چگونه ثروت بر جهان حکومت می‌کند: نجات جوامع و آزادی‌های ما از دیکتاتوری مالکیت

This book examines how antidemocratic forces in the U.S. have evolved through history to repress communities and destroy the environment. Ben Price reveals how corporate and state interests are systematically cracking down on social movements to insure corporate supremacy in the United States. Combining an illuminating analysis of history with his experience as a leader of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, he demonstrates how a legal paradigm that facilitated slavery and the fossil fuel economy remains an antidemocratic force in the country to this day. Price identifies key counterrevolutions in U.S. history that squelched the transformative potential of the Civil War and American Revolution, and traces the roots of colonial and imperial systems of control. He links them to modern "free trade" agreements and other structures used to supersede modern democracy. Crucially, Price shares insight into how social movements can plant seeds of a new legal system that makes the liberty, civil rights and dignity of humans and ecosystems its ultimate purpose. In fact, he introduces the reader to people who are doing just that.

Crackdowns on local democracy are accelerating, as corporate and state interests continue efforts to repress social movements. In this well-timed book,Ben Price presciently reveals structures of power and law that facilitate blatant corporate supremacy in the United States.Price uses his years of experience as a community organizer and a careful reading of history to show how a legal paradigm that facilitated slavery and the fossil fuel economy has endured and adapted over time – today barricading our communities and squelching dissent. Many books have been written about wealth, power and politics in the United States. Most of them make intuitive sense. Wealthy people use their power to influence and control politics.But Ben Price's new book is often counterintuitive as he explores how wealth itselfis imbued with power. He answers questions such as: How is the American Legislative Exchange Council – a modern states' rights, free market capitalist group – the intellectual and political descendant of George Washington's Federalist Party?
How was the Fourteenth Amendment that emancipated African American slaves from their status as property used by a reactionary Supreme Court to grant legal “personhood” to private corporations?
How are cities seen under our legal doctrine as “public corporations,” devoid of real governing authority? Further, Price identifies key counterrevolutions in U.S. history that squelched the transformative potential of the Civil War and American Revolution, and traces the roots of colonial and imperial systems of control. He links them to modern “free trade” agreements and other antidemocratic structures used to supersede democracy to this day. For some, this will come as no surprise. For others, it will be a rude, though necessary, awakening. “The white man's municipalities are just reservations, like ours,” said a resident of Pine Ridge Reservation, who Price spoke with. "The difference is, we know we live on reservations. The white man doesn't.” Crucially, Price shares insight into how social movements can plant seeds of a new legal system that makes the liberty, civil rights and dignity of humans and ecosystems its ultimate purpose. In fact, he introduces the reader to people who are doing just that.

Crackdowns on local democracy are accelerating, as corporate and state interests continue efforts to repress social movements. In this well-timed book, Ben Price presciently reveals structures of power and law that facilitate blatant corporate supremacy in the United States. Price uses his years of experience as a community organizer and a careful reading of history to show how a legal paradigm that facilitated slavery and the fossil fuel economy has endured and adapted over time - today barricading our communities and squelching dissent. Many books have been written about wealth, power and politics in the United States. Most of them make intuitive sense. Wealthy people use their power to influence and control politics. But Ben Price's new book is often counterintuitive as he explores how wealth itself is imbued with power. He answers questions such as: How is the American Legislative Exchange Council - a modern states' rights, free market capitalist group - the intellectual and political descendant of George Washington's Federalist Party? How was the Fourteenth Amendment that emancipated African American slaves from their status as property used by a reactionary Supreme Court to grant legal "personhood" to private corporations? How are cities seen under our legal doctrine as "public corporations," devoid of real governing authority? Further, Price identifies key counterrevolutions in U.S. history that squelched the transformative potential of the Civil War and American Revolution, and traces the roots of colonial and imperial systems of control. He links them to modern "free trade" agreements and other antidemocratic structures used to supersede democracy to this day. For some, this will come as no surprise. For others, it will be a rude, though necessary, awakening. "The white man's municipalities are just reservations, like ours," said a resident of Pine Ridge Reservation, who Price spoke with. "The difference is, we know we live on reservations. The white man doesn't." Crucially, Price shares insight into how social movements can plant seeds of a new legal system that makes the liberty, civil rights and dignity of humans and ecosystems its ultimate purpose. In fact, he introduces the reader to people who are doing just that. "Ben Price reveals that our Constitution and legal system were intentionally designed to give more rights to the wealthy propertied class than the rest of us and exposes how this hamstrings our ability to effectively address a host of pressing social and environmental problems--and what we can do about it. Many of today's most serious issues--homelessness, gun violence, fracking, prison privatization, predatory lending, and many more--resist resolution because the "rights of property" undermine the rights of people. Issues that undeniably affect whole communities are determined by the courts to relate primarily to property, contracts, and corporations and are removed from the public sphere and immunized from public governance. There's a reason for this. Ben Price tells the story of how the Federalists--the more conservative faction of the Founding Fathers--secretly drafted the Constitution as a counterrevolutionary document. It restored to the colonial 1 percent privileges overturned by the revolution, avoiding a popular backlash by bestowing rights on wealth itself, rather than creating a British-style personal aristocracy. These rights of property deprive the majority of their ability to self-govern and weaponize government in ways that let the "minority of the opulent" (in James Madison's phrase) use the Constitution to block local policies that compete with their interests. Price details often shocking examples of how the supposedly unalienable rights of individuals and communities are blithely disregarded. But he also describes how over 200 communities have drafted their own bills of rights that push back against the primacy of property and how we all can join this struggle to return America to what the revolutionary generation intended"-- Provided by publisher This book discusses the "rights of property" and how they undermine the rights of people. It explains how the Federalists secretly drafted the Constitution as a counterrevolutionary document which restored privileges overturned by the revolution, bestowing rights on wealth itself, rather than creating an aristocracy. These rights deprive the majority of their self-governance and allow the wealthy to use the Constitution to block policies that compete with their interests "Most Americans think of homeownership as the pathway to the middle class and the bedrock of American prosperity, but under the surface, the right to own private property is actually the system that most powerfully upholds inequality and an elite, untouchable upper class"-- Provided by publisher