Nexus - 0906 - New Times Magazine-pages

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A History OF CORPORATE RULE AND POPULAR PROTEST CORPORATE HISTORY RULE POPULAR PROTEST AND A new populist movement has emerged to challenge corporate power and call for a more equitable economic order that protects traditional cultures and ecosystems and promotes sustainability. he corporation was invented early in the colonial era as a grant of privilege extended by the Crown to a group of investors, usually to finance a trade expedition. The corporation limited the liability of investors to the amount of their investment—a right not held by ordinary citizens. Corporate charters set out the specific rights and obligations of the individual corporation, including the amount to be paid to the Crown in return for the privilege granted. Thus were born the East India Company, which led the British colonisation of India, and Hudson's Bay Company, which accomplished the same purpose in Canada. Almost rom the beginning, Britain deployed state military power to further corporate interests—a ractice that has continued to the present. Also from the outset, corporations began pres- suring government to expand corporate rights and to limit corporate responsibilities. The corporation was a legal invention—a socio-economic mechanism for concentrating and deploying human and economic power. The purpose of the corporation was and is to generate profits for its investors. As an entity, it has no other purpose; it acknowledges no igher value. Many people understood early on that since corporations do not serve society as a whole, but only their investors, there is therefore always a danger that the interests of corporations and those of the general populace will come into conflict. Indeed, the United States was born of a revolution not just against the British monarchy but against the ower of corporations. Many of the American colonies had been chartered as corporations (the Virginia Company, the Carolina Company, the Maryland Company, etc.) and were granted monopoly power over lands and industries considered crucial to the interests of the Crown. Much of the literature of the revolutionaries was filled with denunciations of the "long train of abuses" of the Crown and its instruments of dominance, the corporations. As the yoke of the Crown corporations was being thrown off, Thomas Jefferson railed against "the general prey of the rich on the poor". Later, he warned the new nation against the creation of "immortal persons" in the form of corporations. The American revolutionaries resolved that the authority to charter corporations should lie not with governors, judges or generals, but only with elected legislatures. At first, such charters as were granted were for a fixed time, and legislatures spelled out the rules each business should follow. Profit-making corporations were chartered to build turnpikes, canals and bridges, to operate banks and to engage in industrial manufacture. Some citizens argued against even these few, limited charters, on the grounds that no business should be granted special privileges and that owners should not be allowed to hide behind legal shields. Thus the requests for many charters were denied, and existing charters were often revoked. Banks were kept on a short leash, and (in most states) investors were held liable for the debts and harms caused by their corporations. All of this began to change in the mid-19th century. According to Richard Grossman and Frank Adams in Taking Care of Business: "Corporations were abusing their charters to become conglomerates and trusts. They were converting the nation's treasures into pri- vate fortunes, creating factory systems and company towns. Political power began flow- ing to absentee owners intent upon dominating people and nature." Grossman and Adams note that: "In factory towns, corporations set wages, hours, pro- duction processes and machine speeds. They kept blacklists of labor organizers and workers who spoke up for their rights. Corporate officials forced employees to accept humiliating conditions, while the corporations agreed to nothing." by Richard Heinberg © 2002 Editor/Publisher MuseLetter 1604 Jennings Avenue Santa Rosa, CA 95401, USA Email: heinberg@museletter.com Website: http:/Awww.museletter.com NEXUS ¢ 11 by Richard Heinberg © 2002 OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com