Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvNvMWYx0Dc
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpdCtWE88Nc
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyupkbQqffI
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0P8gsd8h6s
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzrrvcNeE_0

The 40 minute document is also on CD. Cost is $5. To order, send a check/money order to AFSC and mail to 2101 Front St., #111, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221.

Background

CorpOrNation exposes the historic corporate rise to power in Ohio, the barriers citizens have fought to create a true democracy for themselves, and detailed assessments of government influence by corporations through "corporate globalization." Spanning Ohio’s history from 1803 through present-day struggles between citizens and corporations, CorpOrNation suggests strategies for citizens to overcome current threats to citizen-led democracy and the corporate takeover of society.

Rich with analysis and history, CorpOrNation, produced by the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee, features interviews with people from the AFL-CIO, Ohio Public Interest Research Group, United Steelworkers, Ohio Family Farm Coalition, Farm Labor Organizing Committee, Program on Corporations Law and Democracy, and student activists discussing corporate farms, factory lockouts, “veggie libel” laws, and regional “free trade” agreements.

CorpOrNation is based on Citizens over Corporations: A Brief History of Democracy in Ohio and Challenges to Freedom in the Future, 96 page, Second Edition/Third Printing 2003 - detailing the legal and political history of corporations and citizen control and resistance to corporate power in Ohio.

Shel Trapp of the National Training and Information Center (NTIC) and disciple of the (in)famous Saul Alinsky of community organizing fame, once said at a training I attended in Chicago, “You all have PhDs in what it’s like to live where you are.” He made this remark in response to one person after another from different neighborhoods across the Midwest saying any one of the following: “I can’t speak up on (insert local issue here) since I’m no expert.” “I’m not smart enough.” “I don’t have a degree.” “I’ve never spoken before a group.” “I don’t know fancy words.”

Trapp, a trained Methodist minister, would respond: “Horse sh*t! You know more than the g*d da*n politicians, bankers, landlords, lawyers and reporters.” He would then tick off problem after problem that were made worse when the politicians, bankers, landlords, lawyers and reporters were the ones “solving” the problems. He said if community people had a seat at the table, they’d “kick the as*es” of the ‘experts’ with some common sense and do what needs to be done to help people and communities.”

Yes, Trapp was colorful and blunt. But he had a point. Community people to him weren’t victims. Nor were they just attendees at conferences or numbers at a rally. They were Leaders. Every person who came to any NTIC training or national conference sponsored by National People’s Action (the action arm of NTIC) was called a “Community Leader” -- and it said so right on their sign-in badges below their/our names.

Trapp and others instilled confidence and self-respect. As he also would say, “the powers-to-be have ordered up sh*t sandwiches for all us poor people to eat and they expect us to like it.”  Trapp didn’t like it. Neither did the largely low-income people who attended these gatherings — people who began to realize they knew more than they thought and began to gain the confidence to share their knowledge and experiences with not only each other but with the politicians, bankers, landlords, lawyers and reporters to DEMAND change. They organized mass events, invited people with the power to give them what they wanted to their conferences. When the politicians or regulators didn’t agree to funds programs, hire more police, or changes laws, they would pay “house calls” to the targeted folks (unannounced visits of 200-500 people to private homes on a weekend. Once we visited the home of HUD Secretary Jack Kemp when his daughter was getting married in the back yard. Needless to say, he agreed to the group’s demands on the spot.) Another time, we showed up unannounced at the UD Department of Labor in DC and occupied the building waiting for a meeting with the Secretary. No one was ever arrested. It was People Power pure and simple. Confidence and self-respect led “ordinary” low-income and neighborhood people to speak out and take action.

All this by way of background.

Many folks concerned with peace and justice are so humble, sensitive and self-deprecating, they fail to speak up and/or do anything because they think they don’t know enough or that it will make others feel uncomfortable. We all need to know more. Humility is an admirable trait. Issues and solutions are complicated to be sure. Raising different perspectives can be discomforting.

On the other hand, we probably know more than we think — and can pick up what we need to know. Remember it was grassroots people who educated themselves about nuclear power and its dangers several decades ago, resulting in a national anti-nuclear power movement that led to an end to any new construction by the nuclear corporate industry.

We are all PhDs in living through nearly 6 years of this god aweful war and occupation. We seemed to figure out that a war in Iraq would be a colossal disaster 6 years ago before it began without Master’s degrees in International Relations, fancy chairs at DC think tanks, or access to inside intelligence briefings from the CIA/NSA/FBI/CNN/CBS/or IRS. We also seem somehow to have discerned that violently occupying a country will not bring peace and justice or that inflicting terror is not going to end “terrorism” — in opposition to the views of scores of “foreign policy experts”

All to say that we should never sell ourselves short. The power elite in this nation wants us to feel stupid, ignorant, inadequate and powerless. Madison Avenue too, in fact, thrives on pounding in our psyches that we are inadequate and can only be smart, beautiful, strong and charismatic if we buy their brand of underarm deodorant, et al.

In the spirit of NTIC and NPA, let us all think of ourselves as local Leaders in enabling others to come to know and act from our experiences in nonviolently ending the war and occupation.  

Greg

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