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Today's "Corporations and Democracy" looks at a new far right Justice and the security of the November election

11/12/2020

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On today's edition of "Corporations and Democracy" radio, hosts Annie Esposito and Steve Scalmanini explore "Will New Supreme Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett Become the Most Radical Right-Wing Member of the Supreme Court" with guest Marjorie Cohn, professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and former president of the National Lawyers Guild.

In the second half of the program, Annie and Steve welcome Harvey Wasserman, a long-time writer and radio host, for a take on "The Integrity of the Presidential Election."

"Corporations and Democracy" airs from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. [Pacific Time] on Mendocino and Ukiah public radio stations KZYX & Z, 90.7, 91.5, and 88.3 FM, or you can listen live at the station website, www.kzyx.org. 
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Letter: "Oregon should investigate the benefits of creating a public state bank"

6/29/2020

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​Alliance co-chair David Delk has written a great letter to the editor in support of public banking, looking to the success of the public Bank of North Dakota in making Paycheck Protection Program loans to struggling businesses in that state.

Economic forecasts predict long-term unemployment and business closures as the result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Until there's a widely available and safe vaccine, there will be no hoped-for "V-shaped" recovery. In fact, what we have seen so far is the largest corporations getting bigger and the rich getting richer, as they take over market and services from smaller and locally-owned retailers, restaurants, and service providers.

As financial institutions committed to putting the public good first, public banks would be a key component of a broad economic recovery, if there were more of them! Fortunately there are active campaigns to establish public banks in cities and states across the US. The Massachusetts and Oregon campaigns are Alliance-sponsored projects.

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Plans for Portland OR Public Bank focus on city officials, state campaign

4/28/2020

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by David Delk
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Portland Public Banking Alliance is moving forward with a dual focused plan to advance creation of a Portland (OR) municipal public bank while at the same time beginning the process for a state-wide initiative campaign to amend the state constitution to allow formation of a state public bank.
 
Language in the Oregon state constitution has been interpreted to prohibit such a bank. We are working on the initiative language now with a view to getting this on the ballot in November 2022.
 
In the city of Portland we have identified several candidates running for Mayor and City Council positions who support a municipal bank formation. Happily those candidates are in a strong position to join the council next year to give us a majority of council members, and a likely strong partner voice in the Oregon legislature.
 
Organizing at the state level continues as we need to change state law to facilitate municipal bank formation. While the state constitution is said to prohibit a state public bank, no such language exists regarding municipal bank formation. But a couple of changes need to be made to state law to ease the path to achieving that goal. We continue our outreach to current members of the Oregon legislature as well as candidates running for those positions. And we will reintroduce the Municipal Banks Bill in the new legislative session.

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Campaign for a public bank in Massachusetts moves forward

3/16/2020

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by Barbara Clancy

The Massachusetts Public Banking campaign, a sponsored project of Alliance for Democracy, is organizing for a 2021 refiling of our bill to create a public bank to fund municipal infrastructure projects. We are also assessing potential changes to the bill to help the state build a more just and resilient economy following the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Our steering committee is looking at how to broadly define infrastructure in order to win more municipal and public support, as well as considering whether the bank should be empowered to lend directly to small businesses as well as cities and towns. Steering committee members are also very aware that the economic crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic could easily be a precursor for more long-lasting disruption caused by climate collapse. That realization makes our work all the more urgent.

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Deepening Democracy: Alliance co-chair David Delk on the 10th Anniversary of Citizens United v. FEC

1/21/2020

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David Delk has given this talk on Citizens United v. FEC to several groups in Oregon. In it, he explains the need for an amendment to the Constitution saying that its rights belong to people, not corporations, and that governments must regulate campaign finance, and gives a call to action to support a Senate version of HJR48, the We the People Amendment.

My topic today is Deepening Democracy.
 
You might expect that I will talk about how to get out the vote, how to get rid of the Electoral College, how we need to reinstate the Voting Rights Act of 1964 which the Supreme Court punched a big hole in recently.  Or maybe about, here in Oregon especially, how to control the flow of unlimited money into the political process, specifically by supporting the legislative referral to the Nov 2020 ballot amending the OR constitution to allow limits on political campaign contributions in Oregon.   We all need to support this referral in our communities.
 
But instead I want to talk about Citizen United, because Jan 21st is the 10 anniversary of that awful decision.  It struck yet another blow against democracy by allowing even more special interest corporate money into the politics system, swamping the voices of ordinary people like you and I.
I want to talk about corporate personhood and the court system’s granting of human rights to corporations. Court-created corporate personhood has given the rights and privileges of human beings to corporations while removing them from the duties and obligation of being our servants.   


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"Money and Democracy"

12/17/2019

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In 2013, Dave Lewit, active with the Massachusetts Public Banking working group and a former Alliance chapter coordinator, looked at the aftermath of the "Great Recession" and what organizations and theorists were proposing to address systemic problems with our global and national financial systems. 

He wrote this article, which was first published in Empirical magazine. It looks at the link between money and rebellion, and some of the groundbreaking changes advocated by those working to democratize finance and money, including public banks, unemployed worker co-op formation, government-created credit bypassing private banks, and a trillion-dollar coin to jump start the economy and shrink public debt. Just as in 2013, it's time for popular education to lay out these issues and solutions. 
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Win on California's public bank bill can advance other state's campaigns

10/21/2019

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​Public banking activists in California and across the country are celebrating the passage of AB 857, authorizing California cities, counties, and the state to create their own public banks. The bill was signed into law in October by Governor Gavin Newsom after being filed at the start of the session by Assembly members David Chiu and Miguel Santiago.  But the bill’s filing was preceded by years of city-level advocacy, with local public bank groups in Los Angeles, Oakland, Humboldt County, and San Francisco, among others. These groups worked with city councils and county government and built connections across issues to bring a diverse coalition together in support of the bill once it was filed.
 
With San Francisco and Los Angeles both working on filing bank plans under the new bill, look for these cities to join North Dakota and American Samoa, as well as dozens of other countries where public banks are established, in being able to provide non-profit, transparent, accountable and affordable finances for public purposes—putting public money to work for the common good, rather than Wall Street profits.
 
Alliance Co-chair Nancy Price was one of dozens of CA Public Banking Alliance campaigners who met with Assembly and Senate committee members in the spring and early summer to help shepherd the bill through several committee hearings and votes, and to help fend off unfriendly amendments. “The combined efforts of Coalition members and endorsers of this bill, as well as calls to the legislature and committee members and in-district visits led to success,” she said. “And this California win will give a huge push to Alliance sponsored campaigns” for public banks, currently underway in Massachusetts and Portland OR.


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Alliance in Oregon helps win and defend single payer study, ballot measure on campaign contributions

8/6/2019

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Oregon’s legislature has approved a ballot measure for the Nov 2020 ballot to amend the state’s Constitution to allow limits on campaign contribution at the state, county and city levels, to allow disclosure of contributors, and to allow political advertisements to also include information on who paid for them. But that hasn’t put a stop to a citizen effort to collect enough signatures to get a similar measure on the ballot.
 
Oregon is one of only five states that have no enforced campaign contribution limits—the others are Alabama, Nebraska, Utah and Virginia. The result is outlandish amounts of money given and spent in elections--$37 million in the last gubernatorial race, with $2.5 million coming from Nike founder Phil Knight alone--and an increasingly clear line between money and inaction on issues of concern to voters. For instance, Republican legislators who skipped the state to block a vote on a clean energy jobs bill also received large donations from companies whose bottom lines would have been impacted by the legislation. 
 
Still, Oregonians are continuing to collect 220,000 signatures statewide to get the a similar measure on the ballot, since it’s possible for the state legislature to rescind their approval.  Alliance council member Joan Horton said that legislators take the signature drive seriously, and knowing that people in their districts were out working for the measure spurred them to support a referral “A continuing signature drive is “insurance” that the legislature will not rescind their referral of SJR18 during 2020’s short session. According to our attorney, we are not on the ballot for certain until that short-session is over next year. He says it’s very unlikely to be rescinded, but it’s a chance we don’t want or need to take”, she said.
 
Alliance national co-chair David Delk noted that in Portland, the local chapter’s efforts will be focused on having the 2020 state ballot measure approved by city and county voters and supporting efforts elsewhere in the state. Every expectation is that it will pass locally, since Portland and Multnomah county voters have already approved two other local ballot measures by about 90%, though implementation is still partly tied up in court. The chapter will also join with other supporting organizations to make sure that when the question passes, contribution limits established under it are not too high and the implementing legislation is loophole-free.
 
In another legislative win Oregon also approved two legislative study committees on a single payer health care plan for the state, and a state public option. David, who also leads the Health Care for All Oregon Metro chapter, said “The single payer study committee is expected to write legislation to implement such a program in Oregon.  Passage of this study committee is quite exciting for Oregonians and moves the ball forward for Oregon to be the first state in the nation to create a single payer health care system.  Remember, everybody in, no one out!"

 


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California public banking bill advances through committees

7/3/2019

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PicturePublic banking advocates in Sacramento; AfD co chair Nancy Price second from left in front row.
Thanks to the California Public Banking Alliance's coalition building, AB 857, which authorizes California cities, counties, and the state to create their own public banks, has advanced through the state Assembly and two of three Senate committee hearings. Just yesterday, July 3rd, the Senate Governance and Finance Committee voted 4-3 to send this bill to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

AB 857 needs more support, so we ask our California alliance members to visit the California Public Banking Alliance homepage and scroll down to Sign the Petition, Send a Letter to Your Representative, or Sign an Organization Endorsement Form. Want to know more? You can access a factsheet here.

There are still hurdles as Wall Street banks and the US Chamber of Commerce increase efforts to defeat the bill. Because AB 857 was amended in the Senate Governance and Finance Committee, if it gets through Senate Appropriations and passes on the Senate floor, it was go back to the Assembly floor for a concurrence vote.

Alliance Co-chair Nancy Price has been among CA Public Banking Alliance campaigners meeting with committee members over the past months. As she says, “The combined efforts of Coalition members and endorsers of this bill, as well as calls to the legislature and committee members and in-district visits have led to success to date. There’s more to do to get AB 857 to the Governor’s desk and signed into law which would give a huge push to Alliance sponsored campaigns in Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington DC.

Basically AB 857 provides for a city or county, or a Joint Powers Authority, a combination of cities and counties together in a large geographic area, to apply to the state for a charter to establish a public bank. Already groups are working on city or county bank organizing in many parts of the state. A related Senate bill could set up a state public bank by changing the state’s revolving infrastructure loan program to a depository bank.

The California effort is part of a constantly growing movement for public banking, with Alliance-affiliated campaigns active in Oregon, Washington DC, and Massachusetts.

In Massachusetts, H935/S579, which creates a public bank to fund municipal infrastructure projects, had its first hearing before the legislature’s Joint Committee on Financial Services in late May. Advocates for the bank explained how it would work, the difference between a bank and a revolving loan fund, and the low risk in making these types of loans.

Alliance national campaigns coordinator Barbara Clancy told the committee that the bank builds on recent advocacy, including a push to divest Boston pension funds from fossil fuels and corporations involved in the prison industry, and to move $250 million of the state’s pension’s operating funds to impact investments and local banks. “We have the need, expertise and values to be one of the first states to successfully establish a public bank… a model of public finance which is flexible, cost-effective, and rooted in the community-minded values of voters,” she said.

The Spring 2014 issue of Justice Rising focused on Public Banking: Creating Jobs, Building Communities. You can read it online here, or request printed copies by contacting afd@thealliancefordemocracy.org or calling 978-333-7971.



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Maine Municipal Association's model ordinance undercuts local food sovereignty efforts

6/19/2019

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by Bonnie Preston

Since Maine’s town meeting season of 2011, 55 towns have passed the Local Food and Community Self Governance Ordinance (LFCSGO), which gives small farmers who sell directly to their customers an exemption to licensing and inspection requirements.

For some reason, the Maine Municipal Association (MMA), a statewide membership organization which provides an array of services to assist municipalities in their governance, has never supported the LFCSGO. The MMA doesn't set policy, but instead supports needs that are frequently beyond the scope of what small towns in particular can do for themselves. Yet they have recently recommended a seriously modified version of the LFCSGO to towns that ask for their advice on this issue.


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