Sunday, February 26 | 5 pm PT, 8 pm ET
Presentation by Greg Coleridge, Move to Amend Co-Director
We have another bone to pick with the U.S. Supreme Court…10 bones actually, for this branch of our government’s repeated assertions through history that corporations should be given the rights of people. Two of these decisions stand out among many: The 1886 County of Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific Railroad ruling found that the railroad could not be subject to a special tax because it was a “person” under the 14th Amendment (originally written to protect the rights of Black people freed from slavery). Then we jump ahead to the 2010 Federal Election Commission v. Citizens United case, allowing for unlimited donations to campaign organizations – based on the concept that campaign funds are the same as speech. That decision opened the door for not just people but also corporations to flood political campaigns with cash.
After the Citizens United decision, enough was enough…and a few agitated individuals bent on agitating back formed Move to Amend, an organization designed to add an amendment to the U.S. Constitution denying corporate personhood and separating the notions of money and speech.
On Sunday, February 26, Greg Coleridge Co-Director of the Move to Amend national organization, will be PASMC’s guest on the Zoom platform in a talk entitled “We the People vs Corporate Rule: It’s Up to Us!” As Greg is located in Ohio, we will begin at 5 PM rather than our usual 7 PM start time.
Here is the Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3289220486
Greg will give us a look at the national effort to abolish corporate rule and the corrupting influence of big money in elections by building a movement to enact the We the People Amendment. This bill will soon be re-introduced in Congress (hopefully under its previous bill number of House Joint Resolution 48), and there are already lobby training sessions underway. We will find out not just the basics of the issue, but also how to get involved in corporate personhood and campaign finance issues in the new Congress.
Ahead of his current involvement with Move to Amend, Greg Coleridge previously worked for over 30 years with the American Friends Service Committee in Ohio where he advocated and organized on a range of justice, peace, environmental and democracy issues – including helping coordinate early Move to Amend activities in the Buckeye state. Greg previously served an elected term on the national governing board of Common Cause and was a Principal with the Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy (POCLAD). He is the author of various articles and other writings regarding citizens and corporations.
While our meeting topic for February departs somewhat from the typical Peace Action realm, it is certainly worth noting that so much of what we are trying to change in Congress about the state of the military-industrial complex tends to meet a lot of opposition. This is in the form of well-to-do funders of candidates with whom we might not agree but whose resources our preferred candidates either can’t match or could also wind up beholden to. Join us on the 26th to find out what can be done to make candidates beholden to all of us!
Sponsored by Peace Action of San Mateo County (California)
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