Shasta and Goliath: Bringing Down Corporate Rule

[Joanne98]

Mt. Shasta, a small northern California town of 3,500 residents nestled in the foothills of magnificent Mount Shasta, is taking on corporate power through an unusual process -- democracy.

The citizens of Mt. Shasta have developed an extraordinary ordinance, set to be voted on in the next special or general election, that would prohibit corporations such as Nestle and Coca-Cola from extracting water from the local aquifer. But this is only the beginning. The ordinance would also ban energy-giant PG&E, and any other corporation, from regional cloud seeding, a process that disrupts weather patterns through the use of toxic chemicals such as silver iodide. More generally, it would refuse to recognize corporate personhood, explicitly place the rights of community and local government above the economic interests of multinational corporations, and recognize the rights of nature to exist, flourish, and evolve.

Mt. Shasta is not alone. Rather, it is part of a (so far) quiet municipal movement making its way across the United States in which communities are directly defying corporate rule and affirming the sovereignty of local government.

Since 1998, more than 125 municipalities have passed ordinances that explicitly put their citizens' rights ahead of corporate interests, despite the existence of state and federal laws to the contrary. These communities have banned corporations from dumping toxic sludge, building factory farms, mining, and extracting water for bottling. Many have explicitly refused to recognize corporate personhood. Over a dozen townships in Pennsylvania, Maine, and New Hampshire have recognized the right of nature to exist and flourish (as Ecuador just did in its new national constitution). Four municipalities, including Halifax in Virginia, and Mahoney, Shrewsbury, and Packer in Pennsylvania, have passed laws imposing penalties on corporations for chemical trespass, the involuntary introduction of toxic chemicals into the human body.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Shasta-and-Goliath-Bringi-by-Allen-D-Kanner-110119-870.html

I used to live in Mt Shasta. Beautiful little town.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. Very questionable that it will work

But it is a good symbolic gesture if nothing else

[bemildred]

2. Yeah, that guy is going to rule Tunisia forever, and the USSR still runs Russia.

There is no question that it will work, but it's bottom up, so it will have a long incubation period and it hinges on the idea spreading widely.

The thing to understand is that there is nothing "natural" or inevitable about the current political facts on the ground.

[tama]

3. The revolution

happened allready. It was the moment you stopped being affraid and started acting according your conscience instead of waiting for the political & elite class to start acting in a responsible way. :)

[bemildred]

4. Well, it's been going on since 1968 then.

Because that is when I realized that the government was lying it's ass off and did not, in fact, have my best interests at heart. Although it is true that I have developed a much more detailed understanding of the problem as the years went by.

I remember when government jobs were considered inferior in pay and benefits but you got lifetime security in exchange. Now they are the new "privileged class". Next they will be telling us soldiers are a privileged class because they have free health care. But they will never tell us that Paris Hilton is a member of a privileged class, that privileged class does not exist.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. My questions were practical ones of scope and lines of authority, rather than intent

Most cities do not control the water underneath them. Also the aquifers do not align with city boundaries. Most industrial areas are built outside of the city limits to minimize taxes and interference. An example of that limitation would be if all it took a vote of the local citizens, then the Los Angles Dept of Water and Power would be pumping nothing from the Owens Valley.

The cloud seeding is also something a city can not control. The skies are controlled by the FAA and the city quite literally has no jurisdiction over things not attached to the ground.

At one point Kern County banned the importation of LA sewer sludge. A very good thing IMO (the cities need to find a way to deal with their own toxins). The courts overturned it.

Not saying that the limiting and controlling the corps is a bad thing. However, based on what the article said, these two items are feel good legislation and nothing more. The author more or less admits that stating that these laws are in defiance of existing state and federal laws, not to mention court decisions.

[bemildred]

6. Not a done deal, to be sure.

And the powers of local governmental entities are all derived, legally speaking. OTOH, it makes the oppressive nature of government clear and public, which is why TPTB hate it and try to keep it out of the public eye.

[Enthusiast]

7. K&R! nt