A Call to Take Public Action on May 10 in your Community

May 10th is the anniversary of the Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company Supreme Court decision of 1886. The case first established under the 14th Amendment that corporations are considered “persons.” The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S, included former enslaved human beings, and provided all citizens with “equal protection” and other rights under the law. It was not intended to apply to corporations.

The Supreme Court granted corporations other constitutional rights since then, including the 4th Amendment search and seizure rights, 5th Amendment takings rights and 1st Amendment free speech rights to spend money corrupting politics. The 2010 Citizens United decision expanded corporate 1st Amendment free speech rights.

It’s a common belief that the corporations first acquired corporate constitutional rights (“corporate personhood”) in the Citizen United decision. They did not. Corporate power to hijack democracy precedes Citizens United and corporate spending money in elections by nearly a century. 

Armed with constitutional rights, corporations have “railroaded” people, communities and elected officials  – overturning democratically-passed laws ensuring safe food and products, protecting workers and workplaces, and ensuring a livable world – in ways that have nothing to do with Citizens United or corporate “free speech” rights. 

Ending ALL corporate constitutional rights – not just overturning Citizens United and corporate “free speech” rights – is what makes Move to Amend unique. It is why we call for enactment of the We the People Amendment. And it is why May 10 is such a very important date.

You are invited to organize a public action in your community on Friday, May 10  –  a vigil, rally, press conference, picket, or march – at a Congressional office, court building, corporate headquarters or other symbolic location

• To educate the community on why ending corporate rule is so much more than simply reversing Citizens United and corporate money spent in elections
• To advocate for passage of the We the People Amendment, HJR54
• To organize people and allied organizations to make the direct link between furthering the issues and solutions they care about and abolishing “corporate personhood.”

Contact us HERE to indicate your interest. We will contact you to offer assistance, including materials.

Thanks for considering.

We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.
       - Leona Helmsley, billionaire real estate tax dodger

                                                        Source: Ralph Nader images

Happy Tax Day! Only kidding.

The very rich and corporations try harder and are more effective in general in avoiding paying taxes than the rest of us. Here are a few numbers reflecting current tax priorities, legislative responses to promote tax fairness and economic and political equality, and how we, "the little people," can become more active in promoting tax fairness and beyond.

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D___uoeIa2w

People are drowning in debt and suffering from inadequate health care, rising inflation, and endless wars. We must degrow the destructive economic system that enriches a financial elite at the expense of people, planet and peace. The privatized money system is unstable and wreaks havoc as it grows exponentially. The Green Party's "Greening the Dollar" initiative outlines how to scrap the Fed for a Constitutional system that circulates permanent, stable, and debt-free sovereign public money. This will allow us to grow a caring economy that nurtures what we hold dear. Hear from:

As millions of people across the country gaze skyward today at the rare astronomical event, let us compare it to a growing human condition. 

Just as the moon blocks out the sun during a total eclipse, oppression blocks out authentic democracy.

Democracy Day 2024 in Toledo was held Wednesday March 20 in the Council Chambers, One Government Center. Forty-four people were in the audience. 

Last year there were 4 council members present, this year 7 members attended. There were 19 presenters including music and messages from labor, health care, climate, redistricting to correct for gerrymandering, constitutional conventions, highway expansion through a community and Gaza crisis.

This quote appears at the very beginning of our documentary Legalize Democracy.

Economic and political inequality are directly connected. The science of “political economy,” pioneered by Adam Smith, addresses the relationship between power and wealth. For more than a century, however, it's been intentionally separated in academia and culture to prevent widespread understanding of the links. 

https://www.scriptype.com/2023/04/19/city-fulfilled-democracy-day-obligations-in-2021-law-director-says/

April 19, 2023

by Melissa Martin

March 7 city council meeting

Brecksville City Council and the city’s legal department said there will not be a city-sponsored Democracy Day in 2023, even though the ballot issue, approved by voters in 2012, specified a 10-year term.

The determination was made March 7 after city resident Bob Belovich questioned council and the administration about city ordinance 129.03. The ordinance stipulates the “biennial public hearings will continue for a period of 10 years through February 2023, or until a constitutional amendment reflecting the principles set forth in section 129.02 is ratified by three quarters of the state legislators.”

Democracy Day is a biannual public hearing before city council and the mayor. It examines the impact of political contributions of corporations, unions, PACS and super-PACS on the city.

The proliferation of Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly feared as a growing threat to our elections through the creation of “deepfake” texts, photos and videos that look and sound real that further diminishing truth and accountability. AI-generated political ads have already appeared, resulting in calls for regulation and prohibition of what is estimated to be $12 billion in political ad spending this year. Not knowing what public information is real or fake not only threatens elections, but the ability of us all to be informed to hold elected officials accountable and to organize independent movements for change.

But another “AI” is already a threat to the 2024 elections, which will deepen during the current primary election season. The lobby organization, AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and its affiliated political groups are expected to spend $100 million this election cycle opposing candidates they feel insufficiently support Israel, which has intensified since the start of the war in Gaza. AIPAC’s related groups include AIPAC PAC; the United Democracy Project, its Super PAC; the Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI); and others.

Please consider spending an hour or so at a polling location on primary election day in your state to hand out leaflets and collect signatures on the Move to Amend petition.

Go HERE to find out when your primary election day takes place.

The leaflet states, “We need to elect better representatives. But we also need to expand the growing peoples’ movement to end corporate constitutional rights by enacting HJR54, the We the People Amendment.”

Our petition declares, “We the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizen United ruling and other related cases, and move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.”

You live in one of 16 places that will vote on March 5, “Super Tuesday, the day when the greatest number of states and territories hold their political election primaries or caucuses.

Please consider spending an hour or so at a polling location to hand out leaflets and collect signatures on the Move to Amend petition.

10 January 2024 | Greg Coleridge

posted at https://www.monetaryalliance.org/banks-bank-on-war-profits-2024/ 

There are many reasons why nation-states start or join wars. Controlling natural resources is certainly one of them.

Whatever the reasons, banking corporations and other financial institutions in the U.S., among many corporate sectors, profit enormously from wars – causing massive harm to people, communities, the planet, and self-described “democratic” political systems.

This equation may best describe the reality: Dollars = Debt + Destruction + Defense

The Supreme Court heard arguments last week whether Donald Trump should be disqualified under the 14th Amendment to be President.

At issue is whether Trump’s (in)actions on January 6, 2021, should prohibit him from becoming President again based on the text in Article 3 asserting that any officer of the United States who has previously taken an oath to uphold the Constitution should be disqualified if they “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

While legal scholars disagree whether the 14th Amendment applies to Trump, can the same be said about whether any part of the 14th Amendment should disqualify a corporation from being a constitutional person? 

Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of the Norfolk Southern Corporation train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Twenty railcars crashed carrying vinyl chloride and other hazardous material. A controlled burn was conducted by local officials to supposedly avoid an explosion. Toxic contaminants polluted the community and the surrounding area, include down-wind into Pennsylvania. As this recent article describes, "This story isn't over."

Since the E. Palestine derailment, accidents have increased for the top five freight railroad corporations. Yet, no Congressional legislation has passed to prevent similar disasters.

The story the corporate media hasn't adequately ever told, however, is what we shared last year following the disaster -- the lack of authentic democracy. It's retold below. 

Note: The We the People Amendment is HJR54 is the current 118th Session of Congress

___

East Palestine Train Derailment Caused and Worsened by Real Democracy Derailment

The Norfolk Southern Corporation train derailment and subsequent hazardous chemical release into the air, water and land in and beyond East Palestine, Ohio are the inevitable result of multiple anti-democratic realities in the U.S. Many are interconnected and are the same for the roughly 1000 train derailments per year, most recently in Michigan.

Akron Beacon Journal | Jan 28, 2024

Jan. 21 marked the 14th anniversary of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. The ruling increased the amount of money spent in political elections from the very rich and corporate entities, drowning out the voices of people to be heard by elected representatives who didn’t politically contribute. 

Many, if not most, people believe Citizens United was the first time the court ruled that “money equals free speech,” as well as the constitutional right of corporate entities to donate politically. It wasn’t. 

Miami Valley Today, January 20, 2024

To the editor:

January 21 is a good day to reflect on the state of our democracy. Why? Because it’s the 14th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

The court’s 5-4 decision upheld two misguided notions: The first, that a corporation has inherent, inalienable constitutional rights same as you and me. The second, that money spent on political campaigns is protected speech.

These interpretations of the U.S. Constitution thwart democracy in two ways: First, something created on paper through a state charter often has more power than flesh-and-blood people (think companies given the right to dump fracking wastewater in communities where residents object). Second, those with the most money have greater access to lawmakers and influence over laws and policies that affect our wallets, let alone our health (think Akron-based FirstEnergy Corporation, the company behind the largest public corruption scandal in Ohio history).

Dayton Daily News | Jan 20, 2024

The 2024 election money train is on the move. I receive emails every day asking for money from candidates near and far. How about you? Of course the dollars that you and I send in are only a small portion of the money being contributed to candidates. Of greater concern is the money given by corporations, trade associations, political action committees, unions—all attempting to have influence over their chosen candidates.

Jan. 21 is the 14th anniversary of Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, the Supreme Court ruling that is widely recognized as ushering in all this money. After Citizens United, we saw the creation of SuperPACs and “dark money”— donations that are made in secret— making it almost impossible to follow the money.

History tells us that this problem started long before Citizens United. In 1886, the Supreme Court gave standing to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company under the 14th Amendment. Later decisions added the 4th Amendment, the Commerce Clause, the 1st Amendment and more. Political spending became a form of free speech in 1976, thus protecting corporate entities from spending restrictions.

Move to Amend is an organization dedicated to ending corporate constitutional rights and money as a protected form of speech. We have legislation in the U.S. House to amend the Constitution, the We the People Amendment, HJR 54. Ask your representative to co-sponsor. Learn more about our efforts and sign our petition at movetoamend.org/motion.

- Mary Sue Gmeiner, Dayton

https://www.daytondailynews.com/ideas-voices/letters-to-the-editor-jan-20-2024/PCVNB7SQEZF4JFYJRH7K2I5RGI/

Cleveland.com | Published: Jan. 10, 2024

The Jan. 21, 2010, “Citizens United” Supreme Court decision has reduced democracy in our country. Federal election spending was $14.4 billion in 2020, up from nearly $5.3 billion in 2008, according to Open Secrets. The flood of spending by the super-rich and corporate entities has drowned the political voices of most people.

It’s a mistake, however, to believe that the following originated with Citizens United:

Chronicle Telegram: Elyria and Lorain County Ohio

January 13, 2024

The anniversary of the Citizens United vs. FEC decision by the U.S. Supreme Court is coming up on Jan. 21. It will be 14 years since that damaging ruling was made.

Citizens United is simply the latest in a long line of anti-democratic Supreme Court decisions that have empowered the super rich and corporations to trump the ability of we the people to make decisions protecting our lives, communities and the natural world. What’s needed is not simply a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizen United, but rather the proposed We the People Amendment that  would abolish the bizarre constitutional doctrines of “money equals speech” and “a corporation is a person.”

We need to put the people back in we the people. The We the People Amendment (House Joint Resolution 54) has been introduced in Congress. Please encourage U.S Rep. Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green, or your representative to co-sponsor it.

Kathleen Hazelton

Oberlin

Fundamental social change has always involved a combined inside and outside approach – supporters inside governing institutions promoting and defending real change that’s initiated by organized people in grassroots movements. Advancements in women’s rights, civil rights, labor rights, and environmental protections are just a few of the movements throughout our nation’s history that have followed this blueprint.

This is exactly the strategy Move to Amend pursues in working to end corporate rule and the corruption of massive spending in political elections.

Today marks the 14th Anniversary of the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Supreme Court decision. The ruling permitted corporations and labor unions to make unlimited “independent” political contributions (i.e. spending for or against candidates that are not made in consultation or cooperation with them, their campaigns or any political party).

The super rich could also shield their political “donations” (more like political “investments”) in “dark money” organizations, nonprofits not required to disclose their donors.