Power to the People- Protests, Amendments, State Banks!

1. Reclaim Your Future from the 1%
Tomorrow, Feb 29, there will be a national day of nonviolent, direct action targeting corporations that are a part of ALEC, The American Legislative Exchange Council. It is a corporate-funded, right-wing organization that wines and dines republican legislators and sends them home with "model legislation" that benefits corporations at the peril of people and the earth. ALEC brags that 1,000 of their bills have been introduced across the country.

ALEC is behind some of the most repressive new legislation in our country, like Arizona's anti-immigration law and the rash of voter ID laws that will disenfranchise millions of minority and elderly Americans. Their "model bills" attack workers' rights, deregulate environmental protections, deny climate change (they want to mandate teaching climate change denial in the classroom) undermine public education, fuel the prison industrial complex, privatize medicare, dismantle consumer protections and more.

Actions are planned in over 70 cities- join one near you!

From our Defend Democracy Rally in April 2010- to Oppose Citizens United

2. Corporations Are Not People My Friend!

Most know by now how disastrous the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United is for our democracy.

Instead of one person - one vote, we now have corporations with their vast wealth backing candidates who will do their bidding and obliterating the voice of the people. But there are signs of hope on this front. There are currently 13 proposed amendments to reverse Citizens United and to get money out of politics once and for all!

One, by Rep Ted Deutch (D- FL) is the OCCUPIED Amendment- Outlawing Corporate Cash Undermining the Public Interest in Our Elections and Democracy.  Los Angeles just passed a resolution demanding Congress pass a Constitutional Amendment saying that "only living, breathing human beings are afforded Constitutional rights." May many other cities and towns do the same.

Also, interestingly, today the Supreme Court is hearing a case that asks if corporations, like real people, can be held liable in American courts for international human rights violations. Three out of four appeals courts have ruled yes. Kiobel v Royal Dutch Petroleum is being brought by about a dozen Nigerians who contend that Shell Oil's parent company helped their government torture and murder environmental and human rights protesters. How can the Court argue that corporations are people when it benefits them and that they are not if they have committed human rights abuses and serious crimes? Stay tuned.

3. Banks By and For the People
Seventeen states have introduced bills to create state-owned banks as an alternative to investing in the big banks of Wall Street. Many are looking to the Bank of North Dakota as a model. It has been in existence for 100 years and has helped that state thrive during the current recession. Instead of investing in Wall Street, that uses state revenues to speculate, invest abroad and buy up local banks, state banks can return money to local communities in loans and help renegotiate mortgages to stem the foreclosure crisis.


4. A Couple of Graphs that Say It All

Next time- the Right to Know- Label GM Food movement- it is growing and may reach a tipping point this year! Join us on Facebook- GMO? OMG! Hudson Valley for No GMOs

Keep Faith.