Thank you for your interest in working locally towards this important goal, and welcome to the Move to Amend movement! Amending the U.S. Constitution is a long-term campaign that will require the participation of groups across the country to be successful. It is our collective job to reach out to everyday Americans and engage them with Move to Amend.
This Volunteer Kit provides guidance and resources for grassroots leaders from all backgrounds and experiences on how to:
- Learn & talk fluently about Move to Amend, the We The People Amendment, and the movement for democracy
- Educate, agitate, & empower communities to develop an analysis of corporate power, the systemic problem, and theories of social change
- Create & present trainings that teach organizing skills to fellow volunteers necessary to run empowering, democratic and replicable campaigns
Learning About Corporate Rule
We believe the demand for an amendment must come from a multi-racial, intergenerational mass movement that is broad, deep, conscious and educated. So all our work aims to help nurture and build such a movement. Polling shows that 80% of American public agrees with us that corporations shouldn’t have same rights of human beings and campaign spending should be limited, but they don’t know about our campaign or how to do it. That’s why we need to educate!
Use the resources below to get familiar with what Move to Amend is fighting for and why:
Recommended Readings:
- Move to Amend’s Quick Guide to the Highlights and Low Points of the Citizens United Decision
- How Corporate Constitutional Rights Harm You, Your Family, Your Community, Your Environment, and Your Democracy (PDF)
- Timeline of Personhood Rights and Powers
- The We the People Amendment: The Constitutional Amendment to Counter Political Corruption and the Corporate Hijacking of the Constitution (Move to Amend white paper) (PDF)
- Why Non-Profit Corporations Do Not Have, Deserve or Need Constitutional Rights (PDF)
- What Could Change if Corporate Personhood Were Abolished?
- Looking Past Citizens United and the First Amendment: Corporate Perversion of Individual Constitutional Rights
- Move to Amend Strategic Plan
Educating Your Community:
Our advocates and affiliate groups raise local awareness about the nature of corporate rule and participatory democracy. Organizers connect the intersections between corporate rule and the issues most important to the community through petitioning and tabling public events, organizing public talks and forums, teach-ins, rallies, and presentations with community members and other groups to get their support.
Talking Points:
- Corporate Constitutional Rights:
- Labor:
- Interfaith:
- Environmental Justice:
- Veterans
- End Corporate Rule to End War & Occupations (Veterans for Peace / Move to Amend bookmark)
Educational Resources:
-
Rights and Privileges Timeline Exercise - an interactive exercise to help people make the connection between personhood, law, rights and privileges.
- Constitution Day Resources - helpful materials to use with educators and administrators for the annual Constitution Day (September 17th)
- Challenge Corporate Power Study Group - a 10-session study guide for learning and discussing the root causes of corporate and state oppression and how to direct efforts for change in law and culture necessary for We the People to be self-governing over corporations.
- Movement Education Program - a 5-session study program designed to help Move to Amend leaders learn about the history of past people's movements and become more effective organizers equipped to build authentic and trusting relationships with people from groups hardest-hit by structural oppression, and with organizers on the frontlines of the struggle against injustice and corporate rule.
- Sample Presentations: a list of presentation templates and speech outlines used by Move to Amend’s grassroots leaders to educate about the movement to amend the Constitution