For Immediate Release: September 8, 2022

Fight Corporate Monopolies Launches State & Local Task Force to Combat Corporate Power

Washington, D.C. — With growing momentum sweeping across the United States to rein in the power of dominant corporations, Fight Corporate Monopolies today launched a new coalition of state and local leaders leading the charge. The new task force will offer aid to a bench of leaders taking on major corporate actors — from Amazon to hospital monopolies and private prisons — and who presently serve in Delaware, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New York.

The task force showcases the growing political saliency of state and local actions to rein in corporate power and invest in our communities. Fight Corporate Monopolies will offer policy guidance to task force members, connect elected leaders with concerned citizens and local businesses, and foster a community where policymakers can learn from one another and strategize for upcoming policy fights across the country.

“The movement to dismantle the power of corporate monopolies is being led at the state level. The task force provides a real time check on the same corporations that are price gouging working people, profiteering while workers suffer, and making backdoor deals on taxpayers’ dime,” said Helen Brosnan, Executive Director of Fight Corporate Monopolies. “Their efforts reflect constituents’ concerns about the control and power corporations have over our economy and democracy. We’re proud to work with a coalition of legislative champions who are taking on bold policy fights to challenge corruption and corporate power at the root. We hope other state and local leaders continue to join their efforts.”

“State governments have a long history of challenging corporations in order to protect their states’ workers, local businesses, and communities from the harms of consolidated economic power, and those efforts are continuing todays thanks to these great champions,” said Pat Garofalo, Director of State and Local Policy at Fight Corporate Monopolies. “The members of this task force have proven they’re willing to take on the toughest fights against the country’s largest corporations. They’re providing an example that elected leaders all across the country can and should follow.”

Members of the task force currently include Delaware Rep. John Kowalko, Illinois Sen. Robert Peters, Pennsylvania Reps. Sara Innamorato and Nick Pisciottano, Pennsylvania Sen. Katie Muth, New York Deputy Senate Majority Leader Michael Gianaris, and New York Assemblymembers Emily Gallagher and Anna Kelles. Additional members will be added over time.

“Corporate monopolies extract wealth from working class communities, particularly communities of color,” said Illinois State Senator Robert Peters. “Companies like Amazon make deals in the shadows that dangerously fluctuate prices, suppress wages and propel a race to the bottom. We have to fight back against the unchecked power corporate monopolies exploit and the illusion that if we don’t give into that power, then we’re blocking economic development.”

“Corporate extortion of taxpayer money has not generated or created jobs nor prevented layoffs and transfers of existing jobs. Instead, this addiction to corporate welfare has drained necessary government resources from working people and the small business community. Taxpayer interests demand that we stop the giveaways of taxpayer money to obscenely wealthy companies and corporate monopolies,” said Delaware Representative John Kowalko. “We must resist and reverse the callous and flawed attempt to redistribute and divert revenues from working families into the coffers of wealthy corporations.”

“Working families and Main Street businesses across Pennsylvania are finding it increasingly difficult to achieve the American Dream, a dream unchecked and consolidated corporations are stealing from us,” said Pennsylvania Representative Sara Innamorato. “Powerful corporations are using their wealth to rig the economy and our democracy in their favor at the expense of everyday people. I’m a part of this coalition because I believe policymakers at all levels of government should pass commonsense regulations on corporations that rebalance the power dynamic in our society that allows all of us from rural to urban communities to thrive.”

“When a few corporations control the supply and demand of entire industries, it creates an unfair, anti-competitive marketplace, allowing the powerful few to control supply, demand, pricing, and more to pad their bottom line,” said Pennsylvania Representative Nick Pisciottano. “Across the nation, working families are taken advantage of every day by over-concentrated industries across the American economy, while the corporate monopolies are reporting record profits. We don't need to accept this status quo any longer and can pass legislation that fosters competition as the bedrock of our economy while protecting consumers and workers from corporate profiteering.”

"Our antitrust laws were written a century ago for a radically different economy and they are in desperate need of reform. Corporate power has reached unprecedented and dangerous levels, and we need powerful new laws to protect the public and our economy. While the federal government dithers, the road to real reform starts in state capitols and city halls and I'm proud to be leading the effort in New York to fight corporate monopolies," said New York Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris. 

"Much of what's been called inflation over the past two years has been nothing more than old fashioned price gouging by some of the biggest corporate monopolies in history. And their outsized influence in politics and policymaking has made the task of confronting their corrupting power and bringing relief to workers, consumers and communities all the more difficult,” said New York Assemblymember Emily Gallagher. “That's why I am so excited to join the Fight Corporate Monopolies Task Force, a national network of legislators committed to transparency, accountability and economic democracy. The ruling class is organized and relentless: we need to be, too." 

“The existence of corporate monopolies is the antithesis of democracy. Not only do corporate monopolies destroy our local economies and weaken our workforce, but they also diminish access to education, nutrition, health care, and stable housing,” said New York Assemblymember Anna Kelles. “If we want to foster a stable and thriving economy, we must prevent the consolidation of wealth and power among the elite few. It is critical that we fight corporate monopolies in order to support a robust, competitive market in which ideas and creativity thrive.”

Learn more about the task force here.

Learn more about Fight Corporate Monopolies here.

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Fight Corporate Monopolies is a registered 501(c)(4) nonprofit that is building a movement to address today’s crisis of concentrated economic power. We do not accept any funding from corporations. For more information on Fight Corporate Monopolies, visit fightcorporatemonopolies.org.