The Alliance for Democracy
E-Newsletter, July 20, 2007
In this issue:
National and Chapter News
- Convention 2007 in Tucson, Arizona, Nov. 1-4
- AfD at the US Social Forum
- Seattle AfD supports impeachment, educates on corporate rule
- BCA organizer supports state trade bill
Calendar
Allied Actions
Convention 2007 in Tucson, Arizona!
Thursday, Nov. 1 – Sunday, Nov. 4
This year’s theme: “Shifting Power from Corporate Rights to the Rights of People and Nature.”
Watch your mailbox for your Convention Packet, including registration information.
Program and logistics committee members are hard at work planning for our November National Convention. The convention opens with a get-together dinner on Thursday evening. Friday will feature workshops on organizing and outreach skills, with plenty of time for members from different chapters and regions to meet together. Saturday will focus on reframing the discussion of democracy and rights with an emphasis on Alliance campaigns.
Friday evening, Thomas Linzey, Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defence Fund will be a keynote speaker and Saturday evening there will be speakers on trade, immigration and sustainable economic development.
We have reserved rooms at the very comfortable Riverpark Inn, not far from the First Christian Church where we will meet. Lunch and dinner will be held at the church. The convention concludes with a Sunday program on Hundredfold Farm, the sustainable cohousing community that co-chair Lou Hammann and regional representative Pat Hammann helped design and organize in Pennsylvania.
Prior to the convention, AfD is hosting a Democracy School taught by Tom Linzey and AfD’s Ruth Caplan (Tues, Oct. 30 – Thurs. Nov. 1). Post-convention activities include a trip to Nogales, Mexico, to learn more about the impact of NAFTA and immigration issues, sponsored by Borderlinks.
The convention represents a great opportunity to meet your fellow AfD members from across the country, to sharpen old organizing skills and acquire new ones, to be inspired to think in new ways about rights for people, our communities, and nature. You will return home with renewed energy and new ideas for joining with others to end corporate rule in your community.
Watch for the convention brochure mailing with information on the full program, pre- and post-convention events, lodging, meals, and transportation. Make plans now to be in Tucson!
AfD at the US Social Forum: “Another World is Possible, Another US is Necessary!”
You can see the Alliance’s USSF slideshow here, and look at pictures, video and other media at the US Social Forum media site.
Between outreach at the Water Tent, attending and presenting workshops, conducting interviews, and networking with other groups, the Alliance’s US Social Forum crew spent five very busy (and hot!) days at the US Social Forum in Atlanta.
AfD presented seven workshops on different aspects of corporate rule, peace, international trade (including the new Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America - SPP) and protection of rights and resources, working with several allied groups.
Susan Bee of the South Puget Sound Chapter conducted a third season’s worth of interviews for the Chapter’s “Reclaiming Democracy” television show. (at the link you can check out past shows online and learn how you can sponsor the show on your own community tv station.)
And we introduced people to the concept of the Commons through the Tapestry of the Commons frame that we set up at the Water Tent, the beautiful banners that Jan Edwards designed (see the USSF slide show link), and the workshop Jan gave with Karen Coulter of POCLAD. We also distributed Jan’s two-minute Tapestry of the Commons radio spots to the local and national media at the Social Forum (you can listen or download them from the link at the Tapestry of the Commons website, or request a cd from Jan Edwards at janedwards@mcn.org to take to your local community radio station.)
A major focus of our outreach efforts at the Water Tent was building awareness of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) - a “NAFTA-on-steroids” nightmare - that calls for the construction of super-corridors, eight-lanes to transport goods from deepwater ports in Canada and Mexico. These corridors will have parallel pipelines for gas, oil and yes, water - to bring Canadian water south to water-scarce areas of the U.S. and northern Mexico. For info, follow the link from the AfD home page. We petitioned, asking state government take action against the SPP, and asked people to take information on the agreement to share with others. We’ll be following up with the petition-signers and working to build opposition. You can download a petition here, or contact the national office for more information.
Upcoming action: the Council of Canadians is planning a protest at the August 21-22 SPP summit in Montebello, Ontario. The action is being planned despite organizers being told by Canadian police and the US Army that the Council of Canadians cannot hold a forum on SPP in a nearby town (security forces claim they need the hall planned for the forum) or protest within 25 kilometers of the meeting site. Visit the Council of Canadians site for updates.
Seattle Chapter helps build support for impeachment, educates on corporate rule
Rebecca Wolfe writes:
The Seattle AfD chapter is helping to make Washington State a national leader in the impeachment movement. Working with several other groups (World Can’t Wait -- Drive Out the Bush Regime, Eastside Fellowship of Reconciliation, Progressive Democrats of America, Washington for Impeachment, and others), our group has helped gather over 25,000 signatures in support of impeachment. We are focused on supporting Dennis Kucinich’s bill, “H. Res. 333” and have convinced Rep. Jim McDermott, whose district includes Seattle, to co-sponsor it. We’ve met with Rep. Jay Inslee and his staffers and feel hopeful that he, too, will support the bill. See www.WashingtonforImpeachment.org for more information.
On June 24 our combined efforts produced a terrific forum featuring authors who are experts on the Constitution and impeachment: Elizabeth de la Vega, Phil Burk, and David Lindorff. A workshop to train the trainers, “Constitution in Crisis: A Call to Action” followed the forum. More than 200 people attended, most of whom want to help build “Impeachment Summer” by holding house parties and speaking to groups about impeachment.
Other Greater Seattle activities include appearances by “Maximilian Bucks,” our corporate candidate, who delivers the corporate stance at every opportunity. Maxi Bucks is a satirical character who is principally the creation of one member, Rebecca Em Campbell. She has a commanding knowledge of corporate or investor-owned companies, their histories, and the many issues associated with them. This idea was inspired by the Portland, Oregon chapter whose corporate candidate, Rich Corporateson, was being groomed to run for Governor of Oregon. (After all, if a corporation is a person, shouldn’t that person be able to run for office?) We are hoping that, in being denied a place on the ballot for NOT being a person, we will begin to unravel the legal fiction of corporate personhood. At progressive events, Maxi (dressed very conservatively) challenges speakers on their talking points, representing always the corporate worldview. It’s great fun and conveys our message better than any lecture ever could.
With help from Susan Bee, president of the South Puget Sound AfD, we are now certified by SCAN (the Seattle Community Area Network), our local access TV station, and supplied with over a dozen locally produced videos that we can air there to help educate the public about the failure of corporate law, the history of how corporations came to control our government, and related topics.
Building relationships and alliances is helping our chapter grow into a vibrant organization. Our greatest challenge is that our leaders are all extremely busy in so many ways that we’ve been long on events but short on meetings. We’re working to correct that in the months ahead.
(A note from the national office: Rep. Kucinich’s bill continues to attract co-sponsors. If you support it, you can let your Congress members know at The People’s Email Network, www.usalone.org . When you sign their on-line petition, you may also request a free “Impeach Cheney?” baseball cap (see http://www.usalone.com/impeach_cheney_cap.php ). (If you like, you can pick out the stitching in the question mark!) And “Bill Moyers’ Journal” recently aired “Tough Talk on Impeachment,” with the conservative constitutional scholar Bruce Fein and journalist John Nichols of the The Nation. Read the transcript at www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07132007/transcript2.html or listen at www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/071307/profile.html . A DVD of the show may not be released until late September, but you may purchase it now at www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=2792209 )
Boston Cambridge Alliance organizer testifies in favor of state trade bill
Massachusetts legislators are considering a bill to create a commission to evaluate the impact of multinational trade agreements on the state’s laws, regulatory powers, and economy. At a public hearing this month, the bill received support from David Lewit, organizer of the Boston/Cambridge Alliance and Co-Chair of AfD’s Campaign on Corporate Globalization and Positive Alternatives.
Lewit said the commission would “ensure that we question the alluring but dangerous directions which the federal government is forcing upon us, and evaluate the impacts of those federal requirements upon our naturally endowed region and our control over our commonwealth and our lives.” The need for such a commission is even more pressing with the proposed Security and Prosperity Partnership, he noted.
Calendar:
August 5, Olympia, WA: South Puget Sound chapter First Annual Membership Meeting. Enjoy music, food and friends; meet the new board, discuss building the organization, and attend the Town Hall Picnic and Candidate Forum. For information, see www.sounddemocracy.org, or email afd@thealliancefordemocracy.org.
August 10-12, Eureka, CA: “Community Organizing for Deep Democracy Retreat” sponsored by Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County. Participants will learn the history, analysis, networks, and legal and educational strategies for local democracy organizing. For information on registration and tuition, see www.duhc.org/deepdemocracy.html
August 25-28, Denver, CO: Festival of Democracy and Days of Resistance at the Democratic National Convention. For info on planning and events, see www.recreate68.org
October 21-23, Washington, DC: “No War, No Warming: National Intervention on Global Warming.” Non-violent civil disobedience on Capitol Hill to send the war in Iraq and halt the climate crisis. For info, see www.NoWarNoWarming.org
October 27, Regionally: One week before the US Social Forum, United for Peace with Justice held its 3rd national assembly outside Chicago. The almost 200 member groups represented agreed to call for a day of regional antiwar demonstrations in six to eight cities nationwide on Saturday, October 27. Other actions in the campaign to end the war include working to end congressional support for the war in Iraq, counter-recruitment, support for resisters, veterans, and military families, teaching on the economic costs of war and the military budget, campaigning in 2008 for a peace and justice agenda, education, skills-building, and challenging war profiteers. www.unitedforpeace.org
Allied Actions:
Support Low-power FM
Low-power FM radio has the potential to bring community-based and alternative-viewpoint programming to an enormously wide audience—almost everyone has a radio! Corporate media has fought the expansion of low-power FM for years, but activists have mobilized support and put new stations on the air. Help expand low power FM by supporting the Local Community Radio Act of 2007 (HR 2802/SB 1675), sponsored by Senators John McCain and Maria Cantwell, and Reps Lee Terry and Mike Doyle. For info, visit www.prometheusradio.org/take_action/lpfm_in_congress .
