Doug
***************** Well, what came first the capitalist firm[s] or capitalist class relations? Given the ig-norance of the legal history of capitalism, there are some virtues of opening a red-green critique of the theory of the firm. I thought the whole point of past critiques of capitalism was that one could separate the issue of organizing the technologies of production across time and space from exploitative forms of property and contract.
Surely in the hyperspace of possible enterprise organizations and their p&c "rights" there are ones that don't give rise to internal oligarchies of power, mangled accountability to the creators of said wealth and the larger social community in which the enterprise is embedded, as well as pay ratios of 200+ to 1? Educating each other on this issue is a great entry point/window -albeit one of many- into looking at contemporary capitalism and contemporary tort and property law, worplace rights issues, different accounting protocols, the firm as a flow of ecological materials/energy etc. Climbing that learning curve will help sustain and broaden the critique of the Westphalian trade model and the BW institutions. Let a thousand corporate campaigns bloom and let's see how they link up and generate more systemic thinking about Capitalism and the possibilities for transmutation. Clearly people are willing to mobilize; after this weekend let's see how the dialogue develops, there's plenty of room in our growing tent.
Ian