Liberty Tree Foundation

Foundation for the Democratic Revolution

<blockquote>Underlying society, and superior to constitutions are equality, and certain unalienable rights, inherent in all people in virtue of their very humanity, and it is only when this democracy is a living idea in the community that it can become a living fact in the state.</blockquote>
<cite>~ Racine Advocate, 1854</cite>

Liberty Tree's Local Democracy Program works with elected officials, political parties, and community organizations in the United States to democratize local governments and to unite them as agents of democratic change. This program prioritizes the growth of strong participatory cultures in local government, implementation of democratizing policy reforms at the local level, and the emergence of an alliance of democratic local governments as a force in national politics.

Democratize Everything

Liberty Tree’s major work in 2006 employed local democracy to develop a new program area, Democratizing Defense. Liberty Tree provided legal, media, and other key strategic support to organizers in Wisconsin, Illinois, Massachusetts, and California who wanted to bring the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan home by placing anti-war ballot measures on municipal, town, and county ballots.