Monetary History Calendar: March 26 – April 1

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monetarycalendar.wordpress.com/2023/03/26/march-26-april-1/

Who should have the power & authority to create $$? We the People (legalized in the Constitution)? Or banksters by creating $$ out of thin air as loans/debt? Our choice.

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Is democracy possible when corporations have the same rights as people – video

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Talk by Greg Coleridge, January 28, 2003

Chat Action Deep Dive Sessions

https://othernetworks.org/Chat_Action_Deep_Dive_Sessions

We (the Chat People) came into existence as the brainchild of Stanley Pokras, who offered audience members of Humanity Rising Sessions the opportunity to convene as an “afterparty” chat group. Our “afterparty” format has also been evolving. Now we are consistently joined by some, if not all, of the presenters who move from the “main stage” into our chat dialogue. We have morphed from an informal discussion group into an activist community undertaking several diverse projects. The Deep Dive sessions are about sharing the expertise in the group. They are workshops and seminars covering a diverse range of themes and ideas.

Time to revoke FirstEnergy Corp.’s charter: Greg Coleridge

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Opinion | March 15, 2023

https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/2023/03/time-to-revoke-firstenergy-corps-charter-greg-coleridge.html

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — A jury’s guilty verdict against former Ohio Speaker of the House Larry Householder for receiving bribes to pass House Bill 6 to bail out two failing FirstEnergy Corp. nuclear power plants at a cost to ratepayers of more than $1 billion should result in significant jail time. The same goes for every other individual involved in the scandal.

This is also true for FirstEnergy, which admitted in its 2021 Deferred Prosecution Agreement with federal prosecutors to paying, including through then-subsidiary FirstEnergy Solutions (FES), more than $59 million to Generation Now, the dark-money front group controlled by Householder. Those funds didn’t come out of the pockets of FirstEnergy executives. They came directly from the FirstEnergy and FES treasuries.

FirstEnergy’s agreement to pay a $230 million penalty as part of that 2021 agreement is nowhere close to proportionate accountability for the massive scale of its perversion and hijacking of our democratic system. It also does not prevent the state of Ohio from pursuing separate legal action against the company.

A corporation is a legal entity, publicly chartered or licensed, in most cases, at the state level. FirstEnergy Corp. is chartered in the state of Ohio.

Corporate charters, originally issued one at a time by state legislatures, identified specific conditions that had to be followed. Charters were similar to licenses issued to individuals who want to practice their profession – establishing specific rules and standards to ensure public safety and welfare.

When a corporation acted beyond their authority as defined in its charter, or illegally, its charter was revoked by the legislature or state Supreme Court and the company was dissolved. This is similar to a professional whose license is revoked for inappropriate or illegal acts.

The Ohio Supreme Court, for example, stated in a 1900 corporate charter revocation decision:

“The time has not yet arrived when the created is greater than the creator, and it still remains the duty of the courts to perform their office in the enforcement of the laws, no matter how ingenious the pretexts for their violation may be, nor the power of the violators in the commercial world.”

A Republican attorney general, David K. Watson sought to dissolve the Standard Oil Co. of Ohio franchise in the 19th century — the largest and most powerful company at that time. He asserted in his legal brief:

“Where a corporation, either directly or indirectly, submits to the domination of an agency unknown to the statute, or identifies itself with and unites in carrying out an agreement whose performance is injurious to the public, it thereby offends against the law of its creation and forfeits all right to its franchises, and judgment of ouster should be entered against it.”

Current Ohio Attorney General David Yost has filed a civil suit against FirstEnergy under the Ohio Corrupt Practices Act. The weak suit doesn’t call for the revocation of FirstEnergy’s charter.

FirstEnergy’s charter, which states it will act legally, should be revoked for the corporation’s admission of its direct involvement in what was called “likely the largest bribery, money-laundering scheme ever perpetrated against the people of the state of Ohio” by then-U.S. Attorney David M. DeVillers.

Greg Coleridge
Greg Coleridge is national co-director of the Move to Amend Coalition.

Issuing a fine or demanding that the company replace one or more directors or board members does nothing to affirm the original intent of charter issuance and revocation: That “We the People” have the power and authority to define and hold our legal creations accountable for their actions to ensure that the public is protected from corporate harms.

The lack of historical knowledge of corporate charter revocation, belief that holding accountable individual corporate “bad apples” is sufficient and the perception that charter revocation is too extreme are reasons why this democratic tool has not been explored in this case. Yet, revoking FirstEnergy’s charter is an appropriate and proportionate response to the scale of the company’s crime. It’s also how authentic self-governing people act to affirm real democracy against corporate rule.

The time has still not yet arrived when the created is greater than the creator.

Greg Coleridge of Ohio is national co-director of the Move to Amend Coalition that seeks to end corporate personhood via an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

East Palestine Train Derailment Caused and Worsened by Real Democracy Derailment

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OpEd News

By Greg Coleridge | March 9, 2023

https://www.opednews.com/articles/East-Palestine-Train-Derai-Democracy_Democracy-History_Real-Democracy_Train-Crash-230309-199.html

The Norfolk Southern Corporation train derailment and subsequent hazardous chemical release into the air, water and land in and beyond East Palestine, Ohio are the inevitable result of multiple anti-democratic realities in the U.S. Many are interconnected and are the same for the roughly 1000 train derailments per year, most recently in Michigan.

Private ownership of railroads

Norfolk Southern Corporation’s record earnings in 2022 led to huge salaries for its top managers and stock buybacks and dividend payouts benefiting speculators and investors. Necessary investments have not been made in technology upgrades and worker safety as the corporation prioritizes maximizing profits over public safety and sustainable business practices. “Since the North American private rail industry has shown itself incapable of doing the job, it is time for this invaluable transportation infrastructure – like the other transport modes – to be brought under public ownership,” concludes the Railroad Workers United. Interstate highways are publicly owned. Railroads were under federal control during WWI. Railroads in many other nations are publicly owned and, therefore, publicly accountable.

No community rights

Local public officials have few legal tools to protect the health, safety and welfare of their residents – especially conditions in any way related to interstate commerce. Communities possess little authority to control material – including trash, chemicals, nuclear waste – coming into or even passing through their jurisdictions by trains or trucks if that material can be defined as “commerce.” The Constitution’s Commerce Clause (Article I, Section 8) gives power to Congress and the President to “regulate commerce”among the several states.” While states have at least some ability under certain conditions to push back against “commercial material” in their states if they can redefine it as dangerous, localities have no rights. East Palestine officials weren’t even notified the derailed Norfolk Southern train was carrying vinyl chloride, ethylhexyl acrylate and other highly toxic chemicals since federal law doesn’t classify those chemicals as “high hazardous.”

Lack of worker power

Strikes are powerful tactics of workers to exert leverage against management. It’s different for railroad workers given the importance of railroads in the nation’s commerce. Unions representing rail workers have been virtually unable to strike since passage of the Railway Labor Act in 1926, which gives the government, specifically the President and Congress, vast powers to force workers to accept alternative means of resolving disputes – including mediation, arbitration and a Presidentially-appointed panel to make a recommendation. Without the legitimate threat to strike, rail workers, including those of Norfolk Southern, lack the power to press for ending dangerous working conditions.

Corporate campaign contributions

Railroad corporations are major political donors/investors to federal and state political races. The industry has poured $85 million into federal candidate campaigns, political parties and outside spending groups since 2002 with Republicans historically being the preferred recipients until recent years. Norfolk Southern – along with BNSF, Union Pacific Corp. and CSX Corp. – are the major industry contributors/investors. Norfolk Southern’s political investments have been $17 million since 1990. At the state level, Norfolk Southern has invested $98,000 into Ohio political races since 2018, with Gov. Mike DeWine (who at first didn’t call for federal assistance following the E. Palestine disaster since he didn’t see a problem) being the largest recipient. Another recipient, Rep. Bill Seitz, supports his home city of Cincinnati selling its publicly owned rail line to none other than Norfolk Southern. At the very least, political campaign contributions buy access to public officials; at worst, buys favors.

Corporate lobbying

The railroad industry invested $24.6 million to employee 265 reported lobbyists to influence the federal government in 2022. Norfolk Southern’s portion was $1.8 million. The combination of corporate campaign contributions and lobbying by Norfolk Southern and other railroads results in legislation and regulations favorable to the industry, harmful to workers and threatening to communities. Rail lobbyists and $6 million from the rail industry to GOP campaigns in 2017, backed by President Trump, were effective in reversing requirements that rail cars carrying hazardous flammable materials install modern electronic braking systems to replace Civil War-era systems. Lobbyists have pressed for fewer workers on trains, longer and heavier trains, and reduced fines for penalties – as well as against paid sick leave for workers and having to define trains carrying hazardous chemicals like the Norfolk Southern that derailed in East Palestine as “high hazard,” which would increase additional safety requirements, costs and public notification. Lobbyists are already working to prevent “burdensome regulations” that, no doubt, include provisions of the proposed Rail Safety Act of 2023, supported by Democratic and Republican Senators in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Supreme Court decisions

Courts have granted corporate entities with a long list of constitutional rights which were intended exclusively to human beings. This includes corporate entities having the “right” to contribute to political campaigns. This has permitted all corporations, including Norfolk Southern, to corrupt the political process favorable to their interests, such as the previously mentioned laws and regulations profitable for railroads, but harmful to persons without the means to spend large sums of money to have their voices heard, communities helped and environment protected. Supreme Court-granted corporate Fourth Amendment search and seizure rights prevent surprise inspections of corporate property intended to protect workers and communities.

Ineffective and/or captured regulatory agencies

Railroads were the first federal government regulated corporations with the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887 in response to widespread public rage over railroad abuses and malpractices. The railroads preferred government regulation over direct public ownership, which was a growing public call over many natural monopolies. Railroad executives felt they could have influence over agencies through appointments of regulators and limiting the scope of their oversight, which has proven true. Public safety inspections are also limited by regulatory agency funding, which impacts technology needs and human inspectors. The Federal Railroad Administration, the major railroad regulatory agency, has only 400 inspectors to inspect the nation’s rail system covering 140,000 miles. This has forced the FHA to increasingly allow railroad corporations to inspect their own trains, tracks and signals, an increasingly common practice across all regulatory agencies. The EPA recently announced that it’s requiring Norfolk Southern to directly test for dioxins in East Palestine. Where’s the public accountability when, in effect, an entity charged with a crime gets to be the prosecutor, judge and jury?

Criminalization of protest

The response by the state, supported by corporations, to public protests and organizing responding to corporate assaults has been to pass laws criminalizing such activities to punish and smear individuals who exercise their right to peaceful assembly. Forty-five states have considered 265 bills, 39 of which have already passed in 20 states since 2017. Penalties of felonies serve as a deterrent to individuals to attend public events where they might be arrested and plant the message that those who protest must be extremists. This mindset is reflected in the reaction by federal and Ohio “law enforcement” agencies to the recent visit of whistleblower Erin Brockovich to East Palestine. A report by the agencies “assesses that special interest extremist groups will continue to call for changes in governmental policy, which may lead to protests in/around East Palestine and/or at the Statehouse in Columbus.” Clearly, even a public meeting that Brockovich was planning was deemed as dangerous.

The East Palestine tragedy, while dramatic and horrific in its hardships to those who live nearby, wildlife and the environment, is sadly merely a symptom of current political realities. Essential is fundamental systemic change to address not only all the above mentioned conditions, but also to structurally increase the power of people to have legitimate influence over decisions affecting their lives, communities and beyond.

Enacting the We the People Amendment, HJR48 that would abolish all corporate constitutional rights and political money defined as free speech, is urgent. But fundamental self-governance goes beyond the amendment. Independent people’s movements led by individuals who’ve been historically treated unjustly is a prerequisite for how to get real democracy on track – for the very first time.

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Greg Coleridge is Co-Director of Move to Amend. He previously worked for more than three decades with the American Friends Service Committee in Ohio where he educated, advocated and organized on a range of justice, peace, environmental and democracy issues — including helping coordinate Move to Amend activities in the Buckeye state. He is the author of The Depth of Change: Selected Writings and Remarks on Social Change (2022); Citizens over Corporations: A Brief History of Democracy in Ohio and Challenges to Freedom in the Future (2003), writer of the documentary CorpOrNation: The Story of Citizens and Corporations in Ohio (2003), and contributed several articles to the anthology Defying Corporations, Defining Democracy – A Book of History and Strategy (2001). He currently maintains and distributes via email a weekly REAL Democracy History Calendar (https://realdemocracyhistorycalendar.wordpress.com/) and Monetary History Calendar (https://monetarycalendar.wordpress.com/) He is a Board Member of the Alliance for Just Money (AFJM). He previously served an elected term on the national governing board of Common Cause and was a Principal with the Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy (POCLAD).