The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center
CredoResearch digital collections in Credo

Morehouse, Ward, 1929-

Ward Morehouse Papers

ca.1950-2012
120 boxes 180 linear feet
Call no.: MS 764
Depiction of Ward Morehouse at his desk in the Educational Resources Center, New Delhi, 1966
Ward Morehouse at his desk in the Educational Resources Center, New Delhi, 1966

A writer, educator, and activist for human rights and social justice, Ward Morehouse was a prominent critic of corporate power and globalization. Raised in a family of progressive political economists and academics in Wisconsin, Morehouse began his research in international political economy while a student at Yale (BA 1950, MA 1953) and embarked on a standard academic career path. After teaching political science at New York University for a time, he became director of international education at the Center for International and Comparative Studies in 1963, building a particularly strong program in India. However in 1976, conservative opposition to his political views led Morehouse to leave for a new post as president of the Council on International and Public Affairs (CIPA), a human rights organization he had helped found twenty years before. Throughout, he remained an activist at heart. Galvanized by the 1984 industrial disaster in Bhopal, India, he organized the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, and went on to form or work with many other organizations seeking to resist corporate power and build democracy, including the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD) and the Permanent People’s Tribunal, operating the radical Apex Press. Morehouse died in June 2012 at the age of 83.

The Morehouse collection is a massive archive documenting six decades of research, writing, and activism. A prolific writer and editor, Morehouse left a deep record of his activities, his research and writing on corporate power, and the full breadth of his commitments in labor relations, alternative economics, “people’s law,” and peace.

Background on Ward Morehouse

A writer, educator, publisher, and activist for human rights and social justice, Ward
Morehouse was a prominent critic of corporate power and globalization. Raised in a
family of progressive political economists and academics in Wisconsin, Morehouse
began his research in international political economy while a student at Yale (BA
1950, MA 1953) and embarked on a standard academic career path. After teaching
political science at New York University for a time, he became director of
international education at the Center for International and Comparative Studies for
the state of New York in 1963, building a particularly strong program in India.
However, in 1976, conservative opposition to his political views led Morehouse to
leave for a new post as president of the Council on International and Public Affairs
(CIPA), a human rights organization he had helped found twenty years before.
Throughout, he remained an activist at heart. Galvanized by the 1984 industrial
disaster in Bhopal, India, he organized the International Campaign for Justice in
Bhopal, and went on to form or work with many other organizations seeking to resist
corporate power and build democracy, including the Program on Corporations, Law and
Democracy (POCLAD) and the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal, operating the radical Apex
Press. Morehouse died in June 2012 at the age of 83.

Contents of Collection

The Ward Morehouse Papers document the life and work of educator, publisher, and
activist Ward Morehouse, as well as the activities of the organizations he founded
or actively engaged in. The collection remains in process, with about 60% of it
having been arranged and described to the box level. The collection contains a vast
quantity of letters, memos, and emails between Morehouse and hundreds of
correspondents, which document the daily activities of his work, as well as the
evolution of his ideas, his philosophies, and the networks he built with other
socially-engaged individuals. Also included are significant accumulations of
published and unpublished materials related to the key topics Morehouse was involved
in, including international education, economic development in the third world,
globalization, grassroots democracy and people’s law, corporate human rights
violations, and the Bhopal industrial disaster. Morehouse’s prolific writings, as
well as the records of his various publishing enterprises, make up a significant
portion of the collection.

Most of the materials and correspondence from 1950 until 1976 are focused on
Morehouse’s career as an educator. His interests and projects related to
international education and scientific and economic progress in South Asia,
primarily India and China, form the basis of this part of the collection. Of
particular note here are the correspondence and writings that Morehouse produced as
a result of a state-sponsored trip to China in 1973, where Morehouse and several
colleagues toured educational facilities in China for three weeks as part of a new
initiative for better understanding between the United States and China.

In the late 1970s, after Morehouse had left his position as director of the Center
for International and Comparative studies for the New York State Education
Department, he continued to work primarily out of his nonprofit organizations, the
Council on International and Public Affairs, and the Intermediate Technology
Development Group. Materials from assorted other nonprofit organizations with which
Morehouse was involved began to increase through the 1980s and 1990s. These two
decades are the period in which Morehouse left the deepest record of his activities
and was involved in the widest range of work. The Bhopal industrial disaster in 1984
catalyzed his interest in the link between law, transnational corporations, and
human rights abuses. His correspondence with friends and colleagues, and his
shifting efforts to understand the relationship between corporations and democracy,
drove his work with the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal and the Program on Corporations,
Law, and Democracy through the 1990s and early 2000s.

In the last period of his work, Morehouse was most involved in grassroots activism,
co-founding Shays2 and the Holyoke Community for Open Government with his second
wife, Carolyn Toll-Oppenheim, to contest corporate influence and inspire democratic
engagement in Western Massachusetts.

Series descriptions

ca.1928-2017
1 box (1.5 linear feet)

Arrangement: This series is arranged alphabetically.

Contents: Materials related to Morehouse’s personal life and family. Contains
documents such as resumes, curriculum vitae, articles written about or
featuring Morehouse, notes and interviews, and materials related to family
history, particularly Morehouse’s maternal grandfather, Richard T. Ely, a
professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin who was put on trial
and exonerated in 1894 under accusation of spreading socialist doctrine. In
addition to materials on Morehouse’s family, some newspaper clippings
related to the family of his first wife, Cynthia Thomas, are included along
with a booklet for Cynthia’s memorial service. Some materials from
Morehouse’s educational career are included, such as his degree and yearbook
from Yale, as well as some class materials from his single semester studying
law at the University of Wisconsin. Later in life, Morehouse had planned to
write a memoir, and the notes and outlines for that project are also
included in this series.

In addition to his educational and activist career, Morehouse was involved in
more personal projects and endeavors. This series contains the records of
Morehouse’s contracting company, Encon, as well as legal documents and
correspondence related to his property on Dyer Island off the coast of Rhode
Island.

1950-2012
6 boxes (9 linear feet)

Arrangement: This series is arranged alphabetically and divided into two
subseries.

Contents: This series contains correspondence, related attachments and
writings, and publications or articles that inform or describe the
organizations or individuals with whom Morehouse corresponded. Over the
years, Morehouse built a vast network of friends, colleagues, and fellow
activists, and this collection contains letters and emails to and from
hundreds of individual persons, organizations, and governments.
Correspondence in this series represents only a fraction of what is included
in the overall collection, since correspondence related to a particular
organization, event, project, or activity was kept together whenever
possible.

Subseries A) Individual (1950-2012) contains
correspondence between Morehouse and individual persons, as well as articles
and other documents written by or about those individuals.

Major correspondents include: Alvares, Claude; Bachle, Bill; Baxi, Upendra;
Bentham, Guy; Bhatkal, Ramdas; Bruno, Kenny; Budhoo, Davison L.; Burton,
Neal; Caplan, Ruth; Chatterjee, Pratap; Chopra, Ravi; Chouhan, T. R.; Clark,
Leon; Cobb, David; Cohen, Gary; Coleridge, Greg; Collins, Sheila; Coulter,
Karen; Cowan, William (Bill); Deenadayalan, E.; Dembo, David; Dias,
Clarence; Diwan, Romesh; Dudzic, Mark; Ellis, William (Bill); Fals Borda,
Orlando; Ferner, Mike; Goldberg, Gertrude; Gordon, Nancy Morehouse;
Grossholtz, Jean; Grossman, Richard; Gupta, Breijen; Henson, Dave; Karliner,
Joshua; Kellman, Peter; Kille, Frank R.; Kothari, Smitu; Leonard, Ann;
Liisa, Marja; Lopezllera, Luis; Makhijani, Arjun; Margulies, Leah; Mathur,
Chandana; McRobie, George; Mehta, Suketu; Menon, A. G.; Morris, Jane Anne;
Munyan, Winthrop R.; Nayak, Sharada; Nirash, S. P.; Nyquist, Ewald B.;
Palmer, Eric; Parpia, H.A.B “Hossy”; Pereira, Winin; Pitts, Lewis; Price,
Jim; Raina, Kamal; Rasmussen, Virginia; Reiner, Kenneth; Richter, Robert
“Bob”; Sanders, Bernie; Sarangi, Satinath “Satyu”; Schroyer, Trent; Sharma,
Rajan; Shiva, Vandana; Siddhartha, Sigurdson, Jon; Singh, Kavaljit;
Sopoci-Belknap, Kaitlin; Speiser, Stuart; Stites, Tom; Sule, Subhash;
Surrendra, Lawrence; Tangri, Neil; Tsalis, Tula; Vallianatos, Evan;
Weissman, Robert; Zepernick, Mary.

Subseries B) Organizational (1950-2012) contains
correspondence between Morehouse and organizational or government bodies, as
well as publications issued by those organizations, and other materials
describing or informing them.

1953-2010
4 boxes (6 linear feet)

Arrangement: Arranged chronologically.

Contents: This series contains articles, books, reports, sermons, papers,
theses, and notes written or co-written by Morehouse, as well as unpublished
drafts, related correspondence, review articles, and published pamphlets and
journal issues featuring Morehouse’s work. Many of Morehouse’s writings were
presented at conferences, products of projects done by one of the nonprofits
he was involved in (such as the Council on International and Public Affairs
(CIPA) or the Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy (POCLAD)), or work
done on behalf of a sponsoring body such as the United Nations. As a result,
there is overlap between the files in this series, and the files in most
other series of the collection, particularly Series 12, Subject Files, and
Series 13, Conferences.

The chronology of Morehouse’s writings reflects his evolving ideas on various
topics, and his changing interests over the decades. His earliest collected
writings includes his 1953 Master’s thesis, “Islam and the Socio-Political
Development of Modern Egypt,” which focused on the Muslim Brotherhood in
Egypt. In 1970, while living abroad in India and serving as a consultant to
the Administrative Staff College of India in Hyderabad, Morehouse wrote an
article entitled “The White Brahmins” as a critique of the lifestyle of
foreign nationals living in India. The publication of this article in Illustrated Weekly of India created tension
between him and the Administrative Staff College, as well as the Ford
Foundation, which was sponsoring his position as consultant.

At the same time, between 1967 and 1970, Morehouse was working on a book on
science and technology in India entitled Sarkar and
Vigyan
. Although the manuscript was completed, it was never
published. The correspondence, drafts, and notes related to the manuscript’s
creation are included in this series.

Throughout his life, Morehouse was also an active member of the Unitarian
Church. Between the 1950s and 2000s, he wrote and delivered dozens of
sermons on various topics, most often related to social and economic justice
in American society. Notes and drafts of many of these sermons are contained
in this series.

1954-2012
10.5 boxes (15.75 linear feet)

Arrangement: This series is arranged alphabetically and divided into seven
subseries.

Contents: This series contains records and publications created by the
Council on International and Public Affairs (CIPA), which was founded by
Morehouse and served as the primary nonprofit organization through which he
operated. CIPA was incorporated in 1954 as the Conference on Asian Affairs,
and its purpose was to promote the study of the issues and cultures of Asia
and introduce Asian countries to Western democratic principles. For the
first few years after its incorporation, it organized a series of public
events to increase understanding and awareness of Asian peoples and
cultures. In 1957, CIPA’s staff were hired by the recently established Asia
Society to initiate and operate its educational programs. Between 1957 and
1969 the Conference on Asian Affairs was mostly dormant, and in 1970 changed
its name to the Conference on World Affairs when its members realized that
the issues they were concerned with were truly international in scope. The
formal purpose then changed to study and discussion of issues on a global
scale.

When Morehouse was elected as the new director of CIPA in 1976, the
certificate of incorporation was amended a second and final time in order to
include a focus on the United States, and the organization was renamed the
Council on International and Public Affairs, beginning its truly influential
period of activity.

The website for CIPA’s publications remains active and can be accessed at
http://cipa-apex.pubassist.com for additional information.

Subseries A) Administrative (1954-2012)

This subseries contains materials related to the incorporation,
administration, finances, and activities of CIPA. Includes files for annual
meetings, correspondence, projects, financial reports, organizational
planning, certificates of incorporation, by-laws, and other activities
unrelated to publishing. Also includes planning materials, correspondence,
and publications related to CIPA’s 50th Anniversary celebration in 2004,
which it celebrated alongside the Program on Corporations, Law, and
Democracy as it celebrated its 10th Anniversary.

Between 1984 and 1992, Morehouse collaborated with Stuart Speiser, the Center
on Expanded Capital Ownership (CECO), and Shareholders in America, Inc.
(SIA) to sponsor an essay contest on the Universal Share Ownership Plan
(USOP). The goal of the essay contest was to reflect and debate on
alternative approaches to achieving a more just economic system in the
United States. Speiser was a lawyer and long-time colleague of Morehouse’s,
notable for representing Ralph Nader’s suit against General Motors in the
late 1960s.

Subseries B) The Apex Press (1987-2010)

This subseries contains materials related to CIPA’s publishing imprint, The
Apex Press (TAP), which was begun in 1987 as New Horizons Press (NHP) and
renamed in 1990. The Apex Press published books that provided critical
analyses of and new approaches to significant economic, social, and
political issues in the United States and other nations. The press also
acted as a US distributor for books published by international presses, such
as Zed Books in the United Kingdom or The Other India Press in India. It
also acted as a distributor for materials produced by other social-engaged
organizations, such as the Labor Institute and the Third World Network.
Includes annual catalogs, correspondence related to all aspects of the
publishing process, drafts of publications, publications, promotional
materials and planning documents, financial reports, and other
administrative records.

In 1990, Morehouse, together with co-writers David Dembo and Lucinda Wykle
wrote and published the book Abuse of Power,
a comprehensive history of the Union Carbide Corporation’s abuse of its
workers and the environment. The book featured prominently an overview of
the 1984 industrial disaster in Bhopal. Through the Apex Press, Morehouse
wrote and edited several other books on the topic of Bhopal.

In 1991 Morehouse, Dembo, and Wykle also wrote and published Worker Empowerment in a Changing Economy which
described a program that could be implemented to help workers find
employment again when they were displaced by efforts to make industry more
sustainable and eco-friendly.

After the adoption of the name Apex Press in 1990, Apex acted as distributor
to Morehouse’s other publishing imprints, the Intermediate Technology
Development Group (ITDG) and the Bootstrap Press, and often became the
umbrella under which all of Morehouse’s publishing enterprises fell. This is
represented in catalogs, financial reports, and planning correspondence. As
such, there is some overlap between the subseries in Series 4, CIPA, and
with Series 6, ITDG. The Apex Press was sold to Rowman and Littlefield, Inc.
in 2010 because the operation was no longer financial sustainable.

Apex/New Horizons Press Authors:

  • Alvares, Claude
  • Bruno, Kenny
  • Budhoo, Davison L.
  • Chouhan, T.R.
  • Collins, Sheila D.
  • Dembo, David
  • Goldberg, Gertrude S.
  • Goulet, Denis
  • Makhijani, Arjun
  • Margolis, Edwin
  • Morehouse, Ward
  • Moses, Stanley
  • Pizzigati, Sam
  • Portela, Jose I.
  • Roelofs, Joan
  • Turnbull, Shann
  • Wykle, Lucinda

Subseries C) Center for International Training and
Education (1980-2003)

This subseries contains materials related to CIPA’s educational and
publishing program, the Center for International Training and Education
(CITE). CITE had two primary goals: to help internationalize US school and
college curriculums through activities and publications, and to provide
technical assistance to developing countries through educational programs.
CITE was overseen by Morehouse’s colleague and CIPA member Leon Clark, who
acted as chief editor of its book. CITE’s main series of publications were
the Eyes books (Through African Eyes, Through Middle Eastern Eyes, Through Chinese Eyes, Through Japanese Eyes), which were first published by CIPA in
the 1970s to teach high school-aged students about world cultures. The
program ended with Clark’s death in 2003. Includes correspondence, drafts of
publications, promotional materials, and other administrative records.

Subseries D) Learning Resources in International Studies
(1977-1986)

This subseries contains material related to the cooperative publishing
program, Learning Resources in International Studies (LRIS), of which CIPA
was a member between 1979 and 1986. LRIS published low-cost and
user-oriented materials to support the research and educational efforts of
faculty, students, and other professional public audiences. Includes annual
catalogs, related correspondence, promotional materials, and other
administrative records. LRIS was administered by the Foreign Area Materials
Center (FAMC) of the New York State Department of Education, and the work
that Morehouse did with the program carried over from his time as director
of the FAMC.

Subseries E) Policy Studies Associates
(1976-1987)

This subseries contains materials related to CIPA’s joint program with the
Maxwell School at Syracuse University, Policy Studies Associates (PSA).
PSA’s goal was to improve college and university instruction in policy
sciences by collaborating with faculty to develop learning resources for
students to better understand policy analysis skills. Includes annual
catalogs, related correspondence, drafts of publications, published books,
promotional materials, and other administrative records related to the
program.

Subseries F) Publications (1954-2010)

This subseries contains publications and related materials published under
CIPA’s name. Includes CIPA’s two regular publications, Too Much and The
Underbelly of the US Economy
, as well as various other
publications, related correspondence, drafts and planning materials, and
promotional materials. Too Much was a
newsletter edited by labor journalist Sam Pizzigati and a project of the
DC-based Institute for Policy Studies dedicated to examining the wage gap in
the United States and proposing the idea of a maximum wage. It was published
quarterly by CIPA from 1995 until 2004, when the Institute for Policy
Studies began to publish it themselves online.

The Underbelly of the US Economy was a joint
effort between Morehouse and his long-time colleague David Dembo, which they
published from 1984 to 2001. The Underbelly
was a quarterly report on unemployment and labor trends in the United
States, with most of its data drawn from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics
and the US Census Bureau. Morehouse and Dembo’s motivation in writing The Underbelly was the understanding that the US
government neglected to report accurate analysis of job growth and decline
when compiling its own annual reports on unemployment.

Arrangement: This series is arranged alphabetically.

Contents: This series contains material related to the Program on
Corporations, Law, and Democracy (POCLAD), which was formed in 1995 by
Morehouse and Richard Grossman as a project of the Council on International
and Public Affairs (CIPA) in order to research the history of corporate
influence on democracy and use that understanding to encourage democratic
change and community engagement. POCLAD evolved from the work that Richard
Grossman and Frank Adams began in 1991 to research the history of
corporations in society, which resulted in the publication of a pamphlet in
1993 entitled “Taking Care of Business: Citizenship and the Charter of
Incorporation.” POCLAD’s activities included a travelling presentation
entitled “Rethinking the Corporation,” as well as publishing a number of
books through CIPA’s Apex Press, including the POCLAD Anthology, Defying Corporations, Defining Democracy.
Drafts, planning notes, publications, promotional materials, and related
correspondence for these projects and events are included in this series, as
well as administrative records such as financial reports, strategic planning
documents, memos, and general correspondence. In particular, the appendices
to the 1998 Funding Proposal contain detailed information on POCLAD’S
philosophies, activities, and members. POCLAD also published a thrice-yearly
newsletter entitled By What Authority, which
contained essays, news, and statistics contesting the right of corporations
to influence government.

In 2004, POCLAD celebrated its 10th anniversary alongside CIPA’s 50th
anniversary, in a joint event which is documented in Series 4, CIPA.
Although POCLAD had a close relationship with CIPA, the organization
eventually broke off in 2008 to pursue its own goals. POCLAD’s key members
and contributors included: Ward Morehouse, Richard Grossman, Bill Bachle,
Mike Ferner, Dave Henson, Karen Coulter, Peter Kellman, Jane Anne Morris,
Jim Price, Virginia Rasmussen, and Mary Zepernick.

Arrangement: This series is arranged alphabetically and divided into three
subseries.

Contents: This series contains materials related to the incorporation,
administration, finances, and activities—primarily publishing—of the North
American Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG). ITDG North
America was inspired by, but not directly affiliated with, ITDG United
Kingdom, which was established in 1965 by E.F. Schumacher and George McRobie
to focus on economic needs and opportunities in the industrialized world.
ITDG North America was founded in 1979 to promote the development of small
and intermediate-scale technologies and a more sustainable society in the
United States and Canada. ITDG also had significant collaboration with The
Other Economic Summit (TOES) of North America, and this series contains some
overlap with material from Series 7, TOES.

Subseries A) Administrative (1976-2001)

This subseries contains correspondence, annual meeting files, financial
reports, and other records related to the operations and activities of
ITDG.

Subseries B) Intermediate Technology Publications
(1979-2001)

This subseries contains materials related to ITDG’s publishing operations,
including correspondence with authors and the British Intermediate
Technology Group, drafts of books, promotional materials, and other
publishing records. ITDG publications primarily published North American
editions of ITDG UK books, and distributed books from other independent
publishers and nonprofit organizations.

ITDG/Bootstrap Authors:

  • Fanelli, Vincent
  • Gussow, Joan Dye
  • Lutz, Mark A.
  • Lux, Kenneth
  • McRobie, George
  • Shadmon, Asher

Subseries C) The Bootstrap Press (1983-2001)

This subseries contains materials related to ITDG’s imprint, the Bootstrap
Press, which was established in 1985. The Bootstrap Press published books
for The Other Economic Summit (TOES) as well as books written by the
Intermediate Technology Group of North America. The subject focus of the
Bootstrap Press was on social economics, community economic change, and
appropriate technology in the industrialized and third worlds. Includes
related correspondence, publication drafts, promotional materials, and other
publishing records.

1987-2002
2 boxes (3 linear feet)

Arrangement: This series is arranged alphabetically.

Description: This series contains materials related to The Other Economic
Summit of North America (TOES/NA), an international forum for the
presentation, discussion, and advocacy of the economic ideas that support a
more just and sustainable society. TOES/NA was inspired by The Other
Economic Summit of the United Kingdom, whose first gathering coincided with
the 1984 London Economic Summit. In anticipation of the 1988 and 1990
Economic Summits to be held in Canada and the United States, TOES/NA was
created as an offshoot to organize for those gatherings. Morehouse was
elected as the first Chair of TOES/NA, which went on to hold annual summits
for the next fourteen years. The most well-documented of TOES annual
meetings is the 1990 summit in Houston, Texas. TOES published a series of
books written and edited by its members through the Bootstrap Press of the
Intermediate Technology Development Group, so some of the materials from
this series overlap with Series 6, ITDG. Includes correspondence, TOES
publications and newsletters, summit planning and promotional materials,
notes, summit papers and presentations, and other administrative
documents.

Key members of TOES included Ward Morehouse, Trent Schroyer, Tula Tsalis,
Susan Hunt, Mariclaire Acosta, William W. Howard, Sandra Sorensen, John
MacLean, Robert J. King, Ronald Blackwell, Robert Denman, Antonio Gonzalez,
Joan Dye Gussow, Melvin King, Gerald, Lefebvre, Karen Lehman, Luis
Lopezllera Mendez, Bertha Elena Lujan, Stephen Marglin, Ifengenia Martinez,
Ignacio Peon Escalante, and Sonia Stairs.

1985-2007
3 boxes (4.5 linear feet)

Arrangement: This series is arranged alphabetically.

Contents: This series contains materials related to the 1984 Union Carbide
Corporation industrial accident in the Bhopal region of India, and the
efforts of various individuals and organizations to address the human rights
violations surrounding the incident and the continued plight of the
survivors over the following decades. Contains correspondence, publications,
and records related to the Bhopal Action Resource Center (BARC), the
International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB), the Union Carbide
Company (UCC), Dow Chemical Company, and Morehouse’s decades of research,
writing, and activism related to the incident.

1986-2007
4 boxes (6 linear feet)

Arrangement: This series is arranged alphabetically.

Contents: This series contains records related to the tribunals held by the
Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal, a nonprofit organization focused on researching
and bringing attention to large-scale international crimes and human rights
violations committed by governments and corporations. Morehouse was an
organizer and jury member between 1990 and 2000, with one of the primary
foci of his work with the tribunal being the 1984 Union Carbide chemical
spill in Bhopal, India. Materials in this series include correspondence,
planning documents for the tribunal, financial planning and reports,
research and notes, articles and writings, reports of the tribunal’s
hearings and judgements, and tribunal publications.

The major tribunal sessions with which Morehouse was involved, and which make
up the largest portion of this series, were the 1992 session in India and
the 1998 and 2000 sessions held at Warwick University in the United Kingdom.
Upendra Baxi, a professor at Warwick University was another tribunal
organizer who Morehouse worked closely with and whose writings and
correspondence are featured prominently in this series.

1956-1984
4 boxes (6 linear feet)

Arrangement: This series is arranged alphabetically and divided into four
subseries.

Contents: This series contains materials created or accumulated by Morehouse
in his capacity as a professor at various higher education organizations, as
well as his tenure as director of the Center for International and
Comparative Studies at the University of the State of New York. This
includes correspondence and memos, notes, departmental reports and
publications, administrative records, financial records, and curriculum
materials.

Subseries A) Administrative Staff College of India,
Hyderabad (1970-1973)

This subseries contains correspondence, notes, and writings from 1970, when
Morehouse worked as a consultant to the Administrative Staff College of
India, Hyderabad, as well as drafts of course materials for a class in
management for research that Morehouse contributed to in 1973. Morehouse’s
controversial article “The White Brahmins,” which he published during his
time at the college, is included in Series 3, Writings, and features
additional correspondence with the college faculty.

Subseries B) University of the State of New York, Center
for International and Comparative Studies (1962-1976)

This subseries contains materials from Morehouse’s tenure as director of the
Center for International and Comparative Studies (CICS) and the Office of
Foreign Area Studies for the University of the State of New York (USNY), the
branch of the New York State Department of Education that sets educational
standards for kindergarten through graduate school. This series contains
publications and correspondence from Morehouse’s time as a consultant in
foreign area studies to the New York State Education Department in 1962, as
well as memos, reports, writings, bibliographies, project files, and other
administrative records related to Morehouse’s role as director of CICS from
1963 to 1976. This subseries also contains material related to the creation,
operations, and publications of the Educational Resources Center (ERC) in
New Delhi, India, whose function was to produce and publish materials that
would enrich American understanding of India. Morehouse founded the ERC in
1966 and served as its first director.

Of particular note in this subseries are materials related to the
state-sponsored trip to China undertaken in 1973 by Morehouse and several
other members of the department, during which Morehouse visited educational,
industrial, and cultural facilities across China as part of a cultural
exchange program. Morehouse led the group, which spent 3 weeks visiting the
major cities of Peking, Shanghai, and Canton, as well as farming villages
and a smaller city. This series includes correspondence and planning
documents for the trip, notes taken while abroad, materials collected in
China (such as maps and pamphlets of cultural centers, and a drawing done by
an elementary school child in Shanghai), as well as writings and preparatory
materials for several talks given following the trip.

Morehouse was also involved in a conflict over the federal budget proposals
to defund the International Education Act, Special foreign currency program
(Public Law 480) and the Department of State Education and Cultural Exchange
Program for the 1969-1970 fiscal year, which is documented in this series.
Morehouse resigned as director of CICS in October of 1976, largely as a
result of a feeling of urgency that he should move on to other projects, a
choice he described in a letter to the New York State Commissioner of
Education, and Morehouse’s long-time mentor and friend, Ewald “Joe” Nyquist.

Subseries C) Lund University, Sweden
(1977-1984)

This subseries contains material related to Morehouse’s year as a visiting
researcher at the Research Policy Program (RPP) of the University of Lund in
Sweden from 1977 to 1978. The director of the RPP, Jon Sigurdson, was a
long-time colleague of Morehouse’s with whom he collaborated and
corresponded. The series includes correspondence, writings, and publications
of the Research Policy Program, particularly those done in preparation for
the 1979 United Nations Conference on Science and Technology for
Development. Morehouse and his wife, Cynthia Thomas, edited publications for
the RPP. Morehouse collaborated with Sigurdson and other RPP faculty, Stevan
Dedijer on many projects over the years.

Subseries D) New York University (1956-1958)

This subseries contains correspondence, registration cards, curriculum
planning, and class material related to Morehouse’s years teaching political
science at New York University.

1955-2010
4 Boxes (6 linear feet)

Arrangement: This series is arranged alphabetically and divided into 11
subseries.

Contents: Materials related to Morehouse’s involvement in a variety of
nonprofit, religious, and union organizations both independent of and
associated with his core organizational involvements. Contains a significant
amount of correspondence and project planning materials.

Subseries A) The Asia Society (1957-1963)

This series contains publications, correspondence, and administrative records
related to Morehouse’s role as Educational Director of the Asia Society in
New York City between 1957 and 1962. The Asia Society’s mission was to
research and promote the study of Asian cultures in American undergraduate
education.

Subseries B) Global Information Network
(1989-2001)

Morehouse was a board member for the Global Information Network (GIN), which
was founded in 1983 to distribute information on international current
events to media outlets of minority communities in the United States,
particularly on topics not covered by the mainstream press. Lisa Vives was
the executive director of GIN and one of the primary contributors of this
subseries. Includes correspondence and memos, information on organizational
initiatives, and meeting reports.

Subseries C) Communities Concerned about
Corporations

Subseries D) International Group for Grass Roots
Initiatives (1985-2001)

This subseries contains materials related to the International Group for
Grass Roots Initiatives (IGGRI), a coalition of members of various
organizations around the globe which came together to discuss the issues of
globalization and innovate better ways for individual and grassroots efforts
to effect change. IGGRI grew out of the 1985 Helsinki Consultation, which
was organized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in
collaboration with the Grassroots Initiatives and Strategies (GRIS) Program
of the Society for International Development (SID). One of IGGRI’S major
initiatives that is documented in this series was its September 1998 meeting
on expanding peoples’ spaces in the globalizing economy held at the
Hanasaari Culture Center in Espoo, Finland. One result of this gathering was
a document outlining the issues of globalization and proposing ways to fight
against it, entitled “The Hanasaari Statement,” which many members of the
gathering, including Morehouse, signed on to.

Key members of IGGRI included Morehouse, Judithe Bizot, Ruth Caplan, Karen
Coulter, Cheri Honkala, Smitu Kothari, Luis Lopezllera, Siddhartha, and
Marja-Liisa Swantz.

Subseries E) New Jersey Democracy and Corporate
Accountability Project (1999-2002)

Morehouse was a founder of the New Jersey Democracy and Corporate
Accountability Project (NJ DCAP), which sought to research and change the
relationship between corporations and democracy in the state of New Jersey.
The NJ DCAP collaborated with the National Lawyers Guild in 1999 to propose
a revised version of the New Jersey Corporate Code. Includes correspondence,
notes, and background materials such as articles and other publications.

Subseries F) New Initiative for Full Employment and
National Jobs for All Coalition (1990-2001)

This subseries contains materials related to the New Initiative for Full
Employment (NIFE), a national network of economists, scientists, and labor
and community activists that sought to address the issue of unemployment in
the United States through public policy research, education, and political
mobilization. NIFE cooperated with other likeminded employment-focused
nonprofit organizations, in particularly the Economists Working Group (EWG).
In 1995, the National Jobs for All Coalition (NJFAC) was incorporated by a
group of NIFE members to realize its goals of reducing unemployment through
more active political engagement. Includes correspondence, memos, meeting
minutes, project planning, publication drafts, drafts of NIFE’s keystone
work “Jobs For All in a Nation That Works,” and event planning and
promotional materials. Key members of NIFE included Sheila Collins, David
Dembo, Trudy Goldberg, Sumner Rosen, and Ward Morehouse.

Subseries G) National Lawyers Guild
(1997-2005)

Morehouse was a member of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and a founder of
the Corporations Committee of the NLG. From 1998 to 1999, the Program on
Corporations, Law, and Democracy (POCLAD) collaborated with the National
Lawyers Guild to propose revisions to the New Jersey Corporate Code that
would strip rights of personhood from corporations. Major contributors to
this subseries include Thomas Linzey, Ann Fagan Ginger, and Eric Palmer. As
Morehouse’s focus on the legal aspects of his work with corporations and
human rights increased, his involvement with the NLG began to intersect with
his work in other organizations, particularly through the 1990s and 2000s.

Subseries H) Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers
International Union (1985-2007)

Morehouse was a long-time member of AFL-CIO Local 8-149, the Oil, Chemical,
and Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW). OCAW merged with the United
Paperworkers International Union in 1999 and became the Paper,
Allied-Industrial, Chemical, and Energy Workers International Union (PACE).
In addition to membership, Morehouse collaborated with the union to publish
union materials, supply the union with published materials, and collaborate
on shared issues related to workers’ rights and employment, such as the
Bhopal industrial disaster. Includes correspondence with OCAW
representatives such as president, Mark Dudzic, and OCAW
Secretary-Treasurer, Anthony Mazzocchi, as well as membership contracts
between the Council on International and Public Affairs (CIPA) and OCAW,
meeting minutes, event information, union governance records, and
promotional materials and union publications. Also included is
correspondence and work done with the Labor Institute and Labor Party.

Subseries I) The Poetry Institute, Inc.
(1955-1959)

The Poetry Institute was incorporated in 1955 in order to prepare and publish
the poetry magazine, Poetry London-New York (PLNY) as well as carry out
other literary and educational activities. Morehouse helped to establish the
organization and served as secretary and member of the board of directors
from 1955 to 1959. This subseries contains legal documents related to the
incorporation of the Poetry Institute, meeting minutes, correspondence,
notes, and publication drafts.

Subseries J) Shays2 and Holyoke Community for Open
Government (2002-2009)

Shays2 was a grassroots organization co-founded by Morehouse with Carolyn
Toll Oppenheim, Anita Constantini, and Dan McLeod in 2002 in order to build
relationships between grassroots organizations in the Pioneer Valley,
promote self-governance, and work to repeal corporate personhood and combat
corporate abuses. Shays2 operated on many of the same philosophies as the
Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy, with a more local focus. Shays2
helped to organize the Holyoke Citizens for Open Government (HCOG) in 2003,
whose first issue was to democratize the city’s process of examining
privatization of its waste-water treatment plant. This subseries includes
promotional materials, notes, correspondence, planning documents, newspaper
issues and clippings, legal documents and reports related to the operations
and activities of Shays2 and HCOG.

Subseries K) Unitarian Church Organizations
(1958-2010)

This subseries contains materials related to Morehouse’s involvement with the
Unitarian Church and various associated organizations, including the
Unitarian Universalists Assembly (UUA), Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
(UUF), Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community (UUJEC), and
the Unitarian Church of Croton-on-Hudson, NJ, his local church for many
years.

1955-2010
5 boxes (7.5 linear feet)

Arrangement: This series is arranged alphabetically.

Contents: Files containing materials related to projects that Morehouse was
involved in both independently and as part of one of his nonprofit or
academic affiliations. Files also contain articles, clippings, and
correspondence on topics of interest related to Morehouse’s work in various
areas, and correspondence related to trips abroad. Many of Morehouse’s
projects resulted in one or more written final reports, articles, or books,
and so this series often overlaps with Series 3, Writings.

Significant projects in this series include Morehouse’s cooperative work with
the American Council on Education (ACE) as director of the Foreign Area
Materials Center (FAMC) of the New York State Education Department from 1973
to 1975. As part of the Task Force on Diffusion of International Studies,
Morehouse helped to research integration of international studies in US
education and produce an atlas of organizations focused on international
education. He was also involved in a project to assemble educational
resources in Bengali Studies for the department in 1973.

Morehouse’s work for the United Nations included work for the United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Associated
Schools in 1974, a study on micro-electronics for the United Nations Centre
on Transnational Corporations (UNCTC) in 1979, a compilation of corporate
profiles for the UNCTC in 1981, a study in biotechnology for the UNCTC in
1983, and a study and report on biotechnology and vaccines in the third
world for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in
1986.

Major topics on which Morehouse accumulated background materials include
education in China and India, Formosa Plastics, DuPont, Enron, Dow Chemical,
Union Carbide, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank,
privatization of the United Nations and the United Nations Global Compact in
2000-2001, the World Trade Organization, and the Multilateral Agreement on
Investment (MAI). Morehouse’s research in the 1950s and 1960s focused on
international education and technology, while a focus on corporations,
corporate crimes, and corporate agendas in international economics occupied
the 1990s and the 2000s.

1950-2007
2.5 boxes (3.75 linear feet)

Arrangement: This series is arranged alphabetically.

Contents: Materials related to gatherings and events such as conferences,
conventions, forums, symposiums, and workshops which Morehouse planned,
presented at, or attended. Includes correspondence, registration materials,
conference materials and publications, reports and presentation articles,
and event schedules. This subseries also contains files for protests which
Morehouse organized or attended, several of which resulted in his arrest.
The most significant of these was the protest of the World Trade
Organization in Seattle in 1999 at the WTO Ministerial Conference on
November 30th. Over 40,000 demonstrators assembled to protest the meeting,
making it the largest gathering of protestors in the US against a world
meeting associated with economic globalization thus far. Morehouse, along
with fellow activist Cheri Honkala, were arrested and tried for crossing a
police line and attempting to serve citizen arrest warrants on the G7 trade
ministers, although these charges were eventually dropped. Includes planning
documents and correspondence for the organization of the protests, related
writings and articles, and legal documents related to arrests and court
appearances.

ca.1940-2007
½ box (.75 linear feet)

Arrangement: This series is arranged alphabetically.

Contents: Photographic materials featuring Morehouse and his family, events
related to his work and activism, and serving as illustrations for books
published by one of his imprints. Includes photographs from Bhopal in 2003
and 2 copies of a photo album from 1966 depicting the staff and facilities
at the Educational Resource Center in New Delhi, India.

1990-2010
½ box (.75 linear feet)

Arrangement: This series is arranged alphabetically.

Contents: Audio material on cassette tapes, including assorted and undated
dictations recorded by Morehouse, as well as recordings of interviews and
events. Video material includes several VHS tapes.

1990-2010
½ box (.75 linear feet)

Arrangement: This series is arranged alphabetically.

Contents: Objects and artifacts accumulated by Morehouse, including several
awards, a card catalog of correspondents, and a Program on Corporations,
Law, and Democracy (POCLAD) license plate.

Collection inventory

Series 1. Biographical
ca.1928-2017
1 box (1.5 linear feet)
Biographical material: Memoir, itineraries, articles about
Morehouse, CVs, Bios, Yale yearbook
ca.
1928-2017
Box 1
Oversize Biographical: Yale Commencement
1950
Box 11
Series 2. Correspondent Files
1950-2012
6 boxes (9 linear feet)
Individual Correspondence A-N
1970-2012
Box 2
Individual Correspondence N-Z, Organizational Correspondence
A-Z
1970-2012
Box 3
Individual Correspondence A-Z
1950-2012
Box 4-7
Oversize Correspondence
1960-1985
Box 11
Series 3. Writings
1953-2010
4 boxes (6 linear feet)
Writings
1953-2002
Box 8
Writings: The White Brahmins (1970), Sarkar aur Vigyan
(1967-1970), Science in India (1971), Micro-Electronics Study, Biotech,
Sermons
1955-2010
Box 9
Writings (including Masters Thesis)
1953-2001
Box 10
Writings: China Trip (1973)
1973-1975
Box 40
Oversize Writings: Sarkar and Vigyan, Science in India
(1967-1971)
1950-1986
Box 11
Series 4. Council on International and Public Affairs
1954-2012
10.5 boxes (15.75 linear feet)
Finances, Publications, Projects, Incorperation
1954-2012
Box 12
Conference on Asian Affairs, Conference on World Affairs,
CECO/USOP Speiser Essay Contest (1984-1989)
1958-1989
Box 13
CIPA Oversize: Conference on Asian Affairs
1950-1960
Box 11
Annual Trustees meetings 1978-1987, UNIDO Biotech Project
1970-1999
Box 14
Annual Trustees Meetings 1987-2001, Annual Reports, By-Laws and
Incorperation, Finances, Publications, Underbelly of the US Economy
1954-2000
Box 15
Annual Trustees Meetings 2000-2009, 50/10 Anniversary event with
POCLAD, Finances
1990-2009
Box 16
Publishing: The Apex Press, New Horizons Press, CIPA
1980-1999
Box 17
Publishing: The Apex Press, New Horizons Press, Policy Studies
Associates
1974-2008
Box 18
Publishing: The Apex Press, Center for International Training and
Education, Policy Studies Associates, Too Much, POCLAD: By What
Authority
1980-2010
Box 19
CIPA Publishing: The Apex Press, CITE, Learning Resources in
International Studies, Policy Studies Associates
1980-2010
Box 20
Publishing: The Apex Press, CITE, New Horizons Press, Policy
Studies Associates, CIPA
1979-2001
Box 21
CIPA Publishing: The Apex Press (including The Bhopal Anthology),
CITE, Learning Resources in International Studies, New Horizons
Press,Policy Studies Associates
1980-2008
Box 22
CIPA Publishing (including Underbelly of the US Economy
1980-2000)
1960-2010
Box 23
Series 5. Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy
(POCLAD)
1994-2012
4 Boxes (6 linear feet)
POCLAD
1994-2012
Box 24-26
POCLAD
1994-1999
Box 51
Series 6. Intermediate Technology Development Group
(ITDG)
1976-2001
4 boxes (6 linear feet)
ITDG
1980-1999
Box 27
ITDG: Publishing, TOES
1976-1999
Box 28
ITDG: Publishing, Bootstrap Press
1985-2001
Box 29
ITDG: Publishing
1980-1999
Box 30
ITDG
1985-1995
Box 47
Series 7. The Other Economic Summit
1987-2002
2 boxes (3 linear feet)
TOES: Houston 1990, Toronto, Paris, Denver, other
summits
1987-2000
Box 31
TOES: Houston summit 1997, Alternative Visions
Project
1990-2002
Box 32
TOES
1990-1995
Box 47
Series 8. Bhopal Industrial Disaster
1985-2007
3 boxes (4.5 linear feet)
Bhopal, Communities Concerned about Corporations
1985-2007
Box 33
Bhopal
1986-2001
Box 34
Bhopal
1990-2007
Box 35
Series 9. Permanent People’s Tribunal
1986-2007
4 boxes (6 linear feet)
PPT: Bhopal 1992, Tibet 1992, United Kingdom 1999
1986-2002
Box 36
PPT: India, London, Madrid, New Haven, People’s Law, Vienna,
Warwick, World Bank, Iraq tribunal
1990-2007
Box 37
PPT
1990-1999
Box 38
PPT
1992-1999
Box 46
Series 10. Academic Organizations
1956-1984
4 boxes (6 linear feet)
Administrative Staff College of India, Oversize
1970-1973
Box 11
Administrative Staff College of India (1970-1973), NY State
Education Department, Bengali Studies project, New York University
1956-1974
Box 39
NY State Education Department: China Trip 1973, Educational
Resources Center
1964-1976
Box 40
NY State Education Department Foreign Materials and Educational
Resource Center Publications
1960-1976
Box 41
Lund University files and publications
1977-1984
Box 42
Series 11. Other Organizations
1955-2010
4 Boxes (6 linear feet)
Communities Concerned about Corporations; Global Information
Network; New Initiative for Full Employment and National Jobs for All
1989-2001
Box 43
National Lawyer’s Guild; Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers
International Union; The Poetry Institute
1955-2007
Box 44
International Group for Grass Roots Initiatives
1985-2001
Box 45
Shays2 and Holyoke Community for Open Government
2003-2009
Box 46
Unitarian Church Organizations: Unitarian Universalist
Association, Unitarian Univerasalist Fellowship, Unitarian Universalists
for a Just Economic Community, Unitarian Church of Croton-on-Hudson,
Unitarian Church of Frederickson
1958-2010
Box 47
Series 12. Subject Files
1955-2010
5 boxes (7.5 linear feet)
Projects: Bengali Studies (1974), Refraction Effect (1980), India
Rural Development (1981), UNCTC Corporate Profiles (1981), UNCTC
Micro-Electronics Study (1979), UNESCO Associated Schools (1974), UNIDO
Biotechnology Study (1986)
1967-1995
Box 48
Projects: NY State Education Department Project 1974:
International Education Organizations Atlas (Task Force on Diffusion,
ICIE)
1971-2000
Box 49
Projects: UNITAR Research Paper (1980), Refraction Effect (1984),
UNCTC Biotechnology (1983), UNDP Corporate Compact (1999), Cornell
Seminar on Science (1973)
1973-1999
Box 23
Topics
1970-2007
Box 45
Topics: Enron, Formosa Plastics, International Monetary Fund,
World Bank, United Nations Reform, United Nations Development Program
Global Compact, World Trade Organization; Trips
1958-2010
Box 50
Topics: International Monetary Fund, Multilateral Agreement on
Investment, Monsanto, India, China, United Nations
1955-1999
Box 51
Topics, Oversize
1955-1999
Box 11
Series 13. Conferences, Workshops, Protests, and Arrests
1950-2007
2.5 boxes (3.75 linear feet)
Conferences and Workshops
1950-1999
Box 51
Conferences, Protests, and Arrests
1950-2007
Box 52
Conferences, Workshops, Protests, and Arrests
1969-2007
Box 53
Series 14. Photographs
ca.1940-2007
½ box (.75 linear feet)
Photographs: Morehouse family, Thomas family, “Science in India”
illustrations (1970), Bhopal (2003)
ca.1940-2007
Box 1
2 photo albums, Educational Resource Center (India) Staff
1966
Box 42
Series 15. Audio/Video
1990-2010
½ box (.75 linear feet)
Audio cassette tapes: POCLAD Texas Retreat 2000, numbered tapes
(dictations), sermons/talks, unknown tapes; VHS tapes
1990-2010
Box 42
Series 16. Memorabilia
1990-2010
½ box (.75 linear feet)
3 framed awards, card catalog address book, IDs and business
cards
1990-2010
Box 54
POCLAD license plate
ca.2000
Box 1
Unsorted Publications and Books
ca.1954-2010
Publications and Books
1954-2010
Box 55
Publications, Books, and Pamphlets
1954-2010
Box 56
Publications and Books: NHP, Apex, ITDG, PSA
1954-2010
Box 57
Publications (including Underbelly of the US Economy 1992-2001),
books, Morehouse’s published writings, PSA books
1954-2010
Box 58

Administrative information

Access

The collection is open for research.

Language:

English

Provenance

Gift of Ward Morehouse, 2010.

Processing Information

Processed by Emma Gronbeck, March 2018.

Copyright and Use (More informationConnect to publication information)

Cite as: Ward Morehouse Papers (MS 764). Special
Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Libraries.

Gift of Ward Morehouse and Carolyn Oppenheim, Nov. 2013

Subjects

Anti-globalization movementBhopal Union Carbide Plant Disaster, Bhopal, India, 1984EconomicsIndia--Economic conditions

Contributors

Apex PressCenter for International and Comparative StudiesCouncil on International and Public AffairsPermanent Peoples' TribunalProgram on Corporations, Law and Democracy