Biography

Shannon Biggs is the director of the Community Rights program at Global Exchange. She recently co-authored the book, The Rights of Nature - The Case for a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth, which you can buy at www.therightsofnature.org. You can find further information at Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature. She has also co-authored the book Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grass Roots (PoliPoint Press).

Her current work focuses on assisting communities confronted by corporate harms to enact binding laws that place the rights of communities and nature above the claimed legal "rights" of corporations. This very different organizing model stems from a new understanding about the origins of corporate power, developed by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). She teaches this new framework, known as "rights-based" organizing at weekend long Democracy Schools, taught in San Francisco and in 23 states around the country. Over 100 communities across the US have used this new understanding to stop working defensively against corporations and take courageous action to assert their rights to make governing decisions where they live. Shannon speaks across the country on the importance and power of grassroots activism to create systemic change, as well as on grassroots fundraising.

Previously, she was a senior staffer at International Forum on Globalization (IFG), where she organized large international teach-ins and wrote and edited for IFG publications. She also was a Lecturer in International Relations at San Francisco State University.

Shannon holds a Masters in Economics/Politics of Empire the London School of Economics (LSE), and has a BS in International Relations from San Francisco State University (SFSU).

CLICK HERE to hear a radio interview with Shannon Biggs and co-author Jason Mark interviewed by Karolo Aparicio on KPFA's weekly environmental radio program Terra Verde.

Topics covered

Busting the myth of “bigger is better”--the real economics of local and green
Is “localization” the antidote to economic globalization, climate change and other ills?
Organizing models for local citizen control and local legislation
Fundraising 101: the basics in fundraising for social change