By Ben Price
“America 250,” the official government celebration of the semiquincentennial of the United States, is brought to you by the following corporate sponsors….
That’s not a joke.
It’s the reality of corporate power in the USA.
America250, the official national organization created by Congress to celebrate and commemorate the founding of the United States, is sponsored by Alaska Airlines, Amazon, Anheuser-Busch, Boeing, BP, Chick-fil-A, Citi, Cisco, Coca-Cola, Coinbase, Comcast NBCUniversal, Cummins, FedEx, General Mills, Goldman Sachs, John Deere, Johnson & Johson, JPMorganChase, L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, New York Stock Exchange, Northrop Grumman, Palantir, Proctor & Gamble, ScottsMiracle-Gro, Starbucks, T-Mobile, Target, UFC, Walmart… and many others.
From a revolution supposedly built on throwing off distant elite rulers — including corporations like the British East India Company, whose tea was famously thrown into Boston Harbor — to a nation dominated by homegrown elites and a celebration of ‘freedom’ brought to you by weapons manufacturers, genocide peddlers, global warming criminals, agribusiness, fake food giants, and surveillance corporations — the irony knows no bounds.
July 4th, 2026 is the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Contrary to the official story, it was not a foregone conclusion that independence from Britain would organically evolve, thirteen years later, to the formation of the United States of America.
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, with its condemnation of top-down governance, inspired people in the colonies to join in the revolt. For a time, between 1776 and 1789, common people — those who were not slaves, Native Americans, or women — were supported in their belief that liberty from the empire would lead to equality and justice in an alliance of thirteen independent nations.
What was born instead was an apartheid nation with aspirations to empire guided by men of wealth instead of men with aristocratic titles. And while people have struggled mightily over the intervening centuries for equality under the law, we find ourselves 250 years in, facing another counter-revolution of the opulent against the majority.
It is in this context that the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, CELDF, has organized its own historical truth-telling program in response to the reactionary ancestor-worshiping propaganda being celebrated by the federal government and its corporate partners.
Called ‘America 250: A Revolutionary Perspective’ CELDF’s program incorporates essays, live streaming events, podcasts, and videos, all aimed at providing a surprising and historically-accurate counterpoint to the lies that pass for American history.
“This series lets us understand that the sum total of all the legends about the men who established the USA amount to false memories created by 250 years of repeated whitewashing,” says Ben Price, CELDF’s Director of Education, who has studied and taught the real history of the American Revolution for decades.
The series has been running since January. Podcasts include lively conversations about institutionalized sexism, racism, classism, and materialism such as our discussion with journalist and filmmaker Keala Kelly (Kanaka Maoli / Hawaiian) and author and professor Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes descendent) entitled “What Revolution? Systemic Racism, Sexism, and Genocide from America’s Beginning.” Activist Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright joined us in a discussion on systemic racism in BLACK OUT, a podcast you’d be sorry to miss.
Short videos like Best Sellers and Best Sellouts; No Flag No Country; and The US Constitution Betrayed the Revolution will get you prepped and eager to dive in deeper to essays such as Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered, which makes the case that the 27 justifications for revolt against England listed in the original Declaration remain strikingly relevant today.
Two-hundred and fifty years later, the grievances listed against the British Empire in the Declaration of Independence have yet to be resolved by the American empire under the U.S. constitution.
The America 250: A Revolutionary Perspective series will be ongoing through July 4th, with more written pieces, recorded conversations, and videos to come.
Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
CELDF is a nationwide organization of activists, lawyers, and allies who work to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with Earth. For over 30 years we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation through understanding the false democratic promises of the regulatory model and asserting rights to local self-governance grounded in ecological balance and collective power.
Today, CELDF advocates for the rights of nature through legislation like the Great Lakes Bill of Rights, local initiatives, educational and cultural programs, and provides frontline support for community resistance and resilience. Contact CELDF to partner with us, to ask advice, or get involved.
More information about CELDF, including photos pre-approved for media use, can be found in our press kit.
Ben Price is CELDF Education Director.