Earth Democracy at the Democracy Convention!

Alliance for Democracy is convening the Earth Democracy Conference at this year's Democracy Convention, and you're invited!

The Earth Democracy Conference is one of nine conferences taking place at this year's Democracy Convention, August 7-11 in Madison, Wisconsin.

 Registration is open now, and early registration is a great way to get on the list for first news about convention logistics.


The Earth Democracy Conference builds on the declaration adopted by the Ecojustice People's Movement Assembly at the 2010 US Social Forum: "We support the conclusion that only by 'living well', in harmony with each other and with Mother Earth, rather than 'living better,' based on an economic system of unlimited growth, dominance and exploitation, will the people of this planet not only survive but thrive, and the ecosystems on which all life depends will flourish."



The Earth Democracy Conference is a place to discuss, debate and strategize to ensure that the growing US democracy movement includes those working on the frontlines of eco-justice. 

Join confirmed speakers at the Earth Democracy Conference who are working to make the declaration a reality:



• Arthur Stamoulis, Citizens Trade Campaign
• 
Michael Vickerman, Renew Wisconsin

• David Newby, Pres. Emeritus, Wisconsin State AFL-CIO and Pres. Wisconsin Fair Trade Coalition

• Linda Sheehan, Earth Law Center

• Jane M. Goddard, Center for Earth Jurisprudence, Barry School of Law

• Carolyn Raffensperger, Science and Environmental Health Network

• Jill Stein, Green Party Presidential Candidate

• The Pachamama Alliance
• 
John Peck, Family Farm Defenders

• Speakers from Indigenous tribal and local communities on the front lines of resistance to Big Energy, Industry and Ag, and from the Sierra Club John Muir Chapter (Madison)
• others to be announced as confirmed.



These are just some of our planned workshops and sessions:

• Climate and Planet Earth Emergency: Big Energy and Industry/ Big Pollution/Big Resistance: learn the issues and non violent resistance strategies from Indigenous tribal and local communities on the front lines in the fights against the XL Pipeline, fracking sand pits, the Penokee Hills Taconite Mine, and high-capacity water pumping.
• The Pachamama’s Alliance Awakening the Dreamer Symposium: a transformational educational workshop to “change the dream of the modern world" and empower participants to investigate their unique role in transforming humanity’s future.


• Earth Democracy Workshop: Teach-In/Teach-Back: interactive discussion of  community initiatives to protect public health and ecosystems: the Precautionary Principle, rights of nature, guardianship, and more. 
• 

Bees, Butterflies and GMO Crops: Say No to Monsanto and Dow Chemical: challenging corporate-controlled agriculture/creating healthy farmer-controlled food systems, including ordinances to protect local food. 
• 

Hands off Mother Earth: Writing Earth Rights into Law: local, national, and international movements and success stories. Local initiatives to protect springs and rivers.
• 

Declare your Community a TPP-Free Zone to establish local democracy and nature’s rights.  The Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement will accelerate plunder of the earth and seriously harm the health of all beings. Learn the TPP basics; how the TPP protects corporate wealth and property, and why the TPP must be stopped.

In our plenary session we'll debunk carbon markets and the neo-liberal “green” economy and discuss how to create a true green economy grounded in climate and environmental justice for all.

Special activities include a food fair featuring produce and products from local farmers, an urban agriculture bike tour, act activism for children, and more.

About the 2013 Democracy Convention
If you want to strengthen democracy where it matters to you… in your community, school, workplace, economy, military, government, media or the Constitution… you will find inspiration in Madison this August at the second national Democracy Convention.
 
The Democracy Convention houses at least nine conferences under one roof, recognizing the importance of each of these separate struggles, as well as the need to unite them all in a common, deeply rooted, broad based democracy movement.

Please register, sign up your organization, business or union as a sponsor, and spread the word by sharing this post on social media and posting this convention button on your website.

Thank you, and see you in Madison!
Nancy Price, Co-Chair
Alliance for Democracy

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September 22: Join the Global Frackdown Day of Action

On September 22 Alliance for Democracy joins the growing coalition in the Global Frackdown Day of Action calling for a global ban on fracking.

Join this growing and powerful people’s movement to ban fracking not just in the U.S., but world-wide. This is one big step toward environmental and climate justice that will help secure national and international peace and freedom now and for future generations.

Alliance for Democracy is one of many hundreds of partner endorsing organizations. Sign on here as an AfD chapter, member network, or as an individual. Encourage your union, professional organization, community group or faith group to sign up too.

As a partner organization, we’ll have the opportunity to:

• Have local events featured on the Global Frackdown website with a link to our website and each scheduled event
• Increase media attention locally by tying the local event to the global day of action
• Have sample materials for use on the day of action, including: a media advisory template, events page to track registrations, and editable flyers 
• Create a powerful counter-narrative to the “dirty” energy industry’s PR by having coordinated, unified actions across the world.

Start now to plan a dynamic community action for September 22 
This could be a film screening, a potluck where participants can take photos with signs opposing fracking, a petition-signing to send to local and state legislators, or higher visibility events like constructing a fracking rig in a public space, coming together to make a human sign… just use your imagination. We’ll post your event to the AfD website and Facebook page.

Have a house party and show Gasland the award-winning documentary by Josh Fox. By the DVD on Amazon and use this Home Screening Tool Kit.

Go beyond the call to ban fracking by promoting solutions like Oregonians for Renewable Energy: OREP and the use of feed-in tariffs to jump start locally produced renewable and job creation at the same time. Print out OREP’s “Democratizing the Grid: A Sustainable Energy Future for Oregon”  brochure and distribute at you local September 22 event.

Educate your community on the impact of “dirty fuels” on the environment, public health, and global warming, and the renewable energy alternative now being pioneered by OREP, by requesting that your local public access TV station play these interview programs of leading activists on Populist Dialogues, available for free broadcast through PEGMedia.

This Global Frackdown will focus international attention to the oil and gas industry’s pro-fracking propaganda. Natural gas fracking IS NOT green energy. And with U.S. consumption down due to conservation, fuel-efficient vehicles, and a glut of natural gas that has reduced profits in the U.S., the rush to increase natural gas production in the U.S. is not for “energy independence,” but for export requiring thousands of miles of new pipe and rail lines to the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific with huge terminal complexes planned for Washington and Oregon. Why subsidize “dirty” oil, gas and coal? Why not subsidize a sustained transition to true, green renewable energy, now?

In this “Viewpoint” web exclusive, Josh Fox, environmental activist and director of “Gasland,” talks about fracking and his new “emergency film,” The Sky is Pink about the impact of fracking on NY state, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo is considering allowing fracking in just a few counties.

Suggested reading
“Hydraulic Fracturing and Water Resources: Separating the Frack from the Fiction” by the Pacific Institute, Oakland, CA, is an excellent source for detailed information, charts and maps on the threat of natural gas fracking to our fresh water resources and health materials take.

“Scientists Tell Senate Panel: Climate Change Is Here and Disaster Costs Will Be Huge” 

“Common Sense: Banning Fracking at the Local Level”

Go to the Fracking Action Center for:  “How Much Do You Know About Fracking?,” “Why Ban Fracking?,” “Hazards to Drinking Water Aren’t the Only Reasons,” “Ready to Ban Fracking?,” “Your Efforts to Grow the Movement are WORKING,” and much more.

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Our support letter to the LA City Council

AfD Co-chairs Nancy Price and David Delk wrote the following resolution support letter to the LA City Council:

December 5, 2011

Honorable Los Angeles City Council Members
Los Angeles City Hall
200 North Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
RE: Resolution 11-0002-S123 - Corporate Activities in Electoral Processes

Dear Los Angeles City Council Members,

We write on behalf of the Alliance for Democracy in support of Los Angeles City Council resolution 11-0002-S123 - Corporate Activities in Electoral Processes which calls for a Constitutional Amendment and other legislative actions to establish that only living human beings, not corporations, have inalienable Constitutional rights and that money should not be protected as a form of free speech.

The Alliance for Democracy is a national organization that has members and Branches in California and is also a member of the Move to Amend coalition.

The pernicious doctrine of "corporate personhood" promulgated by the courts has meant that the rights originally intended for natural persons and to protect American citizens from the potentially oppressive powers of our government now belong as well to the corporation, an artificial entity.

Corporations claim these constitutional rights in Federal court to overturn, weaken, or by-pass laws designed to protect the environment, worker safety, public health and a myriad of other laws, including campaign finance laws, of which the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is the most recent and egregious example.

A recent poll by ABC News/Washington Post reveals that over 80% of the American public already
oppose the concept of “corporate personhood’ and that this opposition cuts across the political
spectrum.

We urge the City of Los Angeles to join in the movement to reverse the doctrine of corporate personhood and that money is equal to speech and on December 6th we ask for your “Aye” vote on this vitally important resolution.

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AfD signs onto letter requesting end to war funding

Alliance for Democracy has joined other organizations in signing on to a letter from United for Peace asking members of the congressional Progressive Caucus to amend the Defense Appropriation bill to eliminate funding for the war in Afghanistan, and to vote against the bill as a whole.

Your group may still be able to sign on to this letter--see this link for more info.

Dear Progressive Caucus member,

We write to you at a time of great peril for our nation. With an economy teetering and an exorbitantly expensive, protracted military engagement in Afghanistan, Congress has been asked once again to prioritize military spending over domestic needs with a total bill of $648.7 billion for the next fiscal year. A decade of war has brought us no closer to success in Afghanistan, where fewer than 100 Al Qaeda fighters remain.

The American people have grown weary of hearing that there is not enough money for schools, jobs, health care or housing yet always enough funding for wars. The US Conference of Mayors overwhelmingly passed a resolution to end the wars and bring the money home, amplifying the voices of their constituents.

The FY 2012 Defense Appropriations bill not only allocates $530 billion for the Pentagon, it also includes $118 billion to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now that the Obama Administration has clearly decided to continue the war in Afghanistan until at least 2014, the reasons to object are stronger than ever.

What values does the appropriation of $118 billion more for war suggest to the American people and the rest of the world, while at the same time the government is closing libraries and firehouses, laying off public servants and teachers, denying care to the sick and elderly, and abandoning quality education for children?

We note that the content of the proposed FY 2012 Defense Appropriations bill is directly at odds with the important principles, expressed in the CPC People's Budget, introduced earlier this year.

We therefore urge that the Progressive Caucus and its individual members support an amendment to the FY 2012 Defense Appropriations bill, which strikes out the funding to continue the war in Afghanistan and that the Caucus vote against the bill as a whole.

By signing below, we express our commitment to supporting the Progressive Caucus in its efforts to redirect our national priorities away from militarism and towards social justice here at home.

Respectfully submitted,

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Our Defending Water for Life Campaign weighs in on the Cascade Locks project

Here's our letter, sent September 28, to Oregon's Water Resources Department, commenting on Nestlé's proposed water swap in Cascade Locks, Oregon. You can read more about the project at this post on our blog.

Dear Sirs:

We are writing with regard to the request from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) to exchange water rights with the City of Cascade Locks for 0.5 CFS between water from the city’s well and water from Oxbow Springs currently used by ODFW for the state’s fish hatchery. It is quite astounding to us that nowhere in the application is there any mention of the real reason for this exchange. The fact that the spring water would then be made available by the city to Nestlé Waters North America (NWNA) is never mentioned. Yet we know that indeed Nestlé intends to bottle the spring water, in addition to the town’s well water, and sell it to consumers in the Pacific Northwest.

The application states: “this exchange would result in a benefit to the hatchery, the environment and the people of the State of Oregon because the exchange as envisioned will allow better utilization of the hatchery facilities while enhancing stream flows.”

This dissimulation is indeed shocking.

We do note that in the letter from the City of Cascade Locks to Oregon Water Resources Department attached to the application there is mention that “the acquisition of a small amount of ODFW’s spring water right would allow the city to potentially attract a new large commercial customer with a significant benefit to our town.” We also note that the letter is cc’d to Nestlé’s representative, David Palais.

This application must not be considered without simultaneously examining the impact of Nestlé’s intended use of the spring water and of the town’s well water.

Furthermore, Nestlé’s study of the impact of the well water on the fish in the state hatchery is a diversion from the real issue of whether the state should protect the spring water for the benefit of the ecosystem and the people of the state.

We are further shocked by the regulatory dissimulation.

We have reviewed the application from ODFW. The application masks the fundamental issues at stake by making it seem like all ODFW has to do is to fill in the blanks and then the unnamed party, Nestlé, can get a green light from the state. Is the map properly drawn with the correct arrows? Nestlé doesn’t even have to do anything, just sit back and let the state do the work for them! Nestlé doesn’t even have to pay the $1600 fee.

ODFW’s statement that the exchange of spring water from Oxbow Hatchery for well water from the City of Cascade Locks “would result in a benefit to the hatchery, the environment, and the people of the State of Oregon because the exchange as envisioned will allow better utilization of the hatchery facilities while enhancing stream flows” frankly does not even pass the smell test. First they are actually talking about eight months from April through November. Second, there are other ways the hatchery can supplement its water supply, e.g., by digging its own well or by paying the town of Cascade Locks for some of its municipal water which would keep the water in the watershed. Most important, if there is already so much concern about the adequacy of the spring for the hatchery, what will happen if Nestlé begins bottling and exporting large quantities of spring and well water?

Further let us be clear that Nestlé does not want to set up a bottling operation in Cascade Locks for a “small amount of ODFW’s spring water.” Something on the order of 100 million gallons a year is not a small amount by any stretch of the imagination.

If the purpose of this swap of water rights is really to enhance environmental protection as the application proclaims, then it should include a clear ban on Nestlé or any other bottled water company mining the water for export from the watershed.

The time has long past when groundwater flow was a mystery. It is now well known that groundwater and surface water are interconnected. Furthermore, it is highly unlikely that the groundwater source for the wells in Cascade Locks is separate from the groundwater feeding the spring. In fact the TEC map clearly shows the town well pump station within the Herman Creek watershed which is also the source for Oxbow Spring.

We know what has happened in Fryeburg Maine. Lovewell Pond (really a lake) is no longer fed by cold spring water due to Nestlé’s pumping from the spring feeding the lake and the lake is becoming seriously degraded. Nestlé adamantly denies the degradation which riparian landowners have observed. They will likewise deny that pumping large quantities from the spring will have any impact whatsoever on Herman Creek which is fed by the spring or on any other part of the watershed.

There is also an underlying issue of how the state should act to serve as a steward of the water which is fundamental to all life. Six towns in New Hampshire and Maine have responded to the threat from the bottled water industry by passing local ordinances which establish rights for people and ecosystems. The Constitution of Ecuador now recognizes such rights. Throughout the Andes, people understand that nature has inherent fundamental rights which must be respected if life is to continue. This water flowing from Mt. Hood National Forest should be respected as well. The state should not act as Nestlé’s proxy, but instead should protect water for people and nature and oppose the privatization and commodification of water.

This application should be rejected for the reasons set forth above.

Sincerely,

Ruth N. Caplan
National Coordinator
Defending Water for Life
Alliance for Democracy

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Alliance for Democracy at the US Social Forum

Alliance for Democracy is a sponsor or collaborating organization for the following 2-hour workshops and 4-hour Peoples Movement Assemblies. We are excited to be working with several other groups on these events. Workshop topics include strategy session for keeping water accessible and in public hands, rights-based organizing around toxins in water, and teaching about corporate plunder and community resistance with the Tapestry of the Commons presentation. Peoples Movement Assemblies will focus on health care, ecojustice, and corporate personhood.

Click on the "read more" link for full descriptions, and see you in Detroit!


Workshops:
1. Water Warriors Strategy Session
People’s Water Board of Detroit and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, sponsoring organizations; AfD collaborating organization
Wednesday, June 23, 1:00 – 5:30 pm, Cobo Hall, Room D3-28

This four hour workshop will give Water Warriors from many areas an opportunity to share their struggles to obtain access to clean, affordable water and to discuss their vision and strategies for advancing those struggles. The People's Water Board is a coalition of organizations based in Detroit, Michigan that have come together to confront: 1) the devastating lack of access to water faced by thousands of low income people who have had their water shut off; 2) water pollution due to industrial irresponsibility and an aging wastewater infrastructure; and 3) the effort of corporate interests to gain control of Detroit's water system.

2. Our Democratic Right to Safe Water and Health
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, sponsor; AfD, collaborating organization
Wednesday, June 23, 10:00 – 12:00 pm, Cobo Hall, Room O2-35

Safe water for personal and domestic use is essential for health and life. New science shows how trace amounts of chemicals and heavy metals in water cause life-threatening diseases and disrupt normal cognitive, neurological and reproductive development from cradle to grave. This accumulating “body burden” of toxics creates a “precondition” for disease at any time in life, even many years after exposure. Alarmingly, research shows how a mother’s “body burden” affects fetal development and the content of milk for the nursing child. Industry, agriculture and the military, the worst offenders, lobby government to lower regulations and fight in court against fines.

This workshop will lead participants in a discussion of how to reframe this issue from one of regulation that actually permits degrees of harm to that of asserting our rights. U.S. corporations, given the rights of persons in the 19th century, have no right to harm the bodies of natural persons. We, the People, must assert our fundamental, inalienable right to be free of involuntary invasion of our bodies by disease-causing toxics. Steps for communities to take to assert this democratic right will be presented such as: adopting a Precautionary Principle Ordinance for a city to act with “precaution” to prevent harms to the environment and protect public health even when full scientific evidence about cause and effect is lacking; and passing a “Chemical Trespass Ordinance” to prohibit corporate chemical bodily trespass, establish strict liability and burden of proof standards for chemical trespass, and subordinate corporations to the people.

3. Tapestry of the Commons: Corporate Plunder vs. Community Rights
Alliance for Democracy, sponsor; Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, collaborating organization
Thursday, June 24, 10:00 – 12:00 pm, UAW Building 1032

There is new focus on “the commons” as corporations and individuals commodify almost every aspect of nature and culture creation. We can not stand by as our shared “commonwealth” is turned into private property for global investors and the financial elite to profit. The central questions raised in this workshop are: what is “the commons,” what aspect of nature and culture creation should be part of the “the commons,” and what principles should apply to the use and sharing of “the commons.” Participants will create the Tapestry of the Commons by weaving together sets of ribbons that represent aspects of nature and of culture to envision how they are interwoven and interdependent.

Using interactive exercises participants will explore, how, for example, media, literature, movies, and advertising condition how we think about nature, what “rules," creations of culture, should apply to nature; who should be making these rules?

This workshop is suited to teachers looking for new, creative ways to explore these and many other questions with Elementary and Middle School students. The answers hold the keys to protecting and sharing the commons of nature on which all life depends, safeguarding our human culture, and advancing community democracy and the rights of nature over corporate plunder.

Peoples Movement Assemblies
All are held on Friday, June 25, from 1:-5:30 pm in Cobo Hall. Look for room assignments in the descriptions.

What the Health Happened and How Do We Get the Healthcare We Need?
Submitted by Healthcare-NOW with large group of collaborating organizations, including AfD Room M3-31, Cobo Hall

The national debate on health reform went from discussing the heath care we need to how to make health care an affordable, quality commodity for those who can pay for it. Groups will present to what happened in this past year that reduced an opportunity to improve our health system to a political win that restructures the broken employer-based for-profit insurance system we currently have. We will examine the recent health reform, and why the battle must continue with an understanding that the movement for the health care we need is connected to the broader movement demanding healthy food, adequate housing, the right to water and a clean environment, having control over your own life, and being able to fully participate in decisions about your community. This meeting will seek to engage those who have been organizing for an expanded and improved Medicare for All system, as well as new perspectives in the discussion to launch the movement for the right to health care in a new and transformative way uniting head, heart, and feet together to secure the health care we need. We must do it together with a broad people’s movement ready to commit to doing the work to build for the health care for people not for profit.

Climate Justice/Energy/Ecojustice and the Rights of Mother Earth
Two PMAs on this topic were submitted and are being combined; see the two descriptions below.
Room D3-28, Cobo Hall

#1: Climate Justice/Energy and Rights of Mother Earth
submitted by the Alliance for Democracy with edits by Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network and includes these collaborating organizations: Indigenous Environmental Network, Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, Mountain Justice, Southern Tier Advocacy & Mitigation Project, Shaleshock Alliance, Southwest Workers Union, Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice

The 2009 Copenhagen global negotiations on climate change failed to produce a legally binding agreement when the U.S. joined forces with other countries to create an entirely new agreement called the Copenhagen Accords with weak targets and no legally binding obligations for the mitigation of climate change. The strengthening of a U.S.-based social movement to hold the U.S. accountable in national and international climate policy is critical.

From a social and environmental justice framework with intentional participation of communities of color, indigenous peoples and the poor, and communities impacted by extractive energy industries, there will be two 2-hour sessions. 1st: Report of the Global Peoples’ Summit on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, Cochabamba, Bolivia, its’ Peoples’ Agreement and Working Group conclusions; 2nd: to share findings/strategize ideas for building a national campaign around such issues as exposing the false solutions of national and global climate policy and cross-cutting issues ranging from, but not limited to: community rights, energy, water as a human right, food security, economic paradigms, green jobs, and others issues brought forward.

Outcome: consider a U.S.-based social movement Declaration on climate change, human rights and Mother Earth as the source of all life, creating a new system based on the principles of harmony and balance to complement the Cochabamba “Protocols,” and call for a U.S. national summit for movement building beyond the USSF and the Cancun climate conference.

#2: Ecological Justice
Initiated by Ruckus Society and including Movement Generation, Southwest Workers Union, Environmental Justice Climate Coalition, GAIA, Mothers on the Move, Women of Color United, Just Transition Alliance, Global Justice Ecology Project, Indigenous Environmental Network, Communities for a Better Environment, Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, WEACT/EJ Leadership Forum on Climate Change, APEN, Gulf Coast Fellowship for Community Transformation, Institute for Policy Studies

For the last two decades, environmental justice communities have fought to win the right to live, work, play and pray free of toxins and poisons polluting our air, water, and land. Nearly twelve years after the Principles of Environmental Justice were drafted, our social movements understand that the systems that have allowed the poisoning of our communities have also stolen some of us from our lands while stealing land from others. Meanwhile, more and more of the earth’s precious resources have been stripped and misused, leaving once resilient natural systems and the earth’s climate systems on the verge of collapse.

While the US government tries to advance a carbon trading plan that brings another commonly-held resource – atmospheric space – into the market sphere, communities-of-color, Indigenous Peoples, and low-income communities will the hit first and worst by the effects of climate chaos.

In this critical moment, the USSF provides a key site for indigenous peoples, environmental justice, immigrant rights, economic justice, and other racial justice movements to come together to strategize to win community control over our lives and our resources. The voices of indigenous peoples and grassroots community organizations in impacted communities must be central to helping us foster communities of resistance and resilience that can rewrite the rules of the game based on transformed relationships – with each other and the earth.

At this Ecological Justice PMA, we hope to advance proposals from the grassroots for shared work on climate and ecological justice rooted in an understanding of the need to transform the global systems that determine the ways each of us gets to live, work and play.

End Corporate Rule. Legalize Democracy. Move to Amend the Constitution
Collaborating Organizations: Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County, Independent Progressive Politics Network, Ultimate Civics, Program on Corporations Law and Democracy, Liberty Tree: Foundation for the Democratic Revolution, Alliance for Democracy
Cobo Hall, Room W2-68

Participants will help design the Move to Amend campaign, and to participate through their regional networks and local organizations. We will break up into small groups and participants will develop Resolutions to include in the national Amendment discourse. Unelected and unaccountable corporate CEOS are not merely exercising power, they are RULING over us. Corporations make fundamental public policy decisions, while “We the People” have no opportunity for meaningful participation. And those decisions are literally destroying the planet, creating a racist, patriarchal and class-oppressive society with the plunder. Even when people’s movements build sufficient power to enact laws that actually address social injustice or environmental destruction, the wealthy elite overturn our laws in court. Often, the justification for overturning such democratically enacted laws is that those laws violate the “constitutional rights” of corporations. It’s time that we take ourselves and our movement seriously. We must not only challenge oppression itself, but the legal system that legitimizes that oppression. We must build a movement that calls for a new Constitution—one that acknowledges our RIGHT to create the peaceful, just and democratic world that we want and deserve. To do so, the legal doctrine of “Corporate Personhood” must be abolished! A multi-racial, gender balanced coalition of grassroots groups and national organizations are already working to do just that. We are calling for a series of Constitutional Amendments to make the unfulfilled promise of democracy a reality in the United States. For a complete list of coalition partners and PMA sponsors, see www.MoveToAmend.org.

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GANE online--your analysis is welcome!

GANE--the General Agreement on a New Economy--is a document outlining a new model for economic development and analysis that emphasizes full employment, sustainable development, economic equity and community federalism. GANE, a project of the Alliance, has been organized by Ruth Caplan, coordinator of AfD's program on Corporate Globalization and Positive Alternatives.

Community federalism is a systemic approach to development that centers on the local community and builds outward to regional and national levels. Such an approach has become more and more necessary as we face a host of interrelated problems--climate change, off-shoring of jobs, fallout from speculative busts, degradation of the natural and social commons--from pure water to public education.

GANE was developed by the Economics Working Group, while a project of the Tides Foundation. It is the result of a robust discussion among forward thinking economists and policy advocates taking place over several years. And it is a work-in-progress, that depends on its readers to share their ideas.

If it bothers you that in this economic crisis Wall Street is getting bailed out while families and communities are left to fend for themselves, or if you question the veracity of current economic indices as a real reflection of our collective welfare, or if you feel that local communities are getting ignored in economic decision-making, check GANE out. You are asking some of the same questions we are and you may like some of our ideas.

The project website is here: www.greenecon.org. You can read a summary or a the full document, and share your ideas as well. Answers to our economic problems should come out of a broad public dialogue. Join in!

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Action Alert: Vote on Change.org for single-payer and an end to corporate personhood

The deadline is January 15, so don't put off taking part in the final round of voting in the “Ideas for Change in America” competition at www.change.org/ideas. You may vote for 10 “ideas.”

On January 16, the top 10 rated ideas will be announced at an event at the National Press Club and formally presented to the Obama administration. The National Single Payer Health Care Coalition will be at this event.

1. Vote for “Free Single-Payer Health Care
2. Vote to end Corporate Personhood

1. Let’s make single-payer healthcare one of the ten ideas to be presented to President Barack Obama on January 16th and let’s work to make this actual policy.
Vote for “Free Single Payer Health Care” here. (Note: We realize that single-payer healthcare isn’t free--the author of the idea has noted it would be paid through taxes and mentions HR 676.)

AfD Joins National Coalition for Single-Payer Health Care. The Alliance has joined the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care (LCGHC), the National Single Payer Coalition. The Coalition will work to pass H.R. 676, the US National Health Insurance Act, that Rep. John Conyers will re-introduce to the new Congressional 111th session. Hundreds of national, state and local labor, faith and social justic groups, and many teacher, medical and nursing professional organizations support H.R. 676. Many members of Congress are co-signers of H.R. 676.

Healthcare is a human right. A national federally-funded single-payer program is the only way to ensure that right is met. It is the only way to get private insurance and HMO corporations out of the for-profit healthcare business and have a healthcare system that is affordable, and covers and serves people of all ages regardless of income and employment status.

Join us to support H.R. 676. We are posting materials for education and action to our website. Please consult the website often to keep up-to-date. Thank you from the Single-Payer Health Care Committee: Peter Mott, Rick LaMonica, John Noronha, Lou Hammann, Ruth Weizenbaum, Ruth Caplan, Barbara Clancy, David Delk and Nancy Price.

2. Vote to end END CORPORATE "PERSONHOOD.” Seize the day! “End Corporate Personhood” has qualified for the final round! Join us and help realize AfD’s mission to “end corporate rule. Vote for this idea here.

Let your friends know about the vote! Forward the link to this post, blog it, Twitter it, Facebook it, etc. (Telling people face to face works too!)

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AfD kicks off Medicare for All campaign

On December 4 the Alliance's National Council voted unanimously to begin a major campaign for Medicare for All (single payer health care), based nationally and by state. We are notifying all chapters, members, and supporters, to ask you to contact our Working Group on Health Care and let us know your level of involvement or interest in helping build this campaign.

Members John Noronha of Rochester and Rick LaMonica of St. Louis both attended Health Care-NOW's meeting in Chicago last week, and hope to be working closely closely with Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP,which has great materials for any of us to use for local education and outreach--power point projections, etc.)

Please take a look at the Winter '08 issue of Justice Rising, "Health for Humans--Not Corporate Profits" and use any parts of it. For speakers, contact PNHP. For any questions or suggestions, notify our Working Group through Peter Mott, AfD Secretary, at interconnect_mott@frontiernet.net or 585-381-5606. (see his recent op-ed on single-payer in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle and use any part of it for your own media).

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No Bretton Woods II without me and you

Alliance for Democracy has joined organizations worldwide in calling for a restructuring of a proposed November summit on the global financial crisis to be more inclusive, comprehensive, and transparent.

The proposed Global Summit, which will start November 15 in Washington, was organized by the Bush administration and currently includes only G20 countries, leaders of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, United Nations and the Financial Stability Forum. The November meeting is the first in a proposed series.

Critics of the summit say that these "Bretton Woods II" talks need to be opened up to all who want to participate, including the global South, and NGOs, especially if the goal is to change monetary, development and international finance policies.

"We are deeply concerned that the proposed meetings will be carried out in a rushed and non-inclusive manner, and as a result, not address the comprehensive range of changes needed, nor fairly allocate their burden," says the statement. "Though the crisis originated in northern countries, the impacts are likely to be greatest in developing countries. It is therefore critical that all countries have a say in the process to change the international financial architecture."

Rather than the G20 summit, signatories call for a major international conference convened by the UN, but only if the meeting is open to all governments, and includes representatives from civil and citizen's groups, social movements and other stakeholders. Signatories also call for a clear timeline and process for regional consultations. The conference should be "comprehensive in scope, tackling the full array of issues and institutions," and its proposals should be publicly available for discussion in advance of the meeting.

For more information, see www.choike.org.

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Defending Water for Life on "Newshour"

Monday's edition of "Newshour" featured a piece on the Maine water wars. Defending Water in Maine organizer Emily Posner talks about the need to keep water in the public trust and in the watersheds in which it originates: "Ultimately, I would love to see Nestle and Coca-Cola, and Pepsi, and all of the other bottled water industries stop putting water into little bottles and selling it for an enormous, enormous profit. Water belongs in the ecosystems where it comes from." See the Newshour website for transcript, audio, and, hopefully, video.

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E-News - August 16, 2007

The Alliance for Democracy
E-News - August 16, 2007

Hello readers,
We hope you read and enjoy this monthly eNewsletter. We try to give you a selection of national and chapter news, as well as news from our international partners. We also call your attention to actions on major issues. This month in particular, we want to alert you to some national actions in time to plan local events. More and more, we believe it is people coming together in solidarity in their communities that will make a difference.

Please let us know if this eNewsletter is useful and how we might improve it. We try to balance our alerts to actions so as not to repeat what we know you may receive from other sources.

And please remember to e-mail this eNewsletter to family members and friends who will be interested in AfD’s mission and work.

We would like to thank our office manager, Barbara Clancy, who compiles and edits the eNews. Please be sure to send your chapter and member news and other items to her at afd@thealliancefordemocracy.org with eNewsletter in the subject line.

Thank you, Nancy Price and Lou Hammann, Co-Chairs

PS. Don't forget to renew your membership. We welcome and greatly appreciate your continued support of our mission and work.

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In this issue:
AfD News:
· 7th National AfD Convention announcement coming soon! Watch your mailbox!
· Indiana AfD plans statewide Campaign Finance Summit
· Defending Water for Life: Barnstead NH considers the rights of nature, other towns may follow
· AfD on the ‘net
· AfD signs onto Durban Anti-Carbon trading program
· Authors tour to support new books on water and corporate globalization—can you sponsor a reading?

Calendar
· August 19: Countdown to Montebello!
· September 22-29: Encampment and March on Washington and March in LA to Stop the War.

Allied Groups
· New RTTC Alliance: We all have a right to the city

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AfD News

7th AfD National Convention – November 1-4 in Tucson, AZ
Watch your mailbox!
Very soon you'll receive the brochure and registration form for our 7th National Convention entitled “Shifting Power from Corporate Rights to the Rights of People and Nature.”

We are very excited about the speakers who have agreed to participate, and the opportunity that the convention affords AfDers to meet, share skills and ideas, and learn new ways of thinking and speaking about the individual issues that confront our communities. Join us in Tucson! Let’s come together to “end corporate rule” with a focus on how to assert our sovereign rights over corporate rights. It’s up to us to shape and make the movement for “radical” democracy happen.

We also have exciting before- and after-convention events planned! Watch your mailbox and check the AfD website for details. Make plans now to be in Tucson this November!

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SAVE THE DATE: September 29, 2007
Indiana AfD plans statewide campaign finance event
The “Democracy NOT for Sale: Citizens’ Summit to Change Campaign Funding,” is organized by Stevie and Jack Miller, long-time AfD members (Stevie is a former AfD Secretary and Council Member) through the Indiana Clean Elections Coalition, of which Indiana AfD is a member. This major all-day campaign finance reform event is “to educate and mobilize individuals and groups to develop a comprehensive plan for fairly funding political campaigns in Indiana.”

Featured speakers include Doris “Granny D” Haddock, nationally renowned campaign finance reform activist, author and longtime friend of AfD; Erick Ehst, Arizona Clean Elections Director; and other leaders of the clean elections movement. For more information see Indiana Clean Elections.

Be sure to check-out Indiana AfD's web page for local events and projects, including their new website, “So You Want to Move to Indy.” The site details serious problems with Indianapolis and Indiana’s infrastructure, public health, and environment, and asks why elected officials ignore public needs but pour tens of millions of public dollars into projects that benefit polluting corporations, pro sports team owners, and wealthy campaign donors. Indiana AfD notes that “most websites put up by the State, City and Chamber of Commerce fail to mention these problems. We intend to correct that.”

This could be a model project for other AfD Chapters and members to undertake. You may wish to consult with Jack by e-mail or call him at 317-726-1014.

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Defending Water for Life: Barnstead NH considers the rights of nature, other towns may follow
The Alliance’s Defending Water for Life Campaign brought more New Hampshire residents together for a Democracy School July 27 – 29 in Concord, which AfD’s Ruth Caplan helped to teach. Residents of Nottingham who attended left all fired up, despite arriving feeling very discouraged after fighting USA Springs for the last five years and having the state side with the corporation at every turn. Now they are ready to consider an ordinance like the one that Barnstead passed in 2006, banning corporations from taking their water and denying corporations the rights of personhood.

A few days later at a meeting in Nottingham, townspeople came out to hear the Barnstead story told by our local organizer Gail Darrell and to hear Thomas Linzey of CELDF explain rights-based law. After the presentations they voted overwhelmingly to move forward with proposing an ordinance.

The campaign is also very pleased to announce that Maude Barlow, probably the best known international spokesperson on the right to water, will be traveling from Ottawa to speak at the Tin Mountain Conservation Center in Albany NH on Thursday, October 11th at 7 p.m.. The newly built solar conference center is just across the border from Fryeburg and Denmark, Maine, where citizens are concerned about Nestle's purchase of spring water for bottling in Fryeburg and its plans for developing a new site in the adjacent town of Denmark. Recently citizens in Conway have been worried that Pennechuck, a private water company seeking permission for a new spring, may sell excess capacity to Nestle.

Meanwhile Barnstead is considering amendments to their ordinance to make it stronger by recognizing that nature has rights (see Justice Rising, Summer 2007) and by giving the town the authority to protect these rights. We hope the amended Barnstead ordinance will become the model for towns like Nottingham and its neighbor Northwood and that more towns will follow. The first step will be to get the ordinance before the town meetings next March for a direct vote of the people—real democracy in action!

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AfD on the ‘Net:
AfD Portland on video… On June 1, AfD Vice Co-chair and Portland Chapter Co-chair David Delk helped organize a Portland OR visit by Rep. Dennis Kucinich. Before Kucinich took the stage, David spoke to a large, energetic and appreciative audience on Fast Track, and fellow AfD member Cheri Lambert Holstein spoke about health care. The video has just been posted to Google. To see David, Cheri (and Dennis), go to http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4221261460895389846&hl=en (note: this is a long video clip which may take a while to download—David and Cheri’s remarks begin about 3 minutes in to the clip).

…And, Nancy Price “Live” from the US Social Forum: Get a sense of the excitement of opening day at the USSF on June 27. Listen to an interview with Nancy Price by Wes Brain, long-time AfDer and labor organizer in Ashland, OR. Wes now hosts his own web-based radio-program, the “Brain Labor Report” and you can listen to his lively interview at
http://www.kskq.org/blr/2007/06/27/a-report-from-the-us-social-forum/

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AfD signs on to Durban Anti-Carbon trading program
The Alliance has signed onto the Durban Declaration on Carbon Trading, sponsored by the Durban Group for Climate Justice, an international network of independent organizations, individuals and people's movements who reject the free-market approach to climate change.

This Declaration condemns carbon trading as a commodification of the earth’s carbon-cycling capacity. It stresses that government carbon trading schemes create billions of dollars worth of rights and award them free of charge to polluters, drawing attention and resources from development of renewable energy.

Carbon trading is also no cure for the social inequities rooted in extractive economies and oil dependence, whether it’s indigenous people driven off their land or denied traditional livelihoods due to climate change, or the working class, poor, and rural youth in this country who'll be sent to fight future oil wars. For the full text of the declaration, see http://www.carbontradewatch.org/durban/index.html

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Authors tour to support new books on water and corporate globalization—can you sponsor a reading?
Here’s two opportunities to arrange stops on book tours and introduce great authors and ideas to your community – at your locally-owned independent bookstore, of course, if you still have one! Arrange with your local community cable station to tape an interview or the talk itself.

Maude Barlow will have a new book out in October, titled Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Fight for the Right to Water. Her previous book, “Blue Gold” addressed the problem of water privatization; this book focuses on the people's response. The AfD Portland Chapter has already inquired about sponsoring Maude’s appearance there. You can contact the publisher, New Press, at http://www.thenewpress.com/index.php?option=com_contact&task=view&contact_id=1&Itemid=20

Sharon Delgado, an ordained Methodist Minister and founder of Earth Justice Ministries has a new book, Shaking the Gates of Hell: Faith-Led Resistance to Corporate Globalization, to be published by Fortress Press in September. It has been endorsed by Bill McKibben, Catherine Keller, Carol Robb, Jurgen Moltmann, Ched Meyers, James Douglass, and others.

Recently, Nancy Price met Sharon at an event in Nevada City, CA. Sharon was delighted to learn about AfD and our campaigns and shared concerns on water and corporate globalization and is eager to collaborate with AfD chapters on a book tour. To find out more, go to www.shakingthegatesofhell.com . To schedule a speaking and/or book-signing event, use the “contact us” function on the website.

In her book, Rev. Delgado asserts that humanity faces a living hell of widespread poverty, social upheaval, repression, war, ecological collapse, and human misery, thanks to institutional “Powers” that make up the system of corporate globalization, including transnational corporations, the IMF, the World Bank, and WTO, and the US military/industrial complex. Her overview and theological analysis of these “Powers” points to an alternative that includes spiritual awakening, reverence for God’s creation, faith-led resistance, hope for the earth, and personal and social transformation. People of faith can join with others to “shake the gates of hell,” and build a peaceful, just, and sustainable world.

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Calendar:

August 19, Ottawa: Countdown to Montebello!
AfD is part of a US coalition that will release a joint statement in solidarity opposing the SPP on Friday, August 17.
The Council of Canadians is organizing events in collaboration with other activist and labor groups across Canada to coincide with the Security and Prosperity Partnership Leaders Summit in Montebello, Quebec.

Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council, will speak at the lead-off rally, Saturday, August 19, from 1 to 3:30 p.m., at Ottawa’s Parliament Hill, followed by a march to the US embassy and back. This family-friendly event is sponsored by the Ottawa Stop the SPP Coalition.

A free public forum on the SPP will follow at the University of Ottawa, with speakers from Canada, Mexico, and the US, and MPs from Canada’s three opposition parties, as well as Canada’s Green Party.

Thanks to public pressure, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Quebec police appear to have eased security restrictions to allow a peaceful protest close to Chateau Montebello, site of the summit. Some groups will maintain a vigil in Montebello for the duration of the Leaders Summit.

August 20 has been designated a National Day of Action and Council of Canadians chapters are organizing forums, community picnics, lobbying and media outreach.

To learn more about the SPP from the Canadian perspective, the Council has excellent materials at www.canadians.org . Read how the SPP affects democracy, energy, water, security, war and public health, and on what you can do to help fight deep integration!

AfD is preparing factsheets for our Chapters and members that will be available soon to download from the website.

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September 22-29, Washington DC and Los Angeles: March and Encampment to Stop the War
On Saturday, September 29, thousands (and hopefully hundreds of thousands) will march in Washington and Los Angeles to demand an end to the war and bring the troops home. A week-long encampment precedes the Washington march. Both events are organized by the Troops Out Now Coalition, which currently has 41 organizing centers operating in 23 states. For more information, links to local organizers, fliers to download, and updates on co-sponsoring groups and march speakers, see www.troopsoutnow.org

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Allied Groups

RTTC Alliance: We all have a right to the city
As a result of collaboration at the US Social Forum, a new coalition group has formed to protect urban neighborhoods. Right to the City (RTTC) calls for a united response to gentrification and displacement, and stands together under the notion of a right to the city for all.

Over the past decade, a web of neo-liberal economic policies have destroyed working-class urban communities, especially communites of color, at a rate not seen since the heyday of “urban renewal”. Resistance, says RTTC, “is often local, dispersed, and reactive.” In opposition, they’re organizing a national urban movement for housing, education, health, racial justice, and democracy. Their goals: to strengthen local capacity, build regional collaboration, advance a national platform, and support community reclamation in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

RTTC officially launched at the US Social Forum, where representatives from 20 groups and eight major cities demonstrated and presented workshops on gentrification, self-determination, leadership development, and the centrality of race, gender and nationality in the struggle for the right to the city. To learn more about the movement, connect with a participating group, and read their resolution to the People’s Movement Assembly, go to www.righttothecity.org .

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