...The Granger Laws - a precedent for effective action against top-heavy government and excessive power in the wrong hands... 

In the second half of the nineteenth century in the Republic of the United States of America the farmers of the West were being systematically exploited by the financial and industrial sectors, who were, of course, the backers of the politicians.

In the words of historian Professor Caroll Quigley in Tragedy and Hope:

‘This exploitation took the form of high industrial prices, high (discriminatory) railroad rates, high interest charges…’

(Sounds familiar? – if not, think of how the global corporations, the monopolies and the governments now work together to raise our prices with reduced service and the prevention of any competition).

Now, since these farming communities were ‘unable to resist by any economic weapons, the farmers of the West turned to political relief, but were greatly hampered by their reluctance to vote Democratic (because of their memories of the Civil War…’

So, what could they do?

Well, Caroll Quigley explains, 'they tried to work on the state political level through LOCAL [our emphasis] legislation (so-called Granger-Laws) and set up third party movements, (like the Greenback Party in 1878)...'

Wikipedia says: 'The Greenback Party was founded at a meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, on November 25, 1874. It was originally called the Independent Party or the National Party. In the late 1870s, the party controlled local government in a number of industrial and mining communities andcontributed to the election of 21 members in the United States Congress independent of the two major parties.'

As with all struggles against entrenched powerful opposition, there were difficulties. 

For example, the railroad companies ignored the new local regulations. 

However, in the case Munns vs. Illinois (1877) it was held that the Granger Laws were constitutional.

So, although it was an uphill struggle, this entire local-based movement is considered to be a huge success - they broke into real power – they got their power back! 

Local ‘boots-on-the-ground’ proved very effective indeed.

They were effective and we shall be effective.

This is a fine precedent for LocalLiberty.