Page 14 RAIN August/September 1978 Investor Responsibility Research Center As You Sow, Walter Goldschmidt, 1947, 1522 K Street, N.W. 1978, $7.95 from: ECONOMICS Washington, DC 20005 Allanheld Osmun & Co. 19 Brunswick Rd. The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 is a landmark piece of legislation which should help anti-redlining/community reinvestment activists across the country. eRA requires that financial institutions scrvice the credit needs, and be accountable to, the communities in which they are chartered. This can be an importan t tool in strengthening the neighborhoods and economies of low/ moderate income communities which have often been undermined by their local financial institu tions. Federal regulatory agencies arc now required to encourage lenders to meet these obligations under the law. An effort is now underway to weaken the specific regulations of the CRA, but many community groups are still expected to mount legal challenges to negligent financial institutions. For more information or assistance in this area, community groups should c()ntact: Jeff Zinsmeyer Cen ter for Community Change 1000 Wisconsin Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20007 SA Women Taking Charge: New Ways to Economic Power, 1978, $4.50 from : Strongforce 2121 Decatur Place, N.W., Washington, DC 20008 This manual is an introduction to ideas and resources that can help women gain greater control over their money and Jobs. It Includes sections on the National Committee on Household Employment, Nme to Five, a clerical activist gr~up; McCaysville Industries, a woml'n s factory; an overview of feminist enterprises, women and credit unions and a resource guide. - JM Anexcellen t spotlight on corporate actlvltles and policies for investors. Provides information on shareholder resolutions on corporate social responSibility, accountability and governance. Publishes a senes of reports on public policy questions affecting investors, such as U.S. business activity in South Africa; nuclear power; employment of former governmen t officials; overseas corporate bnbes, etc. Invaluable information for socially responsible investment of pension funds, university endowments, Insurance funds, etc. Write for list of available publications and go talk to your local "public" investors. -TB Minding the Corporate Conscience 1978: Publ!c Interest Groups and Corporate SOCIal Accountability, Steven Lydenberg, 1978, from: Council on Economic Priorities 84 Fifth Ave. New York, NY 10011 Public interest groups are coming of age III the 1970s and more than ever they are zeroing in on the energy/envIronment connection-particularly Issues Involvmg the electric utilities. This is one of the findings of Minding the Corporate Conscience 1978, a survey of major public interest groups who are directly or indirectly involved in watchdogging corporations. This directory profiles the activities and publications of 83 organizations and lists the contact addresses of some 60 others. Not entirely complete, but a very handy networking tool to have at your fingertipS. -SA from Women Taking Charge Montclair, NJ 07042 The only detailed examination ever made of what corporate agriculture means for the character of life in American rural communities-a study sabotaged, harassed and suppressed and fmally now reprinted. Implications of the Impact of corporate operation on other economic spheres can easily be made. Important readmg, now easily available. -TB A Legal Handbook for Billboard Control, Environmental Law Society 1976, from: ' Stanford Law School Stanford, CA 94305 Considerable progress has already occurred in billboard control based solely on aesthetic or "nuisance" factors. This hand.book <?utlines issues, arguments, eXisting legislation and case studies. Li ttle anen tion has been pai d so far to the economic and political im pacts of such advertising-the destructive effects on local economies of eliminating existIng small businesses that cannot afford such expensive advertising, their replacement by corporate operations that remove money from rhe communiry, the general dlscnmlnation against the majority of individuals and businesses that can.not afford the cost of presenting theif views In similar ways, and the threat to any democratic society in the concentration of wealth and power resulting from such unequally available forms of "speech." The time is ripe for new local efforts for billboard elimination. These are the tools. -TB ENERGY World Information Service on Energy (WISE), first issue, May 1978, 16 pp., available from: WISE 2e Weteringplantsoen 9 Amsterdam, HOLLAND For n~xt issue send info on working alter~ative energy systems. Main funding IS via selling "Smiling Sun" buttons. Agents are needed in all countries and building up a trilingual staff of five is planned. Send fesumes to John Lambert at the above address for either work. -LJ
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