The Coos County Right to a Sustainable Energy Future Ordinance notes that the adoption of the ordinance will call for an amendment of the Oregon Constitulion and the federal constitution to confirm the existing right to local self-government free from governmental preemption and or nullification by corporate “rights.”

The Oregon Community Rights Network (ORCRN) has submitted a proposed constitutional amendment to the state’s Elections Division. The citizen’s initiative effort, which will be run by Oregonians for Community Rights, is aiming for the November 2016 ballot.

The constitutional amendment is titled “The Right to Local, Community Self-Government” and would codify into law the right to local, community self-government, enabling local governments to protect fundamental rights and prohibit corporate activities that violate those rights. It would secure the authority of communities to put in place stronger rights and protections than those recognized at the state, federal, or international level.

“A growing number of communities in Oregon are finding that, in the face of corporate exploitation, they don’t have the recognized authority to protect public health, safety and welfare, economic and environmental sustainability, property value, and overall quality of life”, said Eron King, board president of the Oregon Community Rights Network.

 Today corporations have more power to decide the future and fate of communities than the people in those communities. Corporations are legally protected and have greater “rights” over people, communities, and the environment that permits them to:

  • Grow GMOs
  • Build LNG pipelines
  • Spray toxic pesticides
  • Gentrify neighborhoods
  • Factory farm animals
  • Take private property for corporate use
  • Silence workers
  • Transport unwanted coal and oil
  • Maintain poverty wages

 

King continued by saying, “It is clear that the current legal structure allows corporations to treat our communities as property. We – the people – have become mere tenants of the corporations. It’s time we change that by changing our constitution to reflect that our right to local, community self-government is above corporate control.”

The text of the amendment may be found here OR Amendment – Final