Year: 2010

What If BP Were A Human Being?

 

gulf oil spill

What if BP, the principal corporate entity responsible for the monstrous oil well rupture a mile beneath Gulf of Mexico were a human being, a flesh and blood person instead of a faceless transnational corporation? It’s a fair and simple question, and the answers tell us a lot more about the world we live in.

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Gooey Black Corporate Greed

Corporate persons aren’t like you and I. They have eternal life and legal immunity. No death, no taxes, no joy or pain or moral feeling. No sweat and no tears. When they move their mouths, out come dollars, and we call those dollars speech. But when they stub their toe and bleed, out comes thick black goo in a gusher that could turn the ocean into a dead black pit, and we call that goo petroleum.

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Berkeley Calls for Amendments: Money Not Speech, Corporations Not People

Berkeley, Ca., April 27, 2010 — On Tuesday evening Berkeley’s mayor and City Council voted by unanimous consent to call for amending the U.S. and California constitutions to declare that corporations are not entitled to the rights of persons and that corporate money is not free speech and to request that other communities take a similar stand. The Peace and Justice Commission prepared this Democracy Resolution in anticipation that corporate spending in elections will increase due to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the Federal Elections Commission in the Citizens United case.

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Video: Citizens United v United States Citizens

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution was designed to protect the free speech rights of people, not corporations. Guests: John Bonifaz – Director, Free Speech for People, Pam Wilmot – Director, Common Cause Massachusetts, and Senator Jamie Eldridge discuss the recent Supreme Court decision Citizens United v FEC that may have the most deleterious effect on democracy in our lifetime, weakening campaign finance laws and expanding the power of corporations. A fascinating discussion of possible legislation and a constitutional amendment are also included as avenues to protect the voice of people in their own government.
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