FreeSpeechforPeople.org proposes a straightforward amendment to repeal the Supremes' infamous Citizens United ruling. The coalition's battle cry is: Citizens United against Citizens United!
MoveToAmend.org proposes a broader amendment to declare that only human beings, not corporations, are persons with constitutional rights.
Both coalitions have grassroots organizers, do-it-yourself toolkits for raising the issue locally and getting others involved, petitions to be circulated and sent to public officials, videos and other graphic materials for getting people informed, sample resolutions for local and state officials to pass, ways to connect people to each other and to the national movement, and a wealth of other organizing ideas and resources.
UNCOVER. One of the little-noticed and unfulfilled promises included in the Court's Citizens United ruling is that corporations should at least have to disclose to shareholders and the public how much political money they spend on whom. Congressional Republicans, however, have blocked proposals to implement this minimalist democratic gesture, and President Obama so far has not issued administrative rules to shine even a little sunlight on secret electioneering by corporations.
But you don't have to wait on Washington. Citizen groups in such cities and states as Boulder, Minnesota, Montana, and Wisconsin have pushed disclosure requirements into law, and at least nine federal courts have ruled that these requirements pass constitutional muster. Also, groups in Los Angeles, Fort Wayne, Chicago, New Mexico, Connecticut, and elsewhere are pushing conflict-of-interest laws to ban or restrict campaign donations by corporations that seek government contracts.
In addition, employees and shareholders of some big corporations, along with other innovative citizens, have launched their own do-it-yourself disclosure campaigns. Using both inside tips and the occasional news leak of secret corporate donations, they are publishing the information a la WikiLeaks and holding protests at corporate offices to expose publicity-shy executives who're funneling shareholder funds into elections.
IMPEACH. At least two of the corporate-coddling Supremes -- Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas -- had undisclosed ties to the Koch brothers and other secretive corporate plutocrats at the time the Court was considering the Citizens United case (see Lowdown, February and August 2011). Two national organizations have extensive information about the justices' blatant disregard of basic ethics and are collecting petitions to hold them to account. CommonCause.org seeks a Justice Department investigation of the two and proposes the "radical" idea that Supreme Court members be subjected to the Judicial Code of Conduct that applies to all other federal judges. RootsAction.org goes further, calling for impeachment proceedings against Thomas for accepting gifts from participants in cases before him and for filing false financial reports.
CONNECT. It's not all bad news in Washington. Many members of Congress are pushing national policies to end or at least curtail the corrupting power of corporate political cash. It's important to have an inside-outside strategy on these policies, linking grassroots strength (ideas, courage, energy, and numbers) to those fighting inside for real reform. One of the best points of connection is the Progressive Caucus, co-chaired by Reps. Keith Ellison of Minneapolis and Raul Grijalva of Tucson. Find them at cpc.grijalva.house.gov.
CONFRONT. The time to get the attention of congress critters is now--when they're running for office. Every candidate (incumbent, challenger, Republican, tea partier, Democrat, et al.) should be confronted (politely, but insistently) on the corporate money issues -- Citizens United, corporate personhood, public campaign funding, etc. Make appointments, attend their campaign events and town hall sessions, send queries -- and disseminate their responses as broadly as possible, even if all you get from them is "ttthhbbllltttt."
LOCALIZE. All across the country, clean election coalitions have passed laws to give local and state candidates the alternative of using a public pool of money to finance their campaigns, rather than having to kiss the ring of corporate interests. Learn about these successes and how you can launch a similar effort where you live by going to PubliCampaign.org.
Likewise, get information and inspiration from the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (poclad.org) and Reclaim Democracy.org about local communities that are restricting or outright rejecting the fiction of corporate personhood. From such small towns as Arcata, California to cities like Pittsburgh, people are uniting to prohibit assertions of a corporate "right" to run over them. As Pittsburgh city council member Doug Shields said of a successful effort last November to ban natural gas "fracking" in his city, "It's about our authority as a community to decide, not corporations deciding for us."
ENJOY. Whatever you do, think fun: How could this be more humorous, more lively, more entertaining, more welcoming, more engaging -- and, therefore, more effective? As much as possible, turn your meetings, work sessions, and events into parties, with a little food and drink, music, videos, cartoons, puppets, skits, stunts, contests, stories, and whatever else the group can think of.
Remember, the Constitution says "We the People," not We the Corporations.JOIN OUR "WE THE PEOPLE" CAMPAIGN!
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