This is a report from Paul Cienfuegos in Portland, Oregon on his experience attending the "Alt-Right" pro-Trump legally-permitted free speech rally held on June 4th in downtown Portland, less than a week after a white supremacist terrorist stabbed three men while they attempted to defend two young women on a train - both Black, one [...]
This article originally appeared in DeSmog Blog, and is yet another illustration as to why we urgently need to pass laws in the US separating business corporations from the funding and ownership of any scientific research. Community Rights laws on this issue could begin to be passed immediately by municipal and county governments, prohibiting local [...]
This article by Benjamin Barber appeared in The Guardian newspaper on May 7, 2017. If only the author had been aware of the Community Rights movement when he wrote this article, he would likely have acknowledged that cities already have a way of insisting on their "right of self-governance", by passing Community Rights ordinances. For [...]
This article by Mike Ludwig was published in TruthOut on April 11, 2017. Let's see how long it takes for other cities and counties to replicate what happened in Portland, Oregon. Let's get every local government in the country to disinvest from the corporate state and reinvest in a sustainable local economy. Thank you Portland [...]
Runaway CEO pay contributes to income inequality and ultimately harms companies, so local governments aren’t waiting for a federal fix. This article by Chuck Collins was published online on April 7, 2017 in Yes Magazine. [Editors Note: This new ordinance in Portland, Oregon is not a local Community Rights ordinance but is impressive nonetheless. I would [...]
Local control is a foundational conservative principle—but progressives also embrace it. This essay by David Korten was published online by Yes Magazine on April 5, 2017. [Editor's comment: I was disappointed to read David's essay and find no acknowledgement of the facts-on-the-ground of the Community Rights movement's success in 200+ mostly conservative rural communities across the US. [...]
This article by Alex Kotch was published in PR Watch on March 23, 2017. A constitutional convention, something thought impossible not long ago, is looking increasingly likely. Under Article V of the US Constitution, if 34 state legislatures "issue a call" for a constitutional convention, Congress must convene one. By some counts, the right-wing only [...]
This article by Simon Davis-Cohen was published in Truth-Out on March 19 2017. Simon is a remarkable up-and-coming young journalist whose writings now appear in many independent journals. He is the founder of ReadTheDirt.org. Right now, there are two bills filed in the Florida legislature that propose sweeping new restrictions on local governments. One (House [...]
This essay by historian Ray Raphael was published in the Journal of the American Revolution on March 16, 2017. Peter Oliver, the Crown-appointed Chief Justice of provincial Massachusetts, knew how to discredit popular protest. Mindless and incapable of acting on their own, crowds that opposed British imperial policies “were like the Mobility of all Countries, [...]
This essay by George Monbiot was published on January 25, 2017 in The Guardian newspaper. Debased and de-based: that’s the condition of our political systems. Corrupted, they no longer fulfil their democratic potential. They have also lost their base: the politically engaged population from which democracy is supposed to grow. The sense of ownership has [...]