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Indybay Feature

The American Legislative Exchange Council and Corporate Personhood

Date:
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Time:
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Event Type:
Speaker
Organizer/Author:
Mike Caggiano
Email:
Phone:
650-342-8244
Location Details:
Unitarian Universalists of San Mateo
300 E. Santa Inez
San Mateo, CA 94401

http://www.uusanmateo.org/

"Peoples' Rights vs. Corporations' Rights" - ALEC and All of Us
The next program by PASMC will focus on corporate power and the legal phenomenon of corporate personhood...in which U.S. corporations were, in the 19th Century, granted the same legal rights and protections (by the U.S. Supreme Court, no less) as individuals.

Corporate America has used such protections to manipulate government action in ways that might tilt the financial and political playing field in their favor. Toward this effort there emerged in 1973 a group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), comprised of conservative politicians and business entities who set out to write legislation on the state level with an agenda to match their ideology.

Various pieces of pro-gun legislation are one type of measure taken by ALEC. Bills promoting oil exploration (including fracking) in various states are another. According to Lois Fiedler, Ph.D and Judy Young, J.D, both members of the San Jose Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and Santa Clara County Move to Amend, it is the constitutional freedom that corporations have that enables them to participate so fully in a legislative process out of which everyday citizens have been largely shut. Meanwhile ALEC receives 98% of its funding from the corporations it benefits.

Lois and Judy will give a presentation about corporate personhood and ALEC - how both affect our everyday lives in such areas as health care, the environment and the workplace. Both concepts, especially ALEC, have mostly remained in the background, and one aim for this evening is to give details about their effects.

The speakers will also talk about possible solutions, including a ballot initiative in the works focusing on overturning the idea of corporate personhood. The measure, sponsored by Move to Amend, aims to remedy the advantage that corporations enjoy.
Added to the calendar on Sun, Oct 6, 2013 11:02AM
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