 pm
I hope that Public Citizen will tackle the issue of chemicals in our environment. (I’m sure PC is doing that, but I’m not sure how.) The increase in asthma, learning disabilities, Parkinsons Disease, & allergies are significant. I heard and NPR analysis about new chemicals coming into the environment every year, and without significant testing. US bans far fewer chemicals than Europe does. I’m sure this is another case where industry is preferred over citizens, as far as EPA or FDA go. (Industry can make the claim that they provide jobs, which is true. But those jobs are in a sense empty if they are at the same time creating damage to people’s health.)
Thanks,
Alice Wright
October 3, 2009 @ 12:06 pm
Dear Mr. Weissman,
Thank you for your leadership. I can’t think of anyone I would rather see become the president of “Public Citizen”.
For years I have read “The Multinational Monitor” and given a subscription to my small town library in Twisp, WA.
If anone can lead the citizenry to stronger struggle against the corporatocracy of America, you will help us succeed.
My only suggestion is occasional interviews with persons , like Edward Hermann, Sheldon Wolin, Chris Hedges, Ralph Nader, Joan Claybrook, Maude Barlow, and Naomi Klein in your emails and , especiallly in The Monitor.
Thanks again for your sleuthing of our most dangerous influence on our democracy.
I wish you well and thank you again for your high quality work and your fierce courage.
James W. Donaldson
Claybrook
October 3, 2009 @ 3:42 pm
Welcome Mr. Weissman!
I believe citizens help corporations succeed. When those corporations turn against us because of their greed, I feel imperiled and nearly helpless because I don’t hold their power of influence. Yet in many ways their power came from us via our use of their products.
I never buy at Exxon. If more of us boycotted their product, the corporation would be impacted. This may seem like a modest practice, yet I know of few real ways to show them my distaste for their harmfulness to us and the environment.
Please help those like me who would like additional means to express our objections to those who violate the good of humanity for profit. Our present health care challenge seems to illustrate this dilemma. Why do states re-elect traitors to our own interests?
Thanks and best wishes, Lewis Smith
January 11, 2010 @ 4:32 pm
All I want from the Government is strict trust busting, especially in media, insurance and banking.