Conservative shareholders in companies run by ‘woke’ corporate boards are become activists with their investments, drawing new inspiration from the libertarian-minded Tesla and SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk.
According to the Washington Times, “the American Legislative Exchange Council, a network of conservative private investors and state legislators, recently introduced model legislation that would stop state pension fund managers from introducing “woke criteria” into the investment selection process.”
“The National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative tank in Washington, is telling moderate and conservative investors how to use shareholder proxies to challenge liberal policies in corporate board elections,” the report continued.
It added:
The center’s Free Enterprise Project has purchased shares in corporations such as the Walt Disney Co., which it says has allowed conservative proxies to introduce proposals against “woke” ideology at more than 100 shareholder meetings over the past four years.
“Conservative activism is finally beginning to counterbalance progressive activism on issues like identity politics and climate change goals,” Richard Morrison, a senior fellow at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the paper.
The paper also noted that last week, the Free Enterprise Project published a guide called “Balancing the Boardroom: How Conservatives Can Combat Corporate Wokeness” for investors who are serious about pushing back on the far-left policies being adopted by companies such as Walmart and Disney.
“For decades, the left was synonymous with counterculture. Today, it is the culture,” the guide noted. “So if we are to learn anything from leftists, to their credit it’s that counterculture done right can be an effective strategy.”
It goes on to advise conservative shareholders to “vote against every board member” of Nike, Amazon, Disney, Twitter, Apple, Walmart, Microsoft and other major companies.
“Vote against these directors, and then join us in constantly reminding these companies that we sensible people of the center-right will not rest until their companies have returned to making products … and otherwise staying well away from political and social discord,” Scott Shepard, a co-author of the guide, said in a statement.
The report comes amid Musk’s effort to buy up Twitter, which he has focused on now for the past month.
Initially, Musk bought nearly 10 percent of Twitter’s stock earlier this month, then rejected a position on the platform’s board of directors because he was limited in the amount of shares he could own.
As it turns out, Musk was interested in making a bid for the entire company, which he did on Thursday — though it’s essentially been rejected for the time being.
Musk said he has a “Plan B,” however, though he did not provide details.
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