Paul Cienfuegos
Paul is a national leader in the Community Rights movement, which works to dismantle corporate constitutional so-called “rights” and assert the people’s inherent right to govern themselves. He has been leading workshops and giving public talks across the US since 1995 when he founded Democracy Unlimited in northern California. Paul moved to Portland, Oregon in 2011, co-founded the Portland, Oregon, Community Rights group in 2012, and helped to launch the Oregon Community Rights Network in 2013. David Barsamian’s internationally syndicated show ‘Alternative Radio’ has broadcast many of his speeches. Email contact: Paul@CommunityRights.US.
Paul offers the following workshops and other services – click on each title for greater detail:
• Online 3-hour Community Rights Orientation
• Taking OUR Local Mass Media Back From Large Corporations
• Active Listening For Activists
• Facilitated Large Group Conversations (Fishbowls)
Michelle Smith & Tracy Kunkler
Tracy Kunkler and Michelle Smith created Circle Forward for the specific purpose of scaling up our skill-sets for collaborative governance as quickly as possible so we can shift our culture and actually address the issues we’re all facing together.
Their work was featured as a resource in the Wise Democracy Pattern Language from the Co-Intelligence Institute; one of the “Best Ideas for 2016” by the Mountain Xpress; on the Community Voices program at the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance (VTIPG); and in a UMN research publication, Cultivating Collective Action: The Ecology of a Statewide Food Network.
They are offering their transformative ‘Circle Forward Collaborative Decision-Making Package’ to local Community Rights groups. Click HERE for more information. Email contact: michelle@circleforward.us.
Matt Guynn
Matt Guynn is director of nonviolent social change organizing with On Earth Peace. Over the last twenty years, he has worked with community and faith groups to develop the values, skills, and plans for proactive social change. As a consultant, he has worked with SEIU and Greenpeace USA. He has been involved with Philadelphia-based Training for Change since 1996, as a staff member, trainer, and board member. He is former co-coordinator of training with Christian Peacemaker Teams, preparing people to use nonviolent intervention in conflict zones around the world. He is a founder of the Kingian Nonviolence Coordinating Committee and runs ongoing online leadership development programs for social change activists. Email contact: MGuynn@onearthpeace.org.
Matt is offering two distinct webinars:
- “Community Organizing 101: Skills Intro and Assessment for Building Community Power”. For more information, click HERE.
- “Nonviolence, Civil Disobedience, & Nonviolent Direct Action in Theory and Practice: A Webinar Series for Community Rights Groups”. For more information, click HERE.
Ray Raphael
A veteran of the Peace and Civil Rights movements of the 1960s (Mississippi Freedom Summer, Assembly of Unrepresented People, etc.), historian Ray Raphael learned about grassroots movements firsthand. Much of his work since that time has highlighted the experiences of ordinary people in the making of history. In 1974 his award-winning An Everyday History of Somewhere, a unique blend of oral and natural history, pioneered the emerging field of bottom-up history. Subsequent books featured hot-button issues—timber and pot—facing his community in Northwest California. The San Francisco Chronicle said that Two Peoples, One Place, which detailed the 19th Century clash between Euro-Americans and Native Americans in his region, “exemplifies the best of four decades of rich community studies.”
In the mid-1990s Raphael turned his attention to the American Revolution and the Founding Era. Howard Zinn called his People’s History of the American Revolution “the best single-volume history of the Revolution I have read.” (This inaugurated The New Press’s special “People’s History Series.”) Raphael’s breakthrough studies of the little-known grassroots Massachusetts Revolution of 1774 (The First American Revolution and The Spirit of ’74) transformed our understanding of the origins of the American Revolution and earned the Bay State Legacy Award from the Massachusetts Humanities Council. His influential Founding Myths challenged narrative mythologies still told in textbooks.
Raphael’s most recent books focus on the United States Constitution: Mr. President: How and Why the Founders Created a Chief Executive and Constitutional Myths: What We Get Wrong and How To Get It Right. Responding directly to current challenges, his U. S. Constitution: The Citizen’s Annotated Edition brings the document to life for us today, interweaving historical and contemporary contexts. Working with the Constitutional Sources Project (ConSource), he has developed a series of innovative, interactive lesson plans, “Choosing to Make a Nation,” in which students participate in debates as delegates to the Constitutional Convention.
A complete list of books, as well as links to articles, presentations, and interviews, can be found at RayRaphael.com. Ray is available as a resource consultant or for educational programs. Email contact: Raphael@asis.com.