"The issue is not issues, the issue is the system."
Ronnie Dugger, founder, Alliance for Democracy

We've been working on resisting corporate rule and building grassroots democracy for 20 years.
Our work is as current and necessary today as it was when we started.
But our website... it's a little tired.
So we're redesigning it! Take a look at the "rough draft" here.
We'll have the information and resources you need—and the news to inspire you—
to do the work we all need to do for democracy, community, and Mother Earth.



LD 725 signed into law: support for Local Food ordinances and farmers
Gov. LePage signs bill to take effect 90 after end of session; it protects local rules on farm-to-consumer sales. Read more here.

Read our statements on NAFTA renegotiation
We joined more than 50,000 individuals and groups to demand a fair trade deal to protect jobs, the environment and democracy. See this blog post for more.



Community Action for Hand-Counted Paper Ballots
 The Alliance for Democracy says the People's Vote Must Count! Our new campaign supports local action on the entwined issues of election manipulation and voter suppression, to investigate how votes are counted where you live, and to promote hand-counted paper ballots at the county or precinct level.

Learn how to advocate for
hand-counted paper ballots here.

Our latest issue of Justice Rising: Grassroots Solutions to Corporate Power focuses on voting rights and election protection. It has been called an an invaluable primer on the issues of electronic voting machines, voter suppression, gerrymandering, and ID laws. Read it online here. Full print issues are available; contact the Alliance's national office to find out more.
To learn about our "Defending Water for Life" campaigns, visit our campaign page and these state campaign websites:


Our history: AfD and Barnstead NH protect water, rights of nature.
 
Voters Keep Nestlé Out of Cascade Locks
We were proud to support Local Water Alliance's work to block a proposed bottling plant in Cascade Locks, OR. With the votes in, a local ballot question to block water extraction has passed overwhelmingly! Read about it here.

Protecting a river and a people
The Penobscot Nation is fighting the state's claim that their lands do not include adjacent waters. "The Penobscot: Ancestral River, Contested Terretory," a new documentary by Sunlight Media Collective, looks at Penobscot history and organizing to keep the river a source of life rather than a resource to be exploited for profit.
"All Power...
...is inherent in the people; all free governments are founded in their authority and instituted for their benefit... they have therefore an unalienable and indefensible right to institute government and to alter, reform or totally change the same when their safety and happiness require it."
Article 1 & 2,
Maine Constitution
 

What are Local Food and Community Self Governance Ordinances?
maine food mapLocal Food and Community Self Governance Ordinances allow towns to protect the economic relationships between farmers, food producers and consumers by saying that the right to regulate sales and safety lies with town government, not with federal authorities who craft regulation to benefit big agriculture, factory farms, and industrial producers. These ordinances, now in force in 17 Maine towns, are part of a national food freedom movement, and a global push for food sovereignty. Click on the map to find out more.
Justice Rising
Our journal highlights grassroots resistance to corporate rule

JR vol 6 issue 4 cover

Join AfD! Your membership includes Justice Rising.

Some great writers have published in Justice Rising. See the Author Index here.

The People's Vote Must Count! Reclaim Elections, Restore Voting Rights, Protect Our Ballots

This issue takes a systemic look at elections, voting, and ballot access, from voter suppression and civil rights, to gerrymandering, to the problems of electronic voting machines and the need for hand-counted paper ballots if we want true election security. It can be used as a study guide for your own local "People's Vote Must Count" campaign. Read the complete issue or download single articles here. Our members get a free subscription—join today!

Extra copies available! Call us at 781-894-1179 or email afd@thealliancefordemocracy.org. Back issues of Justice Rising are online here.
Public Banking
   

 
Alliance for Democracy members and activists are working on local public banking projects in Boston, Portland OR, and Washington DC. We also published an edition of Justice Rising on "Banking for Maine Street, Not Wall Street," with articles by Gwendolyn Hallsmith, Ellen Brown, Ira B. Dember, Steve Seuser, Jeremy Mohler and Tom Sgouros, as well as Alliance writers and activists Ruth Caplan and Jim Tarbell. Our Public Banking page links you to that issue of Justice Rising, to the latest news, and to allies' websites.

Sticker that car, bike, bag!
Ordering info here.

political bribery sticker
 

 
See our "Tools for Organizing" page for the following:
•  "Corporate Bribery: Our Democracy is for Sale." Learn how big donations corrupt policymaking, politics, and elections here.
•  "Corporations are not People" explains corporate personhood and how we can take back our rights.
•  How-to's for street theater and visibility actions
•  Download and print a one-page flyer: "Political Bribery is Illegal"
Democratizing Tools for Sustainability and Community
Media, Development and the Commons




fall view of farm

Tapestry of the Commons

Tapestry of the Commons
•  Listen to the Tapestry of the Commons radio program
•  For a teacher workshop, or school or community group presentation contact the AfD office



AfD National Office
21 Main Street, #4
Hudson, MA 01749
978-333-7971

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Action Alerts
 Take action for democracy and justice:

Our latest e-newsletter
details the win on LD 725, plus the latest on DC's Public Bank project.

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We are a partner of the Next System Project Teach-Ins.
Project site here.