Book: ‘Death by Democracy’
Protecting Water and Life: Frontline Stories from Ohioans fighting corporate and state…
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Sep 17, 2021
Newsletter: Ohio Update
Ohio communities over the past decade have worked hard to protect ecosystems and their communities from various harmful projects. They did the work of asserting democratic rights to alter and reform their government. They collected signatures, argued in court, battled in lopsided campaigns and even won a few only to have the courts overturn their… Read more »
Read More | Blogs, Chemical Trespass, Community Wires, NewsSep 15, 2021
Newsletter: New England Update
Residents are blowing the whistle on large-scale industrial solar arrays that require the cutting of old-growth forests in favor of destructive greenwashing.
Read More | Blogs, Community Wires, NewsSep 14, 2021
Newsletter: Pacific Northwest Updates
Invisible Hand, the rebirth of the WACRN, and updates from the West Coast.
Read More | Blogs, Community Wires, News, News from the GrassrootsSep 13, 2021
Newsletter: Building a Movement in Pennsylvania
Community Rights organizing began in Pennsylvania over two decades ago. Since then, dozens of local laws have been adopted that ban everything from factory farms, to the spreading of sewage sludge, to oil and gas fracking and pipelines.
Read More | Blogs, Community Wires, News, News from the GrassrootsSep 10, 2021
Newsletter: Asheville Climate Bill of Rights Begins Signature Gathering
A new ordinance seeks to place a Climate Bill of Rights on the 2022 ballot, which explicitly challenges North Carolina’s infamous state preemption scheme and privileges afforded private corporations.
Read More | Blogs, Community Wires, Corporate 'Rights', Extraction & Pollution, News, Rights of NatureSep 9, 2021
Newsletter: Non-Linear Change
As we organize to make change while environmental and racial injustice run rampant, and as drought and a poisonous status quo threaten the conditions for life, identifying where to invest time and energy can be as complex as getting to know another human being. Nothing about forming relationships follows a straight line.
Read More | Blogs, Democratic Rights, NewsSep 8, 2021
Newsletter: Updates on Defunding Violence
The Defunding Violence Ordinance has been circulating in activist communities across the country. It continues to be a living document that both informs and is informed by grassroots efforts to defund and depower the institution of policing.
Read More | Blogs, Community Wires, Defunding Violence, NewsAug 17, 2021
Just Compensation
The courts of the empire may rely on self-referential legalisms to declare that the original indigenous inhabitants never had legal claim to ownership of the land, or that the U.S. Constitution did not, at the time, recognize enslaved people as capable of owning anything, including their own lives and labor; hence nothing recognized as legal property was taken from them and no compensation is owed. Typical judicial gaslighting.
Read More | Blogs, NewsJul 26, 2021
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, NewsJul 4, 2021
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, UncategorizedJun 1, 2021
Newsletter: Confronting Law Schools
Law schools must reckon with the harm they have caused in perpetuating this oppressive system of law! Toward this end, CELDF has been honored to endorse a campaign to rename the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, named after former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall. The justice, known for empowering corporations and the U.S. Supreme… Read more »
Read More | Blogs, Community Rights, Corporate 'Rights', Democratic Rights, NewsMay 31, 2021
Newsletter: Building International Rights of Nature Solidarity
CELDF is honored to work in solidarity with a new French-speaking network to advance the Rights of Nature in Europe. The network includes Loire Parliament, Valentransition, A.R.B.R.E.S., id-eau, Notre Affaire à Tous and others. “We are now working to grow the network with other similar organizations and communities active in the defense of the ecosystems… Read more »
Read More | Blogs, Community Rights, News, Rights of NatureMay 24, 2021
Newsletter: Collaborating With Academia
It will take many minds to birth a new legal and political paradigm. Engaging students and educators is critical. Toward that end, CELDF’s Chad Nicholson recently helped teach a short Rights of Nature seminar. Markie Miller presented at the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference and at the University of Toledo. Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin is heading up… Read more »
Read More | Blogs, Community Rights, News, Rights of NatureMay 21, 2021
Newsletter: Featured Online Film Screenings
The new award-winning documentary THE PEOPLE VS. AGENT ORANGE is now screening in theaters near you! CELDF is proud to sponsor limited nationwide screenings ahead of the national premiere on PBS, forthcoming in summer 2021. CELDF is sponsoring screenings in California, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, and… Read more »
Read More | Blogs, Chemical Trespass, Corporate 'Rights', Democratic Rights, Extraction & Pollution, NewsMay 21, 2021
Newsletter: Community Justice
In a small living room in one of the most economically neglected neighborhoods in the State of Washington emerged the work of Envision Spokane. A handful of local activists and residents asked themselves the question “why?” Why, after so many years of advocacy work on behalf of neighborhoods, renters, the houseless, small businesses, the uninsured,… Read more »
Read More | Blogs, News, Worker ExploitationMay 20, 2021
CELDF Sponsors Nationwide Screenings of New Award-Winning Documentary ‘The People vs. Agent Orange’
The new award-winning documentary “The People vs. Agent Orange” is now screening in theaters near you! The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund is proud to sponsor limited nationwide screenings ahead of the national premiere on PBS, forthcoming in summer 2021. CELDF is sponsoring screenings in California, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York,… Read more »
Read More | Blogs, Chemical Trespass, Community Rights, Events, Issues, News, UncategorizedMay 9, 2021
Newsletter: The Rights of Nature Are Blooming
It’s happening. The Rights of Nature movement is exploding as communities rise up around the world to demand a paradigm shift in our legal system’s relationship to the earth and her ecosystems. So far in 2021, Rights of Nature has advanced in places including Oaxaca, Mexico, through a constitutional proposal; France, where a network of… Read more »
Read More | Blogs, NewsMay 5, 2021
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 »
Read More | Blogs, NewsFeb 28, 2021
Introducing CELDF 2021: A New Year, A New Structure
A new democratic structure will empower collaboration and expansion CELDF just celebrated its 25th birthday. Now, we’re investing in the next 25 years. For decades, our staff have spearheaded issues few others would touch. CELDF was years ahead of the curve on Rights of Nature and a structural demand for local community self-determination to counteract… Read more »
Read More | Blogs, Democratic Rights, News, Success StoryJan 18, 2021
Newsletter: New Hampshire Pamphlet
To advance political education in the Granite State, the New Hampshire Community Rights Network (NHCRN) has compiled an in-depth pamphlet to explore a transformation of New Hampshire’s form of government.
Read More | Blogs, Community Rights, News, Water PrivitizationJan 8, 2021
Newsletter: Momentum for Constitutional Change in Pennsylvania
In 2020, members of the Pennsylvania Community Rights Network engaged in a statewide support campaign for a state constitutional amendment to place the rights of people over the interests of private corporations – empowering communities to heighten state protections for civil, human and ecosystem rights.
Read More | Blogs, Corporate 'Rights', Democratic Rights, Extraction & Pollution, News, Rights of Nature
Dec 28, 2020
Observing Revolution: Pennsylvania
Newsletter: CELDF has supported the efforts of Grant Township, PA as they engage in local lawmaking to successfully resist corporate contamination of water. Despite years of legal attacks by the private corporations, PA regulatory agencies, and the oil and gas industry, local residents of Grant Township have reasserted and continued to defend local lawmaking and protect the natural systems that sustain them.
Read More | Blogs, NewsDec 26, 2020
Community Rights Network Established in Virginia
Virginia joins the growing network of state Community Rights Networks.
Read More | Blogs, Community Rights, News, Rights of NatureNov 10, 2020
CELDF REPORT: What Wasn’t Voted On (2020)
A new Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund report details the repression of ballot initiatives in 2020.
Read More | Blogs, News, Publications, Resource Links, ResourcesNov 4, 2020
CELDF Statement on Orange County, FL ‘Rights of Nature’ Law
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) has prepared the following statement in response to the passage of the Wekiva River and Econlockhatchee River Bill of Rights.
Read More | Blogs, News, Rights of NatureNov 2, 2020
Defunding the Police
The call for change is clear – we need to rethink how we allocate resources to ensure we are meeting the needs of the community. The realization that existing laws have the dual goals of appearing to protect us while in reality doing the exact opposite is long overdue.
Read More | Blogs, Defunding Violence, NewsOct 28, 2020
Times of System Change
Protests are shifting the conditions of political action. Immediate structural change may be difficult to see – but it’s happening – culture is shifting. A dedicated and defiant movement is emerging and challenging the purpose of the law.
Read More | Blogs, Newsletters, Press Releases & BlogsSep 28, 2020
Blog: Change History
The collective effort to dismantle oppressive and racist systems relies on decentralizing power. Only when we understand the importance of community control can we envision fair and just systems we must build.
Read More | Blogs, Press Releases & Blogs
Jun 9, 2020
CELDF REPORT: Corporations Are Suing Cities Across the USA
A new Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund report details a standard operating procedure of how corporate interests, and the politicians who serve them, retain power.
Read More | Blogs, News, Publications, ResourcesJun 2, 2020
Stand With George Floyd: Life > Property
When violent police forces rooted in white supremacy defend property rather than human beings, then property destruction becomes a collective act of self-defense. CELDF stands in solidarity with protesters outraged by racial injustice and violence. #BlackLivesMatter
Read More | Blogs, Defunding Violence, NewsMay 22, 2020
Mar 17, 2020
Community Stories: Claiming the Law
Bryan Twitchell shares a guest blog about the Wet’suwet’en First Nation’s ongoing resistance to the Coastal GasLink pipeline in British Columbia, Canada.
Read More | Blogs, Community Wires, NewsFeb 26, 2020
Breaking the Spell of Misguided Obedience
Toledo organizer Markie Miller drafted this letter to Lake Erie the night before the federal hearing. In honor of this moment in history, we share her letter here.
Read More | Blogs, Community Wires, News
Feb 5, 2020
VIDEO: ‘The Transformation from Reformist to Revolutionary’
This 6 minute short explains how, across numerous social issues—from housing, worker rights, environmental protection to gentrification—“the people in the community lack the legal authority to determine their own future, a basic tenet of democracy.”
Read More | Blogs, Community Rights, Multimedia, News from the Grassroots, Resource Links, ResourcesSep 6, 2019
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
May 24, 2019
Blog: A Right to Survive is Born in Denver
Wealthy interests seeking to crush human rights in Denver, Colorado, out raised local supporters of the Denver “Right to Survive” initiative 23:1. This is the story of a fight for human rights that cannot be trampled by corporate hegemony.
Read More | Blogs, Community Wires, News