Multinational firms are more than the totality of their employees and stockholders. Can a multinational, as an anonymous entity, be held responsible for what happens in the entire line of production, asks Daniel Warner. Do they have a soul to damn or a body to kick? As part of anger against the 1%, many of the 99% are turning against multinational corporations such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. On November 29, the Swiss will vote on a referendum concerning corporate social responsibility. Before deciding on the pros and cons of what’s on the ballot, we should consider the nature of corporate responsibility. Responsibility is both a legal and moral term that we use for individuals or groups. But in the case of multinationals, which more often than not hold the legal status of a Société Anonyme (S.A.), or corporation, we are being asked to judge the behaviour of an anonymous legal entity. Is this possible? We know there are people in the corporations who make decisions.
