This past weekend was momentous. Move to Amend, in coalition with our partners; Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, The Pachamama Alliance, A Radical Guide, and Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution assembled over 130 people for a weekend of learning, visioning, and discussions about a People’s Constitution.

Thank you so much to all of the participants, panelists, presenters, artists, facilitators, and those who took on childcare this weekend so we could gather. 

On October 2020 we held a participatory People's Movement Assembly (PMA) with over a hundred people from across the country who came together to discuss why and how we need to democratize the United States Constitution. 

The 2020 People’s Movement Assembly was a catalyst -- the beginning of something big -- and we invite you to sign up below to stay up to date on all things related to this project!

During the 2020 PMA we collectively identified that:

• We are in a moment of converging crises - Climate collapse, global uprisings against state violence and police brutality, and a global pandemic when most are without access to healthcare.
  
  
• What's happening now is rooted in the values defined in (or missing from) the US Constitution - An undemocratic and ultra-powerful judicial branch, lack of human rights protections, no right to vote, and a whole lot of racist language just to name a few.
  
  
• Bold, systemic change is needed - We have to know our power and be able to think outside of what we’ve been told is possible. It’s going to take courage, audacity, and a whole lot of learning and conversations to make it happen. But the only thing we have to lose is our chains. 
  
  
• We have to have a vision and a plan - We learned that when constitutions around the world are re-imagined (on average other countries rewrite their constitutions every 19 years!) they’re more democratic when the Movement has a clear vision of what they want in their constitution. We have been building this vision for over ten years, and we continued it this weekend. 
  
  
• People want a constitution that protects human rights, not just property rights. We like a lot of what’s in the Bill of Rights, (with some changes and exceptions), but the rights should extend further. People want a right to healthcare, housing, rights of nature, gender equity, a right to vote, and a whole lot more. 
  
  
• We don't have to start from scratch. We can get over American exceptionalism and take inspiration from the constitutions of other countries, the UN Declaration on Human Rights, and the 2nd Bill of Rights proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

We have a lot of political muscle to build to be prepared to democratize the constitution. We’re not proposing Move to Amend are the ones to do it alone, nor that it should be done right now. But there are people who want to restrict rights and create room for more authoritarianism, and they’re planning for a constitutional convention. We need to have a plan too. If we don’t, things aren't going to turn out well.

We’re moving forward on this work, we’re creating a strategy, and if you liked the 2020 PMA, there’s a lot more where that came from. Sign up below to stay up to date on the latest news and future People's Movement Assemblies and our Toward a People's Constitution program.

The truth is this People’s Movement Assembly will be different. We’re used to getting folks together to have big conversations but this is the first time we’ve hosted a *virtual* People’s Movement Assembly.

We want to welcome you to settle in for a weekend-long process and embrace the revolutionary community building in this historical moment. 

Which means, we’ve got a lot to cover! To help maximize our time together, we’ve complied a suggested readings list for you and here’s what you can expect this weekend!

It's hard to believe. But eleven years ago today, twelve organizers and activists were sitting together in a living room, discussing what should be done in response to the terrifying Citizens United vs. FEC case that was being heard by the Supreme Court, expecting that it would pass.

These organizers weren't new to the problem of corporate constitutional rights. But what brought them all together -- from all corners of the country -- into that living room was the understanding that this case was getting the kind of national attention that could finally kick off the kind of movement would be required if we were to ever solve the problem of corporate personhood.

And on that day, Move to Amend was born.

The confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett started last week, and its result will have long-lasting consequences.

For a long, long time, Republicans have been trying to privatize everything, from Social Security to our Nation's public school system--and they know that a hard-right conservative majority on the Court could make that happen. That's why they are so eager to rush these confirmation hearings!

Move to Amend honors Indigenous Peoples Day, which recognizes Native people as the first inhabitants of the Americas -- including the lands that later became the United States of America.

To date, 14 states— Alabama, Alaska, Hawai'i, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wisconsin—and the District of Columbia, more than 130 cities, and a growing numbers of school districts celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day in place of Columbus Day. We love to see it!

Indigenous people -- like Black people, women and poor people -- were not who the founders had in mind when they wrote "We the People." Our Declaration of Independence -- that we are taught to believe is a fundamentally good instrument -- refers to Indigenous people as "savages." The racism is baked right into our foundation.

In case you missed it, you can watch the recording of The Immorality of the Climate Crisis and Corporate Rule here. 

Presenters - Shannon Biggs, Co-founder of Movement Rights. - Rev. Dr. Colin Bossen, Senior Minister, First UU Church of Houston. - Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, National Director, Move to Amend. - Casey Camp Horinek, Environmental Ambassador, Ponca Nation of Oklahoma Moderated by Greg Coleridge, Outreach Director, Move to Amend.

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: September 30, 2020

Contacts: John Fioretta, [email protected] or Jan Rein, [email protected] 

Climate Crisis-Related Fires Fueled by Corporate Constitutional Rights

As we've mentioned in before, Move to Amend has really been hit hard by the economic downturn. Being a 501(c)4, we were not eligible for any relief from the CARES Act. 

Unlike the majority of 501(c)4 nonprofits, however, we are almost entirely grassroots funded -- that means we rely on small donations from regular people. And because regular people fuel this movement, our financial support has taken a hit as well, because so many of us have had to tighten up our giving. As a result our staff laid itself off in April, and has been doing this work on a 100% volunteer basis.

It's time to start bringing our hardworking staff back onto the payroll - beginning with staff who are living in states that are making it hardest for workers to survive. Please help us by becoming a Move to Amend sustainer today!

Here's a not-so-fun fact:The wildfire season in California hasn't yet begun.

Join us on October 1st -- it's time to analyze and strategize together for the future of our livable planet.

“These are unprecedented times” is a phrase we hear often lately. But to us, that only means one thing -- we must meet these unprecedented times with unprecedented solutions. And the harsh reality is, folks: we’re not going to be able to vote our way out of this situation. We’ve got to have bigger ideas. 

On August 30, thousands of people from all walks of life gathered to discuss the state of the nation and forming a major new party in America! And our National Director, Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap was one of the speakers at the People's Convention 2020! Watch the her speech above, and watch the full People's Convention here. 

Also, check out these great clips we think you might find interesting. 

As if we hadn't been through enough -- the climate crisis season of 2020 is fully upon us now.

We are now seeing record breaking fire activity across the west -- with rare lightning storms, coupled with a heat wave and 20 year mega-drought, leading to over 1.3 million acres destroyed, at least 7 deaths, evacuations ,and extremely unhealthy air quality (at times the worst air quality in the world). Add to that the new normal of rolling blackouts imposed by Pacific Gas & Electric during fire season, as a result of decades of grid neglect. And the new twist: COVID-19 has so severely devastated our incarcerated population that the prison labor these states previously relied upon to fight these fires is now too sick to help, making it much more difficult to contain the fires.

The Trump administration is opening up retirement funds to private equity — at workers’ expense

August is coming to an end but things are not getting any better -- 

The Nation literary burns as fires in California have forced more than 119,000 people from their homes 

Firefighters are struggling to get a handle on the 560 wildfires burning throughout the state, scorching more than 900,000 acres, including a treasured redwood forest

In terms of covid… even though it is clearly human nature to try to move on -- and the powers that be are really trying to convince us everything is fine -- we are still very much in the middle of the pandemic…

The U.S. has 5.79M confirmed cases and 178k deaths (as of Aug 25)

The States with the most COVID-19 cases are:

• California 2. Florida 3. Texas 4. New York and 5. Georgia 

The States with the most COVID-19 related deaths are:

• New York - 32,887 deaths, 2. New Jersey - 15,946 deaths, 3. California - 12,235 deaths, 4. Texas - 11,749 deaths, 5. Florida - 10,397 deaths

And these numbers are before Trump pushed to resume classes -- wait until people start testing positive by the thousands! Assuming the statistics get reported correctly as some schools are keeping quiet about coronavirus infections. 

• • But they won’t be able to keep the secret for so long -- especially after more U.S. colleges were grappling with high numbers of students testing positive for the coronavirus just days into the start of the fall semester after some universities rolled back their campus reopening plans in recent weeks.On the first day of school in Camden County, Ga., local Facebook groups were already buzzing with rumors that a teacher had tested positive for the coronavirus. The next day, a warning went out to school administrators: Keep teachers quiet.
  • In the weeks since, parents, students and teachers in the coastal community on the Florida border have heard by word of mouth of more positive cases linked to district schools. 
  • But even as fears of an outbreak have grown, the district has refused to publicly confirm a single case, either to the local community or The New York Times, who covered this note.

It is absurd that many educational institutions are endangering their students’ health, mainly for the tuition money -- greed as always is at the root of it all. 

Don’t believe me? Just read what the CDC has on their website: “Reopening schools creates opportunity to invest in the education, well-being, and future of one of America's greatest assets—our children….”

It is sickening how in the midst of all this full-blown apocalypse, profits can still be a motive...

In the United States, corporations enjoy many of the same rights as people — things like freedom of speech, the right to enter into contracts, and the ability to waste their money on Gary Johnson’s 2016 presidential campaign. Given how much they benefit from personhood, is it really so much to ask that the government treat them like its other citizens and start bombarding them with drone strikes?

I know what you’re thinking, “drone strikes are supposed to be reserved for terrorists in other countries, right?” Well, most of these corporations have already moved their headquarters abroad, and if charging $600 for designer jeans isn’t terrorism, then that word has lost all meaning. When you think about it, McDonald’s has killed more people than Al-Qaeda, anyway.

These radicalized corporations threaten our very way of life, and they must be stopped.

Prior to COVID-19, 44 million Americans were already uninsured, with millions more underinsured, and many more with marketplace plans that had high premiums, co-pays, deductibles and out of pocket expenses -- a deterrent to actually seeking needed care.

Fast forward to today. After hearing the praises of the "choice" of employer based healthcare throughout the primary debates, we are now watching in real time as the economic downturn is creating mass unemployment, with millions having their "choice" employer-based healthcare taken away from them, through no fault of their own. During a grossly mismanaged pandemic. It makes all of the healthcare debates from 6 months ago look...absurd.

So it makes sense that support for (single payer) Medicare for All has skyrocketed in popularity.

Aug. 5, 2020

208 ORGANIZATIONS OPPOSE CORPORATE IMMUNITY PROPOSAL: On Tuesday, the National Employment Law Project sent a letter to the congressional leadership signed by 208 organizations – from 44 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico – opposing the corporate immunity bill introduced last week by U.S. Senate Republicans. “If the Senate Republican proposal is enacted, there will be a race to the bottom in workplace health and safety, as even law-abiding employers will be disincentivized from implementing proper health and safety protections – endangering working people, their families, and their communities,” the letter reads. “The Senate Republican corporate immunity bill would also let employers off the hook for ‘pandemic related’ violations of minimum wage and overtime laws, discrimination laws, paid leave laws, and more. But a global pandemic is no excuse for employers to flout long-standing workplace protections.”

Among the many incidents over the past few weeks of uprisings on our nation’s streets against racism and police brutality, sparked by the murder of George Floyd, have been unprovoked assaults by the police against peaceful protestors, journalists and even individuals on their own property. 

A major factor for these attacks is “qualified immunity” -- a doctrine that shields police officers from lawsuits, even if officers violate the civil rights of those they brutalize. Such immunity both fuels abuses of power and chills victims from filing suits against violent officers -- knowing the chances of righting wrongs to people and communities are slim.

What is true of police officers is equally true of corporations.