By What Authority, a publication of the
Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy (POCLAD)
Vol. 10, No. 1 Spring, 2008 www.poclad.org

The Spirit of Change
Greg Coleridge

Barack Obama was awakened during the night following his latest Democratic Party Presidential debate. Two ghosts stood before him. "We are the spirits of Samuel Adams and William Lamb."

"Who?" Obama asked in a daze, unsure if he was hallucinating from lack of sleep.

"We're the ghosts of real change."

"I am the spirit of Samuel Adams, a revolutionary for American liberty and promoter of the Declaration of Independence."

"And I am the spirit of William Lamb, a founder of the US Populist movement in the 1880's-1890's, supporter of the Omaha Platform, and organizer of the People's Party."

Obama was puzzled. "You're both dressed pretty funny, but more to the point, why are you here?"

"We've come to talk. You, Clinton, even McCain, speak constantly about 'change.' We've watched your debates, read news on your light screens, and …"

"Light screens? Do you mean televisions and computers?"

"Ah yes, that's what you call them. Anyway, all you candidates talk about is who will bring change to this country: real change, fundamental change, policy changes to address unmet needs and give citizens more power."

"Sounds especially like me," Obama said assuredly.

"We're not so sure," the ghosts said in unison. "We believe political change in our times was more profound than anything being proposed now."

And so Sam, Lamb and "Bam," advocates from three turbulent periods in US history, huddled to discuss political change.

************************

SAM: I agitated for the greatest change in the history of our nation, political independence from Great Britain. The Declaration of Independence, passed on July 4, 1776, presented a lengthy list of "repeated injuries and usurpations" by the British government and asserted that the 13 colonies were "Free and Independent States."

LAMB: Weren't you a signer?

SAM: Yes, one of 56 signers of the Second Continental Congress, a revolutionary, illegal body.

BAM: Did the British consider you and your ilk "terrorists"?

SAM: A renegade if not worse, in part for supporting the Declaration. I said in 1776, "Is not America already independent? …Why not then declare it."1 The power and inspiration of the Declaration was its unequivocal assertions that, "All men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights… That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from consent of the governed… [and] whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and institute new government… [in fact] it is their duty to throw off such Government and to provide new Guards for their future security."

The essence of the document, revolutionary then and now, was the conviction that people can and should be governing-not kings, popes or generals.

British rule could not be "reformed." The King's army and crown corporations could not be made accountable to the public. They all had to be replaced, so I worked for revolutionary change, for a system of self-rule.

LAMB: The Declaration was an inspiration to us Populists. But be honest, Sam, sixty-nine percent of the Declaration's signers held colonial office under England. Many who supported both it and the revolution were colonial lawyers, landowners and merchants, including you, who only wanted independence from Great Britain to impose their own brand of political and economic control. Following the revolution, did you not say, "In monarchy the crime of treason may admit of being pardoned or lightly punished, but the man who dares rebel against the laws of a republic ought to suffer death"?2

SAM: I did?

LAMB: Yup.

SAM: Still, I opposed the British Stamp Act, helped organize the Boston Tea Party and the Committees of Correspondence, colonists who organized into small groups to share information and mobilize the public.

LAMB: You were a great communicator, organizer and agitator Sam, but it was selective. Your instigation of mob protests was directed only at British rule and wealth, not the consolidation of power by colonial elites. This omission carried over to the Declaration, which ignored inequalities of property, and I ask, "How could people have equal rights, with stark differences in wealth?"3 The Declaration was a form of manipulation to focus anger and attention only on British rule.

BAM: While the Declaration is as inspirational as many of my speeches, there are several glaring omissions, notably independence for black slaves, women and native people. The draft of the Declaration included a grievance against the King for transporting slaves but was removed before adoption. Native people were called "the merciless Indian Savages..." and there was no room for women in "All men are created equal."

LAMB: Change during your period, Sam, was not as dramatic as during my lifetime. I helped organize the largest and most elaborate democratic mass movement in US history: Populism. It was a mass democratic insurgency among "plain people"-farmers and urban workers-to respond to the impoverishment of millions of farmers and workers by banks, railroads, and the consequences of economic and political centralization.

BAM: I haven't heard much about the Populists.

LAMB: Most people of your day haven't. We've been largely erased from history books. 0nly our "spirits" remain.

The Populists sought to create a democratic movement to counter the hierarchical culture of the day. It was "a new way of looking at society, a way of thought representing a shaking off of individual forms of deference… individual self-respect and collective self-confidence… class consciousness… growing political sensibility… the mass expression of a new political vision."4

BAM: Now I see why there's not much known in our culture about you people.

LAMB: The creation of this democratic movement for revolutionary change was achieved in sequential steps: forming organizations, recruitment, education, and political action. State farmers Alliances were the original organizing base. I organized over 100 sub-alliances in Texas alone and eventually the National Farmers Alliance. We recruited through large-scale Populist-sponsored farmers cooperatives and I was the Texas' Alliance's first purchasing and traveling agent. Hundreds of newsletters and 40,000 "lecturers" were disseminated throughout Texas. We educated members continually, our version of the Committees of Correspondence, Sam. Collective political action bridging farmers and laborers was achieved through the Populist Party, which I helped launch.

SAM: This still doesn't sound very revolutionary, pal. You weren't talking about overthrowing the government.

BAM: Promoting major change through a political party is my goal, too.

LAMB: It was revolutionary, Sam, and there is a difference, Bam, between Populist goals and yours.

Populists constantly talked about "the coming revolution" through ballots not bullets. Revolution meant creating a "third party of the industrial millions" and overthrowing the two party system. We saw many elections as rigged and the electoral college as undemocratic. We tried to bring the corporate state under popular control through democratic politics.5

As fellow Populist Tom Watson said, "It's useless to ask Congress to help us, just as it was folly for our forefathers to ask for relief from the tea tax; they revolted and so should we."6

The unifying platform for Populist revolution, the "Second Declaration of Independence," was the Omaha Platform. The 4000 delegates to the first People's Party Convention in Omaha, Nebraska, adopted it on July 4, 1892-116 years after the first Declaration.7

SAM: Where's Nebraska?

LAMB: Later Sam. The Omaha Platform, like the Declaration, spoke to the grievances and demands for major change within the context of its time.

BAM: What did it say? Perhaps I should include elements of it in the Democratic Party platform if I'm the Presidential candidate.

LAMB: The Omaha Platform's Preamble states:
"The conditions which surround us best justify our cooperation; we meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot box, the Legislatures, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of the bench. The people are demoralized; most of the States have been compelled to isolate the voters at the polling places to prevent universal intimidation and bribery. The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced, business prostrated, homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished, and the land concentrating in the hands of capitalists."8

BAM: Sounds like something Dennis Kucinich would say!

LAMB: The Omaha Platform was a culmination of ideas and strategies from farmers and workers over a six-year period. Like the Declaration, it listed both grievances and fundamental prescriptions.

The platform called for abolishing the national banking system giving private banks control over money and credit; public ownership or control of the railroads, telegraph and telephone in the interests of the people; a federal graduated income tax; prohibition of alien land ownership; direct election of US Senators; the citizen initiative, referendum and recall; the secret ballot; and maybe most creatively, adoption of a "sub-treasury" system to expand currency based not on gold or silver but on agricultural products.

SAM: Still, many of these changes were "reformist." What's so radical about direct election of Senators if the Senate is part of a political system favoring a small number of elites?

LAMB: Some of our planks were less radical than others. The Progressives, those who followed the Populists, pushed for the more modest measures. Some eventually became law. Other proposals were more substantial, such as public control of banks, railroads and telephones. The goal of its financial sections, the key portions of the Platform, were radical - to transfer control of the monetary system from the nation's corporate banks and return it "in the name of the whole people," to the US Treasury.9

All our demands, however, sought to shift the balance of power, economic and political, toward "plain people." These changes were as revolutionary in our time as forcing the British out of the colonies in yours.

Changes advocated by the Populists, however, transcended its political platform and cooperative buying and selling programs. The crux of Populism was creating a democratic culture. Populists attempted to build a type of cooperative community or commonwealth within the framework of American capitalism, one that put people at the center of the political and economic decisions affecting their lives. It added up to a movement culture that was understood, accepted and lived by millions of citizens.10

Progressives didn't go that far. After the Populists were defeated in 1896, those who sought change accepted the corporate state and tried merely to temper its worst abuses through the creation of "regulatory" laws and agencies. This is the political and economic model you, Bam, and others working for "change" are stuck with today.

SAM: The Populists failed in the end. It was hardly revolutionary if it didn't yield much change.

LAMB: True, we didn't win. Elements of the Omaha Platform are now law, but there is no cooperative, democratic culture. Isn't the same true of the Declaration and those who worked for true self-governance in 1776? Its essence of a government operating with the "consent of the governed" has not been realized. Today, those claiming that We the People have not only a right but a duty to revolt if inalienable rights are not secured would be called "extremists," even "terrorists" and treated accordingly.

BAM: A fundamental shortcoming of the Populists was their excluding blacks. Populist structures and members were often racist. In fact, many who call themselves "Populists" in recent times hold racist beliefs.

LAMB: That's a sad truth. The radical dream of early Alliance founders in Texas was to create a farmer-labor coalition that was interracial. Alliance lecturers organized many black Alliances which led to the Colored Farmers' National Alliance. Nevertheless, internal and external racism impeded social unity, economic cooperation, and electoral victory.

************************

BAM: The change I speak of today is tied to offering real hope. I believe we can make government better, more responsive to people. We can control special interests and restore faith and trust in public officials. Hillary Clinton believes much the same. Even McCain supported campaign finance reform.

I believe we can make health care universal, increase labor and environmental provisions of NAFTA and other trade agreements, temporarily suspend home foreclosures, begin immediately to bring some troops home from Iraq, and strengthen ethics in government. This is a small part of my progressive change agenda that I can create with the support of voters. Clinton supports many of the same programs.

Other former Democratic Party candidates were even more radical. John Edwards spoke out against corporate power. Dennis Kucinich promoted a single-payer health care system, eliminating the role of insurance corporations all together, and called for undoing NAFTA.

My vision of change will be fueled if economic conditions worsen for Americans.

LAMB: Nothing you or any other Presidential candidate suggests will reduce corporate constitutional rights and powers or promote people's self-governance.

With due respect, Bam, deep change was never brought about by those in positions of power. It occurs when people act together in insurgent movements. And insurgent movements are not a function of hard times, but of insurgent cultures. Difficult times crush people. Insurgent cultures provide real hope and make possible those processes of organizing, recruiting, educating and politicizing that create and sustain change.11

BAM: How can you say this? My messages of change and hope are drawing record numbers to my campaign. People are inspired, energized, empowered.

LAMB: True. But don't mistake attraction to your campaign with behaviors necessary for a healthy democracy. As Populism declined, little stood in the way of growing political and economic concentration. Democratic aspirations were replaced by mass resignation and plenty of escape into consumerism, entertainment and drugs.

You and your message fill a void only because people of your time do not know and have never experienced an authentic insurgency movement for self-governance. Not just to end a war, expand civil rights or create environmental protections, but a movement affirming individual and collective self-confidence in seeking real political and economic democracy.

SAM: Bam, missing in your and other presidential candidates' analysis is the larger issue of how the power and authority of "We the People," as promoted in the Declaration and Preamble of the US Constitution, has been usurped.

LAMB: By the wealthy class and business corporations, I might add. We need changed rules not only changed faces.

SAM: That's what I thought the Declaration tried to do in 1776.

LAMB: And the Omaha Platform 116 years later, in 1892.

BAM: Do you two realize that 116 years after 1892 is this year, 2008?

LAMB: Rather than working for the adoption of a single national declaration or platform at this time, The Program on Corporation, Law and Democracy (POCLAD) urges decentralized, participatory gatherings to study the Declaration of Independence and Omaha Platform, along with democracy campaigns and cooperative programs from current grassroots organizations. They've collected it all in a Democracy Insurgency Movement packet. This will add another seed to those already sown across the country, one that may lead to a "Third Declaration of Independence" and genuine governance by the "consent of the governed."

BAM: It sounds like a dream, like my experience tonight.

LAMB: A dream? It all depends on the people and their determination to create real change.

************************

Greg Coleridge is a POCLAD principal and works for the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee.

To order a Democracy Insurgency Movement packet, contact POCLAD at people@poclad.org or call 508-398-1145.

Endnotes
1. Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard, History of the United States, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1949, p. 140.
2. Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States, New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1980, p. 94.
3. Zinn, p. 73.
4. Lawrence Goodwyn, The Populist Moment, A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 33.
5. Ibid, p. 124.
6. Ibid, p. 88.
7. Ibid, p. 277.
8. The Omaha Platform.
9. Goodwyn, op. cit., p. 93.
10. Ibid., p. 164-5.
11. Ibid., p. 61.

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AFSC/RELATED RESOURCES ON DEMOCRACY AND CORPORATIONS
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Creating Democracy workshop
An introductory, participatory workshop on how to change laws and assert citizen authority and power.
http://www.afsc.net/PDFFiles/CDWorkshopFlyer.pdf
This is What Democracy in Ohio Looks Like: Ohio’s Democratic/Self-Determination ‘Infrastructure’
[updated, March 2008 ] 16 pages http://www.afsc.net/PDFFiles/InfrastructureNovember07.pdf

Occupying Bush’s State of the Union (January 2008 article)

Controlling Blackwater and Other Corporations (September 21, 2007 letter to editor)
http://www.afsc.net/PDFFiles/092107PDLTEIraqContractorsGC.pdf

Honor Democracy in Iraq (September 13, 2007 letter to editor)
http://www.afsc.net/PDFFiles/091307ABJLTEIraqGC.pdf
Corporatization of Everything Local (April 2007 Ohio House of Representatives Testimony on Senate Bill 117)

A U.S. Constitution with DEMOCRACY IN MIND
Second of two articles on the U.S. Constitution Spring, 2007
By What Authority, published by the Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy [POCLAD]
http://www.poclad.org/bwa/Spring07.htm
The U.S. Constitution: Pull the Curtain
First of two articles on the U.S. Constitution Winter 2007
By What Authority, published by the Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy (POCLAD)
http://www.poclad.org/bwa/Winter07.htm
Nature not the only source of closings (February 2007 article) http://www.afsc.net/PDFFiles/022007ClosingsGColeridge.pdf

Employee Free Choice Act (February 2007 talk)
http://www.afsc.net/PDFFiles/EmployeeFreeChoiceCole.pdf

Will changed faces result in changed policies? (November 2006 article)
http://www.afsc.net/PDFFiles/110806PostElectionEditorial.pdf

Globalization is a choice (November 2006 article) http://www.afsc.net/PDFFiles/112006ABJLTEGlobalization.pdf

Closing the Circle: The Corporatization of Elections (Article)
from By What Authority, a publication of the Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy [POCLAD], Summer, 2006
http://www.poclad.org/bwa/Summer06.htm

Asking the “Rights” Question: Human beings, corporations, and self-governance, Quaker Eco-Bulletin (Nov-Dec 2005 article)

CorpOrNation - The Story of Citizens and Corporations in Ohio. DVD
http://www.afsc.net/Products/CorpOrNation.html

Citizens Over Corporations, A Brief History of Democracy in Ohio and Challenges to Freedom in the Future. Booklet
http://www.afsc.net/Products/COCBooklet.html

Defying Corporations, Defining Democracy: A Book of History and Strategy
http://www.poclad.org/resources/defying.html

Resources for Educators
http://www.afsc.net/educatorresources.html

Other resources on Corporations and Democracy
http://www.afsc.net/neoresources.html

AFSC webpage on Corporations and Democracy
http://www.afsc.net/ejcorpdem.html

The Iraq war and occupation.
Lack of health care for all.
Rising energy prices.

Different problems. Same source.

The power and rights of business corporations.

The drive for war and occupation in Iraq derived in large part from the quest by US-based oil corporations to gain private (i.e. corporate) control over their vast oil reserves. Establishing permanent (what the US government calls “enduring”) military bases was fueled by the need to have protection of “our” oil once oil corporations move in. Never-ending war/occupation funding (supported by both the Republicans and so-called “anti-war” Democrats) was triggered by military contractors eager to re-supply the Pentagon with all the planes, guns, tanks and bullets they want…paid for with our tax dollars. Iraq reconstruction (in terms of projects and budget) sprung from Bechtel, Halliburton and other corporations waiting to jack up prices on no-bid contracts.

The number of persons without health care or inadequate health care continues to rise. More than 47 million US citizens are uninsured, 50 million more are one major health care crisis away from losing everything. The US spends twice as much per capita on health care than any other nation on the planet. Every other industrialized nation has a nationalized health care system except our nation. Private insurance corporations profit tremendously as the middle man increasingly denying coverage and by doing so, increase their botton line. They love the system as is and do all they can to ensure politicians don’t cut them out of the equation though a single-payer, patient- and doctor-run health care system.

Gas prices are at their historic high. Some of it, to be sure, has come from pure financial speculation – big money speculators have increasingly moved their assets from dollars to hard assets (oil and food at the moment). Some of the rise, however, seems sheer corporate greed. Yet, where has been the media exposes or Congressional hearings? Or significant federal funding for alternative energy? Thank the oil corporations.

The Iraq war and occupation.
Lack of health care for all.
Rising energy prices.

Different problems (and there are many others that could be highlighted). Same source.

The power and rights of business corporations.

Oil corporations.
Military contracting corporations.
Reconstruction corporations.
Insurance corporations.
Media corporations.

See a pattern?

The Strategic Corporate Initiative(1) asserts that anti-corporate/democracy activists around the world need more of a shared ideology, a common belief system. They claim what we need is what feminists possessed in the 1970’s.

This insightful report quotes Marjorie Kelley, who in The Divine Right of Capital, said:

It would not have been enough to see poor funding for girls’ athletics as one problem, unequal wages for women as a separate problem, and harassment in the workplace as still a different problem. These battles became one when their common source in sex discrimination was recognized. Yet today we chase after corporate pollution as one problem, low wages as another problem, and corporate welfare as still a third problem.

The authors of the Strategic Corporate Initiative claim that when we’re able to see the common source beneath many of our current problems (from the local to the global), we will become one movement.

That common problem is corporate power and rights.

Notes,
1. The Strategic Corporate Initiative
http://corporateethics.org/downloads/SCI_Report_September_2007.pdf

Ohio’s democractic/self-determination “infrastructure”


From the local to the global, the ability of people to govern themselves is under assault. Some of the major sources of this attack are:

- Business corporations looking to make huge profits by converting what once had been “public” to “private” (“privatization, “ though a more descriptive term would be “corporatization”), including traditional public assets like water and sewer systems and now even schools.

- Individuals looking to increase their power, status, and/or privileges by concentrating decision-making from maany hands (We the People) to few (their own).

- A culture that reinforces notions that public policies are too complicated for ordinary people to understand (thus leaving policy making to experts), that distracts public attention away from self-determination toward the trivial and inane, that define certain arenas (economic in particular) as outside the scope of public input, that continues to erase memory of any/all historical examples of citizen control and definition of their lives, that keeps people separated from coming together to learn from one another and organize to (re)assert meaningful changes.

- Continual legal and constitutional definitions that further “enclose” and redefine “public” arenas as other “Ps”: “private,” “property,” “proprietary,” “privileged”— and thus beyond the reach of public planning, public shaping, and public evaluation.

- A national government that under the guise of “terrorism” has given itself permission to stifle dissent, intimidate dissenters and interrupt effort of self-determination.

But there is another side to this – a democratic/self-determination culture or “infrastructure.” In our communities and across the state exist alternatives to corporations, corporate governance and elite control.

Scores of documents, policies, institutions, structures and groups reflecting inclusiveness are in place – examples where those who are affected by decisions and policies have a legitimate role in the shaping and making of those decisions… or could if we made the effort. They are where We the People have a voice … or could have a real voice if we merely flexed our self-determination muscles.

Many of these documents, policies, institutions, structures and groups are built on the notion of the commons, broadly understood historically as any sets of resources (i.e. land, water, air) that a community recognizes as being accessible to any member of that community. Implied is that every member of the community with equal access to the commons has a voice in managing or maintaining them.

Not all of these are “governmental,” some are grassroots created and maintained alternative initiatives bypassing corporate and/or top down government versions of the same function. In the midst of dysfunctional, nonfunctional, undemocratic and/or corrupt state or corporate structures, these alternative grassroots initiatives represent “parallel” institutions that currently coexist with state or corporate power but could over time assume greater legitimacy, if not substitution, if they are more effective in fulfilling the needs of people and communities.

All together, this is what democracy [in Ohio] looks like!

Some of these are unique to Ohio, most are not. They are meant to inform and/or remind us what we may too often take for granted – that documents, policies, institutions structures and groups exist that are, once were, or for the very first time can become democratic/self-determining. When we fail to use them or be involved in them, they will wither and die. By our not being aware of them, they surely will be manipulated, eliminated or replaced by shells or shams controlled by corporations, top down government or the power elite.

The examples listed below are in no way equally “inclusive” or “democractic”—some, in fact, might quite rightly be argued to be at the moment not very inclusive or democratic at all. There are varying degrees of self-determination here, some more so on paper than in practice, some more so depending on the place, condition, and people involved. But all have democratic “openings” or possibilities. Where social change energies should be placed is a separate strategic question. They also reflect a basic human reality – institutions or structures, no matter how democratically constructed or configured, never alone ensure democratic outcomes. The commitment to and will of people in creating and nurturing authentic self-determination may be most important of all – the force needed to drive a wide and deep wedge into even the narrowest organizational democratic crack.

This directory is not meant to be useful primarily from a “consumer” perspective (i.e. in answering the questions, "Where's the nearest food coop?" or “Is there a public radio station in my town?”) but rather from a democracy/self-determination perspective. That is, it seeks to help readers value the democratic / self-determination openings which still exist or could exist with investment of activist energies. It also strives to reinforce the simultaneous need in working for social change to create or nurture alternatives while working to democratize existing laws, constitutions, policies, practices, and organizations. Finally, the goal of this directory is to stimulate awareness of and actions addressing the multiple threats to what are deemed “public” and available for common use by the constant and cancerous corporate and top-down governmental encroachment in the name of “privatization” or “corporatizaton.”

Democracy/self-determination is not just aims but processes, not just ends but also means. Listed are examples of both – documents, policies, institutions, structures or groups actually reflecting democratic/self-determining values and principles and/or calling for them, even if the callers are not themselves the perfect practitioners.

There is no presumption that this list is exhaustive. Huge gaps exist beyond our limited awareness. It’s an ongoing work in progress, meant and, in fact, expected to be amended by readers. Please send additions, feedback, challenges and critiques to GColeridge@afsc.org. Updates will occur regularly.

This is what democracy [in Ohio] looks like!

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This is What Democracy [in Ohio] Looks Like!: Ohio’s democractic/self-determination “infrastructure “ March 2008, 17 pp, Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee, 2101 Front St., #111, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221, Phone: 330-928-2301 · Fax: 330-928-2628

To download, go to http://www.afsc.net/PDFFiles/InfrastructureMarch08.pdf

Directed to Candidates for US Representative from Ohio

1. Do you believe that business corporations should be allowed directly or through corporate-sponsored Political Action Committees (PACs) to donate to or invest money in political candidates or issue campaigns? (Note: at one time in Ohio, they couldn't.) If not, what do you specifically plan to do about this if elected?

2. Do you believe that public officials should have the right to examine the financial books of business corporations (i.e. to prevent future Enrons and mortgage company collapses and/or to access the true profits of oil companies)? (Note: at one time in Ohio, they could.) If so, what do you specifically plan to do about this if elected?

3. Do you believe that business corporations should have the right to move toxic trash into communities from another state if people in those communities don't want it? If not, what do you specifically plan to do about this if elected?

4. Do you believe that people should have greater legal and constitutional rights than business corporations? (Note: at one time in Ohio, they did). If so, what do you specifically plan to do about this if elected?

5. Do you believe that the health care system in the United States should be patient-run / doctor-run or run by insurance corporations? If the former, what do you specifically plan to do about this if elected?

6. Do you believe that the public has ultimate control over the public airwaves rather than media corporations? If so, what do you specifically plan to do about this if elected?

7. Do you believe that the public or business corporations should be in charge of electronic voting machines that are used in public elections? If the former, what do you specifically plan to do about this if elected?

8. Do you believe the Iraqi people have a right to control their own oil reserves (and by extension the right to control their own nation), or that oil production and profit decisions should be placed in the hands of US and other western oil corporations? If the former, what do you specifically plan to do about this if elected?

9. Do you believe workers should have the right to free speech and free assembly (contained in the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution) on corporate property? If so, what do you specifically plan to do about this if elected?

10. Do you believe the public has the right to know the ingredients of food they eat or that business corporations have “Free Speech” rights to not publicly release the ingredients of the food they produce? If the former, what do you specifically plan to do about this if elected?

Please mail completed survey by February 29 to Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), 2101 Front St., #111, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221 or fax to 330-928-2628 or email to GColeridge@afsc.org. Thanks!

Here’s what should “occupy” most of the time of George Bush’s State of the Union address tonight.

- - - - - -

My fellow Americans. Cabinet members. Congresspersons. Supreme Court Justices. Guests in the gallery who’ll I’ll reference in an attempt to score a political point.

I come before you tonight, my last State of the Union address, to share with you my reflections on a single topic – occupation.

The reality is that “occupation” much better describes US military actions in Iraq than “war.” Of course there remains brutal violence occurring in Iraq. The US military has killed, injured, and is responsible for the deaths of Iraqis by the hundreds of thousands. Nearly 4000 US troops have also been killed, tens of thousands injured. More than $720 million is spent every single day on the Iraq war according to my friends with the American Friends Service Committee — funds that could go to meeting the economic and social security needs in our communities. In addition, the US military is responsible for the destruction of Iraqi cities and villages, not to mention the natural environment as a result of US bombs, bullets, planes, tanks, guns and grenades. Killing, injuring and destroying are basic acts of war. The US is responsible for inflicting all these acts.

Yet, to call what is going on in Iraq simply as “war” is incomplete. The United States of America, with the backing of a vast majority of members of both political parties, has occupied a sovereign nation for nearly 5 years. We moved in and tried to take over the country in every way, beginning with the initial invasion, followed by the Coalition Provision Authority (CPA) led by my good buddy, Paul Bremer. The CPA issued orders and edicts seeking overall control of the economy, natural resources, public policies, politicians and basic governing rules. My administration has done all it can -- sometimes outwardly, other times behind the scenes -- to influence the Iraqi constitution, elections and candidates.. We currently are doing all we can to lock in the presence of US military bases for a generation or more and arm-twist the Iraqi Parliament to pass an Oil Law that will open up Iraqi oil reserves to US and other foreign based oil corporations. Invasion and control are among the basic acts of occupation. The US is responsible for all these acts.

Obviously, framing the US military presence in Iraq primarily as a “war” rather than an “occupation” has been pretty smart on my part … and those who invest in my administration.

Connected to “war” in our country are feelings of patriotism, loyalty and obedience to leaders like myself who come across as tough and strong. Implied in war is a threat to the homeland, providing ample opportunity to call for slashing domestic civil liberties, shifting federal spending to the military, and further consolidating my power. Snooping into your mail and email, listening in on your phone calls and arresting and holding people indefinitely is harder to sell under the guise of “occupying” a nation on the other side of the planet. It’s also much easier under the banner of war to create enemies – people to hate, and thus, an excuse to kill and destroy.

In contrast, an “occupation” of another people's country begs all sorts of discomforting questions, such as: “Why are we actually there?” “Why can’t people take care of themselves?” “Will we leave if a majority of people being occupied, as in Iraq, want us out?”

I’d rather not have to answer these questions. In plain and simple English, this is why we’re in a “war” and not an “occupation” in Iraq.

There’s a second type of “occupation” I want to share with you tonight, my fellow Americans.

It’s an occupation right here at home. It’s not a physical or military one of our cities, suburbs or rural communities by any foreign power. That kind of occupation is easy to see, obvious to everyone and, relatively speaking, easier to resist.

The occupation I’m talking about is much more insidious, one that involves invasion and control and ultimately, like a military occupation, threatens sovereignty, self-determination, and democracy.

Your public spaces, public arenas, public policies, and public trust have been invaded and have become controlled by a few people of wealth against the majority for a very long time. It precedes my administration. It includes Democratic administrations as well as Republican ones. The weapons of this form of occupation are not bombers, tanks or soldiers but the legal structure called the business corporation, aided by several sections of the United States Constitution.

Business corporations have over the past century amassed “rights” to invade and control (that is, occupy) vital parts of your lives, communities and society. Corporations occupy your health care space once reserved exclusively for patients and their doctors. They increasingly occupy your educational spaces once reserved exclusively for students and their teachers. Corporations increasingly occupy the nutrition spaces once reserved exclusively for farmers.

Corporations have invaded elections and political campaigns. They control the airwaves (television and radio) and major print media. They, not you, determine the majority of trade and investment, where plants and factories will move, who will be employed and who will not, what communities will thrive, which ones will suffer. They are threatening the heart and soul of life itself by claiming that human, animal and plant genes can be patented.

The list of arenas, my fellow Americans, within society where business corporations dominate would put any oppressive military occupation force with soldiers on every street corner to shame.

The wealthy few who run business corporations have expanded their occupying force thanks to the supply line of the US Constitution. Anti-democratic provisions in the Constitution (i.e. the Contracts and Commerce Clauses, no direct election of President, life-time appointments of Supreme Court Justices, and holding citizens indefinitely without charge in a national emergency) collectively place the rights of property above people. Corporate friendly Supreme Court justices anointed corporations with Bill of Rights (1st, 4th, 5th) protections over the past century – expanding the invasion and control of corporations into our politics, economy and culture.

Why am I telling you this? Freely admitting to it all? Simple. I’ve blown it on Iraq (no pun intended). As recently documented, my administration lied at least 935 times leading up to the Iraq war. My poll numbers are abysmally low. I want to salvage my legacy in some way.

This nation was founded by colonists who kicked out the occupation army of the most powerful nation on earth. Their task was simple compared to the one at hand. Yet, people are increasingly waking up, opposing my policies, but also increasingly questioning why they don’t have a real voice in what’s going on in their lives, communities and nation. Citizens are flexing their democratic muscles.

Herein lies hope for the future.

- - - - - -


While such thoughts are not likely to occupy the attention of George Bush during his address tonight, may they occupy ours.

I've only read through the first couple of chapters. A very well done piece with many suggestions — both long and short-term. Comments welcome on whether any of this is worth further discussion on a state-level. I’d be happy to help organize a meeting.

http://corporateethics.org/downloads/SCI_Report_September_2007.pdf
Strategic Corporate Initiative: Toward a Global Citizens’ Movement to Bring Corporations Back Under Control
by Michael Marx, Mari Margil, John Cavanagh, Sarah Anderson, Chuck Collins, Charlie Cray, Marjorie Kelly, Corporate Ethics International
There are tectonic stresses building beneath the surface of our society that threaten a global earthquake unlike any we’ve seen in recent history. Global warming is accelerating; fossil fuels are being rapidly exhausted; critical eco-systems have been severely damaged; and the income gap between rich and poor is increasing rapidly. The root cause of most of these problems can be found in the excessive power of global corporations. To solve these problems, we must bring corporations back under our control. This will be one of the greatest challenges our society faces this century.

A few years back, I received a sample copy in the mail of “The Progressive Populist”. It was not familiar to me but once I quickly examined it, I was amazed at the contents and even more amazed that up to now it had been such a well-kept secret.
Here in 24 page newspaper/journal format with no corporate advertising were articles by some of my favorite people: Jim Hightower, Normon Solomon, Ralph Nader, Amy Goodman, and the late, great Molly Ivins. Mixed in for eye/soul candy, were eviscerating cartoons by Matt Wuerker, Tom Tommorrow, and Ted Rall. It seemed that someone had sent to me my very own made-to-order publication. I now look forward to each new issue. It sometimes saddens me, often infuriates me, and above all, always informs and I believe, empowers me.

In the 60’s a wise person said: “Think globally, act locally.” This is the “globally” part with a home-spun, from the “American heartland”, edge to it. Reject the mass-media dis-information of corporate/cable news and take in the fresh air of independent, real substance that all progressives can put to use!

Greg Coleridge of AFSC has called this journal “…an excellent resource…should be required reading for progressives/populists”, and I believe he is right on. To get a free, sample issue, contact me and I will forward your address to the publisher. I called them and was assured that for sample issues they do NOT share your address. If you are led to subscribe, you can then inform them to not share your address and they will be happy to oblige. I personally am getting nothing out of this other than the satisfaction of hopefully getting other progressives informed about some of the truths revealed here that I find nowhere else.

Sincerely,
Bernie Bisheimer
(bernie9125@aol.com)

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvNvMWYx0Dc
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpdCtWE88Nc
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyupkbQqffI
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0P8gsd8h6s
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzrrvcNeE_0

The 40 minute document is also on CD. Cost is $5. To order, send a check/money order to AFSC and mail to 2101 Front St., #111, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221.

Background

CorpOrNation exposes the historic corporate rise to power in Ohio, the barriers citizens have fought to create a true democracy for themselves, and detailed assessments of government influence by corporations through "corporate globalization." Spanning Ohio’s history from 1803 through present-day struggles between citizens and corporations, CorpOrNation suggests strategies for citizens to overcome current threats to citizen-led democracy and the corporate takeover of society.

Rich with analysis and history, CorpOrNation, produced by the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee, features interviews with people from the AFL-CIO, Ohio Public Interest Research Group, United Steelworkers, Ohio Family Farm Coalition, Farm Labor Organizing Committee, Program on Corporations Law and Democracy, and student activists discussing corporate farms, factory lockouts, “veggie libel” laws, and regional “free trade” agreements.

CorpOrNation is based on Citizens over Corporations: A Brief History of Democracy in Ohio and Challenges to Freedom in the Future, 96 page, Second Edition/Third Printing 2003 - detailing the legal and political history of corporations and citizen control and resistance to corporate power in Ohio.

If you want to know whether people are embarrassed about a decision or announcement needing to be made or are just trying to sneak something through hoping the public and media aren't paying attention -- just watch the day of the week or time of the year when those decisions or announcements are made. 

Friday afternoons after financial markets have closed for the weekend are often when companies announce they’ve lost millions or billions. Around Thanksgiving (usually after) is a popular time for corporate announcements of mass layoffs. 
Just before Christmas is when the US military attacked Panama and NAFTA was passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton. It’s also a popular time for mass layoff announcements by corporations. The Ohio General Assembly a few ago right after Christmas passed a major campaign finance “reform” package increasing individual contribution “limits” by 400% and permitting business corporations to be involved directly in elections for the first time in nearly a century. 

It happened again. 

Two days after Christmas 2007, the Ohio Supreme Court decided that the power of people like you and me to judge our peers in a court of law (otherwise known as juries) was significantly reduced. 

The Ohio Supremes on December 27 in Arbino v. Johnson & Johnson ruled that Senate Bill 80 passed by the Ohio legislature in 2005 capping personal injury awards was not a violation of the constitutional rights of plaintiffs (for example, people who are victims of medical malpractice).

By capping personal injury awards, the Supremes capped the right to decide of people who make up juries. Corporate-funded state legislators and state supreme court justices have made the decision for us. Citizens who compose juries no longer possess the authority to decide fair compensation for injuries suffered by our fellow citizens -- even after sitting through an entire legal case, listening to evidence and arguments presented by both sides, and ruling in favor of a plaintiff.

Justice Paul E. Pfeifer, in his written dissent (one of two Justices who voted against) asserted that the decision deprives plaintiffs of their right to a trial by jury and that nothing now prevents the Ohio legislature from further limiting damages to $1. "After today, what meaning is left in a litigant's constitutional right to have a jury determine damages?" 

This decision serves corporate interests of course. With citizens possessing little or no power these days to either (a) define corporate actions, or (b) regulate corporate abuse, the only alternative we have to respond to corporate harms are lawsuits. 

Now that is severely limited in Ohio.

It’s easy to look at this decision through several different lenses -- the specific case of Arbino v. Johnson & Johnson and the general issue of frivolous lawsuits being two of them. More instructive, however, is the lens of public power. 
Does this decision increase the authority of the public (namely those on juries) to make decisions in a court of law? To determine to what extent people who are harmed should be fairly compensated for personal pain and suffering and for economic losses? 

The answer to these question may suggest why the Ohio Supremes made their ruling two days after Christmas.

It also suggest that our work beginning in this New Year needs to be about doing all we can to uncap the commitment to expanding our right to decide. The Right to Decide — whether it’s our health care, jobs, education, community, media, energy, foreign policy, environment, vote counting systems, lawsuit damages, etc. — is the single most important issue in 2008.

Greg Coleridge [GColeridge@afsc.org]

Posted on Friday, January 04, 2008 at 12:52 PM 

You may have read the Magna Carta (considered to be the forerunner of the US Constitution) was auctioned off yesterday in New York City for $21.3 million. Some might think it strange to sell off what some consider to be one of the most sacred and historic democratic documents in the world. Really? Our government (pieces of it anyway in terms of policies, resources, protection, etc.) is auctioned off every day to the highest bidder in the form of campaign donations/investments and promises by wealthy individuals and corporations to politicians and regulators of jobs/income/favors. 

- Greg Coleridge GColeridge@afsc.org

Posted on Thursday, December 20, 2007 at 2:06 PM