Who Says We Can't Curb Corporate Power?

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Modern life is now so dominated by global corporations that it is difficult for many people to imagine how the world might go on without them. But business has been with us since the dawn of civilization and it can assume many other forms. Transition to a more democratic economy becomes easier to visualize once we recognize how many human-scale, locally owned enterprises already exist. They include virtually all of the millions of local, independent businesses now organized as sole proprietorships, partnerships, and cooperatives, as well as worker-owned businesses. They include family businesses, small farms, artisans, independent stores, small factories, farmers’ markets, community banks, and so on. In fact, even though these kinds of businesses get very little government support, they are the primary sources of livelihood for most of the world’s people.

Very few of our daily needs cannot be met by small and medium-size enterprises cooperating within a market economy. But this economy would be characterized by a multitude of small players rather than a handful of giant, absentee owners. And these stable businesses can operate without anonymous stock market investors, limited liability schemes, and the bizarre legal status of corporations as human beings that prop up large companies today.

From the point of view of environmental health and democracy, there is no reason why giant transnational corporations are needed to run hamburger stands, produce clothing and toys, publish books and magazines, grow and process and distribute food, make the goods we need, or provide most of the things that contribute to a satisfying existence.

The following ideas—reasonable, not radical—show how visions of an efficient, fair, and community-minded economic system could become a reality. The following practical steps are all that are needed to wrest some of our power back from corporations.

1. Promote Corporate Responsibility

The corporate responsibility movement mobilizes consumers and shareholders to encourage companies to act in a more socially conscious manner on issues like the environment, labor rights, and human rights. This approach was effectively used during the 1980s in pressing investors to withdraw economic support from the apartheid regime in South Africa. Corporate responsibility activists also pursue legal action as a tactic to reform corporations’ policies and press for voluntary codes of conduct, such as those negotiated with the Gap and Levi Strauss to improve working conditions in Central American factories.

While calls for social responsibility may not ultimately solve the problem, efforts such as consumer boycotts and shareholder actions can temporarily reduce some of the damage being done and raise public consciousness of the realities of corporate wrongdoing.

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