Several banks have collapsed over the last several weeks.

• Silvergate and Signature were the two main banks used by risky, flawed and unproven crypto companies. 
  
  
• Silver Valley bank provided initial funding to the declining and volatile financial tech and pharmaceutical startups until those companies could, hopefully, raise money from initially selling stock. It also managed the wealth of the super rich founders of the successful startups. Many of their clients have accounts in the millions of dollars, well above the $250,000 FDIC insured levels. In fact, $150 billion of its $175 billion in deposits were uninsured

The failure of Silver Valley and Signature – the 2nd and 3rd largest bank failures in U.S. history – triggered panicked customers to withdraw nearly $100 billion from their accounts, mostly from mid-sized banks, in one recent week. Several other banks, First Republic and Western Alliance, have seen their market value plummet. Fears of a full-scale banking crisis can – as in the  past – deepen a larger financial and economic crisis. 

Risky and speculative business decisions, like making huge bets on crypto currencies and startups, should not be incentivized, but that’s how the current financial system works: keeping all your wins but shedding all your losses. Call it corporatizing gains and socializing pains. 

The Kids Aren’t Alright. In fact, they could soon be working in dangerous environments such as construction and meatpacking plants.

Child labor in the U.S. has long been thought to be a thing of the past. Although not the first state to do it, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders recently signed a bill that allows children as young as 14 to work up to 48 hours per week without parental permission. Additionally, children under 16 no longer need the Division of Labor’s permission to work in Arkansas.

Iowa and Ohio also introduced bills to make child labor easier. Here’s what those bills look like:

IOWA

The bill proposes that children aged 14 and 15 can work in dangerous industries such as meatpacking if they and the employer have the right exemptions. Those exemptions are:

• The child must be “participating in work-based learning or a school or employer-administered, work-related program.”
  
  
• The employer must demonstrate “the activity will be performed under adequate supervision and training; the training includes adequate safety precautions; and that the terms and conditions of the proposed employment will not interfere with the health, well-being, or schooling of the minor enrolled in an approved program.”

According to this bill, kids under 16 can work as late as 9pm, and until 11pm during the summer. Although a company can be held liable if a child is hurt during the commute to work, the labor commissioner of Iowa holds the right to waive any such penalty towards a corporation.

OHIO

The bill proposes that children aged 14-15 can work through 9pm year-round (this bill is actually being reintroduced after it failed to pass in 2021).

Such laws make it easier for children to be exploited in the workforce and ignore decades of hard-won precedent. In a specific example, the proposed bill in Iowa delicately dances around the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Act states that only teenagers who are 16-17 who are “bona-fide student-learners and apprentices” may work with meat-processing machines.

Proponents for the bills say that it puts power in the hands of parents by allowing their children to work more. The reality seems to be that they will be exposed to more hazardous work environments for longer periods of time, giving the corporations the hard labor that they so desperately desire.

In this sense, the bills that are being both introduced and passed are giving corporations more power. Corporations can now hire children as early as their middle school years for dangerous positions, rather than hiring a perfectly capable adult whom they deem unfit.

Corporations should not have the right to hire children. We need to stop child labor laws. And we must stop the ability of corporations to influence the introduction of and advocacy for child labor laws. That means ending corporate rule 

Take Action!

√ Share this blast with your networks.
Stopping child labor laws --- and corporate rule 
https://www.movetoamend.org/stopping_child_labor_laws_and_corporate_rule

√ Oppose efforts in your state to pass pro-child labor laws.

√ Sign up here to work with others to lobby your Representative to cosponsor HJR48, the We the People Amendment,

√ Get more involved with Move to Amend:

Stand United,

George, Dolores, Jason, Tara, Alfonso, Jennie, Shelly, Daniel, Jessica Joni, Keyan, Michael, Dylan, Margaret & Greg

- Move to Amend National Team

P.S. More background readings on the rolling back of child labor protections can be found here and here.

PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release, March 23, 2023

Contacts: Greg Coleridge, [email protected], 216-255-2184 | Dennis Slotnick, [email protected], 419-704-1863 | Brad Deane, [email protected], 440-488-1109 | Madelon Watts, [email protected], 216-291-4450 | Robert S. Belovich, [email protected], 440-503-8770 

Citizens Testify at Local Public Hearings in Ohio to End Corrupt Elections and Corporate Rule

Twelve public hearings are taking place in Ohio this year on the corruption resulting from the explosion of money spent in political elections and multiple harms due to increasing corporate power to influence elections and public policies.

The hearings are a result of citizen-driven ballot initiatives organized by supporters of the national Move to Amend Coalition working to pass the We the People Amendment (HJR48), introduced again this year in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D, WA).

The U.S.-led war against Iraq began 20 years ago yesterday. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians and thousands of U.S. soldiers died or were severely injured. 

There are multiple ways to look at what happened in the past and current lessons to be learned. One perspective is reflecting on the Iraq war through a democratic lens.

Here are 20 “democratic” reflections.

1. Wars and democracy rarely go together. Wars throughout history, including the Iraq war and occupation, were largely about military, political and/or economic power projection – expanding or protecting empires, including controlling resources – by one or both sides of the conflict. The goal is not to promote “freedom” or “democracy,” despite the fact that the 2003 U.S. action was named “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” Efforts by the U.S. to impose its version of “democracy” was a “democratic disillusionment.”

March 9, 2023

By Deborah Hogshead

March 6, 2023

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.

Private ownership of railroads

Norfolk Southern Corporation’s record earnings in 2022 led to huge salaries for its top managers and stock buybacks and dividend payouts benefiting speculators and investors. Necessary investments have not been made in technology upgrades and worker safety as the corporation prioritizes maximizing profits over public safety and sustainable business practices. “Since the North American private rail industry has shown itself incapable of doing the job, it is time for this invaluable transportation infrastructure – like the other transport modes – to be brought under public ownership,” concludes the Railroad Workers United. Interstate highways are publicly owned. Railroads were under federal control during WWI. Railroads in many other nations are publicly owned and, therefore, publicly accountable.  

No community rights

Local public officials have few legal tools to protect the health, safety and welfare of their residents – especially conditions in any way related to interstate commerce. Communities possess  little authority to control material – including trash, chemicals, nuclear waste – coming into or even passing through their jurisdictions by trains or trucks if that material can be defined as “commerce.” The Constitution’s Commerce Clause (Article I, Section 8) gives power to Congress and the President to “regulate commerce…among the several states.” While states have at least some ability under certain conditions to push back against “commercial material” in their states if they can redefine it as dangerous, localities have no rights. East Palestine officials weren’t even notified the derailed Norfolk Southern train was carrying vinyl chloride, ethylhexyl acrylate and other highly toxic chemicals since federal law doesn’t classify those chemicals as “high hazardous.”

Mandated municipally-sponsored public hearings following the passage of ballot initiatives organized by Move to Amenders. The initiatives had two components. [1] Municipalities were required to sponsor a public hearing, dubbed "Democracy Day" hearings, inviting residents and/or anyone to testify on the impact money in politics and corporate rule on their lives, communities or world. Congress that voters in these communities, and [2] Municipalities were required to send a letter to all state and federal elected officials representing their area summarizing the hearing and informing them that the voters of that municipality voted in support of a Constitutional Amendment to abolish all corporate constitutional rights and money defined as free speech. Several communities were considered more politically "conservative" or "moderate." 

Below is a schedule as of this date of hearings that have already taken place or are planned.

COMMUNITY "DEMOCRACY DAY" PUBIC HEARINGS

2023 Schedule 

_______________________________________________

Defiance

February 9, 7 pm

Defiance City Hall 

Recording at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GToGp15IxC4

Contact: Dolores Whitman, Contact: [email protected], 419-633-9031 

Mentor

February 15, 5:30 pm

Mentor Municipal Center, Council Chambers

Recording?

Contact: Dave Lima, [email protected], 440-220-0204

How Move to Amend Stands Out from the Crowd

While it is exciting to see the flurry of momentum and energy that is finally getting some traction in a small segment of Congress, Move to Amend is very clear that it is important that we not let our goals be diluted by our legislators in Washington, even by those who mean well and want to see reform in our political system.

Passing an amendment will be a tough job, so the language must be commensurate with the effort needed to win, and the amendment must be strong and clear enough to end corporate rule - there's no room here for half solutions or ambiguity.

It is our belief that we need to operate on the assumption that once an Amendment comes out of Congress we won't get another shot. So we MUST get it right!

With many competing proposals, it can be confusing to figure out what is what in terms of what the proposals will actually do. We have prepared a summary of each of the amendments proposed, including what is missing from each one.

We also encourage you to check out our article, "How Corporate Constitutional Rights Harm You, Your Family, Your Community, Your Environment, and Your Democracy" to explain why we feel so strongly that half-way solutions cannot be accepted.

Click here to read Move to Amend's "We the People" Amendment proposal (House Joint Resolution 48) that will clearly establish that money is not speech, corporations are not people, and allows for no loopholes. Our amendment will put people in charge of our government, and corporations in their proper place.

Proposed Amendments (117th Congress)

• Move to Amend's Amendment Proposal introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA) (We the People Amendment) (H.J. Res. 48)
• "Democracy for All" Amendment Proposal
• Schiff Amendment Proposal
• Tester Amendment Proposal

"Democracy for All" Amendment Proposal 

• Introduced on January 4, 2021 in the House of Representative by Rep. Ted Deutch (FL) and in the Senate by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (NH)
• Read the text and explanation here: H.J. Res. 1 / S.J. Res 25
• Organizations involved: American Promise, Public Citizen, People for the American Way, Free Speech for People, Common Cause

What it does:

• Asserts that Congress and the States (a) may regulate and limit the amount for campaign contributions and expenditures and (b) may distinguish between natural persons and artificial entities when creating campaign finance legislation.

What’s missing:

• Does not end corporate constitutional rights under 1st, 4th, 5th, and 14th Amendments
• Does not end political money equals protected speech under 1st Amendment

Side-by-Side Comparison: Move to Amend's We The People Amendment, (HJR 48) and the Democracy for All Amendment (HJR 1 / SJR 25) - 2 page handout

Schiff Amendment Proposal

• Introduced on March 24, 2022 in the Senate by Sen. Adam Schiff (CA)
• Read the text and explanation here: H.J.R. 80
• Organizations involved: ??

What it does:

• Asserts that Congress or the states have the right to impose reasonable limits on private campaign contributions or independent election expenditures or can enact systems of public campaign financing to offset campaign spending or independent expenditures

What’s missing:

• Does not end political money equals protected speech under 1st Amendment
• Does not end corporate constitutional rights under 1st, 4th, 5th, and 14th Amendments

Tester Amendment Proposal

• Introduced on March 15, 2021 in the Senate by Sen. Jon Tester (MT)
• Read the text and explanation here: S.J. Res. 11
• Organizations involved: Free Speech for People

What it does:

• Asserts that corporations are not people

What’s missing:

• Does not address political money equals protected speech under 1st Amendment
• Does not address campaign spending 

Click here to read Move to Amend's proposed amendment that will clearly establish that money is not speech, a corporation is not a person, all corporations are subject to regulation, all campaign contributions will be disclosed and allows for no loopholes. Our amendment will put people in charge of our government, and corporations in their proper place.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ANALYSIS OF 2019/2020 AMENDMENT PROPOSALS (116th Congress)

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ANALYSIS OF 2017/2018 AMENDMENT PROPOSALS (115th Congress)

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ANALYSIS OF 2015/2016 AMENDMENT PROPOSALS (114th Congress)

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ANALYSIS OF 2013/2014 AMENDMENT PROPOSALS (113th Congress)

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ANALYSIS OF 2011/2012 AMENDMENT PROPOSALS (112th Congress)

By Kenneth Boche

With continuing threats to our democracy, we must consider what Constitutional changes can help us live up to the Pledge of Allegiance which virtually all U.S. citizens have promised: “…liberty and justice for all.”

With the costs, plus the greed for power, that control our elections, individuals are discouraged from voting by gerrymandering, by restricted voting times, and by drop-off and mail-in ballot options. This discrimination does not align with “…liberty and justice for all.” 

During our country’s founding, “We the people” meant “living humans.” When the “robber barons” invented corporations to build railroads and other industries, those corporations had limited lifetimes. Now, corporations are chartered forever, so they are, obviously, not “real people.”

The first step toward more equitable constitutional changes is to pass the www.movetoamend.org amendment that reaffirms “people” to mean living humans as our Founders intended. Included in that amendment is “Money is not free speech.” Our Founders reserved “free speech” for living individuals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWF0TRUVVy4&t=29s

December 29, 2022

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The East India Company was founded on this date in 1600. It was chartered (i.e. licensed) by the British Crown to trade in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia and later with East Asia. It eventually became the largest corporation on earth.

East India Company flag, 180

The company achieved not only its main purpose of facilitating economic trade (involving spices, tea, silk, opium… and slaves). It was also given the authority to colonize and rule. The corporation was in essence the government over large parts of India that extended British imperialism with the capacity to administer laws and collect taxes. It had its own army that was twice the size of the British force to enforce laws and to quell popular uprisings. 

______________________

On this "corporate rule" anniversary, please make a New Year’s resolution to (re)commit to working together to affirm our rights over corporate "rights." Start by generously contributing to our end-of-year financial match drive. We urgently need to reach our goal to start 2023 on a strong footing.

______________________

We are under no illusions. Amending the U.S. Constitution is enormously challenging. 

It’s only been done 27 times before, including the first 10 (the Bill of Rights) all at once. It’s perceived as not as important or urgent as working on (insert here scores of options). 

The reality is a large majority of our current problems and crises will not be fundamentally solved simply by having better elected officials passing better laws, enacting better regulations or making better executive decisions. Not when the foundational rules of our society (which our constitution defines) favor corporate rights over human rights and permit the political voices of those with money to drown out the voices of most of us. 

That's why changing/amending the U.S. Constitution is inescapable. We must democratize our ground rules. U.S history shows that fundamental constitutional change only happens alongside fundamental cultural change – that is, educating and organizing to challenge both the credibility and inevitability of the status quo, as well as the necessity to form a broad grassroots movement for structural change – to make what seems impossible to be accepted as necessary and inevitable. 

Here’s a sampling of what we’ve accomplished together this year and cumulatively at the end of 2022 toward these ends:

The Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, was ratified today in 1791. It is perhaps the constitution’s broadest and most famous and honored portion, particularly the First Amendment.

John Jay, the First Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, was born on this day in 1745.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose and State Rep. Brian Stewart recently announced an effort to change the Ohio Constitution in order to make it harder for Ohio citizens to successfully pass ballot initiatives. House Joint Resolution 6 (HJR6) is a power grab, plain and simple. It is unnecessary, unfair, unpopular, and undemocratic. 

A broad coalition of groups is organizing to stop this attack on direct democracy in its tracks. 

TAKE ACTION:

1. The proposal may be voted on next week by a committee and the entire House. Tell your Ohio House Representative you oppose this undemocratic proposal. Find your House member (and contact information) HERE

2. Attend a statewide Rally for Democracy!, Tuesday, December 13, 2022, 11:15 AM, Trinity Episcopal Church, 125 E Broad St, Columbus, OH 43215. Details HERE