Marion County... Who Controls Our Future?

For the past 200 years, the structure of our legal system and constitution has shifted from that of the people, by the people, for the people, to that ruled under the weight of billion-dollar corporations. Laws bind corporate power above actual human beings, and take strong measures to block the people’s say in what happens in our own communities and lives. Today, in the face of catastrophic global heating and species extinction, we are collectively beginning to open our eyes to the devastating reality that is our climate crisis. Whether we are trying to protect ourselves and our ecosystem from factory farming, fracking, privatization of public water, or neighborhood development… corporate powers have been given “rights” which protect them from local dissent. So, how do we change the rules and make sure we have a voice and power over the future of our communities and our planet?

This presentation will lay out the history of corporate “rights” and how communities have begun to focus on structural change and organizing to directly challenge legal doctrines in order to liberate themselves from corporate control. This growing movement is called Community Rights, and it is about shifting from state-sanctioned corporate harms to building healthy, resilient communities.

This presentation and Q&A will be conducted by the Environmental Legal Defense Fund’s Northwest Organizer, Kai Huschke.

Kai Huschke is the Northwest Organizer for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. He is also a national Democracy School lecturer and advisor to the Oregon Community Rights Network and Washington State Community Rights Network.

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is building a movement for Community Rights and the Rights of Nature to advance democratic, economic, social, and environmental rights – building upwards from the grassroots to the state, federal, and international level.