Sometimes it’s hard for me to keep up with the rapid growth that Community Rights US is experiencing. And we are managing all of it with the tiniest of budgets devoted to actual wages.
We truly believe that we are on to something big – helping increasing numbers of people from across the US to discover a history they never knew – one that encourages folks to feel hopeful for a change – that something actually CAN be done to end the travesty of corporate personhood and other corporate constitutional “rights” that has so devastated our country – socially, culturally and ecologically.
• It’s not inevitable that corporations get to exercise constitutional “rights” over We The People. In fact, for our nation’s first century, business corporations had only the privileges granted to them in their charters, and those charters were filled with requirements and prohibitions that kept their directors on VERY short leashes. We can bring these laws back.
• It’s not inevitable that corporations are given regulatory permits that make it entirely legal for them to poison our air, food and water; to destroy our local economies; and to mistreat their employees. In fact, for our nation’s first century, corporations were required to serve one specific social need and to cause no harm. We can bring these laws back.
• It’s not inevitable that the directors of huge corporations are insulated from being held personally liable for the harms and debts caused by their corporation. In fact, there was no such thing as limited liability for corporate directors or shareholders during our nation’s entire first century. We can bring these laws back.
• It’s not inevitable that corporations can drown our elections with unlimited amounts of money. In fact, corporate interference in elections was entirely prohibited until the Supreme Court’s Buckley v. Valeo decision in 1976. Money = Speech, the Supremes claimed. We can bring these laws back.
• It’s not inevitable that state legislatures can preempt local governments from passing laws that protect a community’s health, safety and welfare. In fact, the American Revolution was substantially based on the demand for the right of local community self-government. It was written right into our first state constitutions, until the ruling elite tossed that language out through state constitutional amendments. We can bring these laws back.
The above list is just the tip of the iceberg of a history most of us no longer know, but one that it is essential that we learn if we are to successfully end corporate rule in this country!
(This article by Paul Cienfuegos was taken from the most recent edition of our newsletter. We invite you to take a look at the rest of our current newsletter HERE.)