Learn about Alliance efforts
to end corporate personhood and to curb the
power of corporations over our government,
elections, media, environment and culture.
Find out how chapters, organizers and allies
are promoting alternative ideas of
solidarity economics and local democracy.
We have
brochures, fliers, bumperstickers,
signs, and other materialto
help you educate for action. See our"tools
for organizing"page for
downloads and ordering information.
Draw a crowd for Democracy! Street
theater, visibility and other
attention-getting actions here!
The
people take action!
The Latest News... Boulder
CO voters approve resolution calling
for congressional amendment to
end corporate personhood and
"money as speech." Info and Move
to Amend press release here.
AfD
organized, the City Council
voted! Alliance
for Democracy's Monterey County
chapter leads Marina CA to pass
a resolution calling for
amendment to end corporate First
Amendment rights. Learn more here.
National
Call-in Day on South Korea,
Colombia, and Panama FTAs. Three
bad agreements finally make it
to Congress; we can't afford
'em! Learn more here.
"Corporations
and Democracy" on the air and
the web. Alliance
members produce this
twice-monthly radio show
focusing on alternatives to
corporate rule. Check out the
latest programs online here.
New
videos from AfD Portland's
"Populist Dialogues." David
Delk interviews attorney Dan
Meek on the privatization of the
judiciary, Nancy Matela on
water, and David Cobb on
corporate personhood. Online on
Youtube
and at PopulistDialogues.org.
AfD
Monterey County sponsors US
Uncut actions AfD Monterey County has
sponsored four local US Uncut
actions: two against Bank of
America, one against Fed Ex and
one against Apple. Turnouts have
been good, with new people
attending each event. Read more
here(pictures,
too!).
AfD national council member Rick
Staggenborg, MD, who
is also founder of Soldiers
for Peace International,
recently spoke to Dan Shea, of
Veterans for Peace about
corporate personhood,
democracy, and veterans'
issues. Rick has formed a new
national work group for VfP on
abolition of corporate
personhood. Video here!
The
Democracy Convention is
coming to Madison this
August. Come to
Madison to explore the state
of American democrac, how to
protect and expand our rights,
and how to energize the people
to protect and build a
democratic culture. The
Alliance is a convening group!
Learn more here.
Maine towns vote in
"Local Food and Self
Governance Ordinance"
to protect and grow farm to
table economies. More here.
"The
issue is not the issues. The
issue is the system."
Our founder,
Ronnie Dugger, said that almost
twenty years ago, and it's still
true: behind every pressing
issue, from global hunger to
climate change to growing
economic inequality in the US,
the problem behind the problem
is the overwhelming influence of
major corporations on government
and policy-making.
We can't have a sustainable
energy policy when the oil, gas,
and coal industries demand big
subsidies and few regulations,
all in the name of increasing
their short-term profits. We
can't eradicate hunger when
global develop emphasizes export
economies in the global south
and the production of cheap and
unhealthy calories at home. And
we can't count on our
"representatives" in Congress to
deliver much in the way of
reform to us when so many of
them owe their jobs to the big
campaign contributions that
industry, multinationals, and
the corporate elite provide
them.
That's why as we work on the
issues that most effect our
communities we need to keep an
eye on the twin beasts in the
background: corporate personhood
and corporate rule. AfD has
always put corporate rule at the
center of its campaigns, whether
it's working with towns to pass
"rights-based" ordinances to
protect water, promoting
alternative development systems,
"being the media" or organizing
for single payer health
care.
Campaign coordinators:
Move to Amend
Liaison
Nancy Price
nancytprice39 [at] gmail
[dot] com
Corporate
Globalization and
Positive Alternatives
Ruth Caplan
Washington, DC
202-244-0561
rcaplan [at] igc [dot] org
Dave Lewit, dlewit [at]
igc [dot] org
Current campaigns and areas of
focus: We are an executive
committee member organization of
Move
to Amend, a national
coalition working to amend the
Constitution to take
constitutional rights back from
corporations. Locally, AfD
members are organizing to pass
city level resolutions
condemning corporate access to
constitutional rights, and
chapters are working on
establishing local Move to Amend
affiliates.
Local
Ordinances: At
the grassroots level, local
communities are passing
"rights-based" ordinances which
deny corporations Constitutional
protections of corporate
personhood as a matter of
law. These local laws
directly challenge settled law
created by U.S. Supreme Court
decisions giving corporations
constitutional rights as if they
were real people. These
ordinances are essential to
build the resistance needed and
the grassroots movement to pass
an Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution to deny corporate
constitutional rights..
The Alliance's Defending Water
for Life campaign worked with
Barnstead NH to pass the first
rights-based ordinance in the
country to ban corporations from
taking water, denied
corporations constitutional
rights, and declared the town
has the fundamental right to
self-governance. It is the
"Barnstead
Water Rights and Local
Self-Government Ordinance."
The story was told in Yes!
magazine.
Two years later the people of
Barnstead amended the ordinance
in town meeting to further
declare that nature has rights
and that Barnstead would protect
the rights of natural systems
and local ecosystems to thrive.
Today four towns in New
Hampshire and two in Maine have
passed similar water ordinances.
For more on local rights-based
ordinances denying corporate
constitutuional rights,
including ordinances passed in
Pittsburgh PA and Wales NY to
ban fracking for natural gas, go
to www.celdf.org
The Latest Video...
David
Delk, Portland AfD, on the
South Korea FTA
Move
to Amend's David Cobb on
Corporate Personhood and
Vermont's state-level resolution
to end it
Karen
Coulter on corporate
personhood
The
Story of Stuff Project's "Story
of Citizens United"
