On September 23, 2020, MSI Integrity led a breakout session, entitled “At the Root of Abuse: Challenging the Corporate Form,” at the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR)’s first ever virtual Annual Meeting. Watch the recording embedded above or on YouTube here.
The breakout session explored how the corporation is itself a main driver of human rights abuse and economic inequality, and how more equitable and democratic alternatives could pave a brighter road ahead. Benefit corporations, “stakeholder capitalism,” and reimagining the “purpose of the corporation” have all been proposed as solutions to corporate inequities and abuse—but will they actually mitigate harm and economic inequality? This session looked beyond these limited reforms to explore how worker and community ownership/governance more transformatively advances economic, social and environmental justice, and why corporate accountability activists ought to support these ideas and goals.
The session speakers included Dr. Grietje Baars, senior lecturer at the City Law School at City, University of London, Melissa Hoover, the founding Executive Director of the Democracy at Work Institute, and Amelia Evans, the Executive Director of MSI Integrity. Teddy Ostrow, Research and Communications Associate at MSI Integrity, moderated the session.
The session also presented a video produced by MSI Integrity that features more speakers discussing what they believe makes an “ethical” corporation and what true accountability looks like. They included Dr. Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, Flequer Vera, Mara Zepeda, Mo Manklang, Ricardo Nuñez, and Dr. Surya Deva.
Each of the speakers’ bios and links to their work can be found in this resource sheet provided during the session.