ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the dynamism of Multination Corporations (MNC) in the global economy of the twentieth century and some of their relationships with concentration processes, finance, labour and technology transfer in the capitalist world. MNCs are thus the spearhead of the capitalist system and become identified equally in the eyes of critics and adversaries with the very spectre of capitalism itself. MNCs are either a spearhead or a spectre; but rather to what extent, in which ways, for what purposes, why and where are they spearheads or spectres. The establishment by the United Nations in the mid-1970s of both a Centre and a Commission on Transnational Corporations has probably stimulated the more popular interchangeable use of the terms ‘multinational’ and ‘transnational’. Although size is an important criterion for distinguishing multinationals from other enterprises, one should differentiate between absolute and relative size.
