LA
Corporate Personhood in Concert with Coalition
of LA Residents
By Michael Evans
December 7, 2011
http://www.laprogressive.com/law-and-the-justice-system/corporate-personhood-2/
On Tuesday,
call for a constitutional amendment to abolish
corporate personhood as a City Council resolution
passed unanimously before hundreds of enthusiastic
local residents, igniting loud celebrations throughout
the standing room only crowd in Council chambers and a
packed overflow room.
"It's a great day for
for the
Fielder, Move To Amend-LA's founding co-chair who
spearheaded the local coalition effort to strengthen
and pass the resolution. "I hope this is the vote heard
around the world and that it will inspire other who
want to reclaim our democracy to begin organizing in
their communities. Together we can build the grassroots
support we need to actually amend our constitution."
Council members and community members showed almost
surprising solidarity as they discussed the merits of
the resolution calling for legislative action to
support the idea that corporations are not people and
money is not the same as free speech.
"We have never seen the City Council Chamber so packed
for any other issue," said coalition Anjuli Kronheim of
Common
community members and coalition partners to speak."
Common Cause LA is part of the local grassroots
coalition to amend the constitution, and also advocates
for many other democratic reforms.
Many speakers told heartbreaking personal stories about
how corporations have negatively affected their lives
and the lives of their families. Others, like Occupy
San Fernando Valley's Amber Brown, offered articulate
dissertations.
"Corporations are designed to achieve specific ends,
typically those of growth, profitability, and longevity
beyond the span of human life," said Brown. "They
cannot make decisions nor take actions-not, at least,
outside of the human beings who run them."
The attendees spontaneously applauded and cheered and
even gave standing ovations for many of the speakers
with whom they most agreed, starting with a boisterous
response to Fielder's opening comments. "On behalf of
We The People, we are willing to do the work that it's
going to take to amend our constitution to clearly
establish that only human beings are entitled to
constitutional rights."
One of the most popular speakers was the lone
"dissenter" wearing a tuxedo and a top hat with play
money stuffed in his pockets who spoke on behalf of a
satire troupe called The Billionaires.
"To suggest that Corporations aren't people is to
ignore the many needs that corporate citizens share
with their flesh-and-blood brethren," said Clifford
Tasner in character as Felonius Ax, "A corporation
craves friendship just like everyone else. Which is why
corporate citizens hunger to cultivate deep meaningful
relationships with elected officials."
Felonius took his seat next to fellow Billionaire
Isaiah Hogg, who was rustling the newspaper he had been
reading through most of the meeting, as the crowd
erupted in laughter and applause.
Billionaires Felonius Ax and Isaiah Hogg commiserate
after their "One Dollar, One Vote" message suffered a
crushing defeat.
"I could not believe the coalition of energy that
filled the council chambers today," said Council Member
Bill Rosendahl. "It made a huge difference. It was
democracy at its best!"
"The basic unit of a political system is the sovereign
independent human being," said Chris Durian of Move to
Amend LA and Occupy LA. "By defining other entities
such as corporations as sovereign individuals, the
doctrine of corporate personhood has necessarily
compromised the rights and powers of the sovereign
individual. Now the very foundation of government is
straining under the weight of billions of corporate
dollars."
The resolution calls for "SUPPORT for Legislative
actions ensuring corporations are not entitled to the
entirety of protections or "rights" of human beings,"
which is at the heart of the movement to abolish
corporate personhood. It goes on to say that the
expenditure of money is "no longer a form of
constitutionally protected speech," which is aimed
directly at overturning at least two Supreme Court
decisions which support the doctrine that money is
speech, so spending in connection to an election is
merely a corporation's (read: person's) exercise of
free speech right.
Specifically, this resolution is a response to the 2010
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
Supreme Court ruling, which gives corporations the same
1st Amendment protections as people and allows them to
spend unlimited funds on campaign finance, which
resulted in record corporate spending in the 2010
national elections.
The resolution was sponsored this summer by City
Council President Eric Garcetti and seconded by Council
Members Bill Rosendahl and Paul Krekorian? with
passionate support by Council Members Richard Alarcon
and Paul Koretz?. Their work was paralleled by a
vigorous coalition grassroots effort led by the Los
Angeles affiliate of the national coalition
organization MoveToAmend.org.
For years before founding MoveToAmend.org, David Cobb?,
Kaitlin Sopoci-Belnap, and other leaders had been
working to abolish corporate personhood and advocate
other democracy issues.
Move to Amend's local affiliate was founded by Mary
Beth Fielder a year ago and immediately began building
a massive local coalition of support, beginning with
the South Robertson Neighborhoods Council in June and
ramping up support to an exhaustive list including
volunteers from all over LA County, LA Neighborhoods
Councils, unions, political clubs, and grassroots
activists.
In November, at least 100 members of the LA coalition
attended a City Council meeting, asking them to amend
the resolution, which originally called for overturning
Citizens United and taking money out of elections. The
committee adopted the coalition's amendments into the
resolution motion in preparation for the Council vote
on Tuesday.
After the resolution passed, Move to Amend-LA co-chair,
Daniel Lee said, "The decision was significant because
the council officially supported not only a call for a
constitutional amendment but the official language on
the Move to Amend national website."
Lee was referring to the Council's decision to attach
the coalition's proposed constitutional amendment to
the resolution leading up to Tuesday's vote. The
MoveToAmend.org language establishes that
corporations are not people, money is not speech,
and the freedom of the press should not be abridged
by establishing that corporations and the
expenditure of money may be regulated.
That proposed amendment was officially attached to the
LA City Council resolution before being passed on
Tuesday.
"I want to thank the council members Garcetti,
Krekorian, and Rosendahl for their introducing, for
their championing the resolution and for forming a
partnership with the people so that together we can
take back control of our government," said Fielder
after the decision. "And I want to acknowledge the
amazing coalition that we built, all the people that
came together the last month all kinds of incredible
groups and individuals working around the clock."
"Every struggle to amend the constitution began as just
a group of regular Americans who wanted to end slavery,
who thought women should vote, who believed that if
you're old enough to be drafted, you should be old
enough to vote," said Council President Eric Garcetti.
"These are how American amendments move forward from
the grassroots when Americans say enough is enough.
We're very proud to come together and send a message
but more than that, this becomes the official position
of the City of
for this."
Council Member Paul Krekorian said, "What we
saw in that chamber today was the beginning of a
sea change in the way people think about politics
in
of a long and sustained movement that changes the
way we represent ourselves and the way we demand
the kind of government that we deserve."
_____
Michael R. Evans is a writer originally from upstate
tutor and academic editor. His ever-broadening
interests and expertise include spirituality of art,
politics, and intercultural relations. He is currently
a core volunteer with Move to
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