The Minnesota strikes of January 23 and 30 are a turning point in our return to a society of laws. Religious and labor leaders, together with the many thousands of people who have marched in below-zero temperatures, are doing something pivotal: more than protesting abuses by ICE agents, they are denouncing the inaction of large corporations as complicity.
At the Minneapolis airport, a Delta Airlines hub, nearly 100 clergy were arrested on January 23 while demonstrating against the silence of airlines over ICE deportations. Hundreds of Target employees told their CEO that “in the face of this tyranny, continued silence from our leaders will never make us safer,” and “Target’s continued inaction… puts us all at risk of more harm and represents a moral failure to protect those in our community.” Since then, protesters have staged sit-ins at Target stores in the Twin Cities and around the state.
This pressure on corporations, if sustained, could turn the tide against the violence and lawlessness the United States is increasingly immersed in. Until now, some large companies have raced to trade gifts for benefits. Most of the known corporate donors to the White House ballroom project have recent government contracts or have had federal enforcement actions against them suspended.
Many companies have sought to avoid being targeted by Trump, while others have sought individual benefits — for instance, reprieves from tariffs or access to federal contracts — at the expense of a system of laws and policies that govern all equally. In doing so, corporations are helping foster the environment of capricious actions and unaccountability that empowers federal actions like the ICE occupation of the Twin Cities.
What happens when corporations stop seeking profitable favors and instead stand up for the rule of law? The history of Latin America tells us their choice is a critical part of democratic transitions.
From the 1960s to the 1980s, much of Latin America was ruled through military or strongman dictatorships. With the exception of the Carter years, those dictatorships were supported by every president from Eisenhower to Reagan. The political violence and economic upheaval they unleashed drove many to migrate to the United States.
When opponents of dictatorships in Brazil and Chile pursued democratic transitions, they succeeded in part through the support of business leaders. Brazil was ruled by a succession of generals from 1964 to 1985. Chile was ruled by a military junta with Augusto Pinochet as its frontman from 1973 to 1990.
Business leaders and multinational corporations embraced these military regimes because they promised pro-market reforms and accelerated economic growth. But what the regimes delivered were the gross violation of human rights and ruinous economic policies.
In Chile, U.S.-trained economists known as the “Chicago Boys” remade the economy into a capitalist showcase. Their “shock treatment” produced widespread misery and unemployment, leaving half of Chile’s children malnourished. These reforms also made fortunes for those close to the government through the privatization of public services including health and education as well as social security.
When the free-market experiment brought Chile’s entire banking system to collapse in 1982, corporations learned that it was hard to do business in an experiment. A critical mass joined a pro-democracy coalition that included Church-supported communities of survivors of the regime’s violence. This coalition won a 1988 referendum captured in the film No.
In Brazil, companies including Ford and General Motors financed and aided government squads that were responsible for some of the regime’s most notorious political violence, including torture and disappearances. Following findings by Brazil’s National Truth Commission, Volkswagen commissioned a study documenting its collaboration with Brazil’s secret police against its own employees.
In the wake of metalworker’s strikes of 1978-80, the study affirmed, Volkswagen evolved into a “national vanguard of corporate democracy.” The strikes that changed Volkswagen’s approach helped forge a political alliance between unions, Church groups, social movements, and business that pursued Brazil’s democratic transition.
Those strikes also brought the political rise of Brazil’s president, Lula da Silva, whose current term began amid an attempt by his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, and his supporters, to overturn the results of the 2022 election. The January 8, 2023 storming of Brazil’s congress, supreme court, and presidential palace was styled by Bolsonaro’s supporters after the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Bolsonaro is now serving a 27-year prison sentence.
Business leaders and multinational corporations in Latin America gradually learned that their support for theses regimes brought fleeting benefits and lasting tolls. They were far better off in a society where people, companies, and their government alike, were all subjects of law.
In Chile and Brazil, a return to the rule of law took decades and is ongoing. We can hope that the effort begun by Minnesotans will bring a faster transition in the United States. For that to happen, others around the country will need to pressure their corporate leaders as well. And business leaders will have to stand up for a culture and practice of lawfulness.