Has anything changed?
In 1906, a newspaper in Montana said, “The greatest living issue that confronts us today is whether the corporations shall control the people, or the people shall control the corporations.”
— Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock
letter to the editor
Published: Sunday, November 25, 2012
The Plain Dealer, Cleveland
http://blog.cleveland.com/letters/2012/11/super_lobbyists_citizens_stand.html
From Massachusetts to Oregon, Colorado to Illinois, and California to Ohio, citizens throughout the country voted overwhelmingly on Nov. 6 for their legislators to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling and declare that only human beings — not corporations — are entitled to constitutional rights and that money is not speech and campaign spending can be regulated.
Residents in more than 150 cities, including Brecksville and Newburgh Heights here in Northeast Ohio, had the opportunity to vote on measures calling for an end to the doctrines of corporate constitutional rights and money as free speech. Every single one passed.
More council resolutions, ordinances and initiatives across Ohio are planned in 2013. Contact ohio@movetoamend.org for more information.
Greg Coleridge Cleveland Heights
Coleridge is director of the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee and the Ohio coordinator for Move to Amend.
Ballot measures in BOTH Newburgh Heights and Brecksville passed. Voters in each community supported calling on Congress to support a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution declaring:
– Only human beings, not corporations, are legal persons with Constitutional rights, and
– Money is not equivalent to speech, and therefore, regulating political contributions and spending does not equate to limiting political speech.
A second provision of each ballot measure calls for a local community-sponsored public hearing where residents can testify on the impact of political contributions by corporations, unions, and Super PACs on their community.
While similar in these ways, the measures were different…and historic in Ohio.
NEWBURGH HEIGHTS becomes the first city in Ohio to pass a Move to Amend initiative placed on the ballot by the Mayor and Council. Rather than simply pass a Resolution, Newburgh Heights deliberately chose to let the people decide. And did they ever – by 74%!
BRECKSVILLE becomes the first city in Ohio to pass a Move to Amend initiative placed on the ballot via citizen initiative. Despite active opposition by the power structure in this “conservative” community, the measure passed with 52% of the vote.
Congratulations to the people of both communities who voted Yes! Congratulations to Newburgh Heights Mayor Trevor Elkins and Newburgh Heights council for their prophetic decision to place this issue on the ballot and educate residents. And congratulations to Citizens for Transparent Politics in Brecksville, co-founded by Rose and Jack Petsche, for their tireless work to gain ballot access and wage an educational campaign.
May their victories inspire others elsewhere to wage campaigns to pass resolutions, organize citizens initiatives and call on councils to place similar measures on their local ballots to let the people decide!
Who’s next!
NOVEMBER 5
1818- BIRTH OF BENJAMIN BUTLER, UNION ARMY CIVIL WAR GENERAL AND MEMBER OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE
“I stand here, therefore, for inconvertible paper money, the greenback, which has fought our battles and saved our country, which has been held by us as a just equivalent for the blood of our soldiers, the lives of our sons, the widowhood of our daughters, and the orphanage of their children. I stand here for a currency by which the business transactions of forty million people are safely and successfully done, which, founded on the faith, the wealth, and property of the nation, is at once the exemplar and engine of its industries and power—that money which saved the country in war and has given it prosperity and happiness in peace. To it four million men owe their emancipation from slavery; to it labor is indebted for elevation from that thrall of degradation in which it has been enveloped for ages. I stand for that money, therefore, which is by far the better agent and instrument of exchanged of an enlightened and free people than gold and silver the money alike of the barbarian and the despot.” [Speech on House floor, January 12, 1869 on national currency]
NOVEMBER 6
2012 – ELECTION DAY IN THE UNITED STATES
It may be impossible to believe in our corporate-dominated elections where corporations and the wealthy few decide which candidates are “electable,” what issues are dis(cussed) and what constitutes “news,” but there were some federal elections in our nation’s history where the nature of money and democratic control over the issuing and circulation of our nation’s money was one of, if not THE, major issues in the campaign [i.e. 1832 election of Andrew Jackson and 1896 election of William McKinley over William Jennings Bryan].
1841 – BIRTH OF NELSON ADRICH, US SENATOR (R.I.), LEADER OF REPUBLICAN PARTY IN THE SENATE
Alrich was the major Senate proponent of the Federal Reserve Act. He railroaded the bill through both houses of Congress in the fall and winter of 1913. Alfred Crozier, an Ohio attorney and author of the book US Money vs Corporation Currency, testified before Congress against the Aldrich bill. He said, “The… bill grants just what Wall Street and the big banks for 25 years have been striving for, namely, private instead of public control of currency. [The bill] robs the Government and the people of all effective control over the public money supply and vest in the banks exclusively the dangerous power to make money among the people scarce or plenty.”
NOVEMBER 7
1775 – QUAKERS OF PHILADELPHIA REFUSE TO ACCEPT “CONTINENTALS”
The Continental Congress issued their own money, “continentals,” to facilitate economic transactions during the time of the American Revolution. The money was used in large part to pay for the war, since British and Spanish money was in short supply. Continentals helped the colonists win the war. As pacificts, however, Quakers of Philadelphia argued beginning on this day they couldn’t touch money created to fight a war.
1846 – AMENDMENT TO ARKANSAS CONSTITUION ADOPTED
Among the first acts of the new state was chartering two private banking corporations. A depression, lasting from approximately 1834 to 1844, was in progress at the time, including the famous panic of 1837, causing inflation, speculation and “wildcat banking.” As a result of these failures, the first amendment to the Constitution of Arkansas of 1836, ratified by the state legislature on November 17, 1846 read: “No bank or banking institution shall be hereafter incorporated or established in this State,” which lasted until after the Civil War.
1931 – PUBLISHED LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF ALBERT EINSTEIN IN BERLINER TAGEBLATT
“The gold standard has, in my opinion, the serious disadvantage that a shortage in the supply of gold automatically leads to a contraction of credit and also of the amount of currency in circulation… The natural remedies to our troubles are, in my opinion…Control of the amount of money in circulation and of the volume of credit in such a way as to keep the price level steady, abolishing any monetary standard.”
NOVEMBER 9
1910 – BIRTH OF CARROLL QUIGLEY, AMERICAN HISTORIAN AND THEORIST OF THE EVOLUTION OF CIVILIZATIONS
“The powers of financial capitalism had another far reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements, arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was the Bank for International Settlements in Basle, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the worlds’ central banks which were themselves private corporations. The growth of financial capitalism made possible a centralization of world economic control and use of this power for the direct benefit of financiers and the indirect injury of all other economic groups.” Tragedy and Hope: A History of The World in Our Time
2011- FEDERAL RESERVE AWARENESS DAY
Sponsored by the US Occupy movement, teach-ins and forums took place in several locations across the country to expose the true nature of the largely private Federal Reserve system.
NOVEMBER 10
1796 – BIRTH OF WILLIAM GOUGE, EDITOR AND WRITER
Gouge edited the ” Philadelphia Gazette” and other journals, and for thirty years contributed articles on banking to various periodicals. He was for thirty years connected with the treasury department at Washington. He published “History of the American Banking System” (1835); ” Expediency of Dispensing with Bank Paper” (1837); and a “Fiscal History of Texas” (1852)
“As it is public credit that supports the Banks, and not the Banks that support public credit, as the deposits of the Banks are the property of the community generally and the profits derived from circulation come from the community generally they ought to go to the community generally and be used to lighten the burden of taxation.”
“The banking system is the principal cause of social evil in the United States.”
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Why this calendar? Many people have questions about the root causes of our economic problems. Some questions involve money, banks and debt. How is money created? Why do banks control its quantity? How has the money system been used to liberate (not often) and oppress (most often) us? And how can the money system be “democratized” to rebuild our economy and society, create jobs and reduce debt?
Our goal is to inform, intrigue and inspire through bite size weekly postings listing important events and quotes from prominent individuals (both past and present) on money, banking and how the money system can help people and the planet. We hope the sharing of bits of buried history will illuminate monetary and banking issues and empower you with others to create real economic and political justice.
This calendar is a project of the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee. Adele Looney, Phyllis Titus, Donna Schall, Leah Davis, Alice Francini and Greg Coleridge helped in its development.
Please forward this to others and encourage them to subscribe. To subscribe/unsubscribe or to comment on any entry, contact monetarycalendar@yahoo.com For more information, visit http://www.afsc.net/economiccrisis.html
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