cross-posted from the North Carolina Tenth Amendment Center

I recently attended the North Raleigh Kitchen Table Meetup on Tuesday, July 26th, 2011 in Wake County North Carolina. I’d like to personally thank Pam and Russ for all their hard work in managing this group. This group is very concerned and knowledgeable about Agenda 21 and ICLEI. I learned at this meeting that the City of Raleigh and Town of Cary are both members of ICLEI, and have paid sustainability managers on staff who’s job it is to manage Agenda 21 implementation.

Agenda 21 and ICLEI

Agenda 21 is a UN initiative related to sustainable development. Agenda 21 has at its core environmentalism and social justice, and requires top-down control and centralization of power. ICLEI,  the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, founded in 1990 and known since 2003 as Local Governments for Sustainability, counts nearly 600 U.S. cities as its members as of April 17, 2011. ICLEI is the body that implements Agenda 21.

Agenda 21, ICLEI and Private Property Rights

The main difficulty that ICLEI has with implementing Agenda 21 in the U.S. is private property rights, just the same with any environmentalist movement. Big government types (Statists) love environmental issues, because it provides them a convenient excuse to control private property and other liberties. When you elevate the good of the collective over individual liberty, then it allows the government to do anything it wants as long as it can pretend it is for the good of the collective. On it’s face, it seems intuitive that the good of the many outweighs the good of the few, however in practice this is an evil doctrine because it allows slick politicians to justify any crime against an individual or group of individuals. Agenda 21 and ICLEI are just a new incarnation of top-down, soviet-style centralized control and socialism… but with a new wrinkle.

Agenda 21, ICLEI and Localities

The new wrinkle of Agenda 21 is that localities, such as states, counties, cities and towns are the target of ICLEI. This is globalization being built from the bottom up, instead of being implemented at the national level and pushed down. It is being sold to naive local officials as a green initiative.

ICLEI and the U.S. Constitution

Article 1, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution states: No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; . Localities, or any subdivision of a state, are bound by the Constitution. It would be legal for a person, such as a mayor, to be a member of an association such as ICLEI, but for a government body to be a member of such a group is on its face illegal. This requires more study on our behalf to determine who exactly is the member of ICLEI: is it our cities our the sustainability managers?

Agenda 21 and the Tenth Amendment

As Tenthers, we are fighting to restore the rights of the citizens of the states against federal overreach and encroachment. ICLEI’s bottom up approach has the localities and states making decisions, rather than the federal government. In this way, localities who choose to implement Agenda 21 are within their rights and Tenthers generally support local government over central government. Yet, to me personally, being a Tenther means fidelity to the U.S. Constitution and the liberties enshrined in that document, and Agenda 21 is a threat to those liberties. Perhaps, Agenda 21 does not land in my wheelhouse as a Tenther, but as a supporter of liberty, it sure seems important for me to share what I know about it.

What are your thoughts on Agenda 21 and how it relates to the 10th Amendment and freedom?

Kevin Baynes

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