Ordinances help local communities fend off corporations

[Newsjock]

Source: Missoulian

... When it comes to the will of the people and corporate autonomy, the deck is stacked in favor of corporations, said Zack Porter, a spokesman for All Against the Haul. It is just one group that formed to fight Big Oil from building a permanent corridor through Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana for these loads, which can weigh as much as 700,000 pounds.

"Right now, the burden of proof is on us to demonstrate these projects are unsuitable. The burden of proof should be on the corporations," Porter said.

Organizers with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund would agree. Based in Pennsylvania, the organization is changing the way communities mobilize against corporate control in a quiet but revolutionary way: by helping communities write local ordinances that strip corporations of the rights of personhood and put power back in the hands of the people.

"Communities are no longer accepting that they don't have the authority to say ‘no' to megaloads, or drilling, mining, water withdrawals," said Mari Margil, CELDF associate director. "Instead, through legally binding law, they're defining what their communities will look like, and necessarily removing the authority of state and corporations to override the community's self-governing authority."

Read more: http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_ad882cdc-52b4-11e0-b0af-001cc4c002e0.html

[MedleyMisty]

1. Good for them!

I hope the idea spreads, because this is the real war right here. World War III - humans vs psychopathic corporations.

[jacquelope]

2. Way to go! Nice to see people finally ***TAKING ACTION***!!! n/t

.

[howaboutme]

3. The war is about international corporations versus we the USA people

International corporations have no allegiance, oppose USA sovereignty and oppose the will of the people.

We need 300 million Americans to understand that and they will oppose the rights of foreign corporations to run ram shod over the US people. Americans are fed propaganda to prevent them from fully understanding how they are being scammed for the benefit of non-American corporations.

[truedelphi]

4. Like Porter says, right now the biggest burden is on the

Community organizers to PROVE that what they' re asking for is needed.

The fact that the Biggest Corporations OWN the very agencies that would help We The People, the fact that the Biggest Corporations also put laws into effect that give communities the opportunity to condemn certain activities, but not to stop those activities, all this shows how slanted the deck happen to be these days.

[tularetom]

5. This is cool

I read about this a month or so ago, and I was impressed by the enthusiasm and professionalism of the local people who are opposing this thing.

When you read about the communities who have kept Wally World out and groups like this, you can almost believe there is hope.