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No More Stolen Elections!

No More Stolen Elections!

Unite for Voting Rights and Democratic Elections

Local Democracy

<blockquote>Underlying society, and superior to constitutions are equality, and certain unalienable rights, inherent in all people in virtue of their very humanity, and it is only when this democracy is a living idea in the community that it can become a living fact in the state.</blockquote>
<cite>~ Racine Advocate, 1854</cite>

Liberty Tree's Local Democracy Program works with elected officials, political parties, and community organizations in the United States to democratize local governments and to unite them as agents of democratic change. This program prioritizes the growth of strong participatory cultures in local government, implementation of democratizing policy reforms at the local level, and the emergence of an alliance of democratic local governments as a force in national politics.

Democratize Everything

Liberty Tree’s major work in 2006 employed local democracy to develop a new program area, Democratizing Defense. Liberty Tree provided legal, media, and other key strategic support to organizers in Wisconsin, Illinois, Massachusetts, and California who wanted to bring the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan home by placing anti-war ballot measures on municipal, town, and county ballots.

Community democracy scores a win for the environment through the passing of Minneapolis’ plastic bag restrictions ordinance

By Jim Hammerand for Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal
The Minneapolis City Council on Friday approved an ordinance that will ban carry-out plastic bags for most retailers and add a 5 cent litter fee.
 
Starting June 1, 2017, customers of Minneapolis retailers will have to use paper bags instead of plastic bags. The ordinance excludes plastic bags used for dry cleaning, newspaper deliveries, and plastic bags for takeout food or that come in direct contact with food (like ones used for fresh produce).
 
New plastic bag rules for Minneapolis retailers take effect in 2017.
 

Audit reveals over 100 preemption, other actions to shut down local democracy in Wisconsin

By Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau

According to this review by Wisconsin's nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the state legislature in that state has enacted over 100 unfunded mandates and preemptions of local government authority since 2011.

We encourage you to read this document. It will give you a sense of the sweeping reorganization of government in Wisconsin and many other states, in which local, democratically enacted laws and policies designed to meet local economic, social, and ecological needs are being nullified at the request of lobbyists from the Chamber of Commerce and other corporate lobbies.

Detroit "People's Water Board" coalition fights against water privatization

By Ashley Bohrer

On July 3, dozens of Michigan activists convened in Detroit to begin a march to demand water justice in the state. The six-day march covered 70 miles as organizers walked from Detroit to Flint and continued by bus to the state capitol in Lansing, stopping in five other Michigan cities along the way. The action was called by The Peoples' Water Board, a coalition of 30 community organizations including labor unions, racial justice organizations, religious congregations, human rights groups and environmental activists.