Corporations

In the Campaigning Handbook, Mark Lattimer discusses the power that large corporations hold. He argues that while multi-national companies in particular are hugely powerful and are perceived to have considerable influence on policy-making, he also argues their hold on power is fragile.

He notes that companies are vulnerable to action from a range of interests, including:

• Company directors
• Shareholders
• Sources of finance
• Suppliers
• Competitors
• Employees
• Consumers

Lattimer points out that it is action by consumers, especially environmentalists, which have brought about many of the recent successes in campaigning against companies.

Interestingly, he also argues that while campaigners often criticise companies for being profit-orientated at the expense of ethics,
“pressure groups must first understand companies as businesses: where a company’s market is, who the competitors are, where the principle threats lie, where the money comes from, where the company sees its opportunities’.

So, in practice rather than your message to corporations being about putting ethics ahead of profits, demonstrate to them how operating more ethically can be good for their profits! Many companies for example have adopted ethical or environmentally practices because of consumer demand, which is course very good for their profit position.

Campaigners do need to be careful about organising boycotts of companies. The Protection from Harassment Laws mean that companies could take out an injunction against you. For more information about this visit Liberty’s Your Rights website .

Case study

Greenpeace

Greenpeace  is currently running a ‘Detox’  campaign aimed at companies who are releasing dangerous chemicals into the environment during their manufacturing processes.

Targeting Adidas, Nike, Puma and H&M, Greenpeace has undergone a number of exposing tactics and stunts  which have resulted in all four of the companies to agree to ‘clean up’ by 2020.

Here you can see a publication called ‘Dirty Laundry’ in which Greenpeace has named and shamed areas which are most affected by the toxic waste produced by the companies in question.

A word of warning about ‘exposing’ corporations however. Firstly you must know your facts and have done your research. If you leave holes in your argument it is more than likely that a corporation will find them and undermine your argument. Secondly, although this tactic has worked in these situations it is worth keeping in mind that this is a fairly aggressive way to campaign and sometimes a private conversation, backed up by evidence, can be hugely effective and avoid cornering your ‘target’, whether your target is government or a company. There are corporations who feel pressure not to “give in” to NGO’s if publicly humiliated, as they feel it would be a slippery slope to further demands on them.

McLibel

One of the most well known and interesting campaigns against a major corporation has been ‘McLibel’. It’s especially interesting because it’s ‘David and Goliath’ nature worked against the company – highlighting how individuals and small groups can be powerful, even working against large corporate interests.

McLibel is actually a colloquial term for a long-running court action, McDonalds vs Morris and Steel. Environmental activists Helen Steel and David Morris produced a pamphlet that was critical of the company, which prompted the company to sue them. Wikipedia refers to this as a case of a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP).

While McDonalds eventually won the legal battle, arguably they lost the Public Relations (PR) war.