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Organizing for Community Rights
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Listen To Democracy School live on the Radio December 8th-11th!
KRYS radio in Spokane will broadcast four one-hour segments of a mini-democracy school. The broadcast will be available live on the web at www.kyrs.org. Material will cover the regulatory system, the constitution, people's movements, and rights-based organizing in Spokane, WA. Listen in at:
Monday, December 8th - 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. Pacific Time
Tuesday, December 9th - 7 am. to 8 a.m. Pacific Time
Wednesday, December 10th - 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. Pacific Time
Thursday, December 11th - 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. Pacific Time
Where is democracy when corporations claim constitutional rights and make decisions that harm the health, environment, and livelihood of our communities?
Rights-based organizing reestablishes how we think of democracy by helping communities assert their rights to local self government. Rather than working within the confines of unjust laws, we must recognize that when the law isn't working for the people its time to change it. Using this model, communities are passing ordinances denying corporations' constitutional rights, recognizing the rights of natural environments, and deciding who will rule in their communities.
Confronted by corporate harms, more than 100 communities across the USA have decided to do something different, enacting laws that place the rights of communities and nature over the claimed "rights" of corporations. The organizing model and history of corporate evolution is learned in Democracy Schools.
Global Exchange brings the Democracy Schools to California for weekend long trainings throughout the State. Check out the Democracy School page for more information and to reserve your spot at the next school.
 Read about the first community to challenge the Constitutional rights of corporations and assert local control of decision making -Porter Township story- from Building The Green Economy, Success Stories From The Grassroots co-authored by Shannon Biggs.
Also from the book, an interview with Thomas Linzey,founder of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.
For more information on rights-based organizing and bringing it to your community, contact Shannon, 415.575.5540 or shannon@globalexchange.org.
Listen to Shannon Biggs, Ben Price of the Legal Defense Fund, and Monterey organizer Elsa Dooling talk about rights based organizing on the radio show Tomorrow Matters with Deborah Lindsay.
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Contact:
Shannon Biggs
415.575.5440
shannon@blobalexchange.org
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