Why do activists fail in their efforts to create positive change? The main reason, according to activist and attorney Tom Linzey of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, is that activism starts with the faulty assumption that we live in a democracy. As unnerving as Linzey’s observation is, he says it’s central to a new solution for reclaiming control of our lives and communities from corporations.

“Perhaps we’re in this mess today because we’ve never had a democracy in this country,” Linzey said at the 2006 Bioneers Conference. “Perhaps that corporate cultural IV in our arm has been working so well that it’s hard for us to even imagine what self-government would look like.” Until now, that is.

Linzey and his colleagues have created the Daniel Pennock Democracy School to teach citizens and activists how to reframe disparate issues to confront corporate power on a single front: our constitutional rights. The Democracy School, which is offered around the country, offers a new model to challenge corporate attempts to override decisions made by citizens for their communities.

Grounded in the work of the original and ongoing Democracy School in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, the weekend-long schools examine the history of granting constitutional rights to corporations, the struggles and successes of earlier social change movements, and practical strategies to return governance to local communities. The schools are open to people of all ages, occupations, and interests.

People in rural Pennsylvania have used these strategies to fight factory hog farms and other threats, but the struggle is ongoing, says Linzey, who co-founded the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund to provide free and affordable legal services to community based groups and local governments working to protect their quality of life and natural environment. Keystone state communities are now creating new ordinances that recognize the rights of ecosystems and natural communities over the rights of property and commerce under Pennsylvania’s home rule laws.

Such innovations are inspiring activists around the country, even though the outcome is uncertain and challenges loom large. Says Linzey, “I believe we are lending support to the first stirrings of a real peoples’ movement that is seeking to establish…a structure of law that places the rights of people, communities and nature above the claimed rights of property, commerce and empire.”

Democracy Schools are running in 12 locations around the country this year. Click here to check the schedule and learn more. Visit the Bioneers Store to purchase or download Linzey’s 2006 Bioneers plenary, “Turning Defense into Offense: Challenging Corporations and Creating Self-Governance.”