Defying Corporations, Defining Democracy: A Book of History & Strategy

by Dean Ritz

In these 70 essays, speeches, sermons and screeds, POCLADers corporations as "legal persons"; corporate social responsibility as a ploy; strategies for amending state corporation codes and challenging judge-made laws; and much, much more. The Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy (POCLAD) was created in 1995 to instigate conversations and actions that contest the authority of corporations to define our culture, govern our nation, and plunder the Earth. Seeking to strengthen institutions that disperse, rather than concentrate, wealth and power, POCLAD works to fulfill the democratic ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution. This collection, which Howard Zinn calls "powerfully persuasive," chronicles POCLAD's evolution among the twelve POCLADers and with thousands of activists. Here are hidden histories, crisp analyses and thoughtful responses to corporate apologists all in one provocative book.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

330 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Adam]

This is a fantastic collection of essays, speeches, and other documents about corporations and how they’ve usurped power from the people.

There is a ton here, and it’s not super outdated despite being published in 2001, because a lot of it focuses on the history of how corporations have gotten this power.

I learned a lot from this collection, and it helped me understand how we’ve gotten to a point where “efficiency”, mass production, globalization, and environmental destruction are seen as natural and inevitable.

Corporations aren’t people, and they shouldn’t have rights. They are the creation of people, and should be governed as such.

[Chrissy]

You'll see the root of all evil here and find the solutions. Fantastic