Read

User menu

Search form

Seven Brides For Seven Corporations

Seven Brides For Seven Corporations
Wed, 1/30/2013 - by OccupyWallSt.org

Days before the third anniversary of the Citizens United v. SEC Supreme Court case ruling, Occupy Wall Street organized an extravagant piece of political street theater: a wedding in which seven brides were to marry seven corporations in a ceremony across the street from the New York Stock Exchange.

The Honorable Reverend Billy from The Church of Stop Shopping presided over the ceremony. One of the brides, Monica Hunken, in a wedding dress bedazzled with real dollar bills, interrupted the ceremony just as her betrothed was about to take her hand in marriage.

Why protest against the Citizens United Supreme Court Decision?

Monday, January 21, 2013 was the third anniversary of the Supreme Court’s favorable ruling for Citizens United against the Federal Election Commission that has opened the floodgates for a truly pornographic amount of money into our political process.

Don’t get me wrong; I am not suggesting that we wax poetic about the glory days before 2009 when the U.S. political process was paramour of virtue. The Citizens United ruling has become a symbol for what the Supreme Court has been doing for about 100 years, slowly empowering corporations until they have now been granted personhood status and putting how money is spent in elections on par with free speech.

How did this happen?

One does not think of corporate shills as activists, but that is label that one of the most powerful corporate shills in the world, Justice John Roberts, has earned in his short time heading the Supreme Court: An activist judge.

What other word is there to describe the brazen behavior of the Roberts’ Supreme Court that looked at the vast wasteland of cases seeking to be heard in the Fall of 2009 and picked a little case brought by a corporate front group – Citizens United- and then rewrote the complaint to reframe the question completely? Then convened court a month earlier than was the usual, giving lawyers who had to prepare oral arguments, only a month to deal with the new, large, and obscene question of whether corporations had constitutionally protected electioneering rights- like people?

As a result of the Supreme Court’s Citizen United decree, unlimited and unreported sums of corporate money are now allowed in all US elections. Bottom line: The elite ruling class and corporate political interests have rendered the individual citizen nearly obsolete in the electoral process.

Now that corporate power has been constitutionalized via this Supreme Court precedent, how long will it be before all elected officials are 21st Century versions of the Manchurian Candidate or Stepford Wives mindlessly regurgitating talking points programmed by the ultra rich?

3 WAYS TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT

ONE-TIME DONATION

Just use the simple form below to make a single direct donation.

DONATE NOW

MONTHLY DONATION

Be a sustaining sponsor. Give a reacurring monthly donation at any level.

GET SOME MERCH!

Now you can wear your support too! From T-Shirts to tote bags.

SHOP TODAY

Sign Up

Article Tabs

From a pro-democratic perspective, civil society and new media organisations are surging in the aftermath of the Orban regime.

The country’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, has promised a break from the politics of the last 40 years—realizing more broadly that Labour must stand up for the 99% against big business, or the party will become irrelevant.

The tragic shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo is just the latest example of ICE having a fundamental disrespect for human life — further proving why the agency should be stripped of funding and shut down, and its rank-and-file agents and leadership prosecuted.

While the U.S., EU and their allies are enabling Rojava—the strongest force against Islamic State— to fall, it is vital for internationalists to continue to support this beacon of democracy and liberation.

June 23, 2026 may be remembered as the beginning of the end of the Democratic Party establishment.

The current wave of food recalls is a direct byproduct of President Donald Trump’s administration deliberately removing the safeguards put in place aimed at protecting American consumers more than a century ago.

From a pro-democratic perspective, civil society and new media organisations are surging in the aftermath of the Orban regime.

We can still celebrate success while simultaneously putting a cap on net worth.

The country’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, has promised a break from the politics of the last 40 years—realizing more broadly that Labour must stand up for the 99% against big business, or the party will become irrelevant.

Much like the resistance to AI data centers, the opposition to Flock surveillance cameras has brought the left and the right together against billionaires who are trying to force America into becoming even more of a police state.

Much like the resistance to AI data centers, the opposition to Flock surveillance cameras has brought the left and the right together against billionaires who are trying to force America into becoming even more of a police state.

Posted 1 month 2 weeks ago

The tragic shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo is just the latest example of ICE having a fundamental disrespect for human life — further proving why the agency should be stripped of funding and shut down, and its rank-and-file agents and leadership prosecuted.

Posted 1 month 4 weeks ago

The country’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, has promised a break from the politics of the last 40 years—realizing more broadly that Labour must stand up for the 99% against big business, or the party will become irrelevant.

Posted 1 month 2 weeks ago

We can still celebrate success while simultaneously putting a cap on net worth.

Posted 1 month 2 days ago

The current wave of food recalls is a direct byproduct of President Donald Trump’s administration deliberately removing the safeguards put in place aimed at protecting American consumers more than a century ago.

Posted 1 week 1 day ago