In July of 1994, the leaders of 15 of the larger environmental groups sent a mass mailing to their joint membership about the sad state of the struggle to save the biosphere. The following letter is a challenge to those leaders by a group of other environmental leaders. It asks them to change their focus to the real problem -- Corporate influence on legal systems world-wide. 173 grassroots leaders initially signed on to the letter and were then joined by about 240 more. Except for a polite reply from the Sierra Club, there has been no other response in word or deed. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Nov 94 15:45 EST From: Richard Grossman, Peter Montague, Ward Morehouse To: Leaders of the nation's 15 leading environmental groups From: Signers listed at the end of this letter Dear... Ted Dansen, President, American Oceans Campaign; Roger E. McManus, President, Center for Marine Conservation; Rodger Schlickeisen, President, Defenders of Wildlife; Margaret Morgan-Hubbard, Executive Director, Environmental Action Foundation; A. Jane Perkins, President, Friends of the Earth; Barbara Dudley, Executive Director, Greenpeace USA, Inc.; Jim Maddy, President, League of Conservation Voters; Peter A.A. Berle, President and CEO, National Audubon Society; Paul C. Pritchard, President, National Parks and Conservation Association; Jay D. Hair, President and CEO, National Wildlife Federation; John H. Adams, Executive Director, Natural Resources Defense Council; Carl Pope, Executive Director, Sierra Club; Victor M. Sher, President, Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund; G. Jon Roush, President, Wilderness Society; and Susan Weber, Executive Director, Zero Population Growth: We are responding to your "Dear Environmentalist" letter of mid-July, which you sent to the combined membership of your groups. We would like very much to meet with you about the problems you raised. We want to talk about something your letter did not mention: the source of these problems. Some of us are associated with national environmental organizations, while others are actively engaged in community struggles for environmental justice and democracy. We are of diverse colors and backgrounds, live in different regions, and include trade union and religious and electoral activists, as well as survivors of industrial disasters, and shareholder rights advocates. In your letter, you wrote: "...we have never faced such a serious threat to our environmental laws in Congress. Polluters have blocked virtually all of our efforts to strengthen environmental laws...[and] they are mounting an all-out effort to weaken our most important environmental laws." We know this is true. We also know that while such assaults are under way in Congress, people in neighborhoods across the country are suffering injuries to health and life -- from chemicals, radiation, incinerators, power plants, clear cutting, highway building, disinvestment, and so forth. We also know that dignified jobs doing socially-useful work at fair pay are scarce and getting scarcer; that wages are declining; that democracy is too often a delusion at local, state and federal levels. And we know that nature is under attack, that many species, ecosystems and wilderness areas have been ravaged. What prompts us to send this letter to you is our conviction that you have not identified those subverting Congress as our real adversaries in the struggle to save our communities and the natural world: the leaders of today's giant corporations, and the powerful corporations they direct. We believe the Earth has never before faced such large-scale devastations as are being inflicted by handfuls of executives running the largest 1000 or so industrial, financial, health, information, agricultural and other corporations. And not since slavery was legal have the laws of the land been used so shamelessly to violate the democratic principles we hold dear. This was not supposed to happen. It is true that the grand ideals of the American Revolution have not yet been fulfilled, and that many people are still struggling, to gain the legal rights and constitutional protection for which so many fought against tyrannical English monarchy. But for several generations after the nation's founding, the role of corporations in both government and society was strictly limited by law and custom. A corporate charter was considered a public trust. Corporations had no rights at all except what the people chose to give them. Ironically, however, corporations have achieved a level of constitutional protection which many citizens still do not enjoy. The leaders of giant corporations govern as monarchs of old who claimed legitimacy under divine right theory. Yet your letter never once refers to multi-billion dollar corporations such as Exxon, Philip Morris, General Electric, Union Carbide, Weyerhaueser, WMX Technologies (Waste Management). You write of lobbies, special interests, polluters and radical property rights advocates. But the work of these lobbies, polluters and radical advocates -- in Congress and in our communities -- is the work of corporations that manipulate assets beyond our imaginations while hiding behind limited liability, perpetual existence, and our Bill of Rights. To a large extent, corporations have been given these legal rights and privileges not by our elected representatives, but by appointed judges. This did not happen by accident: Corporate leaders funded scores of research, propaganda, and lobbying organizations (using pre-tax dollars, which means that corporate lobbying and propagandizing are subsidized by us). You know the list: the U.S. and state chambers of commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Chemical Manufacturers Association, The Competitive Enterprise Institute.... With "Wise Use" groups, and the help of foundations such as Olin, Scaife, Bradley and Smith Richardson, along with legal think tanks, corporate executives violate elections, buy and sell our legislators, and intimidate citizens. We believe that it is too late to counter corporate power environmental-law-by-environmental-law, regulatory-struggle-by- regulatory struggle. We don't have sufficient time or resources to organize chemical-by-chemical, forest-by-forest, river-by- river, permit-by-permit, technology-by-technology, product-by- product, corporate disaster-by-corporate disaster. But if we curb or cut off corporate power at its source, all our work will become easier. One major source of corporate power goes back to 1886, when the U.S. Supreme Court decreed that corporations are persons under the law. This legal doctrine of corporate personhood guarantees constitutional free speech and other protection to corporations, thereby preventing our elected legislatures from limiting corporation interference in elections and lawmaking, in our courts, and in policy debates. Other court-made legal doctrines give corporate leaders legal authority to make private decisions on very public issues: energy, chemical and transportation investments, product choices, forest and mineral use, technology development, etc. How would restricting corporations' constitutional protection enable us to stop corporate-led environmental destruction? Look at takings, for example. When government wants to use an individual's property for a park, or for a sewage treatment plant, that individual has every right to petition for redress, for "due process of law." But corporate leaders claim this constitutional right of redress for their corporations, arguing that laws and regulations to protect public health and the environment, to protect workers' rights, are takings "without due process." They can do this so effectively because a century ago, corporate leaders convinced courts to transform our laws. Ever since, wielding property rights through laws backed by our government has been an effective, reliable strategy to build and sustain corporate mastery. So it is understandable that many people today believe we have no choice but to concede property (such as takings), free speech and other rights to corporations, and to continue addressing corporate harms one-by-one. We disagree: we believe we have a social and political responsibility to reject concocted constitutional doctrines which enable undemocratic corporate dominion. We support without reservation people's rights for redress against government takings, and peoples's protection against tyranny as provided in our Bill of Rights. But we do not believe corporations share such rights with flesh-and-blood people. We have no illusions that reclaiming people's rights from the fictions which are corporations will be easy: as Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter observed, "The history of constitutional law is the history of the impact of the modern corporation upon the American scene." But what's our alternative? The REAL takings going on today are corporate takings -- of our lives, liberties and pursuits of happiness, and of other species -- without due process of law. The REAL takings today are planned and executed by corporate executives who are protected by the legal shields which are giant corporations, and who are showered with honors by our corporation-controlled culture. Corporate tactics such as takings, risk assessment, unfunded mandates -- at a time of escalating grassroots opposition to NAFTA, GATT and to corporate investments around the globe -- provide opportunities for your organizations to go on the offensive. You can educate your members that the authority to define corporations still rests with the people. You can help us change the legal doctrines and laws which give corporations overwhelming advantage over people, communities and nature. Together, we can get the giant corporation out of our elections, out of our legislatures, out of our judges' chambers, out of our communities, and off our backs. But if you do not write and talk about today's large corporation; if you do not educate and mobilize your members as you know how to do, our legislatures will face crisis after crisis like the one you described in your letter. Corporate leaders will strengthen their grip on the law and escalate their takings across the Earth. Together, we can end the nation's long silence about corporate power and manipulation. We can work together to save our democracy in order to save our communities and our natural environment. We want to meet with you to plan strategies for confronting corporations. ----------------- Sincerely, Jim Ace Wetlands Rainforest Action Group New York, New York Frank T. Adams Arlington, Massachusetts Larry Agran, Esq. former mayor Irvine, California Anacostia/Rock Creek Earth First! Takoma Park, Maryland Diana Anderson Citizens United for the Environment Montague, Michigan Eric Antebi Somerville, Massachusetts Auto-Free, D.C. # Takoma Park, Maryland Elizabeth L. and Quinn A. Baley Fries, Virginia Betty and Gary Ball, Board of Directors Mendocino Environmental Center # Ukiah, California Joseph Barisonzi International Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture Minneapolis, Minnesota Harriet Barlow Blue Mountain Lake, New York Chris Bedford, Chair Communities Concerned About Corporations Hyattsville, Maryland Ed Begley, Jr. Environmental Affairs Commissioner Los Angeles, California Mavis Belisle Peace Farm Panhandle, Texas Mike Belliveau Citizens for a Better Environment San Francisco, California D.W. Bennett American Littoral Society Highlands, New Jersey Harry Berggren Ben Lomond, California Nick Berigan Madison, Wisconsin Jim Berry Center for Reflection on the Second Law Raleigh, North Carolina Thomas Berry Riverdale Center Bronx, New York John Blair, President Valley Watch, Inc. Evansville, Illinois Elizabeth Bos Kentucky Environmental Foundation Chemical Weapons Working Group Berea, Kentucky Robert Bottom Louisville, Kentucky David Briars Craftsbury, Vermont David Brower, President Earth Island Action Group San Francisco, California Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Chair We the People Oakland, California Jerry Brown, President Coosa River Basin Initiative Rome, Georgia Pat Bryant, Executive Director Gulf Coast Tenants Organization New Orleans, Louisiana Peter Buckley Mill Valley, California Wally Burnstein, President Food & Water Marshfield, Vermont Beth Burrows, President Washington Biotechnology Action Council Edmonds, Washington Mary Jane Butters Paradise Ridge Preservation Moscow, Idaho Cancer Prevention Coalition # Chicago, Illinois Amy Clipp New Orleans, Louisiana Liane Clorfene-Casten, Chair Environmental Task Force Chicago Media Watch Chicago, Illinois Michael Colby, Executive Director Food & Water Marshfield, Vermont Will Collette Citizens Coal Council Washington, D.C. Barry Commoner, Director Center for the Biology of Natural Systems Queens College Queens, New York Paul and Ellen Connett, Co-editors WASTE NOT, Work on Waste Canton, New York Pat Costner Eureka Springs, Arkansas Charlie Cray Chicago, Illinois Joseph E. Cummins Department of Plant Sciences University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada Ronnie Cummins, Director Pure Food Campaign Little Marais, Minnesota Robert Reynolds Cushing III Democratic Party Hampton, New Hampshire A. Winton Dahlstrom, President Citizens United for the Environment (CUE) Whitehall, Michigan Carol Dansereau, Director Industrial Toxics Project Washington Toxics Coalition Seattle, Washington John Davis, Editor WILD EARTH Tucson, Arizona David Dembo Bhopal Action Resource Center New York, New York Peggy Douglas, Associate Professor Environmental Studies Program Antioch College Yellow Springs, Ohio George Draffan, Director Institute of Trade Policy Seattle, Washington Antoinette Dwinga Carnegie, Pennsylvania Frank Eadie Federal Land Action Group New York, New York Eco-Action # Atlanta, Georgia Editorial Staff EARTH FIRST! JOURNAL Eugene, Oregon William N. Ellis, Executive Director TRANET Rangeley, Maine Rick Engler, Vice-President New Jersey Industrial Union Council AFL-CIO Moorestown, New Jersey Robert Engler Professor Emeritus City University of New York Author, THE POLITICS OF OIL, THE BROTHERHOOD OF OIL New York, New York Dr. Samuel Epstein Chicago, Illinois Mike Ferner Toledo, Ohio W.H. and Carol Ferry Scarsdale, New York Dr. Dale Fitzgibbons Peoria, Illinois Dennis Fox Associate Professor of Legal Studies Legal Studies Program Sangamon State University Springfield, Illinois William A. Fontenot Baton Rouge, Louisiana Theresa Freeman East Calais, Vermont Tracy Frisch, Coordinator New York Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides Albany, New York Carl Gandola, MD Cincinnati, Ohio Ken Geiser Sumner, Maine Dr. Robert Ginsburg, Research Director Midwest Center for Labor Research Chicago, Illinois Tom Goldtooth Indigenous Environmental Network Bemidji, Minnesota Kathy Grandfield The Good Neighbor Group Sedalia, Missouri Gary Grant, Executive Director Concerned Citizens of Tillery Tillery, North Carolina Michael Gregory Arizona Toxics Information Bisbee, Arizona Richard Grossman Provincetown, Massachusetts Hal Hamilton Community Farm Alliance Berea, Kentucky James Hansen, Environmental Director Wetlands Preserve New York, New York Nan Hardin The Bridge Alliance Newburgh, Indiana Greg Helms Environmental Defense Center Santa Barbara, California Diane Heminway Western New York Director Citizens Environmental Coalition Medina, New York Dave Henson Occidental Arts and Ecology Center Occidental, California Hal Hinderliter Pittsburgh Against Toxic Incineration Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania David Hunter Trustee, Ottinger Foundation Port Washington, New York Robert Inerfeld Somerville, Massachusetts Dr. Olin Ivey, Executive Director Georgia Environmental Organization Atlanta, Georgia Dick Kamp Border Ecology Project Bisbee, Arizona Peter Kellman American Federation of Teachers North Berwick, Maine Linda King Environmental Health Network Chesapeake, Virginia Marie Kocoshis, Board Member Group Against Smog and Pollution Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Charles Komanoff Komanoff Energy Associates New York, New York Nina Laboy South Bronx Clean Air Coalition Bronx, New York John LaRouche East Calais, Vermont Robert and Ethel Levy Wellfleet, Massachusetts Sanford Lewis, Director Good Neighbor Project for Sustainable Industries Waverly, Massachusetts Susan Lieber East Calais, Vermont Thomas Linzey, Founder Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Jan Lundberg Fossil Fuels Policy Action Institute # Arcata, California Karen Lynne Kingman, Arizona Lauri Maddy, Founder Environmental Justice Action Center Rose Hill, Kansas Darryl Malek-Wiley Mississippi River Task Force New Orleans, Louisiana Jerry Mander Senior Fellow, Public Media Center Program Officer, Foundation for Deep Ecology San Francisco, California Phyllis Marberger, Executive Director Parents for Pesticide Alternatives Snellville, Georgia Steve Marsden, Executive Director Siskiyou Project Cave Junction, Oregon Steve Martinot Berkeley, California Linda M. Masse Magnolia, Massachusetts Philip Mattera, Research Director Corporate Campaign Inc. New York, New York Eileen McIlvane Coalition for Jobs and the Environment Abingdon, Virginia Jeff Melton Bloomington, Indiana Chad and Christie Miano Duffield, Virginia Craig Miano Dungannon, Virginia Linda Moneyhun Miano Health and Environmental Action League Dungannon, Virginia Steve Midkiff, Union Organizer/Pipefitter Charleston, West Virginia Peter Montague, Director Environmental Research Foundation # Annapolis, Maryland Richard Moore Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice Albuquerque, New Mexico Ward Morehouse Council on International & Public Affairs and Communities Concerned About Corporations New York, New York Susan Moreland Louisiana Environmental Action Network Baton Rouge, Louisiana Daniel Moses Green Party Candidate for Lt. Governor of California Moss Beach, California Kary Moss, Executive Director Maurice and Jane Sugar Law Center for Economic & Social Justice # Detroit, Michigan Robert Mueller Staunton, Virginia Penny Newman Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice Riverside, California Paddlewheel Alliance # Louisville, Kentucky Tony Palmeri Communication Department University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh Oshkosh, Wisconsin John Passacantando, Executive Director Ozone Action Washington, D.C. Chris and Tonia Pelton Knoxville, Tennessee Karen Pickett Earth First! Canyon, California Brenda Platt Institute for Local Self-Reliance Washington, D.C. Anne L. Potter, Ph.D. Portland, Oregon John A. Redfield Lori Papapietro-Redfield Brattleboro, Vermont John Rensenbrink Green Horizon Topsham, Maine Mark Ritchie, President Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Minneapolis, Minnesota Joan Robinett Concerned Citizens Against Toxic Waste Harlan County, Kentucky Christina Roessler Washington, D.C. Larry and Sharon Rose Concerned Citizens to Save Fayette County Scarbro, West Virginia Rhys Roth Atmosphere Alliance Olympia, Washington James Sackor Technical Community Assistance Project Albany State College Albany, Georgia W.E. Sanders Secretary-Treasurer, Local 4-449 Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union Texas City, Texas Jean Schweibish Van Howell The Foghorn, Inc. Huntington, New York Pete Seeger Beacon, New York Neil Seldman Institute for Local Self-Reliance Washington, D.C. Jim Sessions, Director Highlander Research and Education Center New Market, Tennessee Janette Sherman, M.D. Arlington, Virginia Michael Shuman Institute for Policy Studies Washington, D.C. Gar Smith, Editor EARTH ISLAND JOURNAL San Francisco, California Jeff Smith Students for Environmental Awareness University of Georgia Athens, Georgia Jeremy Smithson North Hollywood, California Allen Spalt Agricultural Resources Center Carrboro, North Carolina Cameron Spitzer, Member Council of the Green Party Santa Clara County San Jose, California Jennifer and Edmund A. Stanley, Jr. Oxford, Maryland Dean Steede IWW Delegate, Indiana-Kentucky-Ohio Area Cincinnati, Ohio Janet Strahosky Ohio River Basin Environmental Council Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Karlyn Sturmer, Executive Director Action for Corporate Responsibility # New Haven, Connecticut Tom Swan West Hartford, Connecticut Terri Swearingen Tri-State Environmental Council Chester, West Virginia Meg Switzgable and Thomas Brown Foresight Films Brooklyn, New York Bron Taylor Associate Professor of Religion & Social Ethics Director, Environmental Studies University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Wisconsin Brian Tokar Central Vermont Greens Calais, Vermont Doug Tompkins Foundation for Deep Ecology San Francisco, California Connie Tucker Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice Atlanta, Georgia Karen Tuerk Preserve Appalachian Wilderness: Mid-Atlantic Biodiversity Project Indiana, Pennsylvania Mary Tutwiler War on Waste # New Iberia, Louisiana Leif Utne Somerville, Massachusetts Alis Valencia, Editor AT WORK: STORIES OF TOMORROW'S WORKPLACE Berkeley, California Susan and Ivan Varlamoff Georgia Environmental Organization Atlanta, Georgia Stephen Viederman New York, New York Jim Warren, Executive Director NC WARN Durham, North Carolina Betsy Wegner Valley Watch Evansville, Indiana Belinda West The Pigeon River - Douglas Action Committee Jefferson County, Tennessee Bill Willers, Executive Director SWAN (Superior Wilderness Action Network) Oshkosh, Wisconsin Craig Williams Chemical Weapons Working Group Berea, Kentucky Diane Wilson Calvin County Resource Watch Cedric, Texas Jeffrey Wilson West Harrison, New York Larry and Shelia Wilson Yellow Creek Concerned Citizens Yellow Creek, Kentucky Matt Wilson, Director Massachusetts Campaign to Clean Up Hazardous Wastes Vote Yes on Question I to Limit Corporate Spending on Ballot Questions Boston, Massachusetts Hazel Wolf, Secretary Seattle Audubon Society Seattle, Washington Cindy Zipf Clean Ocean Action Highlands, New Jersey # These organizations have signed on as an organization. All other organizations are listed for purposes of identification only.