Corporate Personhood

The Legal Fiction that Corporations Are People 

Corporate personhood is the legal fiction that a corporation, separately from its associated human beings, has at least some of the legal rights and responsibilities enjoyed by natural persons.

How do we untangle the knot of special interests, corruption and laws?

WILPF has a long and esteemed reputation for its early work to inform and organize the public about the illegitimacy and threats to democracy of rising corporate power and the legal fiction of ‘corporate personhood’.   The illegitimacy of rising unchecked corporate power and the influence of ‘political speech’ as political donations (graft) threatens democracy

Here are some of the tools we developed to make a strong case against corporate theft of our individual Constitutional rights and many corrupt Supreme Court decisions that sold off our democracy.

THE CORPORATE STUDY COURSE: Challenge Corporate Power: Assert The People’s Rights

A 10-session course designed for use in small discussion groups. Rich with discussion, resources and exercises to elicit engagement.  A history lesson and much more.

THE TIMELINE OF (illegitimate) CORPORATE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS

This timeline documents by date and subject each Supreme Court case that sold off the Constitutional rights of individuals.  It reveals the intentional pattern, hidden in plain view, over many decades.

USING ART TO ENTERTAIN & EDUCATE – DRAMAS YOU CAN MOUNT in your own community.

These plays by WILPF members Jim Allison are illuminating, entertaining and easy to perform as dramas or public readings.  They make their points through humor as well as carefully researched facts.  The history of corporate power comes alive, along with the conspiracy to steal Constitutional rights. 

• The Prosecution of Judge Waite
• Mr. Powell Writes a Memo
• What Corporations Do
• What Corporations Do

THE POWELL MANIFESTO

Corporate attorney (later Supreme Court Justice) Lewis Powell wrote this “roadmap” in 1971 on behalf of the US Chamber of Commerce.  It blatantly lays out the plan for all the corporate capture tactics corporations have pursued in the 50 years since it’s publication.  These strategies have affected every level of US society and culture, and we continue to see the damage from this stunning corporate assault on democracy. 

Allies Working on These Issues

MOVE TO AMEND does vital work promoting the We The People Amendment.
See the progress they’ve made.  In May 2021 Move To Amend reintroduced the joint resolution to Congress to amend the Constitution to affirm that corporations are not people, money is not speech, and campaign finance can be regulated on the federal, state and local levels.  Engage in their citizen advocacy.

REPRESENTus.org State-by-state citizen lobbying for the
Powerful shareable videos explain the ways our Democracy is broken. Join state-by-state citizen lobbying for the Anti-Corruption Act to support their work in local communities across the US.

BOLD ReTHINK is developing a plan to use ‘The Law of the Commons’, existing laws to curtail corporate power from further damaging the planet.

ULTIMATE CIVICS curriculums that bring civics classes to life with the truth about democracy. 

ALLIANCE FOR DEMOCRACY working on voter protections, gerrymandering, globalization, trade policy inequities and voter education.  Check out back issues of their wonderful online magazine “Justice Rising”.

CENTER FOR MEDIA & DEMOCRACY/PR WATCH champions investigative media watchdogs spotting and reporting on corruption in US media and politics.

PROGRAM ON CORPORATIONS, LAW & DEMOCRACY (POCLAD) our ‘grandparent’ organization for challenging abuse of corporate power.  Led in the early days by Richard S. Grossman and Ward Morehouse, giants in the field of corporate accountability.

OCCRP – Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a consortium of investigative centers, media and journalists operating in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia and Central America — with MANY connections to US politics, including budgeting and dark money interests.

Public Banking

Advocate for System Change through PUBLIC BANKING

Creating an economy that works for ALL Americans starts with breaking ties with transnational too-big-to-fail Wall Street banks and the gamblers who run them. Public banking offers communities a chance to keep local money invested in local projects, sheltering ordinary Americans from economic collapse and the financial disasters that follow. Learn more and get organized in your own community with the PUBLIC BANKING TOOLKIT, an anthology of articles, information, resources and organizing tools. Download it here.

Organize for a more just economic future with the WILPF US PUBLIC BANKING TOOLKIT

Download this 45-page document here.    
This toolkit is an anthology of books and articles, resources for further reading, and materials you can use to get started organizing a new public bank in your city or state.

• You’ll find out what public banks are and what makes them different from the big privately owned transnational banks and investment firms.  
• You’ll learn how public banking can offer advantages for moving the money to human needs and away from: 
  ・War and war-profiteering,
  ・Climate-threatening extractive fossil fuel industry investment,
  ・Far flung investment that steals reserves from local small businesses, local home financing and affordable student loans.
• You will: 
  ・Fiind fact sheets and handouts, talking points and articles to share.
  ・Learn where public banking initiatives are started, and how you can help begin the dialogue locally or support initiatives which are already underway.
  ・Start with your own small group who’ll use this toolkit to learn more yourselves, then start working on a plan to move this initiative forward locally.

Our Committee is always looking for excellent resources for more learning on our LEARN MORE pages. You can suggest additional materials to add to our toolkit.

Confront Corruption

Drain the swamp from the bottom up

Learn about the Anti-Corruption Act.

Host a community watch party to view the film, THE LAUNDROMAT, an entertaining dramatization of corporate fraud and tax evasion that victimizes ordinary Americans and enriches criminals. 

Get all the tools you’ll need to schedule the virtual film viewing, organize a community Zoom call to discuss the film. Discussion questions enrich the dialogue and educational resources help you learn more about the underbelly of this transnational corruption that threatens our democracy.

Sign up here for anti-corruption organizing right from your own desktop.

It’s unlikely that either political party will be able to separate itself from ‘the swamp’, so our ally RepresentUS offers recommendations for a state-by-state solution to corruption and ideas for monitoring corruption in your community.  

Learn more with these three videos:

• The Strategy to End Corruption
• How to FIX American’s Corrupt Political System
• How to FIX American’s Corrupt Political System

Network for Feminist Economic System Change

Network For Feminist Economic System Change

Money traditionally talks in a male voice, but all along it’s been women who keep the economy going.  

It’s time we understood the moving parts that are intentionally complicated and how women like you are creating solutions that work in communities across America. 

We’ll help you organize a women’s group in your community to read and discuss 
SCREWNOMICS: How Our Economy Works Against Women and Real Ways to Make Lasting Change
by WILPF member and W$D partner Rickey Gard Diamond.   

Learn more about Screwnomics.

For discussion questions and facilitator tips to make your group successful and organize locally for real change, contact us at mbgardamATgmail.com.

At An Economy Of Our Own (AEOO), connect to dynamic women making real change and finding solutions. You’ll find blog posts, articles, and webinars.

Check out our AEOO’s “Women Unscrewing Screwnomics” columns at Ms. magazine, online

Stop Fracking in California

Below is the description of a 2015 project by the Fresno Branch Earth Democracy committee, and the WILPF US Earth Democracy Issue Committee, which culminated in a DVD showing the economic and environmental impacts of extracting oil by hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in Kern County, California. If you are interested in obtaining a copy DVD, please contact Ellen Schwartz, ellen [at] nicetechnology [dot] com.

The TPP (TransPacific Partnership) and its complementary dangerous plan, the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), were two programs pushed by President Obama. Unlike the usual kind of trade agreement to lower tariff barriers to encourage trade, these two agreements would give corporations the power to undercut our environmental, health, safety and labor laws and regulations  Massive grassroots opposition managed to scuttle these plans, but global capitalism hasn’t stopped trying.

By Jean Hays, WILPF Fresno Earth Democracy, and Nancy Price, Earth Democracy

Governor Brown no longer qualifies as an environmentalist. Failing to enact a moratorium on fracking in California and to stop irrigation of crops with contaminated fracked water, he’ll go down in history as caving to Big Oil and gas.

On July 19, the Fresno Branch of WILPF US held its DVD premiere of “Crude Beyond Belief”. This video is the outcome of the fracking tour organized by Jean Hays of Fresno Earth Democracy and led by Kern County water and air expert Tom Frantz and filmed by our local Community Media Access Collaborative (CMAC).

As Elly Benson reported in a November 2015 article on the Sierra Club website: “Kern County, located in California’s Central Valley, is the nation’s top oil-producing county. Despite California’s reputation as a climate leader, it is the nation’s third largest oil-producing state—trailing only Texas and North Dakota. Approximately 75 percent of the oil extracted in California comes from Kern County, and the county is home to 95 percent of the fracking that occurs in the state.”

What can you do?

Please order “Crude Beyond Belief” now. The cost of the DVD + mailing is $15. You can send payment, along with your mailing information, to WILPF Fresno, P.O. Box 5114, Fresno, CA, 93755.

Plan to show “Crude Beyond Belief” at a House Party or local public event. This is the ideal WILPF resource for your branch, wherever you are, to educate your community about the harm caused by fracking and its associated infrastructure and to emphasize that we must keep 80 percent of fossil fuels in the ground to avoid runaway global warming and its impacts on people and the planet.

Complement your film screening with our Climate Justice+Women+Peace infographic card. Make the connection: The TPP will dramatically accelerate fracking and export of oil and gas to the Pacific Rim countries and increase extreme weather events.

California WILPFers: Sign the petition to Governor Brown: protect our food from toxic oil wastewater.

Work to STOP the TPP in the lame duck session, November 14 to December 16, 2016. As you know, President Obama is pressing forward for a lame duck vote and has submitted the required implementing legislation. But let’s be clear: Republican House Majority Leader Paul Ryan is a huge supporter of the TPP. Remember, Senate Majority Leader McConnell has come out against a lame duck vote, but wants to “improve” the TPP; and Hillary Clinton is, at present, against the TPP in its present form. Keep in mind that Clinton’s VP running mate, until recently, was a strong free trade supporter, and Clinton appointed wildly pro-TPP Ken Salazar as head of her transition team.

Please do your part. When Congress is back in D.C. on September 6, call your representative and ask for a “No” on the TPP and a “No” lame duck vote!

 Above photo: Jean Hays speaking at the premiere. Credit: WILPF Fresno Earth Democracy Facebook page.