Paul Cienfuegos was interviewed by Joe Meyer for the KBOO Evening News, about the current toxic air quality situation in parts of Portland that is substantially higher than is considered safe by existing state and federal air quality standards. Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has been allowing this outrage for many years, but it's [...]
This original blog by Jane Anne Morris was published on her website, DemocracyThemePark.org on January 24, 2016. There are two kinds of activist groups, equally (in)effective. Which are you? And why? Pop-up activists tend their topiary and anguish over bathroom fixtures until… a Big Bad Issue pops up and invigorates them. Permanent Waves — the second kind of activist group [...]
An excellent introductory Primer on “Rights-Based” Organizing, presented as a 20-minute slideshow. Produced by Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.
This article by Jane Anne Morris was published on her website, DemocracyThemePark.org on April 5, 2015. It contains the entire 1995 booklet she wrote, titled, "How to Research the Legal History of Corporations in Your State". The piece below, once available as a pamphlet, was written in 1998 to try to induce “activists” to pierce the invisible force [...]
Thomas Linzey was interviewed by Paul Roland on the KBOO Radio show, Wednesday Morning Talk Radio, in 2014. Thomas Linzey is the Executive Director of Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. Listen to the entire 57 minute interview HERE.
This article by Jane Anne Morris (DemocracyThemePark.org) was originally published in the October 9, 2014 edition of (Madison, Wisconsin) Capital Times. When the “Hillary Clinton film” case is decided, headlines should declare, “Supreme Court affirms corporate personhood.” Instead, most media will call it a free speech decision. “First Amendment rights” will play the Trojan horse hauling [...]
On not settling for half measures when it comes to our democracy This article by Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap appeared in Common Dreams on June 2nd, 2014. Remember back in 2009 before the Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court ruling when the U.S political and legal system wasn’t about prioritizing the interests of the extraordinarily wealthy, but [...]
A critique of the Food Sovereignty movement in the US, through a Community Rights lens, by Trisha Mandes. The International Peasant’s Movement—La Via Campesina, defines food sovereignty as “the human right of all people to healthy, culturally appropriate, sustainably grown food, and the right of communities to determine their own food systems” (1). Are our [...]
This article by Jane Anne Morris was published on her website, DemocracyThemePark.org, on October 15, 2012. Regulatory agencies are not, and never were, the Great Protectors of the public interest that hazy origin myths suggest.1Understanding regulatory failure entails accepting this inconvenient truth and then moving on. Are we ready to go beyond the usual ritualistic laments about how [...]
This presentation took place at Fort Flagler near Port Townsend, Washington, on October 6, 2012. To listen to the entire Podcast on SoundCloud, click HERE.
