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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As voters and American citizens, we are constituents. We are the people that are the essential agents in constituting a whole. Together we form many entities, including the Constitution of the United States. “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Friday, January 20 is the two year anniversary of the ruling of the Supreme Court case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC), a decision in which the Supreme Court prohibited any limits on political campaign spending by corporations or unions, naming it a ‘freedom of speech’ and thus extending our First Amendment to recognize corporations as people. In 2010, the year Citizens United ruling was passed, the kind of “independent groups” that corporations are now allowed to support spent $300 million; that’s more combined spending than every mid-term election since 1990 (The Story of Citizens United v. F.E.C., 2011). That amount of advertising can easily drown out the voices and influence of the people’s freedom of speech.

To mark the two year anniversary, MovetoAmend.org has rallied over 100,000 people to organize actions at federal court houses across the country, including the Supreme Court, to protect our democratic republic and call for a Constitutional Amendment. “MovetoAmend.org is a coalition supported by hundreds of organizations and tens of thousands of individuals dedicated to ending the illegitimate legal doctrines that prevent the American people from governing ourselves.” Occupy Toledo has organized a march and rally for all of us in Toledo as part of MovetoAmend.org’s strategy “to work on the local level before moving on to the state or federal level to build a grassroots movement organized and powerful enough to force Congress to act.” In addition to this week’s protests, MovetoAmend.org’s main tool to abolish corporate personhood is helping cities pass resolutions and/or place measures on the ballot for voter approval. “Local resolution campaigns are an opportunity for citizens to speak up and let it be known that we won’t accept the corporate takeover of our government,” said David Cobb, a spokesperson for Move to Amend.

Eighty-five percent of Americans, regardless of political (or non) affiliation, feel that corporations have too much power in our democracy and people have too little (The Story of Citizens United v. F.E.C., 2011). It is because of this power and monetary influence that our law makers are writing laws to favor corporations, which leaves our values in the dust. Workers’ rights, clean air and water, safe and healthy products and food, quality jobs…not too much to ask for, really. It has become more obvious with the Occupy Movement that many of us are dissatisfied with our government, its laws (or lack thereof), oversight, economic and housing policies, etc. I would imagine most all Toledoans could name at least one reason why she or he would want to keep our democracy as one that is run by “We the People” and keep our Constitution under our control. It is a slippery slope into a pile of corporate control and who knows what else if we let this slide. [Oh yeah, I know what else…corporate support of Congress bills HR3261 (SOPA) and S968 (PIPA) to grant the ability to take down any web site that affects corporate profits -- without due process or judicial oversight -- in the name of combating “online piracy” (http://www.craigslist.org/about/SOPA).]

Last November, cities including Madison, WI, Missoula, MT, and Boulder, CO approved ballot measures supporting a Constituional amendment. Recently, New York City and Los Angeles City Councils passed resolutions “calling for a Constitutional amendment to establish that only living persons — not corporations — are endowed with constitutional rights and to overturn the Supreme Court created doctrine that campaign spending is equivalent to free speech” (MovetoAmend.org). Occupy Toledo placed a positive light on Toledo in the national and international news with its impactful and bold ‘mic check’ at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission meeting in Monroe, MI in December. This action set precedent for a ‘mic check’ by Occupy Wall Street at an NRC public meeting in New York regarding possible closure of the Indian Point nuclear power plant. Toledo could make positive progressive news again with a passing of a similar resolution.

Occupy Toledo is inviting everyone to meet at Third Space (137 N. Michigan) at 2:30 P.M. Friday, January 20 to march to the Federal Courthouse (1716 Spielbush) for a rally.

Tags: Move to Amend, Occupy Toledo, Stacy Jurich, Wandering Roots

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 at 12:14 pm and is filed under Star, Wandering Roots.
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