Move to Amend is a national grassroots coalition with over 300,000 members nationwide working to amend the U.S. Constitution to say that corporations are not people and should not have the right to spend unlimited amounts of money during election cycles.
“I believe that unless you are part of a very small elite group of billionaires who run this country through their corporate power, you have reason to be angry about the corporate rule of our government and get involved with Move to Amend,” said Ashley Sanders, a National Leadership team member and local organizer for Move to Amend.
“We are living in a society where $6 billion was spent in the 2012 election cycle, and we ask people when was the last time someone had to spend $6 billion to get you to do something that is in your interest.”
The goal of Move to Amend is a two-fold process of limiting the amount of influence corporations have over politicians and to build a democratic movement across race and class lines.
A movement that is capable of articulating and demanding new laws, bonding culture shifts and replacing the current corporate system with one powered by the voice of the people.
“Corporations basically make every decision that we, the people, should be making—whether it’s from the kind of air we breathe to who can come into this country and what kind of schools and health-care we have,” said Sanders.
“Corporations have taken over our political system and have normalized their presence in our lives. We are asking people who know the system is broken and feel defeated to join a movement that reminds them of their own dignity and builds collective power to force people back into the political process.”
Move to Amend started in January 2010, and in three years, over 500 cities and towns have passed resolutions, many of them through ballot initiatives, calling on Congress to act.
Some of those ballot initiatives have moved toward being voted on at the state level in 2014 and 2016. Move to Amend is aggressively working towards bringing political pressure with similar ballot initiatives here in Salt Lake City.
“We have worked with the City Council to create the ‘city opinion question’ that will be sent out to every registered voter in Salt Lake City asking them if they support Move to Amend and demanding that Congress pass an amendment that states that corporations are not people and that money is not speech,” said Sanders.
“If we win, we will have taken a major step towards building mass political pressure to push this amendment through Congress. We will be going out door-to-door and educating people in classrooms and community groups.”
Move to Amend is looking for volunteer help and believes that college students have an invested interest in helping limit the amount of influence corporations have over politicians.
“College students are facing a future that looks devastating from almost every perspective. There is mass unemployment, and student debts have ballooned to levels that are almost un-payable,” adds Sanders.
“Students have always been at the center of mass movements demanding their rights, and they have every reason to care about their futures. Students have the time, creativity and passion to make a difference. We want to help students move from activists to people who work together to build community power to create real change.”
Students and other interested volunteers can get involved with Move to Amend by attending their monthly organizational meetings which are the fourth Thursday of every month from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and can contact them for more information at slc@movetoamend.org.
“Students can get involved with our core organizational groups and work on specific issues like working with the media and with events,” said Sanders. “They can help us introduce new ideas and expand our reach on college campuses. We want college students to be involved in any way they can.”