Rethinking Resistance to Corporate Rule

• In a small community on California’s north coast, a ‘Resolution on Corporate Personhood in the City of Point Arena’ was passed by the City Council in a 4-1 vote on 25 April 2000. The resolution disavows the personhood status of corporations, encourages public discussion on the role of corporations in public life, and urges other cities to foster similar public discussion. For the text of the resolution click here. For other model resolutions click here.

• Inspired by the Point Arena Resolution, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom has launched a National Action to Abolish Corporate Personhood. The Action is part of their Challenging Corporate Power, Asserting the People’s Rights Campaign. The campaign has developed an organizing packet to assist communities in passing their own resolutions. So far five other northern California communities are working toward Corporate Personhood resolutions – San Francisco, Berkeley, Willits, Arcata and Ukiah.

• In the small townships of Porter and Licking, PA elected officials have passed ordinances stripping corporations in those communities of Constitutional protections. These laws were passed as a strategic move to stop toxic sludge corporations from dumping waste in their communities. So far they have been successful at stopping toxic sludge dumping and paved the way for other communities to pass similar democratic ordinances. To see the text of this ordinance click here.

• In June 2003 State Legislator Matt Ahearn (NJ-Green) proposed two bills to the New Jersey legislature that revoke corporate Constitutional rights within the state and ban corporate political spending. To view a PDF of these bills click here.

• The Arizona Green Party is campaigning for the passage of a state constitutional amendment that would eliminate corporate personhood in the state.

• Despite the fact that corporations currently have the "right" to free speech under law, citizens seeking to institute meaningful campaign finance reform in the state of Oregon have begun collecting signatures for a ballot initiative that would amend their state Constitution to prohibit corporations from exercising their "speech" in the form of political campaign contributions. The group is seeking to place the initiative on the November 2004 ballot. To learn more about the measure click here.

• A “Model Brief on Corporate Personhood,” was written in 2003 by public interest lawyers to help citizen groups create winning organizing strategies-by stripping constitutional protections from corporations and preventing them from governing their communities. Richard Grossman, co-founder of POCLAD, authored the brief with Thomas Linzey, president of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, (CELDF) a public interest law firm in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and Dan Brannen, a Santa Fe attorney. To see the text of this brief click here.

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