[lbo-talk] corporate personhood

[SA]

In response to the Citizens United decision, there seems to be a 
movement afoot by some folks on the left to amend the Constitution to 
end corporate personhood. See here: http://www.movetoamend.org/ . Maybe 
I'm missing something important, but this seems insane. Legally 
speaking, labor unions are corporations ("non-stock corporations") - so 
are all cooperatives, and Amnesty International, and the Economic Policy 
Institute, etc. etc. They're all corporations, as is pretty much any 
non-governmental organization. "Corporation" is a legal term, but 
basically it's just a synonym for "collectivity." Is the left in this 
country so hyper-individualistic that it wants to stymie all economic 
and social life not based on the rugged individual?

If corporations no longer had personal rights (e.g., against illegal 
search and seizure, or prior restraint of speech), Exxon would lose 
those rights but so would the ACLU. Do we want that? Or am I 
misunderstanding the legal issues? It seems to me that's wrong with 
campaign finance in this country is not the fact that corporations have 
same rights as people, it's that people with money effectively have more 
rights than people without money. So it would seem the logical step 
would just be an amendment to reverse Buckley v. Valeo and give Congress 
the right to regulate campaign spending. For years I've been wondering 
why nobody on the left was campaigning for such an amendment. Now it 
turns out they're doing it, but fucking it up? Please tell me I've got 
this wrong.

SA