Tomorrow (Saturday) at noon, I will be participating in a rally at the Tom Foley Federal building to bring attention to the travesty of the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United vs FEC. That is the 2010 U.S Supreme Court decision that used the legal fiction that corporations are people, and therefore have First Amendment rights, to give large corporations freedom to pour unlimited amounts of anonymous money into our elections through super PACs (Political Action Committees).
One of the reasons why this rally is important is because there is even worse news coming. The decision in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission (FEC) will be handed down any day now. The five ‘corporation owned’ justices on the court are expected to use this case to overturn federal campaign finance law and give rich entities, including corporations, the ability to give unlimited contributions directly to campaigns, no longer needing to go through the PACs.
Unfortunately, the Congress that the corporations have bought is also getting ready to vote to Fast Track a new treaty known as TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership). This treaty has been negotiated in secret, not just from the public, but also from Congress. Yet 60 major multinational corporations have had ‘advisors’ sitting in on the negotiations. Fast track legislation means that then the treaty comes to Congress, they will vote up or down — that’s it. No amendments, no real discussion. Just vote yes or no for the whole package. And rest assured the corporations will be putting huge amounts of pressure on Congress to ratify this treaty. Information leaked so far tells us that this treaty will over ride decades of US laws: health care law, environmental law, labor law, internet neutrality law, copyright and trademark law. If states or local governments refuse to allow corporations to destroy our drinking water, our air, or our soil with toxic chemicals, the corporations will be able to go to special international tribunals and get huge judgments for all of their alleged ‘anticipated profits’ from the rape of our communities.
As a community organizer, I know that there are two sources of power: organized money and organized people. After Citizens United, it is no longer possible for populist movements to out money the corporations. The only way to stop multi-national corporations from finishing off their destruction of the U.S middle class (along with damage in other countries too extensive to document here) is to organize people. The American people have to wake up, and rise up, and say NO to the corporate take-over that is taking place even as you read this blog.
The only way to stop this takeover is for large numbers of people to become engaged, to speak up and to let our collective voice be heard. The rally this week is about an attempt to amend the U.S Constitution and revoke the Supreme Court’s permission for corporations to buy our elections. That is only the first step. But it is an ESSENTIAL STEP.
I will be at the rally tomorrow because it is time to speak up! Or we will find ourselves in the position of Marin Niemoller:
“In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”
— by Martin Niemöller, prominent German anti-Nazi theologian and Lutheran pastor.
If you’d like to join us, here’s the information.
