Iowa CCI members rally at Greater Des Moines Partnership to Demand End to Corporate Greed as Part of National Day of Action

Over three dozen members of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement held a direct action and rally in the lobby of the Greater Des Moines Partnership today to demand an end to corporate greed and organizations like the Partnership’s attempt to sabotage democracy. The protest is part of a national day of action with over a dozen other events across the country targeting corporate entities. It also coincides with the release of an incriminating report authored by People’s Action and Demos that reveals the depths of corporate disruption to President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda.

“For too long, corporate front groups like the Greater Des Moines Partnership and the US Chamber of Commerce have held Congress in a stranglehold,” said Cherie Mortice, Iowa CCI member from Des Moines’ east side. “The Partnership is complicit in lobbying to persuade Congress to put profit over people. We are here today to tell corporate bosses loud and clear that we will not stop fighting for what we need and deserve.”

Iowa CCI noted that among the Partnership’s members were nearly two dozen area chambers of commerce, members of the US Chamber of Commerce who is one of the most vocal organizations lobbying against the Build Back Better reconciliation bill being debated in Congress. Additionally, the group mentioned, was the Partnership’s August 19 guest editorial in the Des Moines Register touting the infrastructure bill in Congress absent any mention of the need to pass the reconciliation bill as well to invest in human infrastructure.

“Corporations and their trade associations like the Greater Des Moines Partnership love the infrastructure bill because it doesn’t raise taxes on corporations and funnels public money into private hands,” said Katie Biechler of Iowa City and member of Iowa CCI and SEIU Local 199. “We need the Build Back Better reconciliation bill first because it invests in human infrastructure and makes corporations pay their fair share.”

The report, Behind the Curtain: The Corporate Plot to Upend Democracy, focuses on six key issues areas in which corporations are working to derail critical provisions in the $3.5T budget package:

·       increasing taxes for corporations and the ultra-rich;

·       lowering drug prices;

·       providing affordable healthcare;

·       investing in public and affordable housing;

·       tackling climate change; and

·       providing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented people.

The full text of the report may be found here. Additional highlights from the event may be found on Twitter at @iowacci.