We the people

By Thomas Linzey

Subjects: Community power, Environmental, LAW, United states, politics and government, Social movements, POLITICAL SCIENCE, Environmental protection, Civics & Citizenship, Citizen participation, Community organization, Environmental policy, Political participation

Description: We the People offers powerful portraits of communities across the United States that have faced threats from environmentally destructive corporate projects and responded by successfully banning those projects at a local level. We hear the inspiring voices of ordinary citizens and activists practicing a cutting-edge form of organizing developed by the nonprofit law firm, the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). Their methodology is an answer for the frustrations of untold numbers of activists who have been defeated time and again by corporate political power and legal entitlement. Instead of fighting against what we don't want, this book can teach us to create from the ground up what we do want, basing our vision in local control and law. This work is about finishing the American Revolution by giving up the illusion of democracy and forging a system of true self-governance. In addition, this is about recognizing in law, for the first time in history, that nature possesses legally enforceable rights of its own.