Protests have engulfed the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where students are standing against a proposed bill that threatens teacher's unions. The outcries come as the state's new Republican Governor Scott Walker announced a plan to end collective bargaining for most of the state's 175,000 public employees.
"Judicial activism" is way too tame a phrase for what Chief Justice Roberts & Co did here. This was a coup -- a plotted overthrow to enthrone corporate political interests.
On February 16th, 2011 Washington State Senator Adam Kline (D) introduced a resolution (SJM 8007) calling on Congress to adopt a Constitutional Amendment to ensure that corporations do not have the same rights as people.
The state Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to take up this issue yesterday (February 17, 2011).
If you wish to urge the committee members to pass this resolution to end corporate personhood which is destroying our democracy, please call them and voice your opinion.
January 21, VERMONT - A year ago today, the Supreme Court issued its bizarre Citizens United decision, allowing unlimited corporate spending in elections as a form of “free speech” for the corporate “person.” Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the dissent, had the task of recalling the majority to planet earth and basic common sense.
Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and Councilmember Jovanka Beckles proposed a resolution to urge the federal government to pass a constitutional amendment limiting the role of corporations in elections. It was passed unanimously.
This short cartoon by the folks at Story of Stuff gives a good history of why corporations have so much power and what it does to our democracy.
We think the solution suggested at the end needs to go further - unless an amendment campaign sets forth to abolish ALL corporate constitutional rights (they just talk about the 1st Amendment in this video) we won't have made a whole ton of progress.
But this is a great way to start the discussion...
In the 14 months since a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision overturned restrictions and allowed for unlimited corporate spending in campaigns for elections, the political landscape of America already has dramatically changed.
Last Saturday, I held a town meeting in Montpelier, Vt., to discuss the disastrous Supreme Court ruling of last year which upended our democracy by unleashing a tsunami of corporate spending in our elections. The Citizens United ruling has radically changed our democracy -- further tilting the balance of power toward corporate America.
Following last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United, Minnesota Democrats are proposing a constitutional amendment to define an individual as a “natural person.” The 2010 ruling gave corporations certain rights as “persons” and allowed them to engage in new levels of political activity. Sen. Scott Dibble of Minneapolis said the DFL bill is aimed at curtailing the idea that corporate entities have the same rights as human beings.
Last night, the Fort Bragg (CA) City Council passed the attached resolution calling for a Constitutional Amendment to ban corporate personhood. All of the council members present voted for it, one member was absent.
Click here to see our map of communities that have passed, or are working to pass, resolutions against Corporate Personhood: http://movetoamend.org/resolutions-map
Last night voters in Madison, WI and Dane County, WI voted on two seperate resolutions to support a United States Constitutional Amendment that would declare that only human beings are entitled to Constitutional rights.
In Madison, WI voters approved the following language by 84%:
"Shall the City of Madison adopt the following resolution: RESOLVED, the City of Madison, Wisconsin, calls for reclaiming democracy from the corrupting effects of undue corporate influence by amending the United States Constitution to establish that:
1. Only human beings, not corporations, are entitled to constitutional rights, and
More Info:
On May 3rd our monthly Local Action Webinar topic will be "Passing Community Resolutions" and we'll be looking at the WI resolution campaign as our case study. Register for the webinar here.
If you're interested in passing a resolution in your town, click here.
Check out our map of towns and cities that have passed resolutions or ordinances against Corporate Personhood.
David Cobb, a fiery speaker, and former Green Party presidential candidate, is touring Colorado giving his talk "Creating Democracy & Challenging Corporate Rule." This presentation is part history lesson and part heart-felt call-to-action!
Cobb is an organizer and national spokesman for MoveToAmend.org, a coalition of over 100,000 people and organizations whose goal is to amend the United States Constitution to end corporate rule and legalize democracy.
More Info:
If you're interested in bring a Move to Amend speaker to your community, please contact us.
WASHINGTON — Businesses may use standard-form contracts to forbid consumers claiming fraud from banding together in a single arbitration, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday in a 5-to-4 decision that split along ideological lines.
Though the decision concerned arbitrations, it appeared to provide businesses with a way to avoid class-action lawsuits in court. All they need do, the decision suggested, is use standard-form contracts that require two things: that disputes be raised only through the informal mechanism of arbitration and that claims be brought one by one.
On April 21, 2011, KC Move to Amend and the Department of Economics at University of Missouri-Kansas City cosponsored a public forum titled: "The Citizens United Ruling in Perspective."
Where Minnesota's post-election hand count of the 2008 U.S. Senate election between then Sen. Norm Coleman and now Sen. Al Franken was, as we wrote at the UK's Guardian at the time, "one of the longest and most transparent election hand-counts in the history of the US," Wisconsin has made it extremely difficult (putting it nicely) to know what the hell is actually going on in their statewide "recount" of the April 5th, 2011 state Supreme Court election between Justice David Prosser and Asst. Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg.
The Joint Finance Committee voted today to end the independent agency status of the Wisconsin Arts Board, moving the oversight of arts to the Tourism Board. The proposal will now go before the State Assembly and Senate for final approval as part of Gov. Scott Walker’s 2011-13 biennial budget. The vote was along party lines with 14 Republicans voting in favor and four Democrats voting against.
The committee did restore some of the cuts Walker proposed, returning over $350,000 to the agency over the next two years. The Board was facing a drop from $3 million to $750,000; now it will have just over $1 million in the next budget period.
The JFC also reversed Walker by allowing the Arts Board the autonomy to select its own executive director in the future.
David Cobb, a fiery speaker, and former Green Party presidential candidate, is touring Oregon giving his talk "Creating Democracy & Challenging Corporate Rule." This presentation is part history lesson and part heart-felt call-to-action! David will also be offering three day-long "Organizing Training" workshops in Corvallis, Eugene and Portland. No past experience is neccesary to attend.
More Info:
If you're interested in bring a Move to Amend speaker to your community, please contact us.
David Cobb’s speaking tour in Colorado, from May 20-25, 2011, was an unqualified success.
David gave his riveting presentation, Creating Democracy & Challenging Corporate Rule," in Denver, Boulder, Thornton, Pueblo, Colorado Springs and Ft. Collins.
David’s lectures were well attended (ranging from a small, but focused crowd, of 25 people in Pueblo, to a “standing room only” crowd of 60 people in Denver, to over 100 people at the Boulder Unity Church!), and his message well received, everywhere he went. With spirited, thoughtful, Q & A sessions, David’s presentations often lasted close to two hours.
Move to Amend spokesperson David Cobb and Field Support Liaison Margaret Koster of Democracy Unlimited barnstormed across the state of Oregon from June 12 to 20.
The “anchor” stops were two full day training sessions—one in Eugene and another in Portland. These participatory workshops are designed to provide folks with the concrete tools needed to challenge the corporate control of our political, economic and legal institutions.
More Info:
If you want to help organizing a Move to Amend affiliate in your community, call us at 707-269-0984
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Monday blocked a massive sex discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart on behalf of female employees in a decision that makes it harder to mount large-scale bias claims against the nation's biggest companies.
A Vermont Law that forbade using prescription information collected by pharmacies for marketing purposes was declared unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds.
The Supreme Court handed pharmaceutical companies and data mining firms a victory on Thursday when it struck down a Vermont law that banned the use of prescription information collected by pharmacies for marketing purposes.
In the case, Sorrell v. IMS Health, No. 10-779, the Supreme Court handed down a 6-3 majority decision and ruled that the law interfered with the pharmaceutical industry's First Amendment right to market its products.
[Update on 9/12/11- The Assembly will be begin disucssing this issue directly (AB196) beginning September 13th, 2011. See this link for a schedule of the Assembly's upcoming buisensss]
After exterminating any and all public election financing in the state budget and thus handing state elections over entirely to private interests, legislators took steps this week to make it harder for the public to see how special interests are funneling money into political advertising campaigns.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court¹s reigning conservative majority issued yet another campaign finance decision where it narrowed the options for campaigns and candidates to run for office without relying on the largesse of wealthy people and institutions.
So say members of a growing grass roots organization called the Move to Amend campaign which has set the ambitious goal of amending the U.S. Constitution in order to curb corporate influence over politics.
On Tuesday, July 19, Boulder City Council will hear from members of Boulder Move to Amend, who are asking council members to place a measure on the November 2011 ballot that would call for the abolition of “corporate personhood” — the granting of constitutional rights to corporations as if they were people — and the notion that money is a form of speech. Let’s hope City Council is listening.
As faith in U.S. political system hits historic lows, organizers announce that
LAUNCH OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT WILL BE AUGUST 24-28 IN MADISON, WISCONSIN
(MADISON, WI) ~ The eyes of the nation will return to Madison, Wisconsin, August 24-28, as nearly 1,000 community, labor, and student organizers gather at the first Democracy Convention to launch a movement to bring democracy to the United States.
With the Democracy Convention beginning in 23 days, we are please to announce our second keynote speaker: Cheri Honkala. She joins Tom Hayden and Michelle Shocked in headlining five days of celebration, strategy, and community-building.
David Cobb, a fiery speaker, and former Green Party presidential candidate, is touring New York, New Jersey and Delaware giving his talk "Creating Democracy & Challenging Corporate Rule." This presentation is part history lesson and part heart-felt call-to-action!
Cobb is an organizer and national spokesman for MoveToAmend.org, a coalition of over 123,000 people and organizations whose goal is to amend the United States Constitution to end corporate rule and legalize democracy.
All events are open to the general public. Click the red links below for more info.
More Info:
If you're interested in bring a Move to Amend speaker to your community, please contact us.
Imagine that you are a new voter. Perhaps you aren't too clear on all the rules, the picture I.D. thing, even what you are supposed to do in the voter's booth. But by God, you're going to do it. You are going to become a voter! And you do. You accept a ride to the polls in a van driven by Wisconsin Jobs Now as part of their GOTV campaign in your underrepresented neighborhood. You are not letting the rightwing pundits, politicians and policies silence your voice. You are a Voter!
Radio talk show host Thom Hartmann speaks to David Cobb, Attorney / Green Party candidate for President in 2004 / spokesperson for MoveToAmend.org. They examine how legislation has given corporations people's rights.
Radio talk show host Thom Hartmann meets Ben Manski, Chair-Democracy Convention / Executive Director of Liberty Tree / Spokesperson for Move to Amend. They show us how to fight back against plutocrats who want to buy elected officials.
America is now - demonstrably, as proven by Wisconsin - just a few years away from the possibility of a totally corrupted, totally billionaire - and corporate-controlled political system Political scientists call it oligarchy.
The Citizens United election experiment is over - and the oligarchs won. Long live the oligarchy. But before settling into despair - and accepting that American democracy is lost - we need to first ask the question..."is there anything that 'we the people' can do to fight back?"
Five months to the day after the Republican majority in the Wisconsin state Senate voted to approve Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to strip most collective bargaining rights from public employees, two of the governor’s most prominent allies in the chamber have been removed from office.
Western Wisconsin state Sen. Dan Kapanke and eastern Wisconsin Sen. Randy Hopper were both defeated in recall elections that provided a powerful indication of the state’s anger with Walker’s assault on worker rights.
Wisconsin voters have shown time and time again that they are not extremists. Voters in largely Republican areas of the state sent a message in recent days that the actions of those in charge of state government have been too extreme by voting for greater moderation.
In unprecedented state senate recall elections, the number of legislators removed from office in this manner over the 163-year history of Wisconsin was doubled in a single summer. A third of Republican senators targeted for recall were ousted, while two others narrowly survived election-day scares. All three of the targeted Democratic senators were returned to office by comfortable margins.
This short cartoon by the folks at 
I
Last Saturday, I held a town meeting in Montpelier, Vt., to discuss the disastrous Supreme Court ruling of last year which upended our democracy by unleashing a tsunami of corporate spending in our elections. The Citizens United ruling has radically changed our democracy -- further tilting the balance of power toward corporate America. 
Following last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United, Minnesota Democrats are proposing a constitutional amendment to define an individual as a “natural person.” The 2010 ruling gave corporations certain rights as “persons” and allowed them to engage in new levels of political activity. Sen. Scott Dibble of Minneapolis said the DFL bill is aimed at curtailing the idea that corporate entities have the same rights as human beings.
Last night voters in Madison, WI and Dane County, WI voted on two seperate resolutions to support a United States Constitutional Amendment that would declare that only human beings are entitled to Constitutional rights.
David Cobb, a fiery speaker, and former Green Party presidential candidate, is touring Colorado giving his talk "Creating Democracy & Challenging Corporate Rule." This presentation is part history lesson and part heart-felt call-to-action!
Move to Amend spokesperson David Cobb and Field Support Liaison Margaret Koster of 
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Monday blocked a massive sex discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart on behalf of female employees in a decision that makes it harder to mount large-scale bias claims against the nation's biggest companies.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court¹s reigning conservative majority issued yet another campaign finance decision where it narrowed the options for campaigns and candidates to run for office without relying on the largesse of wealthy people and institutions.
On Tuesday, July 19, Boulder City Council will hear from members of Boulder Move to Amend, who are asking council members to place a measure on the November 2011 ballot that would call for the abolition of “corporate personhood” — the granting of constitutional rights to corporations as if they were people — and the notion that money is a form of speech. Let’s hope City Council is listening.
David Cobb, a fiery speaker, and former Green Party presidential candidate, is touring New York, New Jersey and Delaware giving his talk "Creating Democracy & Challenging Corporate Rule." This presentation is part history lesson and part heart-felt call-to-action!