Friend,

Since the launch of UnKoch My Campus, and especially in the last five years, countless activists, advocates, and organizers have done the long and hard work of rooting out undue influence. We’ve had wins, losses, and built incredible partnerships along the way. 

We believe an important mark of leadership is the individual, interpersonal, and collective practice of curiosity, reflection, and adaptation. Years of following the dark money trail kept leading us beyond the Koch network simply funding climate denial and misinformation. The current state of corrosive social polarization and culture wars, mistrust in democratic institutions, and our inability to take bold action on climate are the material outcomes of decades-long strategy advanced by Charles Koch, his family, and those in partnership with him. 

After our team followed the money and connected 13 of the elected officials that participated in the January 6^th Insurrection and attack on the United States Capital, we knew it was time to make some changes. Our concerns were confirmed, yet again, when Jane Mayer uncovered Koch-funded operatives working inside Washington to sideline the will of the people. We can no longer avoid stating what we know because of fear that we will not be believed: The Koch network’s “free market” political agenda is corporate fascism. Corporate fascism does not respond to the strategies and tactics utilized by the movements we’ve been a part of – with everything that is at risk, we must adapt.

Over the last year and a half, we have been quietly building something new: The Common Good Movement. We will pause UnKoch’s external operations for the month of September and then return in October to launch this new project. This unprecedented moment of overlapping crisis means that many of us are in a continuous state of fear and terror. Multiple climate disasters, racially motivated domestic terrorism, and a rigged democracy have exhausted many of us. 

The Common Good Movement builds on UnKoch’s legacy of addressing undue influence and pulls back the lens to see a broader picture. The Common Good Movement started as an idea which grew into a cohesive vision of what could be transformed if people were to unite, not by overlapping threats and experiences of oppression, but by a chosen commitment toward a future shaped by safety, dignity, and belonging. Something good is coming… and it is us!

If you are interested in exploring launching a common good campaign in your community, add your information here. One of our organizers will reach out to you in October when we return from our pause. 

In Solidarity,

The Team at UnKoch My Campus

P.S.

The work of UnKoch My Campus, including our reports, data, and resources, is not going away! The Common Good Movement will support the maintenance of UnKoch's legacy and even support anyone interested in starting new campaigns to UnKoch their campus.

UnKoch My Campus is a project dedicated to disrupting corporate influence on campuses nationwide by equipping campus activists with education, skills, and ecosystems of solidarity. The Koch network is leveraging its donations to colleges and universities to bolster its corporate agenda to halt action on climate change, put hundreds of thousands of people in prison, deny millions of people healthcare, and strip rights and wages from workers globally. We're building a mass movement of young people who are dedicated to disrupting this harm. 

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