The Irony of Protesting Corporate Control with the Aid of Corporations

Reading “Spreading Protests Yet to Jell” (WSJ Oct. 17th) I was struck by the irony of a couple of aspects of the “Occupy” movement; the use of media and social media to organize - inherent dependence on corporations, and a lack of structure - incorporating is a way to structure an organization.


A movement “grounded in a general discontent with … corporations” is empowered and dependent on multiple corporations. 1) Media organizations like CNN, Fox News, and the Tribune Company. 2) Corporations that generate and distribute electricity 3) Corporations that provide bandwidth and internet services like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast. 4) Corporations who produce devices and chips like Dell, Apple, Motorola, and Intel. And 5) the medium providers themselves: Facebook, Twitter, and other service providing corporations.

“Finding a functional decision-making process and structure” is of course what a corporate charter creates, a statement of how an organization will form and behave. It seems fitting that a movement struggling to organize would benefit from a statement of how they will form and behave.