[Street] Campaign Finance Community Gathering tomorrow night!

Katie Gradowski katie.gradowski at gmail.com
Sun Jan 1 22:20:37 EST 2012


Hey all!    A few quick updates heading into the new year....


   - This weekend, a number of folks from OB will be heading to
Manchester NH to Occupy the Primary.   *Tomorrow at 5 p.m., the Street
Working Group will be meeting in Copley to plan an action for the
following Tuesday*.   We'll be meeting at Boloco in Copley Square,
immediately next to the Community Church (565 Boylston Street)   There
are a number of exciting actions being planned, and we would love to
have people across working groups be involved!    Anyone interested in
participating should email street at lists.occupyboston.org, or join us
at that meeting.


   - *Tomorrow evening, the Citizens United Working group will be
hosting a community gathering on campaign finance reform, * kicking
off a month-long campaign to inspire and educate the greater public
about corporate influence over public policy.  The gathering will
start at 7:30 at the Community Church, 565 Boylston Street in Boston.
 It would be wonderful to have some folks from outreach involved and
at this meeting, as this will be an important campaign that many WGs
will be focusing on as we move into the month of January.


   - *City Life / Vida Urbana will be having their weekly bank tenant
meetings this Tuesday and Wednesday.   *These meetings are a great
opportunity to get in on the ground on home defense work, and to get
involved in rolling auction protests and eviction defense actions.
If you are interested in attending these meetings, please email
katie at occupyboston.org for details.

We'll be starting up with our regularly scheduled meetings next week
-- in the meantime, enjoy the remainder of the holiday weekend!

All best,

Katie


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 Occupy Boston Tackles Campaign Finance
Reform<http://www.occupyboston.org/2011/12/31/ob-campaign-finance-reform/>
 December 31st, 2011 · Gunner <http://www.occupyboston.org/author/gscott/>·
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[image: dollars Occupy Boston Tackles Campaign Finance
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**The Citizens United Working Group of Occupy Boston will host a Community
Gathering and forum *Monday, January 2nd at the Community Church, 565
Boylston Street in Boston*. This event is the kick off to a month-long
campaign designed to inspire and educate the greater public about
corporate influence over public policy.  *The program will begin at 7:30*,
but guests are invited to arrive early for refreshments and social
networking.  Featured speakers include MA Sen. Jamie Elderidge, who has
introduced many of the bills that support campaign finance reforms in the
State House, and Arthur Macewan from Dollars and Sense and author of the
Wealth-Power Connection.

Macewan will address the larger problem of corporate personhood and the
myriad of problems it has created with respect to money in politics.  Sen.
Elderidge will be there to discuss some of the related bills and
resolutions that he is sponsoring in the State House.  This event is open
to the public.  The speakers will be followed by a facilitated open
discussion geared toward building a vision for what steps we can take to
solve these problems.  Getting corporate and special interest money out of
politics is an important issue for people across the political spectrum.
Everyone is encouraged to attend and participate in building a unifying
strategy to affect change.

The goal of the evening is to introduce people to the campaign finance
issues surrounding the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Citizens United
vs FEC. Among the issues discussed will be the idea of Corporate
Personhood, which as a result of several misguided court decisions prior to
Citizen’s United, has given corporations rights and protections that the
Founders intended only for people. Corporate Personhood has come at a
terrible cost to our democracy–especially with regard to the financing of
elections and the influence of money in politics.

In addition, campaign financing and fundraising have become huge
distractions for our elected officials. In order to raise enough money to
be competitive, candidates are forced to pander to big money corporate
donors, lobbyists and PACs which often puts them directly at odds with
wishes of the people they are supposed to represent. The Citizen’s United
decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled that corporations have a First
Amendment right to spend unlimited — and unreported — amounts of money to
influence elections, has further undermined democracy.

Getting corporate and special interest money out of politics is a unifying
issue for people across the political spectrum. Fixing this problem is
essential if we want our representatives to be responsive to the 99% and
not just their deep-pocketed corporate backers.

This Community Forum on “Citizens United vs FEC” is part of a month-long
educational campaign that will culminate with a two-day “Rally & Summit to
Unite Citizens for Democracy” on January 20 and 21. The rally will bring
together organizations that have been working specifically on these issues
for years, like the Coffee Party, Free Speech for People, Move to Amend and
Rootstrikers, along with groups like the MA League of Women Voters and the
Nurses Union that also want to have a voice in this debate. For more
information about any of these events, email citizensunited at occupyboston.**
org <citizensunited at occupyboston.org> or occupybostonmedia at gmail.com.




-- 
www.partsandcrafts.org
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