Why should any organization (or person) work on getting this amendment passed?Whether this amendment finally passes or not, working for its passage would create a variety of opportunities for any political organization willing to participate. Advocating an amendment involves gathering signatures on petitions; debates in various venues; opportunities to address people in churches, schools, and workplaces; and so on. This is true for any amendment. For this particular amendment, one needs to talk about corporate power and its abuses; about what the corporations are doing that is wrong and how this ought to be corrected. Used correctly, the Human Rights Amendment should be a consciousness-raising device, an organizing tool, and possibly even a radicalizing experience for those who work for its passage. Just how radicalizing the experience would be would depend on how far corporations and their supporters would go in opposing it. Building a movement to put corporations under the control of law is the reason for proposing the amendment. If the amendment were to pass and the amendment's supporters were then to dissolve their organizations on the theory that their work is done, the actual corporate control of politics would continue. It would be better if a hundred or a thousand organizations whose particular objectives are compatible with removing corporations from politics and restoring active citizens to democratic control of government were to cooperate in making the amendment a reality. These organizations could then use their new legal leverage to pursue their various goals. Human needs, not corporate balance sheets, should determine the priorities of federal, state and local administrations. Democratic rights and consistent legal principles, not money and influence, should determine the outcome of cases in our court system. News media should present the facts of events, not the spin; they should let the opposing sides in controversies speak for themselves instead of smothering the issues in conventional (corporate) attitude which passes for analysis. We can't get there from here without a road map, without the will to go, without the means to make the journey. The Human Rights Amendment, if passed, would just be a part of the map, though a very helpful one. Whether this society will make the journey to defend and restore democracy remains to be seen. We would like to hear your reaction to this proposal. Please feel free to circulate the proposal widely. What would this amendment accomplish? Why should any organization work on getting it passed? Who is this "ad hoc committee"? |