R.J. Reynolds Partisan Movement Weekly Activity Report

R.J. Reynolds Partisan Movement Weekly Activity Report

This is a 1990 progress report from an R.J. Reynolds (RJR) field coordinator for the company's "Partisan Movement," a project to develop a massive "grassroots" lobbying network by tapping into and recruiting smokers, employees who worked for the industry and its allies (retailers, growers, advertisers etc.). This document reveals that RJR actively organized smokers rights groups in states throughout the southwestern United States.

The field coordinator reports some successes, but the document also describes the difficulty the company had in organizing smokers:

"Mike Skelly... said he is growing very frustrated with his group because all they want to do is gripe but do nothing about it...Becky McKoon finally gave up on her group. She resigned as the President because she couldn't deal with a bunch of old people who just wanted to sit around and get drunk...We only have 5 people in the [Flagstaff] area that could help out...Maybe I can persuade one of these guys to take an active role in getting a group more organized...Billy Allison is growing leary of his group. It seems like they have 20 attenders at every monthly meeting but nobody wants to do anything. All they do is bitch..."

Successes: one group held a "Smokers Rights Ball" that raised $100, another group held a "Great American Smoke-In," and two other groups were successful at getting smoking rooms reinstated on the ground floors of local hospitals (one was a Veteran's hospital) and were forging ahead to get them reinstated on all floors.

Title R.J. REYNOLDS PARTISAN MOVEMENT WEEKLY ACTIVITY REPORT. Date 19901128 Type REPORT Bates 507693559/3563 Collection RJ Reynolds Pages 5 URL: http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/oea24d00

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