Great news!

We have already secured 25 co-sponsors for the reintroduction of the #WethePeopleAmendment as House Joint Resolution 48.  The Move the 117thCongress to Amend Campaign is in full swing!

As leaders and constituents organize around the country, now is the time for YOU to plug-in. Our campaign goal is to secure 100 co-sponsorships for the #WethePeopleAmendment by March 31, 2021.

We are pleased with the initial number of Congressional members that have already committed, considering all that is happening in Congress!

However, we are aiming much higher. For that, we need YOU!

Last week marked the 151st anniversary of the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which declares “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

While the 15th Amendment was objectively good and greatly expanded and protected voting for Black men and other previously excluded groups, there is a common misconception that it grants a universal right to vote.

It does not. There is no universal right to vote in the U.S. Constitution. 

Reformist legislation like H.R.1. are good in that they mitigate corruption and protect and expand voting access in the short term. But it's still playing defense. We need a long game too -- that is why it's critical that we continue to push hard for HJR48, the #WeThePeopleAmendment, in order to have genuine DEMOCRATIC POWER FOR THE PEOPLE.

Forty-five years ago today, the Supreme Court ruled in Buckley v. Valeo (1976) that restrictions on campaign spending were a violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

They really said that MONEY, which is PROPERTY, is the same as FREE SPEECH.

Most of us learned about the absurd Supreme Court doctrines of "money = speech" and "corporations are people" in 2010, when the Citizens United ruling came down.

But the Buckley v. Valeo (1976) case that set the "money = speech" precedent was not about corporations -- it was about one individual's belief that campaign finance laws were a violation of his first amendment rights to express himself.

It's important to understand that these two ridiculous doctrines existed long before Citizens United.

Citizens United is a symptom -- it is not the disease.

Despite all of the chaos, we haven't forgotten that it is a brand new Congress!

As we watch the events unfold in the wake of the January 6th riots at the Capitol, we also remain laser-focused on our immediate goal for the first quarter of 2021:

• 100 HOUSE COSPONSORS for the #WeThePeople Amendment
  
  

And we have a solid plan to get it done.

If the Senate fails to convict Donald Trump for spreading falsehoods and inciting the deadly January 6th riots at the Capitol, we won't be surprised. 

We have unfortunately grown accustomed to them not doing their jobs.

But that doesn't change the fact that it is critical that they convict him. Tell your Senators to act swiftly to convict Donald Trump before he leaves office.

From the bottom of our hearts -- thank you so much.

We are blown away at how you all came through for us. After a year like 2020 -- which was terrifying on every level, not excluding the uncertainty that our 100% grassroots-funded organization could survive the economic downturn -- we are so excited to announce that you made sure we met our fundraising goal of $25,000 and then some!!!

Which means we are 100% READY to come out swinging in this new year, to advance the #WeThePeopleAmendment in a new Congress. 

WHAT'S NEXT: Join us for two trainings we are offering in January...

We are ready to go because the fight is more important than it's ever been -- and the time is right. We recognize that this is a unique moment in history -- amid all of the confusion and suffering, movements are rising up everywhere, and coalescing around a larger set of demands for social, economic, and environmental justice. 2020 saw more people in the streets than at any other time in U.S. history. These are the moments where anything is possible, if we all rise up together. 

Investing in Move to Amend is like a light in the wilderness -- a sure fire way to lift your spirits! 

Our POCLAD friends are worried we aren't going to make our goal for the end of the year so they have pledged to match all contributions to Move to Amend between now and December 31, up to $10,000.

Click here to double the amount of your contribution.

Check out the last Live Report of 2020! 

Get the #CorporateRule news that we're tracking, learn about what we've been working on, get the latest updates from our grassroots chapters across the country, and find out what's ahead in 2021! 

Move to Amend is a coalition of hundreds of thousands of folks including you -- whose passion and commitment to democracy is unmeasurable.

Volunteer affiliate leaders, monthly sustainer members, single-time donors, advocates, and the national team, form this amazing constellation of people -- working tirelessly to end corporate rule through systemic change, regardless of the hurdles standing in our way. 

One of our immediate hurdles is to meet our end of the year fundraising goal of $25,000.

As a small nonprofit, we typically raise one-third of our annual budget during our year-end fundraising. This year especially, we have a lot of ground to cover to meet our fundraising needs. Please help us meet our End of Year goal of $25,000 so we can go into 2021 in the black.

On this anniversary of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, we are VERY excited to announce that Toward a People's Constitution is officially a campaign!

What. A. Year.

While we never could have predicted the absolute wrench a global pandemic would throw into the mix of consolidating corporate rule over our basic human rights, we aren't surprised at all that things are at a tipping point -- socially, economically, and ecologically. We've always known this moment would arrive.

And these moments, as brutal and terrifying as they are, are also moments of opportunity to educate, agitate and organize toward the world we want and deserve.

And Move to Amend stayed on course, through temporary staff layoffs and general uncertainty as a purely grassroots-funded organization (the hardest hit in this crisis).

We are proud to announce our 2020 accomplishments that your support made possible -- from the national to the grassroots level!

Call the Congressional switchboard at 202-224-3121.
Find your Senators here. 

Message: Pass a bold stimulus bill NOW to address the immediate needs of people, but not corporations. 

You know what?

In a year like 2020, it's good to look back on the wins we've had in our campaign and larger democracy movement.

Because despite all of the chaos and collective trauma, our movement only grew -- unsurprisingly, more and more people are understanding that we need a long game for the kind of deep systemic change that will correct the disastrous course we are on.

Election night was a wild ride, and it's looking like there will be more chaos to come.

As usual, Corporate Rule was the big winner across the board -- with unprecedented sums of money sunk into campaigns for corporate politicians and ballot initiatives that placed corporate profit over workers' and tenants' rights.

But the good news is: our movement to end corporate rule and get money out of politics had some BIG WINS on Election night!

Corporate Rule News:

As if 2020 could not get any worse -- this week Democracy took a huge blow with the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrette to the Supreme Court.

With a 52 - 48 vote, GOP Senators that represent 11 million fewer Americans than their Democratic counterparts, gave the President that lost the popular vote by 3 million votes, his third Supreme Court Justice.

But even more disgusting are all the reasons why Trump and the GOP might’ve rushed the confirmation hearings --  they are trying to consolidate power of the 3 governmental branches- they have the white house, the senate, and now finally a majority uber conservative court. 

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.