August 12th, 2015
Check out CELDF’s latest news below on the Spokane Worker Bill of Rights, the new Ohio Community Rights Workshops, and Citizens United.
SPOKANE’S WORKER BILL OF RIGHTS
The Worker Bill of Rights citizens’ initiative is gaining endorsements – including UFCW Local 1439, the Spokane Regional Labor Council, author Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky, and 15 Now Tacoma. CELDF has been partnering with Envision Spokane and Envision Worker Rights to advance the rights of the community, nature, and workers since 2007.
Now Spokane’s Mayor Condon has filed a lawsuit to keep the measure off the ballot – in a direct challenge to the constitutional right of the people of Spokane to the initiative process. CELDF’s legal team is defending the right of the people of Spokane to direct democracy, and to keep the Worker Bill of Rights on the ballot. Read the Envision Worker Rights media statement.
COMMUNITY RIGHTS PAPER #5: The Fickleness of Democracy – The Empty Barricades of Citizens United
Much attention is given to the 2010 Supreme Court decision, Citizens United, 
which expanded corporate “rights.” While the decision further removed us from any vestiges of democracy, the fact is, corporate “rights” aren’t new – they were first bestowed on corporations in 1819.
Unfortunately, while the Citizens United decision definitely made our current political system worse, the truth is that things were pretty bad already. And therein lies the rub. While people on both sides of the political spectrum dislike Citizens United and would like to see it overturned, they’re not taking to the streets over it. That’s because overturning Citizens United – without challenging the larger system of law it represents – wouldn’t make much of a difference.
What would? Read more here, in CELDF’s Community Rights Paper #5.
OHIO COMMUNITY RIGHTS WORKSHOP LAUNCHES
The Ohio Community Rights Workshop is launching this fall for communities across
the state. In the Workshop, we examine:
- why we don’t have the power to say “no” to fracking and other threats;
- how corporations and government are able to override local, democratic decision-making and force fracking, injection wells, and other inherently unsustainable practices into our communities; and
- what communities are doing across Ohio, and other states, to elevate the rights of people, communities, and nature over corporate “rights.”
To learn more, contact CELDF’s Ohio Community Rights Organizer, Tish O’Dell, at tish@celdf.org.
EVENTS: CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING
For information on CELDF events, see our home page, under Announcements.
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