2009 end-of-year report

Here's the wrap-up on major chapter and national campaign activities for 2009--if you're not an AfD member, why not join now? A stronger democracy in 2010 should be on everyone's list of resolutions!

Contribute on-line here. If you'd like to join but can't afford to make a donation right now, please email the Alliance for Democracy at afd@thealliancefordemocracy.org.

2009 AfD Activity Report

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Corporate personhood strategy session in Concord, Massachusetts

This Sunday, join Boston-area AfD members, local activists, and citizens concerned about corporate rule at the Alliance for Democracy's southern New England member meeting. Not a member? Come anyway!

Seating is limited, since the venue is a member's home in Concord--please email afd@thealliancefordemocracy.org for location and directions and to RSVP, or if you need a ride from the train station!

We'll be meeting from 4-7 p.m on Sunday, November 8 with:

• Ruth Caplan, Director, Alliance for Democracy’s Defending Water for Life project--How have small towns organized to take away corporate personhood rights?
• Jeffrey Clements--the Concord lawyer who authored an amicus curiae brief in “Citizens United v. FEC”—the “Hillary, the Movie” case. The case will be decided by the US Supreme Court and could overturn decades of hard-fought victories against corporate influence peddling in elections.

If you'd like to stay for a potluck dinner! Please consider bringing an entrée, vegetable or salad, or dessert to share (local ingredients if you can!). If not, Jeffrey and Ruth will be speaking from 4 to 5:30 or so, with questions.

Get involved! Come find out what the national organization has been doing, what local chapters and members are working on, and how you can participate in creating a healthy democracy—locally and nationally. Join old friends and new for good food, good conversation and good news about grassroots alternatives to corporate rule.

RSVP to afd@thealliancefordemocracy.org.

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This weekend in Portland, Oregon!

Portland's Alliance for Democracy hosts two events for their regional member convention: Here's the info from coordinator David Delk; or see the chapter website.

One day: Saturday, November 7th
Two events: (1) Alliance for Democracy Regional Conference and (2) screening of the new video TAPPED.
Who is invited: You are. Everyone who has a concern about democracy, economic and social justice, political process, the economic crisis and how we move forward.

Alliance for Democracy teams up with the Economic Justice Action Group of the 1st Unitarian Church to sponsor the AfD Regional Conference on Democracy. They are both joined by the Community for Earth of the 1st Unitarian Church in sponsoring the video TAPPED.

Here are the details:

(1) Alliance for Democracy Regional Conference on Democracy

Democracy demands an informed citizenry

Join the Alliance for Democracy for their Regional Conference as we interact with Portland activists like:

• Barbara Dudley - PSU political science professor, former head of the National Lawyers Guild, and Greenpeace USE
• Margaret Butler - Exec Director of Jobs with Justice
• Arthur Stamoulis - Oregon Fair Trade Campaign Exec Director

(Barbara, Margaret and Arthur will address the current economic crisis and steps required to resolve it.)

• Dan Meek - public interest attorney speaking on the US Supreme Court case which likely will increase corporate power. Dan is well known for writing and advocating for campaign finance reform.
• Janice Thompson- director of Common Cause Oregon on Voter Owned Elections (public funding of candidates)
• Judy Barnes – AfD supporter speaking on Renewal Energy Payments. Judy was the individual who first suggested that Public Utility Districts be formed in the Portland metro area to replace Enron/PGE.
• Nancy Matela – AfD supporter on the crisis of water. She is well known as the convener of the Oregon Voter Rights Coalition opposing the use of electronic voting machines. Now she is back to her original concern, water and the dangers of privatization.

Time: 1 PM to 4:30 PM; doors open at 12:30 so we can start right at 1 PM.
Admission: No charge but donations will be welcome.

(2) TAPPED
From the producers of Who Killed the Electric Car

Is access to clean drinking water a basic human right, or a commodity that should be bought and sold like any other article of commerce?

From the plastic production to the the ocean in which so many of these bottles end up, this inspiring documentary trails the path of the bottled water industry and the communities which were the unwitting chips on the table. A powerful portrait of the lives affected by the bottled water industry, this revelatory film features those caught at the intersection of big business and the public's right to water.

Video will be followed by discussion with Alliance for Democracy water activist, Nancy Matela, who has been working opposing Nestle's plans to open a bottled water plant in Cascade Locks.

Time: 7- 9 PM, doors open at 6:30 PM.
Admission: $5 - $20 but no one turned away for lack of funds.
More info on the video at www.tappedthemovie.com

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New date and events for Portland regional convention

There's a new date for the Portland (OR) AfD Regional Convention. The convention will take place Saturday, November 7, at the First Unitarian Church, SW 12th and Salmon Sts., Portland, with the starting time TBA.

Presenters will include Nancy Matela on water privatization, Cascade Locks and Nestlé; Barbara Dudley on the economic crisis, and Margaret Butler of Jobs with Justice on single payer health care. Elections and politics will feature public interest lawyer Dan Meek on Citizens United v. FEC and Janice Thompson of Common Cause on the upcoming vote on Portland's Voter-Owned Elections.

The convention is co-sponsored by the First Unitarian Church's Economic Justice Action Group.

Also, at 7 p.m., at the First Unitarian Church, there will be a screening of Tapped, the new documentary exposing the environmental, social and health harms done by the bottled water industry. Doors open at 6:30.

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Details on Portland OR regional convention

The Portland, OR Alliance for Democracy will hold their regional conference on Saturday, October 31 at the First Unitarian Church Eliot Chapel, SW 12th and Salmon, Portland. The convention will be held in the afternoon, starting time TBA. The convention is co-sponsored by the Economic Justice Action Group of the 1st Unitarian Universalist church and will focus on democracy.

Presenters include Nancy Matela on water, Nestle, and Cascade Locks, Barbara Dudley on the economic crisis; and Margaret Butler, of Jobs with Justice on the Employee Free Choice Act and single payer healthcare.

A segment on elections and political segment will feature Portland public interest lawyer Dan Meek on the Citizens United vs FEC US Supreme Court case which threatens to unleash direct corporate cash into the election campaigns, followed by Janice Thompson with Common Cause to talk about Portland's Voter Owned Elections and the upcoming citizens' vote on whether Portland should continue this experiment in bribe-less democracy.

More information from David Delk, or check the chapter website at www.afd-pdx.org.

Details about all our planned regional/local conventions are here on our website.

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Call for candidates! The AfD national council needs you!

If you'd like to take a more activist role in the Alliance for Democracy, why not run for the Alliance national council?
The council meets once a month by conference call to discuss ongoing and potential new campaigns and approve budgets. Any member in good standing is welcome to run. We invite you to contact the office and find out more if you're interested, or if you have questions about Alliance for Democracy structure and governance in general.

Candidates for all posts on the council are welcome, as well as at-large members and regional representatives. Candidates should expect a minimum time commitment of 10 hours per month, or more if you take a leadership role in a campaign or in coalition-building--which we hope you do! Regional reps should be prepared to do some outreach to members and allied groups in their area. All potential candidates need to be on email, as much pre-conference call discussion takes place online.

We welcome regional representative candidates from all regions (see this page of our website to see what the regions are) , but especially welcome regional representative candidates from the following areas:

• New York state
• the Southeast: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Missisippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee

We look forward to seeing your hat in the ring!

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Have fun and make a ruckus! Ideas for regional and local member meetings

Topics for Fall Local and Regional Gatherings to

• End corporate domination
• Establish true democracy
• Build a just society with a sustainable and equitable economy

Have a potluck brunch or supper gathering and collaborate on a letter to the editor or an op-ed on any of our campaign topics. Here are good guidelines for how to write and submit letters and op-eds.

Health Care for Main Street Not Wall Street

1. Read “The ‘Public Option’ Is Not Dead” about the political possibility and perils for Senate Democrats and Congress if they do not pass some form of a public plan.

We must keep up the pressure with letters to the editor and calls to our Senators and Representatives. Let them know that single payer/ Medicare for All is the best solution to the problems of our current system.

2. Make plans to join the "Patients Not Profit" sit-ins at insurance company offices to demand the end to the profit-making “sickcare” system and write a letter to your local paper about your action. If you need more information for letters consult Mad as Hell Doctors, read “Health Care: Truths and Myths”, and visit Healthcare-Now and Physicians for a National Health Program.

Corporate Globalization and Positive Alternatives Campaign
1. Go to the movies with Michael Moore. Buy of block of tickets – ask for a reduced rate - and invite AfDers, family and friends to Capitalism: A Love Story. Listen to “Naomi Klein in Conversation with Michael Moore.” Continue for an after-movie dinner or desert conversation about how corporate capitalism impacts your community.

2. Build for the 10th Anniversary of WTO-Seattle – November 27 – December 5. A decade has passed since the 1999 World Trade Organization Seattle Protests. How can AfDers who were in Seattle forget the November 30 march behind our banner with labor and turtles wearing our “Protest of the Century” ponchos.

National Days of Action are being planned in communities across the U.S. and the world commemorating 10 years of struggle for a better world. In Seattle, the People’s Summit Week of Action is from Nov. 27- Dec. 5 and at the Seattle plus 10 homepage scroll down on the right to “What’s Happening Elsewhere” for an event in your community or state.

To get started thinking about how you can mark the anniversary, view this brilliant, moving video, “Labor Battles the WTO: Seattle 1999”--a vision of united struggle against corporate and elite power, true then and true now.

Or compare the labor coverage with the Hollywoodized “Battle in Seattle” (2008) movie, which was still a huge improvement over the corporate media lies, government and police propaganda that distorted the message of Seattle. The Seattle WTO People’s History Project is a site where the people and the social movements “tell their own stories, reclaim their history, and publicly fight the damaging myths past and present.”

Candidates Obama and Clinton promised to re-examine the trade agreements, NAFTA and work for trade reform - have they? No! Have a gathering to discuss free vs fair trade and local impacts and state impacts. Order a DVD ($19.93 plus shipping) of the movie “Battle in Seattle” or rent from your local independent video store or library.

3. Learn about real Trade reform we can believe in - the 2009 TRADE ACT - H.R. 3012: The Trade, Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment Act ACT sponsored in Congress by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Rep. Michael Michaud (D-ME)

We must “Be the change we want to be!” Educate, agitate and call (202-225-3121) your Senators and Representatives and ask him/her to cosponsor. Here is a Factsheet and the list of all current cosponsors.


Stop the Casino Economy, Invest in the Real Economy
Help rebuild local economies by offering your input on GANE--the General Agreement on a New Economy--a document outlining a new model for economic development that emphasizes full employment, sustainable development, economic equity and community federalism.

GANE is a work-in-progress and its ultimate usefulness depends on you! Read it and share your ideas. Answers to our economic problems should come out of a broad public dialogue. Join in!

Community federalism is a systemic approach to development centered on the local community that builds outward to regional and national levels. It's a necessary and effective way of dealing with mounting and interrelated problems: climate change, off-shoring of jobs, the casino economy and degradation of the natural and social commons.

GANE, an Alliance for Democracy project, has been organized by Ruth Caplan, coordinator of AfD's program on Corporate Globalization and Positive Alternatives. It was developed by the Economics Working Group, while a project of the Tides Foundation, and is the result of a robust discussion among economists and policy advocates.

To help with your analysis, order extra copies of the most recent issues of Justice Rising, “Deglobalization/Relocalization” and “Money for People Not Corporate Plunder” in which many GANE topics are discussed. Also read the Fall, 2007 Justice Rising, “Moving from Corporate Extraction to the Grassroots Restoration Economy”, and the article “Restoring Local Economy and Community” .

Honest and Clean Elections
1. Corporate Personhood and Freedom of Political Speech – “The Elephant in the Room.” Now is the time to build public awakening to the issue of corporate personhood and understanding of corporate claims to protections under the Bill of Rights. It is a time to discuss how to prevent the consequences or to remedy them should the Supreme Court rule, narrowly or broadly, to expand First Amendment rights to corporations allowing expenditures on behalf of political candidates.

Now’s the time to write letters to the editor explaining corporate personhood and the impact of money in politics, emphasize a local angle or issue. Link the amount your Senator or Representative has received from the healthcare industry, for example and his/her stand on Healthcare reform.

Here’s http://www.westernmassafsc.org/calendar/court908.html basic background on the issue. For more, view lawyers Jeffrey Clements and John Bonifaz discussing the Citizens United v. FEC case. Also read the NYTimes editorial “The Rights of Corporations” and “Sotomayor Issues Challenge to a Century of Corporate Law.”

2. Honest Elections
How are votes cast and counted in your town, city or county? Will your vote count in 2010? Probably not, write Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman. If U.S. Attorney General Holder does not intervene to stop purchase by ES&S Corporation of Diebold Corporation’s voting machine division. With this purchase, ES&S would own 80% of America’s electronic voting machines and how the “power to shape America’s future with a few proprietary keystrokes.”

They conclude: As it’s done in numerous other countries throughout the world, the only realistic means by which the U.S. can establish a democratic system of ballot counting and casting is to do it the old-fashioned way. With human-scale checks and balances we might even be secure in the knowledge that our elections and vote counts truly reflect the will of the people. What a concept!

Start now to change the casting and counting of ballots in your community.

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Is there a regional meeting near you?

The latest on our regional meetings! If you don't see one near you, organize one! It doesn't have to be elaborate--if a potluck and discussion meets your local needs, that's fine. We can also suggest possible topics for speakers or films, and provide you with literature and in some cases dvds. For more information, contact afd@thealliancefordemocracy.org

October
Oct. 6, Tuesday, Blue Hill, ME
Blue Hill Public Library, 7:00 pm
AfD national council member Bonnie Preston hosts panel on water with Emily Posner Defending Water for Life in Maine on bottled water; Sarah Bigney of Maine Fair Trade Campaign on trade and water; Antonio Blasi, a member of Maine Water Allies, active in eastern Hancock County, on ground water; and Nancye Files, of Alliance for Democracy Downeast.

Mid-October, Sacramento, CA, TBA
AfD Defending Water for Life Campaign hosts with other co-sponsors the movie “Tapped” on bottled water. View trailer and Ruth Caplan here. Nestlé is coming to Sacramento and we’re fighting back!

Oct. 31, Saturday, Portland, OR
First Unitarian Church, SW 12 and Salmon, Time TBA
Watch AfD Portland website for details. Possible topics: election reform in OR and the nation; corporate personhood and corporate money in elections: Citizens United v. FEC; water privatization: Cascade Locks/Nestlé and bottled water-Bull Run reservoir and costly water treatment plants;

November
Nov. 8, Sunday, Concord, Massachusetts
Boston/Cambridge Alliance and North Bridge Alliance potluck focuses on corporate personhood and Citizens United v. FEC

Nov. 12, Thursday, Davis, CA
Time/Place TBA: Potluck and discussion of the corporate voice vs. the people’s voice in local land-use development campaigns

Nov. 12, Thursday, Pittsfield or Rochester, NY
Time/Place TBA: Local Potluck Dinner and discussion on “Do Corporations Rule the World?”

Nov. 14 -15, Sat-Sun, Ukiah, CA
Bi-annual Convention of Northern California Alliance for Democracy
“Rethinking Rights of Corporations in Northern California: What Can Local Communities Do Now?” Details coming!

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The Ayes have it: Regional conventions on tap for 2009

Alliance members have overwhelmingly approved a bylaw change to allow regional biennial meetings as an alternative to a single national convention. Thanks to everyone who voted! Please keep an eye on our webpage and blog for updates on regional meeting plans, dates, locations and program.

The New England region is already planning a meeting, most likely in late October/early November. If you'd like to be added to the email list for planning and announcements, please contact the national office at afd@thealliancefordemocracy.org.

Other chapters should be announcing plans soon. If you're not close to a chapter but would like to get together with other members in your area, please email the office at afd@thealliancefordemocracy.org or call Barbara at 781-894-1179. We will help you locate fellow members and can assist with program planning, speakers, and other logistics. Events can be large or small, a chance to network with other groups across issues or focus more closely on corporate rule. Conventions are also an opportunity to review progress on national campaigns, propose resolutions and new campaign areas, and introduce candidates for national council.

So far, members have put forth the following suggestions for themes and organization:
Michael Moore’s new film, “Capitalism: A Love Story” is due out October 2, one year and a day after the U.S. Senate approved the first Wall Street bailout. 2009 is also the 10th anniversary of the Battle in Seattle – AfD was there (remember the ponchos?) and Obama promised on the campaign trail to re-think NAFTA and the trade agreements. These anniversaries could spark discussion of trade, regional or local economies, globalization and alternatives to current financial structures. Our most recent issues of Justice Rising has plenty of information and suggestions for actions: check out “Money for People not Corporate Plunder” and "Deglobalization/Relocalization"

October is also "Blue October," and a time to focus on water resource protection, the water commons, rights of nature, and local/regional decision-making. Many of these issues are key to recent work of our Defending Water for Life Campaign.

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