[WestMALocals] David Cobb to speak in Northampton 7 PM July 6/28

[Nat Fortune]

A reminder and a request: 2004 Green Party Presidential candidate  
David Cobb will be speaking about Measure T, an initiative to protect  
local control by barring outside corporate funding of issue-oriented  
referenda. John Boifaz spoke to the same group earlier this year.


Will anyone be bringing slate petitions for signature collection  
tomorrow prior to David Cobb's 7 PM presentation at the Northampton  
UU church? Will any of the candidates be attending? I can arrive  
early and help collect if there is someone to meet. I don't have  
petitions.

Nat Fortune
413-665-6739



Nationally-known democracy activist David Cobb will speak to Shays 2 and
strategize with us on building our political movement for real  
democracy in
Western Mass.

Wednesday, June 28th, 7:00 p.m.
Unitarian Universalist Society of    Northampton and Florence
220 Main Street, Northampton


Cobb will be fresh from Measure T, an all-volunteer effort of ordinary
people, local citizens dedicated to protecting their right to local  
control
of their community. It is a "popular uprising against corporate rule in
Humboldt County that can serve as a model for other communities  
across the
United States," according to The Progressive Populist.

Measure T is a ballot initiative, backed by the Humboldt Coalition for
Community Rights campaign in California, to protect local control by  
barring

outside corporate money from Humboldt county elections.

It is a challenge to the l978 US Supreme Court decision (Bellotti vs.  
First
National Bank of Boston) that overturned a Massachusetts law forbidding
corporate funding of issue-oriented referenda. The landmark Bellotti  
case
played a major role in defining the legality of corporate political  
Spending
and supporting the legal doctrine that a corporation must be treated  
as a
"person" with vested constitutional rights.

Mass. Attorney John Bonifaz --who just spoke for Shays 2 in May -- has
called this initiative "one of the most important local democracy  
efforts
happening anywhere in the United States. If this passes, it will have
profound ramifications for campaign finance reform efforts across the
country." Bonifaz believes the US Supreme Court decision left an opening
they hope to capitalize on.

While striking down the Massachusetts statute prohibiting corporate  
spending
on referendum campaigns, the Supreme Court also declared that it  
would have
considered arguments against corporate spending if there had been  
evidence
showing that corporate advocacy imminently threatened to undermine
democratic processes.

Shays 2 will explore with David Cobb the possibility of revisiting that
Bellotti U.S. Supreme Court decision in our own state.

Cobb is a public interest attorney whose legal career has been  
dedicated to
challenging illegitimate corporate power and to creating democracy.

In 2004 David Cobb ran for President on the Green Party ticket. As a
presidential candidate, Cobb demanded the recount of the Ohio  
presidential
vote, working with lead counsel, Mass. Attorney John Bonifaz (who  
spoke for
Shays 2 in May).

In 2002 he ran for state Attorney General in Texas on a platform to  
use the
office to revoke the charters of corporations that break the law and
challenge corporate ability to manipulate the legal system at the  
expense of
the people. He is a volunteer member of the Democracy Unlimited of  
Humboldt
County Steering Committee (one of the groups working on Measure T).  
He has
worked intimately with the POCLAD (Program on Corporations, Law and
Corporations), the Center for Voting and Democracy, and Reclaim  
Democracy.
He currently serves on the Sierra Club's national Corporate  
Accountability
Committee and as a Fellow for Liberty Tree: Foundation for the  
Democratic
Revolution. He is also a co-founder and member of the Board of  
Directors for

the Green Institute.

Join us! JOIN OUR ACTION COMMITTEES! We are part of a nation-wide  
movement
to build real democracy in America. Explore how growing corporate  
"rights"
undermine our Constitutional rights and democracy Š and how we can  
resist
together, advancing our diverse issues as activists and citizens.