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Apr 16, 2015
What are we willing to sacrifice at the altar of energy? Author and naturalist Charles Johnson beseeches us to look beyond science, beyond climatism, and beyond legal precepts about property – to look at love, humanity, and our connection with the land as we live in a time of ecological crisis.
Read More | UncategorizedApr 13, 2015
Just over a year ago, the International Tribunal for the Rights of Nature and Mother Earth sat for the first time in Quito, Ecuador. Here, Michelle Maoney of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance shares the powerful, alternative narrative that emerged from the Tribunal, whereby Rights of Nature are recognized, codified, and enforced.
Read More | UncategorizedApr 2, 2015
This legal brief explains how the right of local, community self-government is not a new right, but one that is natural, inherent, and inalienable, belonging to the people.
Read More | PublicationsApr 1, 2015
It is with great sadness that we share with you the loss of our friend and colleague, Gail Darrell. For nearly a decade, Gail has worked to protect communities across New England from corporate and government interests that sought to override the rights of people, communities, and nature.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsMar 25, 2015
While Seneca Resources insists it has suffered “irreparable harm” from Highland Township, PA’s, Community Bill of Rights banning fracking injection wells, residents assert they have an inalienable right to protect their water, and continue to back their Supervisors to exercise that right.
Read More | Community WiresMar 25, 2015
Envision Spokane – a community, rights-based organization in Spokane, WA – is advancing a Worker’s Bill of Rights for the November 2015 ballot that would protect workers’ rights to a living wage, equal pay for equal work regardless of gender or race, and other rights for workers.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsMar 20, 2015
Envision Spokane advances a CELDF-drafted Worker’s Bill of Rights to protect workers’ rights to a living wage, and three other key provisions.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsMar 19, 2015
Residents of Windsor, CO, work to place a rights-based Charter Amendment on the ballot for a vote by the people, to secure and protect community rights, and ban fracking as a violation of those rights.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsMar 15, 2015
While a County Court elevates corporate claimed “rights” over community rights in Broadview Heights, OH, residents assert the decision is illegitimate and determine to continue on.
Read More | UncategorizedMar 9, 2015
Threatened with industrial wind farms, communities in New Hampshire use Community Bills of Rights to ban the harmful practices. The Town of Alexandria votes this Tuesday at Town Meeting on a second rights-based ordinance to strengthen their ban on unsustainable energy practices.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsMar 7, 2015
Mar 3, 2015
Highland Township, PA, residents urge their Supervisors to defend their community and fight Seneca Resources as the energy corporation files a federal lawsuit to overturn their Community Bill of Rights banning fracking injection wells. The ordinance was adopted by the township in 2013 to protect their water.
Read More | UncategorizedMar 2, 2015
Highland Township, PA, residents and Supervisors determine they are protecting their water through their Community Bill of Rights banning fracking injection wells – regardless of any lawsuits.
Read More | Community WiresFeb 23, 2015
ORCRN files a proposed state constitutional amendment to secure citizens’ right to local, community self-government, thereby enabling the people to protect themselves from harmful corporate activities, and move towards sustainability.
Read More | Community WiresFeb 18, 2015
Feb 18, 2015
While corporations are granted growing numbers of “rights” by the courts, local communities are asserting community rights to local self-government, and to clean air, soil, and water – and banning corporate activities that violate those rights. Listen to Rick Staggenborg’s interview with CELDF’s Kai Huschke.
Read More | News from the GrassrootsFeb 17, 2015
Kent, OH, law director attempts to preempt citizens’ right to initiative by changing the city’s Charter – giving him the authority to veto proposed initiatives at his discretion.
Read More | Community WiresFeb 14, 2015
In the face of corporations and government joining together to suppress the democratic rights of the people of Spokane, WA, to vote on a Community Bill of Rights, last week the Washington Court of Appeals overturned an earlier ruling and ordered the initiative be placed back on the ballot for a vote of the people.
Read More | UncategorizedFeb 8, 2015
Barrington, NH, residents bring a Community Bill of Rights initiative to direct democracy at Town Meeting in March. The Barrington community is threatened by water, gravel, and mineral extraction, and is using Community Rights to protect themselves and local ecosystems.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsFeb 4, 2015
In the face of corporations and government joining together to suppress the democratic rights of the people of Spokane, WA, to vote on a Community Bill of Rights, last week the Washington Court of Appeals overturned an earlier ruling and ordered the initiative be placed back on the ballot for a vote of the people.
Read More | UncategorizedFeb 3, 2015
In the face of corporations and government joining together to suppress the democratic rights of the people of Spokane, WA, to vote on a Community Bill of Rights, last week the Washington Court of Appeals overturned an earlier ruling and ordered the initiative be placed back on the ballot for a vote of the people.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsJan 30, 2015
The Washington State Appellate Court ruled in favor of a Community Rights initiative that had been kept off the ballot by local corporate and government interests, finding that the right of initiative by the people is protected.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJan 28, 2015
The Supreme Court makes decisions that are benefiting corporations and harming democracy, while communities are working to adopt Community Bills of Rights that codify people’s rights to local self-governance and sustainable communities – banning those corporate activities that violate those rights.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJan 25, 2015
While ALEC and other pro-corporate entities attempt to decrease worker rights,CELDF partners in Colorado and Spokane, WA, begin working on Community Bills of Rights to protect workers’ rights, building on the “floor” of rights established at the state and federal levels.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJan 25, 2015
While ALEC and other pro-corporate entities attempt to decrease worker rights,CELDF partners in Colorado and Spokane, WA, begin working on Community Bills of Rights to protect workers’ rights, building on the “floor” of rights established at the state and federal levels.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJan 7, 2015
While the oil & gas industry protests, CELDF & allies bring forward the Rights of Nature as the basis to give ecosystems legal standing to protect itself. The Little Mahoning Watershed in Grant Township, PA, filed to intervene in a case against Grant’s Community Bill of Rights banning frack wastewater injection wells.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsDec 22, 2014
Blogger Russ reviews why labeling GMOs misses the point: People have a right to abolish GMOs – not just know whether or not their food contains them. He urges grassroots, Community Rights Movement building to achieve that end.
Read More | UncategorizedDec 19, 2014
Residents of western Pennsylvania determine to protect their community, families, and the land by banning fracking through Community Bills of Rights, and Rights of Nature conservation easement.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsDec 16, 2014
Southern New Hampshire communities unite in opposition to a gas pipeline project threatening their Towns, and learn about Community Rights as a means to protect residents and local ecosystems.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsDec 13, 2014
Mason, NH, residents gather to oppose a gas pipeline threatening their community, and learn about CELDF-drafted Community Bills of Rights to stop harmful corporate activities as a violation of Community Rights.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsDec 10, 2014
Blogger Frances Madeson reveals Judge Browning’s pained granting of intervenor status to the Mora Land Grant and Jacobo Pacheco in the SWEPI lawsuit seeking to overturn Mora’s Community Bill of Rights banning all hydrocarbon extraction.
Read More | UncategorizedNov 29, 2014
Blogger Frances Madeson reveals the number of gas leases in Mora County, making their Community Bill of Rights banning fracking all the more urgent.
Read More | UncategorizedNov 19, 2014
The idea that advancing and enforcing people’s fundamental rights, while directly challenging the power of corporations and the state to override community rights, is somehow an act of government overthrow says more about our current political/legal system than it does about the Colorado Community Rights Network.
Read More | News from the GrassrootsNov 19, 2014
As voters last week banned fracking in regions from Ohio to Texas to California, Colorado citizens are meanwhile attempting to reclaim their own right to a safe, healthy environment by enacting the Colorado Community Rights amendment to the Colorado Constitution.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsNov 18, 2014
Today, for the first time, an ecosystem in the United States filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit to defend its own right to exist and flourish. The Little Mahoning Watershed and Grant Township, PA, residents come up against the Pennsylvania General Energy Corporation.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryNov 13, 2014
Blogger Frances Madeson shares the surreal proceedings in the oral arguments of the SWEPI v. Mora County, NM, case. SWEPI is suing to overturn Mora County’s Community Water Rights and Local Self-Governance Ordinance.
Read More | UncategorizedNov 13, 2014
Mendocino County, CA, residents voting to use Community Rights to ban fracking by an overwhelming majority in the November election, welcome the broader conversation about the recognition of community rights within the county.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsNov 12, 2014
Growing numbers of communities – including Athens, OH, and Mendocino County, CA – banned fracking by asserting their inalienable right to make governing decisions, and elevating community rights above corporate claimed “rights” when they harm a community.
Read More | UncategorizedNov 10, 2014
Denton, TX, joins a growing number of communities being sued by their own government and corporate entities, to punish communities for democratically enacting bans on fracking.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsNov 6, 2014
Mendocino County, CA’s, Community Bill of Rights banning fracking protects residents and local ecosystems, and challenges existing law that denies communities the right to local decision-making, the right to clean air and water, and the right to create sustainable communities.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsNov 5, 2014
Community Bills of Rights advance on Election Day 2014, with a record number of initiatives on the ballot, and a growing number of communities determined to drive those rights forward.
Read More | UncategorizedNov 5, 2014
CELDF-drafted Community Bills of Rights banning fracking and challenging corporate claimed “rights” in Ohio and California take center stage.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Success StoryNov 5, 2014
Athens, OH, residents overwhelmingly adopt a Community Bill of Rights banning fracking wastewater disposal, as a violation of their rights to clean air, water, and the right to local self-government.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsOct 17, 2014
The COCRN calls for support to advance the Colorado Community Rights Amendment for the state wide ballot in 2015. Check out their fundraising video on INDIEGOGO.
Read More | UncategorizedSep 26, 2014
Dover-Foxcroft, ME, resident urges communities to assert their rights to protect themselves from harmful corporate projects, such as the East-West Corridor, through Community Bills of Rights.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsSep 17, 2014
Why can’t we say “no” to what we don’t want, and “yes” to what we do want, in our communities? This short video goes through the barriers we face in our communities – and what you can do about it.
Read More | UncategorizedSep 17, 2014
What is the right of local, community self-government? Where did that right come from? The right is violated daily – what does that actually look like? And can we build sustainable communities without that right? If not, how do we change law to codify that right? CELDF’s Thomas Linzey answers these questions in this 20 minute slide show.
Read More | UncategorizedSep 1, 2014
In 2007, after a series of Democracy Schools held in Spokane, Washington, a group of citizens led by local school teacher Brad Read built a coalition to support a Community Bill of Rights for City residents.
Read More | Community WiresAug 21, 2014
CELDF’s Thomas Linzey calls out the blatant sellout of Coloradans by a Congressman who had claimed to support communities banning fracking, and a non-profit’s abandonment of helping protect Coloradans from fracking.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsAug 21, 2014
Lafayette, CO, residents file a preliminary injunction to protect their Community Bill of Rights banning fracking.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots