Northern California
Democracy School Agenda

Friday, (6:00 pm - 9:30 pm)

  • Arrival of Attendees
  • Wine & cheese reception
  • Introductions of Attendees (Begin: 6:30 p.m.)
  • Discussion:
    • "What is our Current Pattern of Activism?"
    • "Our Work Within the Regulatory System"
    • "What is Law and How is it Used?"
  • A Brief Overview of the Democracy School and the Evolution of CELDF & Global Exchange
  • Case Study: Traditional Organizing and Corporate Power -- Factory Farms

Saturday, (8:30 am - 6:00 pm)

  • Colonialism: Creating and Replicating the English Structure of Law and Culture Across the Globe and the American Colonies
    • The History and Rise of the English Slave and Empire State
    • The Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constitution
  • A History of Peoples' Movements in the United States
    • The American Revolution
    • The Articles of Confederation and the Constitution
    • The Anti-Federalists
    • The Abolitionists and the Fourteenth Amendment
    • Womens' Rights and the Nineteenth Amendment
    • The Labor Movement
    • The Civil Rights Movement
  • Building a Corporate State: a Minority Uses the Constitution to Override Community Self-Government
    • Early Corporate Chartering
    • Dartmouth College: Wrapping the Corporation in the Constitution
    • Municiple Charters vs. Corporate Charters
    • Transitioning from a Slave State to a Corporate State
    • Contemporary Corporate "Rights" and Powers

  • Building New Models of Organizing (The Pennsylvania Model)
  • The "Single Issue" Model: From Reframing to Winning
  • Driving into Local Governing Arenas
    • Challenging and Contesting Corporations
    • Contesting Government Actions Empowering Corporations to Usurp Community Control
  • From Reframing to Drawing the Corporate Response to Building New Constituencies to Winning
  • Building a Legal Framework to Challenge and Eliminate Corporate Rights
    • The Porter and Licking Township, Clarion County Experience: Using Law to Eliminate Legal Privileges Claimed by Corporations
    • The Legal Defense Fund's Model Legal Brief to Eliminate Corporate Rights
  • FROST v. St. Thomas Development, Inc.: A Rural South-Central Pennsylvania
  • Community Organization Takes on the Constitutional "Rights" of a Quarry Corporation
  • Building the Connections Amongst All Single Issues: Our History of Collaterally Challenging Illegitimate Corporate Authority


Note: All attendees receive a 350 page background reading packet two weeks prior to the School, which contains curriculum materials for the School.