How to Stop the Corporate Erosion of Our Democracy
Here’s a short video (8+ minutes) explaining why 85% of Americans (regardless of political party) believe corporations have too much power, and what we can do about it.
National Day of Action Against Citizens United: January 21, 2012
Press Release by Occupy Nevada County:
Saturday, January 21, is the second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision, Citizens United vs. the Federal Elections Commission, which overturned decades of campaign finance law and allows unlimited corporate funds to flood our election system. On Saturday, a coalition of local groups is hosting a Festival and Teach-In in [...]
Occupy Sacramento Draft Declaration Excludes Corporate Personhood
From the Working Draft of the Declaration of the Occupation of Sacramento: (bold emphasis mine):
When the majority of Americans can no longer effectively control the government because they can’t afford enough lobbyists, we no longer have a functioning democracy. The primary intent of this movement is to reform the current structure of the United States [...]
Allen Kanner: “Corporate Control? Not in These Communities”
Reprinted from TIKKUN: A Bimonthly Interfaith Critique of Politics, Culture, and Society.
Can local laws have a real effect on the power of giant corporations?
by Allen D. Kanner
Mt. Shasta, a small northern California town of 3,500 residents nestled in the foothills of magnificent Mount Shasta, is taking on corporate power through an unusual process—democracy.
The citizens of [...]
Fracking Wars: Pittsburgh Bans Natural Gas Drilling
[Editor's note: If you want to find the still guttering flame of democracy in America, look in the heartland, in small towns such as Barnstead, New Hampshire and Blaine Township, Pennsylvania, and now in Pittsburgh, where town councils are voting to deny corporations the rights of personhood. This is the frontline in a war between the [...]
The Little Town That Sent a Corporation Packing
Published by Yes! Magazine May 27, 2010
Why controlling your water supply is so important
by Tara Lohan
In 2008, weeks after communities all over the United States celebrated the Fourth of July, the tiny town of Felton, Calif., marked its own holiday: Water Independence Day. With barbecue, music, and dancing, residents marked the end of Felton’s six-year battle [...]
Giving Nature Constitutional Rights
Published by Yes! Magazine on March 2, 2010
Simply regulating pollution will never really stop it. Mari Margil of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund discusses why we need a fundamental change in the way we use law to protect nature.
The environmental movement, with its army of professional advocates, lawyers, grassroots campaigners, and dedicated funders, has [...]
Court’s Campaign Money Ruling Is a Red Herring
by Jane Anne Morris
Before running off trying to counter the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC), we ought to sort out what this decision does and does not do.
The Citizens United decision does make our democracy theme park a little worse, the way having an atomic bomb dropped on [...]
Will Supreme Court Radicals Gut the Commerce Clause?
Now that the radical majority on the Supreme Court — the activist conservative judges — have overturned a century of precedent and settled law with their decision in Citizens United v FEC, they may soon have an opportunity to overturn the longstanding use of the Commerce Clause as the basis for federal environmental laws such [...]
