Does our current economic system truly serve us, or are we serving it?
Is our environment merely a resource for exploitation, or a precious sphere of life that demands respect and protection?
Imagine a world where communities decide their Destiny,
Where nature is not just a resource, but a living entity with rights .
Welcome to the community Rights Movement
A powerful wave of change sweeping across the United States. (And around the world.)
This movement is about people taking power into their own hands,
Envisioning a new sustainability Constitution and adopting new laws at the local level. it’s about challenging the system that prioritizes corporate rights over the rights of communities and nature.
The community Rights Movement is grounded in nonviolent Civil Disobedience using Municipal lawmaking to push for change.
At its core it aims to recognize and enforce the rights of Nature and ecosystems.
This isn’t a New Concept but rather an ancient understanding, traced back to indigenous cultures.
For them nature isn’t property to be owned but a living entity a relative.
The Anishnabe, for example speak of protecting the flying people, swimming people, singing people.
The Urok nation regards the Clamo River as a living being a relative.
Contrast this with the Western perspective where nature is seen as a commodity, a thing to be exploited. It hearkens back to the words of Sir Francis Bacon who urged us to “torture nature on a rack to extract her Secrets.”
The community Rights Movement is challenging these outdated views following the trail blazed by Pioneers like Christopher Stone in his seminal work , “Should trees have standing” towards legal rights for natural objects.
Stone argued for conferring rights onto entities previously considered right-less.
So where do we stand now?
We’re at a critical juncture the future of our environment our communities our very way of life hangs in the balance.
The community Rights Movement offers a different path a path where Nature’s rights are recognized, where communities have a say in their Destiny, where the economic system serves us, not the other way around.
The community Rights Movement is not just a movement
but a necessary shift in perspective;
It’s about empowering communities, recognizing the rights of Nature and challenging an economic system that has long prioritized profit over people and the planet.
It’s about envisioning a world where sustainability respect and Community are not just ideals but the foundation of our society.
Words: Thomas Linzey, CDER: Center for Democratic Environmental Rights
Production: Mobilized