Busy summer for Monterey County AfD

Monterey County Alliance for Democracy didn't take much time off this summer. At the end of June, they organized a CommUnity Rally, which brought more than seventy people out to meet with organizations in the area that challenge corporate power in various ways. The event featured speakers, a vigil featuring a corporate Frankenstein which got a lot of attention from passers-by, and a potluck. It was a good opportunity for like minded people to network and find out what others were doing, said chapter organizer Susan Hubbard.

The chapter also joined with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom to march in the Monterey 4th July parade. The theme of their entry was "exercise your freedom" so marchers wore exercise clothes and had signs about our freedoms, adding, of course, that those freedoms should be for people, and not for corporations.

Two chapter members also attending the Move to Amend regional convergence in Oakland at the end of July--these convergences are happening all over the country, so check here to see if there's one scheduled near you.

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Monterey County (CA) AfD holds local Occupy the Courts action

Monterey County Alliance for Democracy will be heading to the San Jose Occupy the Courts event on Friday, January 20, but on Saturday, January 21 they'll be holding a local event starting at 11 a.m. at Windows on the Bay in Monterey. There will be a vigil and street theater in Custom Plaza downtown to protest this disaster for our democracy. Voice your dissent! For info, contact afdmonterey@hotmail.com, and if you want to be part of the street theater, please come to an event prep meeting on 1/16.

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City of Marina California resolves to amend the Constitution to control corporate "free speech"

On Tuesday October 18, the Marina (CA) City Council became the first on the Monterey Peninsula to pass a resolution calling for a constitutional amendment in response to the Citizens United vs Federal Election Commission case. The resolution concludes:

Therefore, Be It Resolved that the Marina City Council calls for amending the U.S. Constitution to establish that:
1. Corporations should not be exempt from campaign finance restrictions on the basis of campaign contributions being the same as political speech protected by the First Amendment; and,
2. Corporations are not natural persons, and therefore are not entitled to the same First Amendment rights provided to individual persons.

You can read the full resolution here.

The Monterey County Alliance for Democracy chapter had been working on this since December of last year and are very happy that this finally came to a vote before the City Council and passed. Congratulations, Monterey County!

If you would like to learn more about passing a local resolution, check out resources on the Move to Amend site; and to build support in your town take a look at all the resources on our Tools for Organizing and street theater pages.

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AfD Monterey County sponsors US Uncut actions

Sue Hubbard, of AfD's Monterey County chapter, sends the following:

Alliance for Democracy Monterey County has sponsored four US Uncut actions locally - two against Bank of America, one against Fed Ex and one against Apple.

We support US Uncut's message that corporations need to pay their fair share of taxes and if they did pay we would not have to have all the cuts in services which are hurting so many people.

We have our own Facebook page (US Uncut Monterey) and post our actions on the US Uncut website - we have had new people attend each event and good turnouts even though it rained on two of our actions.

At Apple and Fed Ex we left the street and entered the store with our signs and made some noise before leaving. The verdict was that doing this was fun and we plan to continue working with US Uncut to put pressure on tax-dodging corporations.

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Monterey members act on Citizens United anniversary for rights and protection of water

Monterey County (CA) AfD'ers, members of WILPF Monterey County, and other supporters leafletted at three local post offices on the first anniversary of the Citizens United decision. The group's two-sided leaflets spoke about Citizen’s United and asked people to sign the MovetoAmend petition, with contact info for local organizing. The other side supported a local campaign to buy out CalAm, an international corporation that provides water to the Monterey peninsula, and return water to local public control.

Chapter member Sue Hubbard writes, "At all the locations we found people very reception to the idea of taking corporate money out of elections with a low number of negative reactions. I personally was in Carmel which is a very wealthy area so I was heartened to find so many people who were strongly against Citizen’s United."

In addition to leafletting, Susan spoke on a local progressive radio station, and member Darby Moss Worth published the following letter in the Monterey County Herald:

Most Americans know that corporations are not people and that money is not speech.

But one year ago — Jan. 21, 2010 — the United States Supreme Court ruled that corporations have First Amendment free speech rights (Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission). This allowed corporations to spend unlimited amounts of bribery money on elections. Thus, the controversial "corporate personhood" was affirmed as the law of the land and ensured corporate domination of politics.

Personhood in the 14th Amendment can be traced to a decision made in 1886 to insert the term (Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad). Before that time, there were restrictions placed on corporations to protect the people.

The problem is growing corporate power. At this current time of general austerity, increasing unemployment and poverty, we cannot ignore the state of our nation and the increasing danger that our government is no longer of, by and for the people.

The Monterey County Alliance for Democracy urges you to sign the petition at www.movetoamend.com and join us for discussion and further action at 12:30p.m. on the first Saturday of each month at the Peace Resource Center in Seaside.

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