State capitols saw turnouts in solidarity with Wisconsin,but smaller towns marched too--AfD co-chair Bonnie Preston joined some 20 people in Blue Hill, Maine, to a lot of positive response, including that of a retired teacher from the Badger State, who parked by the marchers, rolled down her car window and sang the entire "On Wisconsin" fight song. 
The back of the large sign in the photo says "Without Dissent There Is No Democracy."
If your Rep was a sponsor of HR 676, the "Expanded and Improved Medicare for All" bill, it has been reintroduced by Rep. John Conyers. Twenty-eight members of Congress have already signed on--has your's? According to Healthcare-NOW, the bill had 85 cosponsors in the 111th Congress, and has the support of over 17,000 doctors, nurses, organized labor, and many activists across the country.
With new and incumbent reps distancing themselves from last year's health care reform package, is there a chance for headway on this bill? Conyers, in a statement, was optimistic: "To his credit, President Obama stated in his 2011 State of the Union Address that he is open to making changes to the law, so that it can be improved and strengthened. This presents a unique opportunity for supporters of improved Medicare For All to come together and work in a constructive way towards transitioning our for-profit and costly health care system to a high-quality, simple, and cost-effective improved Medicare For All program."
Conyers cited Americans' frustration with the cost of health care and health insurance, and their mistrust of private, for-profit insurers, and noted that that single payer is being seriously considered in some states, most notably Vermont and California.
You can download a .pdf of the bill here. You can download a summary from this page on the Healthcare-Now site.
Here's an interview with Ben Manski of Wisconsin WAVE, a new organization fighting austerity measures, and Kabzuag Vaj of Freedom, Inc. They talked about building a wider movement in the face of anti-labor measures in Wisconsin and elsewhere with Laura Flanders of Grit.tv. You can read more at Common Dreams, here.
Alliance for Democracy, with our allies in the Alliance for Responsible Trade and the Citizens Trade Campaign, urge you to act now to stop the biggest trade agreement since NAFTA.
Last July, more than 100 members of the House of Representatives wrote to Pres. Obama saying: “it is unthinkable to consider moving forward on another job-killing FTA.” And last September over 550 diverse organizations, including the Alliance and the Portland AfD Chapter, joined together to oppose the Korea FTA in a letter to Pres. Obama.
Learn More:
• Need background info? See this post on our blog.
• The Oregon Fair Trade Campaign has an excellent Toolkit that explains the impact of KORUS on that state and links to videos of their Teach-In.
• Watch AfD’s Portland Chapter show, "Populist Dialogues" with David Delk interviewing Arthur Stamoulis, Executive Diretor of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign
Now is the time to act!
Friday, February 25: National Call-in Day to Local Congressional District Offices
Rumors are that Pres. Obama will soon bring the South Korea Free Trade Agreement to the floor for Congressional approval.
See below for a call-in script. Emphasize that the KORUS, the South Korea Free Trade Agreement, is opposed by both organized labor and tea party people. Left or right, “we the people” know that so-called free trade agreements are disastrous for workers rights and job security at home or abroad.
KORUS will:
• increase job loss
• increase the US trade deficit
• leave both countries vulnerable to attack under NAFTA-like anti-democratic “investor rights” provisions that challenge environmental, health, land-use and zoning laws, public health, financial regulations and more.
If KORUS passes, the Colombia and Panama FTAs, already negotiated by Pres. Bush, will soon follow.
Find information for your Congressperson here and be sure to click to find his or her local (rather than DC) number.
Need a script?
“I urge you to reject any attempts to pass the KORUS Free Trade Agreement with South Korea. Free Trade Agreements are unpopular across the political spectrum and elected officials who support KORUS will certainly alienate voters, including me. Polls by the Wall Street Journal and Pew Research Center show that over 60% of both tea party sympathizers and union members oppose FTAs. KORUS would be the biggest FTA since NAFTA, and is just as bad for working families. I strongly oppose it and the Colombia and Panama FTAs that are also pending. I urge Rep. _________ to do so as well and to support instead the TRADE (Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment Act.”
Thank you for taking action! Let’s stop KORUS as the first step to ending undemocratic “free trade” agreements and building an economy that sustains communities, ecosystems and human rights.
Nancy Price and David e. Delk, Co-chairs
Read more...Yesterday, PR Watch pointed out some interesting implications from Daily Beast's Ian Murphy's prank call to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Murphy pretended to be billionaire David Koch, who has been a big Walker funder both through PAC donations and to groups supporting his campaign. Aside from the tacky factor--Walker hadn't been taking calls from the Senate minority leader but he had 20 minutes to eagerly bring a big time funder up to date on the situation--PR Watch points out some basic ethical implications from the content of the call, not to mention some overlooked provisions in the so called "budget repair bill."
For instance, did you know there's provisions in the bill "allowing the no-bid sell-off of any state-owned heating, cooling, or power plant, plus new rules on pipeline transport"? Koch interest include a pipeline system that crosses Wisconsin, a power plant company, and a company that distributes fuel through pipelines and terminals in four Wisconsin cities. Which company might be first in line for state energy infrastructure if the governor decided to raise some quick cash by privatizing them?
Walker's on-call plan to lay off state workers to strongarm Democrats into cooperation may also be in conflict with state labor and contract law. And there's a strong whiff of "pay to play" in the call, as the PR Watch article points out:
Wisconsin has the toughest ethics law in the nation... You can't even take a cup of coffee from a lobbyist.
Earlier in the call, Walker had asked the fake Koch for help "spreading the word," especially in the "swing" districts, in defense of his determination to break the unions, and help get calls in to shore up his Republican allies in the legislature. Walker benefited from a high-dollar "issue ad" campaign by groups funded by Koch group before the election. Americans for Prosperity, which Koch chairs, also promoted and funded a couple thousand counter-protestors last Saturday.
On the same day that the scandal broke here in Wisconsin, Americans for Prosperity went up with a $342,000 TV ad campaign in support of Walker –- an enormous sum in a state like Wisconsin. If such ads are effectively coordinated with the Governor's office, they may be subject to rules requiring greater disclosure of expenditures and contributors.
Toward the end of the call, the fake Koch offers to fly Walker out to California, after they "crush the bastards," and show him "a good time," to which Walker responds enthusiastically, "All right, that would be outstanding." But, Wisconsin rules bar state officials from taking action for something of value. After Walker agrees to the junket, the fake Koch adds, "And, you know, we have a little bit of a vested interest as well" to which Walker responds, "Well that's just it."
Tom Neilson is an often-satiric, always impassioned singer and songwriter, has just been nominated for Song of the Year for Social Action by Independent Musicians Awards. Tom is a long-time supporter of the Alliance and other progressive and radical groups, and he has a sharp eye for the connection between big money and bad policies. His song is "Solstice Morning," an account of the coal ash spill from mountaintop removal in Harriman, TN.
There are five nominees in the Social Action category and you can hear them all here. You can also cast a vote to determine the winner by registering on the site--just click the "login or register" link next to any of the nominated songs. It takes less than a minute. After registering, click on the "Sing Out for Social Action" link on the lefthand menu (of course, you might like to check out the nominees in other categories as well.)
This is the second year in a row that Tom has been nominated. Last year’s song was about the cancers at the nuclear weapons plant in Paducah, Kentucky. Find out more about Tom's music, recordings, tour dates, and how to book a show on his website here.
AfD members can find a rally near them (every state Capitol & many major cities, too) at MoveOn.org
Don't let the American dream die. Support the movement back to what Van Jones calls “the moral center,” where workers are treated with dignity and policies protect the middle class and the pathways to it. Join the call for the American people to gather at every state capital across the land in support of our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin--and now Ohio and Indiana--who are marching not just for their own rights but for the rights of us all.
The Alliance for Democracy joins with MoveOn, unions and other groups in a Call for Citizens to Stand United. We proclaim:
Rally NOW to support protesters in Madison and across the nation. Teachers, students, firefighters, police, laborers… they’re all standing up to big money in politics and this latest attack on the middle class, the working poor, and the unemployed. If we want a democracy, and not a corporatocracy, we must stand up with them. We can't wait for for someone else to fight for us--we must do it ourselves.
The right-wing libertarian Koch brothers and the US Chamber of Commerce financed the election of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and other GOP governors in Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey, and Florida, many of whom are launching the same attacks on labor.
The US Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v FEC opened the floodgates to unregulated, unaccounted-for special-interest funding of elections, enabling the election of bought-and-paid for politicians who answer to their funders regardless of the needs of their constituents.
Join the rallies on February 26, and then be ready to join in more locally organized rallies like the one being organized in Portland, Oregon on April 19. Portland Jobs with Justice, the Alliance for Democracy, and various labor and citizens groups are planning a rally/march in downtown Portland to ask the simple question: “Where Are the Jobs?” and to demand “Jobs with Benefits, Not Cuts!”
So stand with us now. See you at your state capital.
Nancy Price and David e. Delk, Co-chairs
Download and print these signs--they copy on 11 x 17 paper:
"Stop Union Busting"
"Tax Corporate Profits/Pay a Living Wage"
"We Won't Pay for Crony Corporate Giveaways"
"Worker's Rights, Not Corporate Profits"
"We're Not a 3rd World Country... Yet!"
The Los Angeles Times has come out in favor of Measure H, which would ban entities bidding for large city contracts from donating to those running for city office.
Kind of a no-brainer, eh? But this very basic campaign finance reform measure has its opponents, and needs voter and citizen support. If you're in the LA area, contact the California Clean Money Campaign and get involved with phonebanking and other voter education initiatives.
Here's the editorial, which came out on February 18, here.
We'll be sending out an alert tomorrow asking our members and supporters to call their representative and voice their opposition to the South Korea Free Trade Agreement, the biggest FTA since NAFTA. Here's some background on the agreement and its likely effects, from our allies at the Alliance for Responsible Trade.
KORUS is highly controversial in both South Korea and the US, and has been the source of major demonstrations in South Korea. Despite the positive spin some members of both parties are trying to put on the agreement, Americans have not been fooled.
There are a number of particularly troublesome parts of the measure. The labor community has largely rejected the agreement due to its poor standards. Environmentalists are appalled at the US efforts to lower environmental and safety standards. Oddly, one of the only reasons many Democrats had hesitated to pass the agreement was due to non-tariff barriers to trade. In this case that actually meant that South Korea had too high of standards for car and food safety, as well as miles per gallon auto standards for the US to compete. Now that the Obama administration has negotiated for South Korea to lower its car safety and emissions standards for US automobiles, the administration is ready to push the bill through. Clearly, this agreement is another example of a labor and environmental race to the bottom.
We should all be irate over clauses allowing the World Bank and UN tribunals to allow South Korean companies to sue to the US government (or US companies to sue South Korea) for lost profits, should local regulations impede their financial gains. This bill will actually create a net job loss in the US, where we are already suffering from staggering unemployment rates. The US International Trade Commission (one of free trade's biggest cheerleaders) says that the agreement will increase the trade deficit with South Korea (meaning a net loss of jobs.) Cumulatively, the Economic Policy Institute estimates that it will costs the US 159,000 jobs in the next 5 years as a net loss. Moreover, the jobs lost will mostly be in high end manufacturing and electronics, while the jobs gained will be in low paying sectors such as cattle production.
The KORUS FTA is detrimental to US and Korean workers. It forces South Korea to lower its environmental and safety standards, and exposes our tax-payers to possibly having to pay claims in United Nations or World Bank tribunals by Korean companies alleging lost profits based on our environmental or labor laws. Moreover, the U. S. International Trade Commission has predicted that KORUS will actually increase the US trade deficit. The Economic Policy Institute maintains that KORUS will make the US trade deficit with Korea twice as bad, up to $26.9 billion annually within seven years. This will result in 888,000 jobs lost as a result of Korean imports. If one figures in employment created by increased US exports and jobs lost because of the already existing deficit with South Korea, there are some 200,000 jobs that will be lost.
The Obama administration has failed to live up to its promises for true reform. Instead they have framed this detrimental agreement as a victory. The majority of us, however, do not see this agreement in that light. We are tired of failed NAFTA-style trade agreements that have cost us so many jobs, and will continue to do so in these tough economic times.
Please, do your best to donate a bit of time to do this. Many of us at ART are convinced that if we can stop the Korean FTA from being implemented, it will shut-down efforts by many to implement the Colombian and Panamanian Free Trade Agreements. Those agreements as you know will do even more damage.
Looking for good progressive programming for your local community access station? AfD's Portland chapter has put its show, "Populist Dialogues" on PEGMedia, a service available to all public access cable television stations which allows them to download and play video programs.
Let your local public access television station know that the shows are available. Programmers can watch and download the programs for broadcast. It's a great way to spread the progressive populist word, and thanks to Portland AfD, it's free.
Here is how it works: Go to PEGMedia.org. Click on "Quick List of All Shows" and select "Alliance for Democracy - Populist Dialogues." If you scroll down, you will see a list of the shows available at this time--bookmark the site and check back because there will be more shows posted next week.
Click on one of the shows and you will get a bit more detail on the show content. If you have registered with PEGMedia (anyone can register for free), you can log-in and then watch the first 10 minutes of any episode. Enjoy, be inspired, and pass the show onto your local community access cable station. Thanks for spreading the word about progressive populist alternatives to corporate rule!
From Move to Amend: "On April 5 residents of Madison and Dane County, WI will have the opportunity to pass a resolution to amend the U.S. Constitution to abolish Corporate Personhood. The campaign is organized by South Central Wisconsin Move to Amend. Last fall the group collected over 15,000 signatures to get the resolution placed on their city and county ballots."
You can read the whole Move to Amend alert on Wisconsin here.
Protests continue today in Madison, with thousands of teachers and students, firefighers and police officers, nurses, clerks and, yes, taxpayers, out in the streets and inside the Capitol to oppose the proposed axeing of Wisconsin state employee's collective bargaining rights. Nationally, solidarity demos are planned across the country. (PR Watch has been liveblogging here--this is a great "one stop site" for keeping an eye on events.)
It didn't take long for connections to be made between Wisconsin's budget shortfalls and giveaways and tax breaks to big business, and for people to organize to spotlight and fight these deals.
The Wisconsin Wave is a new group determined to expose and end the kind of government collusion with corporations that's kept profits privatized, losses socialized, and a recession which was technically over in 2009 "live and kickin'" for the vast majority of Americans.
You can hear a press conference with Wisconsin Wave founders Ben Manski, Joe Conway, President of Fire Fighters Local 311 in Madison, Kevin Gibbon, co-president of the Teaching Assistants Association at UW Madison, and others here, thanks to Wisconsin Radio Network, and read about the conference here and here. The group plans to picket Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, a state group that lobbies for corporate interests, tomorrow.
Also of interest: this excerpt from Les Leopold's 2009 book The Looting of America," focusing on how the town of Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, joined with four other districts in a multi-million dollar investment plan with the goal of beefing up a school-employee benefits trust fund--long story short, they were pitched what looked like golden eggs but turned out to be a pile of goose poop, and lost bigtime. While it's possible to fault the school boards on due diligence, it's important to note that no one's yet voted millions in taxpayer money to bail out Whitefish Bay.
Lastly, sometimes solidarity comes with extra cheese: From PRWatch, last night: "Mary Bottari reports that Ian's Pizza, located a few blocks away from the capitol, delivered another 50 pizzas to the WI capitol building. Ian's has received calls from all 50 states and 12 countries from people wanting to support the students and workers. Employees Marty and Lexy have delivered over 1,000 pizzas in recent days. In a five minute perfectly executed operation, they drop off, pick up the empties, and zoom out the door. A cart helps them make it through the slippery streets back to their truck."
by Annie Leonard and Allison Cook. Posted Feb 21 at Yes! Magazine
Watch the trailer for "The Story of Corporate Personhood," coming out March 1.
We never expected to be writing an article with this title. Aren’t united citizens a good thing? Civil Rights movement? Egypt? Madison?
Yes, but that’s not the kind of people power we’re talking about here. What we want to fight is the disastrous 2010 Supreme Court Citizens United v Federal Election Commission (FEC) decision Ironically, “Citizens United” is the name of a conservative advocacy group which receives corporate funding and works to promote increased rights for corporations. The Citizens United v. FEC case originally dealt with the question of whether or not airing Citizens United’s documentary about Hillary Clinton was an advocacy ad, and therefore subject to existing restrictions on election ads under the McCain-Feingold law.
Whether your passion is protecting the environment or creating green jobs or improving public education—or really any other issue on which corporate interests are blocking real solutions—this is your campaign too.
But in a brazen act of judicial activism, the court decided to consider the much broader issue of corporate spending to influence elections, which wasn’t even presented in the original case. In a decision that stunned democracy advocates and trampled a number of campaign finance laws, a slim five-Justice majority ruled that corporations—including for-profit corporations—do indeed have a right to spend as much money as they want to elect or defeat candidates in our elections.
This decision effectively grants corporations the same First Amendment Free Speech protections granted to real live people.
The catch is that corporations obviously are not people. Someone get the Supreme Court a biology textbook! There are some really big, and really significant, differences. For starters, people are part of the biological system; we need clear air and water, a healthy environment, a stable climate to thrive. Corporations are legal entities, created by people, and have no such biological needs and thus no inherent reason to safeguard the environment.
People make decisions based on a constant balancing of many interests, including love for our families and communities, compassion, kindness, desire for a better world, as well as economic and material interests. Corporations don’t have families and communities, nor hearts with which to love them. As Justice Stevens said in his dissenting opinion, “corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts and no desires.” Instead, corporations—by both law and the demands of the market—are under enormous pressure to focus on one thing: maximizing profit.
Their single minded focus, plus their enormous scale, means it’s dangerous to invite them into our democracy. If corporations spend even a tiny percentage of their profits on influencing election outcomes, they can dwarf the contributions from real people, skewing election results to favor corporate interests, which aren’t always the same as the interests of workers, families, and the environment.
At the Story of Stuff Project, we have partnered with organizations working for solutions to issues as diverse as climate change, toxics in consumer products, and the wastefulness of bottled water. In every case, when we ask these experienced organizers what the biggest obstacles to progress are, the answer is the same: corporate influence in the political process.
The Citizens United v. FEC decision makes this problem even worse. Reversing it is a critical step to reclaiming our democracy by the people and for the people. Yes, we know that reversing this case won’t immediately prevent the myriad other ways that corporations exert influence in our democracy, but it is a really, really important place to start. Reversing a Supreme Court decision requires a new Constitutional Amendment so we’re joining with a number of organizations launching a national campaign to obtain one. It’s not going to be quick or easy, but working for big changes requires big efforts. And while we’re working on it, we can be building a broad-based national movement to get corporations completely out of our democracy—and get the people back in.
This is a really important fight. Until we wrestle control back from the corporations, we can’t leverage our amazing democracy for real progress on any of the issues we care about. So, whether your passion is protecting the environment or creating green jobs or improving public education—or really any other issue on which corporate interests are blocking real solutions—this is your campaign too. Here are five ways to plug in and get started.
Five Ways to Fight Citizens United:
1. Watch The Story of Stuff Project’s latest film, The Story of Citizens United v. FEC: Why Democracy Only Works when People are in Charge at www.storyofcitizensunited.org. Then share it widely! Post it on Facebook, tweet about it, blog about it, organize a showing in your school or church, put a link on your website. Help turn the volume up on this much needed conversation!
2. Party for the Cause. Hold a house party to screen the The Story of Citizens United v. FEC and invite others to join the campaign. Invite friends, neighbors, family members over to your place for an evening of democracy in action! You can download our House Party Guide, which has house party tips and action ideas, here.
3. Sign on. Sign Public Citizen’s petition calling for a Constitutional Amendment clarifying that free speech is for people, not corporations. We need a lot of signatures to launch this ambitious campaign. Please download the petition here, make copies and carry them around with you collecting signatures—and thus telling others about the campaign—everywhere you go. If you want to sign electronically, please do so here.
4. Get National. If corporations spend even a tiny percentage of their profits on influencing election outcomes, they can dwarf contributions from real people, skewing election results to favor corporate interests, which aren’t always the same as the interests of workers, families, and the environment.
Join a national organization working on taking back our democracy. This way your local efforts can be magnified and it’ll be a lot easier to track this issue and identify opportunities to get involved locally and nationally. Check out Public Citizen, Free Speech for People, People for the American Way and Move to Amend.
(blog editor's note: Alliance for Democracy is a member of the Move to Amend coalition, which supports an amendment barring corporate access to all constitutional personhood rights, not just those under the First Amendment--if you'd like to support a wide ban check out the site--organizing resources, including a petition, are here.)
5. Democracy: Use it or Lose it. One reason corporations have been able to hijack our democracy is that many of us haven’t engaged much in it ourselves lately. If we want policy makers who prioritize public good, healthy jobs, and a sustainable environment, we need to get involved, hold them accountable, and engage as active citizens every day—not just on voting day. Join a local organization working on an issue you care about, host a community event to share information, write letters to your congresspeople and local newspapers to share your opinion. There are an infinite number of ways to get involved and once enough of us do, we can take back our government so that it really is by the people, for the people. Then, we can get to work solving today’s pressing problems with a government working for us, instead of big business.
Annie Leonard and Allison Cook wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Annie is the author and host of The Story of Stuff and the director of the Story of Stuff Project; Allison is special project coordinator for the Story of Stuff Project.
It's hard not to be cynical about the alleged conflicts of interest surrounding Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, based on their relationships with conservative groups and, in Thomas's case, his wife's lobbying activities. What do you expect? Corporations buy politicians; "bought" politicians appoint and approve federal judges. If the corporate elite has "the best government their money can buy," the judiciary is certainly well represented in the toybox.
Nevertheless, it's good to see that this story is sticking, and even moving into the mainstream media and influencing some legislative action. Some members of Congress, for instance, are asking Thomas to recuse himself from any SCOTUS consideration of health care reform, based on his wife's lobbying activities ($700,000 of which went unreported on disclosure forms). You can read a letter to Thomas from Reps. Anthony Weiner, Pete Stark, Frank Pallone Jr. and Christopher Murphy here; some seventy other representatives have also supported the effort.
Meanwhile two groups in particular have questioned Thomas's ties to Citizens United and to an ultraconservative retreat hosted by the Koch brothers.
ProtectOurElections.org filed a bar complaint today alleging Thomas's bias and actual conflict of interest for his failure to disqualify himself from the Citizens United case after Citizens United Foundation supported his nomination and spent at least $100,000 on commercials attacking some senators opposed to it. This is the second bar complaint the group has filed. Video here.
Meanwhile Common Cause has asked for clarification on Thomas's 2008 speaking engagement at a conservative retreat organized by the Koch brothers, and has petitioned the Justice Department to investigate. The New York Times reports that Justice Thomas "reimbursed him an undisclosed amount for four days of 'transportation, meals and accommodations' over the weekend of the retreat," although he earlier described it as a "brief drop-by." Rachel Maddow has also picked up the story, talking to Common Cause president Bob Edgar.
Ohioans--tell your state senator to protect Ohio job creation from corporatization by voting no on JobsOhio bill
Governor John Kasich has proposed to create a private corporation, JobsOhio, which would take over the job creation programs from the state's Department of Development. Kasich claims that the state's jobs are under "siege" and that we need an agency that moves at "business speed" to negotiate deals and bring more employers to the state.
But JobsOhio is unconstitutional and will undermine citizens ability to keep tabs on tax incentive deals. We're asking you to contact your state senator and tell him or her to vote this measure down.
The Ohio constitution prohibits the state from investing in corporations. It says Ohio can't be a "joint owner, or stockholder, in any company...formed for any purpose whatever." JobsOhio would be funded by public tax dollars, but operate as a semi-private nonprofit corporation.
Why? The reason for the restriction dates from 1837 and the Ohio Loan Law, otherwise known as the "Plunder Law." The law allowed the state to loan funds to help railroads, canals and turnpike companies construct and maintain infrastructure, and led to strong economic development. But allowing the legislature to manage state investments in private corporations led to favoritism, a huge public debt, tax hikes, and the belief that the government had been "plundered" by corporations. You can read more about the Plunder Law by clicking on the Read More link below.
Plus, the nine-member private board of JobsOhio would be able to extend tax credits to businesses that say they'll expand to the state, but as a private organization, it would be exempt from many current public record, disclosure and auditing laws. A private board shouldn't be making tax deals without public scrutiny.
Contact your State Senator. Ask him/her to oppose corporatizing the job-creation duties of the state through creating the unconstitutional Jobs Ohio. To find the number of your state senator, go to www.ohiosenate.gov.
The Ohio House has already passed the measure and the Senate could vote on it as early as this week. A final hearing on the JobsOhio bill is scheduled for tomorrow at the Statehouse in Columbus. Please call today!
Early Corporate Usurpations
Since the original state constitution placed nearly total power in the hands of the legislative branch, it was no surprise that those who sought to gain special privileges, including corporate owners and managers, would try to corrupt legislators and pervert legislation. Perhaps if democracy in Ohio had been more widespread from the start, the state legislature would not have been so easily corrupted.
An early example of corporate usurpation was perversion of the 1837 Ohio Loan Law. The law provided funds to railroads, canals, and turnpike companies for construction and maintenance - loans to railroads and funds for the purchase of stock in canal and turnpike companies.
The law greatly benefited Ohio's development and permitted the state to have a different yet significant role in that development. Corporate influence on legislators, however, resulted in a few years in tremendous favoritism to certain companies (i.e. one railroad over another) and industries (i.e. railroads over canals). This combination resulted in a $20 million state debt, increased taxes and popular belief that government had been plundered (thus the nickname the'"Plunder
Law") by corporate interests.
Corporate influence of the legislature was evident in the number of pieces of legislation benefiting one or more corporations (called "special" legislation). In 1833 the legislature enacted only 30 pieces of general legislation but 250 pieces of special legislation. In 1849, the legislature enacted 75 plank road, 67 railroad, and 78 turnpike bills. In 1851, as the Constitutional Convention finished its work, 817 pieces of special legislation were enacted, including 40 to benefit insurance companies, 66 for plank roads, 74 for turnpikes, and 89 for railroads.
In 1842, two events transpired which altered the corporate form in Ohio. First, the Plunder Law was repealed. Some have noted that corporations didn't want state control through stock ownership and that propagandizing the Loan act as plunder represented the start of a laissez faire movement in the relationship between the state and business corporations.
Second, a general law was passed which created a set of general rules governing corporate activity. These rules removed the requirement that corporate charters had to be granted through the passage of a specific statute. More importantly the rules stated that direct managers and stockholders were not immune from personal liability for the corporation's wrongdoing so long as the aggrieved party sued the corporation first. If the suit was successful, the corporate directors, managers, and stockholder could be held personally responsible.
The 1842 act changed corporate law in two major ways. First, it set forth specific laws to govern corporations where none had existed. Second, the act made corporate officials subordinate to the people. No longer could evil deeds be shrouded in the guise of corporate action. So long as the injured parties followed the proper procedure, wrongdoers could be found personally liable. Significant public pressure must have forced passage of such a law.
Unfortunately, this provision of the 1842 act was short-lived. Enraged by the loss of their liability shield, corporate officials and their agents forced through a measure which repealed the provision in 1845.
1851 Constitution
The Constitution of 1802 proved to be an ineffective instrument because "the legislature swallowed up all the rest of the government" and "corporate power and the money power...joined hands." Nearly forty years of corruption and laws such as the Plunder Act proved too much for Ohioans. Public alarm over massive state debt,
particularly indebtedness for canal construction and unsound investments in railroad stock and other private ventures, led to public action. A ballot proposal to hold a constitutional convention was approved statewide by 73%. As the Cleveland Plain Dealer put it, the convention provided an opportunity to pluck "the root of all political sin" from Ohio's soil. In the words of one commentator, "the major motivating force [for the convention] was an anti-corporation sentiment."
H.D. Clark, delegate to the Convention stated the problem in these terms:
The experiment has been tried in that body and almost every effort to engraft private responsibility on corporations has failed. The State is now strewed with the rotten, putrid carcasses of defunct corporations, and the effluvia is a stench in the nostrils of an outraged, swindled, community. The people of the county I represent have been scourged too much by corporations, to be willing to trust the Legislature.
Although the convention addressed issues such as race and judicial reform, concern over legislatively-sponsored corporate greed dominated the debate.
The 1851 Constitution addressed the problem of "special laws" benefiting corporations by agreeing that "the General Assembly shall pass no special act conferring corporate powers. Corporations may be formed under general laws; but all such laws may, from time to time be altered or repealed." At that time this was seen as an attempt to increase citizen power. No longer could the state legislature pass specific acts incorporating specific corporations with specific provisions. In the following year, only 24 pieces of special legislation were passed. The same overall rules would now apply to all classes of corporations.
The portions of the 1851 Constitution with the greatest impact upon corporations are contained in Article VIII and Article XIII. Section 4 of Article VIII deals primarily with prohibiting the state from colluding with corporations, while Section 6 places similar limits on local governments. Essentially, these sections prohibit the gift or loan of state credit "to, or in aid of, any individual, association or corporation whatever" and forbids the state to ever "become a joint owner, or stockholder, in any company or association in this state or elsewhere, formed for any purpose whatever."
Article XIII consists of seven sections placing general limits on the exercise of corporate power. Most significant are Sections 2 and 3 which reinforce the notion that corporate powers and identity exist only to the extent provided for by law; Section 4 states that "[t]he property of corporations...shall forever be subject to taxation, the same as the property of individuals," and Section 7 precludes the state from "authorizing associations with banking powers" unless such a measure is passed by the people in a general election.
The new Constitution that emerged from the convention was adopted in 1852. With the addition of several amendments, the same document still guides Ohio's government today.
From the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee page on "Corporations vs Democracy" www.afsc.net/ejcorpdem.html, "Create Real Democracy" blog
AfD Defending Water for Life campaign coordinator Ruth Caplan was quoted in this story on Poland Spring bottled water in the business section of Sunday's Portland (ME) Press Herald. The story, by J. Hemmerdinger, is mostly a positive look at the Nestlé subsidiary, but he does mention community resistance to expansion of drilling and pumping for groundwater, and there are a lot of good facts about the size of the industry, the amount of water shipped out yearly, and the profits it generates. The takeaway for the rest of us? BYOH20B.
Read more...
Yes Magazine asks, "Can local laws have a real effect on the power of giant corporations?" Probably not yet, but such laws can inspire communities to pass similar ordinances, and, as this article shows, to support each other when higher-ups side with big business.The Boston/Cambridge and North Bridge chapters are co-sponsoring the following events on militarism, climate, and human rights:
Friday, 2/11: "No War, No Warming!"
Barry Sanders, author of The Green Zone: The Environmental Costs of Militarism, examines the environmental impact of US military practices and declares military activity, from fuel emissions to radioactive waste to defoliation campaigns, as the single greatest contributor to the worldwide environmental crisis. Dr. Maggie Zhou, Biologist, member of Massachusetts Coalition of Healthy Communities and Climate SOS, will discuss the climate justice perspective, international climate conferences in Cancun/Copenhagen/Cochabamba, and the race to militarism vs. peace.
The talk takes place Friday, February 11 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Boston University's Photonics Building, 8 St. Mary's Street. Download a flier here. Map & directions here. Suggested donation, $5.
Co-Sponsors: Boston UNAC, United for Justice with Peace, Alliance for Democracy - Boston/Cambridge & North Bridge chapters, Peace & Justice Task Force of Watertown Citizens for Environmental Safety, Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities, Massachusetts Global Action, Boston University Antiwar Coalition
Say 'No' to the Anti-immigrant "Secure Communities" Program! A Call for United Action
On Saturday, February 12th from 1 to 3 p.m., people from across Massachusetts will come together at the State House to fight against the State's intention to join the anti-immigrant and racist “Secure Communities” program.
Under the guise of public safety, “S-Comm” endangers the civil rights and security of all and is particularly an attack on immigrants and people of color. The federal program mandates local law enforcement to cross check the fingerprints of those arrested against the Homeland Security's database in search of immigration status. While supposedly targeting violent offenders, the vast majority of those detained and deported are considered “non-criminals”. This would include those who have been unlawfully arrested, those arrested for minor offenses like traffic violations and those who ultimately have their charges dropped.
In Suffolk County, the only jurisdiction in the state currently enrolled, 68% of those detained and deported have been “non-criminals”, the sixth highest percentage in the country.
The "S-Comm" program is part of an overall effort to target immigrants and maintain a permanent second-class status for millions of workers.
Initiated by the Boston May Day Committee (BMDC - participants: Mass. Global Action, July 26 Coalition, Tecschange, Latinos for Social Change, Socialist Alternative, Socialist Party USA, Socialist Workers Party, ANSWER Coalition)
Endorsers (as of 2/4/11): Boston/Cambridge and North Bridge Alliance for Democracy, Circulo Bolivariano Marthin Luther King, Community Church of Boston, Dominican Development Center, Harvard No Layoffs Campaign, Industrial Workers of the World, International Action Center, National Lawyers Guild - Boston, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Project Voice AFSC, Proyecto Hondureno, Stop the Wars Coalition, Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM)
For more information, contact the Boston May Day Committee or call 617-290-5614. Sign the on-line petitions demanding that the U.S. sign the UN Convention on Migrant Workers Rights at the Boston May Day Committee website.
Some Buffalo NY Common Council members are looking into a ban on dumping or treating fracking waste inside the city. Good comment on this short piece relating environmental protection to corporate v. community rights.
Ronnie Cummins follows up an earlier piece with a look at "Monsanto's Minions," pointing out how Citizens United allows corporations with big profits at stake and little public credibility to shovel cash into the campaign of anyone running against a pro-GMO labeling legislator. It's good to see that he's adding "abolishing corporate personhood" to the to-do list of what must be done to protect the integrity of food and the future of real organic agriculture.
New Haven, CT, is considering giving up bottled water to save $32,000 a year.
Meanwhile Corporate Accountability International will present a petition to House Speaker John Boehner tomorrow calling for the House to stop buying bottled water, a habit which cost taxpayers an amazing $190,000 just for the first quarter of 2010 (from the photo, it appears that an appearance before a Congressional hearing comes with a small complementary bottle of Deer Park, which if it's not labeled "spring water" could be filtered tap water. No idea where they source the ice cubes.)
Video of citizens' statements at the Ft. Bragg (CA) City Council. The council is considering a resolution favoring a constitutional amendment to eliminate corporate personhood--you can read the text of the resolution here.
Thanks to Jim Tarbell and Mendocino County community access cable tv for editing and footage.
AfD'ers in Maine have been supporting town-level passage of the Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance of 2011, and a public meeting on the ordinance is planned for Thursday, February 3 in Brooksville. The ordinance will be presented at town meetings there and in Sedgwick, Penobscot, and Blue Hill this spring. We'll be posting links to local coverage, and will have a copy of the ordinance online soon.
The ordinance is designed to safeguard the "farm to table" relationships between producers and buyers that have been a part of Maine food traditions for generations, but have come increasingly under attack by a regulatory system geared toward often dangerously haphazard oversight of industrial agriculture and processors.
The right to local self-governance in the ordinance builds on the local ordinances previously passed by six towns in New Hampshire and Maine to protect their groundwater and their local ecosystems.
The Portland Alliance for Democracy chapter held a community forum on Tuesday, January 25th titled "Standing Up to Citizen United." AfD-Portland was joined by co-sponsors Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the Oregon Working Families Party, the Oregon Progressive Party and the Oregon Independent Party in developing the panel discussion and follow up Q & A period. The panel consisted of Barbara Dudley, former head of the National Lawyers Guild, Dan Meek, citizen activist attorney who wrote two ballot measures to limit campaign contributions and limitations, and Jon Bartholomew, Policy Advocate with OSPIRG. The crowd was actively involved in the discussion which followed and many signed up for the AfD sponsored Move to Amend group which has formed in Portland.
Read more...Kudos to the folks who took to the podium at the recent Ft. Bragg city council meeting to speak in favor of a resolution asking legislators to call for an Amendment to the US Constitution to abolish corporate personhood. Quotes from the testimony are below.
Tom Wodetzki: "For decades millions of citizens have worked to reduce corporate money in elections, thru legislation and ballot propositions. This route, tho, has repeatedly met a dead-end. That dead-end is called Corporate Personhood...the concept that corporations have the same rights as natural persons, like you and me. This means that, while corporations are fictitious entities charted by state governments, that can live many lifetimes and never go to prison, nevertheless they have 'free speech' rights like natural persons. And one year ago this month, the US Supreme Court decided, in the infamous “Citizens United” case, that these rights include nearly unlimited spending in our elections.
"While 93% of those polled last year want to limit corporate spending in elections, efforts to do this was blocked once again by this judicial concept called Corporate Personhood."
Rebecca Aum: "CropLife America, composed of all the major biotech corporations, and Monsanto, Dow chemical Dupont, and more, spent more than $620,000 in Mendocino county to defeat measure H, the measure outlawing GMOs. Only $5000 of that came from this county."
Susan Nutter: "Unbeknownst to local government and residents, toxins have been discarded and buried by corporations in the area, polluting the soil and endangering human health. Using their 4th Amendment protections against search and seizure, corporations are able to hide their pollution until long after they have left the area. Industry's successful efforts to release harmful chemicals can be attributed to corporate involvement in writing legislation and setting regulations. Without corporate personhood, local governments and state agencies could more easily discover and prevent such activity."
Peter Sears: "In a county that passed the first ban on growing genetically modified foods, people would like to know if the food they are buying contains genetically modified foods. But the corporate food industry has claimed that their free speech rights gives them the right to not tell us if they have put GMO foods in their products.
"How about if there is another unhealthy product that a community becomes concerned about, like certain pesticides or herbicides used in corporate agriculture and hence embedded in the food we eat. Shouldn't there be labeling on the package telling us that these chemicals were used to produce a product? Once again, corporations claim that they do not have to tell us this information...How can local governments protect the well being of their constituents if they cannot pass the necessary ordinances to provide the necessary protection?"
Linda Jupiter: "The Personhood of corporations has been going on for such a long time that we the people think it’s normal. It’s not. Corporations are entities with more rights than people; their purpose is to accrue huge amounts of money for their stockholders by any means they can.
"The recent Supreme Court decision to allow unlimited corporate spending on federal elections means they’re now free to actually buy elections. This decision must be overturned. We the people govern our elections and our campaigns, not corporations."
Here's the resolution that AfD members from the Mendocino County (CA) chapter submitted to the Fort Bragg City Council on January 24.
WHEREAS, the 1885 US Supreme Court erroneously gave corporations the rights of persons under the 14th Amendment, and;
As true now as ever!
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