Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group

Organization

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Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group (MASSPIRG) is a non-profit organization that is one of the largest of the state PIRG organizations. It works on a variety of political activities, including textbook trading on college campuses. They also provide internships and work study jobs for students on Massachusetts college campuses. Along with the Massachusetts Service Alliance, MASSPIRG helped create Massachusetts Community Water Watch, an organization that works specifically on environmental political. Student funding of MASSPIRG has been criticized at several schools, where students wish to see MASSPIRG funding cut.[1]

## History[edit]

The Public Interest Research Groups emerged at the behest of Ralph Nader who, during a college speaking tour, called on students to form political groups.

## Criticism and rebuttal[edit]

The book Activism, Inc: How the Outsourcing of Grassroots Campaigns Is Strangling Progressive Politics in America by Columbia University sociologist Dana Fisher, is based on an ethnographic study she did in a stratified random sample of fund canvass offices during the summer of 2003. Fisher charges the corporatized fundraising model (of which the Fund is an example) with mistreating idealistic young people by using them as interchangeable parts and providing them with insufficient training. Fisher also states that the outsourcing of grassroots organizing by groups like the Sierra Club and Greenpeace to organizations like the Fund has led to the decay of grassroots infrastructure and opportunities for involvement on the left.[2] The Fund has created a website, canvassingworks.org, to respond to a few of the criticisms raised by the book. The site includes testimony by former Fund staff who have moved into leading roles in other progressive organizations and other progressive leaders, including U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (IL), Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, Dr. Woody Holton (Associate Professor of American history at the University of Richmond), and Randy Hayes of the Rainforest Action Network.

## Notable members[edit]

* Joyce Elaine Roop[citation needed]

## Affiliate organizations[edit]

* The Fund for Public Interest Research
* Environment Massachusetts
* Human Rights Campaign
* Sierra Club

## References[edit]

1. ^ "MassPIRG manipulates UMass students". Massachusetts Daily Collegian. September 7, 2003.
2. ^ Activism, Inc.: How the Outsourcing of Grassroots Campaigns Is Strangling Progressive Politics in America

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Public Interest Research Groups

People|

* Phil Radford
* Ralph Nader
* Donald Kemp Ross
* Gene Karpinski
* Ted Halstead
* Arshad Hasan
* Joyce Elaine Roop
* Gene Russianoff
* Jim Jontz
* Pamela Gilbert
* Anthony Pollina
* Celeste Thorson
* James Love
* Tom Hucker
* Joanna Guy

Related organizations|

* Fund for the Public Interest
* Environmental Action
* Environment America
* Green Corps
* Alaska PIRG
* Arizona PIRG
* California PIRG
* Colorado PIRG
* Connecticut PIRG
* Georgia PIRG
* Illinois PIRG
* Iowa PIRG
* Maryland PIRG
* Massachusetts PIRG
* Minnesota PIRG
* Missouri PIRG
* New Jersey PIRG
* New Mexico PIRG
* New York PIRG
* North Carolina PIRG
* Ohio PIRG
* Ontario PIRG
* Pennsylvania PIRG
* Michigan PIRG
* Rhode Island PIRG
* Vermont PIRG
* Washington PIRG
* Wisconsin PIRG

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Consumer protection

Organizations|

* ANEC
* Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
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* CableHell
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* Chamber for Workers and Employees
* Choice
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* Citizens Advice Scotland
* Citizens Advice outside the United Kingdom
* Connecticut Citizen Action Group
* Consumentenbond
* ConsumerLab.com
* Consumer Alert
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* Consumer organization
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* Test Achats
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Magazines|

* Akher Saa
* Beobachter
* Choice
* Consumer Reports
* Consumers' Checkbook
* dTest
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* Finanztest
* Guter Rat
* Pirkka
* Spendere Meglio
* Stiftung Warentest
* Which?

Television|

* The Checkout
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* Marketplace
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Lists|

* List of consumer organizations
* ICRT Members
* Consumer organization

Issues|

* Airline complaints
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* Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991
* Transparency (market)

People|

* Pamela Gilbert
* Joanna Guy
* Ted Halstead
* Arshad Hasan
* Tom Hucker
* Jim Jontz
* Gene Karpinski
* Florence Kelley
* James Love
* Ralph Nader
* Anthony Pollina
* Phil Radford
* Joyce Elaine Roop
* Donald Kemp Ross
* Gene Russianoff
* Celeste Thorson
* Michael Vernon

Governmental
entities|

* Banking Standards Board
* Bureau of Consumer Protection
* Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
* European Consumer Centres Network
* Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
* Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety
* INDEPABIS
* National Homelessness Advice Service
* Office of Fair Trading
* Office for Fair Trading (Malta)
* Office for Fair Trading (Isle of Man)
* Pension Wise
* Water Industry Commission for Scotland
* Witness Service

Current
competition
regulators|

* Administrative Council for Economic Defense
* Anti-Monopoly Committee
* Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
* Autoridade da Concorrência
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* Comisión Federal de Competencia Económica
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* Commerce Commission
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* Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China
* Netherlands Competition Authority
* Norwegian Competition Authority
* Philippine Competition Commission
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* Superintendency of Industry and Commerce
* United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division

Historic
competition
regulators|

* Channel Islands Competition and Regulatory Authorities
* Industrial Commission
* National Board for Prices and Incomes
* Securities Commission of New Zealand

Public Interest
Research Group
(PIRG)|

* Alaska PIRG
* Arizona PIRG
* California PIRG
* Colorado PIRG
* Connecticut PIRG
* Georgia PIRG
* Illinois PIRG
* Iowa PIRG
* Maryland PIRG
* Massachusetts PIRG
* Minnesota PIRG
* Missouri PIRG
* New Jersey PIRG
* New Mexico PIRG
* New York PIRG
* North Carolina PIRG
* Ohio PIRG
* Ontario PIRG
* Pennsylvania PIRG
* Michigan PIRG
* Rhode Island PIRG
* Vermont PIRG
* Washington PIRG
* Wisconsin PIRG

Environmental|

* Bioscience Resource Project
* Environmental Action
* League of Conservation Voters
* Green Corps
* Environment America

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