"We can no longer allow multinationals to parade as agents of progress and democracy in the newspapers, even as they subvert it at the workplace"
About this Quote
Sweeney’s line is built like a courtroom objection: stop letting corporations cosplay as democrats in public while behaving like autocrats in private. The verb “parade” does the heavy lifting. It doesn’t just accuse multinationals of hypocrisy; it frames their public image as a staged procession, polished for “the newspapers” where legitimacy is manufactured and dissent can be edited out. “Agents of progress and democracy” is corporate PR’s favorite costume - innovation, jobs, freedom - and Sweeney names it as performance rather than fact.
Then he snaps the camera to the workplace, where democracy is supposed to have its most tangible meaning: voice, representation, the ability to bargain without retaliation. “Subvert” is a sharp escalation. It implies an inside job, not an open disagreement: democracy isn’t merely neglected at work; it’s actively undermined through union-busting, wage suppression, surveillance, offshoring threats, and the quiet rewriting of labor norms under global supply chains. In that sense, the quote is less moral complaint than strategy memo: control the narrative, because the narrative is part of the power.
The context matters. As a major labor leader (not a businessman), Sweeney spoke in an era when multinationals were increasingly borderless, while workers remained locally vulnerable. His target isn’t only corporate behavior but the permission structure around it - media prestige, political deference, and a cultural reflex to treat “global” as synonymous with “good.” The intent is to puncture that reflex and force a harder question: if democracy ends at the office door, how democratic is the society outside it?
Then he snaps the camera to the workplace, where democracy is supposed to have its most tangible meaning: voice, representation, the ability to bargain without retaliation. “Subvert” is a sharp escalation. It implies an inside job, not an open disagreement: democracy isn’t merely neglected at work; it’s actively undermined through union-busting, wage suppression, surveillance, offshoring threats, and the quiet rewriting of labor norms under global supply chains. In that sense, the quote is less moral complaint than strategy memo: control the narrative, because the narrative is part of the power.
The context matters. As a major labor leader (not a businessman), Sweeney spoke in an era when multinationals were increasingly borderless, while workers remained locally vulnerable. His target isn’t only corporate behavior but the permission structure around it - media prestige, political deference, and a cultural reflex to treat “global” as synonymous with “good.” The intent is to puncture that reflex and force a harder question: if democracy ends at the office door, how democratic is the society outside it?
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
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