A better world is possible - Global Commons Institute

Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rights reserved. This electronic copy is provided free for personal, non-commercial use only.
www.brucenixon.com
Chapter 5 – About the corporation and other things you need to know February 2009
Business is there to serve people and meet their needs. This is far from what actually happens.
“Corporate social responsibility is an oxymoron” says Mary Zepernick, Director of Program on Corporations,
Law and Democracy (POCLAD).
“Corporations are designed to externalise their costs” Joel Bakan, Professor of law at the University of
British Columbia
I was reminded of these insights when I read The Corporation and viewed the two companion DVDs. They do
not make comfortable reading or viewing but will deepen your understanding and, alas, confirm what you
already know. Many other books have exposed corporate abuse of power and unhealthy relationships with
politicians. But this book and DVDs are amongst the most powerful. I thoroughly recommend them.
This chapter summarises some of the sharpest insights into the behaviour of big corporations and political
and corporate leaders throughout the world. Although there are exceptions, in general, it is unrealistic to
have too optimistic expectations of large corporations, given the current system and prevailing leadership
culture.
Governments are slow to grasp systemic realities. The social and environmental problems they spend vast
sums of our money trying to address, often without success, are caused by the Big Co practice of
externalising costs to achieve, greater market share, lower costs, and greater profit and share value. These
practices destroy good food, meaningful work, livelihood, security and communities, the very things that
provide wellbeing and mental health. The economy Big Co and government create is extremely hostile for
local, small businesses. That said, Big Co also offer amazing opportunities for the fortunate few who can ride
the wave.
The best we can all do is understand the system and help transform it. Most businesses have to comply with
the rules of the global game in order to survive. Within that system it is almost impossible for good leaders
to “do well by doing the right thing”. Too often that would jeopardise the business, the jobs of employees,
the interests of shareholders and their own jobs. I am not anti-business. I worked in or consulted to
businesses for some 45 years. I am against the abuse of corporate power and a system that encourages it.
Corporate Social Responsibility is not all “Green washing.” What the best corporations are doing is extremely
important but simply not enough. Some of it can be trusted but most people rightly view it with a sceptical
eye. We have been misled, lied to and the truth withheld far too often. Think of the tortuous histories of all
those “harms” - unhealthy food and drink, fast food, tobacco, alcohol, asbestos, all that denial, resistance
and obfuscation over the past sixty and more years. Whistle blowers have been threatened and expelled.
We need to be fully aware of the harms done by large corporations, especially in poor countries: the theft
of “commons”, buying of land from innocent peasants which they need for their survival, reducing diversity
by buying up hundreds of small companies to achieve dominance in markets like seeds, hiding their
dominance by using nice homely names, their treatment of indigenous peoples in oil field areas in Nigeria
and Latin America, the human rights violations and poisons these people suffer, prosecuting farmers for
“stealing” GM seeds when their crops have become contaminated after pollen from modified plants had
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