Corporate influence / STRATEGIES

Delegitimize & dismantle
Who are these guys, anyway?
Movements fighting global corporate capitalism are questioning the right of corporations to exist at all and seeking better ways to organize economically, using principles of participatory democracy and subsidiarity (decisions to be taken at the lowest possible level). Popular protest has shone a light on and delegitimized élite gatherings such as the World Economic Forum (see The Naked Lobbyist).

Get out, and stay out
Communities have kicked out corporate malefactors. Examples in India include the Quit Monsanto campaign, the removal of Dupont's chemical plant in Goa, and of Union Carbide after the Bhopal disaster.

Rechartering
Revoking corporate charters
Campaigns for a new corporate paradigm are gathering pace in the US. People are reclaiming their right to participate in decisions about whether or not specific corporations should be granted the authority or licence to operate at all. US towns have passed local laws outlawing corporations with a history of social or environmental law-breaking.

Limited liability laws - these 'limit' claims against invididuals for the wrongdoing of the corporation for which they work, and are being challenged.

Accountability
Corporate accountability strategies
include demanding adherence to Codes of Conduct, binding international rules for business on corporate responsibility, adherence to International Labour Organization workers standards. Enforcement remains difficult.

Lawsuits in particular class-action legal suits, can provide some redress. Encouraging signs include workers from developing countries sueing companies in their country of origin over abuses. Anti-monopoly laws such as those used to attempt to break up Microsoft in the US are of use, but have national not global reach.

Social responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
initiatives for corporations to behave in a socially and environmentally responsible manner through reporting and transparency. Such a voluntary approach is limited to the parameters the company sets for itself.

Shareholder activism
Concerned people buy shares in companies whose activities they want to affect and then raise issues in shareholder meetings. As the chair of a UK company remarked: 'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but institutional shareholders can fire me.' Many public interest groups - unions, for example - are already shareholders via their pension funds in major companies with poor social and environmental records and can use this to great effect.

Corporate Watch Excellent website with reports by sector and company. www.corporatewatch.org CorpWatch Includes a guide to researching corporations. www.corpwatch.org Corporate Europe Observatory Invaluable researchers keeping an eye on corporate Europe and global trade lobbyists. www.xs4all.nl/~ceo Corporate critic online Subscription-based corporate database run by Ethical Consumer Research Association. www.ethicalconsumer.org Business and human rights Extensive coverage of lawsuits against companies internationally, shareholder initiatives, and more. www.business-humanrights.org Endgame Research Services Analysis of the 'corporate consensus' and detailed research on corporate America. www.endgame.org Multinational Monitor Pioneering monthly US periodical. http://multinationalmonitor.org Transnationale Comprehensive, well-organized database on everything from corporate lobby group membership to ethical shopping guides. Multilingual. www.transnationale.org