Read our 2013 report online and learn how our work this year helped preserve the commons, block corporate rule, create alternative media, and promote public banking. Thanks to everyone who contributed to these successes, whether through activism or membership.
Read more...On the July 9 edition of "Corporations and Democracy" radio, hosts Steve Scalmanini and Annie Esposito talked about nuclear disarmament with Jacqueline Cabasso, executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation in Oakland, and an internationally-known expert on nuclear disarmament. Jacqueline deconstructed Obama's recent statements on nuclear weapons, discussed the corporatization of nukes and warned that while progress has been made on reducing numbers of weapons, there are still more than enough of them out there to destroy civilization.
You can listen or download the show on our radio page, here.
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| Portland AfD brings an anti-corporate rule message to Portland's Gay Pride Parade |
The audio from Tuesday's edition of "Corporation's and Democracy" is now up on our radio page. The show, as promised, features two takes on privatization, both from speakers at this year's Public Banking Institute national conference.
Steve and Annie's first guest, Darwin BondGraham, is a sociologist and journalist (and occasional "Corporations and Democracy" listener) who now covers political economy for print and web publications. He explains some of the history and thinking behind his conference talk, titled "Public-Private Partnerships--Highway to Ruin." He's followed by chief of staff of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Jim Sauber. There are lots of privatization pressures on the US Postal Service, but Jim discusses ways that the post office could add services that would benefit workers and the public alike.
Callers give their points of view, and Steve's look at the headlines features some good news on the fight against GMOs.
This week's show features Thom Hartmann, progressive political commentator and author of many books, including Unequal Protection, Screwed: the Undeclared War Against the Middle Class and What We Can Do About It, and Rebooting the American Dream. Thom recently spoke at the First Unitarian Church in Portland, OR. In his talk, he addresses the need for a 28th constitutional amendment to end the legal fictions that artificial entities are people and that money is speech. He calls America's governing structure a "constitutional monarchy," and relates how the US Supreme Court's use of judicial review undermines democracy, and how we can regain the power of the people from the court's and corporate dominance.
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| Tom and Toni in the KZYX studio |
...that protesting corporate rule is at least as old as our own American Revolution? Move to Amend's Ashley Sanders brought the history of the early days of corporate domination of politics and economies to this edition of Populist Dialogues.
President Obama proposed some intriguing and positive programs in the State of the Union speech--public preschool, a hike in the minimum wage, and measures to prevent gun violence. In a country where policy is democratically determined by representatives who truly act on behalf of the common good and the wishes of their constituents, those kind of ideas could really go somewhere.
Unfortunately, it would be irresponsibly optimistic to think that new laws on public safety will be determined out of reach of the gun lobby, or we'll see anything close to a national living wage when big-box retail, fast food, and other low-wage employers remain politically powerful.
That's why it was very disappointing to hear Obama call for a renewed push for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. We've written a lot about TPP and the damage it could do to local and national sovereignty and laws that protect workers' rights, the environment, public health, and jobs. That's why on either side of the Pacific, citizens' groups of all kinds are opposed to instituting this compact.
It takes some work to mine profit out of universal background checks and preschools, but TPP is one thing that multinationals can get behind in a big way. And they will. Why not? They already have a much better idea of what's in the agreement, thanks to access to the negotiating process that even members of Congress lack.
We need to stop TPP and one way to start is to get our communities informed about what's wrong with so-called "free trade." Please take a look at this latest edition of Populist Dialogues, featuring Arthur Stamoulis of the Citizens Trade Campaign, and consider sharing it with friends online and with your local community access cable station.
What are the latest plans for Cascade Locks, coal terminals, LNG pipelines, and fracking in Oregon? David Delk talks with Bethany Cotton of Greenpeace and FLOW, and Julia DeGraw of Food and Water Watch.
Bethany discusses plans to turn the Pacific Northwest into a fossil fuel export epicenter, with national and multinational corporations lining up to build coal and liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals in both Oregon and Washington. She details some of the environmental and economic consequences of these plans, as well the shape of local resistance.
Julia gives an update on Nestlé's planned bottled water plant in Cascade Locks, and asks who has the right to water--a private corporation, or the people of Oregon?
Did you recently read our end-of-year 2012 report? It’s already time for an update! In the last few weeks...
A local Alliance member has requested that the Cambridge MA public access station start airing "Populist Dialogues"--look for them on CCTV's Channel 8.
Not in Cambridge? It's not hard to get viewer-requested content on your local station. Most station managers welcome video submissions. "Populist Dialogues" is available for free download from PEGMedia, which makes it especially easy and accessible. Here's how you can select, download, and air shows.
First, go to the Populist Dialogues website, or check out the show's YouTube channel, and see what programs are available. New shows are posted weekly.
Contact your local public access TV station and find out, by speaking with the programming manager how they schedule shows. Most stations have open time spots which they need to fill. Learn from them if they are interested in just one or another episode, or topic, or maybe running Populist Dialogue Program with one show each week. How this works will be different for each station.
You can direct them to online shows so they can take a look.
To download shows from PEGMedia:
1. Go to the PegMedia web site at www.pegmedia.org.
2. Establish a free account by clicking on: Create New Account
3. After establishing the new account, log in.
4. Now click on: Shows From Selected States
5. Select "Oregon"
6. Click on: Alliance for Democracy – Populist Dialogues
7. Now read the brief description of the series and scroll down to view list of currently available shows.
The station or program manager will find instructions on how to download the shows on the right hand link: Downloading Show Episodes.
Note that there is no cost to the downloader, thanks to the Portland AfD chapter covering the fee. So don't wait--share the shows and be the media in 2013!
If you're not one of the 41% of Americans who don't get paid time off when sick, then you probably know someone who falls into that category--maybe they just passed you your change in the coffee shop. Throat feeling a little sore? Wondering about whether or not you should go to church tomorrow? Now you know why this is a social, family and public health issue!
It's also the topic of the latest edition of "Populist Dialogues." Host David Delk talks to Lisa Frack with Family Forward Oregon about their campaign to get paid sick day benefits for all workers. Following that, he talks with Marco Mejia of Portland Jobs with Justice about their campaign to end wage theft, and to protect workers from employers who don't pay minimum wage, overtime, tips, or for every hour worked.
You can see the show below or subscribe on YouTube here. And if this is an issue in your community, share it on community access tv. Email us at Alliance for Democracy for more info (afd {at} thealliancefordemocracy {dot} org.}
This edition of "Populist Dialogues" features guest Sami Alloy, organizer with the Oregon Working Families Party (OWFP). Sami made a short video with last week's guests, B Media Collective, on the student debt problem which host David Delk screens during the show. The Oregon Working Families Party is addressing the problem of student debt with their "Pay It Forward" program, which Sami describes. Sami also discusses other party campaigns including the efforts to form an Oregon State Bank and county and municipal level public banks. Another party campaign involves assistance to small farmers via the hoped for creation of agi-bonds.
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| Monterey County AfD rallies against corporate personhood earlier this year |
America has declared loud and clear that it wants the Constitution amended. Every ballot resolution supporting amending the Constitution to end corporate access to constitutional rights passed, whether at the local, county, or state level, and in most cases at a rate above 70%. Voters in more than 150 cities, towns, counties and state weighed in, bringing us, by one count, 1/4 of the way toward amendment!
Some examples:
Both Colorado and Montana had statewide ballot measures on the ballot and while the language was different, both states approved their measures with at least 74% approval rates. The Montana measure called for overturning Citizens United, abolition of corporate personhood and declared that money is property, not speech. (Demonstrating that you don't have to be a "liberal" to support ending corporate personhood, Montana voters also approved ballot measures which require parental notification to an abortion for a minor, deny certain government services to illegal immigrants and prohibit government from mandating the purchase of health insurance.)
Colorado's measure was narrower in scope. Amendment 65 called for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and to allow Congress and the states to limit campaign contributions and expenditures. It went on to instruct the Colorado legislature to approve such an amendment when Congress sends it to them. Pueblo County, Colorado, also had a resolution on the ballot declaring that artificial entities like corporations do not have constitutional rights, that money is not speech, and that limiting political contributions and spending is not equivalent to limiting political speech. Despite the local paper editorializing against it, the resolution passed with 65% of the vote.
On the local level, a third of Massachusetts voters weighed in on a non-binding public policy question calling for amending the US Constitution to affirm that corporations do not have the constitutional rights of human beings and that Congress and the states have the right to limit political contributions and spending. The question passed with a 76% approval rate overall, including those towns carried by Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown. (AfD'ers were very active in this campaign through the North Bridge Alliance for Democracy chapter.)
In California, San Francisco voters approved Prop. G with 81% of the vote. In Richmond, voters approved Amend 2012 with 72% of the vote. Mendocino County, the first California county to place a Move to Amend citizen's initiative on the ballot, explicitly voted to "stand with the Move to Amend campaign" by a 73% margin. (Several Alliance for Democracy Mendocino Chapter members and supporters worked on this measure!)
Seventy-four percent of the voters in Chicago approved amending the US Constitution to Take Back Our Vote which called for allowing the federal government and the states to "regulate and limit political contributions from corporations."
Four ballot questions went to voters in Oregon. In Ashland, voters approved a measure stating: "Shall Ashland voters instruct Congress to amend U.S. Constitution to grant only natural persons constitutional rights and limit campaign spending?" It passed by 79.5%.
Corvallis voters approved a measure stating: "Shall the City urge elected representatives to support Constitutional Amendment denying artificial entities’ personhood and rejecting money as speech?" It passed by 75%.
Eugene voters approved a measure stating: "Shall Congress send to the States constitutional amendment reversing the negative impacts of the Citizens United case and limit independent campaign spending?" It passed by 73%.
Finally, Lincoln County voters approved a measure stating: "Should citizens urge Congress/Oregon Legislature to amend Constitution to clarify corporation/union political speech rights, allowing campaign finance regulation and limits?" This passed by 77%.
Read more:
Peter Schurman: America on its way to overturning Citizens United http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/11/08/174102/america-on-its-way-to-overturning.html
Move to Amend: Election Roundup
Reclaim Democracy: State Initiatives to Revoke Corporate Personhood and Overturn Buckley v Valeo Win Big
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| Ellen Hodgson Brown, author of The Web of Debt |
The latest edition of "Populist Dialogues" features Dan Serres of Columbia Waterkeeper and Judy Barnes who heads up Alliance for Democracy's sponsored project, Oregonians for Renewable Energy Policy.You can watch the show on Blip.tv here, or right in this post.
The first half of the show features Dan's perpectives on the problems of fossil fuels. Then Judy discusses renewable energy solutions that will help us keep old hydrocarbons in the ground. She focuses on what renewable energy advocates are now calling Clean Energy Contracts, formerly known as Feed-in Tariffs.
Populist Dialogues programs are also available on the show's YouTube channel, and are easy to comment on, and share online.Watch it, "like it," and share it with friends on social media, or in your hometown by rebroadcasting it on your local community cable station.
Sharing "Populist Dialogues" on community cable isn't difficult! Requirements vary between stations but are usually quite simple. Your station can download shows for free at PEGMedia (instructions are here), but we can also send shows on dvd or via filesharing. Email the office for more information at afd //at// thealliancefordemocracy.org.
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