Book Discussion

October 3 / November 14 / December 5 [all Tuesdays]

5pm PT | 8 pm ET 

[October 3 Discussion: Chapters 3 & 4]

Facilitated by Greg Coleridge, Move to Amend Co-Director

Purchase the book HERE

Register below

Synopsis

In Gaveling Down the Rabble, author/activist Jane Anne Morris explores a century and a half of efforts by corporations and the courts to undermine local democracy in the United States via the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution as a “free trade” model – later adopted globally by corporations to subvert local attempts at protecting the environment and citizen and worker health.

Gaveling Down the Rabble is essential reading for understanding the background of the current struggle for U.S. democracy — local, state and national — against growing corporate power and how we can challenge it.

The U.S. Supreme Court has been cutting our local, state and national democracy off at the knees — in the name of "free trade" — by usurping the power to make public policy from our elected representatives in the Congress and the state legislatures and by giving power to corporations over citizens.

By erecting a "free trade" zone in the U.S., corporations and their champions on the Supreme Court have seen to it that "we do not have a chance of building a democracy." Morris looks at what substantive democracy should look like, and how far from that ideal the Supreme Court — without consent of Congress — has moved us.

What other people are saying about Gaveling Down the Rabble

Purchase the book HERE

RSVP BELOW

Move to Amend’s primary goal has always been to end the influence of money in politics and corporate constitutional rights through a constitutional amendment based on the conviction that only change achieved through an amendment is lasting.

Yet, Move to Amend has never opposed strategic legal steppingstones. These are more immediately attainable proposed laws that expand democratic possibilities, especially those that directly reduce the power of corporate entities from hijacking the political process. Reforms, however, should always be put in context: that they are mere laws that can be legally reversed and can’t overturn the constitutional doctrines that a corporation is a person and political money equals free speech.

Many Move to Amend supporters have asked what they can do if they’ve already worked with others to pass a ballot initiative or municipal resolution, secured organizational endorsements, circulated the MTA petition and organized educational programs. While there’s ALWAYS more of these that can be achieved, statutes (laws) restraining corporations, particularly at the state level, offer several differing strategic opportunities.

The 90-minute training will be on Zoom Wednesday, October 11 at 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET
RSVP now to save your spot!

AGENDA

• Why promote statutory/legal anti-corporate/pro-democratic reforms?
• Description/rationale for 4 proposed state-level reforms 
  
  • Corporate Three Strikes 
  • Charter Revocation/Quo Warranto
  • Require Shareholder Vote Before Political Donations Made with Corporate Funds
  • Prohibiting foreign-influenced corporations from spending money in elections
• The basics of lobbying at the state level
• Sharing of available resources – and how we can help
• Questions and discussion