Atkins: Saul Alinsky pioneered the weaponization of corporate proxies
Paul Atkins · Investing in 2026: What You Need to Know (SEC Chairman) · Joe Lonsdale · Jan 26, 2026 · at 26:47
Paul Atkins, SEC Chairman, traces the historical origins of shareholder activist tactics to Saul Alinsky during a discussion with Joe Lonsdale.
0:00 / 0:48exact quote · 48.2s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“The one that really weaponized this to begin with, It was a community organizer named Saul Alinsky back in the 19 sixties and seventies, and so he wrote a book in 1970, I believe, called Rules for Radicals. So the penultimate chapter is called Project Proxy, and so what he realized is that for the cost of a stamp and, you know, writing on a piece of paper a You know, a proposal that you want submitted to the shareholders, and he, if he mails it into the company, that he found oftentimes that he could get the company to you know, basically eat out his hands and come to him and say, oh, what can we do to get you to withdraw that proposal, rather than our putting it before the shareholders.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Paul Atkins
Atkins: SEC Will Allow IPOs with Mandatory Arbitration Bylaws
“So, and so what we're doing is so I made it explicit that the commission will not turn away and the staff will not turn away those sorts of would be IPOs if they have a bylaw With either of those two provisions.”
Atkins: SEC to clarify meme coins and stablecoins are not securities
“That's our goal is to come out with rules that differentiate between what's the stock,
Security, and what is a commodity where the CFTC, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, can oversee.
So meme coins and all that, and stable coins, those are not
for the…”
Atkins: Prior SEC pursued crypto regulation through enforcement with antiquated rules
“Unfortunately the SEC started by looking at crypto as maybe the ostrich with the head in the sand, as was their attitude. Like maybe this stuff will go away by the time we lift our head out of the sand. That obviously didn't happen. And then came the very basi…”
Atkins: Past SEC practices drove crypto asset trading offshore
“The trouble with the past practices of the, Commission is that it drove trading of crypto assets offshore.”
Atkins: Politicized activists with minimal shares weaponize shareholder proposals
“So unfortunately, these have been weaponized to push particular views or issues by certain I call them politicized shareholder activists. So they, yes, they own shares, but a very, usually a very minimal number of things.”
Atkins: SEC and DOL reviewing rules to expand retail private access
“So we are undertaking, and there's an executive order the president signed, asking the
Department of Labor and us to, ah, you know, to make it so, to look at these various rules and, ah, and to try to see what makes sense for you know, normal people to be able…”