Happy New Year Coffee Party! Our resolution is to focus the American people on addressing the corrupting role of money in politics. No single organization can accomplish this goal alone. That's why the Coffee Party, the Backbone Campaign, Alliance for Democracy, Move to Amend, Center for Media and Democracy, and many other distinguished partners are convening Jan. 20 through 22 at the For the People Summit in Washington DC. And, that's why we're asking you to participate, no matter where you are in the country, by doing at least one of these three things:
2.Organize locally with a "We the People/Free Speech" event or a screening of the ground-breaking DOCUMENTARY PRICELE$$
3.Participate from home by making a donation, recording a voice message, writing a letter, or forwarding this email to your friends.
We've just launched a new website - MovementForThePeople.org - which allows you to do all of the above.
With more than 330,000 active members in the Coffee Party, there is no such thing as a small donation. Any amount will go a long way toward maximizing the potential of the Movement For the People because so many volunteers are donating their creativity and their time.
We're calling this summit of many organizations to build a larger citizens' coalition. Together we can launch a sustained, nationally-networked, community-based movement to restore representative democracy. With your help, we can meet the challenges posed by the "Citizens United" decision, limit the influence of the corporatocracy, and deliver to future generations a government truly "of, by and for the People."
From the press release on the Movement for the people site comes a roll call of those organizations joining Coffee Party USA in this event.
"Citizens United" anniversary sparks For the People Summit Jan. 20 to 22
WASHINGTON D.C. Jan. 6, 2011 - To mark the first anniversary of the controversial "Citizens United" Supreme Court ruling, a coalition of advocacy groups and concerned citizens will host the For the People Summit, including a strategic conference at the Washington Plaza Hotel and a "We the Corporations" vs. "We the People" rally at the U.S. Capitol.
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Bill Moyer of the Backbone Campaign and Annabel Park of the Coffee Party are two of the principal organizers. "It's very hard to make progress on any issue without addressing the problem of money in politics," Park said, "because right now it takes a nearly impossible amount of effort for ordinary people to compete with the daily influence that entrenched lobbyists enjoy. To succeed, we need to step outside the traditional left-right-center framework and find common cause across the political divide."
Today, a growing coalition that also includes Center for Media and Democracy, Alliance for Democracy, and Move to Amend launched a new website - MovementForThePeople.org - inviting people around the country to create local events and/or participate on-line.
"The greatest political reform of our time will be to abolish the legal concept of 'corporate personhood' and the inherently anti-democratic equation of money with political speech," Moyer said. "I believe this monumental task will be achieved in the coming years built on a foundation of community-based battles to return power to the People."
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Nancy Price, Co-chair of the Alliance for Democracy, said she is impressed with the emerging coalition, for which she has served as an adviser. "The Summit will be an open discussion putting aside political, cultural, and ideological differences because the problem of money in politics is uniting America like few issues can," she said. "80% of us disapprove of the Citizens United decision. 87% disapprove of the job Congress is doing. The American public will not accept a future in which we are no longer a self-determining people."
More info about the participating, sponsoring, and endorsing organizations can be found at Movement for the People's about page.
The first event will be Lobby for the People Day. In advance of this day, organizers will enlist people to write to their Representatives and Senators about the role of money in politics. Participants in Washington, D.C., will visit Congressional offices on Capitol Hill, while those participating nationwide will recruit a team to deliver copies of these letters to at least one home district office. Both sets of participants will then begin a collaborative dialogue on how to address the issue of money in politics.
You don't have to be paid to talk to your representatives in Congress. These offices in Washington, and in towns and cities across America, were built for us. Our representatives are elected by us to do the business of real people; not just the bidding of monied interests. You will find that the staffers are thrilled to receive constituents representing themselves, lobbying for themselves and For the People, instead of hired guns paid for by hyper-partisan think tanks, corporations, or special interest groups. Each team will have a leader with lobbying experience, and each participant will receive training materials and an overall game plan.
The purpose of these meetings will be to establish a collaborative relationship and a common goal to pass campaign finance reform legislation and other measures to limit corporate influence on American policies.
Corporate Emancipation Satirical Rally at the U.S. Capitol, Jan. 21, 2011 at 11 AM
the Corporate Emancipation Satirical Rally will be one of two events held on Friday the 21st, the other being the opening day of the For The People Summit at the Washington Plaza Hotel.
To mark the anniversary of the controversial Citizens United Supreme Court decision, we are preparing a Satirical Rally at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 21st featuring a cast of characters celebrating their identity as Corporate-Person-Americans, and the anniversary of Corporate Emancipation.
The people role-playing as corporations won't have all the fun. Coffee Party USA is looking for artists and performers who will portray flesh-and-blood people, too.
We are looking for writers and artists to lend their creativity. We hope that a humorous approach, which spoofs the notion of "corporate personhood" through the lens of self-righteous identity politics, will grow into an interactive web series with nationwide participation, and possibly a feature length film. They will unveil their "We the Corporations" reworking of the Preamble to the Constitution, only to be met by a "We the People" counter-protest.
For a taste of what kind of performance will be on tap for the Satirical Rally, watch the following video.
WE WANT YOU to help us crash the "Corporate Emancipation" Rally from 11 AM to noon on Jan. 21 on at the U.S. Capitol, across the street from the Supreme Court. Let's show America that, while corporations have more money, WE THE PEOPLE have more fun.
In a gesture of fairness, Murry Hill Inc, the corporate financier of the Rally, has agreed to share the microphone with non-corporate person Americans (and in return, we have invited them to speak at the For the People Summit).
¦They will unveil their "We the Corporations" banner and conduct a ceremonial signing ceremony, and we'll respond with our "We the People" banner and do the same.
¦We'll listen to their invited speakers make a case for Corporate Personhood, and we'll make our case for We the People. They'll sing their new anthem, and, we'll ... sing along as a gesture of good will. So learn the words, please, no matter where you stand on the issue.
Sounds like it will be a lot of fun.
If you are an artist, performer, or just someone with a video camera, but you're not going to Washington for the summit, don't despair. You can create at home and present or perform at your local event.
You don't have to come to Washington D.C. to take part. We can connect you with other artists (and closet artists) in your area to create a Corporate-Person American satirical video, and you can write and/or perform a 3-minute Corporate-Person American monologue at an event in your area called "We the People/Free Speech Day."
Click here for the email addresses for participants.
Even better, you can compete to have your video funded and then released by Free Speech for People.
Free Speech for People has posted a competition for a script for a short video (3 minutes or less) that it wants to release on the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's ruling in the Citizens United case. The script should creatively, and persuasively, dramatize the insidious problem of giving corporations the same rights as human beings, and also offer a viable solution to this problem. The more creative and effective ways that we, the people, can fight back, the better. While Free Speech For People (FSFP) believes the best solution, due to the sheer scope of the ruling, is to pass a Constitutional Amendment to derail this egregious ruling, it is also open to any other innovative solutions you might have.
The goal of this script is to increase public awareness of this critical issue and inspire people to reclaim American democracy. The winner will be compensated and be granted funding to produce the video using the winning script.
Enter your script idea at Idea Marketplace. There are three prizes. First place receives $3000, second place receives $2000, and third place receives $1000.
For The People Summit
Can Citizens United unite America? On Jan. 21 and 22 at the elegant Washington Plaza Hotel, we are marking the anniversary of the Citizens United decision with an exploration of the how corporate money impacts representative democracy. Two days of panel discussions, collaborative workshops, and special presentations designed to facilitate trans-partisan dialogue and conservative/progressive alliances in the areas of overlapping interest.
A growing list of speakers and panelists will be participating, including the following confirmed speakers.
• Dean Baker of The Center for Economic and Policy Studies
The Corporate Power vs. People Power panels will examine the ways in which the corrupting influence of money in politics has undermined the best interest of the People on consumer rights, health care reform, environmental protections, civil rights, and campaign finance reform, just to name a few.
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Our Victories For the People series will look at case studies from Boston, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and other parts of the country where ordinary citizens delivered legislative and legal victories through a populism that brings our the best, rather than the worst in people, making a real difference in their lives.
Saturday's schedule includes an open mike event called "We the People/Free Speech Day." The participants in Washington will hold theirs in Washington Plaza. Local organizers nationwide will choose a space to set up a microphone, and allow people 3 minutes each to use words, creativity, music, or poetry to express their feelings about money in politics or corporate personhood.
Whether in Washington or nationwide at local events, the message will be the same: This is what Free Speech looks like; not groups of wealthy people funneling unlimited amounts of money to political campaigns.
Finally, all these events require money. You can donate here.
