Sign the Ben & Jerry’s petition to “Get the Dough Out” of American politics, and then go get a free scoop of Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream from 5-8pm today. Fighting corporate power + free ice cream: how’s that for a sweet Valentine’s Day deal?
And in case you missed it, check out Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito’s op-ed on why Citizens United is bad for small business and bad for democracy – full text after the jump.
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Check out this upcoming forum put on by our friends at the Police Reform Organizing Project!
 The event will consist primarily of a conversation among academics, policy makers, journalists, and eventually you the audience about current abusive police practices and how all of us agitating together can address and correct them.The line up for the evening includes:
CUNY Professors: Dolores Jones-Brown of CUNY John Jay College, Harry Levine of CUNY Queens College, co-authors of The Crime Numbers Game: Management by Manipulation Eli Silverman of CUNY John Jay, and John Eterno of Molloy College State Assembly Member: Jeff Aubry from Corona, Chair of the Corrections Committee City Council Members: Danny Dromm from Jackson Heights, Letitia James from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Rosie Mendez from the Lower East Side, and Jumaane Williams of Brooklyn’s 45th District. Journalists: Andy Humm from both the Gotham Gazette and Gay City News, and Liliana Segura from The Nation. |
In January 2010, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that opened the floodgates for increased corporate influence in our elections. This decision, Citizens United v. FEC, rolled back long-standing restrictions on corporate spending in elections, allowing corporations, trade associations and non-profits to spend unlimited, and often undisclosed, amounts of money directly on elections.
As we mark the second anniversary of this unfortunate Supreme Court ruling, we must not sit idly as large donors try to buy our elections. We must seize this opportunity and let it be known that our democracy is not for sale to the highest bidder!
The 2010 midterm elections provided the first glimpse of the potential impact of this ruling, and this year’s Presidential election is on track to break records on election spending once again. If the Republican Primary elections are an indication of what’s to come, Super PAC spending could exceed direct campaign spending this year.
Fortunately, a new proposal at the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) offers new hope to shine a light on this torrent in corporate political spending. The proposal, if adopted, would mandate disclosure of political spending for all publicly-traded companies, finally enabling citizens to hold corporations accountable for their political spending.
The future of our democracy hangs in the balance; please join us in sending a message to the SEC that now is the time to act to ensure full disclosure of corporate political spending.
This weekend: join Occupy Wall Street, Move to Amend and Public Citizen for two days of action against corporate personhood. We hope to see you there!
Friday, January 20
Schedule changes due to permit denial for 500 Pearl!
5pm – Gather at Liberty Plaza (AKA Zuccotti park)
5:30 – March to Foley Square
6-7pm – Rally across from Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse
@ 40 Centre St.
Speakers: RevBilly, Russell Simmons, Chris Hedges, Laurence Lessig, Virgina Rasmussen of Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy + YOU through the people’s mic & your demonstrations!
Saturday, January 21
Please RSVP citizensunitednyc2nd@yahoo.com for location assignment or meet @ 12pm @ City Hall Park (Broadway & Park Place) for an assignment or to join our mobile unit. End approx 3pm.
Locations: Outside Select Corporate Outlets in NYC (TBD)
Plan: Ask Customers & Passersby “Is This A Person?” + come up with creative ways to engage the public as well as provide them with useful research.
Here’s a sampling of the media coverage from yesterday’s passage of a resolution by the New York City Council opposing corporate personhood. Did we miss any links? Post them in the comments.
The Big Apple Lashes Out over Citizens United Decision, Wall Street Journal
City Council Passes Anti-Corporate Personhood Resolution, Politicker NY
Citizens United Backlash Grows From Cali. to NYC Urging Congress to Overturn Corporate Personhood, Democracy Now!
Council Member Stephen Levin on WBAI Evening News, January 4, 2011
The Fight to End Corporate Personhood Comes to NYC, Dylan Ratigan
City Council: Corporations are not People, Daily Intel
New York City Council Passes Resolution Opposing Corporate Personhood, Huffington Post
New York City Council Denies Corporate Personhood, Daily Kos
New York City Council to Vote on Ending Corporate Personhood, The Raw Story
New York City Takes Aim at Corporate Personhood, Death + Taxes
The Council Tackles Corporate Personhood, Transparency, and the Budget, Gotham Gazette
New York City Council Votes Against Corporate Personhood, Citizens United, truthout
Thanks for your support and help spreading the word about today’s news! We’re excited to be part of the movement to take our democracy back. Stay in touch with us here, on Twitter (@nycprogressives), on Facebook, or sign up for our e-newsletter. We’ll be posting details soon about a national day of action on January 21 against corporate personhood. And stay tuned for our news round up tomorrow morning!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 4, 2012
CONTACT: Mary Tek, Coordinator
212-341-9509 / nyccprogresscaucus@gmail.com
City Council Passes Resolution Declaring that Corporations Are Not People
NEW YORK, NY — The Progressive Caucus of the City Council commends today’s passage of a resolution opposing the United States Supreme Court Citizens United decision, which gave corporations the same First Amendment rights as people. Progressive Caucus Members Brad Lander, Melissa Mark-Viverito and Steve Levin sponsored this resolution, with the entirety of the Progressive Caucus as co-sponsors. We thank Speaker Christine Quinn for her leadership on this important issue.
As our support of this resolution demonstrates, restoring confidence in government and strengthening democratic participation is a core principle of the Progressive Caucus. We believe that corporations should not share the same rights as people, that unlimited and unreported corporate donations meant to sway the electoral process should not be considered freedom of speech, and that the government should regulate the raising and spending of money by corporations intended to influence elections. We cannot allow corporate money to manipulate our democracy.
As Justice John Paul Stevens recognized in his dissent in the Citizens United decision, “corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help facilitate and structure the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their ‘personhood’ often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of ‘We the People’ by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.”
The Progressive Caucus supports this sentiment and urges Congress to take action to protect our democracy against corporate control and return the election process to the people.
