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Protecting the Rights of People & Nature From the Local Up
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Hi,
Out here on the West Coast, we’re getting some gorgeous hot days, which I am absolutely loving, having spent too many previous years living in the coastal fog zone.
And in just a few days, I go off grid for a two-week group retreat in the woods to recharge and breathe deep.
In the interim, we’ve been busy reorganizing ourselves after our crowd-funding adventure brought in a substantial amount of money last winter & spring
--about $23,000 (though less than we had anticipated).
Thank you for your ongoing support of our critical work across the country.
(And if you haven’t already contributed a one-time or monthly donation of any size - no amount too small! - you can do so
HERE).
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We’ve launched a new working
Board of Directors
, which now meets monthly via web conferencing.
And our
website homepage
has become THE go-to spot for all
news and analysis
from and about the larger Community Rights movement,
thanks to our intrepid part-time staff person Curt Hubatch
, up in NW Wisconsin.
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I recently returned home from my 29th teaching visit to the Driftless region of our country, where Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota meet along the Big Muddy - the breathtaking Mississippi River.
Highlights of my trip included:
- An invitation to present and answer questions for two full hours at a specially called session of the Viroqua, Wisconsin City Council. The session was also attended by more than 40 local residents excited about bringing a Community Rights approach to solving local issues. The local Crawford County Independent newspaper ran a detailed story about the presentation HERE. And you can view my presentation HERE.
- Introductory Community Rights workshops in a number of Wisconsin and Iowa towns, including in Baraboo, Wisconsin, where my co-host is a long-time elected member of the Sauk County Board of Supervisors; and in Lansing, Iowa, where my co-host is running for a seat on the Allamakee County Board of Supervisors.
- A day-long planning session in preparation to launch our new national ThinkTank on Rethinking the Regulatory State. It will publish policy papers, and constructively nudge journalists and single-issue activists to deepen their understanding of the true history and purpose of regulatory agencies. Contrary to popular belief, regulatory law is not and never has been about protecting human health, labor rights, and the environment. Our president’s dismantling of the regulatory state has created a golden opportunity for us to re-imagine what We want our government agencies to do to protect us.
- An OpEd piece I wrote that was published in the Decorah, Iowa local newspaper, reminding local residents that they have the power and authority to take on Alliant Corporation in its drive to stop the community from creating its own public electric utility.
One of the most significant political changes that have happened due to my dozens of visits to this region since 2013
is an increasingly widespread realization among local residents that their local elected officials are the wrong people, and that those with a lot more political backbone and vision should be the ones making the key decisions that affect the people and their environment.
So these newly awakened folks are running for local office and most of them are winning!
There are so many urgent issues not being properly addressed in this region, such as rapidly increasing factory farms, new and expanded fossil fuel pipelines, and frac sand mines serving the fracking industry.
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So we’re beginning to change the predominant narrative in town and county halls across this region.
And I feel confident that in this next year we’re going to witness an uprising of rural residents who have had enough of their state governments pushing them around.
Many state elected officials are going to lose their seats to pro-democracy anti-corporatist candidates who are ready to stand with working people and defend our human and other natural communities against corporate atrocities.
This is an incredibly exciting moment for social change movements all across this beautiful country of ours.
I hope you will
contact us
soon at Community Rights US and get involved!
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All my best,
Paul Cienfuegos
Founding Director,
P.S. If you’re considering bringing me to lead a workshop in your community, I’d love to
hear from you
, as my Fall calendar is already starting to fill up! Contact me at
info@CommunityRights.US
.
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In other Community Rights US news
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In Menomonie, WI:
Local Community Rights leader
Joan Pougiales
is beginning to
conceptualize and organize a network of mutual aid and solidarity between this region’s local governments and local residents
, preparing for the day that these local governments start passing Community Rights ordinances and then face possible expensive lawsuits.
The idea is that communities could offer each other financial support in such situations, or even run identical Community Rights ordinances simultaneously in multiple communities.
In Athens, Georgia
Community Rights activist
Carla Cao
, until recently a grad student at the University of Georgia in Athens, has been working actively with me this past year
towards developing a new Rights of Nature consciousness in that community
.
She has brought artists, musicians, biologists, and other environmentally concerned residents together to conceptualize a Community Rights ordinance campaign to begin to protect the heavily contaminated North Oconee River, which is the drinking water source for the city.
In April, they organized an extraordinary and very successful “
Arts on the River Celebration
” to begin to realize this bold community-wide vision.
In the Midwest & Colorado:
We’re excited but not quite yet able to report to all of you the details of a keynote speech invitation for a
Farmers Union conference in the Midwest,
as well as a
conference workshop in Denver later this year.
Details in our next newsletter.
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Essential CR News from the Web
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Want the latest News & Analysis from and about the Community Rights Movement?
CLICK HERE
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Check out the latest in Community Rights!
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Please also forward this to family, friends, and colleagues who may be interested. Thanks!
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