It is Celebration Time! 

15th Anniversary of the Monahan Walk Across the US

October was a month of grit, creativity, and people-powered progress across the Move to Amend network. From the Midwest to the Deep South, our affiliates and advocates are proving once again that when the message is clear and the mission is just, people are eager to join the fight to end corporate rule.

Cultural Change for the We the People Amendment

tenth in the series

The Populist movement of the late 19th century was the largest democratic mass movement in U.S. history. The movement included several parallel but independent organizations of farmers in the South, Midwest and High Plains. The movement later included urban working people across the country

Among the social movements covered in this series, the Populist movement is the least recognized (dare I say “popular”) and understood. Few can name any of its organizers, strategists or speakers (William Jennings Bryan doesn’t count, as explained below). There are no Populist movement holidays, postage stamps, detailed descriptions of its activities in high school history books, or even legitimate recognition of its lessons (positive or negative) incorporated in democratic activist organizations.  

The movement’s relative invisibility can be explained by several factors. First, it was largely a rural movement that was the most active in a part of the country (i.e. the Midwest and South) not associated with the mass social movements. Second, it occurred during a period of U.S. history that was dominated by the rapid rise of industrialization and urbanization.  And maybe, most significantly, its goals of creating an authentic bottom up democracy and bringing the corporate state under popular control through democratic politics, a democratic society grounded in mass dignity, was not going to see the light of day in our dominant corporate culture, which includes reformist non-profit democracy organizations.

Move to Amend supporter Patrick McKercher has produced an important and timely documentary:

American Oligarchy: Five Fights

https://vimeo.com/1129606502

Narrated by Peter Coyote, the 39 minute documentary tells the story of the five times We the People have organized to defeat attempts to end our democracy, and what we can learn to meet the current crisis.  It uses the playbook of Hungary's Victor Orban to understand Trump’s second term – the sixth crisis we face. 

The 5 previous threats and the current one are

Watch the excellent program at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnrbyYaH6yU

🏛️ Congressional update:

{{recipient.first_name_or_friend}}, another government shutdown is upon us. Once again, working families are forced to go without paychecks, small businesses lose customers, and communities lose vital services. Meanwhile, corporate interests continue to collect their subsidies, tax breaks, and special access.

This dysfunction isn’t an accident—it’s a strategy. Manufactured crises are used to justify privatization of public goods, funneling our tax dollars into corporate profits while leaving us with higher costs and fewer services. It’s corporate rule at work.

That’s why we need the We the People Amendment (H.J.R. 54) —to end corporate power and put human needs first.

Even in the middle of this chaos, our movement is gaining traction!

This month we’re thrilled to shine a light on two inspiring Affiliates who are carrying the Move to Amend mission forward in their communities.

Cultural Change for the We the People Amendment

ninth in the series

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s in the South was a continuation of the earlier Abolitionist Movement. Its major achievements were the enactment of the post-Civil War 13th, 14th, and 15th “Reconstruction Amendments” to the U.S. Constitution which abolished slavery, established equal protection and due process under the law, and guaranteed voting rights for Black men.