BELFAST — Members of the John Birch Society were in downtown Belfast on Wednesday with banners urging residents to “Kick ICLEI Out of Town.”

Belfast is listed as one of six Maine member cities on the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives' website. But as the demonstrators later found out, the listing was out of date.

The group had mostly packed up and left when JBS Regional Field Director Harold Shurtleff returned from City Hall with verification.

“They stopped paying dues in 2010,” he said. “But there’s no doubt that they’re implementing some of the policies.”

City records show Belfast paid $1,200 to ICLEI in 2009 for a two-year membership covering 2010 and 2011. The dues were paid from an energy audit capital reserve account. ICLEI’s website lists Belfast as a member since 2007.

According to Michael McDonald, a member of the Belfast Energy and Climate Committee from 2006 until last year, ICLEI membership gave the city access to educational materials, software and suggestions for reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

Literature passed out by demonstrators on Wednesday challenged that ICLEI’s "reasonable-sounding" goal of “sustainable development” is part of a far-reaching agenda to eliminate personal liberties, using guidelines from the United Nations’ Agenda 21 program.

“ICLEI is using greenhouse gas emissions goals to control where and how you live, what you eat, what your children learn and what ordinances Belfast will pass,” an excerpt from the JBS literature reads. “Under the cover of environmental concern, your personal rights are being restricted.”

The John Birch Society was founded in the late 1950s and became a household name over the next decade for its anti-communist positions, which extended to the civil rights movement.

Today the group’s campaigns include dismantling the Federal Reserve Bank, blocking Obamacare, stopping a constitutional convention, stopping illegal immigration, getting the US out of the United Nations, supporting local police departments and stopping Agenda 21.

What connects these seemingly disparate campaigns is an aversion to international influence and a narrow reading of the U.S. Constitution. Attendants at Wednesday’s demonstration acknowledged the potential overlap with the more recent Tea Party movement, though most believed the newer movement had strayed from its original intent.

“The Tea Party has been co-opted by NeoCons,” said Dawn Clark of Belfast “It was started by Ron Paul supporters but it’s not [the same] anymore.”

Anna Morkeski, JBS field coordinator for Maine, agreed, saying the Tea Party has been open to influence from too many groups, as she described it, “from the top and bottom.” By comparison, she said, the goals of JBS have remained the same.

“We’re all about restoring Constitutional government,” she said.

The problem with ICLEI, according to the demonstrators, is it’s role as a local conduit through which the United Nations is exerting its influence on Americans.

McDonald rejected the idea that membership in ICLEI implied any loss of local control. The adoption of any of the recommendations was purely voluntary, he said.

“Sure, they [ICLEI] want to promote it, but there’s nothing binding,” he said. “They’re only there to help. I know that’s not a good thing to say to conservatives, but they’re only there to help.”

JBS Regional Field Director Harold Shurtleff is scheduled to speak at the Belfast Free Library about UN Agenda 21 on Nov. 7 at 7 p.m.

Penobscot Bay Pilot reporter Ethan Andrews can be reached at ethanandrews@penbaypilot.com.