Sebastopol to consider resolution of support to End Corporate Personhood!!

[Barry]

I'm delighted to say that Councilmember Kathleen Shaffer has told me she plans to place a resolution on the agenda of an upcoming Sebastopol City Council meeting to support to Ending Corporate Personhood and declare Money is Not Speech!

Kathleen attended the last Sonoma County Occupy Town Hall Meeting, so perhaps that helped, along with letters from me, and I imagine others, urging the city to take a stand on this critical issue.

Several other cities have already taken this step, including New York City, Los Angeles, Deluth, Minn., Portland, Oregon, Berkeley, Fairfax and Petaluma.

Abraham Entin, the local representative of Move To Amend, mentioned at the Town Hall meeting than an even stronger action would be for the city to place the resolution on the next public ballot (https://movetoamend.org/toolkit#PassResolution). There may be a financial cost for that, which is something to consider.

I'll ask Abraham to weigh in here, and keep you posted regarding when the item will be considered.

And here's a reminder for the nationwide protest this Friday, including SF.

Here's a model resolution provided by Move to Amend:

Model Resolution


CALL TO ACTION: Organize Your Town to Pass a Resolution to Legalize Democracy and Abolish Corporate Personhood!
Print version (.pdf) here...

Whereas, government of, by, and for the people has long been a cherished American value, and We The People’s fundamental and inalienable right to self-govern, and thereby secure rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness is guaranteed in the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and;

Whereas, free and fair elections are essential to democracy and effective self-governance, and;

Whereas, persons are rightfully recognized as human beings whose essential needs include clean air, clean water, safe and secure food, and;

Whereas, corporations are entirely human-made legal fictions created by express permission of We The People and our government, and;

Whereas, corporations can exist in perpetuity, can exist simultaneously in many nations at once, need only profit for survival, and exist soley through the legal charter imposed by the government of We The People, and;

Whereas, in addition to these advantages, the great wealth of large corporations allows them to wield coercive force of law to overpower human beings and communities, thus denying We The People’s exercise of our Constitutional rights, and;

Whereas, corporations are not mentioned in the Constitution, and The People have never granted constitutional rights to corporations, nor have We decreed that corporations have authority that exceeds the authority of We The People of the United States, and;

Whereas, interpretation of the US Constitution by appointed Supreme Court justices to include corporations in the term ‘persons’ has long denied We The Peoples’ exercise of self- governance by endowing corporations with Constitutional protections intended for We The People, and;

Whereas, the illegitimate judicial bestowal of civil and political rights upon corporations usurps basic human and Constitutional rights guaranteed to human persons, and also empowers corporations to sue municipal and state governments for adopting laws that violate ‘corporate rights’ even when those laws serve to protect and defend the rights of human persons and communities, and;
Whereas, corporations are not and have never been human beings, and therefore are rightfully subservient to human beings and governments as our legal creations, and;

Whereas, large corporations’ profits and survival are often in direct conflict with the essential needs and rights of human beings, and;

Whereas, the recent Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission Supreme Court decision that rolled back the legal limits on corporate spending in the electoral process creates an unequal playing field and allows unlimited corporate spending to influence elections, candidate selection, policy decisions and sway votes, and forces elected officials to divert their attention from The Peoples’ business, or even vote against the interest of their human constituents, in order to ensure competitive campaign funds for their own re-election, and;

Whereas, large corporations own most of America’s mass media and use that media as a megaphone to express loudly their political agenda and to convince Americans that their primary role is that of consumers, rather than sovereign citizens with rights and responsibilities within our democracy, and this forces citizens to toil to discern the truth behind headlines and election campaigning, and;

Whereas, tens of thousands of people and municipalities across the nation are joining with the Move to Amend campaign to call for an Amendment to the US Constitution to Abolish Corporate Personhood;

Therefore be it resolved that the State of (City of, County of, etc.) ___________ hereby calls on our (legislators, elected officials, mayor, commissioners, etc.) ___________ to join the tens of thousands of citizens, grassroots organizations and local governments across the country in the Move to Amend campaign to call for an Amendment to the Constitution to Abolish Corporate Personhood and return our democracy, our elections, our communities back to America’s human persons and to thus reclaim our sovereign right to self-governance.

Be it further resolved that the State of (City of, County of, etc.) ___________ calls on other communities and jurisdictions to join with us in this action by passing similar Resolutions.

Be it further resolved that the State of (City of, County of, etc.) ___________ supports education to increase public awareness of the threats to our democracy posed by Corporate Personhood, and encourages lively discussion to build understanding and consensus to take appropriate community and municipal actions to democratically respond to these threats.

DATE: ___________

[Abraham Entin]

I went to the city council meeting tonight, gave them my card and offered to help them in any way I could in terms of drafting the resolution, etc.

Also, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is going to vote on (and pass) a resolution on Tuesday. I am told that it is essentially the Move To Amend version taken off our website.

We are working towards a County of Sonoma ballot resolution for the Nov. ballot. We need just over 18,000 signatures and will welcome the participation of any individuals or groups who want to get involved in this effort.

This whole thing is moving very quickly. People do understand that corportions are not people and that money is not speech-even if the Supreme Court does not!

[Magick]

AND stopping the proposed CVS/ Chase travesty, YES!
Great to hear Kathleen Shaffer opposes corporate personhood for all the reasons in this doc. Especially the one that states,
"Whereas, in addition to these advantages, the great wealth of large corporations allows them to wield coercive force of law to overpower human beings and communities, thus denying We The People's exercise of our Constitutional rights"

So this must mean Kathleen opposes CVS/Chase! Go Kathleen!

I'm delighted to say that Councilmember Kathleen Shaffer has told me she plans to place a resolution on the agenda of an upcoming Sebastopol City Council meeting to support to Ending Corporate Personhood and declare Money is Not Speech! .......

[/INDENT]

[gardenmaniac]

directions: Plant tongue firmly in cheek before reading ...

yes, as long as we remember that life begins at incorporation, it's all good.....