Poverty& ce POVERTY & RACE RESE ..A.RCI-I ACTION COUNCIL September/October1995 Volume 4: Nwnber 5 Minorities, the Poor & Ending Corporate Rule by Richard L. Grossman and Ward Morehouse [In Santa Clara v. SouthernPacific mil.lions-largely people of color-are Rarlroad(1886),the SupremeCoun:] literally \\forking thei r way into poverty. P&R welcomes leuers& com­ held that a corporation was a person David Dembo and Ward Morehouse, ments on our articles; we will under the Fourteenth Amendment in The Underbellyof the US Economy, print as many as space allows. and thus was entitled to its protec­ call this the corporate"pauperization of We also more ·than welcome tion. work ... replacementof higher paidjobs voluntary ..suhscr iptions"to cover - Morton Ho.cwitz,The Trans­ by those at or close to the minimum our production/ mailing costs,so lormation of Amencan /JJw, wage, often part-time, and below the we can continue to distribute the 1870-1960, p. 66. poverty line." newsletter \\-ithout charge, Some Corporate leaders and their shilli.in 550 ofyou already have contri� Giant corporations in bankmg. effect direct Gongress,state legislatures buted( see p. 8 for the latest honor ,. food. pharmaceuticals,railroads, pub­ and local officials to close librariec,, roll); the modalamount has been lishing, petrochemicals, utilities, for­ schools, hospitals and parks; to gut $25, hut lots of $50 and $100 estry, real estate, msurance, data. health and environmental protections; checks, too, we'rehappy to say. entertainment, health care, weapons­ to withhold services to young people, you name it-rule us Over a centuryof the poor, the �ick and elderly; to ob­ corporate expropriation of la-w and struct citizen lawsuits. A recent New land, along with corporate violence York Timesheadline says it well "State against nature and communiti�. have Budgets Are Cut, Millions in Tax CONTENTS: undermined our independence and Breaks Go To Companies." coloruzed our minds. Most Americans exercise little au­ En"dlngco..,.,rate Today, We the People give legal thority 011er corporations. Poor Amei­ Rule ................. 1 fictions called co1 porations greater icans and American!.of color have even Cumulative Voting ... 5 ri3hts than we give to people. We less say. They are especiall}assaulted as concede to them the sole nght, the corporationswarp elections.legislatures 1 ThankYou , New constitutional authority to make in­ and the courts, move vast amounts of Contributors ........ 8 vestment, production, technology and capital seeking the cheapest labor, L.A. ResearolleF- '· work decisions which shape our com­ manufacture poisons, disinvest and munitie.<»and our hves. intimidate. ActtvlSt Neiwotk .. : .. 9 The largest 500 U.S. industrial cor­ 1 lnde��t Pelffies porations control 25% of the assets of Corporations vs. the People Galh1-Jlh9 -. • . .. 11 America's 3 .8 million corporations. And corporations are awash in money: Great gaps have alway!! eAisted be­ Advocacy Updates.·. 12 according to The Wall StreetJournal; tween the ideals and the achievements­ - - :AfflnnatlveAction the first quarter of 1995 brought "the of the American Revolution. OurCon­ Resources . .... .. 13 highest level of corporate profitability stitution and the law have served as in the postwar era .... Life in corporate tools for legalizedoppmsion as well as - PRRAC Update.:.".:�- 14 America isabout as good as 1t can get" for inspiration and liberation The Resources ,. 15 As a result of corporate decisions, founders, who boldly extolled equality poverty is up, wages are down and (Pleaseturn to page 2) I PovertJ'&: Race Re:.earch ActionCouncil • 1711 <..-onnecticut4ve NW• Suite207 * Washmgton,DC2()()()9 • 202/387-9887 • FA.J(.]01/387--0764 R�P� (CORPORATIONS. ConrinuedfrompageI) governance, and had brought about ership, production and investment," what Morton Horwitz calls "the trans­ from whom should we demandit? and liberty, denied Africans, Native formation of American law.,.Corpora­ The answer may be surprising; We peoples and womenthe rights of person­ tions actually turnedthemselves into de the People can draw upon our own hood. But the Amencan Revolution Jacto persons able to" participate in sovereign authority to impose our col­ did launch a struggle that has lasted electlonsand the processof self:.govem­ lective will upon tyrannical corpora­ until today: people excludedfrom con­ ance-well before indigenous peoples, tions. stitutional personhood agitatingfor in­ women, African Americans and other For what other reason did so many clusion in "We the People." persons of color, well before most non-persons educate, agitate and or­ Since the last third of the 19th people without property. ganize sincethe Revolution? Why else Century, corporations-unmentioned did peoplebuild Suffrage, Abolitionist, in the Constitution-have opposed this anti­ The Sovereign Peopie labor, Populist, Civil Rights, popular struggle by shaping judicial poverty, Indian rights, women's, gay/ doctrines, claiming corporate rights as In every generation, valiant organiz­ lesbian and environmental movements property, imposing their hierarch:ical.-, ing by millions of "non-persons" has across the land ... if not to govern ow-­ profit- and production-oriented values expanded the civil and political rights selves? and interfering with the mechanisms of of people, gaining (in theory, at least) government. In 18n, for example, equal prot�'tionof the law. And there Thomas Scott, president of the coun­ has been a continuous history of strug­ Lessons from History try's largest corporation, the Pennsyl­ gle in this country against corporate History provides some inspiration. vania Railroad, helped broker a deal harm-doing. But in these struggle!J There was a time when corporations between the Republican Party and against poverty and discrimination, were understood to be mere fictions, politicians from former slave states to subordinate to the sovereign people withdraw federaltroops from the South and the public interest Incorporation and bring Reconstruction to a screech­ We the People givelegal was a public trust, a privilege-not a ing halt. Nme years later, in a case fictions calledcorporallons right. The legal powers corporation!> brought by a railroad corporation, the greater rights than we give wield today were nothing more than US Supreme Court declared corpora­ the wish lists of corporate lawyen;. tions to be legal persons, whost life, to people. Electedstate legislaton� corpor­ liberty and property were constitu­ atecharters and wrote state corporation tionally protected by the Fourteenth laws that carefullydefined the nature of Amendment (even though that amend­ and for equity, health, jobs and the corporations. Charters were granted ment had been written and ratified in environment, the focm;has not been on only for fixed terms, whichmeant that 1868 to protect the right!. of freed breaking corporations' grip over capi­ corporate directors had to come back slaves). tal. production and jobs; on changing to the people at regular intervals to re­ By 1904, corporations controlled bedrock legal doctdnes relating to quest renewal of their charters. Corpor· fow-fifths of the nation's industrial property; or on getting corporations ate owners, managers and directors productfon, had begun to perfecta cor­ entirely out of our elections, llUt of our were liable for corporate debts and for porate system of fmance, industry and legislatures, out of our governors' h&.rm!> their corporations caused houses and judges• chamben.. Taking (sometimes doubly and triplyso). Cor­ back the wealth, power, privileges and Pove1ty& Ra.-e(SSN 1075..)59!) is porations were prohibited from func­ immunities that corporate fictions have pecifi rub1i:shed six times c1 year by tilt tioningexcept as s cally permitted, Pb-.,crty & Race Research A�1on stolen, and dismantling offending � this 1864 Wisconsin law decreed; Couni:,1J, 17l i·O:mr.. Ave.NW,#2<J7, corporations, has not been the subject "The purposes for which every such Washington, OC 20009, 202i3&'7• of public debate and action corporation shall be establishedshall be 9}3.8'7�fax.20.2:387-0764. Chester Recently, Cynthia Hamilton has distmctly and definitely specifiedin the Hamn.an, E<:liror; Catherine M. urged all Americans "to demand articles of association, and it shall not be Dom, E<li.tonal A��t!.tant, There is greater democratic control of economic lawful for said corporation to appro­ nf'Icharge: for thenew.iletter {except ownership, production a."l.dinvestment. priate its fonds to any other purpose." to libtarfos,; but .d.om,tion6 are en­ The environmental justice movement A 1923 Wisconsin statute read; "The couraged. Article$,., sug.ges� artic1e cannot -allow of land use, legislature may at any time limit or re­ tions a11d generai tomments are questio�s W¢.lcome,. ailare no� of pliblica­ land rights and land ownership to strict the powers of any corporation or­ remain the province of corporate de­ ganized under any law." An early 20th t1on.\ conft"Ien.ces,jott openings,�te . instead for our R1$(H.trQ::li Section Articles cision makers. It needs to create Century amendment to the Maine gi:ueraliyreprinted m.aybe , pr<Niding a democratic alternative." Constitution stated: ..[H]owever PR RAC gives advance. pennisston. If people were to demand "greater formed, [corporations]shall forever be democratic control of econonnc own- subject to the general laws of the state. ., 2 • Poverty & Race • Vol. 4, No. 5 • September/October1995 Citizen authority clauses dictated We the People have always