Community Rights US Founding Director Paul Cienfuegos participated in the 3rd Regional Gathering in the Driftless Area of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, held on March 4th, 2018. 50 people attended from more than a dozen counties. An archive of audio, video, and text of this extraordinary full-day event’s sessions and other group discussions will soon be available HERE. Here are Paul’s remarks at the opening of the Regional Gathering:

Last week, one of Germany’s top courts ruled that heavily polluting vehicles can be banned from the urban centers of two major German cities. Environmental campaigners had sued dozens of German cities, arguing they have a duty to cut air pollution to protect people’s health. Now, two of Germany’s most polluted cities can legally ban older, more polluting vehicles, but the ruling will have an impact on the whole country, paving the way for other cities to introduce bans. The ruling has sent shock waves throughout the auto industry in Germany.

Banning highly polluting cars in US cities seems like a perfectly sensible idea, but you don’t hear anyone proposing it, perhaps because everyone knows that cities don’t have the legal authority to do such things here. The folks here in this room know why that is. A city ban of this kind would be illegal because of the structures of law that hinder We the People’s capacity to create the sort of world we want to live in. State preemption, Dillon’s Rule and corporate constitutional so-called “rights” trump the rights of The People. At least according to the ruling elite, be they Obama or Trump appointees.

If you think about it, it’s really not surprising at all that so few of us here in the US are working to ban (rather than regulate) harmful corporate activities, given the endless messages that we get from all directions, about leaving important decisions to our state and federal elected officials.

A few years ago, in a speech that I gave in St Paul on catastrophic climate destabilization and how the Community Rights movement could play a major role in beginning to solve this crisis, I shared a list of ideas I had brainstormed about the kinds of laws US communities and counties could pass that could make a big difference. My speech was met with deafening silence from climate action groups. I didn’t take it personally. I know full well how effectively our collective imagination has been shut down in this heavily colonized culture we call home. But that has to change, and fast! And it’s the people here in this room today who are the ones most likely to become the thought and action leaders that We have been waiting for.

Here are just a few of the local laws that I proposed in my speech that evening in Saint Paul (and by the way my entire speech is online at CommunityRights.US if you want to read it or watch it):

* Establishing new local gas taxes at the pump, with all money being used to fund rapid expansion of community-based renewable energy projects and public transit

* Prohibiting corporations doing business locally from donating to any candidates or elected officials, or participating in any way in ballot initiative or referendum campaigns

* Requiring local grocery stores to reserve a growing percentage of their shelf space for products grown or produced within 500 miles, phased in over five to ten years

* Ending all local government subsidies and tax breaks to large corporations

* Prohibiting the privatization of local utilities, and if necessary, reversing previous privatizations, to bring decision-making authority back under local public control

* Implementing democratic planning and decision-making authority at the neighborhood level

I’m guessing that most of the ideas on this list seem downright crazy and unachievable – even to those of us in this room. And that’s part of the larger problem that our movement faces right now – that even those of us leading this work locally probably worry that our goals are pretty out there. I would argue that that is our own internalized version of a colonized way of thinking about what is possible.

I want to really push all of us in this room today to imagine how extraordinary this entire day together might end up becoming if all of us are attempting, each and every hour, to function together as if we believe that we truly are We the People, The Sovereign People. (Again, sovereignty means literally, “the authority to rule, to govern ourselves”.) If all of our contributions today come from that paradigm-shifted place, imagine the boldness that might result in our group conversations. What would it feel like today if all of us spoke and listened from a fully embodied sense of ourselves as We the People? Would our creative thinking be subtly different? I really want to push all of us to walk that edge today in all of our interactions and in our small group work sessions.

We all know that this country is at a level of crisis like nothing we’ve experienced before. And our Mother Earth is experiencing rapid species extinction and systems collapse. So we absolutely HAVE to be our most empowered selves.

Which includes stretching towards seeing ourselves as having all the authority we need to start to turn this mess around. That means finding our voice to tell our local elected officials that if they’re not boldly leading then perhaps it’s time for them to step down and be replaced by someone who will take their leadership responsibilities a lot more seriously. Because we’re rapidly running out of time. So if your community wants to pass a law that bans any further factory farms or frac sand mines or pipelines or high voltage power lines or hog slaughterhouses or whatever the corporate leaders are planning to assault us with next, then your local elected officials either need to be ready to support their constituents, or get out of the way and make room for someone else who will.

And of course, the same is true of our state and federal elected leaders. If yours is denying that there’s even a climate crisis, or consistently voting to oppose basic rights for half of their constituents (i.e. women), or blocking a Medicare For all health care system, then again we need to be speaking from that place of real authority, and demanding their immediate resignations, as they have proven themselves as unfit to serve. I realize that that’s a big cultural stretch for most of us to contemplate, but it’s a necessary stretch. We are the leaders we’ve been waiting for!

And just as soon as one of your communities manages to convince your township council or board of supervisors to pass a Community Rights ordinance, the whole region is going to light up! Others among you are going to feel emboldened to follow their lead. I’m absolutely convinced of this.

The vast majority of the existing 200 communities in nine states that have already succeeded in passing CR ordinances were passed by local elected officials, not voters. So we need to remember that this is not an insurmountable task. Yes, for sure there will be naysayers telling you otherwise.

“These ordinances are illegal to pass,” people will tell you. Yes, that’s true, as you know. But those dozens of states that have passed medical marijuana laws over the past few decades – those were illegal to pass too as they all violate federal preemption laws. But those states did it anyway, and the federal government is still scrambling to figure out how to respond. And let’s not forget – the American Revolution was illegal too.

Violating existing unjust laws in order to drive new rights into the law is as American as apple pie! I think we have a hard time remembering that fact.

“But our community will get sued,” local elected officials will tell you. Yes, that is also a possibility. But let’s not forget that the elected officials in those 200 communities in nine states that have already passed CR ordinances have reached the point where they are now less afraid of a lawsuit than they are of their community losing its cherished quality of life to a factory farm or a frac sand mine or a high voltage power line. And here in this room is Joan Pougiales who lives in Menomonie [Wisconsin] and who has a really wonderful idea that she plans to discuss at the Roundtable discussion session after lunch – bringing together local governments from around the region to pledge financial support to any neighboring governments that pass a CR ordinance and then get sued. So you see – even in this scenario there are creative methods for sharing the pain of a lawsuit.

Last October, I co-founded a new national Community Rights support organization – Community Rights US – to help groups all over the country to get the support they need to become vibrant and successful campaigns. Although our initial online fundraising fell short of our first year goals, it’s clear that we’re on a roll.

* One year ago, before we launched Community Rights US, we didn’t have a proper organizational website to send people to. Now we do!

* We didn’t have a NewsFeed that was constantly being updated with news and analysis from and about the Community Rights movement. Now we do, thanks to Curt Hubatch, who’s sitting here in this room, one of our core staff members at Community Rights US who lives here in Wisconsin.

* We didn’t have a comprehensive network of resource people and organizations across the country ready to serve new and existing local CR groups with the support they need to sustain themselves in their campaigns. Now we do.

One of my highest priorities for this coming year is to pull together the core staff necessary for Community Rights US to lead the movement’s first ever Intensive Training for Workshop Leaders. Two of the folks here today are patiently waiting for this training to be scheduled – Forest Jahnke from Wisconsin and Carla Cao currently living in Georgia. This upcoming training is going to cost us some significant money to pull off. And at this point, we don’t have it.

And some of you are also aware that I have been doing this work full-time for many years now, but only getting paid when I lead workshops. I’ve been living on a ridiculously small income for a long time that is simply not sustainable for me. I see my Community Rights teaching and organizing as my life work, as my greatest passion, so I literally sometimes forget that I also need a real income too.

So I’m going to go out on a limb here and ask all of you to consider becoming monthly donors to either Community Rights US or to me personally. $5/month, $20/month, $100/month. It all adds up. Steve Luse from Decorah, Iowa, who’s here in the room, decided last month to start donating $300 every month into the future to help me to become more financially stable. That’s an incredible commitment he has made, and I want to encourage the rest of you to reflect on how important the Community Rights movement, and my leadership, is to you.

You know that this work is absolutely cutting-edge, compared to the conventional single-issue activism that most folks do. And if I am going to continue committing to this movement full-time, and if Community Rights US is going to achieve the big goals that we have for reaching out to communities across the US, then it’s going to require a lot more of us to prioritize our donations in this direction. I’m going to pass out a Pledge Form to everyone. We ask that you fill it out today and leave it in the box on my book table over there before you head home. Thank you!

[Now back to the rest of my prepared remarks…]

Here are some of my big ideas that someone here in the room might decide they want to run with as part of their time contribution towards our work together:

* Next year, in February, is the Bicentennial of corporations winning constitutional “rights”. I think our movement could use that 200-year anniversary as a golden opportunity to awaken people across the US to our corporate “rights” crisis.

Our nation celebrated its Bicentennial in 1976. Many of us participated in major events in 1992 to mark the Quincentennial (the 500th Anniversary) of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the New World – as a day of mourning, to remember the genocide of Native peoples that began in 1492.

I want to propose that our local CR groups all across the country consider organizing Corporate “Rights” Teach-Ins to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of corporate constitutional “rights”. On February 2nd, 1819, the US Supreme Court made a decision that changed the political course of US history. The case was called Trustees of Dartmouth College v Woodward, and was the very first case where the Supreme Court “found” corporate “rights” in the US Constitution, specifically claiming they had found it in the Constitution’s Contracts Clause. It wasn’t really there, of course, but the Supreme Court had its own political agenda, and it delivered to the ruling class. February 2nd, 2019, will be the Bicentennial of that historic moment in 1819. And we all know how that corporate “rights” thing developed after that! So if anyone in this room is potentially interested in forming a Community Rights US working group on this topic, please talk to me.

* Another idea I want to share today: How about the next time we all get together, it’s for a Community Rights day-long or weekend-long Teach-In that is open to the public, rather than our next event being another Gathering of already-active folks? And such an event could help our larger CR movement across the Driftless and beyond to begin to draw a much bigger group of folks who want to build the movement in this area. Talk to me if you’re intrigued by this idea and would like to become part of an informal working group to discuss it further.

* And you’ve all seen the big Corporate “Rights” Timeline that I post at all of my workshops. We want to expand it and put it online with a lot more interactivity built into it as a teaching tool. We’re looking to set up a small team to work on it. Please talk to me if you’re interested.

These are just three of the projects Community Rights US wants to launch this coming year. I want to invite everyone in this room to begin to imagine yourselves as part of the larger whole that is Community Rights US. We envision ourselves as a national network of people and groups working to support the movement from the ground up. We’d like to hear YOUR ideas about how you become a part of this growing grassroots network.

There’s one final thing I want to share with you before we open up the floor to full group conversation. Here are a few tidbits of the latest Community Rights news from around the country, which I pulled off of our NewsFeed on our homepage at CommunityRights.US that Curt Hubatch uploads every few days.

First, here’s an excerpt from a Letter to the Editor published on February 28th in the Laconia, New Hampshire newspaper:

“Friends and neighbors have asked me why I am voting yes to Article 29, the Community Rights-Based Ordinance in Ashland, [New Hampshire]. The reasons are many, but the simplest is that I’m tired.

I’m a resident, a taxpayer, and a mother raising children here and I’m just plain tired. I’m tired of watching large corporations use their size, power, and money to overrun local interests and destroy our environment. I’m tired of being told by state (and perhaps more sadly local leaders), that projects like Northern Pass are inevitable, beyond our control, and that we just need to suck it up and prepare for it. I’m tired of the “let’s make the most of it” argument or the argument for “let’s try to just mitigate the inevitable.” I’m tired of being told we have no say, no power, all while watching corporations claim massive rights and future lost profits and dodge responsibility for harm after harm. …

We’re done. No, you cannot expect us to rejoice that you’re offering us free testing of our watershed and lagoons so that IF you cause harm we can prove it and attempt to receive a settlement. No. Just stay away from our watershed. Don’t dig there, don’t test there, don’t put towers there, just leave one of our most precious facilities and resources alone for us to manage as a community. …

As disenfranchised and powerless as we feel, we must always remember that the laws are our creation, and that every amendment to every law has begun with a person, a people, a community asserting that the law as it stands should be challenged. We assert our sincere will and the legislators and law follow that will. So, I will be voting YES to Article 29, and I hope to find among my neighbors others who are tired and ready to claim what has always been ours.”

Here’s a news story…

Last month, the residents of Plymouth, New Hampshire, passed a Community Rights ordinance at a Special Town Meeting that banned the Northern Pass high voltage power lines. Residents voted 132 to 19 to establish their Right to a Sustainable Energy Future. Plymouth resident and Community Rights leader Richard Hage, said, “The state energy and environmental agencies repeatedly demonstrate they have no intention to protect our communities. They issue permit after permit to legalize this devastating project. They cater to every wish of the developer, and they are backed by state and federal government. Now, it’s up to us. We the People must exercise our right to govern and protect the places we live. Here in Plymouth, that’s just what we’re doing.” The community is also lobbying the state legislature for a state constitutional amendment to affirm the right of New Hampshire towns to pass such ordinances.

And in an unusual twist regarding state and federal preemption, there’s this wonderful story:

In recent years, 18 state legislatures have passed laws that preempt local governments from setting up high-speed internet service, even in communities where cable and phone companies have declined to offer such services. In response, a bill has been proposed in the US Congress that would prohibit states from banning local governments that want to offer such services. Sometimes the feds preempting state law-making when it violates local control is exactly what is needed to protect local democracy! It truly is a crazy world out there!

And finally, this…

In early January, a federal judge ordered the nonprofit law firm Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (or CELDF) to pay $52,000 to an oil and gas exploration company simply for defending a rural Pennsylvania township’s Community Rights ban on underground dumping of poisonous frac waste water. The sanction came at the request of Pennsylvania General Energy Company and the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association, but is part of a growing trend to prevent municipalities across the nation from pushing back against state and federal attempts to overrule them. The community’s ordinance bans the injection well “as a violation of our basic civil rights.”

At the heart of the court’s decision awarding PGE sanctions against the legal non-profit is an argument that the sanctions are justified because CELDF’s legal arguments are contrary to “settled” law and therefore “frivolous.” Grant Township, the court writes, “seeks to disavow constitutional rights afforded corporations…”

In CELDF’s sanction case, the court acknowledged that sanctions can have the effect of “chilling novel legal or factual arguments.” Thomas Linzey, CELDF’s director and one of the two attorneys being personally sanctioned, says “that’s exactly the point. For years, the oil and gas corporations believed that they could stop the community rights movement by suing municipalities to overturn their local laws; but having failed to do so, they’re now coming after the lawyers who are helping those communities to stop drilling. In many ways, the industry’s filing for sanctions against us is just proof of how strong the community rights movement is becoming.”

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” Our movement is starting to be seen as a serious threat by the corporate elite. That’s incredibly exciting to me, and I’m hoping it is to you too. Great social movements throughout history have had to break the law in order to drive important new rights into the law. It tends to be an essential step to the larger win. And as far as I’m concerned, the folks here in this room are the front lines in the Driftless in this historic effort. You all have the capacity to mobilize your communities. Community Rights US is at your service. Let’s do this! Go Team! Thank you!