![]() A well-functioning democratic society requires a thriving public sector as much as it does a thriving private sector. The New Corporation Book by Joel Bakan The New Corporationīakan: Reversing the corporate-pushed-for evisceration of government oversight that we’ve seen over the last forty years is certainly part of the solution. Mass movements – like the BLM uprising, the Greta Thunberg inspired Fridays for Future or the Sunrise Movement – are another, and as we show in the film social movements and governments can work in synergy. So yes, reinvigorating democracy in the time of multiple existential crises is one of our best shots. Currently democratic government is the one institution we have that at its best can act for the people, by the people and of the people. That said, without question the trouncing of government and the placing on pedestals of markets and corporations needs to be redressed. So, yes Trump has given more carte blanche – but big business has pushed him to give even more than he might have.Īziz: What is the primary solution you would propose - is the only answer stronger government oversight and legislation to prevent damage?Ībbott: First and foremost, I wouldn’t suggest we have all the answers. We allude to this in the film, and I provide chapter and verse in the book. ![]() Major US corporations at the helm of the ‘new’ corporation movement continue to lobby for tax cuts and deregulation that disable governments from promoting the very social and environmental values they purport to care about. Admittedly it was a flawed enforcement regime before Trump, but it was broken further by Trump.īakan: It’s really interesting to see how corporations – especially those that purport to embrace purpose and sustainability, ones that say they care – have pushed Trump to be even more Trump-ish. I was quite interested in a report that came out recently from the ICIJ (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists) showing how some of the biggest global banks, JPMorgan Chase among them (who we feature in our film), flowed trillions of tainted dollars through their banks exposing how broken the regulatory enforcement system is. ![]() Most egregious depends on what you care about most. With the BLM uprising, the weight, the beauty, the truth of this movement, its challenge to systemic racism and exposure of the racist roots of 21st century extractive capitalism in slavery and colonization, provided an authentically hopeful end for our film.ĭirector and writer Joel Bakan The New CorporationĪziz: Do you feel in the age of Trump that corporations feel like they have even more carte blanche to behave in ways that are detrimental to society? What are some of the most previous examples?Ībbott: Yes. We knew we had to re-open the film, not only because COVID was such a mammoth event, but also because the way it rolled out, and the ways governments and corporations responded to it hit upon just about every one of our themes – privatization, economic and racial injustice, corporate greed.Ībbott: To play with your analogy, yes it added fuel to the thesis - almost to the extent that it caused an explosion! For COVID, it laid bare the injustices of the system but perhaps more importantly, showed us our humanity. Aziz: You had to deal with the unexpected turn of events in the form of COVID and the racial injustice protests - did that only add fuel to your thesis?īakan: We had already finished the film, locked the picture, when the pandemic hit North America.
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