Show threadbsmall2Oct 18
> By What Authority is published by the #POCLAD. The title is English for #QuoWarranto, a legal phrase that questions illegitimate exercise of privilege and power. We the people and our.. officials have long been giving... #corporations #IllegitimateAuthority. Today, a minority directing giant corporations and backed by police, courts, and the military, define our culture, govern our nation, and plunder the earth.
> #ByWhatAuthority reflects an unabashed assertion of the right of the sovereign people to govern themselves.
https://poclad.org/BWA/
By What Authority

bsmall2Oct 18

> “Dictators are never as strong as they tell you they are.
> People are never as weak as they think they are.”
> - Dr. Gene Sharp
https://poclad.org/BWA/2018/BWA_2018_May.html

#GeneSharp #POCLAD

Dr. Gene Sharp: Prophet of Nonviolent Struggle

bsmall2Jun 28, 2025
> In the 1886 case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, a legal sleight-of-hand provided corporations with the same protections as human beings ("persons") under the 14th Amendment. In a series of cases in the late 1800s, the Court developed a doctrine known as "substantive due process " by which the Court could substitute its judgment for that of the legislature to decide whether a particular law was wise policy.
https://poclad.org/BWA/2002/BWA_2002_WINTER.html
#POCLAD #TheCorporation
#uspol #usLaw
The Rule Of Law versus Democracy

Show threadbs2Jun 4, 2024
> #RichardGrossman: In both law and the culture, the corporation was considered a subordinate entity that was a gift from the people in order to serve the public good. So you have that history, and we shouldn't be misled by it, it's not as if these were the halcyon days, when all corporations served the public trust, but there's a lot to learn from that. #POCLAD
> ... Having acquired the legal rights and protections of a person, the question arises - what kind of person is the corporation?
Show threadbs2Jun 4, 2024
> #MaryZepernick : There were very few chartered corporations in early United States history. And the ones that existed had clear stipulations in their state issued charters, how long they could operate, the amount of capitalisation, what they made or did or maintained, a turnpike or whatever was in their charter and they didn't do anything else. They didn't own or couldn't own another corporation. Their shareholders were liable. And so on.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0379225/quotes/
#TheCorporation #POCLAD
The Corporation (2003) - Quotes - IMDb

The Corporation: Directed by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott. With Mikela Jay, Rob Beckwermert, Christopher Gora, Nina Jones. Documentary that looks at the concept of the corporation throughout recent history up to its present-day dominance.

IMDb
Brian SmallMay 11, 2023

Ours was a flawed sovereignty from the beginning. Because of its moral failings and structural inequities, whole classes of people had to organize and struggle over centuries to gain recognition as part of the sovereign people—that is, they had to get strong enough as a class to define themselves and not let either people or institutions define them: African Americans, native peoples,women, debtors, indentured servants, immigrants...To this day, many still must struggle to exercise the rights of persons, to be recognized as persons by law and by society.Throughout this nation's history, there has always been plenty of genuflecting to democracy and self-governance. But the further each generation gets from the Revolution, the less the majority act like sovereign people. And when it comes to establishing the proper relationship between sovereign people and the corporations we create, recent generations seem to be at a total loss.Yet, earlier generations were quite clear that a corporation was an artificial, subordinate entity with no inherent rights of its own, and that incorporation was a privilege bestowed by the sovereign. In 1834, for example, the Pennsylvania Legislature declared:"A corporation in law is just what the incorporation act makes it. It is the creature of the law and may be moulded to any shape or for any purpose the Legislature may deem most conducive for the common good." - https://www.poclad.org/BWA/1998/BWA_1998_SUMMER.html
#PeopleOnCorporationsLawAndDemocracy #POCLAD #RichardGrossman #RachelsEnvironmentHealthWeekly

Can Corporations be Accountable? Parts 1&2

bs2Nov 9, 2022
Whenever someone mentions the #USAelections I think of #POCLAD and this 1933 article by #BertrandRussel and corporations:
> ... they cannot be kept in their place at ordinary times unless, as a result of a pitched battle, they have been shorn of most of their means of influencing opinion. Whether this is possible while they retain their property is a difficult question
https://russell-j.com/PUB-PRIV.HTM
#PrivateEnterprise #Economics #Law
バートランド・ラッセル「公益と私益」（アメリカン・エッセイ）

Show threadbs2Sep 12, 2022
> From childhood, this #King had been led to act as a sovereign should. What about us?
> By means of the American Revolution, colonists took sovereignty from the #English #monarchy and invested it in themselves.
--- #Poclad's #RichardGrossman
It's quaint that we still spend attention on #Royalty queens and kings. It won't be a complete waste if we learn how to be #Sovereign and put #TheCorporation in it's place the way #KingCharles did in 1628. The new guy even has the same name.
bs2Aug 31, 2022
> "The King did not grant away his sovereignty over you when he made you a corporation. When His Majesty gave you power to make wholesome laws, and to administer justice by them, he parted not with his right of judging whether justice was administered accordingly or not. When His Majesty gave you authority over such subjects as live within your jurisdiction, he made them not subjects, nor you their supreme authority." https://www.poclad.org/BWA/1998/BWA_1998_SUMMER.html
#RichardGrossman of #Poclad on #Corporations
Can Corporations be Accountable? Parts 1&2

bs2May 20, 2022
> "You want sanity, democracy, community.. intact Earth? We can't get there obeying Constitutional theory and law crafted by slave masters, imperialists, corporate masters... We can't get there kneeling before robed lawyers stockpiling class plunder.. So isn't disobedience the challenge of our age? Principled, inventive, escalating #disobedience to liberate our souls, to transfigure our work as humans on this Earth."
https://www.poclad.org/BWA/2013/BWA_2013_Aug.html
#RichardGrossman #Poclad #TheCorporation
A Case for Move to Amend… and Much More