Rethinking Resistance to Corporate Rule

Introduction
Bold Responses to Corporations Which Chronically Break the Law
Challenging Public/ Corporate Partnerships
Communities Organizing to Defend Themselves Against Corporate Power
Prohibiting (or Defining) Corporate Involvement in Particular Industries
Revoking Corporate Charters
Rewriting State Corporate Codes
Challenging Corporate Claims to Constitutional Rights
From Corporate Ownership to Public Ownership
Educating Citizens About Our History and Beginning to Reclaim Our Culture and Our Language

• The ‘Wayne Township Ordinance’ (Mifflin County, PA) was enacted into law in 1998 by a 3-0 vote, and has since also passed in Thompson Township. It prohibits any corporation from doing business in the township (even those that are already located there) if it has a history of consistently violating any regulatory laws (environmental, labor, etc), and further prohibits any corporation from doing business there if any of its current directors sit on other corporate boards that consistently violate regulatory law. For text of the ordinance click here.

• Residents of Shasta County, CA ran a ‘10 Strikes and You're Out’ ballot initiative in the town of Shasta Lake City near Redding in order to try to stop a large German corporation (Knauf) from building a fiberglas manufacturing plant there. Though the ballot initiative did not pass, it introduced a new model for addressing corporations that cause harm.

• In 1998 a Boulder, CO organization - Reclaim Democracy.org – introduced for discussion a statewide ‘Three Strikes and You're Dissolved’ ballot initiative that would have revoked the charter of corporations doing business in Colorado if they violated state law on more than three occasions. (Also see Revoking Corporate Charters)

• In 2003 the California State Senate voted on Senate Bill 335, introduced by Senator Gloria Romero (D- Los Angeles) and co-authored by Senator Sheila Kuehl (D- Los Angeles) and Assemblymember Loni Hancock (D-El Cerrito). The Corporate Three Strikes Act would have been the toughest corporate accountability law in the nation, putting out of business in California any company convicted of three felonies in a ten year period. The Act was written by the California Corporate 3 Strikes Initiative Campaign, a citizens group formed initially to organize a state ballot initiative that would have the same consequences as SB 335. The Bill was voted down on June 3rd, 2003 but Romero says she will reintroduce the Bill next year. For text of the Bill click here.

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