http://www.gp.org
For Immediate Release:
Thursday, September 11, 2014
This release is online at http://www.gp.org/newsroom/press-releases/details/4/733
Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org
Green Party supports new call for passage of the ERA, says proposed amendment on campaign spending should also abolish corporate personhood
• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Green leaders available to speak on women's rights, democracy, and electoral reform:
http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-womens-rights.php
http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-democratic.php
• The Green Party will participate in the People's Climate March, Climate Convergence in New York City, Sept. 19-21: http://www.gp.org/newsroom/press-releases/details/4/732
• Green candidates running in 2014: http://gp.org/elections/candidates/index.php
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Green Party of the United States commented on two proposed constitutional amendments that are currently receiving attention:
• The Green Party said that Senate-Judiciary Resolution 19, which would allow Congress to regulate the spending of money on political campaigns, doesn't go far enough, and urges the resolution's supporters in Congress to add language declaring that only natural persons (humans), not corporations, have constitutional rights, and that expenditures of money are not speech.
• The Green Party supports the renewed call for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), ensuring full equality for women under the Constitution.
A rally on the west lawn of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, September 13, will launch the return of a demand for the ERA. The rally, organized by "We Are Women" (http://www.wearewoman.us), will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Two Green Party members are among the slated speakers: Cheri Honkala, 2012 Green vice-presidential nominee and co-founder of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, and Ben Manski, former co-chair of the Green Party and co-founder of Move to Amend. For more information about the rally, visit http://rallyhub.wearewoman.us.
Greens called passage of the ERA urgent at a time when reproductive rights and women's access to medical care have come under attack in some states, many single women and their children continue to live in poverty, and pay for women lags behind pay for men. Feminism is one of the Ten Key Values of the Green Party (http://www.gp.org/what-we-believe/10-key-values).
Green Party leaders said that Senate-Judiciary Resolution 19, introduced by Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) in June (https://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-joint-resolution/19/text), is a modest step that would partially overturn two recent Supreme Court cases, Citizens United v. FEC (2010) and McCutcheon v. FEC (2014), both of which uphold the power of corporations to influence elections.
Greens said that Congress should fully overturn Citizens United by passing the "We the People Amendment," which makes clear that corporations are not entitled to constitutional rights, and that money is not speech (https://movetoamend.org).
"We support the principle that the rights set out in the Bill of Rights should only apply to natural persons and that corporations shouldn't have the right to contribute to political parties and campaigns. This principle is so important to us that the Green Party and Green candidates accept no corporate contributions," said Jesse Townley, Green candidate for Berkeley Rent Board in Berkeley, California (http://jesse4rentboard.org), and co-chair of the Green Party of the United States.
The Green Party has held this position since 1996. The party's national platform urges electoral reform that would "[p]rohibit corporations from spending to influence elections, preferably by constitutional amendment abolishing corporate personhood, or as a condition of receipt of a corporate charter by federal chartering of corporations." (http://www.gp.org/what-we-believe/our-platform/17-platform/37-i-democracy)
See also:
Action Alert: Tell the Senate Any Amendment Must Include Ending Corporate Personhood Before They Vote Monday!
Move To Amend, September 9, 2014
https://movetoamend.org/action-alert-tell-senate-any-amendment-must-include-ending-corporate-personhood-they-vote-monday
MORE INFORMATION
Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191
• Green candidate database and campaign information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Ballot Access Page http://www.gp.org/2012/ballot-access.html
• Video Page http://www.gp.org/video/index.php
• Green Papers http://www.greenpapers.net/
• Discussion Forum https://secure.gpus.org/secure/GreenPartyForum
• Google+ http://www.gp.org/google
• Twitter http://twitter.com/GreenPartyUS
• Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus
• Facebook page http://www.gp.org/facebook
Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the United States
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog
Green Shadow Cabinet http://greenshadowcabinet.us
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