April 15
1858 – Birth of Emile Durkheim, French sociologist, social psychologist, philosopher and “father” of sociology
“I can be free only to the extent that others are forbidden to profit from their physical, economic, or other superiority to the detriment of my liberty.”
1865 – Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
“The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy.”
Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution provides Congress with the power to “coin” or create money. Under the Lincoln administration, the US Government issued 450 million “Greenbacks” – interest and inflation-free money – after private banks refused to lend the government funds to pay for the war unless the government agreed to pay exorbitantly high interest payments. Greenbacks weren’t government bill, bonds or any other debt-bearing notes. They were actual US money.
“The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of government, but it is the government’s greatest creative opportunity. The financing of all public enterprise, and the conduct of the treasury will become matters of practical administration. Money will cease to be master and will then become servant of humanity.”
1975 — Death of Halena Wilson, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Ladies Auxiliary
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, was the first official independent Black union. Wilson and the union’s President, A. Philip Randolph (ironically, born on this day in 1889), wrote about, promoted, taught and organized democratic economic cooperatives to keep resources recycling in the Black community.
2011 – Posted poem, “Persona Ficta,” by Jena Osman
a corporation is to a person as a person is to a machine
amicus curiae we know them as good and bad, they too are sheep and goats
ventriloquizing the ghostly fiction.
a corporation is to a body as a body is to a puppet
putting it in caricature, if there are natural persons then there are those who are
not that, buying candidates. there are those who are strong on the ground and
then weak in the air. weight shifts to the left leg while the prone hand sets down;
Rest of poem at https://therumpus.net/2011/04/national-poetry-month-day-15-persona-ficta-by-jena-osman/
2015 – Postal worker lands gyrocopter at US Capital to protest influence of big money in politics
A Florida postal worker, Doug Hughes, carried 535 letters – one for each member of Congress – when he landed his one-person gyrocopter on the US Capital grounds. He was arrested before he could make his delivery of letters calling for campaign finance reform and sentenced to 120 days in prison.
“As long as law recognizes corporations as people, they have the same human rights we have, along with perks we don’t have such as limited liability. Combine those rights with their treasuries, and multi-national corporations have become super-sized people rolling over actual human beings and the institutions designed to protect us.”
April 16
1862 – Emancipation Proclamation in DC signed by President Lincoln, but slaveowners paid reparations
Slaves are freed in DC but former slave owners are reimbursed for slaves given up. Whites are paid over $1 million in reparations for “lost property.” After all, the US Constitution established that slaves were “property,” not human beings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2-q-RBiWhk
1931 – Birth of Ronnie Dugger, co- founder, Alliance for Democracy; Texas Observer founding editor
“We are ruled by Big Business and Big Government as its paid hireling, and we know it. The big corporations and the centimillionaires and billionaires have taken daily control of our work, our pay, our housing, our healthcare, our pension funds, our banks and savings deposits, our public lands, our airwaves, our elections and our very governments…The issue is not issues, the issue is the system.” [emphasis added]
1995 – Presentation of “Certificate of Dissolution: Weyerhaeuser Corporation”
The public presentation was part of a “guerilla theatre” gathering outside the home of Weyerhaeuser Corporation CEO George Weyerhaeuser as an example of how to reframe an issue from one of corporate harm into that of contesting corporate authority and asserting the right of the people to define the very existence of corporations.
After providing a long list of political and ecological abuses, the “Certificate” reads:
“The people of the U.S. retain the unalterable right to revoke the charter of corporations which violate the common good. Originally, after the American Revolution, charters were rarely granted, and often revoked—with their assets distributed to compensate for damages and the corporate owners held accountable for their criminal acts. Today we are re-invoking this right. In addition, the inalienable rights of the existence of numerous species of life upon this Earth demand this revocation. Therefore be it ordained, by the powers of the laws of Washington State and the higher laws of Nature, that the corporate charter of Weyerhaeuser be revoked and the said company dissolved.” http://www.ratical.org/corporations/Weyerhaeuser.html
2000 – Mass protest of World Bank and IMF
Over 10,000 activists protest meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) whose policies help corporations and elites while causing poverty and environmental degradation. Police declare martial law over large area of Washington, DC. 678 people were arrested.
2018 – Pulitzer Prizes announced: “Sound of the Bench” by Ted Hearn was runner up in music category — lyrics inspired by corporate personhood
“‘Sound From the Bench,’ a cantata for choir, electric guitars and drums, with texts drawn from U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments and inspired by the odd idea of corporate personhood. This is the work that caught the attention of the Pulitzer people.”
April 17
1905 – Lochner v. New York [198 U.S. 45] Supreme Court decision – use of the 14th Amendment to invalidate government regulation of corporations
The decision was one of the most controversial in the history of the Court. It concluded that “liberty of contract” was inferred in the “due process” clause of the 14th Amendment (originally intended to apply to freed black slaves). The specific case involved the state of New York seeking to limit working hours to 10 per day and 60 each week. The Court rejected the claim that the law was needed to protect the health of workers, asserting that the labor law was an “”unreasonable, unnecessary and arbitrary interference with the right and liberty of the individual to contract.” In other words, the majority of Justices felt that the law inhibited the constitutional right of workers and employers to make contracts freely.
The implications were devastating. The decision shielded corporations from vast forms of government regulation. The Court invalidated approximately 200 economic regulations from 1905 until the mid-1930’s passed by legislators — usually under this interpretation of the due process clause of the 14th Amendment
2018 – The EU is trying to decide whether to grant robots personhood
“Under an ongoing EU proposal, it might just be the bot itself. A 2017 European Parliament report floated the idea of granting special legal status, or “electronic personalities,” to smart robots, specifically those which (or should that be who?) can learn, adapt, and act for themselves. This legal personhood would be similar to that already assigned to corporations around the world, and would make robots, rather than people, liable for their self-determined actions, including for any harm they might cause. The motion suggests:
“‘Creating a specific legal status for robots in the long run, so that at least the most sophisticated autonomous robots could be established as having the status of electronic persons responsible for making good any damage they may cause, and possibly applying electronic personality to cases where robots make autonomous decisions or otherwise interact with third parties independently.’”
Related: Experts Sign Open Letter Slamming Europe’s Proposal to Recognize Robots as Legal Persons
“Over 150 experts in AI, robotics, commerce, law, and ethics from 14 countries have signed an open letter denouncing the European Parliament’s proposal to grant personhood status to intelligent machines. The EU says the measure will make it easier to figure out who’s liable when robots screw up or go rogue, but critics say it’s too early to consider robots as persons—and that the law will let manufacturers off the liability hook.”
https://gizmodo.com/experts-sign-open-letter-slamming-europe-s-proposal-to-1825240003
2023 – “Supreme Court Holds that Constitutional Challenges to Administrative Agencies’ Structure Can Be Brought in District Court” posted article
“The Supreme Court held today that constitutional challenges to administrative agencies’ structure can be brought in federal district court and need not be raised through an administrative proceeding with subsequent appellate review. The decision in Axon Enterprise, Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission (U.S. Apr. 14, 2023) – which involved challenges to two federal agencies’ use of Administrative Law Judges (“ALJs”) for enforcement proceedings – considered only the issue of where such challenges can be brought…
“The Axon case is, to some extent, a sideshow to the main event: an eventual ruling on whether the ALJ structure, and perhaps even the whole administrative-agency scheme, is constitutional.”
[Note: The implications of this case is the ending of regulating any corporate actions by administrative agencies]
https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/supreme-court-holds-that-constitutional-5367653
April 18
1955 – Death of Albert Einstein – on capitalism, power and democracy
“Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands…The result…is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.”
1996 – Publication this month of “Corporations for the Seventh Generation: Changing the Ground Rules, Part 1” by Jane Anne Morris, corporate anthropologist and POCLAD principal
“What if…
- corporations were required to have a clear purpose, to be fulfilled but not exceeded;
- corporations’ licenses to do business were revocable by the state legislature if they exceeded or did not fulfill their chartered purpose(s);
- the state legislature could revoke a corporation’s charter for a particular reason, or for no reason at all;
- the act of incorporation did not relieve corporate management or stockholders/owners of responsibility or liability for corporate acts;
- as a matter of course, corporation officers, directors, or agents could be held criminally liable for violating the law;
- state (not federal) courts heard cases where corporations or their agents were accused of breaking the law or harming the public;
- directors of the corporation were required to come from among stockholders;
- corporations had to have their headquarters and meetings in the state where their principal place of business was located;
- corporation charters were granted for a specific period of time, like 20 or 30 years (instead of being granted “in perpetuity,” as is now the practice);
- corporations were prohibited from owning stock in other corporations in order to prevent them from extending their power inappropriately;
- corporations’ real estate holdings were limited to what was necessary to carry out their specific purpose(s);
- corporations were prohibited from making any political contributions, direct or indirect;
- corporations were prohibited from making charitable or civic donations outside of their specific purposes;
- state legislatures set the rates that corporations could charge for their products or services;
- all corporation records and documents were open to the legislature or the state attorney general?
All of these provisions were once law in the state of Wisconsin. And similar ones existed in most other states.”
From http://poclad.org/BWA/1996/BWA_1996_APR.html
April 19
1775 – Revolutionary War Begins
Shots fired and the subsequent battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. Colonists sought independence not only from the Crown (King), but also from the Crown’s military arm (Redcoats, which oppressed the colonists) and from the Crown’s economic/governing arms (Crown corporations, chartered by the King to conduct the King’s affairs in the colonies – which also oppressed). Examples included the Massachusetts Bay Company, the Carolina Company, the Maryland Company and the Virginia Company. The Revolution constitutionalized these corporations, transforming them into states or commonwealths. It also democratized “sovereignty” from rule by a single person to in principle We the People. In practice, only white, male property owners assumed power and rule.
2012 – Vermont Becomes First State to Call for Amendment Removing Corporations From Constitution
“[Other states] have passed resolutions against the Citizens United v. FEC ruling by the Supreme Court, but the Vermont resolution goes beyond simply overturning that case and aims to remove corporations from the constitution altogether and make clear that money is not speech and that campaign spending and political contributions can be regulated by government.”
April 20
On the 20th April 1653, Oliver Cromwell dismisses Parliament with the following words
‘It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice.
Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government.
Ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.
Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess?
Ye have no more religion than my horse. Gold is your God. Which of you have not bartered your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?
Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defiled this sacred place, and turned the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices?
Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance.
Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse this Augean stable, by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings in this House; and which by God’s help, and the strength he has given me, I am now come to do.
I command ye therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place.
Go, get you out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors.
In the name of God, go!’
http://www.emersonkent.com/speeches/dismissal_of_the_rump_parliament.htm
1868 – Birth of John Hylan, New York City Mayor – corporations and their leaders like a giant octopus
Hylan was Mayor of New York from 1918-1925. He said, “The real menace of our republic is this invisible government, which, like a giant octopus, sprawls its slimy length over city, state and nation. Like the octopus of real life, it operates under cover of a self created screen…At the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller Standard Oil interests and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control both political parties.”
1920 – Birth of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens
In his 2014 book, “Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution,” Stevens proposed the following Constitutional Amendment:
“Neither the First Amendment nor any other provision of this Constitution shall be construed to prohibit the Congress or any state from imposing reasonable limits on the amount of money that candidates for public office, or their supporters, may spend in election campaigns.”
2018 – Nationwide student walkout on gun violence
Students at 2700 schools walk out of classes protesting inaction on gun control violence on 19th anniversary of Columbine Massacre. Called by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students in Florida.
April 21
1796 – Birth of Thomas Earle, U.S. journalist and lawyer – on power of Supreme Court
Many citizens were outraged by the power of the Supreme Court, which they considered to be a direct attack on the sovereignty of “We the People.” In one protest pamphlet, journalist Thomas Earle penned:
“It is aristocracy and despotism, to have a body of officers, whose decisions are, for a long time, beyond the control of the people. The freemen of America ought not to rest contented, so long as their Supreme Court is a body of that character.”
1830 – Birth of Mary Ann Brayton Woodbridge, U.S. Temperance Leader
Woodbridge, a Quaker, was President of the Ohio National Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WTCU) and later became a leading organizer and editor for the national Christian organization. The WTCU, founded in 1874, focused on social reform issues of child labor, public health, peace and suffrage. It’s major focus, however, was promoting temperance. The WTCU was one of the leading groups behind the movement for passage of the 18th Amendment that prohibited the production, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages. The Amendment went into effect in 1920.
2018 – Published article “A Cancer on Society: Monsanto Claims Right Not to Speak About Roundup” by Alfonso Saldaña, Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap
“What might be a surprise to most is that, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), glyphosate, the principal ingredient in the herbicide, is a ‘probable carcinogen’”…
“Despite the IARC’s findings, a U.S. District Judge has temporarily suspended the labeling of food products that contain traces of the herbicide, because it violates Monsanto’s First Amendment ‘right not to speak.’”
2020 – “Everything Else is Irrelevant without a Livable World” online posting
“Unfortunately, despite the incredible efforts of so many people over the past 50 years to protect the environment, the earth and what remains of its incredibly diverse life forms are far less healthy than in 1970. Fossil fuel burning, pesticides, radioactive leaks, air pollution, oil spills, deforestation, fracking, urban expansion, water pollution, mountaintop removal and scores of other human activities are destroying farms, oceans, air quality, wildernesses, biodiversity, and the planet’s climate. The result has been mass extinction of many species and among humans, disproportionate harm to people of color, the poor, indigenous communities and the elderly and sick.
“The reality is that most of the above have been the consequences of corporate actions toward people, communities and the natural world with the goal of profit maximization — which in most cases have been not only legal, but sanctioned, if not subsidized, by governments. This has been coupled with the creation of a corporate culture of insatiable never-ending wants of material things that can never be satisfied since wealth, success, and personal well-being is defined by the amount of “stuff” we possess — whether we can afford it or not.
https://www.movetoamend.org/everything_else_is_irrelevant_without_a_livable_world
2021 – “The earth needs the #WeThePeopleAmendment” online posting
“Tomorrow is Earth Day — and while planting a tree is a great way to spend the day, we can’t forget that we are up against a powerful, extractive, and brutal system that our individual choices will never be enough to defeat.
“Do you know who loves these exhortations to individual action to stop climate collapse? The 100 corporations who are responsible for 71% of the planet’s carbon emissions!
The #WeThePeopleAmendment is one of the most powerful ways we can bring these corporations to heel…
“By eliminating corporate constitutional rights, they could no longer control our government and policy with campaign funding and lobbying, nor could they challenge regulations in court by claiming other constitutional rights (like their 5th Amendment “right” to future profits lost)
https://www.movetoamend.org/the_earth_needs_the_wethepeopleamendment
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