Citizens Rise Up Against "Citizens United"

I was speaking in Milwaukee the other night to a great group of peace activists, and in the question and answer period, we started talking about what could be done to change our foreign policy and bring about peace and social justice.

One thing I said we needed to do was to amend the Constitution to overturn the horrible Citizens United decision of 2010 that said corporations are persons, and corporations can spend unlimited funds to influence the outcome of an election.

I said we have no chance of having democracy in America so long as that decision stands, so I urged people to pass a resolution in their city or county to do just that, kind of like what we did during the Nuclear Freeze movement.

Little did I know that there were people in the audience who were already on the job. They're trying to pass just such an initiative in West Allis, Wisconsin.

According to a fine recent article by Joel Bleifuss of In These Times on the subject of amending the Constitution, similar resolutions or referendums have already passed in Madison and Dane County, and in Humboldt County, California., as well as in two towns in Maine and ten towns in Pennsylvania. Recently, resolutions or referendums have been introduced in Boulder and Missoula, as well as in the states of Minnesota and Vermont.

And this Saturday in Johnson City, Tennessee, there's going to be a demonstration in favor of amending the Constitution to eliminate corporate personhood. It's being billed as a "Rally for Humans."

I love that!

For more information on how you can join this movement to overturn Citizens United and to establish real democracy in America, go to movetoamend.org.