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We hope you enjoy the articles, factoids, features, and spotlights of the…
Newsletters, Resources
The essays in Wouldn’t You Say? ask challenging questions about modern society,…
News from the Grassroots, Publications
A new system of law based on respect for Nature and the…
Issues, News, Resources, Rights of Nature
Jun 14, 2015
Some folks are celebrating 800 years of Magna Charta as if it were a sacred document. Others…not so much. Why? Read more in this New York Times opinion piece.
Read More | UncategorizedJun 13, 2015
A video on the work of OHCRN in growing Community Rights to help protect all Ohioans from harmful activities threatening clean air, pure water, and the right to democratic, local self-governance.
Read More | UncategorizedJun 13, 2015
A video on the work of OHCRN in growing Community Rights to help protect all Ohioans from harmful activities threatening clean air, pure water, and the right to democratic, local self-governance.
Read More | UncategorizedJun 8, 2015
Recognizing sustainability is illegal under our current structure of law, blogger Magix of Coos County urges the Community Bill of Rights to challenge the law and protect their County from an LNG export terminal.
Read More | UncategorizedJun 5, 2015
CELDF’s Mari Margil shares about the growth of the Community Rights Movement with our allies in Ireland – a movement to challenge and change our structure of law and governance such that the rights of communities and nature are elevated above corporate claimed “rights” to frack, mine, privatize water, etc. See page 2.
Read More | UncategorizedMay 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 | UncategorizedMay 10, 2015
Check out CCSAGE’s video: Columbia County, OR, residents partner with CELDF to advance Community Rights to stop fossil fuel transportation threatening their communities.
Read More | UncategorizedMay 1, 2015
The Pennsylvania Community Rights Network stands by Conestoga Township, PA, resident Kim Kann, who was arrested for speaking truth at a public meeting this week. Kann and other residents are tirelessly pursuing community rights to protect themselves from LNG pipelines, despite local government officials’ hostility.
Read More | UncategorizedMay 1, 2015
The Pennsylvania Community Rights Network stands by Conestoga Township, PA, resident Kim Kann, who was arrested for speaking truth at a public meeting this week. Kann and other residents are tirelessly pursuing community rights to protect themselves from LNG pipelines, despite local government officials’ hostility.
Read More | Community WiresApr 27, 2015
Author Evaggelos Vallianatos pays tribute to Audrey Moore of Josephine County, OR – a community rights advocate who recently died from cancer caused by the poisons she was unwavering in trying to stop. Audrey’s work lives on in those around her, who are steadfast in advancing the right of all living things to be free from chemical trespass.
Read More | UncategorizedApr 25, 2015
In a letter-to-the-editor, New Hampshire resident and New Hampshire Community Rights Network member Pamela Martin recognizes CELDF’s work to support communities in protecting their rights over corporate claimed “rights” and government interests.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsApr 23, 2015
As Athens County, OH, residents are subjected to increasing quantities of fracking wastewater imported into their communities, they are finding no remedy in their state government. It’s time for residents to stand together to protect their health, safety, and welfare.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsApr 20, 2015
It’s with a heavy heart that we are sharing the news of the recent passing of Audrey Moore. Over the last two years, Audrey has been a truly formidable force and trailblazer for community rights in Oregon.
Read More | UncategorizedApr 18, 2015
As the oil and gas industry bears down on local Colorado municipal representatives to open their communities to fracking, those who refuse to cave are part of building a community rights movement that is rebuilding our structure of law and governance.
Read More | UncategorizedApr 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 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 29, 2015
Will Falk is a biophilic author, attorney, and activist. He works with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund and his law practice is focused on helping Native American communities protect their sacred sites.
Read More | Multimedia, News from the Grassroots, Rights of NatureJan 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 Story