Revoke Corporate Personhood

Taken from Occupy LA's FaceBook page at Occupy Los Angeles

Occupy LA Commends Los Angeles City Council’s

Unanimous Vote Against Corporate Personhood

City's Resolution Reflects OLA's Own Stand

Against Corporate Personhood

Los Angeles, CA - December 7, 2011 - Occupy LA recognizes Los Angeles City Council for listening to their constituents by calling for an end to the mistake of granting corporations constitutional protections meant for human beings. Occupy LA activists were strongly represented among the hundreds of citizens packing the standing-room-only council chamber on December 6, as the Los Angeles City Council became the first major city in the US to call for legislative action to assert that corporations are not entitled to constitutional rights and that money is not speech. City Council President Eric Garcetti, and council members Bill Rosendahl, Paul Kerkorian, Richard Alarcon and Paul Koretz each spoke passionately in favor of the resolution, which passed by unanimous vote yesterday. 

Said Suzanne O'Keeffe, OccupyLA activist and Move to Amend participant, "I had tears in my eyes in the council chambers when I realized it was going to happen. We lit a torch for the country yesterday. We will have our democracy back, city by city, block by block, if that's what it takes."

"We've been working very hard, side-by-side with Move to Amend, to build support for this resolution," said Chris Durian, activist with OLA and Move to Amend. “Even despite fears of a raid, OLA was focused enough to pass its own resolution against corporate personhood and to pass a public statement calling for an end to corporatism. That's how powerfully we feel about this issue."

Less than three days after OLA passed its resolution against corporate personhood, an eviction by riot police resulted in the arrest of 292 Occupiers. 

Occupy LA believes that democracy belongs in the hands of the people, not the corporations. OLA trusts that its own resolution and the City Council’s will inspire other Occupations and municipalities around the country to stand up against corporate personhood. 

-Durian & O'Keeffe