Citizens United to End Political Bribery (Working Group)

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Contact for Working Group "Citizens United to End Political Bribery"

Honi Sanders: [sanders6000@gmail.com]

You can sign up to receive emails at https://lists.mayfirst.org/mailman/listinfo/citizensunited

<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/campaignfinancereformus/calendar-of-events?pli=1">Calendar of Events</a>

 

Citizens United to End Political Bribery (CUEPB) is a Working Group formed to pursue goals related to getting corporate money out of politics.  We will focus on realistic actions in Massachusetts, but will also extend our efforts to nationwide politics when we can.  This wiki page and its subsidiary pages will be our place to collect information and discuss ideas before bringing proposals to Occupy Boston General Assembly.  Everything here should be considered a draft, unless conspicuously labeled otherwise.  To participate, come to one of our scheduled meetings or comment on the discussion tab for a page.  You can also edit a page, but we'd like to know who's involved, so please introduce yourself somewhere in some fashion.

Meetings:

Next Meeting will be: Thursday Dec. 15 at 5:00PM at the Clear Conscience Cafe, which is located at 581 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge. If you're interested, comment here or sign up and inquire on the listserve link shown above.

<a _fcknotitle="true" href="Notes from Nov. 30 BAAC Meeting">Notes from Nov. 30 BAAC Meeting</a>

<a _fcknotitle="true" href="Notes from Nov. 22 CUEPB Meeting">Notes from Nov. 22 CUEPB Meeting</a>

<a _fcknotitle="true" href="Notes from Nov. 16 CUEPB Meeting">Notes from Nov. 16 CUEPB Meeting</a>

<a _fcknotitle="true" href="Notes from Nov. 12 Open Discussion: SJR29">Notes from Nov. 12 Open Discussion: SJR29</a>

<a _fcknotitle="true" href="Minutes from Nov. 1">Minutes from Nov. 1</a>

 


Lecture & Open Discussion Series

Saturday Dec. 10 3:00PM
Donna Palermino: "Pay to Play: A History of Citizens United and How to Get Corporate Money out of Politics"
Donna is a Civil Liberties and Free Speech Professor at Boston University and Suffolk University. This will be a lecture on the history of Supreme Court ruling and how this decision has impacted elections.

Sunday Dec. 11 3:30PM
Jules Levine: "Public Financing of Election Campaigns -- A Way Station; Fair, Just and Good Government--Our Destination"
Jules is a practicing Law Professor at Boston University. He was actively involved in the MA Public Financing System brought to the State House in the 90's, and continues to promote the public financing of elections in Massachusetts. This lecture will provide a brief history of the reforms in MA, and also touch on the benefits and cost-savings this system would provide.

Next Steps Agreed on:

Work with Jenn on a <a _fcknotitle="true" href="WG/Strategies/CUEPB/1% Monopoly">WG/Strategies/CUEPB/1% Monopoly</a> street theatre event in Boston for Friday, January 20 to publicize the anniversary of the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC. This demonstration will be the Boston activity for the one-day demonstration at federal courthouses across the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. The nationwide event is organized by Move To Amend (see link at bottom of page under "Other Groups." The CUEPB Working Group supports the Boston effort and will prepare a proposal to GA endorsing this event once more details are determined.

Analyze and discuss pending legislation on the wiki in order to decide what proposed state and/or federal legislation we support. Edit the <a _fcknotitle="true" href="Campaign Finance Legislation">Campaign Finance Legislation</a> page to add links, summarize what's in a link and/or discuss your opinions about proposed bills. We will also draw on knowledge from other citizen action groups to get up to speed quickly on the campaign reform options.

Build collaboration with other local groups, listed below on this page, who are working to change campaign funding.

Continue to gather interested people - People are invited to participate here and/or email sandersh6000@gmail.com to identify themselves as part of this Working Group.


Other Ideas Not Endorsed in a Meeting:

Prepare a proposal to GA endorsing <a href="http://democracyisforpeople.org/">Public Citizen's</a> action on the anniversary of Citizens United (January 21, 2012). Occupy the Corporations will be an action on Saturday, January 21, when people either occupy or hold an event outside of a corporate target – primarily at Bank of America or British Petroleum locations. Activists there will make a citizen arrest of the corporation (e.g., a sign or other non-human stand-in) for infringing upon our democracy. Those who wish to can then march to their city or town hall and ask their elected officials to support them in calling for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.

Sub-topics: 

  

Business Card Ideas

Front:
[slogan]
learn more at
www.campaignfinancereform.us
[contact info]

Back: informative text explaining the movement.

Version 1:

Many legislators spend over half their time raising money for their next campaign. With the recent Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court, corporations can now spend unlimited and unregulated amounts of money on elections. The tremendous amount of time and money that goes into fundraising warps our government's ability to listen to the people. Join us in creating constitutional amendments and new laws to take the money out of politics!

Version 2: (votes for: Andy, Susi, Nina)

Corporate money floods the election process without limits or meaningful regulations. Many lawmakers spend over half their time fundraising for the next election and listen more to money than to us.

Join us in creating new laws to take the money out of politics!


Slogan ideas

  • Reclaiming our democracy (votes for: Andy, Susi)
  • Taking back congress from the 1%
  • End corporate personhood
  • End institutionalized bribery

Contact info: what should we put here? I have fixcitizensunited@gmail.com, but at least for the moment, I'm the only one that reads it. That may not be ideal.

Background Information:

<a _fcknotitle="true" href="Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Opinion">Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Opinion</a>

The minority dissenting opinion quoted at this link gives arguments against the Supreme Court's majority opinion. After a summary, the opinion continues (not quoted here,) describing in detail the laws and rulings related to corporate personhood.

Under U.S. law, a corporation is a "corporate veil," protecting individuals inside a company from being prosecuted for the actions of the business. In 1886 the U.S. Supreme Court decided that corporations are entitled to many rights accorded to citizens, in its decision of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Rail Road Co.

In 1907 Congress passed the Tillman Act, prohibiting corporations from donating money directly to national political campaigns. This still holds, but in January 2010 the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 (in Citizens United v. FEC) that corporations can spend unlimited amounts on political advertisements as long as they don't directly coordinate that spending with an actual candidate.

The Citizens United v. FEC decision invalidated protections that had existed in Massachusetts General Law, according to a March, 2010 ruling of the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance. Many bills are now being introduced in Massachusetts and at the federal level to counteract the wide effects of last year's Supreme Court decision by restricting corporate money from influencing politics.

<a _fcknotitle="true" href="Campaign Finance Legislation">Campaign Finance Legislation</a> (passed and pending)

<a _fcknotitle="true" href="Politicians and Candidates">Politicians and Candidates</a>

<a href="http://www.cfinst.org/data.aspx">Campaign Finance Institute (Nonpartisan? Resource)</a>

<a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/67460.html">Jack Abramoff: How to End Corruption </a>(in Politico.com)

Groups Outside Occupy Boston (In alphabetical order)

<a href="https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=pjgaqjhni0freohoui3tbiqj5k%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/New_York">Calendar of Boston-Events </a>

<a href="http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=4764307">Common Cause</a> Common Cause is working diligently to expose the role of special interests, and promote reforms that put democracy back in the hands of "we the people."

<a href="http://www.coffeepartyusa.com">Coffee Party USA</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/bostoncoffeeparty">Boston Coffee Party</a> "The nonpartisan national Coffee Party movement is a call to action, to make government more accountable to the people.  The Greater Boston chapter focuses on state and local issues, in addition to participating in national Coffee Party campaign.  We are currently working for passage of key state legislation in two areas: money in politics, and civic education."  Contact <a href="mailto:coffeepartybostonma@gmail.com">coffeepartybostonma@gmail.com</a>

<a href="http://www.democracyfund.org/">Democracy Fund</a> "Democracy Fund is a new operating foundation created to dramatically increase the funding, strategic focus, effectiveness and coordination of existing and emerging efforts to curb the undue influence of corporate lobbyists over the U.S. political process. " Contact <a href="mailto:info@democracyfund.org">info@democracyfund.org</a>

<a href="http://democracyisforpeople.org/">Democracy is for People</a> related to Public Citizen. The propose a constitutional amendment to ban money to corporate electioneering. In addition, they are pursuing several reforms. Public financing of elections, a shareholder protection act and a constitutional amendment go together as a package response to rein in the excessive influence that unrestricted, massive corporate expenditures can exert over our democracy. A constitutional amendment offers the long-term solution to address the other damaging effects on our society of treating corporations as if they’re entitled to the same rights to express themselves as real people.

<a href="http://freespeechforpeople.org/">Free Speech for People</a> Proposes the following amendment:

  • Section 1. We the people who ordain and establish this Constitution intend the rights protected by this Constitution to be the rights of natural persons.
  • Section 2. People, person, or persons as used in this Constitution does not include corporations, limited liability companies or other corporate entities established by the laws of any state, the United States, or any foreign state, and such corporate entities are subject to such regulation as the people, through their elected state and federal representatives, deem reasonable and are otherwise consistent with the powers of Congress and the States under this Constitution.
  • Section 3. Nothing contained herein shall be construed to limit the people's rights of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, free exercise of religion, and such other rights of the people, which rights are inalienable."

<a href="http://www.getmoneyout.com/">Get Money Out</a> Supports a constitutional amendment: "No person, corporation or business entity of any type, domestic or foreign, shall be allowed to contribute money, directly or indirectly, to any candidate for Federal office or to contribute money on behalf of or opposed to any type of campaign for Federal office. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, campaign contributions to candidates for Federal office shall not constitute speech of any kind as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution or any amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Congress shall set forth a federal holiday for the purposes of voting for candidates for Federal office"

<a href="http://movetoamend.org">Move to Amend</a>  We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United, and move to amend our Constitution to:

  • Firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.
  • Guarantee the right to vote and to participate, and to have our vote and participation count.
  • Protect local communities, their economies, and democracies against illegitimate "preemption" actions by global, national, and state governments.

The Supreme Court is misguided in principle, and wrong on the law. In a democracy, the people rule. We Move to Amend.

<a href="http://www.pfaw.org/GovernmentByThePeople">People for the American Way</a> "The Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC threatens to tear apart the fabric of our democracy and grant powerful corporations unfettered influence in our political process. It's a drastic departure from previous law and our core values as a nation and it must be met with an appropriate response."

Public Citizen (sponsors <a href="http://democracyisforpeople.org/">Democracy is for People</a> above)

<a href="http://www.rootstrikers.org/">Rootstrikers</a> "Our republic is dangerously out of balance. Well-financed special interests routinely bend the levers of power to benefit the few at the expense of our general welfare. Political bribery has been legalized by the courts, and both major parties have been co-opted and corrupted by the system... Rootstrikers is aimed at restoring power over American politics and government to 100% of the people. We hope patriots of all political persuasions will join us to help build an unstoppable grassroots movement that demands and delivers lasting reforms."

Key Local Experts and Opinion Leaders

  • Julius Levine - BU Law Professor Emeritus, long time Brookline political activist

  

Occupy the Courts (January 20-21, 2012)

Currently, this event is in the planning stage. Some ideas include:

Event Ideas

FIRST PLANNING MEETING: Wednesday, December 7th, 7pm, Biddy Early's Pub, 141 Pearl St., Boston - near Dewey Sq.

  • RALLY - This would require a main stage and a program that would include a mix of relevant speakers, musicians, comedians and entertainment. There will be space for groups like Rootstrikers.org, Move to Amend, Common Cause, League of Women Voters and even the opposition to come and lobby the PEOPLE. There will also be non-partisan educational exhibits and activities geared toward children and adults. Each elected official will also be given a "tent" space, so that they can meet and greet their constituents and participate in the occupation as well. The purpose of the rally is to create an interactive and educational event where people can have an opportunity to learn how money in politics negatively affects our lives and how WE CAN FIX IT!
  • SUMMIT - the summit would be a bicameral convention with one house working toward local reforms and the other working toward federal reforms. There is consensus among a large number of people that an amendment would be beneficial to reform. There are six amendments and counting sitting in Congress now and several other groups proposing their own. Let's put all of those ideas together, and see if we can make them one.
  • STREET THEATER MONOPOLY SKIT - A creative, engaging street theater skit based on the Monopoly game designed to emphasize the correlation between corporate funding, campaign finance and financial ties to lobbying, making the case that our politicians, the supreme court, and essentially the entire American Gov't can be "bought and sold". Seeking creatives to work on this initiative. Needed: Writers to help develop the concept into an even more hilarious poignant skit, actors and actresses including ideally a professional auctioneer, artists to assist with costuming and props, photographers and filmmakers to document the action, any and all interested folks who want to get their creative juices flowing and are willing to play a role even as simple as carrying a sign as a backdrop. :) A grant application is in the works for funding to make this piece a truly awesome experience that you won't want to miss! The skit will be done in conjunction with the other actions that weekend. Please contact Jenn via jennjoy75 at gmail dot com with your availability for the meeting and/or for more information.
  • OTHER IDEAS?

Questions

  • What is the main purpose? 1) To engage the public to draw attention to the issue? 2) To unite the different campaign finance reform groups around Boston? Other?
  • Which events should occur on which days? In particular, would the rally be better on Friday or Saturday?
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