Case histories illustrate successful strategies and tactics.
by Jim Shultz
From insurance companies lording over health care to global conglomerates taking control of our water, corporate giants wield more and more influence over our lives and our environment. So how do we fight back? How do we take on corporate power and actually win?
“The CEO told the lawyers to make the case go away.”
The Democracy Center recently published a new citizen's resource that looks up close at the strategies that people and communities are using worldwide to successfully tackle corporate giants. We call it Beating Goliath and you can download a free copy here. As Occupy and other movements across the world take up anew the question of how to combat corporate power, here are three good lessons from the front lines.
1 Make it Personal: The Battle Against Bechtel
In 2000, under pressure from the World Bank, the government of Bolivia privatized the public water system of its third largest city, Cochabamba, and leased the water to a subsidiary of the California corporate giant, Bechtel. When Bechtel raised rates astronomically within a few weeks, the city rebelled in the now-famous Water Revolt and forced Bechtel to leave. The following year Bechtel struck back, filing a $50 million demand for lost profits against the people of Cochabamba, in a trade court operated by the same World Bank.
The global campaign against Bechtel's anti-Bolivia lawsuit was based on one key principle: Make life miserable for the corporation's CEO, Riley Bechtel, and other company officials. Corporations are designed to shield their top executives from accountability. Anti-Bechtel campaigners gave Mr. Bechtel no such luxury. They bombarded him with emails to his personal account. They lambasted him by name over and over again in the media. Protesters shut down access to his San Francisco headquarters and in Washington picketed the home of one of his subordinates.