Letter to the Ozaukee Press

Thank you for your editorial in the most recent edition of the PRESS on the Supreme Court decision about “free speech” which declares corporations to have the rights of persons under the constitution.  This indefensible decision is surely judicial activism at its worst.  Corporations are not persons and should not be able to use their vast financial power and influence to drown out the voices of real people, particularly at election time.

Some multi-national corporations are based in other countries, giving these countries a say in what should concern only U.S. citizens.

There are some actions all of us can take to reduce the impact of this decision:

• Don’t patronize multinational corporations (for example, don’t purchase bottled water or soda, etc.)  As consumers, we can make a difference! Shop and buy locally instead.  Money given to large corporations for purchases does not remain in the community; local purchases support the community.  (The majority of jobs are provided by small to medium sized businesses.)

• Refuse to listen to purveyors of the message that “greed is good”, especially when election time nears and the hate ads appear; offer more support to public media

• Deal with Main Street banks and credit unions rather than large Wall St. banks

• Talk to friends, family and neighbors about this issue; form study groups to talk about “corporate personhood”; put this issue on Facebook and Twitter; point out that corporate domination can be more ruinous to democracy than “big government”

• Support legislation to revive anti-trust laws, promote fair taxation and provide for public financing of elections (this is being tried in various locations throughout the country)

• Support bill HR-1836, the Fair Elections Now Act

• Support efforts to make big corporations, unions and other organizations publicly accountable for the money they spend influencing elections

• Use the topic “Why Corporations are Not People” in study and book groups; Unequal Protection and Threshold, both by Thom Hartman, are pertinent to this topic; also an older book, The Corporation, which is about corporate power.

• If you are lucky enough to be a corporate shareholder, make your voice heard at shareholder meetings; if you own shares in a mutual fund, you can also have an impact.

• Go to www.movetoamend.org/take-action for further suggestions and to find group materials; sign the “motion to amend”(which supports an amendment to the constitution) you will find there, and don’t forget to click on the title “The First American Revolution: Before Lexington and Concord”, by historian Ray Raphael, about the actions of the Worcester, Mass. Citizens vs. Tory judges and other officials

Multi-national corporations have used our legal system for decades to make enormous profits at the expense of our health, our communities, our planet and our democracy.  We understand that the major interest of a corporation is to make profit, but it should not be able to damage the public interest in pursuit of that profit!   It is not “government of, by and for the corporations …” but “government of, by and for the people! 

 

Marliss Rogers