Declaration on Ending Corporate Personhood

Print out this form, sign it, and send to the address below, or send an email declaring yourself to be a signatory.

The U.S. Constitution gives sovereignty to "We, the People."
Democracy means government by the people.
The people must rule. It is our duty.

WE BELIEVE that the rights of personhood, as manifested in the Bill of Rights, the 14th Amendment and Civil Rights legislation, are among the hardest won and most valuable possessions of a free people.

WE BELIEVE these rights should belong to all human beings.

WE BELIEVE the word Aperson@ in the Constitution means natural, or human, person.

WE DO NOT BELIEVE the word Aperson@ in the Constitution was meant to include corporations or other artificial entities. Corporations are not mentioned or given any rights in the Constitution.

WE DO NOT BELIEVE the Supreme Court in 1886 had the moral or legal authority to give the rights of persons to corporations. The Supreme Court's role is to interpret, not alter, the Constitution.

WE DO NOT BELIEVE that corporate personhood has benefitted our democracy, environment, citizens, or the world. It does, however, benefit giant corporations.

WE HAVE SEEN corporations claim the 1st Amendment right to free speech in order to use large sums of money to influence our elections and legislative processes and to advertise their dangerous products to our children.

WE HAVE SEEN the environment destroyed by the use of the 14th Amendment right to appeal government regulations. We watch as toxin-producing corporations use the 4th Amendment to avoid inspections. We eat Genetically Modified Foods without our knowledge because the 1st Amendment also protects the corporations' right to not speak.

WE HAVE SEEN our small, neighborhood businesses crushed, and we must stand by, helpless, because the Acivil rights@ of giant corporations prevent communities from@discriminating@in favor of local stores. When we try to protect our towns from cell towers or giant chain stores, this is also deemed illegal discrimination.

WE KNOW that a corporation is not a person. It is a legal fiction having no morals, ethics or conscience.

WE KNOW that people, through the state, create a corporation. It is not born, it does not die.

WE KNOW that people gave personhood rights to corporations, and people can take those rights away.

ON BEHALF OF THE PLANET and all the living creatures on it, we pledge to end corporate personhood and to support the rights of personhood for natural persons everywhere.

SIGNED_____________________________________e-mail__________________________________

Redwood Coast Alliance for Democracy P.O. Box 1581, Gualala, CA 95445 [707] 882-1818 www.iiipublishing.com/alliance.htm