Doug Jambard-Sweet is Toledo coordinator for Move to Amend (MTA).

Toledo Free Press: What is Move to Amend and when was it started?

Jambard-Sweet: Formed in September 2009, Move to Amend is a coalition committed to social and economic justice, ending corporate rule and building a vibrant democracy genuinely accountable to the people.

Toledo Free Press: What is Move to Amend working on locally?

Jambard-Sweet: In Toledo, we are educating the public by sponsoring events meant to awaken ordinary people to inequities created by corporate influence and creating a sense of empowerment that, yes, we can change things if enough of us make room in our busy lives to work on issues that will determine the course of society and the type of choices our children and grandchildren will have available to them.

jambard-Sweet

Our short-term goals consist of organizing local outreach, consisting of lectures, rallies, film screenings and theatrical events to bring these issues to life and raise general awareness. Medium-term goals consist of working with elected officials to pass resolutions in support of Move to Amend’s goals. Within the next few years we hope to organize a ballot initiative allowing every citizen the chance to vote in support of a constitutional amendment to abolish corporate personhood and declare that money is not speech.

MTA recognizes that to reverse multinational corporate control over virtually every aspect of our lives, there has to be a grassroots awakening in the public mind. Only when that happens will there be an uproar from the public calling for control of corporate influence over the political process.

That corporate influence is primarily the undue influence of money on political decision-makers and using profits to hire armies of lobbyists to ensure their interests are protected. They also use business profits to leverage corporate-friendly legislation, regulations and tax laws. Lobbies can make or break a candidate’s chances for re-election and this power is now magnified virtually without limit by the recent Supreme Court Citizens United ruling.

In Citizens United, the court majority ruled that because corporations have become defined as persons with the constitutional rights of persons, they have the right of free speech, including political speech. The court also ruled that money is equivalent to speech and, since speech cannot be limited, the ruling has led directly to the current situation in which unlimited amounts of money are now spent by corporations to virtually buy elections.

The question we all need to be asking ourselves is “Where does this leave us?” It shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that a system that is rigged to protect and enhance corporate privilege may not have the welfare and interests of the general public at the top of their list. Corporate profits now take precedence over basic social needs such as decent food and water, education, health care and civil rights.

Toledo Free Press: Move to Amend is co-sponsoring this year’s NWO Armistice Day Bell Ringing Commemoration with Veterans for Peace (VFP). How does Armistice Day tie in with the movement to end corporate personhood?

Jambard-Sweet: In 1938, Congress declared Armistice Day a national holiday, “to be dedicated to the cause of world peace.”

This year MTA is partnering with VFP to expand Armistice Day observances. World peace still eludes us, in large part due to the forces of greed controlling valuable natural resources and maintaining geopolitical economic advantage. Exposing the endless cycle of war and conflict to this root cause is as central to MTA’s message as exposing any other aspect of corporate abuse in society.

More information about Move to Amend can be found by visiting: movetoamend.org/oh-toledo.

Tags: Community Voices, Doug Jambard-Sweet, Move to Amend, Stacy Jurich

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 25th, 2012 at 3:19 pm and is filed under Community, Community Voices, Uncategorized.
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Sean Nestor is Lucas County Green Party co-chairman and Secretary of the Ohio Green Party.

Toledo Free Press: Dr. Jill Stein is the Green Party candidate for president of the United States with running mate Cheri Honkala. Why haven’t the American voters heard from Stein or the other third-party candidates in the presidential debates? How is this representative of the current state of our democracy?

Sean Nestor: There are a number of discreet laws and policies in place which are intentionally designed to relegate third parties to a political ghetto. If you’re a third-party candidate who wishes to be on the ballot, you’ll be asked to gather tens of thousands of signatures in a very short time frame.

In spite of these obstacles, third parties like the Greens and Libertarians are on the ballot in most states. However, both [Stein] and Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, have been completely shut out of the presidential debates on flagrantly partisan grounds. This is because the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has put on the presidential debates since 1988, is openly just a collaboration between the Democratic and Republican parties.

Sean Nestor

The end result of all this is that many voters write off third-party candidates. We effectively are provided with precisely one party more than a Soviet state. It’s remarkable that so many can see how having consumer options is a demonstration of our economic freedom, yet seem not to apply that same principle to our elections.

Toledo Free Press: We hear many voters are dissatisfied with Obama’s presidency and have lost their “hope”for him, so to speak, yet won’t vote for a candidate they better align with because Obama will be “better” than Romney. What do you have to say to these “I’m choosing the lesser of two evils” voters?

Nestor: As someone with an engineering background, I can’t help but reject the circular logic of not voting for a candidate simply because they “can’t win.” They can’t win because you won’t vote for them because they can’t win because you won’t vote for them because … ad nauseam. It’s a self-defeating argument that I think is proffered more to rationalize a hesitance to go down the relatively unbeaten path of third-party politics and continue along the tried, true and terrible. I know it’s not an easy decision for people to make, but more people are doing it all the time — and I do think it carries the greatest potential to effect real and positive change.

Toledo Free Press: Does a candidate outside of the two-party system have a chance at winning a presidency? What’s the point of running a candidate with the Green Party if she’s not going to win?

Nestor: Anything is possible. The Republicans were a third party until Lincoln was elected on a then-radical abolitionist platform. There are many practical reasons to put your vote behind a third-party candidate for the presidency. In Ohio, our recognition as a party is contingent upon our state-wide candidates receiving 1 percent of the popular vote each election cycle.

There is also the matter of opening access to federal funding, which the Democrats and Republicans have enjoyed for years. If we receive 5 percent of the popular vote nationwide, by law our party will be entitled to about $20 million in federal funds next election, which would be a game-changer since Greens have a policy of not accepting any kind of PAC or union money in campaigns — only individual contributions.

I think it’s a matter of looking at the long run and wanting to win a real democracy rather than just a single election.

Toledo Free Press: In 2011 you ran for Toledo City Council as a Green in District 6, and I know you have spent a lot of time getting to know the local Board of Elections (BOE). How are third parties received in Toledo?

Nestor: From an individual perspective, I’ve been treated wonderfully. From a systemic perspective, I’m ancillary and a nuisance. If I want to sign up to be a poll worker or apply for a job at the BOE, I have to declare myself a Democrat or a Republican and work under an official who is committed to that party. Across Ohio, only 12.97 percent of voters are registered as Democrats, and 18.27 percent are registered as Republicans, and 68.62 percent have no declared party affiliation. The moment you want to participate in civic processes, you are forced to take sides in a two-party system that has no explicit overarching legal foundation. Coupled with our consistently dismal voter turnout, I see an America that desperately wants to hear more choices than what it’s being provided.

As Jill Stein has said, “The politics of fear have given us everything we’re afraid of.”

Tags: Community Voices, Sean Nestor, Stacy Jurich

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 18th, 2012 at 3:36 pm and is filed under Community, Community Voices.
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