Dear Donna, and any others listening,

There are several groups in Iowa working on what we think is a better, more direct way to fight the corporate dominance that has overtaken our country and world. This is called the Community Rights strategy. By now, over 200 communities around the country have passed these very carefully crafted ordinances that have directly and boldly (and legally) asserted that the rights of the local community supersede corporate rights. Period. and that even the natural ecosystem must have legal rights to exist in their pure state. Most of these ordinances still stand. A few have been fought back, or the ordinance pulled back.

There is a group in Iowa City (100 grannies) that has been investigating this, and also here in Fairfield. There is some interest in the quad cities and elsewhere in Iowa.

This approach bypasses the need to 'beg' regulatory agencies and/or state/federal government officials to do the right thing. which is both time consuming, expensive, and often futile. (witness the Bakken Oil Pipeline situation for instance.) It does however require the local citizens to rise up and understand their true political power. (see quote from the Iowa constitution bill of rights, at bottom.)

Here are several links, for those who are interested in learning more! Or, feel free to write if you have questions.

First, a link to the founding organization, The community environmental legal defense fund. www.celdf.org. their founder Thomas Linzey has been here to Fairfield twice. he spoke to full house audiences, and indeed his initial talk was the inspiration for the Jefferson County Community Rights Network.

Second, below is an excerpt from this article by Paul Cienfuegos from a couple of years ago. Paul has been to Iowa 3 or 4 times, and is coming again in the next month or so. he is a quiet, gentle, powerful speaker and advocate for 'we the people.' (Also, here is a great youtube video of him being interviewed.)

kind regards,

Fred Rosenberg

Fairfield

A. excerpt

The rapid growth of the Community Rights movement over the past decade is a powerful example of a new form of nonviolent civil disobedience never before attempted in this country, and which is literally changing the playing field under our feet. Municipal and county governments are passing new-paradigm laws that are themselves "collective acts of municipal civil disobedience", as Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund Director Thomas Linzey calls them. Each of these new ordinances (and home rule charter amendments) intentionally challenges existing law, because those existing laws are themselves a violation of We The People's inherent right to govern ourselves.

Claims of state pre-emption and corporate constitutional so-called "rights" are used to legalize the corporate plunder of our communities, so in response we act through local law-making to obstruct that violence. We choose to step outside of conventional law, and to exercise our right of self-government. We consider it our duty to amend, alter, or abolish unjust laws. 150 communities in seven states and climbing - there's no denying that a powerful new form of nonviolent civil disobedience is being born and tested in front of our eyes.

Core to the strategy of what we are attempting to accomplish is to force the powerholders - in this case elected state officials - to come out of hiding and choose sides. Are our elected state officials defending the rights of We The People? Or do they prefer to defend the so-called "rights" of corporate legal fictions? Regardless of how the powerholders respond, we win, IF we can sustain and build momentum at the local level, and ultimately af the state and federal levels as well. This kind of direct challenge is at the heart of powerful nonviolent action. (For more examples of creating dilemmas for powerholders, click HERE.)

B. excerpt from the Iowa Constitution

ARTICLE I. - Bill of Rights

...

Political power. Section 2. All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for the protection, security, and benefit of the people, and they have the right, at all times, to alter or reform the same, whenever the public good may require it.