[governance] MS and corporate's 'political' personhood

[Parminder]

Hi All

Concerning our debates on political status and rights of corporations in 
connection with multistakeholderism, I think the most important recent 
development has been the recognition of 'corporate personhood' in a 
meaning much beyond the narrow legal implication used in company affairs 
and some civil liabilities by the US Supreme Court, a decision which has 
been widely criticized, including by Obama. Accepting 'corporate 
personhood' in the political space is a certain death knell for 
democratic societies as we have understood and known.

I think whether we recognize corporate's 'political' personhood is key 
to the MS debate. I am afraid, if we do, we are closer to the 
Nietzschian vision of a higher order world controlled by these 
super-persons, while ordinary persons carry out their servile duty for 
the sake of the glory of this higher order.

Parminder

See quotes form a news item 'The Arrogance of Corporate Power Is Evident 
in US Supreme Court Decision <http://www.ippn.org/node/65> ' at 
http://www.ippn.org/   on the recent judgement of US Supreme Court ...

On Wednesday, January 21st in Citizens United vs. FEC the Supreme Court 
let regular people; working class, low income and working poor people 
down yet again. They sided with the corporate elite when they overturned 
the flimsy federal campaign finance reform laws afforded by the 
McCain-Feingold law, freeing up corporations to open the floodgates and 
buy elections since they can now spend unlimited money in our elections.

The Court has legalized corporate bribery of our elected officials.

The Court relied on the illegitimate legal doctrine of "Corporate 
Personhood" in order to justify this profoundly undemocratic decision.

Corporate personhood is the notion that a corporation can claim to be a 
person, and therefore entitled to basic human rights - also described as 
political and civil rights - and have courts overturn laws.

As this decision clearly demonstrates, corporate personhood is not an 
inconsequential legal technicality. Consider this-- the Supreme Court 
ruled that a corporation was a "legal person" with 14th Amendment 
protectionsÿbeforeÿthey granted full personhood to African-Americans, 
immigrants, natives, and women.

And literally hundreds of laws - perhaps thousands - of local, state and 
federal laws that attempt to protect our environment, our elections, our 
safety and health, our right to organize have been overturned as a 
result of this erroneous doctrine.



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