At "Summit for the People," Call for Action on Citizens
United 

James Russell | Monday 24 January 2011

Published on Truthout (http://www.truth-out.org)

http://www.truth-out.org/at-summit-people-call-action-citizens-united67104


According to Annabel Park, founder of the Coffee Party
USA, the influence of corporations on elections is "a
cancer in our political system."

Speaking by phone, she elaborates on this heavy
metaphor with an even more dire statement: If Americans
remain cynical and allow the cancer to spread, then
corporate influence "will permanently control the
political narrative in the United States."

What could be so terrifying - and so influential - that
it caused this full-time documentary filmmaker and
political activist to "work 20 hours a day" in an
attempt to halt the cancer's spread?

For Park and hundreds of other activists who converged
on Washington, DC, last weekend, it is known simply as
Citizens United.

Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission, the
landmark Supreme Court case that struck down numerous
campaign finance spending laws and allowed for
unlimited spending on elections by corporations and
unions, just turned one year old. Park, a longtime
activist, chose not to sit idly by on this important
anniversary. Joining with a diverse coalition of
activist groups and associations, and with help from
radical activist Bill Moyer of Washington State, she
launched the weekend's inaugural "For the People"
summit.

"We are gathering because we do not want the government
in conflict between serving corporations or serving
people," she said.

Organized under the banner "Movement for the People,"
it was a transpartisan summit and weekend of action,
strategizing, workshops and lobbying that sought to
counter the unprecedented influence of the special
interests that shaped the political narrative of the
2010 election cycle.

"Political action comes down to storytelling. And the
story we're trying to tell [with the summit] is that
we're going through a major political crisis," she
said. Likening the crisis to the modern struggle with
identity politics, she believes that it stemmed from
the fact that "our government now thinks corporations
are people. And what we're trying to say is
corporations should not get the same political rights
as people do."

While the activists converged for the "For the People"
summit in DC, that is not all they did. On a
blistering, cold January 21 morning, in a park outside
of the Capitol and Supreme Court buildings, Moyer and
his Backbone Campaign sponsored a tongue-in-cheek rally
featuring costumed activists, handmade signs and
backdrops that included a rewritten preamble to the
Constitution, beginning, "We the Corporations." It had
the crowd yelling and cheering.

During the rally, onlookers were introduced to
"corporate persons," a direct play on the term
"corporate personhood," which many at the crowd agreed
to be a direct result of the Citizens United ruling, if
not preceding it. One such "person" was Mona Santo, a
parody of the infamous food processing corporation
played by activist Diane Wittner of the group
Chesapeake Citizens.

After numerous introductions, they gathered together to
lead the crowd in cheering, "Don't wait, incorporate!"

Among songs; a mock press conference reintroducing the
public to Murray Hill, Inc. (a corporate person who
became famous for attempting to run for Congress in
2010); and the unveiling of a 200-foot, "We the People"
banner signed by over 1,000 people, the rally and
creative action served to highlight the direct impact
of Citizens United on American's lives.

One crucial impact falls on lawmakers, said Robert
Weissman, president of Public Citizen, in a statement.
"Citizens United has cast a shadow over all policy
making, because elected officials now know that if they
cross powerful corporate interests, they face the
prospect of an unaccountable, outside campaign to
defeat them in the next election," he said.

So, while the action may have been nothing more than a
tongue-in-cheek rally, Weissman, like the organizers of
the weekend's events, asserted that the importance of
action around this issue is insurmountable. "Public
action must [nonetheless] come from all sides," he
said.

But what solutions can these groups rally around? Some
activists take their cue from Congress, which has seen
some momentum on the DISCLOSE Act, requiring more
transparency from organizations that contribute to
campaigns.

But for Lisa Graves of the Center for Media and
Democracy, the speaker at the day's first panel, that
is not enough.

"Disclosure is important, but is no substitute for the
reforms we need. The problem is not disclosure but the
corrupting influence by corporations on elections," she
said in an interview.

Whether by constitutional amendment or through the
DISCLOSE Act, for many of these activists, the "For the
People" summit is only the first step in what they
expect to be a long process to engage Americans in the
struggle for their democracy. 


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