The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund : News. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund : So Your Community is Going to be Fracked, Mined, Factory Farmed, or fill in the blank… So Your Community is Going to be Fracked, Mined, Factory Farmed, or fill in the blank… Communities across the country, trying to stop a wide range of threats - such as fracking, mining, factory farming, sewage sludging, water privatization, coal shipments, unsustainable energy development, and genetically modified seeds - all run into the same problem: they don't have the legal authority to say "no" to them.
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund organizes in communities facing such threats. We've created this short video to share with you how a structure of law has developed that stands in the way of us saying "no" to harmful activities such as fracking, and prevents us from building sustainable food, energy, water, and other systems. It walks step-by-step through the barriers we face in our communities and what communities are doing - and what you can do - about it. We the People 2.0 - The 2nd American Revolution. We the People 2.0 is a film about communities fighting back and winning against corporations that sludge, mine, frack and pollute. -- Last Few Days -- Hello to All the Supporters of We the People 2.0!!!
We are in our last few days, and if you know of a friend who would be interested in supporting us, please forward our campaign to them and encourage them to support this important work! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Leila & Mathew -- Final 2 Weeks! And check out pitch from Kenny Ausubel of Bioneers ( It's in our Gallery above ) Hello all!
We are in our final 2 weeks for this campaign and besides the incredible monetary support we have made great progress in getting the word out! -- Our First Month! Hello All Supporters and Friends of We the People 2.0! We are just about to finish our first month with our campaign and word is beginning to take hold. From Gail and Chris Mills: Hi folks, I am asking for your help. It did not stop there. Gail and Chris Mills____________________ Our Budget. Rebel Towns. Ballot question, plain language description - TimesObserver.com | News, Sports, Jobs, Community Information - The Times Observer. The exact text of the ballot question: Shall Article II of the City of Warren's Home Rule Charter be amended to add a "Bill of Rights" enumerating rights to water, natural communities, sustainable energy future and local self government; banning natural gas extraction, except installed and operating wells; banning deposit, storage or transport of natural gas extraction by-products; and elevating the rights created under this amendment above those rights claimed by persons or corporations violating this amendment?
The exact text of the plain English Summary: Warren is a "Home Rule" City. This means it creates its own laws on any topic not exclusively regulated by the State or Federal government. This ballot question is presented as the result of a citizen petition. the amendment proposes an addition to the Home Rule Charter establishing a local "Bill of Rights" which asserts the right of residents of the city to local self-government, to water, and to a sustainable energy future.
Bill could hold gas companies liable. The Pittsburgh region needs an "environmental rights renaissance," city Councilman Doug Shields said Wednesday, defending a controversial anti-pollution bill that may not survive into the new year. With less than two weeks remaining in Mr. Shields' last term, council gave final approval Monday to his bill attempting to hold out-of-town natural gas producers liable for any pollution in the city or poisoning of its residents.
It also would attempt to hold accountable federal, state or local governments that licensed the polluters. "We need an environmental rights renaissance around here," Mr. Shields said, adding that a similar "toxic trespass" law is needed to protect the region's residents from emissions by coal-fired power plants. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl hasn't stated a position on the legislation, but he vetoed a previous bill, also introduced by Mr.
Shields, that banned natural gas production in the city. If Mr. The coalition also opposed the production ban, which Mr. Mr. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund : Press Release: Ecuador Approves New Constitution: Voters Approve Rights of Nature. Press Release: Ecuador Approves New Constitution: Voters Approve Rights of Nature September 28th, 2008 The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund CONTACT: Mari Margil, Associate Directormmargil@celdf.org September 28, 2008 Ecuador Approves New Constitution: Voters Approve Rights of Nature Ecuador Follows Lead of U.S. Communities: First Country in the World to Shift to Rights-Based Environmental Protection, Working With Legal Defense Fund By an overwhelming margin, the people of Ecuador today voted for a new constitution that is the first in the world to recognize legally enforceable Rights of Nature, or ecosystem rights.
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund is pioneering this work in the U.S., where it has assisted more than a dozen local municipalities with drafting and adopting local laws recognizing Rights of Nature. Legally Enforceable Ecosystem Rights: From the U.S. to Ecuador The Ecuador constitution operates in the same way. Background Today’s environmental laws are failing. Drafting Nature's Constitution: CELDF's Mari Margil on a new approach to environmental law. Simply regulating pollution will never really stop it. Mari Margil of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund discusses why we need a fundamental change in the way we use law to protect nature. posted Mar 02, 2010 Click here: Mari Margil discusses a new approach to environmental law The environmental movement, with its army of professional advocates, lawyers, grassroots campaigners, and dedicated funders, has been around for decades.
Mari Margil, associate director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) believes it's time for different tactics. "Our system of environmental laws and regulations don't actually protect the environment," says CLEDF's Mari Margil. The organization has since changed its goals, working with citizens from all over North and South America to literally rewrite local laws in ways that allow people to speak up for their communities, watersheds, forests, and air.
Part One Part Two Part Three. Bolivia Set to Pass Historic 'Law of Mother Earth' Which Will Grant Nature Equal Rights to Humans. With the cooperation of politicians and grassroots organizations, Bolivia is set to pass the Law of Mother Earth which will grant nature the same rights and protections as humans. The piece of legislation, called la Ley de Derechos de la Madre Tierra, is intended to encourage a radical shift in conservation attitudes and actions, to enforce new control measures on industry, and to reduce environmental destruction.
The law redefines natural resources as blessings and confers the same rights to nature as to human beings, including: the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered. In late 2005 Bolivia elected its first indigenous president, Evo Morales. Bolivia's successes or failures with implementation may well inform the policies of countries around the world. Links | Paul Cienfuegos. Activism Related to Citizens United and a Model Bill of Rights Elections Ordinance | Paul Cienfuegos. Subject: The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund Releases Statement on Activism Related to Citizens United and a Model Bill of Rights Elections Ordinance January 17, 2012 CELDF Releases Statement on Activism Related to Citizens United and a Model Bill of Rights Elections Ordinance to Eliminate Corporate Activities which Interfere with the Right of People to Clean Government and Fair Elections Contact Mari Margil mmargil@celdf.org Mercersburg, PA: With the two year anniversary of the Citizens United decision upon us, today the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) released a statement examining the activism that's emerged in the wake of the U.S.
Supreme Court's 2010 decision, and declaring the need to build a broader movement. The current activism that's emerged in the wake of Citizens United - in which the U.S. Yet, as CELDF examines in its statement, corporate "free speech rights" were around long before Citizens United. Greetings to all! And welcome to my new homepage! | Paul Cienfuegos. Paul Cienfuegos. Paul Cienfuegos at WA State Labor Council, 1 of 3 M2U01778.MPG. Democracy Unlimited. Sins of the Fathers: How Corporations Use the Constitution and Environmental Law to Plunder Communities and Nature, speech by Thomas Alan Linzey, 3/4/04. Paul Cienfuegos : We The People 5/16/11. Envision Spokane. A Community Bill of Rights would: Allow residents greater control over proposed neighborhood development;Strengthen protections for the Spokane River and our drinking water;Protect workers constitutional rights;Limit corporate rights when they conflict with community rights.
Everyone agrees that building a sustainable, democratic, and healthy Spokane is an admirable goal. Getting there through a system run by a handful of powerful special interests however isn’t going to happen. That means that it’s up to us, the residents of the City, to get it done. To do so, a Community Bill of Rights seeks to build a healthy, sustainable, and democratic Spokane by securing rights for neighborhoods, residents, workers, and the natural environment that the big developers, corporations, and the City government must respect. Let Neighborhoods Decide - Today, residents don’t control how their neighborhood is developed. Expanding legal standing on who can protect the Spokane River and aquifer. POCLAD - Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy.
Montana Supreme Court Upholds State's Century-Old Ban on Corporate Money in Elections | freespeechforpeople.org. DATE: December 30, 2011 RULING SETS UP FIRST DIRECT CHALLENGE TO US SUPREME COURT’S JANUARY 2010 DECISION IN CITIZENS UNITED v. FEC ‘A Huge Victory for Democracy’ HELENA, MONTANA -- The Montana Supreme Court today upheld Montana’s century-old ban on corporate political expenditures in state elections. The Court’s 5-2 ruling sets up the first direct challenge to the US Supreme Court’s January 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which equated corporations with people under the First Amendment and swept away longstanding precedent that had barred corporate expenditures in federal elections.
“[T]he State of Montana, or more accurately its voters, clearly had a compelling interest to enact the challenged statute in 1912,” wrote Chief Justice Mike McGrath for the Court’s the majority opinion in the case of Western Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. “The Montana state supreme court justices have just provided a New Year’s gift to the nation,” Bonifaz continued. Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy. Real change, led by We the People, is needed in our nation and world. A bottom-up democracy insurgency calling and working for genuine self-governance has begun. It's represented in the US by multi-state responses to attacks on workers, the Occupy Wall Street movement and Move to Amend; and internationally by the massive "Arab Spring" demonstrations throughout the Middle East, North Africa and beyond.
POCLAD invites you to join together with others where you are in study/action groups to study, learn and act. We've prepared this Democracy Insurgency Curriculum to assist those who want to embark on this quest. February 2014 Featured Poclad Article By Greg Coleridge “It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.
" - Henry Ford Controlling the power of banking corporations Banking corporations didn’t use to have so much power. Issuing public money U.S. Political Influence. Montana High Court Says 'Citizens United' Does Not Apply In Big Sky State. January 1, 2012 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Montana’s Supreme Court has issued a stunning rebuke to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010 that infamously decreed corporations had constitutional rights to directly spend money on ‘independent expenditures’ in campaigns. The Montana Court vigorously upheld the state’s right to regulate how corporations can raise and spend money after a secretive Colorado corporation, Western Tradition Partnership, and a Montana sportsman’s group and local businessman sued to overturn a 1912 state law banning direct corporate spending on electoral campaigns.
The U.S. Concluding, the Court said that the sportsman’s group and businessman who sued to overturn the law were not prohibited from participating in politics by the ban on direct corporate spending. As Nelson said, ending his dissent, “the [U.S.] NY City Council Passes Resolution Declaring that Corporations Are Not People | NY City Council Passes Resolution Declaring that Corporations Are Not People FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 4, 2012 CONTACT: Mary Tek, Coordinator 212-341-9509 / nyccprogresscaucus@gmail.com City Council Passes Resolution Declaring that Corporations Are Not People NEW YORK, NY — The Progressive Caucus of the City Council commends today’s passage of a resolution opposing the United States Supreme Court Citizens United decision, which gave corporations the same First Amendment rights as people.
As our support of this resolution demonstrates, restoring confidence in government and strengthening democratic participation is a core principle of the Progressive Caucus. As Justice John Paul Stevens recognized in his dissent in the Citizens United decision, “corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Like this: Like Loading... About nycprogressives. Envision Spokane. The Vote Heard Around the World - Corporations Are Not People.