Corporations need to not only be held accountable for the conditions and practices within their own operations, but also for their use, misuse, or their failure to use their economic and political power on human rights issues in the countries in which they invest and operate. In order for this to happen, the people, the consumers, we who constitute “the Market” must become aware of our role in these corporations. We are, at the end of the day, the source of their power; our choices determine their profitability and the value of their share prices, and the size of the dividends they deliver to shareholders.
But until now, we do not view ourselves as participants in corporate policy. We are nothing but a set of passive demographic numbers discussed in board meetings. This has to change. Corporations are the major political powerhouses of this era; they dominate state policy-making, they finance political campaigns, they write and lobby for legislation, they can make or break the economies of communities, states, countries, and entire regions.
We need to reorganise political activism around these institutions of private power. The old system of political parties needs to be revamped along consumer demographic lines, instead of votes, brand loyalty needs to be offered or denied according to a company’s stance on human rights issues and political agendas. We need to focus on influencing the owners of influence. And, in fact, democratising corporate power can be much easier than democratising government; because business has no choice but to be responsive to public opinion.
We should not be “against” companies; we should not demand they divest from countries with repressive governments. If they withdraw, their influence withdraws with them. We want them to invest, because that increases their influence, and potentially, empowers us to affect change in those countries, if only we develop ourselves as consumer constituencies who can exert influence over corporate policy.