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Nov 11, 2021
CELDF’s Kai Huschke was centrally involved in the first-in-the-nation Community Bill of Rights and Worker Bill of Rights. His chapter for the new book One-Block Revolution, details the community building behind the efforts.
Read More | PublicationsMay 21, 2021
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 ExploitationJul 17, 2017
A federal judge does not consider the people’s right to a healthy climate in a lawsuit filed by Spokane residents who are fighting to protect their community from fossil fuel activities.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJul 15, 2017
A federal judge uses “standing” to dismiss Spokane residents’ lawsuit asserting a right to a healthy climate, ignoring the urgency of climate change and the people’s rights.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsJul 6, 2017
Spokane, WA, residents set to make their argument for a right to climate in federal court next week. CELDF filed a lawsuit on behalf of residents against the U.S. government in January.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsFeb 1, 2017
Residents of Spokane, WA, file a federal lawsuit asserting the people’s right to a healthy climate.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsFeb 1, 2017
“Raging Granny” residents in Spokane, WA, file federal lawsuit for a right to a livable climate.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJan 31, 2017
CELDF files lawsuit against the federal government, asserting federal law preempting municipal control of fossil fuel rail shipments violates residents’ constitutional right to a healthy climate and local self-government.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsJan 31, 2017
CELDF files lawsuit against the federal government, asserting federal law preempting municipal control of fossil fuel rail shipments violates residents’ constitutional right to a healthy climate and local self-government.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsJun 10, 2016
Coal and oil trains passing through Spokane, WA, spark physician Gunnar Holmquist to take action, filing a CELDF-drafted Community Bill of Rights charter amendment banning the shipments as a violation of the right to a healthy climate and public safety.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsFeb 28, 2016
In a move reflective of efforts by the corporate state to quash citizens’ initiatives across the U.S., the Washington Supreme Court recently denied Spokane residents the right to vote on their Community Bill of Rights Charter Amendment.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsNov 29, 2015
This November, Spokane, WA, residents led groundbreaking work in advancing worker rights, and made a stand for community rights in the Washington Supreme Court.
Read More | UncategorizedNov 10, 2015
After City and corporate interests kept Spokane residents’ 2013 Community Bill of Rights off the ballot, CELDF argues before the Washington Supreme Court to recognize the right of the people to initiative.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsNov 9, 2015
Learn the latest news from election day in Grant Township and West Chester, PA; Youngstown, OH; and Spokane, WA. And check out the launch of our new website!
Read More | News from the Grassroots, Press Releases & BlogsOct 26, 2015
With union and labor backing, as well as endorsements from local groups and nationally renowned Noam Chomsky, Spokane, WA’s, Worker Bill of Rights charter amendment will be voted on by residents next week. The bill of rights establishes a family wage, equal pay for equal work, and protection from unjust firings.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsOct 26, 2015
Residents supporting the Worker Bill of Rights in Spokane, WA, call out fear tactics used to dissuade voters, and press forward with their efforts to raise minimum wages, assure equitable pay standards, and protect against unfair firings.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsOct 4, 2015
Spokane, WA’s, Worker Bill of Rights initiative places worker rights over corporate privileges. “If we are about creating …sustainability, we can’t get there without actually challenging this idea that corporate rights should be greater than the community’s rights,” says Envision Spokane’s Kai Huschke.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsSep 23, 2015
Spokane, WA’s Worker Bill of Rights asserts the right to community decision-making over corporate claimed “rights” to call the shots. And in Colorado, residents’ community rights state constitutional amendment asserts community decision-making over state claimed preemptive authority.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsSep 11, 2015
Spokane, WA, residents qualified a Community Bill of Rights for the ballot for 2013. Corporate and government interests attempted to keep the measure off the ballot, and lost in an appellate court. November 10th the Washington Supreme Court will hear the case.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsSep 9, 2015
Envision Spokane is asking a judge to throw out a legal challenge brought by the mayor against the group’s most recent ballot initiative.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsSep 3, 2015
Not wanting communities exercising authority in the places where they live, business and government interests appeal a Washington appellate court decision to the Washington Supreme Court. The appellate court had ordered Spokane’s Community Bill of Rights on the ballot for a vote by the people.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsAug 27, 2015
The Worker Bill of Rights is the fourth initiative from Envision Spokane, now operating under Envision Worker Rights, to qualify for the ballot. It would grant new protections and rights to workers in Spokane, a prospect that has the business community worried.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsAug 26, 2015
While The Spokesman-Review got it right that all qualifying citizens’ initiatives should make it onto the ballot, the editorial board continues to get it wrong on corporate rights.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsAug 14, 2015
SPOKANE, WASHINGTON: Judge Salvatore Cozza from the Spokane County Superior denied a preliminary injunction brought by the Mayor of Spokane to block the vote of a Worker Bill of Rights initiative, which is on the November ballot.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsAug 12, 2015
Learn the latest news on Spokane, WA’s, Worker Bill of Rights, read Community Rights Paper #5 on Citizens United, and join us for the launching of the Ohio Community Rights Workshop.
Read More | News from the GrassrootsAug 12, 2015
CELDF assists Envision Spokane in asking a judge to dismiss efforts to keep the people’s Worker Bill of Rights off the ballot. Spokane, WA’s, mayor filed the lawsuit.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsAug 5, 2015
As the City of Spokane sues its own citizens in an attempt to keep a Worker Bill of Rights off the ballot, this opinion piece points out the hypocrisy and the anti-democratic tactics of City Hall.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsAug 3, 2015
The city of Spokane attempts to keep the people of Spokane from voting on their own Worker Bill of Rights, filing a lawsuit to block the duly qualified initiative from the November ballot.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsAug 3, 2015
Despite the constitutional right of Spokane, WA, citizens to vote on their own Worker Bill of Rights, the City of Spokane files suit in an attempt to block the qualified initiative from the ballot.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJul 25, 2015
Spokane, WA, residents successfully place a Worker Bill of Rights initiative on the November ballot. The city council is working to place advisory questions on the ballot as well, to deter voters from supporting the measure.
Read More | Community WiresMay 12, 2015
An in-depth look at Spokane, WA, its economy, and what sustainable and just would mean to the almost 40,000 people living in poverty. This includes Envision Spokane’s Worker Bill of Rights, aimed for the November 2015 ballot.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsMay 12, 2015
An in-depth look at Spokane, WA, its economy, and what sustainable and just would mean to the almost 40,000 people living in poverty. This includes Envision Spokane’s Worker Bill of Rights, aimed for the November 2015 ballot.
Read More | UncategorizedMar 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 GrassrootsFeb 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 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 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 GrassrootsSep 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 WiresFeb 28, 2014
Western University students in Bellingham, WA, call on their peers to launch a Community Bill of Rights initiative in Bellingham.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsOct 8, 2013
Editor Simon Davis-Cohen interviews CELDF’s Pacific Northwest Community Organizer Kai Huschke about our structure of law and governance that functions to deny communities’ rights when they interfere with corporate “rights,” as seen today in both Washington State and Oregon.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsAug 30, 2013
Corporate and government interests in Spokane, WA, succeed in blocking citizens’ initiatives that would establish Community Rights.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJul 8, 2013
Updates and news from CELDF communities across the country.
Read More | UncategorizedAug 7, 2012
Washington Communities Launch Statewide Network to Advocate for Community Rights.
Read More | UncategorizedJul 30, 2012
Drafted by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) and Envision
Spokane, the organizations Occupy Spokane and Spokane Move to Amend (SMAC) are
currently qualifying the initiative for the November 2013 ballot. The project represents the
first common initiative of the organizations in the country.
Sep 28, 2011
Cross the threshold into a private workplace and POOF!, your constitutional rights disappear. It’s true. Gone go your First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights, but not so for corporate employers.
Read More | UncategorizedSep 28, 2011
Prop. 1 would establish the highest protections for the River and Aquifer – recognizing their rights to exist; it then provides for us – as Spokane residents – the ability to enforce those rights.
Read More | UncategorizedSep 28, 2011
Today, corporate developers have more rights than our neighborhoods. Prop. 1 would require developers to obtain neighborhood approval for zoning changes involving significant development. It means residents, not developers, would have the final say.
Read More | Uncategorized