End Corporatocracy: Time Frames
The main focus of our effort: "End the Corporatocracy"
- Time Frame to accomplish goal: Present through the time it is accomplished
- Initial Time Frame for Action for our strategy group: Present through National Gathering
- Secondary Time Frame (Broader Context Time Frame): Present through the 2014 Elections
- Tertiary Time Frame (3rd Time Frame Context): Present through the 2016 Presidential Elections
- The major legislative action toward advancing our cause: A Constitutional Amendment as read below
Move to Amend's Proposed 28th Amendment to the Constitution:
Section 1. [Artificial Entities Such as Corporations Do Not Have Constitutional Rights] The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons only. Artificial entities established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state shall have no rights under this Constitution and are subject to regulation by the People, through Federal, State, or local law. The privileges of artificial entities shall be determined by the People, through Federal, State, or local law, and shall not be construed to be inherent or inalienable. Section 2. [Money is Not Free Speech] Federal, State, and local government shall regulate, limit, or prohibit contributions and expenditures, including a candidate's own contributions and expenditures, to ensure that all citizens, regardless of their economic status, have access to the political process, and that no person gains, as a result of their money, substantially more access or ability to influence in any way the election of any candidate for public office or any ballot measure. Federal, State, and local government shall require that any permissible contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed. The judiciary shall not construe the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment.
Note: This Amendment was proposed on 2.14.13 by Rep. Richard Nolan of Minnesota https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kjIvIFWhtvs
- Initial Time Frame for Action for our strategy group: Present through National Gathering
- Actions for the group to take
(Note: Actions can be done by individuals, smaller groups within the group or the group as a whole)
1) Begin an effort to contact organizations that mutually support the focus of our efforts which is to "End the Corporatocracy"
Example: The following link is to a chapter of people who are a part of Move to Amend from Hyannis, Massachusetts. This made the press five days ago on 5.16.13 as they had a rally to bring awareness to the issue that we also support. http://www.wickedlocal.com/barnstable/topstories/x1409969351/VIDEO-Cape-Cod-group-pushes-for-constitutional-amendment#axzz2Tybsg7nl
The purpose of contacting these organizations is to first open the lines of communication with them so that we can mutually support each other for events like this rally on Cape Cod. Our objective here is to unite efforts and work in union. That is one of our actions and an action that we encourage others to take on as well. We begin with organizations and groups that already understand the issue and support the effort. A visual of the idea being put forth here: (Droplets of water separate are merely individual droplets but united they can form a waterfall of change)
2) Put together information packets that come in a variety of forms. Also, included with the information packets are lists of issues and values along with explanations about how that issue or value is be helped by "Ending the Corporatocracy" and by amending the Constitution.
a) Examples of information packets: Emails that can be forwarded that include links, short videos, power points, a website, social media page, twitter account, songs, essays, documentaries and information "kits."
Additionally, reach out to artists (all kinds of artists), musicians, rappers, singers, song writers, writers, poets, actors/actresses, directors, producers, videographers, photographers who support the cause and will help to lend their time, creative energy, expertise to the effort in one or a variety of ways.
b) Example: Someone from our group is having an event at a church. A team of people working with our cause who are in the same general area as the person or persons organizing the event voluntarily coordinates with each other to be part of the informal "Media Team" who capture photos and videos to edit and share with social media sites to further lend awareness of the effort. Events not only have the impact from the day of the event but from the media that is associated with the day of the event as it gets posted, shared and re-shared online thus having a multiplier effect.
3) Begin an effort to reach out to other organizations and individuals from those organizations to inform them about: who we are, what our goal is, why is our goal important and how this effort directly affects them as an individuals, their group and their cause. Reaching out to organizations and individuals looks like a letter writing campaign, making phone calls, emailing them, dropping in to introduce yourself, scheduling a presentation with them, connecting on social media sites and any or all of the fore mentioned approaches.
(Note: The effort to reach out to other organizations and individuals is a global effort since the Corporatocracy is global. Though priority will be placed on linking up with organizations and individuals nationally where our major legislative action (Amending the Constitution) is something that needs the support of American citizens in order to get passed. Though this is true, we stand united and in union with the common people around the world who are struggling in the same effort against the Corporatocracy.)
In some communities we coordinate efforts to go door to door spreading awareness about the effort, who is involved with it and explain why we are going door to door. (For example, the traditional media will not cover this effort.) We have a criteria regarding how people present when they are going door to door. It is important to look like a professional otherwise the likelihood of getting dismissed before you can present the information will increase. The goal here is to deliver the pitch along with a link/handout that the person can take and go to online in order to access our site and media kit. Additionally, we have three fold handouts or other handouts when able.
(Note: Though we would like to imagine in an ideal world people suspending their judgement to listen to the content of a stranger at their door regardless of their appearance, the reality of our world is such that a professional looking person will have a higher success rate in a door to door campaign. I hope this is understood and there is not a need to go into this further - there is data to backup this point - advertising companies utilize this data when they do direct marketing campaigns and so do political campaigns when they go door to door. Additionally, coordinating these campaigns and practicing the pitch along with practicing overcoming objectives is something we can plan and coordinate in local areas. The goal for these door to door actions is to drop off the link/handout and simply share information. Where applicable we will ask they sign a petition for a ballot initiative and can ask for an email to be included in updates, actions and future events. We will not be asking for money, only a moment of the persons' time, possibly a signature on a petition and an email. Sure, lots of doors will get closed on people but it is just another way of spreading the information in the community and getting the community talking about the effort. Instances where no one is home we can drop off a handout or link.)
4) Plan event days. These days are planned in our local communities to inform and engage people of the effort, who we are, what our effort is, why our effort is important and how this effort directly affects them as an individuals. Other event days can have local organizations and other groups come together in solidarity for the effort with the intention of informing and engaging people. When possible these efforts will be accompanied by press coverage by informing and inviting the press to attend the event with at least two weeks notice of the event when possible. Direct follow-up with a local reporter one week prior to the event will increase the likelihood of their presence at the event and is a recommended step to take when planning events. Additionally, we will encourage event days to include video and photo footage as to add to the media campaign and spread awareness about the effort. For example, an event day will have their video footage edited and incorporated into a short video recapping the day and the effort - the effort which is the purpose of the day - spreading information and adding momentum to "End the Corporatocracy." These short videos will then be shared on social media sites that support our effort which we have already connected with (see section 1 under Initial time frame for action). Also, the people who would help in this effort would be people on the local informal "Media Teams" as stated in section 2 example b. Additionally, there will be movie nights to educate and inform people using information from our Media Kits.
5) Put together a list of direct actions that can add to public awareness of our effort.
Examples of direct actions: covering billboards at rush hour with messages "End the Corporatocracy," "Human Persons Unite!," "We the Human People," "Persons = Humans," "Person are NOT Corporations," "Honk if you are Human" and many other possibilities of what the signs will say. Then, have these efforts coordinated with rallies, marches and event days to magnify the impact of the collective efforts. Also, hanging banners across highway over passes. Additionally, spontaneous performances of a musical song about ending corporate persons like the Target performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FhMMmqzbD8 or this Move to Amend street performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ustR4JSs7k Another example of a direct action is for a group of people to get together outside an area where many people will be exiting or entering like a baseball stadium with signs. Each sign being a letter and spelling out End Corporate Persons. This would take 19 people to hold signs and then have a few extra people for people to take shifts as well as a group of 10-15 more people handing out information links/handouts and talking up the effort. Another example of direct action is to canvas NFL pre-game tailgating where teams of 10-20 people with hundreds of handouts each walk throughout the tailgate and pass out handouts/links and talk about our effort.
(Note: There is an enormous opportunity here for people to be creative in our group and come up with lots of thoughts around direct actions that have a powerful impact.)
6) Familiarize ourselves with the facts and history of corporate persons. Become able to clearly present what the problem is and be able to answer questions about it. Once we put together the information in the media kit we all command that information as a means of being able to spread the message. We also encourage others to take on learning/studying that information and mastering the content as well. We use each other to help in this effort by getting on calls with people in the group and discussing the information with each other. Talk about an essay or documentary, practice our pitches, ask each other questions as if we were unfamiliar with the content and give constructive feedback to one another.
- Secondary Time Frame (Broader Context Time Frame): Present through the 2014 Elections
- Actions for the group to take (Note: Actions can be done by individuals, smaller groups within the group or the group as a whole)
1) Continue actions from the initial time frame
2) Be actively engaged in the political process without Occupy or this strategy group having any party affiliation. Support the inclusion of all candidates in debates. Identify political candidates that will publicly promise to support the Constitutional Amendment from earlier in this document and press them on the issue. Also, make sure that these candidates have a history that is consistent with their pledge to the voters to support the Constitutional Amendment. Make it clear to the candidates that if they do not carry out their campaign promise to end corporate persons they will be voted out of office the next election. Make clear that if they lie about their campaign promises massive direct actions will take place in the districts or states that they represent to support our effort and let it be known that the people were lied to by that politician. Create so much media during the primaries, the campaigns and the debates, that the issue to end corporations becomes the paramount issue of the elections. We use alternative media sources and the people-force that we helped to unite between now and then to overwhelm social media with our message as we in union in this struggle act in concert to have this message be virtually everywhere. We also use the interim elections as practice to develop our ability to direct the message of the campaign.
3) Debrief with the our group and follow-up with the connections we make and organizations that we coordinate with from the Democracy Convention in August of 2013 https://democracyconvention.org/ and the National Gathering from later in August of 2013 http://interoccupy.net/blog/occupy-national-gathering-2013-kalamazoo-michigan-proposal-of-endorsement/. Revisit our efforts and continue to organize and expand our connections to groups that are like minded as well as continue to network to a broader audience introducing new people and groups to the information and to our events. Work synergistically with the connections we have made to have more common/shared events always looking to magnify the impact of our efforts.
4) Members of our group work on targeting notable figures from academics, to celebrity activists, to famous socially conscious singers and other notables to join our effort and help spread the information about the cause.
5) Build on the success of earlier event days and gatherings and plan larger events in concert with other friendly groups as the web of interconnected organizations and individuals grows.
6) Work to enact ballot initiatives on the state and local levels using the language of the federal amendment which has already been proposed. This involves gathering teams of people to gather signatures in a window of time after the language of the initiative has been cleared by the attorney general
- Tertiary Time Frame (3rd Time Frame Context): Present through the 2016 Presidential Elections
- Actions for the group to take (Note: Actions can be done by individuals, smaller groups within the group or the group as a whole)
1) Continue actions from the initial time frame and secondary time frame
2) Continue to work to enact ballot initiatives on the state and local levels using the language of the federal amendment which has already been proposed. This involves gathering teams of people to gather signatures in a window of time after the language of the initiative has been cleared by the attorney general.
(Will add a clearer step by step way to see this through for people in their states and local communities)
3) By this point if we have not already achieved success in the cause to amend the Constitution and our effort to "End the Corporatocracy," the people-force united from our efforts of the last three years will sever to direct the national dialogue of the debate making the paramount issue of the presidential election the abolition of corporate persons with the enactment of the Constitutional amendment. This along with making sure all candidates are included in the debates. We must take from our experience in the 2014 interim elections and build upon it. The unity of the people in union around this effort will ensure our voice be heard.
(Note: This is why it is very important between the present and the 2nd and 3rd time frames to unite the collective efforts in this struggle, educate and inform people at mass about this effort and have as many people as possible join us in this movement to "End the Corporatocracy!"