Approximately thirty people came out to the Stahr Amory in downtown Lancaster to attend a forum hosted by the progressive political organization, MoveOn.org. The “Community Forum” was focused on the “corporate dominance” in politics, according to John Herr, of the Lancaster chapter of MoveOn.org and the moderator of the event.
“The intent is to make people aware of the corporate dominance of the legislative process,” said Herr, Council Coordinator with the MoveOn Lancaster, and a professional commercial photographer .
Attorney Sam Meacum spoke out again corporate political contributions.
The event began with a short video produced by the Washington office of the organization. The film, which came across as a college-level video pep rally, exhorted the viewers to vote and get involved with grassroots campaigning.
Next, the audience was invited to share experiences of corporate malfeasance. Of the five people who spoke, four had anti-corporate messages. One, Matt (who declined to give his last name), said he “did not believe in what MoveOn.org stands for. I think they are like Stalin, or Pol Pot. Government regulation does not work.”
The audience broke up into three working groups where three topics were discussed: 1) Re-writing laws and policy solutions; 2) Direct tactics (rallies, confrontations); 3) Building Grassroots movements.
The forum was one of 150 scheduled for this night and the next. Herr said that the Moveon.org headquarters would receive the notes from all the meetings so that they could evaluate the ideas of its members. “We are constantly polling our members,” says Herr.
Herr wasn’t able to say if the organization had grown or lost membership since the election of President Obama, but says the goals of the organization have altered.
“We are turning from working separately as individuals,” says Herr, “to now working together, focusing on the biggest problem: the domination of corporate influence over our political system.”
“The health care issue,” continued Herr, “drew people to the overarching issue of how large corporations affect our lives.”
