In Advance of Citizens United Anniversary, CWA to Highlight Corrosive Influence of Money in Politics

Events & Direct Actions to Highlight Damage of Citizens Ruling and Need for Reform

WASHINGTON, DC — As the nation approaches the two year anniversary of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, which helped open the floodgates to unprecedented levels of corporate money in politics, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) today announces a series of actions to raise awareness of the corrosive influence of money in politics.

CWA's involvement regarding money in politics, one of its top priorities for 2012 and beyond, includes the following actions and activities:

Direct Actions against Citizens United

• Events This Weekend on Citizens' Anniversary: Today and tomorrow in Phoenix, AZ, Sacramento, CA, Jacksonville, FL, Miami, FL, and Kansas City, MO, CWA members will join with a range of organizations, including Common Cause, Democracy For America, MoveOn, Move to Amend, Occupy, and Public Citizen, to highlight the destructive nature of the Citizens ruling. Among placards and signage to appear at these events include those noting Citizens' embrace of the ridiculous "corporate personhood" standard.
• Post Card Delivery Campaign: 3,000 postcards from CWA members are being delivered to Members of Congress asking for a remedy to Citizens United, with an additional 7,000 cards being distributed imminently.
• Online Actions to Accompany Events: Also this weekend, CWA is launching an online action to encourage CWA members and allies to post Twitter and Facebook status updates that mimic the signs people will carry at the rally: "I am a person [Corporation Name] is not." Posters will be encouraged to pass along their involvement to friends via a mobile-optimized site. http://cwa-union.org/pages/corporations-are-not-people

Additional Actions on Money in Politics

• Support for Governor Cuomo's Push for Public Campaign Financing: CWA strongly backs Gov. Andrew Cuomo's (D-NY) push for voluntary public financing of political campaigns in New York. The National Presidents of CWA, SEIU, and UAW released a letter to Gov. Cuomo this week noting, "Your New NY Agenda laid out an ambitious plan to change New York, including public funding of elections. We write to express our readiness to stand behind you in this campaign and achieve this important victory for democracy together."
• Model City Council Resolutions to Overturn Corporate Personhood Standard: CWA also plans to work with local elected officials in approximately a dozen locations to push for city council resolutions that declare "corporations should not receive the same constitutional rights as natural persons."

CWA's involvement in this issue comes at a time of public wariness about the Citizens ruling and the unfettered influence of corporate money in politics. For example, earlier this week, new polling by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner for Democracy Corps and the Public Campaign Action Fund shows that "the Citizens United decision is intensely unpopular. Americans across all parties oppose the ruling; among all voters, 62 percent oppose the decision and nearly half (46 percent) strongly oppose it. More than half of all voters say they would support a constitutional amendment to reverse the opinion."

Schedule for Citizens' Anniversary Events

• Phoenix: 401 W Washington Street, Friday, January 20th at 11 AM
• Miami: January 20th at 11 AM — 1 PM
• Kansas City: 400 East 9th Street, January 20th at 11:30 AM — 1:30 PM
• Jacksonville: Downtown (Across from Hemming Plaza), January 20th at 12-2 PM
• Sacramento: January 21st at 1 PM — 3 PM

Immediate Release:                                        Contact: Chuck Porcari or Liz Schilling 202-434-1168
January 20, 2012                                             cporcari@cwa-union.org or eschilling@cwa-union.org 

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