WILPF campaign aims to redefine, not reform corporations

For some, corporate reform is not enough.

“Everyone is so focused on punishing the wrongdoers, but our campaign is looking at the entire form,” says Jan Edwards, a member Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom’s (WILPF) Abolish Corporate Personhood campaign. “They’re not people, so we’re a little less focused on the wrongs corporations do. We’re more focused on what the corporation is, how it’s defined in the law.”

Though most people aren’t familiar with the way corporations use the Constitution to appropriate rights intended for people (free speech, freedom from searches and seizures, etc.), WILPF is doing its best to educate. Edwards and others have been doing speaking events and radio shows all over the country, leaving materials, posters, and t-shirts in their wake.

“We’re beginning to open up a discussion, and now it’s a question thoughtful people are having to think about,” Edwards said. “Do we just regulate corporations or do we redefine them?”

Though the ultimate goal would be to abolish corporate personhood by Constitutional amendment, the campaign is focusing on a few more immediate goals, including forcing candidates to address the issue, changing the ACLU’s position (it has supported corporate free speech), and getting resolutions passed.

So far, Edward and others made hometown of Point Arena, Calif. the only town to have passed a resolution saying corporations aren’t persons. Now they’re bringing the issue to San Francisco, where city supervisor Matt Gonzalez is working on a draft resolution.

“We’re trying to create awareness,” said Kirsten Lambertsen, who is organizing a city-wide campaign to support the resolution. “We hope it will get really good national press coverage and encourage people around the country to do the same things and go from there.”

For more information, visit www.wilpf.org. For info on the San Francisco campaign, call 866-280-1409 x600.