[Seattle-editorial] Fwd: [www-features] Corporate "Personhood" - PROPOSED

[Sheri Herndon]

hey
this hasn't gone up yet
but it seems like such an imprtant story :)
xo

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>(header: USA: GLOBAL JUSTICE)
>(graphic: http://www.poclad.org/images/illustrations/personhood.jpg )
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>Corporate "Personhood" Confronted in U.S.
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>  The struggle to halt the complete corporate takeover of the U.S. 
>had a recent victory in the state of Pennsylvania. Officials of 
>Porter Township, Clarion County, north of Pittsburgh became the 
>first local government in the United States to <a href= 
>http://www.phillyimc.org/article.pl?sid=02/12/18/1439231&mode=thread>
>eliminate corporate claims </a> to constitutional privileges. A 
>questionable 1886 <a href= 
>http://www.ratical.org/corporations/SCvSPR1886.html> Supreme Court 
>ruling </a> gave corporations the same constitutional rights as 
>private citizens. "Corporations were conceded personhood, and a long 
>list of civil and political rights such as free speech, and property 
>rights, the right to define and control investment, production, and 
>the organization of work." says Richard Grossman of the Program on 
>Corporations, Law & Democracy in a <a href= 
>http://www.poclad.org/articles/grossman01.html> history </a> of 
>corporate hegemony. Most citizens in the USA are unaware of the low 
>esteem the so-called founding fathers held for corporations. The 
>struggle for independence from England was partly due to the 
>historic oppression of the King's corporate charters.
>   Today, other efforts at confronting the corporados involve <a 
>href= http://www.corporate3strikes.org/> legislation </a>, <a href= 
>http://www.iiipublishing.com/afd/resolute.htm> resolutions </a>, <a 
>href= http://www.thealliancefordemocracy.org/html/eng/1368-AA.shtml> 
>petitions </a>, and the global justice street demonstrations 
>witnessed here and internationally in the past few years.
>   Will the recent <a href= 
>http://reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate_accountability/porter_township_ordinance.html> 
>ordinance </a> in Pennsylvania be overturned in a legal challenge? 
>Perhaps, but a growing number of people are becoming aware of the 
>threats to democracy posed by corporatisim in the U.S.  Given the 
>recent scandals within big business exemplified by outfits like 
>ENRON or Global Crossing, corporations are looking more like 
>privateers than "private citizens".
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>POCLAD
>http://www.poclad.org/
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>WILPF
>http://www.wilpf.org/corp/ccontact.htm
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>"An ill-informed public will pave the road to tyranny"
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-- 


In sum, we are an army of dreamers, and therefore invincible.  How 
can we fail to win, with this imagination overturning everything. 

-- Subcomandante Marcos