There is now an escalation of events in Pennsylvania regarding
corporate personhood!
The elected officials of Porter Township, Pennsylvania, have passed a
law declaring that corporations operating in that township may not
claim civil and constitutional privileges. A unanimous vote cast on
December 9, 2002, evolved out of long-time efforts by citizens and public
officials to bar corporations from dumping toxic sludge on township
lands. The new law declares that corporations allowed to do business
within Porter Township possess none of the human rights that
corporations have been wielding to overrule democratic processes and
rule over communities. For details, contact the Community
Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) in PA at 717.709.0457
or info@celdf.org, or contact the Program on Corporations, Law and
Democracy (POCLAD) in MA at 508.398.1145 or people@poclad.org .
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First Local Government in the United States
Refuses to Recognize Corporate Claims to Civil Rights:
Bans Corporate Involvement in Governing
On the evening of December 9, 2002, the elected municipal
officials of Porter Township, Clarion County - a municipality of
1,500 residents an hour north of Pittsburgh in Northwestern
Pennsylvania - became the first local government in the United States
to eliminate corporate claims to civil and constitutional privileges.
The Township adopted a binding law declaring that corporations
operating in the Township may not wield legal privileges -
historically used by corporations to override democratic
decisionmaking - to stop the Township from passing laws which protect
residents from toxic sewage sludge.
The actions by Porter Township thus repudiate the history of
state and federal public officials restricting the rights of citizens
while expanding the rights of corporations and their owners.
Background
Along with close to a dozen other municipal governments in Pennsylvania, Porter Township officials had previously adopted a local law governing the land application of sewage sludge in the Township. The adoption of that municipal law was an outgrowth of the work done by residents and municipal officials to stop sewage sludge corporations from dumping Pittsburgh-generated sludge in the Township. To that immediate end, the municipal government adopted a "tipping fee" law that requires corporate sludge haulers to pay a per ton "tipping fee" to the Township to enable the municipality to verify the safety of each load of sludge applied to land.
Sludge corporations have responded both legislatively and judicially
to the adoption of those laws by Pennsylvania municipalities - which
prevent corporations from turning to state and federal officials to
override local self-governance.
Judicial Response: In 2000, Synagro Corporation - one of the largest
sludge hauling corporations in the United States - sued Township
officials in Centre County, Pennsylvania in an attempt to overturn
the "tipping fee" law adopted by that Township. In their Complaint,
the Corporation alleged that the law violated a litany of civil and
constitutional rights asserted by the corporation. A ruling by the
federal court is expected by 2004.
Legislative Response: Legislatively, sludge corporations drafted and
vigorously pushed Bills that would strip Pennsylvania municipalities
of their authority to make rules that would control the land
application of sewage sludge and factory farms. A unique coalition of
groups that included municipal governments, the Pennsylvania Farmers
Union, the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, the
Sierra Club, the AFL-CIO, the United Mine Workers of America, Common
Cause and others, defeated that legislation at the end of the 2002
legislative session.
In addition to the legislative and judicial responses to the
assertion of local democracy by communities, sludge corporations have
also instructed the state environmental regulatory agency and
corporate farm lobbies to intervene with Clarion County Townships. In
late 2002, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
and the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau met with Clarion County Townships to
convince them to repeal their local laws. The four Clarion County
Townships that have adopted the law refused. Instead, Porter Township
forged ahead with adopting the most recent law, which eliminates
corporate interference in the democratic processes of the Township.
Also in late 2002, the Alcosan Corporation, a sludge hauling
corporation in Pennsylvania, threatened to use Pennsylvania courts to
overturn the sludge law passed by the Township. Porter Township
Supervisors, upon learning of the ability of corporations to direct
the courts to vindicate corporate claims to civil and legal
privileges to override local governments, decided to pass a law to
eliminate corporate claims to those rights.
The actions of Porter Township - along with the actions of other
municipal governments in Pennsylvania dealing with land applied
sewage sludge and factory farms - evidence a shift of communities
away from permitting corporate harms to asserting direct control over
corporations.
The Sludge and Corporate Personhood Ordinances were developed by the
Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund in partnership with the
Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy (POCLAD) and communities
across Pennsylvania impacted by land applied sewage sludge and
corporate factory farms.
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In this very scary moment in our country (and the world), as our
pResident and his staff of corporate criminals are slashing the Bill
of Rights, this is something REAL to celebrate for the holidays!!
But let's not just revel in good news. Let's make some of our own!
My co-director, Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, is on the national leadership
team of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom's
(WILPF's) "Campaign to Challenge Corporate Power and Assert the
People's Rights". You may already know that WILPF's National Action
to "Abolish Corporate Personhood", which was launched in 2001, is
picking up steam, with activities now in a number of communities in
Arizona, California, Massachusetts and Minnesota.
We (Democracy Unlimited) can provide you or your local group with an
Organizing Packet that provides the information that you need to
launch an 'Abolish Corporate Personhood' resolution in your town or
county. WILPF's goal is 50 cities and towns passing such resolutions.
Thus far, Point Arena, CA is the first and only, and San Francisco
may be about to consider it as well. Resolutions are simply symbolic
declarations. They do NOT change the law.
Or you could choose to follow the lead of Porter Township (as above),
and go for a legally-binding ordinance that strips the corporate form
of Bill of Rights protections.
Packets are $13, payable to Democracy Unlimited, at POB 610, Eureka,
CA 95502. Or send us a legal-size SASE, and we'll mail you our newly
updated Resource List of books, informational packets, video and
audiotapes. For more info on this topic, check out WILPF's website:
wilpf.org . And within one month, Democracy
Unlimited's newly redesigned website will also be available for
viewing: monitor.net . |
