[Corporations] TAKE NOTE: Local Democracy Convention ~ Sept 28-Oct 1, 2006

[Ben Manski]

mark your calendars . . . make your travel plans . . . tell everyone 
about . . .

the first . . .
  LOCAL DEMOCRACY CONVENTION
      SEPTEMBER 28-OCTOBER 1, 2006
           MADISON, WISCONSIN, USA

 THEME:  The Community Power Road to Democracy

 TOPICS:  Local Governments as Social Change Agents ~ Public Power, 
Wireless, and Cable ~ Poverty & Racism: Barriers to Participation ~ 
Local Election Reform ~ Cities for Peace, Ecology, and Progress ~ 
Participatory Democracy, Participatory Budgeting ~ Neighborhoods and 
Neighborhood Associations ~ Financing of Local Governments ~ Local 
Parties, Coalitions, and Movements ~ Home Rule and Preemption ~ Local 
Communities for Immigrant Rights ~ Direct Legislation and the Citizen 
Initiative ~ Community and Cooperative Economic Development ~ The Local 
Regulatory State ~ The Business Corporation and the Municipal 
Corporation ~ Sister Cities for Democracy ~ States Rights and Home Rule 
~ The Global and the Local: Globalization from Below ~ Local Democracy: 
Strategy 101 ~ The Law of Local Democracy ~ Schools, Colleges, and 
Communities ~ and more!

 KEYNOTE: Juan Barreto*, Mayor of Caracas, Venezuela

 INTERNATIONAL PRESENTERS:  Sérgio Gregório Baierle (Brazil), Gianpaulo 
Baiocchi (Brazil)*, Daniel Chavez (Uruguay), Hilary Wainwright (UK), as  
well as presenters from the Philippines, South Africa, and  the City of 
Caracas, Venezuela.

 US PRESENTERS: Gar Alperovitz*, Patrick Barrett, Brian Benford, Pabitra 
Benjamin, Phyllis Bennis*, David Cobb, Brent Denzin, Karen Dolan, Austin 
King, Brenda Konkel, Josh Lerner, Ben Manski, Jane Anne Morris, Bertell 
Ollman*, Rev. Pinckney*, Satya Rhodes-Conway, Juscha Robinson, Marsha 
Rummel, Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, Norm Stockwell, Carl Williams, Alfonso 
Zepeda-Capistran, and many more!

            * indicates invited, not yet confirmed
 ~   ~   ~   ~

Dear Believer in Democracy,

  The US President says he's the decider.  Congress and the Federal 
courts seem generally to agree.  US military forces occupy Iraq and 
Afghanistan, among other countries.  A national police state keeps watch 
on tens of millions of Americans.  As the Federal government 
consolidates power further and further away from the people of the 
United States, now is a moment that evermore, to borrow from Thomas 
Paine, tries our souls.

  Across the United States, and around the world, the verdict is coming 
in:  People are choosing local democracy over global oligarchy.  The 
local alternative is becoming a movement:

Did you know that . . .

  * Voters in 40 Vermont towns and 24 Wisconsin municipalities have put 
their communities on record for immediate withdrawal from Iraq?  And 
that the war and presidential impeachment will be on the ballot 
nationwide come November?

 * The people of Humboldt County, California, as well as dozens of 
Pennsylvania townships, have ruled corporate personhood unconstitutional?

 * The people of Venezuela have established direct economic aid programs 
for a growing number of major US cities?

 * The "Participatory Budgeting" process developed in Brazil is now on 
the agenda for community organizers across the US?

 * Voting rights advocates nationwide have succeeded in implementing 
Instant Runoff Voting, public financing of elections, and non-US-citizen 
voting rights in local elections?

 * US cities, large and small, have reinvested in public power, 
community cable, wireless, and cooperative development?

 * Local democracy initiatives have taken root across the globe, 
offering models for democratization here in the US?

This Autumn, September 28 through October 1, gather with community 
organizers and pro-democracy activists in beautiful Madison, Wisconsin, 
to share and learn from these and other important democrati  successes. 
 Network with others working on common issues. Strategize together about 
how to build the democracy movement in this country, from the 
grassroots, up.

The Local Democracy Convention will feature some of the most 
cutting-edge local democracy organizing going on in the US and around 
the world.  Convention participants will have opportunity to attend 
plenaries, panels, skills-building workshops, strategy sessions, and a 
party or two.

Whether you have been doing local democracy work for years, or are just 
discovering that your concerns are directly related to local power and 
democracy, join us this fall for what is sure to be a defining moment in 
the development of a new democracy movement in the United States!

  * * *

The Local Democracy Convention is a project of Liberty Tree 
(www.LibertyTreeFDR.org), with major support from sponsors Transnational 
Institute (http://www.tni.org), Cities for Progress 
(http://www.citiesforprogress.org) and the A.E. Havens Center for the 
Study of Social Structure and Social Change. Cosponsors are welcome.

Registration and session information will soon be available at 
http://www.LocalDemocracy.org . . . In the meantime, direct questions, 
workshop proposals, and cosponsorships to 608-257-1606 or 
LocalDemocracy at LibertyTreeFDR.org