Community Rights Workshops in Winona

IMPORTANT DATE CHANGE!

MARCH 3-5, 2017

Weekend Workshop on 

Community Rights Movement (Winona MN)

The dates for our Weekend Workshop are now March 3-5, 2017. We apologize for any inconvenience; this change was unavoidable. Thanks for understanding. 

February 12 (Sunday 3:00 pm): 

“We the People 2.0” new documentary 

February 19 (Sunday 3:00 pm):

Introductory workshop 

March 3-5 (Fri pm thru Sun afternoon)

Full Weekend Workshop. Enjoyable and intensive exploration of Community Rights movement's origins, goals, and strategy

March 6 (probably 5 pm to 7 pm)

Informal discussion with Paul on how to move ahead with Community Rights in the Winona area.

Mark your calendar! Space will be limited. We will update as soon as REGISTRATION INFORMATION is available OR CONTACT THE ORGANIZERS! 

We are keeping costs for attendees as low as possible. We hope you'll consider attending these empowering workshops. We need this Movement — now more than ever!

Your Community-Rights Workshop team,

Jim Gurley (507) 523-3113
Sarah Miles (507) 452-1056

For more info, testimonials, and resources, please see below.

We the People Are More Powerful 

than We Dare to Believe: 

 

First Steps in Overcoming Corporate Rule

Mini-Workshop - a brief overview and Q&A - Sunday, March 12th, in Winona, MN from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm.

WEEKEND WORKSHOP:

March 3 -- March 5

Winona, MN

Friday 6pm - 9pm 

Saturday 9am - 6pm

Sunday 9am - 5pm

The weekend workshop in Winona is a full weekend about community rights. The mini-workshops are basic overviews. (

No previous experience or knowledge is necessary to attend either workshop.)

We invite you to spend a weekend (or an evening) with us as we learn more effective ways to protect our local communities and the rest of the living world by exercising our inherent right to govern ourselves. 

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Beginning in Pennsylvania, and now stretching across nine states from Maine to New Mexico, more than 200 communities have passed legally binding, locally enforceable Community Rights laws that for the first time in U.S. history enshrine the inherent right of a local majority of residents to protect the health and welfare of their local places. Each of these new-paradigm laws defines what the community wants, reins in corporate so-called “rights," and stops legal but harmful corporate activity dead in its tracks.

We the People really are more powerful than we dare to believe.

What is it that most deeply matters to you? What kind of town or landscape do you want to live in ten years from now? 40 years? 100 years? What decisions need to be made SOON to get you where you want to go regarding water, air, energy, fracking, mining, cell phone towers, land and economic development, etc?

By utilizing the Community Rights legal strategy, and joining our voices with others to create empowerment and nourishment, we actually CAN get there from here!

Testimonials from folks who attended Paul Cienfuego's  May 2013 workshop in Decorah, Iowa: 
"I came away from this workshop feeling like I know how to be a better citizen of my country. Paul opened my eyes to parts of our country's history that saddened me, and parts that really inspired me too.  I have a clearer understanding of why everyday people often feel powerless to make change for a better world.  And I now know what we can do about that.  Paul renewed my interest in participating in governance that is truly of, for, and by the people."

 "I believe it's time to put the rights of human beings and of the earth on a higher priority than the rights of corporations, and I'm grateful to Paul for showing us a path to making that happen!"

 "A very enlightening weekend. I found out where my fear of large corporations comes from and how--with compassionate informed neighbors--we can move forward to demand a more just land."
 "Wanting a better world for my daughters convinced me to attend Paul's training.  I moved from feeling ignorant, to oppressed, to empowered.  We can build a world that holds the interest of ourselves, our children, our whole Earth Community at the forefront.  And there are other communities leading the way!  Join me!"

"I have been very sad for a very long time, seeing our personal lives, our health and our world threatened by all of the corporate harms we seem so powerless to affect. And for the first few hours in the workshop, Paul's history of our democracy-- and how it has been, from the beginning, torn asunder by a system stacked in favor of corporations-- brought back all of the sadness and helplessness. But it also made me realize this sadness is a natural response to what we and our non-human allies have been experiencing. 

And the workshop didn't end there; it provided us with tools to work on the local level to protect our natural environment (which is what sustains us after all is said and done). It inspires me to think of coming together with friends and neighbors (and the friends I haven't met yet in my community). And I could see potential for networks of communities coming together to weave a web of protection. Now I see what Paul was talking about happening all over the world. There are no guarantees, but there never have been. It gives us a challenge worth taking on."

 Wanting a better world for my daughters convinced me to attend Paul's training.  I moved from feeling ignorant, to oppressed, to empowered.  We can build a world that holds the interest of ourselves, our children, our whole Earth Community at the forefront.  And there are other communities leading the way!  Join me!

   About Paul and Community Rights

Paul Cienfuegos

Our workshop leader, Paul Cienfuegos, has been leading workshops, giving public talks, and organizing local communities towards dismantling corporate rule and strengthening local democracy since 1995. An Oregon resident, Paul continues to expand his life passion: to help communities near and far to rediscover their power to govern themselves. He has great faith in the inherent wisdom and capacity of everyone to strive for a better world.

We sense that our democratic system of rule by the people is broken, and that we need to have a way to look at the frac-sand mining problem and solution in a system-wide, overarching way (along with continuing to locally oppose specific mines or facilities). This workshop will provide such an overarching understanding.

Paul Cienfuegos (pronounced “SEE-en-FUAY-gose”) of Portland, Oregon is an expert in the Community Rights Movement, and he leads workshops nationally on the subject. Forest, Sheila, and Jim attended one of his workshops last September, and found it to be extremely informative, inspiring, and empowering.

Paul’s workshops are packed with information and activities, but also include lots of generous breaks. He encourages interactive questions and discussion by participants. Paul’s approach is positive, solution-oriented, and has a good sense of humor. He brings several excellent books and articles to the workshop for sale, and provides a resource-guide and reading list to all attendees, along with a free audio file of the workshop (and DVD at nominal cost if it is video-taped).

Paul clearly explains, in the workshop, how and why corporations received these so-called “rights” that allow them to invade our communities and disregard the will of the people. This knowledge is an important first step in seeing how such a situation can be resisted and overcome.

Workshop attendees will also meet and interact with people from across our region. This networking creates valuable unity within our movement so we can more effectively fight frac sand mining and other environmental threats.