Citizens United to End Political Bribery (Working Group)

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Overview

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.

          Honi Sanders: [sanders6000@gmail.com]

          Sign up to join our email list by clicking here. 

          Visit our website here for a list of groups, events, and actions.

On January 20-21, we are organizing a Rally and Summit to Unite Citizens for Democracy.  This is the second anniversary of the Citizens United court decision granting corporations the right to spend unlimited amounts of money influencing elections.  Join us and other Americans in over 60 cities across the country in declaring that corporations are not people and that money is not speech.  We will rally support a host of reforms, including a constitutional amendment declaring that corporations are not entitled the same constitutional rights as people, public financing of elections, and an end to the revolving door between politics and the private sector.

Meetings:

January 11 - Planning for January 20/21 Rally and Summit for Uniting Citizens for Democracy

At BU Law School 765 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 620

Proposed Agenda (Please Edit!)

  • 60 minutes - each group in attendance gets 5 minutes to introduce themselves and what they are planning.  Groups in attendence will be
    • Move to Amend (yes)
    • Free Speech for People (maybe)
    • ... who else? ...
  • 90 minutes - planning of events (may need more time?) - Andy will bring his computer and use powerpoint to help manage this discussion 
    • What are the goals for 20th/21st event (15 minutes)
      • Get media attention
      • Bring people together
      • Brainstorm our next action collective action
      • Develop a roadmap of issues and figure out who is addressing what and how.  Make sure we work together effectively
        • Constitutional Amendment for corporate personhood
        • Constitutional Amendment (or laws) for limiting money in politics
        • Public financing of elections
        • Closing the revolving door between politics and industy
        • Ending legalized bribery and lobbying corruption
        • ...
    • Discuss Media Strategy (15 minutes)
    • Discuss materials to have on hand (10 minutes)
    • Propose that Occupy Boston Citizens United group moderate both events (5 minutes)
    • Discuss plan for Friday | 4pm-8pm | St. Paul's Church (10 minutes)
      • Jamie Eldridge
      • John Bonifaz
      • Corey Atkins
    • Discuss plan for Saturday | 10am-4pm | location to be determined (20 minutes)
      • Lawrence Lessig (10:30 am)
      • Grace Ross (4pm)
      • Others include Jules Levine and Dona Palamino
      • Lots of working groups (but what should they be?  What do we hope to get out of them?)
        • Brainstorming the next big action (something related to S772?)
        • Developing a roadmap for everything (no one action will fix our system)
        • Each element of advancing reform can have it's own group (ending corporate personhood, reducing money in electiions, closing revolving door, fixing lobbying system, etc.)


Thursday Dec. 23 at 6:00PM at the BU Law School. If you're interested, comment here or sign up and inquire on the listserve link shown above.

Notes from Dec. 15 joint meeting with Move To Amend will be available soon. Ditto the Dec. 19 meeting of the January Actions Committee.

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

<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>

Next Steps Agreed on:

<p>Support Public Citizen's action on the anniversary of Citizens United (January 21, 2012). A "Rally and Summit to Unite Citizens for Democracy" will be held on Saturday, January 21 to coordinate next steps after "Move To Amend's" "Occupy the Courts" event on Jan. 20.

</p>

<p>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 part of a nationwide action organized by Move To Amend (see link at bottom of page under "Other Groups." The CUEPB Working Group supports the Boston effort. The overall plan is:

</p>

11:00 rally at Gov't. Center with information tables, street theatre and speakers;

12:00 - 12:45 march to Federal Courthouse with costumed performers and band;

12:45 rally at Federal Courthouse with speakers and street theatre;

return to Gov't. Center

Publicize our work and the Jan. 20-21 events. People are invited to participate here and/or email sandersh6000@gmail.com to identify themselves as part of this Working Group.

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


Analyze and discuss pending legislation on the wiki in order to decide what proposed state and/or federal legislation we support. Edit the [Campaign Finance Legislation] 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.

<p>

Sub-topics: 

<a _fcknotitle="true" href="End Corporate Personhood">End Corporate Personhood</a> <p>  

</p>

Background Information:

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Opinion

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.

Campaign Finance Legislation (passed and pending)

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

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

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

Groups Outside Occupy Boston (In alphabetical order)

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

<a href="<a href="http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=4764307">http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=4764307</a>">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="<a href="http://www.coffeepartyusa.com">http://www.coffeepartyusa.com</a>">Coffee Party USA</a> and <a href="<a href="http://www.facebook.com/bostoncoffeeparty">http://www.facebook.com/bostoncoffeeparty</a>">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="<a href="mailto:coffeepartybostonma@gmail.com">mailto:coffeepartybostonma@gmail.com</a>">coffeepartybostonma@gmail.com</a>

<a href="<a href="http://www.democracyfund.org/">http://www.democracyfund.org/</a>">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="<a href="mailto:info@democracyfund.org">mailto:info@democracyfund.org</a>">info@democracyfund.org</a>

<a href="<a href="http://democracyisforpeople.org/">http://democracyisforpeople.org/</a>">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="<a href="http://freespeechforpeople.org/">http://freespeechforpeople.org/</a>">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="<a href="http://www.getmoneyout.com/">http://www.getmoneyout.com/</a>">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="<a href="http://movetoamend.org">http://movetoamend.org</a>">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="<a href="http://www.pfaw.org/GovernmentByThePeople">http://www.pfaw.org/GovernmentByThePeople</a>">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="<a href="http://democracyisforpeople.org/">http://democracyisforpeople.org/</a>">Democracy is for People</a> above)

<a href="<a href="http://www.rootstrikers.org/">http://www.rootstrikers.org/</a>">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

  



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