One of the first things the Left needs to do is refute the notion that giving over ever larger swathes of our society to corporate control is somehow libertarian. The libertarian (in American terminology) critique of government, if I understand it correctly, is, partially at least, that it is top down, authoritarian, bureaucratic, hierarchical, unaccountable, inefficient, and obsessed with control (among other things). However corporations are all these things and more, but without the pretense of democratic control. If you’re going to be ideologically consistent (something I find most libertarians take gratuitous pride in) you can’t complain about these qualities in government and simply overlook it when private institutions exhibit the same troubling characteristics. In other words you can’t say that when the government bosses you around it’s tyranny but when Monsanto does it it’s freedom.

Take for instance that universally acclaimed paragon of the “good corporation,” Apple Computers. While I’m sure they allow a degree of freedom and creativity for some of their upper level employees, go to the sweat shops in china and see how libertarian said company is run. I’m sure it’s workers, forced to live in company housing and shop the company store, working long hours in terrible conditions and kept in their place by a mixture of poverty, debt and intimidation will testify to the wonderful freedom neo liberalism has foisted upon them.

Nor do I understand why so many supposed libertarians get so excited about the so-called privatization of public services like education, prisons, health care, etc. I say so-called privatization because the money for these programs still invariably comes from the public coffers. The only thing private about it is the pockets where the money ends up. All you’re really doing when you privatize a school is adding an extra layer of bureaucracy, and an extra rent seeking middleman trying to squeeze out a profit.

It seems to me that a real libertarian ought not support an institution because it’s simply “not the government.” Rather they should support certain types of institutions; ones which are non hierarchical and give its participants maximum control over their lives and the decisions that affect them. Anyone who has ever worked for one knows that multinational corporations do not meet this criteria. A true libertarian should oppose domination and coercion in all its forms and further recognize that the carrot can often be just a coercive as the stick.

Finally, in case an honest libertarian still can’t see the error of supporting the many corporate power grabs, let us not forget that the modern (limited liability) corporation is a LEGAL CONSTRUCT, and, as such, a creature of the state. It’s current ability to raise massive amounts of capital and its consequent domination of our society is not the inevitable result of the free market or an invisible hand, but rather the result of laws, put in place by states to benefit the most powerful and well-connected. Corporations are dependent upon states in a variety of ways, not the least of which is their very existence. They get their charters from states and (in the U.S. at least) even their person-hood. And lets not forget that the people who run the largest multinational corporations are usually also the people who directly or indirectly run government. This is why real libertarians should be as opposed to corporate power as they are to state power; because in the end they’re the same thing.