Protecting the initiative petition process state by state

This short paper from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund outlines attacks on the initiative petition process by pro-fracking forces opposing community rights ordinances. While the paper focuses on Ohio and hydrofracking, this tactic could conceivably be used anywhere where voters organize to control corporate misdeeds through direct-democracy ballot questions.

Few municipalities have the right of initiative petition, so protecting the laws already on the books is doubly important. This November, Ohioans will be convening a founding convention of the Ohio Community Rights Network (OHCRN), with the goal of rewriting the state constitution so that it recognizes the right of towns and cities to self-governance. Similar networks already exist in New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania.

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"Corporations and Democracy" interviews Wisconsin democracy activist Ben Manski

Ben Manski, executive director of Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution and spokesperson for the Wisconsin Wave, talks to Steve Scalmanini and Annie Esposito, hosts of the August 19 edition of Corporations and Democracy, heard on KZYX&Z-FM, Mendocino County Public Broadcasting in Philo, California.

Ben, Steve, and Annie discuss heartland progressive populism and resistance to attacks on local government in Benton Harbor and other Michigan towns, to the results of the recent Wisconsin recall elections, including allegations of pro-GOP election fraud in a well-to-do county (not the first time this has happened!). Ben reviews the history of home rule provisions and the need to strengthen them today to provide a democratic bulwark against corporate personhood and corporate rule.

Listen online here!

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Trenton, ME, passes local food and self-governance ordinance

The fifth Maine town to vote on the Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance, Trenton, passed it at their town meeting Saturday morning. The vote was close, at 29-25 (Trenton has only about 1000 year-round residents, and there was a fire alarm early in the meeting which cleared the hall and thinned the crowd a little).

AfD vice co-chair Bonnie Preston, who has been working to help spread the word about these ordinances, writes that pro-ordinance people plan to do some follow-up with the town and select board to try to make sure they better understand this issue. They learned a lot from this town meeting about how important the ground-work is, and how important it is to understand the circumstances in each town, something that can really only be done by that community.

They are still anticipating a re-vote in Brooksville this summer; this was the one town where the ordinance was defeated, although a town board may have improperly recommended that it not be passed. Right now Local Food and Community Self-Governance ordinances are 4-1; they will work to make it 5-0.

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Blue Hill, ME is the latest town to pass a local food and self-governance ordinance

Blue Hill, Maine, voted overwhelmingly to pass a Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance at their Saturday town meeting on April 2. Discussion of the ordinance, which allows communities to establish their own rules governing sale and production of farm products, was lively, according to AfD co-chair and Blue Hill resident Bonnie Preston. You can read a model of the ordinance here.

Local food activists will be meeting soon to discuss how best to move forward to get this ordinance passed in other towns around the state. Two more towns are going to be voting in June, and several more are interested in adding it to their warrants for next year. Brooksville, which voted the ordinance down after a committee recommended a no-vote, may take the ordinance up again in May.

Bonnie also reports that people from around the country are interested in what the ordinance does to protect local farming and farm-to-consumer sales--the
day the Local Food, Local Rules web site went up, there were 522 hits on the link to the sample ordinance. Everybody eats!

The Bangor Daily News covered the vote here.

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First Maine town passes Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance

At least four towns in Maine will vote on the rights-based Local Food and Self-Governance Ordinance at their annual town meetings this spring--one town has already passed the measure. AfD'ers in the Blue Hill area have been working to get the ordinance before town meetings and build support among farmers and consumers.

The ordinance gives people the right to purchase food from a local family farm that has not been processed in a licensed and inspected facility. It also protects local farmers' markets and community events such as church suppers and school bake sales. It was necessitated by the recent attempts to enforce USDA standards created for large-scale agribusiness on small farms that have no way to pay for the new facilities they would need. Maine law says that the purpose of the Maine Dept. of Agriculture is to protect small family farming in the state.

The measure passed unanimously at the first town meeting vote in Sedgwick on Saturday. This week the measure will go to Town Meetings in Brooksville and Penobscot, and will be taken up by Blue Hill in April. Other area towns are also considering adding it to their warrants this year.

At the state level, District 36 representative Walter Kumiega has introduced two similar pieces of legislation, one to exempt raw milk from licensing if it's sold direct from the producer, and the second to expand this local ordinance statewide. Kumeiga said that access to "straight from the farm" food is important to his constituents, and that he had no trouble finding cosponsors for the bill.

You can read more here and here, and read the ordinance here.

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Short takes on corporate personhood and water

Some Buffalo NY Common Council members are looking into a ban on dumping or treating fracking waste inside the city. Good comment on this short piece relating environmental protection to corporate v. community rights.

Ronnie Cummins follows up an earlier piece with a look at "Monsanto's Minions," pointing out how Citizens United allows corporations with big profits at stake and little public credibility to shovel cash into the campaign of anyone running against a pro-GMO labeling legislator. It's good to see that he's adding "abolishing corporate personhood" to the to-do list of what must be done to protect the integrity of food and the future of real organic agriculture.

New Haven, CT, is considering giving up bottled water to save $32,000 a year.

Meanwhile Corporate Accountability International will present a petition to House Speaker John Boehner tomorrow calling for the House to stop buying bottled water, a habit which cost taxpayers an amazing $190,000 just for the first quarter of 2010 (from the photo, it appears that an appearance before a Congressional hearing comes with a small complementary bottle of Deer Park, which if it's not labeled "spring water" could be filtered tap water. No idea where they source the ice cubes.)

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Farm-to-table economies protected in Maine

AfD'ers in Maine have been supporting town-level passage of the Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance of 2011, and a public meeting on the ordinance is planned for Thursday, February 3 in Brooksville. The ordinance will be presented at town meetings there and in Sedgwick, Penobscot, and Blue Hill this spring. We'll be posting links to local coverage, and will have a copy of the ordinance online soon.

The ordinance is designed to safeguard the "farm to table" relationships between producers and buyers that have been a part of Maine food traditions for generations, but have come increasingly under attack by a regulatory system geared toward often dangerously haphazard oversight of industrial agriculture and processors.

The right to local self-governance in the ordinance builds on the local ordinances previously passed by six towns in New Hampshire and Maine to protect their groundwater and their local ecosystems.

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C-SPAN coverage of "For the People" summit

C-SPAN taped several of the panel discussions at the January 20-22 Movement for the People summit, including the keynote speech by Lawrence Lessig on ethics in politics--you can watch the broadcasts here. Highly recommended: the panel discussion on movement building models, with Steve Meacham from City Life/Vita Urbana in Boston, Veronica Dorsey and Ashley Hufnagel of United Workers of Baltimore, Steve Dubb from Community Wealth Project and Evergreen Coops in Cleveland, entrepreneurial activist Paul Glover, and Marty Cobenais Indigenous Environmental Network.

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New Hampshire legislation helps towns protect groundwater

Thanks to the diligent work of Bill McCann, AfD's New Hampshire organizer for the Defending Water for Life Campaign, New Hampshire now has a state law that enables towns to pass local ordinances to protect groundwater. Serving on the NH Groundwater Commission established by the state legislature, Bill held hearings around the state on the issue of local control and then built on this base to get the state law passed. The law makes it unlikely that the state will challenge local ordinances like the one passed in Barnstead in 2006, with support from AfD's Defending Water campaign. The Barnstead ordinance has now been replicated in three other NH towns. The law goes into effect on September 18th.

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Pittsburgh's City Council to consider a ban on drilling for natural gas in the city

At a City Hall press conference today, Councilman Doug Shields announced he will introduce a bill that would ban corporations from drilling for gas in the city of Pittsburgh. He said he will introduce the ordinance following Council's current recess.

At the heart of "Pittsburgh's Community Protection from Natural Gas Extraction Ordinance" is this statement of law: It shall be unlawful for any corporation to engage in the extraction of natural gas within the City of Pittsburgh.

Also included in the ordinance is a local "bill of rights" that asserts legal protections for the right to water, the rights of natural communities, the right to local self-government, and the right of the people to enforce and protect these rights through their municipal government.

The bill was drafted by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund at the invitation of Council members.

Commenting on his legislative proposal, Shields stated, "Many people think that this is only about gas drilling. It's not - it's about our authority as a municipal community to say "no" to corporations that will cause damage to our community. It's about our right to community, local self-government."

Shields urged all municipalities in the Commonwealth to enact similar laws "to send a message to Harrisburg," and he insisted that a temporary moratorium "will not be an acceptable consolation prize for a failure of the State to recognize this local law and these fundamental rights."

Energy corporations are setting up shop in communities throughout Pennsylvania, with plans to drill for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formation. The frenzy of industrial gas extraction that once appeared to be confined to rural communities and state forest lands has taken residents of the city by surprise. Corporate "land men" have busily signed-up Pittsburgh property owners to contracts allowing wells to be erected on private property throughout the city. The prospect of paved-over green spaces, nights lit like airport runways, round-the-clock sounds of loud machinery, broken and pitted roads from the high volume truck traffic, and the threat of toxic trespass by a cocktail of patented chemicals and escaping methane into the ground water, has alarmed neighbors of lease-holders, and they've begun to organize in opposition to the proposed drilling.

Ben Price, Projects Director for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, said he applauds the Council member for taking a stand on behalf of community rights. "Some will say it's controversial, or that the city doesn't have the authority to ban gas drilling. The only way that's true is if the State has the authority to strip the residents of the city of their rights, and it doesn't."

Price commented that "we don't have a gas drilling problem. What we have is a democracy problem. We need to stop treating the environmental symptoms and cure the societal disease that's brought fracking to our doorstep. The State says we don't have the right to decide whether or not we get fracked and that only the corporate-lobbied members of the General Assembly have the wisdom to decide how much harm should be legalized through state-issued permits. There's something sick about that kind of thinking. If we cure the systemic anti-democratic disorder manifested by our state's refusal to recognize the right to local, community self-government, gas drilling without consent of the governed will go away."

The gas extraction technique known as "fracking" has been cited as a threat to surface and ground water throughout the region, and has been blamed for fatal explosions, the contamination of drinking water, local streams, the air and soil. Collateral damage includes lost property value, ingestion of toxins by livestock, drying up of mortgage loans for prospective home buyers, and threatened loss of organic certification for farmers in the affected communities.

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, located in Chambersburg, has been working with people in Pennsylvania since 1995 to assert their fundamental rights to democratic local self-governance, and to enact laws which end destructive and
rights-denying corporate action aided and abetted by state and federal governments.

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Solidarity Economy Means Cultural, Environmental and Political Transformation

by Jim Tarbell

In 2007, at the Atlanta US Social Forum I witnessed the formation of the US Solidarity Economy Network. (USSEN). This past week, I used my time at the Detroit Social Forum to investigate how the Network was progressing. When I mentioned this to my colleagues, they nodded approvingly, but then stared at me quizzically asking, “What is the solidarity economy.”

That question is being answered as more people become involved with identifying and defining this organic, transformative phenomenon. Nancy Neamtan of the Quebec Chantier de L’Economie Sociale points out that “for years everyone was defining themselves as a community radio or a fair trade association or a workers co-op or a housing co-op and there was no common umbrella for defining ourselves as part of the economy. So the leap we made in 1996 was to come together as a broad network of co-ops, non-profits, and social movements in urban and rural areas that shared a vision of a solidarity economy that is democratic, inclusive and equitable.” She goes on to say that the solidarity economy is “citizen-based action within the economy through cooperative, collective or non-profit organizations that are producing goods and services based on a logic that sees the primacy of people over capital, that are democratically controlled, that respond to the needs of the community and that promote a philosophy of empowerment.”

Among the many workshops on the solidarity economy at the USSF, the Center for Community-Based Enterprise (C2BE) hosted one called Building Local Community and Creating Jobs through Cooperation. It featured several businesses across the country and included a Detroit neighborhood of community-based enterprises that hosted lunch the next day for a tour of Detroit community-based enterprises.

The US Solidarity Network (www.USSEN.org) helped organize a whole track of workshops at the Detroit Social Forum including one on how to map and organize solidarity economy members locally. Meanwhile, the Intercontinental Solidarity Economy Network (RIPESS) offered reports from solidarity networks across the planet. Representatives from Quebec, Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America reported back on laws, forums and networks that are being developed around the world to support and strengthen the solidarity economy.

At the Friday night plenary, Daniel Tygel, Executive Secretary of the Brazilian Forum on the Solidarity Economy captured the imagination of the entire Social Forum saying, “We must be able to deal with our differences, and we must be able to find what we have in common to get over the individual or organizational perspective, so that we can get to a massive perspective to propose transformation. . . We are always thinking about the transformation of the economy and the transformation of society. The main project of the solidarity economy is to combine economy, culture, the environment and politics. What we are fighting for is a kind of termite method of killing capitalism. The termites are eating the wood, but if you look at the house, it looks like it is there, but the termites are eating the wood and one day this house will fall down.”

The next issue of Justice Rising will highlight the solidarity economy and how we can all participate in the coming transformation. Let me know if you want to participate in this issue or have ideas about its content. We are all in this together and it will take a massive effort to come together and create a truly transformative solidarity economy.

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Central Maine town approves anti-corporate personhood ordinance

A central Maine town has followed in the footsteps of neighbors in Shapleigh and Newfield, and voted to approve a new ordinance that denies the rights of persons to corporations. Town meeting voters in Monroe passed the ordinance on June 14.

Other towns have passed--or tried to pass--similar ordinances in response to concerns that corporate water extraction threatened community wellbeing. AfD's Defending Water for Life has provided organizational support to several of these campaigns. And while no corporation currently has its eyes on Monroe's water, resident Seth Yentes said it was good to be proactive. The ordinance is "giving us a foundation to jump off of if somebody wanted to come in and extract water from our town... It's really about local control and democracy and I think it's a great idea."

The "Town of Monroe Local Self-Government Ordinance," as the new law is called, flies in the face of years of court opinions that have bestowed various constitutional rights on the corporate form. The Maine Municipal Association cited these precedents when solicited by town officials, and determined that that the ordinance overstepped the bounds of local governance. The legal issues with the ordinance would "create serious doubt as to its validity and enforceability if approved by the voters," according to the MMA.

Some voters questioned whether the ordinance would discourage or put too many restrictions on business, or would cost the town if it came to the point that Monroe had to defend the law in court. Defenders of the ordinance emphasized that it does not restrict any legitimate business from coming to Monroe. They also stressed that if the new law was challenged in court, costs of defending it would be far less than its detractors feared

You can read local coverage here.

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Actions on behalf of ending corporate personhood

As of this morning, 45,000+ individuals have signed the pledge at MovetoAmend.org, and the site has been updated with more FAQ's, and, most importantly, action items. As a steering committee group, the Alliance is very gratified by this response. If you've signed the pledge--thank you! And most importantly, please take the next step and start speaking out to protect our democracy.

So what can you do? If you're acting alone, a letter to the editor is a good way to share your views with your community. There are tips on the Move to Amend action items page, sample letters from the Alliance here, and talking points here.

Think also about how corporations have affected your community. Was there a time when your town backed off from defending a local ordinance because of the threat of a corporate lawsuit? Has your downtown disappeared because a big-box retailer has undercut local businesses? Making your letter specific to local concerns is a big help in getting it published.

Please send us your letters and we'll post them here for others to read--and thanks for speaking out!

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Corporate personhood and home rule will be topics of Boston-area forums

Members of the Boston/Cambridge and North Bridge Alliance chapters will be working on organizing two forums on two related issues: corporate personhood and reforming municipal home rule.

The corporate personhood forum will feature an introduction to the history of the usurpation of personhood rights by corporations, with a focus on the decision in "Citizens United v. FEC" and its potential impacts on our election system. Depending on the scope of the decision--which could be broad enough to imperil state-level campaign finance law--the forum will also emphasize actions that individuals and organizations can take to counter a ramped-up "pay-to-play" political system.

Home rule, the idea that localities should be able to pass and enforce laws without unreasonable interference from higher levels of government, was a featured topic of discussion in the recent "Democracy and Relocation" workshop that AfD'ers Dave Lewit and Ruth Caplan facilitated in Boston, and is key to rights-based campaigns, like the work of the Defending Water for Life project. When states or the federal government limit home rule, it means that decisions on local resource management, public health or other issues are turned over to legislators that are less responsive to constituent needs.

In Massachusetts, home rule law has short-changed the city of Boston, overruled local rent-control ordinances, and most recently made it difficult for one town to regulate noxious fumes from a local pig farm. Even legislators agree that the system needs an overhaul. Robust home rule enables a bottom-up strategy for fighting corporate rule.

Look for updates in future issues of the e-news and on the AfD blog.

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Mass IRV campaign needs an organizer

From our friends at the Massachusetts group, Citizens for Voter Choice, who are organizing a petition drive to get a referendum on Instant Runoff Voting on the November ballot. Please forward!

Job Posting--Campaign Manager
The Massachusetts Voter Choice ballot referendum campaign is looking for a full time campaign manager to begin immediately. The Voter Choice referendum seeks to enact a system of ranked choice (or "Instant Runoff") voting in Massachusetts. This will empower voters with more voices and choices in elections, put missing solutions back on the agenda and eliminate the fear of "spoilers" taking votes away from other candidates. In general, it is a key reform to help build the democracy we urgently need to start solving all the other critical, growing problems.

The organizer will oversee the collection of 100,000 signatures between Sept. 11 and Nov. 18, in order to put the question on the Nov. 2010 ballot. Responsibilities include volunteer recruitment, organizing, database, media and communications in person, by phone, email and website. Experience with organizing statewide grassroots campaigns and petition initiatives is useful. For information on the Voter Choice campaign, see below, or go to www.voterchoicema.org .

If you are interested in the position, please contact us and send a resume to info@voterchoiceMA.org.

Thanks!
Dave England
Citizens for Voter Choice
info@voterchoiceMA.org
www.voterchoiceMA.org

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Kucinich amendment passes!

On Friday, the House Education and Labor Committee made instituting state-level single payer a little easier by approving an amendment by Rep. Dennis Kucinich that would allow states to waive the application of the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), which has in the past been used to nullify efforts to expand state or local government health care. The committee approved the Kucinich Amendment by a vote of 27-19, with 14 Democrats and 13 Republicans voting yes.

California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington have active state-level campaigns for single payer. Under the amendment, a state's application for a waiver from ERISA is granted automatically if the state has signed into law a single payer plan. With the amendment, for the first time, the state single payer health care option is shielded from an ERISA-based legal attack. The goal now is to make sure this amendment is included in the final version of the bill.

Rep. Kucinich has proposed other amendments to HR3200, including an amendment adding complementary and alternative medicine to standard coverage, an amendment to stop insurers from increasing premiums at times when subscribers are not permitted to change health plans, and an amendment to daylight insurance industry expenditures on advertising, marketing and executive pay.

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More from Maine: Rockland City Council to vote on pro-single payer resolution on Monday

Update: the meeting starts at 7 p.m., not 6 p.m. as originally posted!

The fight for single payer health care isn't just a congressional battle. Resolutions supporting single payer have been passed by state legislatures and city councils as well, and encouraging your very local government to support a single payer system is a good way to build awareness of this equitable, economical alternative, especially at a level where there is less influence by lobbyists, less "pay to play" politics, and a greater awareness of the struggles that the majority of us face in paying bills and maintaining a level of economic security and dignity--many municipalities face the same struggles!

In Rockland, Maine, Councilwoman Lizzie Dickerson has put a Resolution in Support of Single Payer Healthcare on the agenda of Rockland City Council's upcoming Monday, July 13th meeting. This resolution is similar to the one passed by the Maine State Legislature last April.

Organizers are urging everyone--regardless of whether they're a Rockland resident--to attend the council meeting, which starts at 7 p.m. 6 p.m. on Monday, July 13. Out-of-staters can follow developments at www.midcoasthealthcarereform.org/index.html

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Corporation-funded referenda and signature fraud on "Corporations and Democracy"

This Friday on KZYX and Z's "Corporations and Democracy", Annie Esposito and Alliance for Democracy council member Steve Scalmanini will discuss the growing trend of corporation funded initiative campaigns like the one currently underway in Mendocino County (read Steve's article on the campaign here). Was April's signature drive, funded by Developers Diversified Realty of Ohio, fraudulent? Were you misled, or even lied to, to entice you to sign their petition? Are California's voters protected from fraudulent petition circulators? What are some other states doing to prevent fraudulent initiatives? Steve and Annie's guest will be Joel Foster, Deputy Director for Programs at the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, that sponsors the Web site www.stopballotfraud.org. The show airs this Friday, July 3rd, from 1:00 to 2:00 pm Pacific time, on KZYX and Z - 90.7, 91.5, and 88.1 FM, and streams at www.kzyx.org.

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Resources for studying sustainable economics

Re-Imagining Economics is a group of educators and activists seeking to expand popular understanding of how economies actually operate and how to foster more sustainable and socialized economic models. The project includes members of the Alliance's Columbus, OH, group.

Why "re-imagining?" The group's position is that the current definition of economics has collapsed in the face of growing global economic instability and crisis, and environmental degradation. Consequently, they write, "the prevailing model of economics needs to be replaced, not merely fine tuned."

To make that replacement a grassroots project, they've developed a series of single sheet flyers on a range of topics related to the history of money and banking, cooperatives, corporatism, and related topics, which can be read online or downloaded from this section of their website. They're also interested in working with organizations which have similar or related interests. Contact them at economics@arawakcity.org.

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Justice Rising on the web (and, members, in your mailbox!)

The Spring issue of Justice Rising: Grassroots Solutions to Corporate Domination is available online here. This quarter, we focus on Deglobalization/Localization, with articles by co-editors Ruth Caplan and Jim Tarbell, Mark Anielski, Maia Campoamo, C.R. Lawn, Dave Lewit, and Ellen Brown.

Remember, you are always free to use Justice Rising for your own organizing--just download and print. Paper copies are available from the national office as well. And if you'd like to make sure you never miss an issue, join the Alliance for Democracy!

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