Click here to view and download your protest visitor’s guide and schedule. Plan your day, view maps, and read our basic ground rules for peaceful protest.
What Is ALEC?
They meet in secret. They write our laws. And they want us silent.
On March 15th, University of Wisconsin Professor Bill Cronon posted a study guide on his blog on the history and actions of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). He asked: What is behind the “sudden and impressively well-organized” wave of right-wing legislation targeting workers, students, women, immigrants, and the environment in state legislatures? He found that all roads led to ALEC.
ALEC is a conservative think-tank run by right-wing politicians and corporate and financial interests within the banking industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the big oil and gas industries, and others. They are aligned to many right-wing and conservative interests, including the election-manipulating Koch Industries.
For offering his research to the public, Professor Cronon then immediately found his character, privacy, and livelihood under attack by the GOP.
In Arizona, the text for anti-immigrant SB 1070 came from ALEC model legislation. In the Midwest, the attack on public servants had the same source. In Wisconsin and Ohio, ALEC is promoting voter ID laws that will disproportionately disenfranchise students. And finally, in Indiana, ALEC provided the text for a state resolution calling for an end to much federal environmental regulation. In 2009 alone, ALEC was behind over 800 laws written for state governments. Scratch the surface of right-wing state legislation, and you’ll most likely find ALEC underneath.
What Are We Doing?
A diverse group of Ohio activists has organized a day of resistance. We are students, labor leaders, academics and others. This protest has been personally endorsed by NOAM CHOMSKY, and he has said he is “very glad to hear about what you are doing” though he is unfortunately unable to attend.
On April 29th, ALEC will hold their spring task force meeting in downtown Cincinnati. This is when and where they will cook up the next offensive on the American public. At noon, we will hold a mass protest action in a public space (Fountain Square) one block from ALEC’s meeting place. We are also organizing housing for visitors traveling to Cincinnati, and we are securing spaces for organizations to hold their own teach-ins and actions.
ALEC’s legislation seeks to solve “crises” by attacking the vulnerable – often in ways that do very little to address the problems at hand, and that ultimately function to transform power structures in favor of private interests. We want to use this day of resistance to do more than just express discontent. We want to convey the message that there are policy alternatives to ALEC’s legislation – alternatives which demand that lawmakers begin to place the burden of solving crises on the powerful, not the vulnerable.
What Can You Do?
Resistance means feet on the ground and people in the street. Hop on a bus to get here, and let us help you with housing. We need to see you in Cincinnati. We are communicating to a breadth of organizations and individuals negatively impacted by ALEC’s agenda that the time to fight back and propose our own solutions has come.
First, we want you in Fountain Square to ensure that we will not be silent.
Second, we are looking for organizations to organize their own teach-ins on the policy areas that they know. ALEC says that there is no alternative. We’ve got to show everyone that there is another way. We will work to arrange spaces for teach-ins and housing assistance. We want you to bring your people and policy alternatives to Cincinnati.
Many opportunities will come up for individuals and groups opposed to ALEC’s attack on America to help out. Stay in touch at www.seeyouincincinnati.com
You can email us at contact@protestalec.org