Stopping Agenda 21: Equipping Citizens to Fight Back
Article audio sponsored by The John Birch Society

Our battle to expose and stop Agenda 21 has grown more intense over the past few months. More counties and states across the nation are taking action against the dictates of self-proclaimed stakeholder groups to reject sustainablist policies. From Virginia to California, citizens are demanding protection of their property rights and more state legislatures are addressing their demands.

However, new attacks have been made against us over the past two months from the American Planning Association, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Treehugger.com. Three major national news publications — Newsweek, Esquire, and Fortune — have also attacked our efforts to expose local sustainable development policies and local activist’s efforts to stop it.

These attacks indicate that we are making an impact in this fight to stop government sprawl. More state legislatures are passing anti-Agenda 21 legislation and more local communities are standing up to outside non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and rejecting their plans for control of private property and community development. More than 150 American cities have ended membership in the International Council for Local Environmental Initiative (ICLEI), and several communities have now rejected membership in regional councils. All of this has apparently caused a panic in planning circles as they try to find a way to counter our efforts. So far, their answer is to name us fringe nuts and conspiracy theorists in major news publications.

Now is the time to intensify our efforts by educating and training activists to use more effective tools and tactics as they take on the NGO Goliaths that have ruled in the back rooms of state and county government for too long.

To answer that call, The American Policy Center (APC) is sponsoring a series of free monthly Internet webinars to share every detail of the fight with concerned citizens and activists. APC has developed new tools and new tactics to counter the self-appointed stakeholder and grant-funded groups who are now working behind the scenes in nearly every community in America. Last month, the first webinar had over 1,200 participants. For the upcoming webinar, APC’s goal is to reach several thousand more. The webinars feature many of the best Agenda 21 experts in the nation. Participants will learn who is behind the policy; who funds them; how they have brought it into local communities; and how to stop them.

The first webinar, which was held on June 8, is now available on the APC website www.americanpolicy.org. The second presentation will take place on July 13 and will feature Dr. Michael Coffman. The title of this webinar is “Attack of the NGOs.” Dr. Coffman and I will discuss the history, tactics, and goals of the NGOs. Linda Stowe LaPrade, a local property rights activists, will also join us in the July webinar. LaPrade worked with other activists in her community for more than three years to eliminate ICLEI and its programs from her county in Roanoke, Virginia. She will detail exactly how these local activists worked with their County Supervisors to gain the victory and begin the effort to restore locally controlled government.

In much the same way as Mao Tse Tung had his Red Guards, so the UN has its NGOs. Now is the time to organize like never before to build a well-trained cadre of dedicated activists to take back our communities from forces that are massively funded by outside sources and federal grants — all of which are designed to change our style of government and our American way of life. The webinar is entirely free. All you have to do is sign up at www.americanpolicy.org/webinars

Tom DeWeese is one of the nation’s leading advocates of individual liberty, free enterprise, private property rights, personal privacy, back-to-basics education and American sovereignty and independence. Go to americanpolicy.org for more information