Our Work in Washington State

SPOKANE – In November, residents of Spokane, Washington will be voting on a Community Bill of Rights. Listed on the ballot as Proposition 1, these amendments to the city’s home rule charter, if approved, will recognize –

•    The right of neighborhood residents to make critical decisions about significant new development projects;
•    The right of the community to a healthy Spokane River and aquifer;
•    The right of workers to constitutional protections in the workplace and the right to collectively bargain; and
•    The rights of the community over corporate rights, eliminating corporate “personhood” and other legal protections from corporations who violate the community’s rights.

Proposition 1, for the first time, would put the interests of workers, our neighborhoods, and the Spokane River over and above entrenched corporate interests.

A coalition of neighborhood advocates, labor union locals, and community activists – known as Envision Spokane – qualified the citizen’s initiative in July.

The local corporate powerbrokers are leading the opposition, and they’ve accepted significant campaign contributions from national corporate lobbyist organizations.
Envision Spokane has received a tremendous amount of support from individuals as well as groups like the Progressive Democrats of America – 5th Congressional District, Veterans for Peace, Spokane Regional Labor Council, AFL-CIO, Audubon Society – Spokane Chapter, UFCW Local 1439, along with other community organizations. Volunteers are working hard through event tabling, neighborhood canvassing, and phonebanking to spread the “Yes on Proposition 1” message.
Spokane is leading the way to expand local self-governance in an effort to create a healthy, sustainable, and more democratic community.

BELLINGHAM - The Living Democracy groups in Bellingham, Washington continue to build momentum in the realms of putting local folks through Democracy School and generating growing interest in fighting the development of a shipping terminal that will supply China with substantial amounts of coal.

Since February there have been five Democracy Schools. Longtime activists, folks who have never been active, and elected officials including the current mayor and his campaign opponent, have attended Democracy School.

A core group has also been working over the last few months to draft a Community Bill of Rights ordinance that recognizes the right to local self-government, rights of nature, and rights to a sustainable energy future along with prohibiting the transportation of coal through the community.

The shipping terminal would be receiving forty plus trains a day of coal. These forty plus, mile and a half long trains would pass through Bellingham, affecting air quality, impacting the waterfront, disrupting emergency services, and affecting property values and overall quality of life in Bellingham.

Once drafting is complete the group will be looking at different options to introduce the ordinance and begin building support. The interest in Democracy School and efforts to drive legislative change at the local level is inspired by what has been happening in Spokane.

ACROSS THE REGION – At the end of August, folks in Anacortes, Washington hosted the Legal Defense Fund to talk about rights-based organizing. The community is facing a corporate water bottling operation that has the option of siphoning off up to five million gallons of water a day. Interest has also developed in Spokane and Stevens County around a Food Bill of Rights as a means of securing small, local, sustainable farms and keeping the influence of big agriculture out of the local food system. And in southern Idaho, areas of Payette and Washington County have been targeted for natural gas drilling and fracking. Residents and elected officials are concerned about the environmental and quality of life impacts. The Legal Defense Fund has been invited to present to elected officials and local citizen activists in Payette County on what has been transpiring with communities in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York who are dealing with the same issue.