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Fifteen Years Of Community-Controlled Water In Bolivia

June 8, 2015 Marina Sitrin, www.roarmag.org , , ,
By Marina Sitrin in Roar Mag - This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of the victory of the communities of Bolivia over private water corporations. Not only did popular power reverse the plan to privatize the water, but the many hundreds of communities surrounding Cochabamba managed to keep their water as a common good, controlled and managed by the community directly and democratically. Other places around the world have also been successful in at least holding back privatizations and mining, such as in Thessaloniki, with the struggle to keep water public and in the Halkidiki region of Greece. In these examples, as in so many others, the struggles are grounded in a particular form of popular power. As with the experience in Cochabamba, it was regular people and communities organized in the streets (not parties, unions or other sectors) using direct action and directly democratic assemblies to make decisions.

Grassroots Organizing Shapes Response To Killing Of Walter Scott

May 31, 2015 Kerry Taylor, www.southernstudies.org , , , ,
By Kerry Taylor in Facing South. The city of North Charleston, South Carolina, has received strong praise for its handling of police officer Michael T. Slager's fatal shooting of 50-year-old African American Walter Scott during an April 4 traffic stop. According to various media commentaries, the city's quick response saved North Charleston from the outbreaks of vandalism and clashes with law enforcement that occurred in Ferguson, Missouri. At the local level, North Charleston's response was shaped by the emergence of a decentralized network of political activists who have been organizing around progressive causes, including labor rights and economic justice, LGBTQ equality, and racial disparities in policing. This network of activists sprang into action just hours after Scott's killing to offer a counter-narrative to the official version of events. They provided victims of police violence an outlet to express their pain and anger by organizing demonstrations, speak outs, and cultural events across the region. And they have carried out a range of protest activities aimed at securing reform. Their collective efforts at movement building, while diffuse and sometimes contradictory, represent an overlooked aspect of the Walter Scott story that has local political significance and strong national resonances.

Texas Fears Fracking Democracy Bans Local Ordinances

May 20, 2015 Earthworks | Denton Drilling Awareness Group | Earthjustice | Natural Resources Defense Council, www.earthworksaction.org , , ,
Today Texas Governor Abbott signed HB 40 into law. Written by former ExxonMobil lawyer Shannon Ratliff, the statute forces every Texas municipality wanting common sense limits on oil and gas development to demonstrate its rules are “commercially reasonable”. It effectively overturns a Denton ballot initiative banning fracking that passed last November. “HB 40 was written by the oil and gas industry, for the oil and gas industry, to prevent voters from holding the oil and gas industry accountable for its impacts,” said Earthworks’ Texas organizer Sharon Wilson. Wilson, who played a key role in the Denton ballot initiative, continued, “It was the oil and gas industry’s contempt for impacted residents that pushed Denton voters to ban fracking in the first place. And now the oil and gas industry, through state lawmakers, has doubled down by showing every city in Texas that same contempt.”

NYPD Tries To Arrest 14-Year-Old Girl, Community Doesn’t Allow It!

May 18, 2015 Cassandra Fairbanks, www.thefreethoughtproject.com , , ,
On May 14, copwatcher Michael Barber of the Copwatch Patrol Unit was out doing a great public service in which he frequently engages – filming the police. As he was doing so, he captured something absolutely amazing. The video, originally posted to Facebook early Friday morning, captured undercover officers grabbing at children while attempting to arrest a 14-year-old girl. This was reportedly over allegations that a child who was with her, who witnesses say appeared to be around 7-years-old, had pushed the button on a police call box.

Houston Residents Fear Impact Of Chemical Spill

March 11, 2015 Healthy Port Communities Coalition, www.airalliancehouston.org , , ,
The Healthy Port Communities Coalition (HPCC) calls on Houston’s petrochemical giants to act now to protect their neighbors after a collision in the Houston Ship Channel today led to a shelter-in-place order for several ship channel communities. “Houston’s petrochemical industry is often called the ‘economic engine’ in the region,” said Adrian Shelley, Director of Air Alliance Houston, “For many residents of ship channel communities, though, the industry is an engine of uncertainty and fear. It is disproportionately low-income and minority communities that suffer these negative impacts.” The people and environment of the Houston ship channel need better protection from the deadly risks associated with this industry. Today’s spill of MTBE in the ship channel is only the most recent disaster.

These Neighbors Got Together To Buy Vacant Buildings

March 5, 2015 Olivia LaVechhia, www.yesmagazine.org , ,
In 2011, a group of dedicated neighbors came together to change that. In November of that year, five of them, including Watson, became the founding board of the Northeast Investment Cooperative, a first-of-its-kind in the U.S. cooperative engaged in buying and developing real estate. NEIC created a structure where any Minnesota resident could join the co-op for $1,000, and invest more through the purchase of different classes of nonvoting stock. The group began spreading the word to prospective members, and started looking for a building to buy. One year later, NEIC had enough members to buy the two buildings on Central Avenue for cash. The co-op quickly sold one of the buildings to project partner Recovery Bike Shop, and after a gut renovation, which it funded with a 2 percent loan from the city and a loan from local Northeast Bank, it leased the other building to two young businesses that had struggled to find workable space elsewhere, Fair State Brewing Cooperative and Aki’s BreadHaus.

Chicago Community Taking On Koch Brothers Pollution & Winning

March 3, 2015 Joseph Erbentraut, www.huffingtonpost.com , ,
It’s not easy to take on a wealthy, multi-national corporation and win. Especially for residents of Chicago’s struggling southeast side. But that’s exactly what's happening on the banks of the Calumet River, where the steel plants that used to give residents of a mostly Hispanic neighborhood access to a middle-class lifestyle were replaced, nearly two years ago, with black dust called petroleum coke (“petcoke”) piled five or six stories tall. The piles of petcoke -- a byproduct of the oil refining process -- belong to KCBX Terminals, owned by the conservative billionaire Koch Brothers. The piles have been roiling area residents ever since the black dust of mostly carbon and sulfur began blowing into the backyards, playgrounds and neighborhood parks. It blackens skies and leaves behind a sticky residue, raising concerns about aggravated asthma and other health issues.

Time Banks: Tool For Restorative Justice & Community Strength

February 28, 2015 Beverly Bell, www.truth-out.org ,
Timebanking is mutual credit, where whenever somebody provides a service to a member in a timebank, they get credit, which they can redeem for that same amount of time to get something they need from someone else in the network. It's fluid and flexible. Timebanking doesn't have to involve a direct exchange between two people, and it doesn't have to happen in the same span of time. The impacts are pretty profound. Matching people up based on who needs what and who can provide what is a different approach to an economy. It's an understanding that everybody has needs and everybody has assets. Also, you don't have to wait to have money to pay for a service you need. The norm in this society is that we have a human-service kind of economy through charity.

Could A Community Bill Of Rights Stop A Pipeline?

February 19, 2015 Jes Burns, www.opb.org , , , ,
Southern Oregon communities along a proposed natural gas pipeline route are looking for creative ways to stop the project. Douglas and Coos County residents hope a Community Bill of Rights will give them a legal avenue to assert local control. The pipeline for the proposed Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas export terminal in Coos Bay would run through the property of Stacey McLaughlin. She doesn’t want it there. And speaking out before government officials has been less than satisfying. “It feels like a waste of my time,” she said. So McLaughlin is organizing her Douglas County neighbors to enact a community bill of rights. It would give cities and counties the legal grounds to say no to projects that violate local values.

Participatory Democracy In El Salvador

February 18, 2015 Beverly Bell, www.otherworldsarepossible.org , , ,
It is completely rooted in the people. There is a lot of wisdom in people, and so what leaders have to do is be with the people, listen to the people, and address the issues that the people raise, because together, we collectively build the alternatives that actually work. Anything that is done from an office is not going to coincide with reality. So we’re building from the people up. That characterizes the organization where I received my education, La Coordinadora. Our strategic development plans arise from huge assemblies. We can spend up to six months building our strategies, because we need input from all sectors and communities. This plan must work out for us, but it’s also important that it is taken up at the national governmental level, to inform the administration’s five-year plan.

Green Neocolonialism, Afro-Brazilian Rebellion In Brazil

December 29, 2014 Santiago Navarro F., Renata Bessi and Translated Miriam Taylor, www.truth-out.org , ,
The Afro-Brazilian Quilombola people were forced from their land in Brazil in order to make way for eucalyptus plantations, which produce toilet paper destined for Western markets. But they are resisting by replanting native trees and food crops, and working for a post-eucalyptus reality. The principal use for the cellulose found in eucalyptus plants in Brazil is disposable paper products, such as toilet paper and paper towels - products most in demand in first-world markets. Yet these types of paper products generate social and environmental impacts in places in Brazil where many communities have never even had access to them. The region known as Sape do Norte, which includes the cities of Sao Mateus and Conceicao da Barra, in the state of Espirito Santo, in Brazil, has been heavily affected by eucalyptus plantations.

Rev. Edward Pinkney Imprisoned For Fighting The Whirlpool Corp

December 17, 2014 Victoria Collier and Ben-Zion Ptashnik, www.truth-out.org , , ,
On December 15, Rev. Edward Pinkney, a leader in the struggle for social and economic justice for the residents of Benton Harbor, Michigan, was sentenced to serve up to 10 years in prison, on the basis of thin circumstantial evidence that a few dates had been altered on a recall petition against the city's mayor, James Hightower. The recall was prompted by the mayor's continued support for tax evasion by the Whirlpool Corporation, the Fortune 500 company and $19 billion global appliance manufacturer, headquartered in Benton Harbor. As we wrote last week in depth, the politically motivated prosecution against Pinkney killed the petition to recall Hightower, who many believe would have been ousted due to his ongoing protection of Whirlpool's interests at the expense of impoverished Benton Harbor, which is over 90 percent African-American.

Best Practices For Jail Support

December 9, 2014 Mutant Legal, www.pdf.com ,
Jail Support is both tracking arrestees as they move through the arrest and arraignment process and providing comfort to arrestees when they are released. It is a way of showing solidarity with arrested activists and a way of taking care of friends and community. Jail Support is not a chance to stick it to the man. When fellow activists are in custody our behavior outside the precinct can affect how quickly they are released. This means that it is best practice to comply with reasonable requests from officers, such as moving slightly farther away from the precinct, and it is will often makes things go smoother to be calm when talking to desk sergeants or court officers.

Organized Communities Vow Nonviolent Protest In Ferguson & Beyond

November 25, 2014 The Sparrow Project, www.sparrowmedia.net , , ,
At 8PM CT, Ferguson Action issued the following statement in response to the St. Louis County Grand Jury’s failure to levy charges against Darren Wilson for the August 9th killing of Michael Brown Jr. “We are devastated that the grand jury has failed to indict Darren Wilson in the killing of Mike Brown,” said Montague Simmons Chair of The Organization for Black Struggle. “All this community wanted was simple justice. Wilson killed an unarmed man and should face a trial by jury. Instead, he benefited from a highly unusual grand jury process, led by a prosecutor with whom the local community pleaded to step down or be removed from the case. "

A New Anchor Mission For A New Century

November 18, 2014 Marjorie Kelly and Violeta Duncan, www.us2.campaign-archive2.com , ,
Across the country, community foundations are adopting innovative strategies to catalyze community economic development and drive transformative local investment. This is a new anchor mission, using their placed based resources to build community wealth. Why are these community foundations moving in this direction? What exactly are they doing? In our new report, Democracy Collaborative Senior Fellow Marjorie Kelly and Community Development Associate Violeta Duncan explore how community foundations are moving beyond simply disbursing grants toward a leadership or catalytic role in economic development, and are moving beyond paper returns in their asset portfolios to locally focused experiments in impact investing.
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