Record Courier / Kent, Ohio / Sept 25, 2022 

https://www.record-courier.com/story/opinion/letters/2022/09/25/kent-public-hearing-to-focus-on-corporate-money-in-politics/69512581007/

Democracy Day public hearing

Our election system is broken because of the destructive influences of money in politics and the misguided notion that corporations may claim constitutional rights. With these rights, they are able to spend tremendous amounts of dark money through organizations and PACs to support the candidates who will serve their needs. And their primary need is profit. While profits are essential in a capitalist system, the needs of “we the people” should be primary since we are also a democracy.

Move to Amend's Ecology Network has been invited to participate in the Scientists, Activists, and Families for Cancer-Free Environments (S.A.F.E.) EPA Protest to make the connection - corporate constitutional rights harm you, your family, your community, our environment, and democracy.

Move to Amend Co-Directors Jennie Spanos and Greg Coleridge will participate! Join us as we petition and march on September 20th! 

Hope to see you there! Please send us an email to [email protected], if you are going to be in DC on the 20th so we can connect!

Much will be said, remembered and commemorated on this day, the 21st anniversary of the tragedies on September 11, 2001.

While there are many lessons from what happened prior to, during and following that day, there’s one take-a-way that should never be forgotten: the political and economic power elite never lets a tragedy, catastrophe or crisis go to waste to further attempt to increase their political and/or economic dominance. 

In the case of September 11, a major success in this vein was the Patriot Act, passed soon afterwards to supposedly enhance “national security” to catch “terrorists,” specifically Middle Eastern Muslims inside the United States. While some of its provisions were intended to address problems that predated 9/11, most of the others allowed the government to more easily and effectively violate the privacy rights of innocent citizens and residents. These included tracking the activities of people on the Internet, compiling credit and bank records and expanding the monitoring of phone and email communications. September 11 was just a pretext by the government to enact unprecedented violations of civil rights and surveillance expansion that were labeled as “un-American” prior to 9/11.

The Move to Amend Coalition is a grassroots campaign to amend the Constitution to state that artificial entities such as corporations, unions, and non-profits do not have inherent rights under the Constitution, and that money is not political speech so campaign spending can be regulated. Move to Amend focuses on movement building and community organizing, emphasizing leadership from communities most impacted by corporate power such as people of color, low-income people, women, LGBTQIA+ people and youth.

Move to Amend is structured to empower grassroots community leaders through affiliate groups and advocates that organize locally for the passage of the We the People Amendment. The coalition’s “We the People Amendment” was introduced in Congress in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021. Representative Pramila Jayapal introduced the We the People Amendment into the 117th Congress as HJR48.

Labor Day is a terrific opportunity for Move to Amenders to make personal and issue connections with working members of Labor Unions and other working people. Many fundamental rights and protections of working people (e.g. the weekend, 8-hour work day, collective bargaining, end of child labor, employer-based health coverage, workplace safety) came into being because working people organized powerful movements that created positive change.

It’s hard not to be angry as the January 6th Congressional hearings on the Capitol insurrection come to an end, at least for the moment. The anger we speak of is in addition to one’s feelings about the actions of Donald Trump and his loyalists.

Capitol Riot | Logos of Toyota, General Motors, Ford Motors, Cigna, Walmart and AT&T (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

WATCH: Training Session on How to Lobby for the We the People Amendment

https://youtu.be/fq_pHmOAn0c 

It's happening again...

You may have received a recent mailing from a national group calling for reversing the 2010 Citizens United vs FEC Supreme Court decision. Enclosed was this U.S. map showing by state the number of communities that have passed resolutions, in this case, supporting a “Citizens United Amendment.” 

The number of resolutions totals more than 800.

The map is extremely misleading. It gives the impression that the resolutions primarily address Citizens United. 

Wrong. 

The reality is that the vast majority of the passed resolutions by municipal governments and citizens at the ballot box affirm that the rights protected under the U.S. Constitution are the rights of natural persons only or end corporate constitutional rights or corporate personhood and some variation that money spent in elections is not First Amendment-protected free speech. Most don’t directly mention Citizens United. 

Credit: iStock/kamilpetran

by Jasmin Enciu

The Supreme Court is set to decide one of the most consequential environmental cases it has heard in decades.  West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency will address whether the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shall continue to have the authority to regulate the levels of greenhouse gas emissions. This case puts the EPA in an extremely vulnerable position. VOX News reporter Ian Millhiser even stated, “West Virginia could wind up permanently hobbling the government’s ability to fight climate change.”

West Virginia threatens all government regulations that protect the public, not just the EPA. It is also concerning since the Supreme Court has recently taken an anti-agency regulation stance on many cases. The court has used the “major questions doctrine” in these instances to prevent agency actions from addressing important issues. For example, they recently struck down the CDC’s coronavirus eviction mortarium, which paused evictions for Americans who were suffering and not able to make rent due to the rise in COVID-19 cases. The Majority opinion stated: “It is indisputable that the public has a strong interest in combating the spread of the COVID-19 delta variant…but our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends…it is up to Congress, not the CDC, to decide whether the public interest merits further action here,”

Happy Juneteenth!

The Poor Peoples and Low-wage Worker's Assembly and Moral March on Washington happened yesterday. Watch the recording HERE.

Click the video to hear George Friday, Move to Amend Founder and Board member describe the connection between corporate power, the need for the We the People Amendment, and her work with the Poor People's Campaign.