How Dare We?: Courageous Practices to Reclaim Our Power as Citizens

by Paul Cienfuegos

Overview

Do you care deeply about the state of our society and don't see yourself as an activist but want to do something powerful to make a difference? Or maybe you are an activist and are frustrated that your efforts aren't bearing fruit? This book is for you! No more pleading with government and corporate power-holders who don't care what you think. No more testifying at public hearings where the law requires that they ask for public input but the decision has already been made. It's time to breakout of the "cage of allowable activism" and learn how We the People can become a more powerful force for good. (Yes, you belong to that group!) Don't give up. It's not hopeless. Read this book and get more active in a way that brings real change! - Paul Cienfuegos

Paul Cienfuegos is a leader in the Community Rights movement, which works to dismantle the absurdity of corporate personhood and other corporate constitutional so-called "rights" and assert We the People's inherent right to govern ourselves. He has led workshops and organized communities across the U.S. since 1995. Paul moved to Portland, Oregon in 2011 and co-founded the Oregon Community Rights Network in 2013. Paul is the Founding Director of Community Rights US: www.CommunityRights.US.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798218127237
Publisher:	100fires Books
Publication date:	12/30/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Paul Cienfuegos is a leader in the Community Rights movement, which works to dismantle the absurdity of corporate personhood and other corporate constitutional so-called "rights" and assert We the People's inherent right to govern ourselves. He has led workshops and organized communities across the U.S. since 1995. Paul moved to Portland, Oregon in 2011 and co-founded the Oregon Community Rights Network in 2013. Paul is the Founding Director of Community Rights US: www.CommunityRights.US.

Table of Contents

Introduction . 1

Chapter One. 5

Let's Start at the Beginning.

Shall We?

Thoughts about breathing and

not breathing during this time

of escalating emergencies

facing the entire planet, and

where our energies can best

be focused. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

All power is inherent in the

people... but only if we act as

if we believe it. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Our government doesn't serve

us... by design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Got property rights?

You have the right to destroy

planet Earth!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

The right of local self-government:

this is what

democracy actually looks like. . . . 47

Common sense rules for

controlling corporations .. . . . . . . 51

Taking our language back

from corporate culture .. . . . . . . . 56

Hidden in Plain Sight: how

corporations exercise their

constitutional "rights" under

our very noses: a photography

exhibit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Let's start thinking about

"law" in a whole new way .. . . . . . 71

Table of Contents

Chapter Two . 75

Situation Urgent:

Life in the Balance

We the People standing

together to protect our

climate: lessons from the

community rights movement. . . . 76

Protecting the right of

our rivers to exist, flourish

and evolve by dismantling

corporate rule, watershed by

watershed .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Salmon Coming Home:

A Clayoquot

Restoration Camp. . . . . . . . . . . 106

The Democratic Logging

Vision in Five Acts .. . . . . . . . . 117

Chapter Three. 135

Thinking of Climbing Beyond

the Outside of the Box? Let's Go!

Imagining a city where renters

and property owners enjoy

fully equal rights under law. . . . 136

When will politicians start

exercising their constitutional

authority to rein in large

corporations like Amazon?. . . . 140

The people of Vermont vs.

Monsanto Corporation and

our federal government: what

should the people do when

our rights are being violated?. . . 144

A Community Bill of Rights

for Portland, Oregon... or any

community!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Enough Already! Proposal

for an international campaign

to end U.S. assaults on the

world's people and nature . . . . . 150

Chapter Four. 157

Mass Media: You Love It!

You Hate It! You Want to BE It?

We All Need It!

The people of Iowa vs. Dakota

Access pipeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

OpEd: "A National

Emergency Requires a Bold

Local Response." A corporate

daily newspaper refuses to

publish yet another timely

guest editorial

(cuz... ya know...). . . . . . . . . . . 167

Everyone lives somewhere

so there's no better place to

challenge corporate media

than in one's own community. . 171

Chapter Five . 179

"There is No Time Not to Love"

Some reflections on 20 years

of activism, and an invitation. . . 180

How to set up an

economically dynamic sliding

scale payment system for your

events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Imagine if ... The Great

Turning Meets Community

Rights (Thank you, Joanna

Macy!) .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Learning to see each other

as We the People: a guided

visualization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Appendix. 197

About the author. . . . . . . . . . . . 198

About Community Rights US . 202

Further reading. . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Gratitude and

acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Editorial Reviews

02/06/2023

This impassioned guide to the reclamation of civilian power stands as a culmination of Cienfuegos’s four decades of activism and leadership. The founder of Community Rights US, which “works with communities to pass locally enforceable laws protecting people and nature from destructive corporate practices,” Cienfuegos has dedicated himself to fighting against corporate “personhood.” Currently, he believes we face “the largest social and economic and environmental emergency since the Civil War.” Crafted to help inspire “we the people” to realize the principles on which the nation was founded, How Dare We? compiles speeches, podcast scripts, articles, and essays Cienfuegos has written throughout his career, illuminating the political history of how we got here, and the perennial promise of America itself.

Cienfuegos’s passion is to drive social change by encouraging citizens to stand up corporate governance—“to make this democratic republic live up to the ideals that we were taught about in school.” Chapters examine how to campaign for change, a multifaceted and highly practical approach to how Democrats could handle the issue of logging, and a deep dive into the “two national constitutions” of the U.S., starting with the Articles of Confederation, a “profoundly more democratic document” in contrast to what was later ratified, “a constitution that is all about the rights of property and says almost nothing about the rights of people.” His prose is inviting, crafted to be persuasive to open-minded readers rather than just to rouse the spirits of longtime fellow travelers, and he’s deft at incorporating historical argument and precedent.

Cienfuegos writes with hope in the national spirit but also clear eyes: though he holds pride in America’s revolutionary history, he simultaneously also condemns the country’s “assaults on the world’s people and nature.” How Dare We also emphasizes the practical, especially “place-based and scale-sensitive” organization and activism. Cienfuegos offers concrete, achievable steps citizens can take to bring about change and hold elected leaders accountable.

Takeaway: Rousing, clear-eyed dispatches from the fight against corporate dominance of American government.

Great for fans of: Paul Starr’s Freedom’s Power, Stephen Duncombe and Steve Lambert’s The Art of Activism.

Production grades Cover: B+ Design and typography: A Illustrations: N/A Editing: A- Marketing copy: A

BookLife Reviews

I have known Paul Cienfuegos for 40 years. He was fresh out of college

when he experienced an early form of the experiential group process known

now as the Work That Reconnects. Immediately recognizing its potential, he

acquired the basics of its facilitation before leaving as planned for Scotland.

There, in the workshops he began offering, local people felt free to speak

out against their government hosting US nuclear missiles and planes, and

letting their land be used as target practice and launching pad for President

Reagan's campaign against the Soviet Union. By the time I arrived two years

later in 1983, Paul's work had grown a network of active groups in towns

across Scotland and England. Now, eager to host us, they were recruiting

for workshops for us to co-lead. Our unforgettable two-week tour allowed

me to see Paul with fresh eyes: I witnessed his efficacy as an organizer, his

political smarts and natural warmth, his passion for empowering people,

the deep well of his caring. Out of this caring, leadership grew from

among the Scottish and English ranks and a national organization took

form, called Interhelp UK. Over recent decades, these capacities of Paul's

are manifest in Community Rights US. This spunky organization shows

communities (towns, counties) how to protect their natural resources from

corporate exploitation by knowing and claiming rights they already possess.

It is wonderful to know about, and sets me to thinking of the passion for

democracy I experienced in Paul Cienfuegos 40 years ago.

- JOANNA MACY, author of World As Lover, World As Self

"Paul Cienfuegos is the Thomas Paine of our time, sounding the alarm about

threats to democracy, and reminding us that each of us together has the

power to transform our lives and society. How Dare We? Courageous Practices

to Reclaim Our Power as Citizens is an inspiring collection of must-read

pieces as we work to protect what is vital and work toward deep democracy."

- CHUCK COLLINS, director at Program on Inequality at the Institute for Policy

Studies, co-editor of Inequality.org, and author of The Wealth Hoarders:

How Billionaires Pay Millions to Save Trillions

From the Publisher