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The Move to Amend Coalition is a grassroots campaign to amend the Constitution to state that artificial entities such as corporations, unions, and non-profits do not have inherent rights under the Constitution, and that money is not free speech so campaign spending can be regulated. MTA focuses on movement building and community organizing, emphasizing leadership from communities most impacted by corporate power such as people of color, low-income people, women and youth. MTA is structured to empower grassroots community leaders through affiliate groups that organize locally for the amendment campaign. The coalition's "We the People Amendment" was introduced in Congress in February 2013.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 23, 2017 The California Resistance Calls for an End to Corporate Rule
The grassroots wing of the California Democratic Party and their allies showed real strength at the 2017 Democratic State Convention, by forcing a floor vote and winning a resolution to amend the Constitution. The resolution, mirroring a ballot question passed by voters in November 2016, says: corporations aren't people and money isn't speech. Will California's Democratic officials respond to the voters' wishes?
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, June 20, 2017 Trump's Infrastructure Plan: A Corporate Con by a Corporate Conman
Trump's infrastructure plan is a thinly veiled attempt to sell off public commons. It will redistribute more wealth into the pockets of the fabulously wealthy, and increase basic living costs for most Americans, while We the People lose all oversight. It's time to build a Democracy "Infrastructure" Movement!
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, May 15, 2017 Legalizing Democracy: The Right to Vote vs. Corporate Rights
Without the right to vote, we can't vote ourselves out of this mess. Resisting Trump is important but organizing for power is the key to creating democracy that works for We the People.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, December 21, 2016 Corporate Money Fuels the New Jim Crow
Slavery is still legal under the 13th amendment--in prisons and jails. Corporations exercising their constitutional rights have created a for profit prison industry that bears no resemblance to actual justice.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 8, 2016 Airbnb Deems City Rental Laws Violate Its "Constitutional Rights"
That great deal on your vacation or business rental costs our democracy big time. Rogue Airbnb corporation asserts first amendment rights to continue unlawful business model at the expense of lawful citizens and businesses.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, June 10, 2016 Democracy NGO seeks Sandernistas' endorsement
Bernie Sanders' campaign has unleashed a political revolution, which has been been simmering beneath the surface of US politics for years. How will this force manifest itself in bringing the democracy movement to fruition?
(4 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 25, 2016 War Profiteering Poisons American Soldiers
Corporations are present in every facet of American life, and even more so in war zones, which once were almost exclusively the arena of US military and its personnel. The privatization of military operations has created a whole new front in the 'War on Terror', including the mistreatment of our own troops and veterans.
(7 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 11, 2016 Is it time for grassroots movements to coalesce around the Bernie Sanders revolution?
Long before Sanders presidential campaign, Americans in the many thousands had been working to form a democracy movement capable of taking on corporate rule. Sanders call for a political revolution has not only energized these organizers but the nation as a whole. This moment demands we all come together.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, December 14, 2015 Building a Movement to Amend the Constitution: Lessons from Women's Suffrage
The struggle for women's rights offers many lessons on effective organizing and pitfalls that can and should be avoided in building a movement to to overcome corporate rule and establish real and transformative democracy.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, December 9, 2015 Conflicted Appellate Court Rules Corporate "Right" to Secrecy Trumps the People's Right to Know
In a more and more commonplace occurrence, a federal appeals court won its suit to keep Americans in the dark about conflict minerals and Congolese peasants bound to the warlords they are forced to serve. The National Association of Manufacturers won the case based their first amendment right to remain silent, despite clear and violent human rights abuses by warlords who are raking in huge profits.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, October 2, 2015 Arizona Congressmen Steal Apache Sacred Land and Natural Treasure for Foreign Mining Corporations
The San Carlos Apache tribe is fighting for their ancestral heritage and cultural future against foreign copper mining firms. Resolution Copper received a massive gift from US taxpayers, when Arizona's John McCain and Jeff Flake inserted a rider into the 2015 NationalDefense Authorization Act trading the mineral rich protected area, part of the Rio Tonto National Forest, for several less valuable parcels of land.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, September 2, 2015 Buying Free Speech: The Impact and Influence of Koch Money
Corporate Constitutional rights are destroying our democracy and are at the heart of the Citizens United decision, as evidenced by the Koch brothers, who are making unprecedented investments in the 2016 electoral cycle to elect candidates willing to enact policies favorable to the 0.1%. The We the People Amendment is required to unravel corporate personhood, Citizens United, and ultimately corporate rule.
SHARE Wednesday, April 29, 2015 A Growing Peoples Movement, Despite the Media Blackout
The We the People Amendment was reintroduced in Congress on Wednesday, April 29. It is only the amendment which addresses the two Supreme Court created doctrines of personhood and money as speech. The amendment states that only natural persons have Constitutional rights and that money isn't protected political speech and shall be regulated in campaigns. The amendment would overturn Citizens United and other related cases.
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, March 24, 2015 Coming to a City Near You: Oligarchy, Detroit Style
Citizens of Detroit area municipalities have no voice in their local government since the state legislature overruled a voter mandate to end emergency city management practices. Oligarchy is in full practice in Michigan. How long before your city or town falls victim to privatization and corproate rule?
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, March 17, 2015 Monsanto Corporation Claims Corporate Personhood Trumps Vermonters' Right to Require Labeling
In a more and more uncommon example of a state legislature actually representing the best interests of its citizens, Vermont passed a law that will make the state the first one to require GMO labels on food. Monsanto promptly sued the state, a more and more common response to any attempt to prioritize people's rights over corporate Constitutional rights.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, November 11, 2014 Students Are Not Commodities; Corporations Can't Teach
Public education is the cornerstone of a vibrant democracy. Attempts to privatize public education--by corporations seeking profit at the expense of the taxpayer--undermine democracy. Rebuilding our public education system to educate all students will result in a stronger democracy. We live in the richest nation in the world and can afford to educate our children. If we want real democracy, we need to address corporate rule.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, October 27, 2014 Does a community have a right to clean air and water?
We cannot deny the power big, multi-national corporations hold in our democracy and economy, but we don't have to accept corporate rule as a way of life. CoCRN organizers are taking matters into their own hands in an effort to pass the Colorado Community Rights amendment, but the powerful extraction industries are not sitting still.
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, October 24, 2014 In the Absence of Accountability, General Motors Kills Hundreds of People for Profit
Corporate executives at GM have gotten away with negligent murder by willfully covering up design defects in their automobiles and delaying recalls. Any ordinary person responsible for hundreds of deaths would be tried in a court of a law. Not so for "corporate persons," who pay a small fine and continue with business as usual.