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Uptown Progressives is a member organization in the Coalition of Democratic and Progressive Organizations.
At the meeting of the membership on June 27, members heard from guest speakers on corporate accountability and from UP member Carole DePaola on the "Had Enough" campaign to recruit new precinct volunteers.
Uptown Progressives hosted two speakers, Marian Lupo and Tony Skrabak, from CIRCA, Citizens Intent on Reforming Corporate Accountability. CIRCA, which has been in existence for about two years, meets the last Sunday of the month at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, 93 W. Weisheimer Road, from 2 to 4 p.m. It has developed a speakers' bureau, and is involved in a variety of educational events seeking to make the public aware of the unchecked power of corporations to influence legislation and to litigate in the U.S. courts.
They first presented a brief history of "corporate personhood" – how corporations came to have the standing of human beings before the courts – and then described what CIRCA is doing. The organization is currently working on two major projects:
Besides their own website, www.circainfo.org, Marian and Tony also mentioned other resources that are available to those interested in learning more about this topic, including movies such as WalMart—The High Cost of Low Price and Blackout America, and organizations with projects in this area such as Reclaim Democracy, CorpWatch, and The Alliance for Democracy.
Carole DePaola then took the floor to describe the "Had Enough?" campaign to rebuild the grassroots level of the Democratic Party. She pointed out the need for individuals and groups to work together, even though they may have different principal interests such as education, the war, or health care. The campaign hopes to recruit many new precinct captains, who, with their street captains, help to insure that the potential Democratic voters in their area are kept informed, encouraged to vote, and helped to get to the polls if necessary. The county currently still needs captains in a great many precincts, and Carole has been working on the development of materials and the training of speakers who can help find and encourage good people to become precinct captains.
The meeting concluded with brief remarks from two candidates for the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, Stephen McIntosh and Francis Macke, and from representatives from Sherrod Brown's campaign for Senate and Mary Jo Kilroy's campaign for 15th District U.S. Representative.