Recording of the discussion with Greg Coleridge, featuring his monthly series of articles exploring the cultural takeaways from significant U.S. social movements over the last two and one-half centuries that are applicable for Move to Amend’s effort to enact the We the People Amendment.

Series on Cultural Change for the We the People Amendment

• January – Introduction
• February – Abolition of Slavery
• March – Women’s Suffrage Movement
• April – Environmental Movement – including rights of nature
• May – Labor Movement
• June – LGTBQ+ Movement
• July – Colonial Revolution
• August – Peace / Anti-Nuclear Movement
• September – Civil Rights Movement
• October – Populist Movement of the 19th Century
• November – Direct Election of Senators
• December – Cultural Lessons from U.S. Movements for Advancing Move to Amend & Enacting the We the People Amendment

The Way Through: From Overwhelm, Burnout, Despair & Anger into Effective Action

The recording is available HERE

Here are 2 other links:

• A course outline summarizing each section
• A list of Key Strategies from the workshop, plus Recommended Resources

The full self-paced course is also available online at no charge:
https://learn.radical-guide.com/courses/the-way-through-from-overwhelm-burnout-despair-anger-into-effective-action/

Move to Amend’s Position on the Transparent Election Initiative
(aka “Montana Plan”)

What it is

The Transparent Election Initiative – also known as the Montana Plan – Its goal is to eliminate the currently unlimited corporate political campaign contributions made through Super PACs and “dark money” groups, a practice that became legal following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision.

The Initiative has the potential to immediately address the root of corporate political influence by focusing on corporate charters. In the United States, corporations are legal entities (often referred to as “Artificial Persons”) created by government authority, primarily by states, to grant individuals certain powers and protections, including limited liability. Historically, corporate entities were intended to remain subordinate to the public through state legislation that defined the specific privileges and conditions necessary for conducting business, such as the ability to enter into contracts or to sue and be sued. Early corporate business charters were granted individually by state legislatures and later through general incorporation laws based on the business type. If a corporation failed to comply with the terms of its charter, the charter could be revoked, effectively dissolving the business.

Sign the Petition in support and start organizing in your state.

What it does

It takes a Social Movement, Stupid! Lessons on how to amend the Constitution and how they apply to today’s constitutional crisis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SItZbnIat8w&t=4s

Listen to the dynamic presentation and engaging discussion.

Professor Codrington is co-author of The People’s Constitution: 200 Years, 27 Amendments, and the Promise of a More Perfect Union.   

Please share near and far.

Move to Amend
https://www.movetoamend.org/

Dayton Daily News | January 21, 2025

Heather Sturgill is a resident of Troy, OH and volunteers with the local “Move to Amend.” (CONTRIBUTED)

January 21 marks 15 years since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, which equated corporate political spending with free speech and reinforced the notion of “corporate personhood”. This ruling has had profound impacts, granting corporations outsized influence over our political landscape. Recent events underscore the dangers of equating corporate rights with individual rights, particularly when such actions undermine public welfare.

News articles about ByteDance, being forced to sell TikTok over national security issues underscores these risks. But TikTok isn’t the only foreign owned company in the US. According to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, as of January 2023, 252 Chinese companies were listed on the top three U.S. stock exchanges. This figure excludes smaller private businesses and companies with over 50% foreign-owned stockholders.

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.”

Watch and listen to Mike Ferner, Veterans for Peace Director, at the 7'30" mark speak on the need to end corporate rule (i.e. go after the arsonists, not just put our fires) as a fundamental requirement to create peace, mentioning Move to Amend in the process.

Thirty years ago today, President Bill Clinton signed legislation supporting U.S. entry into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Removing restrictions on trade between the U.S., Mexico and Canada, NAFTA was aggressively opposed by organized labor, environmental organizations, and many “good government” groups for two major reasons.

First, NAFTA’s provisions prioritized “trade” of goods and services produced by multinational corporations over protecting workers, consumers and the environment.

Second, disputes brought by corporate investors directly against foreign nations over claimed “barriers to trade” were decided by unelected and unaccountable Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) "tribunals" largely composed of corporate-friendly members -- beyond the reach of citizens or even national legislatures or courts.

The “inflation” of Thanksgiving summarized below is not about the increased mass marketing hoopla that corporations create every holiday to make us think the more stuff we buy, the greater will be the enjoyment, if not “meaning,” of the day or season. Thanksgiving is actually a lousy holiday to commercialize. Afterall, there’s only so much profit to be gained from peddling Turkeys/Tofurkys, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce.

Nor are we focusing on the "inflation" of the giant Thanksgiving Day Parade floats that will wind their way through the streets of New York City.

The more significant Thanksgiving “inflation” is the inflated prices of consumer products, including food, which have skyrocketed. We can thank major food corporations for this.

Tomorrow is election day. Please vote if you already haven’t by mail or in person. 

But voting isn’t enough. We also need a People’s Movement like Move to Amend to abolish corporate rule, an essential step toward achieving legitimate democracy.

Electing better representatives at every level of government who represent the interests of voters rather than large donors is critical. That can be a challenge, especially when candidates swimming in campaign cash from the super rich and business corporations flood our airwaves, mailboxes and inboxes.