Rebecca MacKinnon Quotes

Let's face it: we live at a time when government is less and less powerful, less and less effective, and the agent of social change, at least for the immediate future, is the corporation.

If power lies more and more in the hands of corporations rather than governments, the most effective way to be political is not to cast one's vote at the ballot box, but to do so at the supermarket or at a shareholders' meeting. When provoked, corporations respond.

Corporations always are controlling things, and we have the ability every day to do something about that. Every day.

When do corporations begin to lose their credibility? They fought Social Security, Medicare, auto safety. They fought every social justice movement in this country.

My own feeling is that a corporation has no right to have a political or social influence.

There's enormous progressive activism and, more often than not, success at the grassroots level - everything from living wage campaigns to efforts to finance our elections are having terrific success.

Yet what you need is not marches, demonstrations, rallies or wide associations, all of them are important. What you need is direct action. The sooner people understand that, the sooner we'll begin to change things.

The corporate world has the resources to improve the world. It's where people live and work.

People are worried about the degree to which corporate interest is starting to threaten human interest.

I didn't set out with the notion of running for elective office; it sort of grew over time. And I honestly at times questioned if progressive change can be effected through elected office.

I'm a cynic about corporate democracy and boards.

Politics colours everything, and anyone who wants change is necessarily political. As an environmental campaigner more or less since I left school in the early '90s, I have always been involved in lobbying, campaigning and pushing for changes.

I like that Ben & Jerry's is willing to speak out about social and political issues that aren't always safe - but are the right thing to do.

Activism has been very productive in our society.

When I turned 18, was the first time that I really started concentrating on politics. And I started doing so because I realized that in order to really create and generate change, it has to come from changing laws... so I started campaigning for Norman Lear's foundation, which was Declare Yourself.

It came home to me indelibly that I was never going to change anything in America by walking around carrying a sign. It was a great revelation. It saved me a lot of anxiety and a lot of wasted energy.

Activism could be defined as activities engaged in by individuals to change there of others situation.

The 'Occupy' movement seems to have found a central theme to its 2012 movement around overturning 'the corporation as a person,' and some legislators are supporting that concept.

I think this Occupy Wall Street thing is great. I think that is a good thing and that people need to stand up, voice their opinions, and be heard.

The truth is, the 'Fortune' 500 prefer lobbying to campaigning.

The question remains: which brands will commit to creating a private sector pillar of social change, and which will become casualties of their own outdated thinking?

Mitt Romney is the guy who said corporations are people. No, Governor Romney, corporations are not people.

Big corporations have money and power to make sure every rule breaks their way; people have voices and votes to push back.

We live in a nation where corporations are people.

Activists set the agenda for the practitioners.