Protecting the Rights of People & Nature From the Local Up

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Hi, Greetings from Portland, Oregon, where I am getting back to work after a much needed, nature-focused, month-long break - hiking and backpacking at six national parks in CA, AZ, UT, CO, and SD. I’m feeling renewed and raring to go, and want to share with you a run-down on the exciting work we are doing to build the Community Rights movement. Our expanded working  Board of Directors has identified three priority projects for us to be focusing our attention on over the next six months:

#1 ) Did you know that February 2, 2019 is the Bicentennial day - the 200th Anniversary - of the Supreme Court granting constitutional so-called “rights” to corporations? The court case was ‘ Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward ' in February 1819, and from that day to the present, the Supreme Court has continued to massively expand constitutional “rights” for corporations, which has created a monumental crisis of democracy. Using these rights, corporate leaders now control virtually all societal decision-making concerning food and water, health care, land use planning, fossil fuel vs renewable energy, forestry, foreign affairs, elections, and much more. We think it’s time to bring renewed national attention to this continuing assault on our communities, on our democratic institutions, and on our planet's life support systems that allow all of us to live and breathe.

Our initial goal is to support at least ten US communities to organize public events commemorating this historic and tragic moment in history. We're calling this national series of coordinated local events: Roasting 200 Years of Corporate Constitutional "Rights" 1819-2019:   See how our rights have been usurped in plain sight...and learn how we can take back local control! Check out all the info here . It is long past time for us to begin plotting for the end of corporate constitutional “rights” in this country. Please consider organizing a Corporate “Rights” Roast event in YOUR community, to take place sometime this coming February. We can help you with conceptualizing and marketing of your event. We can offer speakers. We can even offer a Photo Exhibit for display. (See #2 below.)  For more info, please email us here .

#2) I have been taking photographs for years that highlight examples of large business corporations exercising their so-called constitutional “rights” everywhere. We will be placing these photos into a shareable photography exhibit that we’re calling “Hidden in Plain Sight: How Corporations Exercise Their Constitutional ‘Rights’ Under Our Very Noses” , to help the general public to ground the corporate “rights” issue in their own experience and communities. To make it real, not just theoretical. This exhibit will be ready in January for any Community Rights active person in our network to use in their own community. Please consider utilizing this photo exhibit as part of YOUR community’s Corporate “Rights” Roast event. It could hang on the walls of your local coffeehouse, art gallery, or public library display case. For more info, please get in touch with us .

#3) We will soon be launching a work group of our board members and other colleagues who will be producing a Community Rights curriculum and a Study Guide to help expand our movement beyond those who are able and willing to attend weekend-long trainings. If you have curriculum-building and/or teaching experience and wish to become a part of this project, please contact us soon . This project group will precede our planning process for the Community Rights movement’s first-ever Training for Workshop Leaders, which we hope to launch sometime in late 2019. 

IN OTHER NEWS: I just returned from Denver, Colorado, where I led a day-long Community Rights workshop for the  National Conference on Dialogue and Deliberation . After the conference, I met with a variety of folks who had been previously active in the Colorado Community Rights Network. Sadly, I learned that this state network is now mostly inactive since their unsuccessful attempt to pass a statewide constitutional amendment that would have legalized local communities and counties passing laws that would protect their health, safety and welfare from harmful corporate activities such as fracking. The Community Rights effort requires major sustained commitment from a solid core group in each community. The wins can sometimes take a lot more time and effort than more conventional single-issue emergency response activism, but when they happen, another chink in the structural armor of corporate “rights” falls for all who follow. This movement needs YOU. It has enormous potential. Please join us! 

All my best, Paul Cienfuegos Founding Director, Community Rights US P.S. I will be based in Rockford, Illinois, from mid-December to mid-February, and very much look forward to visiting some of you in the Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, and Illinois region during my Midwest stay. If you think you might be ready for a workshop or public speaking event, please get in touch with me ASAP. Thanks so much! 

Essential CR News from the Web

What’s the Point of Local Government when We Can’t Decide? The Rights of Nature Gaining Ground Editorial by Pat Bywater: Nature Rising Across Region Community Rights Amendment Will be Before Lawmakers Again Derrick Jensen Interviews Thomas Linzey on Resistance Radio We Can’t Tolerate Local Issues Being Labeled ‘Beyond Our Authority’

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