Ten proposals for curbing corporate power

By the Editor

Corporate power needs to be curbed and ultimately transformed for the sake of justice and democracy. Here is a set of ten proposals for doing that.

All of these ideas are already in circulation in civil society and many are at the core of established campaigns. The aim here is to put them in one place and encourage a discussion about combining them in a common agenda for change.

To read the proposals in detail with some explanation, definitions and sourcing, please click the grey button to download the PDF. In summary, we need to:

1. Change the purposes of very large corporations in law so their directors must give the same consideration to impacts on society and nature that they give to the pursuit of profit.

2. Democratise the control of very large corporations by increasing share ownership by workers and other stakeholders.

3. Use the power of the state to shrink the dominant corporations in each industry and put hard limits on how much of a market or industry can be controlled by a single corporation.

4. Promote public, non-profit and social-purpose alternatives to very large corporations, especially in the supply of necessities like food, medicines, financing and digital infrastructure.

5. Make very large corporations pay more tax on their profits, on a globally fair basis, and impose taxes on windfalls and profits from destructive activities like fossil fuel production.

6. Limit the proprietary control of knowledge and data by very large corporations.

7. Oblige very large corporations, by law, to ensure respect for human rights, including labour rights, in their own activities and throughout their supply chains.

8. Require very large corporations to obtain genuinely free, prior and informed consent for physical investments, such as mines and data centres, from people affected by them.

9. Curb corporate capture of the state, including by banning non-public lobbying and corporate donations and closing the revolving door between public and private office.

10. Back these reforms with strict public disclosure requirements and sanctions for non-compliance, including public black lists for corporations and personal liability for executives.

The note calls for a patient and inclusive discussion across civil society about how to bring these (and potentially other) ideas into a common agenda for curbing corporate power and ultimately transforming it into something more just, sustainable and democratic.

Such a common agenda would need to:

• treat the power of multinationals not only as a problem of abusive corporate behaviour, but also as a structural problem which requires institutional change.
• challenge the assumed supremacy of the profit motive over society's needs, rather than trying to fit around it.
• include workable proposals for more democratic and sustainable alternatives to multinationals.
• be globally legitimate and relevant, yet adaptable to different countries and different kinds of business enterprise.

If you're a critic of corporate power from civil society and you have thoughts about this, get in touch!