[Peace-discuss] Is money speech?

[Karen Medina]

Belden Fields answers the question, "Is money speech?"

Myth number 3. The myth that money is speech; therefore, money spent
freely in elections is protected by the First Amendment right to
speech.

Money is not speech. Money is a tangible scarce resource with an
enormous power potential. Speech is not a scarce resource. Unless
someone is afflicted by a physical malady that renders one mute,
anyone can speak. The opportunities for speech in both oral and
written form have been magnified by electronic technology.

As money is accorded greater freedom to play a powerful role, speech
is being curtailed in the United States by restrictions, and sometimes
outright prohibitions, on the right to demonstrate and protest,
especially at meetings of the economic and political elite structures
(e.g., meetings of the World Trade Organization, the Free Trade of the
Americas, the G8, Davos, and the political party conventions).

See:
Video of Belden Fields and his teach-in talk for Occupy the Quad
The Myths of Corporate Personhood: THE DISEMPOWERING FOG CREATED BY 14
IDEOLOGICAL MYTHS (1 of 6 videos)
http://occupytheair.blogspot.com/2012/01/belden-fields-lecture-myth-of-corporate.html

See the text:
http://occupytheair.blogspot.com/2012/01/text-of-belden-fields-teach-in-myth-of.html