OBERLIN, OHIO--Seasoned human rights activist Ward Morehouse will speak on "Democracy, Corporations, and Human Rights" at Oberlin College Thursday, November 9. This free public lecture will take place at 4:30 P.M. in Wilder 101, and will be followed by a reception in Room 112. The Oberlin College Office of Chaplains is sponsoring Morehouse's campus visit.

"Morehouse's political stance against corporate power reflects the ideas and actions of many Oberlin student groups-- including Tradewatch, the Student Labor Action Coalition, and the School of the Americas Watch," says Fred Lassen, Protestant Chaplain at Oberlin College. Lassen arranged Morehouse's visit to educate students working for similar causes.

Morehouse has been active in global politics since 1954, when he began a three-year stint as director of the Conference on Asian Affairs. In 1957, he became the educational director of the New York-based Asia Society. He followed that position with a succession of United Nation and Ford Foundation consultancies, fellowships, and visiting professorships. His recent activities have included participation in the Permanent People's Tribunal on Global Corporations and Human Wrongs, which was held in the United Kingdom in March 2000. The 71-year-old Morehouse also organized a tribunal on "Corporate Crimes Against Humanity," which took place at the World Trade Organization gathering in Seattle last November.

Morehouse's anti-corporation activism began with his support of the survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide Corporation disaster at Bhopal, India. Morehouse said that, in looking at Bhopal, "I knew we had to develop a different approach to fighting corporate abuses of power, and quit picking up the pieces. . .we had to find a way to fundamentally reduce a corporation's power to dictate policy and corrupt governments"

Morehouse's trip to Ohio will include presentations at Case Western Reserve University and a community-wide conference on globalization in Akron.