Dear Friend of Democracy,

There is mounting evidence of an emerging crisis of democracy in the United States. A growing number of analysts have raised serious questions about the consolidation of executive power, ever-increasing threats to civil liberties, and a growing feeling among US citizens that they have little or no power to influence the decisions that affect their lives.

One recent study, for example, found that seven out of ten people felt that “people like me have almost no say in the political system.” Yet despite this deepening cynicism, there is also evidence of a burgeoning movement to deepen democracy at the local level.

Indeed, across the US, and around the world, people are looking to local democracy as the alternative.

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 several 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 democratic successes. Network with others working on common issues. Strategize together about how to build the democracymovement 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!

Yes! It's the first . . .

LOCAL DEMOCRACY CONVENTION!

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 ~ Community Rights vs. Corporate Rights ~ Sister Cities for Democracy ~ States Rights & Home Rule:  Local Control vs. Preemption ~ The Global and the Local: Globalization from Below ~ Local Democracy: Strategy 101 ~ The Law of Local Democracy ~ Uniting for Democracy:  Schools, Colleges, and Communities ~ and more!