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Strategy Conference of Liberals and Progressives 
Support Obama to BE the Obama You Voted For & Resist the Corporate Takeover of America:
A Unique Strategy Conference of Liberals and Progressives
D.C. June 11-14
- Constitutional Amendments to Restrain Corporate Power and Require Corporate Social Responsibility
- President Obama: BE the Obama Americans We Elected
- Other Strategies for the Obama years ahead
If you already know you wish to register, you can bypass all this info about the actual schedules and the goals of the conferences, and simply click the links below to register right now (though we do recommend that you read this page fully before doing so).
And the D.C. event has limited capacity, so it makes sense to register now rather than wait. Full refunds for D.C. will be available before April 9, though only partial refunds till May 9, and no refunds at all after that (because we will be turning people away based on the assumption that your seat is filled). The San Francisco conference sold out in advance, and that may be true of the D.C. conference which has even less space--so register soon!Click Here to Register for the Washington D.C. Conference (or copy and paste the link below into your browser):
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/525/t/8751/l/eng/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=55261
TIKKUN/Network of Spiritual Progressives 2010 CONFERENCES
Co-Sponsored by:
The Nation Magazine, Yes! Magazine, Peace Action, Pace e Bene, Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Code Pink, The Institute for Policy Studies, The Shalom Center, Democracy Matters, OpEdNews, The Backbone Campaign, The Metta Center for Nonviolence Education, and 350.org
June 11-14, 2010 Washington DC
Church of the Reformation
212 E. Capitol St. NE
Washington, DC 20003
Foci of the conference:
1. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS:
A. CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PERSONS AND SHOULD NOT HAVE SAME RIGHTS AS PERSONS
B. ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AMENDMENT
We will focus on developing positive ideas and programs for an economy and society that more fully embodies your highest values, as well as concrete ideas for what we could do for global (including Middle East) peace and reconciliation, and ideas about how to put single payer health care back into the national conversation to amend whatever faulty proposal has been passed by Congress. We will present a CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT that would declare that corporations are not persons and do not deserve the protections of persons, restrict their ability to influence elections and legislation either directly or indirectly, and that would require corporations and other "limited liability economic entities" to adhere to strictly defined standards of social and environmental responsibility or lose their rights to function or do business in the US (whether or not they are based in the U.S.).
2. "Support Obama to BE the Obama We Voted For -Not the Inside-the-Beltway Pragmatist/Realist whose compromises have led to a decrease in his popularity and opened the door for a revival of the just-recently-discredited Right wing." This is the most effective way to stop the rise of potentially fascistic right-wing movements and religious fundamentalists who unwittingly serve the interests of America's elites of wealth and power. Those elites, in turn, have allowed their own selfishness, materialism and cynicism about the possibility of a different kind of world lead them to rob America blind, in the process throwing millions out of work or even out of their homes.
We need to be both supportive and lovingly critical of this administration—about the escalation of war in Afghanistan; its flawed health care plan; its capitulation on human rights and gay and lesbian rights; and its dumping hundreds of billions into the coffers of the banks and insurance and pharmaceutical companies while doing way too little for the poor, the powerless, and those suffering from the current economic meltdown.
We understand that Obama faces a Washington, D.C., reality that is heavily shaped by Wall Street, the military-industrial complex, and the elites of wealth and power that control most of the media. But the 2008 election campaign demonstrated a potentially powerful counter-force: the yearning of Americans for genuine connection to each other and for a society that embodied higher values of caring, generosity, peace, and an attitude of idealism toward the world. It was this force that could have provided a serious and "realistic" counter to the powers that be, particularly at the moment when the country was at the height of an economic meltdown and Wall Street was begging for the government to bail it out. The policies adopted by the Obama Administration had the opposite effect--it demobilized its own base while seeming to appeal to its right-wing and to show how reasonable and accommodating to the very policies and forces that the Obama campaign had promised to challenge.
One year later, many people are confused, demoralized, or even deeply depressed that Obama did not energize the latent idealism of Americans he touched in 2008 to create a different political discourse in this country that would have empowered him and millions of Americans to remain active and fight for “change we can believe in.” Doubting that he could count on the very forces that had elected him, he turned to the "realistic" insider politics of Washington and Wall Street, with huge subsidies to the banks and capitulations to the health care profiteers and pharmaceuticals, thus making it possible for the Right-wing to present itself as a quasi-populist voice in contrast to his seeming subservience to the elites of power and wealth. What could he do? He could have told the truth about the power relations as he saw them, as he had promised he would when he was on the campaign trail. True, the opposition might have been even more outraged. But telling the truth is the one power that the President has which does not depend on the support of a legislative majority, and would have been more important than passing pieces of legislation that are so severely compromised that they may have been worse than nothing at all.
We learned during the Clinton years, even the good things done by one president can quickly be overturned by the next unless the President builds a strong and ongoing concensus around a shared world view. More important than winning any particular legislative battle (because any legislation can always be undone by the next administration), the empowering of a progressive, populist, ethically-based, love-and- generosity oriented social movement would have isolated the Right and given Obama the kind of popular support that would have actually made him stronger in dealing with the Blue Dog Democrats and hence more likely to be legislatively effective.
We recognize that many who worked hard for Obama are now depressed and moving toward passivity or cynicism. But it is not too late to change the dynamics before the deep disenchantment with Obama’s failure to build on the hopeful energies his election reflected becomes the new political reality.
But we are not coming to D.C. to beg for a few crumbs from the table of corporate-oriented Democrats. We represent the vast majority of those who supported Obama and who are now recognizing that we need to stop looking at Obama as a savior and instead build a powerful independent movement. So when we go to the White House on Sunday, June 13, to demonstrate our concern about Obama's policies, we do so neither to beg or to be shrill, but to manifest publicly our righteous indignation at policies that have not followed through on the path that Obama led us to believe he would follow. Nor will we give support to the Right-wing Tea Party people--we are not here to weaken but to strengthen this Administration by getting it to serve the interests of the vast majority of Americans whose interests have too often been ignored by the powerful in both major political parties.
3. We will develop our inner resources both intellectual and spiritual for the long-process of building fundamental transformation in our global and domestic policies so that we can save the planet and ourselves from the various lurking environmental, military, economic and political disasters we face. We will also strengthen our capacities to recognize and rejoice at all the goodness and love that is available to us and that can sustain us and make the process of Tikkun-ing (healing and transforming the world) a joyous and nourishing experience.
Our conference is sponsored by Tikkun Magazine, the voice of Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Bahai, and other spiritual progressives (and our educational outreach arm: the Network of Spiritual Progressives). You DO NOT have to be religious or believe in God to be a "spiritual progressive." We welcome people not only from every religious community but also those who are "spiritual but not religious," including some who are militant atheists or agnostics. Our criterion: do you agree with our New Bottom Line for Western societies.
Our New Bottom Line urges people to judge institutions, corporations, legislation, social practices, health care, our educational and legal systems, and our social policies (as well as our personal behavior) by how much love and compassion, kindness and generosity, and ethical and ecological sensitivity they inculcate within is, and by how much they nurture our capacity to respond to other human beings as embodiments of the sacred who can and do respond to the universe with gratitude, awe, and wonder at the grandeur of all that is. If you are supportive of our New Bottom Line, you are a spiritual progressive. Please read how this plays out in political policy terms by going to www.spiritualprogressives.org and reading out Spiritual Covenant with America and the details of our Global Marshall Plan. You'll understand why many agnostics and atheists feel excited about our approach to healing and transforming American society as we seek to challenge the globalization of selfishness, materialism and corporate power.
Registration
The Washington Conference
Speakers, Presenters and Workshop Leaders include:
Congressmen Keith Ellison and Dennis Kucinich, Rev. Brian McLaren, Sister Joan Chittister, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Sharon Welch, Peter Gabel, Riane Eisler, Rev. James Winkler, Rev. Conrad Braaten, John Dear S.J., Rev. Graylan Hagler, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, David Korten, Jonathan Granoff, Robert Thurman, Marianne Williamson, Paul Wapner, Bill McKibben, Svi Shapiro, Josh Weiner, Bob McChesney, John Nichols, Sheri Shapiro, Medea Benjamin, Rev. James Forbes
D.C. Agenda Very very tentative (though all speakers listed have agreed to be there)Sessions co-chaired by Rabbi Lerner and Rev. Graylan Hagler, Rev. Noemi Parrilla-Mena and Sister Joan Chittister
Sessions co-chaired by Rabbi Lerner and Rev. Graylan Hagler Joan Chittister, Rev. Ama Zenya, and Rev. Noemi Parrilla-Mena
Friday, June 11
8 a.m.-10 a.m. Registration
9 a.m. Conference Begins
Welcome from Rev. Conrad Braaten and Rev. Graylan Hagler and Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Prayers and music from a variety of religious communities
9:45 a.m. Sister Joan Chittister on Repairing America’s Spiritual Crisis
10:30 a.m. Congressman Keith Ellison
11:00 a.m. Rabbi Michael Lerner
Noon: Small group discussions
12:30 p.m. break for lunch
1:30 p.m. Symposium and Q&A with Rabbi Michael Lerner, Peter Gabel and Sister Joan Chittister
2:30 Workshop Panels
1. The Legacy of Racism and How It Continues in Obama’s America
2. The Environmental Crisis Paul Wapner
3. Economic Recovery for Middle Class People and the Poor—Not just for the banks and the rich
4. America’s endless wars: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, North Korea, and what’s next?
5. Healing Israel/Palestine
6. The 2010 Elections
7. Food Policy
8. Reforming Health Care Reform
9. The Tea Party Movement and the Growth of an Indigenous American Fascism
10. Human Rights vs. the Needs of the Empire
11. Marriage Equality
12. Shaul Magid
5 p.m. Regional Small Group Meetings
5 p.m. Simultaneous with small groups: Muslim Prayer session
6 p.m. Break for dinner
8 p.m. Evening plenary:
Speakers: Rabbi Arthur Waskow, John Dear S.J., Sharon Welch Rev. James Forbes, Gary Dorrien
9 p.m. Shabbat Celebration simultaneous with latter part of evening plenary
Saturday, June 12
9 a.m.-noon Morning Plenary on Positive Economic Alternatives
David Korten:
10:15 Workshops:
1. Economic Working Group to explore issues raised by David Korten
2. Environment
'Healing Ecology: a Buddhist perspective on the eco-crisis' DAVID LOY
This workshop explores the profound parallels between our individual predicament, according to Buddhism, and our collective species predicament in relation to the rest of the planet.
3. Sexuality and Reproductive Rights
4. Aging
5. Religious Fundamentalism
6. Psycho-Spiritual Tools for Overcoming Societal Denial and Fear
7. Empowerment for Social Activists
8. Transforming the Practice of Medicine
9. 9. Transforming our Educational System from K-Ph.D.
10. Transforming the media Robert McChesney and John Nichols
11. Educational Transformation Svi Shapiro
10 a.m.-noon Simultaneous with workshops: Shabbat Service and Torah Study 9 a.m-noon
Noon—Small group meetings
12:30-1:30 Lunch break
1:30 Afternoon Plenary: Positive Alternatives
Keynote: Peter Gabel on Non-Alienated Human Relationships
2:30 Riane Eisler on thinking Beyond Capitalism and Socialism
3:30-5:00 Symposium with Riane Eisler, Peter Gabel and Michael Lerner on the strategies for Spiritual Progressives
5:00 Poetry Reading
6:00 Small Group meetings
6:30 Dinner Break
8 p.m. Evening Plenary:
Jonathan Granoff on Disarmament
Bill McKibben on Environment
Jeremy Ben Ami on Israel/Palestine
Joan Chittister on Building a Network of Spiritual Progressives
Jonathan Granoff on Disarmament
Musical Celebration Sunday, June 13
Sunday morning Christian Worship Services 9-11
11-1:30 Rally at the White House: President Obama: BE THE OBAMA WE VOTED FOR & Join the Campaign to Resist the Corporate Takeover of America
2 p.m. Afternoon: Plenary
Spiritual Visions for Social Healing
Rev. Brian McLaren and Robert Thurman
3:30 Workshops”
*Training for Congressional Sessions
*Building Spiritual Progressive Activities in Your Home Region
*The Global Marshall Plan
*Constitutional Amendments on Limiting Corporate Power
8 p.m. Evening: Celebration of Spiritual, Religious Diversity
*Marianne Williamson speaks
Monday, June 14 Morning: Sessions with Congressional Leaders and Representatives of the Obama Administration
Afternoon: Debriefing and Training for Continuing this Work
Conference will open Friday morning, June 11 and continue through Monday, June 14
All sessions will be held at the Church of the Reformation 212 E. Capitol St. Washington, DC
Registration
Responding to the Supreme Court's "Citizens United" decision
Constitutional Amendments to preserve democracy & require corporate environmental responsibility
So here is the strategy: we will be working on 2 amendments to the constitution, one narrowly constructed to address overturning the recent Supreme court decision and the other a broader amendment that is aimed at educating the public about the need for corporate Environmental and Social Responsibility (hence the ESRA) and this second one will not pass but will be a way of articulating some parts of our vision for a society that could actually survive the 21st century. The 4 under consideration below are not final versions--that will happen after we get your feedback at our June conference. Meanwhile, you are invited to add your own specific language and versions of either the narrow or broad amendment, which we will happily consider.
Responding to the Supreme Court's "Citizens United" decision
It was generally agreed at the Feb. Tikkun/Network of Spiritual Progressives’ conference in San Francisco that NSP should endorse any legislative approaches that could be taken to offset the destructive impact of the Supreme Court's decision to consider corporations to be "persons" and hence protected by the 14th Amendment, and to consider spending of money in elections to be "speech" that would then be protected under the First Amendment. Reversing this decision is a high priority for all who wish to build a society based on spiritual principles of caring and generosity, since corporations necessarily have a different “bottom line” requiring them to maximize financial returns for their investors. It was also understood that any legislation passed by Congress would likely have only short-term advantages, because the Supreme Court might well block any such legislation as unconstitutional for the same reason that it has now struck down other attempts to restrain corporate power in the electoral arena provided by the McCain-Feingold legislation.
There was considerable sentiment at the SF conference that a short and narrowly constructed amendment to the Constitution might have more chance of passage, and hence that the NSP should join with other national organizations in the effort to get such an amendment passed.
There was also widespread excitement about the idea of using this historical moment to bring into national discourse the notion that democracy-loving Americans need more severe constraints on corporate power which had reached toxic levels even before the Supreme Court’s unfortunate “Citizen’s United” decision. S we have concluded that we need a three part strategy: a. endorse legislation to overturn Citizen’s United decision of the Supreme Court b. support whatever campaign develops for a short and narrowly constructed Amendment to the Constitution that would permanently overturn the notion that corporations should have the same rights in the electoral arena that American citizens have; and c. construct and launch a public education campaign for a much broader Amendment which would include b. but would also specify and require other elements of corporate ethical and environmental social responsibility.
The versions below are meant to be suggestive of different levels of inclusiveness, not final formulations which will be drafted by constitutional lawyers. But we want to get your feedback on the ideas of how much we should cover in this second broader Amendment, remembering that we will ALSO support a narrower and more likely to be accepted version. The point of the broader version is to bring a conception of corporate social responsibility into the public discourse—the goal is to change people’s conceptions of what politics could be addressing and to encourage a conception of environmental and ethical responsibility and democratic control of the economy that at this moment is far beyond what is accepted in public discourse as “realistic.” Just as the ERA never passed, but had a huge impact in changing people’s understanding of the need for equality for women, so the ESRA could have that same impact. So while we want your suggestions about how to refine one or more of these proposed versions, we do not need to be told that they are “unrealistic,” because precisely the point of this second versions of an Amendment in our 2 part strategy is to transform the consciousness of what is or is not realistic.
We will publish your ideas on the web and at lest some fo the alternative versions we are receiving, and continue this discussion at the June 11-14 conference in D.C., and then will try to combine the responses from both the Feb. and June conference, and come up with a strategy that is informed by your feedback.
The Environmental and Social Responsibility Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (Version one)
Article One: Corporations are not and shall not be considered “persons” or given the rights of individual human beings under the terms of the U.S. Constitution or the constitutions of any state in this Union, nor shall Congress or the courts give them similar rights or protections. The use of money in elections is not a protected form of “speech” and Congress shall limit the amount of money spent on any election campaign, lobbying or advertising to shape public opinion on any given piece of legislation or public policy issue, and shall require equal time from media or equal print space to present the major alternatives in elections and ballot measures in the words of the candidates or those supporting any ballot measure, and shall take other steps to insure that the American people are well-informed about the major alternative positions being debated in American society on economic, environmental, health and health care, corporation’s environmental and ethical responsibilities, high-tech, science, defense, human rights, child-rearing, elderly care, product and food safety, social justice, war and peace, labor, wages, employment, housing, immigration, transportation, foreign policy, nutrition, education, the legal system and prisons, and caring for each other, and the worldviews and ethical and environmental values that lie behind the differences in position, and informed of these alternative views by the advocates of the different positions who must also be given adequate and equal time to explain their critiques of the alternatives to the positions they hold.
Article Two: Congress shall require that any corporation with an income of over $100 million per year must obtain a new corporate charter once every five years, and that charter will only be granted to those corporations that can prove a satisfactory history of environmental. social and ethical responsibility to a grand jury of ordinary citizens. Congress shall pass guidelines for satisfactory environmental, ethical and social responsibility and update those every five years. If the grand jury is not satisfied with the level of environmental, social and ethical responsibility, it may put the corporation on probation and prescribe specific changes needed, and if after three more years the jury is not satisfied that those changes have been adequately implemented, the jury may assign control of the corporation to the workers of the corporation and/or to its public stakeholders and/or to another group of corporate directors and managers who can demonstrate the probability that they can implement the changes required by the jury in a more environmentally and ethically responsible way than the current board of directors.
Article Three: It is the responsibility of the United States Government and all its offices, and all other state and local governments, to develop policies and implement them, for the sake of enhancing the environmental sustainability of the planet and the well-being of all people on the planet, including, but not limited to the well-being of all Americans. Any treaty, trade agreement or other legislation on the state or national level whose impact is to decrease environmental sustainability or to increase the suffering of people on this planet shall be deemed in violation of the Constitution of the U.S.
Article Four: Every educational institution in the U.S. from k-graduate or professional school training shall require at least one course each year to train people on how to become aware of the ethical issues faced in decision making in the various aspects of daily life, the world of work, government, the military, police, the courts, the corporations, banks and investment firms, the stock markets, educational institutions, foreign policy, economic policies, human rights policies, health institutions, immigration policies, and the pursuit of environmental sustainability, food and agricultural policies, regional planning, and homeland security. This training shall allow for a variety of perspectives on the ethical responsibilities that people hold not only to their clients but also to the larger society, the entirety of humanity, and the sustainability and flourishing of the natural environment of the Earth.
Article Five: Every government institution or any private institution receiving government funds directly or indirectly shall, when awarding contracts or entering into financial relationships with any corporation or limited liability financial entity that involves a commitment of funds in excess of $250,000 a year (adjusted annually for inflation), require an “ethical, environmental and social responsibility” report to be supplied by the corporate management, a second one from the employees of that corporation with all employees having an equal vote on how to represent their view of the corporation’s ethical and environmental and social responsibility, and a third report from the non-profit organizations and community groups who are stakeholders in the operations of that corporation, and the government body in question shall award that contract to the corporation or limited liability institution that, while being able to satisfactorily fulfill the other terms of the contract, has the best record of corporate environmental, ethical and social responsibility.
Article Six: The intent of this Amendment is to provide democratic control over the economic life of our society to the citizens of the United States, to encourage the development of locally controlled businesses and corporations and cooperative enterprises controlled by the people engaged in those enterprises, to require that corporations serve the public good and not just their own private ambitions, to ensure that corporations make decisions that enhance the ecological/environmental well-being of the planet Earth and all its people, to control and reduce the power of corporations and other limited liability entities, and to ensure that our economic life reflects our understanding of the importance of kindness, generosity, cooperation, the fostering of solidarity and caring for other people, our mutual interdependence with all Americans and with all people on the planet, and enhances our capacities to find meaning and purpose in work that truly contributes to the well being of others and the well being of the planet. Congress shall take all steps necessary to insure that these values and this goal governs the expenditure of funds and the development of social policies in the U.S. but shall not impose these values on the lives of individual citizens and shall respect their freedom of choice and shall preserve a private sphere in personal life and family life that is protected both from government interference and from the interference by corporations and their advertising or other means of imposing their values on Americans’ families or personal life or otherwise seeking to indoctrinate people with the ethos of material consumption as a path to happiness, health, good relationships or public esteem.
Article Seven: To protect the global environment, the US shall not engage in any war or military action or police action or under any other label engage in violent activity outside the borders of the U.S. without an explicit mandate granted to the US governmental agencies (from Defense to Intelligence to any other entity that may be so engaged) without an explicit act of Congress, and the President may only allow such activity for twenty days in an emergency before receiving this grant of power by the Congress. Any such grant of authority to engage in war or acts of violence of any sort and by anyone acting with the authority, direct or indirect financing, in public or in private, of the US government, must end within twelve months, or may only be renewed by a national referendum in which every citizen and anyone held in prisons or in other forms of capitivity by the US or the several states shall have a voice and vote, and such refenda must provide full access to all major sides of the issue of whether this violent action may continue. These referenda shall continue each year that the violent action or war is given permission by the people of the U.S. to continue. It shall be the policy of the US to take all possible steps to avoid such use of violence and to engage in acts of generosity and care for the people of the world.
The Environmental and Social Responsibility Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (Version two)
Preface: The intent of this Amendment is to provide democratic control over the economic life of our society to the citizens of the United States, to encourage the development of locally controlled businesses and corporations and cooperative enterprises controlled by the people engaged in those enterprises, to require that corporations serve the public good and not just their own private ambitions, to ensure that corporations make decisions that enhance the ecological/environmental well-being of the planet Earth and all its people, to control and reduce the power of corporations and other limited liability entities, and to ensure that our economic life reflects our understanding of the importance of kindness, generosity, cooperation, the fostering of solidarity and caring for other people, our mutual interdependence with all Americans and with all people on the planet, and enhances our capacities to find meaning and purpose in work that truly contributes to the well being of others and the well being of the planet.
This Amendment is intended to apply to all aspects of economic life in the U.S. including new forms that may develop in the future. Because many of the forces shaping US economic life are or may in the future derive from other countries, all parts of this Amendment, unless otherwise specified, shall apply to any entity operating within or impacting upon the economic life in the U.S., and the Congress shall be enjoined to develop whatever legislation is necessary to insure that the standards of social and environmental and ethical behavior mandated herein are applied also to any foreign economic, political or media entity operating within, selling its products within, or advertising and promoting its produces or services within the U.S. or through the airwaves or electronic devices or other means of communication that may be developed in the future. When using the word “corporation” in this Amendment it is intended to apply any and every for-profit business form or limited liability association or economic entity developed in the U.S. and operating either in the U.S. or based in the U.S. but operating in other parts of the world.
For purposes of this Amendment, all monetary figures listed below are to be adjusted annually in accord with rises or falls in the cost-of-living index, so figures cited are meant to indicate the values as of 2010. The word Stakeholders refer to those groups outside and not connected directly or indirectly to the management of the corporation or limited-liabilty entity, including by not limited to the non-management employees of the corporation, the citizens of the region in which the corporate products are produced (including groups representing citizens of communities around the world if the product or services are produced outside the U.S., as well as representatives of environmental organizations, unions representing the workers of that corporation, and human rights and civil rights organizations representing the interests of those effected by the operations or investments of that corporation. Stakeholders shall not include organizations which are created directly or indirectly by the corporation or members of its governing bodies, its corporate leadership and their assistants, or by anyone else acting in consort with that corporate leadership or corporate managerial groups. Beyond the specific terms of this Amendment, Congress shall pass legislation to achieve democratic control over the economy and over the economic institutions of this society by citizens of the United States. The courts are hereby empowered to issue injunctions and assess penalties should any legislative or judicial body or corporation or media seek to impede or frustrate the intent of this Amendment or its speedy implementation.
Article One:
Section one: Corporations are not and shall not be considered “persons” or given the rights of individual human beings under the terms of the U.S. Constitution or the constitutions of any state in this Union, nor shall Congress or the courts give them similar rights or protections. All corporations or limited liability associations or for-profit businesses shall be responsible first and foremost to the communities in which they operate and the communities in which their sales, products and advertising have and impact, then to the people of the United States as a whole, and then finally and only after fulfilling these primary responsibilities, to its stockholders. Corporations are created by the decisions of the people of the United States, not by private contract, and any aspect of existing contracts which impede a corporation from serving the public good shall be declared null and void.
Section two: It is the right of the people of the U.S. to democratically shape and control the economic life of this society.
Section three: It is the obligation of all courts operating within the U.S. and all legislative bodies to issue decisions and pursue policies that enhance the ecological sustainability of the planet Earth.
Article Two:
Any corporation or limited liability economic entity functioning within, selling its products within, or incorporated within the territorial boundaries of the U.S. or its territories, and having a gross income exceeding $20 million/yr (adjusted for future inflation or deflation) shall be required to seek a new corporate charter from the state or territory from which it has been chartered (or, in the case of corporations incorporated in other countries but operating in the US, a corporate charter must be granted by the US government) every five years. That new charter shall be granted only to those corporations that can prove a satisfactory history of social responsibility to a jury of ordinary citizens selected in the same manner as any jury hearing capital crimes in the state or federal jurisdiction in which these hearings are to take place. The state and federal government must supply the jury with subpoena power, plus financial assistance to make possible a thorough investigation of the societal, environmental and ethical impact of that corporation, and shall hear the testimony not only of the corporation’s own staff, but also the people who work for that corporation in the lowest paid jobs and middle income jobs, and the testimony of all of the stakeholders including any communities within which that corporation operates or whose activities have a demonstrable impact on the economic, environmental, societal and ethical life of that community.
The jury reviewing the social responsibility of the corporation shall be empowered to require specific changes in the corporation’s governance, practices, products and services which must be completed within three years time. If that jury finds that there are prima facie reasons to believe that the changes are not done in a satisfactory manner, the jury will reconvene and be empowered to transfer ownership of that corporation to the workers of that corporation who would hold a majority of the seats on its board of directors, and to a group of community stakeholders representing the interests of the environment, the communities in which the corporation operates, and the communities in which the corporation’s products, activities and services have a demonstrable impact on their economic, political, cultural or ethical life. Investors will still retain their right to a share in the profits of the corporation proportional to their investments, but will have lost their right to shape the policy decisions of the corporations, if those corporations have not pursued environmentally and ethically responsible behavior (a provision which is intended to insure that stockholders will have a strong incentive to elect corporate leadership that is seriously committed to ensuring that the corporation or limited liability entity is in fact pursuing policies that are environmentally and ethically responsible, hence preserving their own positions and the power of their investors).
In the case that the jury decides to establish a new governing board, this new governing body will then have five years to prove to the jury that it has taken appropriate steps toward the goal of dramatically increasing the social, environmental and ethical responsibility of the corporation while continuing to make it economically viable. If the jury determines that it has failed to do so, it can then turn the governing body over to another corporation or to a group of individuals who can convince the jury that it could run the corporation under review and provide for it to continue to provide its public benefits while increasing its level of social responsibility. At that point the jury has fulfilled its function, and after another five years a new jury will be impaneled to consider the social and environmental responsibility of the corporation in question.
Among the issues that the jury must consider:
1. Does the corporation pay its lowest paid workers a “living wage” in the community in which those workers live.
2. Does the corporation seek to avoid living wages and environmental protections in the US by moving or having some of its operations in countries where the living wage is less or environmental protections less stringent?
3. Does the corporation provide for democratic participation by all employees in its decision making ?
4. Does the corporation treat its employees with adequate respect?
5. Is the corporation producing services and/or products which are beneficial or destructive to the environment of the planet?
6. Does the corporation make investment decisions that enhance and promote the economic, social and ethical welfare of the communities in which its products may be produced, sold or advertised?
7. Does the corporation seek to advertise in ways that manipulate consciousness or does it seek to present honest information about the value of its products without providing subliminal messages or in other ways manipulate people into buying products or services, e.g. by raising fears, providing ungrounded hopes, using women’s bodies or sexual overtones, or suggesting ungrounded possibilities for success or material reward or appreciation by others for consuming the product or service being advertised? Does the corporation promote in advertising or in other ways a culture which fosters violence, insensitivity to others, or the consumption of products like cigarettes, alcohol or guns which have been proven to be detrimental to the health of American citizens? Does the corporation's advertising enhance or undermine the values articulated in the Preface to this Amendment?
8. Does the corporation contribute to the economic, ethical and environmental well-being of American society and the wellbeing of people around the world?
9. Does the corporation encourage and reward its employees in participating in non-profit volunteer activities by allowing at least five hours of paid time each week to be spent in such activities to be chosen by the employees themselves and without direct or indirect pressure from their supervisors or the corporate hierarchy?
10. Does the corporation provide adequate health care and retirement benefits for its employees?
Article Three:
Corporations or any other limited liability entity selling products or goods or services in the United States, whether based in the US are prohibited from engaging in any effort to influence the electoral process or to influence the votes of Congress, state legislatures or the policies of the courts or presidential Administration. Officers and members of governing bodies of corporations may provide information to Congressional committees as requested by the majority or minority of the Congress, but only through written reports submitted exclusively to the majority and minority and not through personal contact with any elected official. The intent of this article is to reduce the ability of corporations to shape public policies. Attempts to do so by the corporations, either directly through lobbying or indirectly by fostering or supporting non-profit organizations or media or by attempting to influence the shaping of education or media or public discourse, or conspiring to achieve those ends in new ways not yet envisioned by the drafters of this Amendment, shall be subject to jail sentences not less than five actually served years in a federal penitentiary.
Article Four:
Any corporation providing information or analysis of American politics, including but not limited to newspapers, television, radio, internet, hand-held communication devices, or new forms yet to be developed and not yet fully anticipated by the drafters of this Amendment, shall be required to ensure the free and equal access to this information source by all candidates running for public office. These sources of information shall provide greater amounts of time for those running for the nomination of major parties (any party that receives at least 2 million votes in the last election nationally) for the presidency, US Senate, US Congress, Gubernatorial and Mayoral elections than for the other elected offices, but anyone running for those offices from a major party shall be given equal amount of time to present their case in a way that the candidate herself or himself deems fair and not with the media’s spin or commentary preceding or following it. Every source of information must provide at least the equivalent of five free hours of prime time exposure to each candidate for the offices specified above and allow that candidate to determine how s/he is presented. Moreover, each such corporation must provide at least four hours of time for a debate among the major candidates, and must provide information to the public each day in the week before the election informing and reminding the public of those candidates who refused to participate in that debate.
Article Five:
Stakeholders in any corporation with gross incomes of more than $20 million per year (adjusted for inflation or deflation) shall be allowed to elect 51% of the members of the Board of Trustees of that corporation, and the corporation must provide funds to ensure full participation of those stakeholders in an impartial and adequately publicized election for those seats. The corporation must make all information available to those stakeholder representatives, and failure to do so shall be a felony punishable by not less than five years in federal penitentiary by anyone involved in withholding any information deemed necessary by the stakeholder representatives.
Congress shall encourage through financial support and legislative assistance the creation of worker cooperatives, community owned corporations, and federally owned corporations. These entities must also meet all conditions for social and environmental responsibility.
Article Six: Every corporation with gross annual incomes of $50 million or more per year (adjusted for inflation or deflation)_shall donate at least 10% of its gross profits to one of the following: a. a fund established by the US government to fund a Global Marshall Plan aimed at eliminating global and domestic poverty, homelessness, hunger, inadequate education, inadequate health b. Global environmental funds to repair the damage already done to the environment c. a fund established to provide funding for a National Bank in the U.S. which would provide interest-free loans (that is, paying back only the principle plus adjustments to account for inflation or deflation) to people with incomes under $100,000 or to small businesses with gross annual incomes under $5 million per year. The funds for that bank would be distributed based on a determination of how those funds might assist the needy and those straining under economic difficulties, and/or to provide for the funding of projects that can demonstrably improve the lives of people in local communities around the U.S.
Article Seven. In order to provide for democratic control of the economy and environmental responsibility, all officials elected to city councils, county boards of supervisors or comparable office, state legislatures, governors of the several states, the House and Senate of the United States Congress, and the President of the United States, shall not receive any funding from any source, including their own incomes or wealth, except as will be appropriated to major candidates for that office by the respective legislative bodies and in accord with the following principles:
1. All major candidates for that office shall receive equal funding and no funds may be expended by them or by any other body supporting their candidacy or supporting any of their principles in the three months immediately preceding the election. “Major candidates are those who receive support from at least 5% of the potential electorate in a set of 5 public opinion polls taken at three months before the election in question. Any group seeking to find a way to financially support the candidacy of anyone seeking public offices stated above or to use funds to influence public opinion about that candidate shall be punished by fines of not less than $10,000, and any corporation by not less than $200,000, and the person may be imprisoned for not less than five years and corporate directors imprisoned for not less than seven years if convicted of using those funds or conspiring to do so for electoral purposes.
2. Any media corporation or media source using the public highways or public airwaves or telephone lines or other means of communication that have been partially subsidized or aided by use of public land or public funds must make available to all candidates for any of the offices stated above at least 2 hours of free time during prime time hours in the 3 months before elections, and at least five hours to candidates for the House or Senate and eight hours to candidates for the presidency, and all of these during prime time (between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.). Moreover, any such media reporting on the words or deeds of any candidate must give that same candidate equal space to present their own perspective on the facts reported or perceptions or editorial views stated, and the same shall be granted to other major candidates seeking that office.
3. The election of the President and Congress of the United States and to the offices listed above shall be governed by the principle of instantaneous runoffs. This works in the following way: the voter is required to list their choices in priority order for at least their first three highest choices. Then, if no candidate gets a majority vote for that office, then the lowest vote getter will be eliminated and the 2nd place votes of that candidate will be assigned according to the specifications of their voters, and this process will continue through the other votes of other candidates, until one candidate has received a majority of all the votes being counted. The Electoral College is hereby abolished and election of the President shall be by direct popular vote and governed by the procedure of instantaneous runoffs.
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