Guest Author

Mar 14, 2023

Guest Blog: We Must Overturn SCOTUS Decisions That Effectively Deny Rights to Black People

Guest Blog: We Must Overturn SCOTUS Decisions That Effectively Deny Rights to Black People

The posting of this piece is a reflection of CELDF’s commitment to featuring diverse perspectives and ideas in the quest to bring about a community rights and rights of nature existence into full being. 

Read More | Blogs

Jan 16, 2023

Guest Blog: Badges and Incidents of Slavery

Guest Blog: Badges and Incidents of Slavery

The challenge: How to overcome the white dominance/Black subordination relationship. How to decolonize.

Read More | Blogs, Democratic Rights

Oct 31, 2022

Celebrating Victories in Europe and South America, the Rights of Nature Movement Plots Strategy in a Time of ‘Crises’

Celebrating Victories in Europe and South America, the Rights of Nature Movement Plots Strategy in a Time of ‘Crises’

A global alliance formed in 2010 to advance an unorthodox legal theory that ecosystems and wild animals have rights, similar to humans. Now, says one leader, those ideas are “legitimate subjects of debate.”

Read More | News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

Sep 13, 2022

Chile’s Rejection

Chile’s Rejection

How could Chileans, after rising up in October 2019 to demand a new constitution, then voting by an overwhelming majority to initiate the constituent process, reject the proposed draft? Why would they align with right-wing forces seeking to preserve the Pinochet constitution? This astonishing result surely demands a multi-causal explanation.

Read More | Democratic Rights, Issues, News, News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

Jul 8, 2022

“Putting the rights of nature on the map. A quantitative analysis of rights of nature initiatives across the world.”

“Putting the rights of nature on the map. A quantitative analysis of rights of nature initiatives across the world.”

The Rights of Nature (RoN) promote a new understanding of the human
environment, where natural entities are conceived as subjects with intrinsic value independent of human interests. The implementation of this idea
gained momentum in the United States in 2006. One decade and a half later, the idea has spread all over the world.

Read More | News, Resources, Rights of Nature

Feb 1, 2022

Guest Blog: The Journey of a Film

Guest Blog: The Journey of a Film

It’s an uphill battle against some of the most powerful lobbies on earth. The threats against our health posed by heedless profit-seeking are heavily empowered.

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Jan 27, 2022

Guest Blog: Community Rights in Buffalo, NY

Guest Blog: Community Rights in Buffalo, NY

Systems change doesn’t hinge on electing the right candidate – it’s advanced most forcefully when organized communities engage in direct action.

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Oct 4, 2021

A Tribute to Gail Mills

A Tribute to Gail Mills

Gail Mills of Nottingham, NH, passed away this month, having paid forward a legacy of community activism that inspired local activists across the country. 

Read More | Blogs, News

Jul 26, 2021

Guest Blog: Critical Race Theory

Guest Blog: Critical Race Theory

Put another way, critical race theory illuminates our historical record despite centuries-long efforts to whitewash it. White nationalists present “alternative facts” conducing to a zero-sum society of white winners and nonwhite losers.

Read More | Blogs, Defunding Violence, News

Jul 4, 2021

Guest Blog: How Qualified Immunity Subverts the Rule of Law

Guest Blog: How Qualified Immunity Subverts the Rule of Law

This guest submission was originally given as a graduation address on police reform. The author argues, our informed consent is what legitimizes government. And so it’s up to us to command all of our public servants, including cops. We the People must nullify the despotic doctrine so-called qualified immunity. The buck stops with every single citizen from their eighteenth birthday.

Read More | Blogs, Defunding Violence, Democratic Rights, News, Uncategorized

May 5, 2021

Guest Blog: Energy Democracy: Community Rights in New Hampshire

Guest Blog: Energy Democracy: Community Rights in New Hampshire

By Barbara Peterson Nottingham, New Hampshire is fighting for a clean and healthy community Energy democracy works for local control of our energy sources. The global movement for energy democracy works with communities for local control of renewable sources of energy to help ensure equity, reliability, availability, and affordability. As stated by Denise Fairchild and… Read more »

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Apr 9, 2021

Columbus Free Press: Lawsuit To Protect Direct Democracy In Columbus During The Pandemic Dismissed By Court

Columbus Free Press: Lawsuit To Protect Direct Democracy In Columbus During The Pandemic Dismissed By Court

A lawsuit seeking a temporary suspension of Columbus’ one-year petitioning time limit due to the pandemic was dismissed by the U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio on April 14, 2021. The lawsuit was filed in June 2020 by our group, Columbus Community Bill of Rights (CCBOR), arguing that the city’s time limit during the COVID-19 pandemic was unconstitutional and placed a severe burden on ballot access for our initiative, which sought to ban harms from the fracking industry within Columbus and it’s watershed area.

Read More | Democratic Rights, Issues, News, News from the Grassroots

Jan 4, 2021

Guest Blog: Talking Trash With South Philly’s Trash Academy

Guest Blog: Talking Trash With South Philly’s Trash Academy

Trash Academy​ (a program of Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Environmental Justice Institute) approaches the issue of trash and litter in urban neighborhoods by putting the situation in its proper historical and socio-political context as they recognize the problem cannot be addressed without acknowledging pre-existing systems of exploitation and oppression.

Read More | Uncategorized

Dec 17, 2020

Guest Blog: John Marshall: A Case Study of Institutional Racism

Guest Blog: John Marshall: A Case Study of Institutional Racism

This essay discusses our courts of law as epitomes of institutional racism and the role played by Former Chief Justice John Marshall. This guest blog is part of a continuing effort to re-name law schools after Former Chief Justice Marshall, who owned over 200 slaves. Dealing with institutional racist past and trying to right some of the wrongs.

Read More | Community Wires, News, Press Releases & Blogs

Aug 1, 2020

Guest Blog: The Prison-Industrial Complex & Immigration Detention

Guest Blog: The Prison-Industrial Complex & Immigration Detention

The United State’s system of racist mass incarceration serves to control the political wishes of the American people. The immigration detention and deportation pipeline denies political rights to people who live in the country, and expels them from the collective political community.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs

Jul 20, 2020

THESIS: Anticapitalism and Environmentalism in the American Rights of Nature Movement

THESIS: Anticapitalism and Environmentalism in the American Rights of Nature Movement

Canadian honors student, Camylle Lanteigne, unpacks the connection between anticapitalism and ecocentrism in the Rights of Nature Movement. Her research focuses on CELDF’s philosophy as a framework for her arguments.

Read More | Community Wires, Corporate 'Rights', Democratic Rights, Rights of Nature

Jun 9, 2020

Guest Blog: Time for a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Nature

Guest Blog: Time for a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Nature

Pella Thiel, Rights of Nature Sweden, calls for meaningful changes to our relationship with nature.

Read More | Blogs, News

May 22, 2020

GUEST BLOG: Making Corporate America Safe for Democracy

GUEST BLOG: Making Corporate America Safe for Democracy

A critical look at labor equity in America is long overdue. The relationship between empoyer and employee should not be that of master and servant -corporations have created should employ freemen and freewomen.

Read More | Blogs, News

Sep 6, 2019

Blog: It’s Time: Rights of Nature in the UK.

Blog: It’s Time: Rights of Nature in the UK.

As we begin a sixth mass extinction, we must act now to change our trajectory. In this guest blog, Susan Shaw urges the UK to embrace Rights of Nature to propel us forward.

Read More | Blogs, Press Releases & Blogs, Rights of Nature