So the selfish impetus to protect home property value, drinking water, small farms and small businesses is supposed to lead somewhere big, but I have my doubts. Also if you were ever young growing up in such a place as a 'small farm community in PA', you quickly realize how the people are all 'conservative to reactionary', anti-union, completely contradicted over government and big business (the worst case being Dept. of Defense workers), and often don't give a toss about job creation (since so many in E. and So. Central PA live in one place and commute to another, there is no connection between being a homeowner and being a worker--unless it's support for building more roads).
It's the CELDF in Chambersburg again: http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/stand-up-to-corporate-power/communities-take-power Beyond Site Fights With the deck stacked against local control, what are citizens to do to step outside the regulatory game and take back power? Some bold communities have banned specific corporate operations, not based on regulation, but on a declaration that human beings have the right to control their local resources, and that corporations are not people and not entitled to rights the Constitution grants to humans. That happened first in Pennsylvania when farmers and small-town residents tried to resist the encroachment of corporate feedlots and the dumping of sewage sludge from other states. Ruth Caplan, of the Alliance for Democracy's “Defending Water for Life” program, tells how a Pennsylvania coalition including the Sierra Club, the Farm Bureau, unions, and the Democratic governor responded by getting legislation passed limiting pollution from corporate feedlots. “The farmers in rural Pennsylvania were furious,” about the new law, Caplan says, “because they didn't want less pollution. They didn't want those corporate farms in their area. Period.” Lawyer Thomas Linzey, founder of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), started getting calls from those outraged farmers. Linzey, Caplan says, had been working within the regulatory system, but he and the Pennsylvania farmers realized that they needed a new strategy. Linzey drafted model ordinances asserting community rights to self-governance and banning corporations from damaging operations in townships. More than 100 Pennsylvania townships have adopted those ordinances. Linzey and CELDF began offering “Democracy Schools,” intensive weekend programs presenting the history of corporate power in the United States, and the history of successful movements, such as the abolitionists and suffragists, to overturn settled law. Caplan attended one of those schools. It was “a real wake-up call for me,” she says, “because most of the work we've done has been through the regulatory system, with some success. But it's not leading toward a fundamental change between corporations and the rights of people and nature.” Caplan took her newfound knowledge to a U.S.-Canadian meeting on the problem of bottled water. There she met activists from New Hampshire who subsequently introduced her to Darrell and St. Germaine. Caplan told them of CELDF's work, and offered to work with them and the people of Barnstead on the water issue. Darrell and St. Germaine made presentations to the town's Select Board, which had earlier passed a “Warrant Article” declaring the town's intention to protect its water. Ultimately, they invited CELDF to make a presentation to the Board. At the end of that presentation, the Board asked Linzey to draft an ordinance similar to the ones in Pennsylvania. Linzey told the group that they needed to understand that they would be taking on settled law, Caplan says.“Well, Mr. Linzey, we understand that, and we're ready to walk point for you,” Jack O'Neil replied, using a Vietnam-era term for being out front on patrol. Reclaiming Rights CELDF's model ordinances go beyond zoning or other efforts to control corporate behavior. They ban corporations from specific operations altogether, citing the Declaration of Independence, international law, state law conferring rights on citizens, and the general rights of human beings to govern themselves and take care of their own communities. Darrell says that she and St. Germaine spent the next year educating Barnstead residents about the proposed ordinance. “We talked to people about water rights everywhere we met them—at the dump, in parks. We told them why we needed to have this ordinance be unanimous and in place before corporations came to town.” People were receptive to the idea but curious why the ordinance needed to cite such a broad range of law. “There was a lot of education about why we needed to deny corporate personhood,” Darrell says, “People don't understand how we've gotten to this point and how corporations have gotten so much power.” Darrell credits CELDF's Democracy Schools with giving her the information she needed to provide that education. In March 2006, the ordinance came before the town meeting. After final discussion, Barnstead took its vote: 136-1 in favor. The one “No” vote, Darrell says, was not in general opposition to the measure, but was cast by a person who felt declaring that corporations are not persons went too far. One Town at a Time The fight to take back power from corporations continues. Across the country in Humboldt County, California, the people passed a referendum banning outside corporations from participating in elections and declared that corporations are not recognized as people there. Blaine Township, in southwestern Pennsylvania, outlawed the destructive practice of longwall coal mining. People in Montgomery County in rural Virginia are fighting the taking of farmland to build a giant railway terminal. These are admittedly radical steps, although, as Ruth Caplan points out, they are being carried forward by people who are not radicals. “These are not liberals, not progressives, not activists. But they don't want corporations to tell them how they should run their community.” The courts have not yet ruled on these measures. If they are challenged, no one knows what the outcome will be. But these new activists point to the abolitionist and women's suffrage movements. They were radical. They challenged well-settled law. They lost repeatedly, until the public saw the truth of their position, and the law changed. Darrell and her fellow townsfolk are working on amendments to strengthen their ordinance if a challenge does come. If they're defeated in court, she will continue to work to make humans more important than corporations. She's in it, she says, “to have a clear conscience. I did what I could after I got educated. I can tell that to my kids. It's my duty. I'll take that charge and do the best I can.” Photo of Doug Pibel Doug Pibel is managing editor of YES! _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
