It’s shareholders’ meeting season: the time of the year when corporations throw themselves a big old pep-rally.
Executives from massive global corporations gather in corporate conference rooms — physical or virtual. They tout their latest PR schemes and brag about just how much money they’re making. They run through carefully crafted slide presentations that gloss over the abuses they are accused of perpetrating on people, communities, and environments.
But people power is present in the room, too. Because on the most important day of the year for these massive corporations, Corporate Accountability and our allies show up. We speak truth directly to power. And we do it knowing that we’re representing hundreds of thousands of activists like you from around the world.
Corporate shareholders’ meetings are a tremendous opportunity for the campaigns we wage. They’re one of the powerful tools advocates and organizers like you and me have to challenge executives directly about their corporations’ abusive practices and lack of accountability. Together, we can elevate the voices of the people impacted by corporate abuse while the eyes of the media and investors are closely watching the theater of corporate doublespeak.
That’s why we’re planning to speak out at the shareholders’ meetings of some of the biggest and most powerful corporations in the world this year — corporations like Coca-Cola, Chevron, and Philip Morris International. Whether it’s asking hard-hitting questions of a corporate CEO, or speaking in defense of a people-centered resolution calling for a change in corporate practices, we’re making sure corporate executives hear the demands of people like you and cannot continue to operate with complete impunity.
But going toe-to-toe with these corporations isn’t easy. That’s why we need you with us.
Can we count on you to support our campaigns as we take our demands directly to annual corporate meetings? Will you donate to Corporate Accountability so we have the resources we need to make the most of these opportunities?
Together, we’ll make sure corporate executives hear our demands, and compel them to at least pay attention to and be answerable for their actions during one of their most high-stakes PR occasions of the year.
Thank you for all you do to build a world where corporations answer to people — not the other way around.
