Who Says We Can't Curb Corporate Power?

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2. Require Corporate Accountability

Voters in Arcata, California, passed a referendum in 1994 ensuring democratic oversight of all companies conducting business in the city. It’s just one example of how local communities can establish legally enforceable standards for corporate behavior. Living-wage measures, ensuring that companies with municipal contracts pay a decent wage, have been implemented in dozens of cities around the country, along with legislative initiatives on public health and safety issues, the environment, financial transactions, and political campaign contributions. While such efforts go further than voluntary codes of conduct, they saddle governments with the task of enforcing the law against institutions that are able to spend millions of dollars on lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians to weaken the rules and thwart enforcement.

3. Take Action Against Predatory Corporations

When DuPont announced plans to build a hazardous nylon manufacturing factory in the Indian state of Goa during the 1990s, villagers rose up and refused to accept the plant. They organized a blockade of the site and resisted armed police. The local government eventually overturned the planning permit, an act later upheld by India’s highest court.

In the United States, many communities have successfully mobilized to exclude Wal-Mart, Rite Aid, and other large retailers. Applying the “three strikes, you’re out” principle to corporate crime, Pennsylvania’s Wayne Township passed a law in 1998 stating that any firm with three or more regulatory violations over 15 years is forbidden to establish operations in the community.

Although these are basically “not-in-my-backyard” initiatives, they raise public consciousness about the destructive impact of global corporations on people, communities, and the environment, and, even more importantly, show that corporate domination is not inevitable if citizens organize to take a stand.

4. Revoke or Revise Corporate Charters

Without a charter granted by a government body, a corporation does not exist as a legal entity and therefore cannot own property, borrow money, sign contracts, or accumulate assets or debts. Throughout the United States, citizens are reclaiming the right to participate in government decisions about whether specific corporations should be granted a license to operate. In Pennsylvania, for example, citizen groups are backing an amendment to the state’s code calling for corporate charters to be limited to 30 years. A charter could be renewed, but only after successful completion of a review process during which the corporation must prove that it is operating in the public interest. In California, a coalition of justice and environmental organizations petitioned the attorney general to revoke the Union Oil Corporation charter, citing evidence of the company’s record on environmental devastation, exploitation of workers, and gross violation of human rights. Revoking a charter—the corporate equivalent of a death sentence—begins to put some teeth into the idea of accountability.

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