A Blog Posting by Ben Price of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, from November 6, 2016. This year CELDF’s community rights organizing has exposed the pustule-pocked rump of corporate America like never before. The marriage of corporate and state power that Mussolini called “fascism,” we refer to simply as “the corporate state.” And it [...]
This article was written by Paul Cienfuegos, and published in CounterPunch on August 18, 2016. Beloved historian Howard Zinn once said, “Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. … Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves [...]
The first-in-the-nation law will shield residents from arrest as they use direct action to stop fracking-wastewater injection wells. This article by Kate Stringer was published in Yes Magazine on May 13, 2016. A tiny community sitting on a 27-square-mile piece of Western Pennsylvania wanted to send a big message to the energy company planning to [...]
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 original essay from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. Some Historial Context: “There is no unalienable right to local self-government.” That’s what Pennsylvania attorney general Thomas Corbett said to the Commonwealth Court as he tried to overturn a municipal ordinance banning the dumping of urban sewage sludge on farm land. Was he right? When [...]
This article by Shannon Biggs was published on the Movement Rights website on August 2nd, 2015. They say that Hawaii is Earth’s connecting point to the rest of the Universe. Telescopes—those located on Earth and those in orbit—have allowed us to see deep into the galaxy and to the edges of the universe, sparking our [...]
This article by Jane Anne Morris was published on her website, DemocracyThemePark.org, on November 23, 2014. In the “Obamacare” decision, Chief Justice Roberts masterfully executed what the Zulu call “buffalo horns” — the pincer strategy. Purchase of health insurance is mandatory (a 5-4 vote), BUT states are not required to expand Medicaid to cover the people who can’t afford [...]
This article by Jane Anne Morris was published on her website, DemocracyThemePark.org, on November 23, 2014. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of the Obama Health Care Plan (OHCP), officially the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010). Is OHCP constitutional? What is a defensible and prudent green position on this question? Shrill arguments [...]
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 [...]
