Buncombe County activists will host the Move to Amend coalition‘s spokesperson and 2004 Green Party presidential candidate, David Cobb, on Tuesday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m., at Jubilee! Community’s Celebration Space in Asheville. Cobb’s stop in Asheville is part of a national tour to raise awareness about corporate influence in U.S. politics following a 2010 Supreme Court decision that affirmed the same free speech rights to corporations that are enjoyed by individual citizens.
Cobb, an attorney and organizer for the Move to Amend coalition, will be in North Carolina from Oct. 20-23 to help residents understand how they can work to effectively nullify the ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission. Cobb’s presentation, “Creating Democracy & Challenging Corporate Rule,” will be part history lesson and part call to action, event organizers state.
“We hope to raise awareness of our cause to end corporate rule of America, get money out of politics and restore democracy,” said Dawn Humphrey, member of Move to Amend of Buncombe County (MABCo), local branch of the national project.
“Move to Amend represents to me a means for beginning the process of overturning the ‘Corporatocracy’ and inverted totalitarianism that has emerged out of pushes by the economists Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, and by libertarian novelist Ayn Rand,” said Kernel Green, co-chair of the board for the Buncombe County branch.
Green said his deep sadness over inequalities of opportunity motivated him to get involved in Move to Amend. “In my opinion, any pretense of democratic control of the U.S. by its citizens-at-large has disappeared, particularly since the election of Ronald Reagan,” Green explained.
“This sad state has been orchestrated by radical conservative, corporate and aristocratically backed forces like ALEC, conservative lobbyist and ‘think tanks’ like the Cato Institute as well as other Koch Brothers‘ creations,” Green said.
Move to Amend’s primary organizing tool is local resolution campaigns, he explained. “Resolution campaigns are a powerful way for communities to send a message to Congress and let our representatives know we want them to act,” he said. More than 500 communities have thus far passed resolutions calling for what would be the Constitution’s 28th amendment, he added.
The efforts of Move to Amend organizers locally includes educating local residents about the issues and their proposed amendment, for which MABCo members requested Cobb’s visit, his second in Asheville. MABCo also urges action and petition signatures through its own presentations, tabling and through street performances involving oversized, full-head masks representing CEOs and “fossil fuel” dinosaurs.
“David Cobb is a famous and well respected activist, so we are hoping he will draw a large crowd,” Humphrey said.
Cobb is a social activist who has served as an official for the Green Party of Humboldt County, Calif., and on the Sierra Club‘s Corporate Accountability Committee. He also joined Libertarian Party presidential nominee Michael Badnarik in 2004 in legal action forcing Ohio officials to recount their residents’ election results.
Cobb’s Tuesday, Oct. 21, presentation at Jubilee! is free to the public. Jubilee! is at 46 Wall Street, downtown Asheville.
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