January 8
1908 – U.S. Supreme Court grants 4th Amendment rights to corporations
Corporations are granted Bill of Rights protections against “search and seizure” by the U.S. Supreme Court in Consolidated Rendering Co. v. Vermont, 207 U.S. 541. The corporation’s agents asserted and were granted a Constitutional right to privacy.
1870 – Suffragist Lucy Stone’s newspaper The Woman’s Journal published its first issue
“American weekly suffragist periodical, first published on January 8, 1870, by Lucy Stone and her husband, Henry Blackwell, to address a broad segment of middle-class female society interested in women’s rights. As an official publication of the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), it published the views of the AWSA. Because the periodical was ‘devoted to the interests of Woman—to her educational, industrial, legal and political Equality, and especially to her right of Suffrage,’ it printed speeches, debates, and convention notes that pertained to suffrage for women.”
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Womans-Journal
1935 – Birth of Lewis Lapham, U.S. writer – on power elite
“The shaping of the will of Congress and the choosing of the American president has become a privilege reserved to the country’s equestrian classes, a.k.a. the 20% of the population that holds 93% of the wealth, the happy few who run the corporations and the banks, own and operate the news and entertainment media, compose the laws and govern the universities, control the philanthropic foundations, the policy institutes, the casinos, and the sports arenas.”
2019 – “It’s Time to Bring Back the Corporate Death Penalty,” by Thom Hartmann
“The corporate death penalty, widespread in the 19th century, is a political and economic Darwinian process that weeds bad actors out of the business ecosystem to make room for good players.
“The process of revoking corporate charters goes back to the very first years of the United States. After all, the only reasons states allow (“charter”) corporations (normal business corporations can only be chartered by a state, not the federal government) is to serve the public interest
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/01/08/its-time-bring-back-corporate-death-penalty
2021 – Exploring the top donors to GOP Electoral College objectors
“Their donors include some of the top trade association PACs such as the National Association of Realtors and the American Bankers Association, which gave the maximum $20,000 to several GOP members’ campaigns and leadership PACs…
“PACs tied to telecom companies AT&T and Comcast Corp, along with defense giants Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon also make the list of top corporate PAC donors. Koch Industries, owned by GOP megadonor Charles Koch, comes in at No. 4. Koch encouraged GOP lawmakers to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.”
January 9
1893 – US Supreme Court decision grants corporations Bill of Rights protections with the application of the 5th Amendment to a non-human corporate entity
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Nobel v. Union River Logging [147 U.S. 165], granting to corporations for the first time inalienable rights contained in the Bill of Rights. The 5th Amendment says: “…nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
2003 – Corporate pollution, low wages and corporate welfare part of the same source
“It would not have been enough to see poor funding for girls’ athletics as one problem, unequal wages for women as a separate problem, and harassment in the workplace as still a different problem. These battles became one when their common source in sex discrimination was recognized. Yet today we chase after corporate pollution as one problem, low wages as another problem, and corporate welfare as still a third problem.” – Marjorie Kelly in “The Divine Right of Capital: Dethroning the Corporate Aristocracy.” The paperback version was first published on this date
[Note: Corporate rule is the source. ]
January 10
1834 – Birth of Lord Acton, English historian, politician, and writer
“The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought, sooner or later, is the people versus the banks.“
1997 – A letter from President Bill Clinton to Mayor of Toledo, Ohio on limits of Presidential power over corporate decisions is referenced in the following:
“The mayor had asked the president for help in getting the Chrysler Corporation to build a new Jeep factory within Toledo city limits to replace the ancient one which Chrysler Corporation was closing.
“The President of the United States, leader of the most powerful nation the world has ever known, elected head of a government always eager to celebrate the uniqueness of its democracy to the point of forcing it upon other nations, wrote:
‘As I am sure you know, my Administration cannot endorse any potential location for the new production site. My Intergovernmental Affairs staff will be happy to work with you once the Chrysler Board of Directors has made its decision.’
“Our president may not have a clue, but We the People did not grant away our sovereignty when we made Chrysler into a corporation. When we gave the Chrysler Corporation authority to manufacture automobiles, we made the people of Toledo not its subjects, nor Chrysler Corporation their supreme authority.”
From “Corporations, Accountability, and Responsibility,” by Richard Grossman in Defying Corporations, Defining Democracy, p. 141
January 11
1755 – Birth of Alexander Hamilton, U.S. “founding father,” first U.S. Treasury Secretary, anti-democrat
Hamilton labeled We the People as the “mob at the gate.” He also said, “Our real disease which is Democracy.” Hamilton was the major proponent of providing a 20-year federal charter to the mis-named First National Bank of the United States, the U.S.’ first private central bank. Seventy-five percent of the bank’s stock was foreign-owned. Federal charters, or licenses, were very unusual at the time, as most corporate charters were issued by the states, which were closer to We the People.
[Note: Something to keep in mind if you see the play and/or listen to the music of “Hamilton.”]
1885 — Birth of Alice Paul – Feminist, Suffragist, and Political Strategist
“Alice Paul was the architect of some of the most outstanding political achievements on behalf of women in the 20th century. Born on January 11, 1885 to Quaker parents in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, Alice Paul dedicated her life to the single cause of securing equal rights for all women.
“Few individuals have had as much impact on American history as has Alice Paul. Her life symbolizes the long struggle for justice in the United States and around the world. Her vision was the ordinary notion that women and men should be equal partners in society.”
http://www.alicepaul.org/who-was-alice-paul/
1943 – Birth of Jim Hightower, syndicated columnist, progressive political activist, and author
“The corporations don’t have to lobby the government anymore. They are now the government.”
2023 –”Out on a limb: Carnegie International project seeks legal personhood for a tree” by Bill O’Driscoll , WESA radio news
“It was planted last year as the German collective Terra0’s entry in the Carnegie Museum of Art’s prestigious Carnegie International. This living artwork is titled ‘A tree, a corporation, a person,’ and its ambition is just that: to see if the artists and museum can gain legal personhood for a plant so it might, among other attainments, own both itself and its modest plot of land.
January 12
1729 – Birth of Edmund Burke, Irish Member of Parliament and author – attributed quote
“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”
We need to speak out and act up for democracy and human rights in all its forms and to end corporate rule and plutocracy.
January 13
2007 – The article, “Who Rules America,” by Professor James Petras
“Within the financial ruling class…political leaders come from the public and private equity banks, namely Wall Street – especially Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, the Carlyle Group and others. They organize and fund both major parties and their electoral campaigns. They pressure, negotiate and draw up the most comprehensive and favorable legislation on global strategies and sectoral policies…They pressure the government to “bailout” bankrupt and failed speculative firms and to balance the budget by lowering social expenditures instead of raising taxes on speculative “windfall” profits…These private equity banks are involved in every sector of the economy, in every region of the world economy and increasingly speculate in the conglomerates which are acquired. Much of the investment funds now in the hands of the US investment banks, hedge funds and other sectors of the financial ruling class originated in the profits extracted from workers in the manufacturing and service sector.”
Source: http://www.globalresearch.ca/who-rules-america/4441
2021 – Lee Camp: “America Condemns One Violent Mob While Celebrating Another”
“Most rational Americans have correctly criticized and denounced the violent insurrection in the Capitol last week. Those moments of attack by a racist, disgusting mob have not lacked for condemnation and denunciation. They were violent…
“BUT – why don’t we see an equal amount of disgust and condemnation for the violence done by our ruling class, the courtesans of corporate destruction?
“Is allowing people to die or fall ill due to lead pipes in Flint, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and hundreds of other cities not violence?
“Is allowing citizens to lose their lives to cancer from Teflon™ chemicals dumped in their water or preventable oil spills not violence?
Is allowing…
January 14
1938 – Birth of Dorothy Zellner – civil rights activist, feminist
Zellner was co-editor of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s newsletter, the Student Voice. “Zellner was arrested at a CORE demonstration in Miami in 1960 and participated in sit-ins in New Orleans before joining Julian Bond as co-editor of the Student Voice, which built community among SNCC’s widely dispersed field workers. She also became SNCC’s media relations person, helping generate support for the organization and bring it to national attention. She handled fundraising and helped screen volunteers for Freedom Summer. Zellner worked as a nurse for several years before joining the Center for Constitutional Rights in 1984. In 1998, she became director of publications and development for the Queens College School of Law. She lectures and writes frequently about the civil rights movement and co-edited Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC. “
https://jwa.org/people/zellner-dorothy
2020 – “‘Corporate dictatorships’ are subjugating US workers — and stripping employees of fundamental constitutional rights,” article by Chris Hedges
“These corporations, with little or no oversight, surveil and monitor their workforces. They conduct random drug testing, impose punishing quotas and targets, routinely engage in wage theft, injure workers and then refuse to make compensation, and ignore reports of sexual harassment, assault and rape. They use managerial harassment, psychological manipulation—including the pseudo-science of positive psychology—and intimidation to ensure obedience. They fire workers for expressing leftist political opinions on social media or at public events during their off-hours. They terminate those who file complaints or publicly voice criticism about working conditions. They thwart attempts to organize unions, callously dismiss older workers and impose “non-compete” contract clauses, meaning that if workers leave they are unable to use their skills and human capital to work for other employers in the same industry. Nearly half of all technical professions now require workers to sign non-compete clauses, and this practice has spread to low-wage jobs including those in hair salons and restaurants.”
2020 – “’Awesome, Brilliant, Necessary’: Seattle Bans Foreign-Influenced Corporations From Spending in Local Elections” posted article
“This landmark campaign finance legislation bans corporations like Amazon and Bank of America from infiltrating the city’s electoral process.”
2020 – “New Report: Corporate Rule Transcends Citizens United: A Report on the Totality of Corporate Constitutional Rights Beyond First Amendment Political Free Speech”
“The Citizens United v. FEC decision expanded corporate ability to influence the outcomes of a core element of our democratic republic: political elections. Contrary to the traditional narrative, the corporate hijacking of democracy and dominance over people, communities and the environment began long before Citizens United. And also contrary to the traditional narrative, the corporate assault on Americans’ rights extends far beyond their ability to influence elections.
https://www.movetoamend.org/new_report_corporate_rule_transcends_citizens_united
2021 – “The Slush Fund Bankrolling The Insurrectionist GOP” online posting
“Corporations are being lauded for halting PAC donations after the insurrection — but they are not shutting down the real pool of cash supporting authoritarian extremists.”
https://www.dailyposter.com/p/the-slush-fund-bankrolling-the-insurrectionist
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