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The Fight For Local Democracy in New York City

Editor’s Note: New York City’s Community Boards possess nothing in the way of real governing authority. When 52 out of the borough’s [read more …]

Crown Heights Tenant Union: Building Power One Building at a Time in NYC

Editor’s Note: Longtime New York City tenants have been getting evicted and displaced in neighborhood after neighborhood in recent years. Harlem, the [read more …]

Activists Occupy Shipping Container to Halt AIM Pipeline Construction in Upstate NY

In Defiance of Pipeline Construction, Concerned Individuals Move Reclaimed Shipping Container Home With Two People Inside Onto AIM Pipeline Construction Site [read more …]

Barrington, NH votes 795 to 759 to Adopt Community Bill of Rights to Protect Waterways

On March 8, 2016 residents at Town Meeting in Barrington, NH, voted 795 to 759 to adopt a Community Bill of Rights [read more …]

Revoking The Consent to be Governed

Editor’s Note: Mary Geddry, together with the Oregon Community Rights Network, is pushing a state ballot initiative that Geddry says, “will confirm [read more …]

Announcement of Nationally Coordinated Prisoner Workstoppage for Sept 9, 2016

Editor’s Note: This piece was authored collaboratively by anonymous prison rebels and outside supporters. To get updates on the planned strike visit [read more …]

The Spirit of Occupy Lives on in France’s Emerging Direct Democracy Movement

Editor’s Note: “The foundation of the French Republic,” writes Marisa Holmes, “– liberal democracy — is losing all legitimacy. People do not [read more …]

How Sanders Could Lay the Foundation for a Third US Political Party

Editor’s Note: Geoff Gilbert argues that the longer Bernie Sanders is in the race to become President, the more momentum he will [read more …]

Some Possible Ideas for Going Forward

Editor’s Note: Once marginalized ideas and movements are finally realizing they’re in the majority. This statement, signed by 77 public figures (signatories [read more …]

Reclaiming Black Land in Grafton, New York

Editor’s Note: The Laura Flanders Show continues its coverage of the growing Black farmers movement. Their interviewee of Grafton, New York’s Soul [read more …]

Meet the Lead Organizer Behind the Upcoming Mass Sit-Ins to get Money out of Politics

Editor’s Note: This piece originally appeared on wagingnonviolence.org. On April 2, more than a hundred marchers calling for an end to [read more …]

Dismantling Corporate Control Isn’t a Spectator Sport: An Interview With Thomas Linzey

This piece originally appeared in Rural America In These Times. Rural America Editors’ Note: Thomas Linzey is no stranger to Rural America [read more …]

Preempting Trump: Barnstead, NH Adopts First-In-Nation Law Protecting Against Religious Persecution

Editor’s Note: Amongst emboldened racist xenophobia, one small New Hampshire town has taken a historic stand to guard religious minorities from fascist [read more …]

This New Era Of Unrest

Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published on Share The World’s Resources—which uses British English spellings. In line with the steady [read more …]

Washington State Supreme Court Guts Local Ballot Initiative Process

Editor’s Note: In recent years, citizens’ law making power through local and state ballot initiative processes has been on the receiving end [read more …]

Debating A ‘New’ Pan-European Anti-Austerity Movement

Editor’s Note: In late 2015, former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis announced he would launch a pan-European movement on February 9, 2016 [read more …]

How New York Stopped A Liquefied Natural Gas Project In Its Tracks

Editor’s Note: In this piece we hear from one New York-based climate activist, Patrick Robbins, who shares with us some of his [read more …]

Food, Land, and Freedom

Editor’s Note: A well-documented land grab is taking place across the globe and the United States—Wall Street is gobbling it up…fast. Never [read more …]

One Oregon Tribe’s Fight for Federal Recognition

Editor’s Note: This piece originally appeared on truth-out.org. Millions of indigenous people living within US territory exist in a legal limbo [read more …]

Worker, Civil and Environmental Rights as Legal Ends: Defying Commerce’s Logic

Editor’s Note: The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) has launched a take-off of The Federalist Papers. They have titled the ongoing [read more …]

Fast-Food Workers Plan Wave Of Strikes For 2016 Primaries

Editor’s Note: The first strike took place in Charleston, SC on Sunday, January 17, 2016—to coincide with the Democratic debate. Read the [read more …]

Greece’s Varoufakis to Launch Pan-European Progressive Movement

Editor’s Note: This February, former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis will launch a new pan-European project—Democracy in Europe Movement 2025—to “counter, this [read more …]

California’s Largest Tribe Passes First-In-Nation Enforceable Ban On GM-Salmon and GMOs

Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published by the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center. “The Yurok People have the [read more …]

The Leap Manifesto

Editor’s Note: According to their website, “The writing of The Leap Manifesto was initiated in the spring of 2015 at a two-day [read more …]

“People’s Injunction” Launched to Block Canadian Pipelines

Editor’s Note: This piece originally appeared on CommonDreams.org. In the wake of the Paris climate talks, environmental groups on Thursday called [read more …]

How Black Lives Matter Came Back Stronger After White Supremacist Attacks

Editor’s Note: This piece originally appeared on WagingNonviolence.org. It offers a valuable inside look and lesson learned from the ever-growing Black Lives [read more …]

Can Local Law Enforcement Be Democratized By A People’s Movement?

Editor’s Note: This piece originally appeared on theleap.thischangeseverything.org. Read on. In Medina County, Ohio, the local prosecutor, sheriff and judge [read more …]

Preempting Democracy: What’s Not Being Voted on This November Is Sinister

This piece originally appeared on CommonDreams.org, in October 2015, before the November elections. From minimum wage increases to anti-fracking measures, the right [read more …]

A Bill of Rights That Puts Workers Above Corporations

This piece originally appeared in In These Times, in October 2015. Update: The Worker Bill of Rights was defeated at the polls [read more …]

Government and Gas Industry Team Up Against Local Fracking Ban Initiatives in Ohio

This piece originally appeared on earthisland.org/journal, in September 2015. Eye on Ohio, a local investigative fund published a version of this piece [read more …]

Fighting Fossils, Letting Go of Regulatory Law

“For environmentalists to empathize and cooperate with social, racial, and economic justice activists — for a real climate movement to take root [read more …]

In Colorado, A Revolutionary New Coalition Stands for Community Rights

Editor’s Note: This piece originally appeared on theleap.thischangeseverything.org, the website of Naomi Klein’s landmark book on Climate Change This Changes Everything. [read more …]

Climate Crisis Pits Local Governments Against 19th-Century Legal Doctrine

Editor’s Note: This piece originally appeared on theleap.thischangeseverything.org, the website of Naomi Klein’s landmark book on Climate Change This Changes Everything. [read more …]

Hundreds of Communities Are Building Legal Blockades to Fight Big Carbon

Editor’s Note: This piece originally appeared on theleap.thischangeseverything.org, the website of Naomi Klein’s landmark book on Climate Change This Changes Everything. [read more …]

Will Labor Go Local?

This piece originally appeared on truth-out.org in January, it is reprinted with permission. Workplace struggles are getting difficult to predict. Conventional [read more …]

Challenging Bedrock Law: “Dillon’s Rule” in Detroit and Beyond

Editor’s Note: “Though egregious, Detroit’s dismemberment is but a symptom of a legal doctrine – an idea – that has worked to [read more …]

Defining a Federalist Approach to Immigration Reform

Editor’s Note: This piece originally appeared on truth-out.org last summer. The article continues Read the Dirt’s focus on how local governments can [read more …]

Why Are Fracking Hopefuls Suing a County in New Mexico?

Editor’s Note: This piece originally appeared on TheNation.com, last spring. Though somewhat out of date, the article offers continued coverage of a [read more …]

Finally, The Court Case We’ve All Been Waiting For

Editor’s Note: The first county to elevate its right to self-govern above corporate constitutional protections is headed to federal court. By Kathleen Dudley, [read more …]

Ohio and Colorado Voters Adopt Community Bills of Rights

By Ben Price, CELDF.org (North Middleton Township, PA, November 6, 2013) On Election Day, voters in an Ohio and a Colorado community [read more …]

Community Rights Organizer Sets Sights on Fracking in Southern Illinois

By Natalie Long, CELDF.org (October 18, 2013) Due to the outcry of communities in southern Illinois, the region has a new resource in the fight [read more …]

Critical Issues Deserve a Higher Standard

By David Suzuki, David Suzuki Foundation From government scientists to First Nations citizens and environmentalists, pretty much everyone working to protect the [read more …]

Indigenous Peoples Experience Of Climate Change And Efforts To Adapt (Video)

By Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources, Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources Editor’s Note: Continuing our coverage of indigenous climate adaptation. The video [read more …]

Naomi Klein Addresses New ‘Mega Union’

Editor’s Note: On September 1, 2013 Naomi Klein gave the following speech at the founding convention of UNIFOR, a new mega union [read more …]

Disco may be the only way to stop Monsanto (Video)

This is Label GMO Disco (parody of Village People YMCA)–in support of Washington’s I-522 to label GMOs. Performed by Dana Lyons Directed [read more …]

(Ohio) Frack-Backers Launch Preemptive Strikes against Democracy Attempt to Block Community Bills of Rights from Voters

By Tish O’Dell, CELDF.org (Broadview Heights, Ohio, September 12, 2013) As Congressional representatives meet to debate military strikes against the Syrian government [read more …]

The California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Speaks to the Need for Wise Immigration Reform

Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of Read the Dirt’s coverage of Domestic Workers Bills of Rights. By Guillermo Cantor, [read more …]

Support Local Food Rights Will Not Be Deterred by Legislature’s Blow to Democracy

Lane County’s Local Food System Ordinance Continues to Ballot Box Despite the legislature’s passage of SB 863 (formerly SB633) on Tuesday, members [read more …]

Economic Sovereignty At Stake

Manitoba: Assembly Of Manitoba Chiefs Stands With Dakota Communities In Assertion Of Economic Sovereignty By Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources The Assembly [read more …]

Sangerville, Maine Adopts Community Bill Of Rights Ordinance to Reject Transportation and Distribution Corridors

By Gail Darrell, CELDF.org Tonight (September 18, 2013), in Sangerville, Maine, at a Special Town Meeting, the Community Bill of Rights Ordinance [read more …]

Sacred Headwaters

Tahltan’s Sacred Headwaters defense has deep roots By David Suzuki, David Suzuki Foundation Few places on our planet have been unaffected by [read more …]

Oregon Communities Launch Statewide Network for Community Rights

“The corporate state is not science fiction. Corporate agribusiness is taking over what, how, and who grows food in my community. It [read more …]

Bowling Green, OH Group Submits Bill of Rights Petition

August 8, 2013.

Judgment Day

A Court Ruling and Changes to the Initiative Process Raise Questions about the People’s Right to Petition By Heidi Groover, The Pacific [read more …]

Judge Blocks Envision, SMAC Initiatives from Appearing on Ballot

By Heidi Groover, The Pacific Northwest Inlander A Superior Court judge ruled this morning that two local citizen initiatives — one from [read more …]

Why a Rights Based Ordinance In Nottingham, NH?

By Chris Mills, CELDF.org August 10th, 2013. Chris Mills, co-founder of the Nottingham Water Alliance, writes on why a Community Rights Ordinance [read more …]

What is the Local Food System Ordinance of Lane County?

Editor’s Note: An explanation offered by Community Rights Lane County. The Lane County Local Food System Ordinance is a law, drafted [read more …]

Lane County Initiative to Protect Local Farming Encounters Hurdle; Campaign Still Targeting May 2014 Election

Editor’s Note: Lane County, OR joins Benton County in defending the right to vote on rights-based, food-centric, ordinances in Oregon. Advocates of [read more …]

Benin: Local Knowledge And Adaptation To Climate Change In Ouémé Valley, Benin

By R.A.B. Kpadonou, P.Y. Adégbola, and S.D. Tovignan, Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources This paper highlights the local dimension of adaptation to [read more …]

Local Food System Ordinance of Lane County, Oregon

www.localfoodrights.com Section 1. Purpose We the people of Lane County believe that ecology, economy, and food are inseparable and that the [read more …]

Envision Spokane Statement to Legal Action to Block the Community Bill of Rights from the Ballot

Business Community and Spokane County Join Forces to Block Citizens’ Initiatives from City Ballot – Lawsuit Filed Against Initiative Sponsors and City of Spokane [read more …]

Why does the Spokane City Council continue to ignore and distort the substance of the Spokane Community Bill of Rights?

Editor’s Note: A few weeks ago The Inlander published a guest editorial from Councilpersons Stuckart, Snyder, and Waldref on the Community Bill of [read more …]

History of Efforts to Keep the Spokane Community Bill of Rights Initiative off the Ballot

Corporate interests have repeatedly gone to the Spokane City Council to keep the Community Bill of Rights initiative off the ballot. The [read more …]

East Boulder County United Launches Campaign for the Lafayette Community Rights Act to Prohibit New Oil and Gas Extraction

Editor’s Note: In the past month citizens in Lafayette launched a campaign to become the first community in Colorado to pursue a [read more …]

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