WHEREAS:

            Our democracy is being corrupted as money from the wealthy and their corporations floods our politics and drowns out the voices of ordinary Americans; and

WHEREAS:

            In the 2010 election, as in previous years, business interests dominated the campaign, outspending the labor movement by 19 to 1; and

WHEREAS:

            Corporations and the wealthy use their vast resources to influence candidates, voters and, finally, elected officials, so that they can rig the rules in their favor. They seek to advance their vision of an America where workers have no right to organize; where employers can cheat workers out of a fair day’s pay; where our workplaces are not safe; where the poor, people of color, seniors and students lose their right to vote; where the wealthy and well-connected do not have to pay their fair share of taxes; where public services are controlled by private corporations and where the gap between the rich and the rest of us grows wider every day; and

WHEREAS:

            Unions are the voice of the 99 percent and are, at their core, political movements for economic and social justice. They are natural groups of people who come together to achieve shared policy objectives – not only at the bargaining table, but in the political sphere where economic and social policies are crafted, adopted and implemented.  Unions exist to create a political reality where all individuals (collectively and individually) are entitled to social, economic and political justice.  The labor movement is about the common good, not about accumulating wealth for wealth’s sake; and

WHEREAS:

            Regardless of the disparity in wealth between corporations and unions, in spite of the obvious differences in their reasons  for  existence, and despite the differing sources of and purpose for their accumulated funds, campaign finance law has, since 1947, treated corporations and unions as if they were one and the same and existing in a state of full parity; and

WHEREAS:

            Campaign finance law ignores the fact that the labor movement is a movement of individuals and the labor unions those individuals create, instead treating our movement and our unions as simply a construct for accumulating funds in the same manner as business corporations.  Treating unions as if they were, in all respects, on equal footing with business corporations has only led to increased political power for the 1 percent and has diminished the voice of the 99 percent; and

WHEREAS:

             In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Citizens United decision, ruling that corporations have the same speech rights as natural persons and that they are entitled to unlimited spending in our politics-a decision that further tilts the playing field in favor of the 1 percent and against the 99 percent; and

WHEREAS:

            Citizens United removed one of the last legal checks on corporate spending in our elections, creating even more opportunity for corporate special interests to corrupt our democracy; and

WHEREAS:

            Business corporations are not people – they are man-made creatures of law that exist to generate profits for their shareholders. The notion that they should enjoy the same political speech rights and protections as natural persons is absurd and destructive to our democracy; and

WHEREAS: 

            Legislative lobbying disclosure requirements are inconsistent and incomplete in many states, allowing corporations to spend thousands lobbying at the state level without full disclosure; and

WHEREAS:

            At the state level, entities like the Committee to Save New York and Californians Against Special Interests, as well as a network of think tanks like the Mackinac Center, The Buckeye Institute and many others, under the umbrella of the State Policy Network, spend millions of dollars, collected from the wealthy and their corporations, to push an agenda that includes defunding and privatizing public services, and attacking defined benefit pensions and collective bargaining rights; and

WHEREAS:

            Shareholders have a right to know how corporate resources are being spent, as such expenditures could impact shareholder value through reputational and other business risks; and

WHEREAS:

            Campaign finance rules allow corporations to hide expenditures for lobbying and large contributions to super PACs by funneling their money through intermediaries like Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS, the Chamber of Commerce and other associations; and

WHEREAS:

            Unlike corporations, labor organizations are subject to strict reporting requirements and must publicly disclose their political and other expenditures by filing detailed reports with the U.S. Department of Labor; and

WHEREAS:

            Led by billionaires like the Koch brothers, Wall Street banks, “Big Oil” and other special interest extremists, it is anticipated that the amount of corporate spending in the 2012 election will break new records.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

            That AFSCME supports the disclosure of all corporate political payments – including campaign contributions, state lobbying expenditures, trade association payments, and payments to organizations that engage in political campaigns – to shareholders of publicly traded corporations; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

            That AFSCME supports overturning the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United and calls for immediate action to end the dominance of our political system by corporations and the 1 percent; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

            That AFSCME calls on Congress to recognize the basic distinctions between labor unions, which are democratic institutions comprised of and governed by natural persons engaging in the workplace and political sphere for the benefit of the general welfare, and business corporations, which are creatures of law that exist only to create wealth for their shareholders, by passing legislation that allows labor unions a more robust participation in the political process; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

            That AFSCME supports reforms aimed at restoring corporations to their proper role as commercial institutions and limiting their influence in the political sphere and calls on the Congress to pass necessary reform to protect our democracy from the power of money; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

            AFSCME supports the development and expansion of progressive, state-based think tanks to articulate and communicate progressive values and policies to counter the well-developed conservative network; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

            That AFSCME supports reasonable, effective disclosure by all participants in the electoral process, but no disclosure regime should be punitive or difficult to comply with; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:

            That should Citizens United remain the law of the land, a constitutional change may be the only option. Amending the U.S. Constitution should be a rare act done with the greatest of care, and a last resort. To earn AFSCME’s support, any such amendment must be carefully and narrowly crafted to protect our democracy from the economic power of the 1 percent, while at the same time protecting the public’s right to organize and speak politically through democratic organizations and movements.