11.03.2003
Saying "No!" to Corporate Governance
Giant corporations govern, even though they are mentioned nowhere in our Constitution or Bill of Rights. So when corporations govern, democracy is nowhere to be found. There is something else: when people live in a culture defined by corporate values, common sense evaporates. We stop trusting our own eyes, ears, and feelings. Our minds become colonized.
-- Program On Corporations, Law & Democracy
You might not know it, but Corporate inroads to governance have been challenged successfully by people like you and me. Take a look at how folks in conservative western Pennsylvania stood up to the big monied interests that threatened the life (literally) of their rural communities. Read "Consent of the Governed: The reign of corporations and the fight for democracy" by Jeffrey Kaplan as abstracted here from the current issue of Orion Magazine.
There is a movement gaining momentum to challenge the illegitimate "fact" of corporate "personhood". This welcome phenomena rated a number 13 spot on Project Censored's list of under covered news stories. Thom Hartmann has penned an informative article detailing this fiction in his piece "Now Corporations Claim The "Right To Lie""; next they will want the Supreme Court to select them as President.
Addressing the issue of Corporate Governance offers an opportunity to highlight a myriad of wrongs in our present system while offering concrete ways to address the problems.
Share all you learn...
Some Resources:
Richard Grossman, co-founder of POCLAD ( linked above) and long time activist on this issue "Ending Corporate Governance"as well as "Taking Care of Business: Citizenship and the Charter of Corporations as found at the Ratical.Org Ending Corporate governance page.
The Santa Clara Blues: Corporate Personhood versus Democracy by William Meyers (here in .pdf)
WILPF US Abolish Corporate Personhood Organizing Packet Downloadable tools for learning and sharing about this issue. Organize!
Reclaim Democracy
11/03/2003
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