Forwarded message below, as I expect this is of fairly general interest. POCLAD helped with my research on corporate history.
Tayssir
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: We're available Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2007 13:38:51 -0500 From: people at poclad.org
Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy Box 246 S. Yarmouth, MA 02664 508-398-1145 www.poclad.org
January, 2007
Dear friend of POCLAD,
Can you help us? Do you have a connection to a local college or university in your community? Would you please explore bringing one or more of us to your community?
Students and community activists are increasingly questioning who is really represented by their elected officials, by what right corporations dominate our political process, and why social and environmental conditions continue to worsen despite generations of valiant citizen organizing and government regulation. How did we get into this undemocratic mess?
For the past 12 years, the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD) has explored the roots of our present predicament, including the U.S. Constitution and the vaunted "rule of law."
As you know, POCLAD consists of long-term activists, teachers, and writers from diverse backgrounds, working on a variety of issues -- environment, peace, social justice, food and farming practices, children's rights, international organizing. Underlying all of our work is the simple but powerful question: Who's in charge? We have researched the historical rise of corporate power in the United States, analyzed the effectiveness of different social movements, and designed recommendations for new organizing directions stemming from the common roots of many issues and problems. We have published books, pamphlets and articles and have given activist trainings, public workshops and speaking presentations based on what we've learned.
Our nation's founding promises of self-governance not only remain largely unfulfilled, but are actually mocked by the collusion of corporate and public officials that increasingly controls the policy agenda and decisions that properly belong to "We the People."
Looking for real solutions and new ideas? We invite you to engage us on your campus and in the surrounding community to help students, professors and community activists rethink the role of corporations in our society and reframe harm-based struggles into assertions of self-governance to create lasting systemic change.
We are available for speaking presentations, strategic reframing conversations and workshops. Our speakers brochure (at http://www.poclad.org/Speakers.cfm) provides details of available persons and terms. To see a number of us "in action" -- giving short 3-minutes talks on a range of issues --go to http://www.poclad.org/DemocracyShorts.cfm.
We look forward to engaging you in our work to create a more ecologically flourishing, socially just and peaceful world.
Sincerely,
Greg Coleridge Karen Coulter
Lewis Pitts on behalf of POCLAD