Community Organizing

We began our Community Rights Organizing in California a few years ago, with the presentation of Democracy Schools in numerous communities. Requests for help with campaigns were frequent. When San Francisco-based  Global Exchange agreed to partner with the Legal Defense Fund to coordinate those campaigns, this work was finally underway on the west coast.

Teaming up with GX's Shannon Biggs, we've traveled the length of the state talking about local self-government, the rights of human and natural communities and the challenge corporate power poses to democracy at the municipal level. We're seeing the beginning of a movement that will assert those rights in community-driven law.

Many Californians have organized in opposition to areal spraying of toxic "pesticides" - and we heard from folks in Santa Cruz who understood they were up against corporate agriculture and state laws written for their benefit. We were invited in to co-teach Democracy Schools with Shannon Biggs, and to map out a campaign to draft and enact a city law to ban areal spraying. Following that school, participants formed People Against Chemical Trespass (P.A.C.T.) and took their campaign on the road. That campaign is on-going.

In Mt. Shasta, the issue is community water rights, and weather manipulation by cloud seeding. The Legal Defense Fund consulted with GX and the community activists and drafted a local water rights ordinance. Members of the community took up the cause and mounted a petition campaign to place the measure on the ballot.

Folks in Nevada City have been meeting with CELDF and GX representatives to craft a local law that will pave the way for realizing their hope for creating a sustainable community, free from corporate nay-saying and legal maneuvering.

In Mendocino County there's interest in community control over corporate development, and in establishing inalienable rights for natural communities and eco-systems in local, enforceable law.

There is no shortage of opportunity to advance community rights in California. If you'd like to join the cause, contact Shannon Biggs at shannonbiggs@globalexchange.org  or call her at: 415-575-5540. You can also contact the Legal Defense Fund at info@celdf.org  or call 717-709-0457.