Previous Activities

Moving to Action - October 13-15, 2006

This was a weekend of events sponsored by several organizations. More information on the Moving to Action page.

Roundtable Discussion

The February 26, 2006 meeting featured a panel discussion with knowledgable guests who discussed their concepts of democracy and the challenges facing our democracy today, both nationally and globally.  Panel guests included:  Greg Coleridge (from AFSC and POCLAD [Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy]), Mary Zepernick (from Women's International League for Peace & Freedom and POCLAD), Marcia  Meyers (Ending Corporate Personhood Action Group) and Ward Morehouse (Co-founder of POCLAD and Council on International & Public Affairs).

Organizing Meeting

The Organizing Meeting for the Creating Democracy Conference was held Saturday, February 25, 2006. 

Ohio Democracy Schools

On the weekend of January 27-29, 2006, CIRCA and Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee co-sponsored a Democracy School in Columbus, Ohio. The Democracy School started Friday, January 27, at 6:00 p.m. It continued on Saturday, January 28 from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and on Sunday, January 29 from 9:00 to 1:00 p.m. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) conducts these weekend-long training programs around the country to teach ways to confront the rights used by corporations. The School is built around carefully designed readings, clear presentations and group discussions. The instructors were Richard Grossman,writer, lecturer and co-founder of the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD); Thomas Linzey, Executive Director of the Community Environmental Legal DefenseFund (CELDF); and Ben Price, Project Director for the Corporations and Democracy Program of CELDF. You can go the the CELDF site to see the full curriculum. 

Tri-State Clean Air and Water Group

CIRCA hosted a meeting of the Tri-State Clean Air and Water Group on Saturday, January 21 at 12:30. You can read more about this meeting here.

Ted Nace Presentation on Corporate Power - October 20, 2005

On Thursday, October 20, 2005, CIRCA and SPEAK hosted Ted Nace, author of Gangs of America - The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy in Columbus, Ohio. To see a summary of the book, read the first few chapters, buy the book, or download the entire book, go to the Gangs of America web site.

This event was coordinated with an Older Wiser Lifelong Scholars (OWLS) course by Ted Nace that explored the roots of the corporation and the growing movement to build a more democratic society. The course was based on Ted Nace's book.

Ted Nace was interviewed on WOSU NPR 820 AM from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on October 7, 2005. It was on Fred Anderle's Open Line program. You can listen to the archived streaming audio at www.wosu.org.

Citizens' Assembly - October 31, 2004

On Sunday, October 31, 2004, at 2:00 p.m., we hosted a Citizens' Assembly to discuss the movie, The Corporation. After an introduction by Michael Greenman, 3 panelists provided short presentations of their experiences with Corporate Power.

Local Columbus lawyer, Cliff Arnebeck talked about spending the last 4 years litigating against the corporations that paid for the political ads attacking Alice Robie Resnick in the 2000 Ohio Supreme Court election campaign. The corporations used money from their corporate treasuries to fund the ads, in direct violation of campaign laws.

The next panelist, Marian Lupo, is a lawyer and currently a Ph. D. student in Law. Her dissertation topic is the formation of the first multi-national corporation, the British East India Company in 1600. Like many of today's corporations, it was a joint stock company, with shareholders contributing to the company's capital for shares of stock. She made the point that this formation of a multi-national corporation was an invention, and that it could be revised or reinvented.

The third panelist was Greg Coleridge representing POCLAD, the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy. Greg is from Akron and is also a member of the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee. He talked about some of the other grassroots activities being carried out in this area. When The Corporation played in Cleveland, they held a similar discussion meeting. He said that he talked to the producers of The Corporation and they told him their job was to create the movie, and they hoped people would use it and the information in it to talk about and take action.

Visit from Ward Morehouse - February, 2004

Citizens in Ohio and across the nation are beginning to organize against corporate control of American economic and political life, whether the situation involves noxious factory farms with millions of chickens or corporations hiding their contributions to election campaigns.

International human rights activist and author Ward Morehouse addressed this corporate dominance of American democracy and the legal doctrine of corporations as persons in a series of free, public lectures in Columbus in mid-February.

Morehouse is the cofounder of the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD) which brings together organizers, researchers, writers and former elected officials to engage in an ongoing discussion of the role of corporations and to contest the authority of corporations to supercede the power of citizens and elected governments.

The schedule for Morehouse in Columbus included the following:

Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2004

• Brown-bag lunch discussion on corporations, the law and legal activism, noon, The Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law, Saxbe Auditorium, 55 W. 12th Ave. Sponsored by the Ohio State chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.

• Lecture on human rights, the law and corporations followed by questions and answers, 3:30 p.m., Capital University's "Bridge of Learning Auditorium" in Ruff Learning Center, Pleasant Ridge Avenue. Sponsored by Capital University's College of Arts and Sciences, Honors Program, General Education, and Environmental Law Society.

• Forum on corporate dominance of American democracy with a panel and questions and answers, 7:30 p.m., Ohio State's Ohio Union Conference Theatre, 1739 N. High St.. Sponsored by Ohio Union's "A Place for Community Dialogue", Students for Labor and Economic Justice, and Campus Green Party.

Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2004

• Humanist Forum on corporate dominance and the response of people of faith, 7 p.m., First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus, 93 W. Weisheimer Road in Clintonville. Sponsored by First Unitarian Universalist Church and the organization Simply Living.

Morehouse also appeared on the "Open Line" radio program on WOSU-AM.

In addition to his work with the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD), Morehouse is president of the Council on International and Public Affairs, a non-profit human rights organization based in New York City. He also founded the International Coalition for Justice in Bhopal, India, following the disastrous chemical leak at the Union Carbide plant there in 1984.

Morehouse is the author or editor of 20 books and has taught at New York University, the University of Lund in Sweden and the Administrative Staff College of India in Hyderabad. He has consulted with various United Nations agencies, including UNESCO, UNIDO, UNCTAD and the Centre on Transnational Corporations.

POCLAD has conducted much of its research in legal theory and corporate law, including the judicial doctrines dealing with the commerce clause, personhood, the business judgment rule, the prudent man rule, managerial prerogative and corporate property rights.

POCLAD argues that a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1886 began a process of granting constitutional rights to corporations as if they were living persons. With their rights as "persons" combined with vastly greater financial and legal resources, corporations now exert much more influence than living people on legislation and court rulings. POCLAD seeks to abolish rights extended to corporations and to remove constitutional impediments preventing authentic democratic self-governance.

POCLAD last October published a model legal brief to help citizen groups create winning organizing strategies by removing constitutional protections from corporations and allowing citizens to regain control of their communities.