[Seattle-editorial] Fwd: * FIRST ordinance PASSES in U.S. that Abolishes Corporate Personhood !

[Sheri Herndon]

>Delivered-To: sheri at speakeasy.org
>X-Sender: cienfuegos at pop.igc.org
>Date: Sat, 14 Dec 2002 20:24:12 -0800
>To: Recipient List Suppressed:;
>From: Paul Cienfuegos <cienfuegos at igc.org>
>Subject: * FIRST ordinance PASSES in U.S. that Abolishes Corporate
>  Personhood !
>
>News Flash from Paul Cienfuegos at Democracy Unlimited - in Humboldt 
>County, California!
>(via Molly Morgan from WILPF and POCLAD)...
>
>Please spread this BIG NEWS far and wide through each of your email lists.
>
>There is now an escalation of events in Pennsylvania regarding 
>corporate personhood!
>
>The elected officials of Porter Township, Pennsylvania, have passed a
>law declaring that corporations operating in that township may not
>claim civil and constitutional privileges. A unanimous vote cast on
>December 9, 2002, evolved out of long-time efforts by citizens and public
>officials to bar corporations from dumping toxic sludge on township
>lands. The new law declares that corporations allowed to do business
>within Porter Township possess none of the human rights that
>corporations have been wielding to overrule democratic processes and
>rule over communities. For details, contact the Community
>Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) in PA at 717.709.0457
>or info at celdf.org, or contact the Program on Corporations, Law and
>Democracy (POCLAD) in MA at 508.398.1145 or people at poclad.org .
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------
>
>
>First Local Government in the United States
>Refuses to Recognize Corporate Claims to Civil Rights:
>Bans Corporate Involvement in Governing
>
>	On the evening of December 9, 2002, the elected municipal 
>officials of Porter Township, Clarion County - a municipality of 
>1,500 residents an hour north of Pittsburgh in Northwestern 
>Pennsylvania - became the first local government in the United 
>States to eliminate corporate claims to civil and constitutional 
>privileges. The Township adopted a binding law declaring that 
>corporations operating in the Township may not wield legal 
>privileges - historically used by corporations to override 
>democratic decisionmaking - to stop the Township from passing laws 
>which protect residents from toxic sewage sludge.
>	The actions by Porter Township thus repudiate the history of 
>state and federal public officials restricting the rights of 
>citizens while expanding the rights of corporations and their owners.
>
>Background
>
>Along with close to a dozen other municipal governments in 
>Pennsylvania, Porter Township officials had previously adopted a 
>local law governing the land application of sewage sludge in the 
>Township. The adoption of that municipal law was an outgrowth of the 
>work done by residents and municipal officials to stop sewage sludge 
>corporations from dumping Pittsburgh-generated sludge in the 
>Township. To that immediate end, the municipal government adopted a 
>"tipping fee" law that requires corporate sludge haulers to pay a 
>per ton "tipping fee" to the Township to enable the municipality to 
>verify the safety of each load of sludge applied to land.
>Sludge corporations have responded both legislatively and judicially 
>to the adoption of those laws by Pennsylvania municipalities - which 
>prevent corporations from turning to state and federal officials to 
>override local self-governance.
>
>Judicial Response: In 2000, Synagro Corporation - one of the largest 
>sludge hauling corporations in the United States - sued Township 
>officials in Centre County, Pennsylvania in an attempt to overturn 
>the "tipping fee" law adopted by that Township. In their Complaint, 
>the Corporation alleged that the law violated a litany of civil and 
>constitutional rights asserted by the corporation. A ruling by the 
>federal court is expected by 2004.
>
>Legislative Response: Legislatively, sludge corporations drafted and 
>vigorously pushed Bills that would strip Pennsylvania municipalities 
>of their authority to make rules that would control the land 
>application of sewage sludge and factory farms. A unique coalition 
>of groups that included municipal governments, the Pennsylvania 
>Farmers Union, the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable 
>Agriculture, the Sierra Club, the AFL-CIO, the United Mine Workers 
>of America, Common Cause and others, defeated that legislation at 
>the end of the 2002 legislative session.
>
>In addition to the legislative and judicial responses to the 
>assertion of local democracy by communities, sludge corporations 
>have also instructed the state environmental regulatory agency and 
>corporate farm lobbies to intervene with Clarion County Townships. 
>In late 2002, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental 
>Protection and the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau met with Clarion County 
>Townships to convince them to repeal their local laws. The four 
>Clarion County Townships that have adopted the law refused. Instead, 
>Porter Township forged ahead with adopting the most recent law, 
>which eliminates corporate interference in the democratic processes 
>of the Township.
>Also in late 2002, the Alcosan Corporation, a sludge hauling 
>corporation in Pennsylvania, threatened to use Pennsylvania courts 
>to overturn the sludge law passed by the Township. Porter Township 
>Supervisors, upon learning of the ability of corporations to direct 
>the courts to vindicate corporate claims to civil and legal 
>privileges to override local governments, decided to pass a law to 
>eliminate corporate claims to those rights.
>The actions of Porter Township - along with the actions of other 
>municipal governments in Pennsylvania dealing with land applied 
>sewage sludge and factory farms - evidence a shift of communities 
>away from permitting corporate harms to asserting direct control 
>over corporations.
>
>The Sludge and Corporate Personhood Ordinances were developed by the 
>Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund in partnership with the 
>Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy (POCLAD) and communities 
>across Pennsylvania impacted by land applied sewage sludge and 
>corporate factory farms.
>
>
>--------
>
>
>In this very scary moment in our country (and the world), as our 
>pResident and his staff of corporate criminals are slashing the Bill 
>of Rights, this is something REAL to celebrate for the holidays!!
>
>But let's not just revel in good news. Let's make some of our own!
>
>My co-director, Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, is on the national 
>leadership team of the Women's International League for Peace and 
>Freedom's (WILPF's) "Campaign to Challenge Corporate Power and 
>Assert the People's Rights". You may already know that WILPF's 
>National Action to "Abolish Corporate Personhood", which was 
>launched in 2001, is picking up steam, with activities now in a 
>number of communities in Arizona, California, Massachusetts and 
>Minnesota.
>
>We (Democracy Unlimited) can provide you or your local group with an 
>Organizing Packet that provides the information that you need to 
>launch an 'Abolish Corporate Personhood' resolution in your town or 
>county. WILPF's goal is 50 cities and towns passing such 
>resolutions. Thus far, Point Arena, CA is the first and only, and 
>San Francisco may be about to consider it as well. Resolutions are 
>simply symbolic declarations. They do NOT change the law.
>
>Or you could choose to follow the lead of Porter Township (as 
>above), and go for a legally-binding ordinance that strips the 
>corporate form of Bill of Rights protections.
>
>Packets are $13, payable to Democracy Unlimited, at POB 610, Eureka, 
>CA 95502. Or send us a legal-size SASE, and we'll mail you our newly 
>updated Resource List of books, informational packets, video and 
>audiotapes. For more info on this topic, check out WILPF's website: 
>http://www.wilpf.org/cintro.html . And within one month, Democracy 
>Unlimited's newly redesigned website will also be available for 
>viewing: http://www.monitor.net/duhc .
>
>Paul Cienfuegos
>Democracy Unlimited
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/seattle-editorial/attachments/20021214/424e7c33/attachment.htm