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- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
- Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!ukma!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!daemon
- From: dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
- Subject: THE CONCORD PRINCIPLES--AN AGENDA FOR A NEW INITIATORY DEMOCRACY
- Message-ID: <1992Aug26.200038.26951@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- Followup-To: alt.activism.d
- Summary: we are now living in pre-revolutionary times
- Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Keywords: responsibility for the earth we all share must replace "colonization"
- Sender: news@mont.cs.missouri.edu
- Nntp-Posting-Host: pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
- Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 20:00:38 GMT
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Lines: 423
-
-
- The following--starting 124 lines below this one--is something Ralph Nader
- wrote back on 2/1/92 and was passed around in New England in the early
- primary days. He has been expanding on these ideas in speeches he's been
- giving this year. I heard part of one from May 9th in S.F. He was
- discussing the world as it is, the changes that MUST to be made for the
- good of all, and the connectedness of all things in a very expansive and
- holistic way as I've never quite heard him articulate before. He was
- tieing in the social, psychological, and spiritual issues *as well as* the
- economic, environmental-ecological-biological, military and political
- aspects of how things now stand, and what we as a race of sentient beings
- need to do to, acting in concert with each other, to help shape a world
- promoting the sanctity of all life and all the natural world as a whole,
- instead of drawing the best minds into the kind of deathwish-2000
- mentality as we are still, for the time being, in thrall to.
-
- In *my* read of the following, what Ralph Nader is really invoking is a
- vision opening up the possibilities of establishing genuine *participatory*
- democracy instead of the 200 year-old brand of representative democracy
- which has been subverted and replaced with a checkbook democracy appealling
- to the very worst qualities of human nature which is only able to operate
- in the netherworld blackness of the "bottom-line." It is time for us to
- focus on what we as a species need to do to work together to solve the
- problems we have created, rather than "buying" the commoditized reality
- dished up to us ever more by those who only think of "development" in
- terms of how more markets can be created to foster more financial profits.
-
- People must be challenged to exercise their own analytical and intuitive
- powers of reason and "heart-based action," and urge a focus of attention on
- what the hell is happening to our world that we all share AND THAT WE ARE
- ALL RESPONSIBLE FOR. Which opinion do you value more--your own or Ted
- Koppel's??? The kind of numbing paralysis the seduction of consumerism
- engenders in this culture is truly earth-shattering and new to our human
- experience. It seems to more and more be replacing our penchant for
- honestly acknowledging the true state of consensus reality and seeking to
- improve and regenerate it when such is called for. Mass-market culture
- has almost completely replaced past generations' experiences of "roots"
- and local stories and myths. We cannot just sit back and try to "buy off"
- on the bill of goods being sold to us as some sort of permanent Miller
- Time. If we do, then there *is* NO future for our children's children's
- children & all life on earth.
-
- I hope many more of you than I can imagine will at least every once in a
- short while tune in to the expanding alternative visions being prompted
- and promoted by dynamic and innovative groups like:
-
- the Women's Environmental Development Organization (WEDO) (focusing
- and articulating women's voices and uniquely qualified points of view
- regarding what it is going to take to save the world and our species'
- collective future) in NYC;
-
- the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (promotes locally controlled,
- democratically managed small-scale economic development) in Wash, DC;
-
- The Land Institute (leading org attempting to retain biodiversity
- within agriculture, to save the Midwest prairies, and to promote the
- family farm) in Salinas KS;
-
- The Cultural Environment Movement (reclaiming our cultural diversity
- through a re-connection with hand-crafted, home-made, community-
- inspired cultural stories, myths and dynamism) in Philadelphia, PA,
-
- the Committee for Responsible Genetics (conferences, research, and
- activism on the full range of biotechnology issues) in Boston, MA;
-
- The Media Foundation (critiques commodity society and makes the
- connection with environmental destruction ("Adbusters" magazine)) in
- Vancouver, BC;
-
- the New Alchemy Institute (highly innovative research group focusing
- on small-scale agriculture) in East Falmouth, MA;
-
- the Planet Drum Foundation (research, publishing, and programs
- promoting indigenous nationhood mvmts, bioregionalism, and green
- cities),
-
- Public Media Center (the nation's only nonprofit ad agency, serving
- environmental, Indian, civil rights, women's, & peace orgs), and
-
- Rainforest Action Network (direct action, lobbying, education, and
- organizing to protect the world's rainforests and the rights of their
- indigenous forest dwellers. Major emphasis against World Bank, IMF,
- GATT) all three located in SF, CA;
-
- the Rocky Mountain Institute (the country's outstanding think tank
- and educational org fostering new thinking about energy use and
- global security) in Old Snowmass, CO;
-
- the Seventh Generation Fund (Native-run foundation providing
- technical assistance and grants to native communities working toward
- self-sufficiency and sovereignty--also involved in many native rights
- campaigns) in Hoopa, CA;
-
- the Unrepresented Nations and People's Organization (a kind of
- alternative UN for thousands of nations and peoples presently under
- colonial control; attempting to create a unified international
- lobbying force) in SF, CA; and
-
- the International Institute of Concern for Public Health (research,
- publications, information on the effects of low-level radiation from
- nuclear power/weapons/waste and support of the struggles of the
- victims world-wide of the contamination of and damage to the earth's
- biosphere and the human gene pool) in Toronto, Ontario;
-
- the WorldWatch Institute (research and publications that report on
- the state of the world's resource supplies and distribution and the
- ecological consequences of government and corporate policies and
- practices) in Wash, DC,
-
- (to name but a few) to feel the breeze of a different point of view, frame
- of reference and perspective, than the one we are all constantly ever more
- being bombarded by like a commercial scud attack, for more and more and
- more of anything we could possibly imagine wanting to possess and have,
- but which we don't really need.
-
- Know that the people who are the richest
- are not those who have the most,
- but those who need the least.
-
-
- --ratitor
-
-
- _________________________________________________________________________
-
- THE CONCORD PRINCIPLES
- AN AGENDA FOR A NEW INITIATORY DEMOCRACY
-
-
- *Whereas*, a selfish oligarchy has produced economic decline, the
- debasement of politics, and the exclusion of citizens from the
- strengthening of their democracy and political economy;
- *Whereas*, this rule of the self-serving few over the Nations
- business and politics has concentrated power, money, greed, and
- corruption far beyond the control or accountability of citizens;
- *Whereas*, the political system, regardless of Party, has
- degenerated into a government of the power brokers, by the power
- brokers, and for the power brokers that is an arrogant and distant
- caricature of Jeffersonian democracy;
- *Whereas*, Presidential campaigns have become narrow, shallow,
- redundant, and frantic parades and horseraces which candidates, their
- monetary backers, and their handlers control unilaterally, with the
- citizenry expected to be the bystanders and compliant voters;
- *Whereas*, a pervading sense of powerlessness, denial, and
- revulsion is sweeping the Nations citizens as they endure or suffer
- from growing inequities, injustice, and loss of control over their
- future and the future of their children; and
- *Whereas*, we, the citizens of the United States, who are
- dedicated to the reassertion of fundamental democratic principles and
- their application to the practical, daily events in our Nation, are
- committed to begin the work of shaping the substance of Presidential
- campaigns and of engaging the candidates attention to our citizens
- agendas during this 1992 election year;
- *Now, therefore, we hereby* present the ensuing "Concord
- Principles" to the Presidential candidates for the 1992 election and
- invite their written, consistent, and continual adherence to these
- principles during their entire campaign and in whatever public
- offices and responsibilities they hold or may hold upon cessation of
- their campaigns;
-
- *First*, democracy is more than a bundle of rights on paper;
- democracy must also embrace usable facilities that empower all
- citizens
-
- (a) to obtain timely, accurate information from their
- government;
-
- (b) to communicate such information and their
- judgements to one another through modern technology;
- and
-
- (c) to band together in civic associations as voters,
- taxpayers, consumers, workers, shareholders,
- students, and as whole human beings in pursuit of a
- prosperous, just and free society.
-
- *Second*, the separation of *ownership* of major societal assets
- from their *control* permits the concentration of power over such
- assets in the hands of the few who control rather than in the hands
- of the many who own. The owners of the public lands, pension funds,
- savings accounts, and the public airwaves are the American people,
- who have essentially little or no control over their pooled assets or
- their commonwealth.
- The American people should assume reasonable control over the
- assets they have legally owned for many years so that their use
- reflects citizen priorities for a prosperous America, mindful of the
- needs and rights of present *and* future generations of Americans to
- pursue happiness within benign environments.
-
- *Third*, a growing and grave imbalance between the often
- converging power of Big Business, Big Government and the citizens of
- this country has seriously damaged our democracy and weakened our
- ability to correct this imbalance. We lack the mechanisms of civic
- power. We need a modern tool box for redeeming our democracy by
- strengthening our capacity for self-government and self-reliance both
- as individuals and as a community of citizens. Our 18th century
- democratic rights need retooling for the proper exercise of our
- responsibilities as citizens of the 21st century.
-
- *Fourth*, the new democracy tool box contains measures for the
- purpose of protecting voters from having their voting powers diluted,
- over-run or nullified. These measures are:
-
- (a) a binding none-of-the-above option on the ballot;
-
- (b) term limitations, 12 years and out;
-
- (c) public financing of campaigns through well-promoted
- voluntary taxpayers checkoffs on tax returns;
-
- (d) easier voter registration and ballot access rules;
-
- (e) state-level binding initiative, referendum, and
- recall authority, a non-binding national referendum
- procedure; and
-
- (f) a repeal of the runaway White House/Congressional
- Pay Raises back to 1988 levels--a necessary dose of
- humility to the politicians.
-
- *Fifth*, the new democracy tool box strengthens taxpayers who wish
- to have a say in how their tax dollars are being used and how their
- taxpayer assets are being protected. These objectives will be
- advanced by according taxpayers full legal standing to challenge in
- the courts the waste, fraud, and abuse of tax monies and taxpayer
- assets. Presently, the federal judiciary places nearly
- insurmountable obstacles in front of taxpayers, thereby leaving the
- task to the unlikely prospect of government officials taking their
- own government to court.
- Further, a facility for taxpayers banding together can be
- established by a simple taxpayer checkoff on the 1040 tax return,
- inviting taxpayers to join their national taxpayers association which
- would be accountable to members on a one member-one vote standard.
- Finally, obscure, overly complex, mystifying jargon pervading
- federal tax, pension, election and other laws and procedures is a
- barrier to taxpayer-citizen participation. The language of these
- laws and procedures must be simplified and clarified as a matter of
- national priority; otherwise, only special interests hiring decoders
- will be able to participate while the general public is shut out.
-
- *Sixth*, the new democracy tool box strengthens consumers of both
- business and government services by according them:
-
- (a) computerized access in libraries and their own homes
- to the full range of government information for which
- they have already paid but are now unable to obtain,
- either inexpensively or at all;
-
- (b) facilities in the form of periodic inserts, included
- in the billing or other envelopes sent to them by
- companies that are either legal monopolies (for
- example, electric, gas, telephone utilities) or are
- subsidized or subsidizable by the taxpayers (for
- example, banks and savings and loans). These inserts
- invite consumers to join their own statewide consumer
- action group to act as a watchdog, to negotiate and
- to advocate for their interests.
- A model of this facility is the Illinois Citizen
- Utility Board which has saved ratepayers over $3
- billion since 1983, and filled the consumer chair
- before utility commissions, legislative hearings, and
- courtroom proceedings on many occasions.
- This type of facility costs taxpayers nothing,
- costs the carrying companies or government mailings
- nothing (the consumer group pays for the insert and
- there is no extra postage) and is voluntary for
- consumers to join. Had there been such bank consumer
- associations with full-time staff in the 1970s, there
- would not have been a trillion dollar bailout on the
- taxpayers back for the S&L and commercial bank
- crimes, speculations, and mismanagement debacles.
- These would have been nipped in the bud at the
- community level by informed, organized consumer
- judgement. So too would have costly and hazardous
- energy projects been replaced by energy efficient and
- renewable power systems; and
-
- (c) Citizen consumers are the viewers and listeners of
- television and radio. Federal law says that the
- public owns the public airwaves which are now leased
- for free by the Federal Communications Commission to
- television and radio companies. The public, whose
- only option is to switch dials or turn off, deserves
- its own Audience Network.
- The Audience Network would enhance the
- communication and mobilization process between people
- locally and nationally. The owners of the airwaves
- deserve a return of their property for one hour prime
- time and drive time on all licensed stations so that
- their professional studios, producers, and reporters
- can program what the audience believes is important
- to them and their children. The proposal for
- Audience Network, funded by dues from the audience-
- members and other *non*-tax revenues, was the subject
- of a Congressional hearing in 1991, chaired by
- Congressmen Edward Markey.
- Similarly, in return for cable company monopoly
- and other powers, cable subscribers should be able to
- join their own cable viewers group through a periodic
- insert in their monthly cable billing envelopes.
- Modern electronic communications can play a critical
- role in anticipating and resolving costly national
- problems when their owners gain regular usage, as a
- community intelligence, to inform, alert, and
- mobilize democratic citizen initiatives. Presently,
- these electronic broadcasting systems are
- overwhelmingly used for entertainment, advertising
- and redundant news, certainly not a fair reflection
- of what a serious society needs to communicate in a
- complex age, locally, nationally, and globally.
-
- (d) Access to justice--to the courts, to government
- agencies, and to legislatures--is available to
- organized, special interests, and they widely use
- these remedies. In contrast, when consumers are
- defrauded, injured, rendered sick by wrongdoers or
- other perpetrators of their harm, they find costly
- dollar and legal hurdles blocking their right of
- access. They also find indentured politicians and
- their lobbying allies bent on closing the doors
- further. Systems of justice are to be used
- conveniently and efficiently by all the people in
- this country, not just corporations and the wealthy.
- Otherwise, the citizen shutout worsens.
-
- *Seventh*, the new democracy tool box for working people contains
- rights of bringing ones conscience to work without having to risk
- being unfairly fired or demoted. Ethical whistle-blowers have
- alerted Americans to numerous abuses in the workplace that damage
- workers health and safety, contaminate the environment, and defraud
- consumers, taxpayers, and shareholders. However, they often pay the
- penalty with the loss of their jobs. The exercise of conscience
- needs simple, effective legal protections which will build inside the
- corporation, government, or other large bureaucracies the incentives
- for care, prudence, and accountability that foresee or forestall
- larger harms.
-
- *Eighth*, working people, who own over $3 trillion in pension
- monies, need a reasonable measure of control over where these monies
- are invested. Presently, a handful of banks and insurance companies
- control and make these decisions. During the 1980s the use of
- pension monies for corporate mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts
- and other empire-building maneuvers showed what does happen when
- ownership is so separated from control. Control by the few often
- left economic wreckage behind in many communities, and such capital
- draining takeovers did not produce employment or new wealth.
- Pension monies are gigantic capital pools that can be used
- productively to meet community needs, but not when their owners are
- excluded from any organized participation or even the right to know
- and review what has been decided.
-
- *Ninth*, the new democracy tool box applies to recognizing
- shareholder democracy as well. Whether large, small or institutional
- shareholders (such as pension or other trust funds), the separation
- of ownership (of the company) from control has been documented
- impressively, starting with the celebrated study by Berle and Means
- fifty years ago. The business press is filled with reports of
- executives of large corporations repeatedly abusing shareholder
- assets and worker morale with huge salaries, bonuses, greenmail, and
- golden parachutes, (untied to company performance), self-perpetuating
- boards of directors, the stifling of the proxy voting system and
- blocking other shareholder voting reforms such as cumulative voting
- powers and access to relevant shareholder lists and information. The
- owners of corporations should be able to prevent their hired
- executives from engaging in what "Business Week" called casino
- capitalism that often ends with mass layoffs, loyal shareholders
- losses and communities undermined.
-
- *Tenth*, the new democracy tool box needs to be taught in its
- historic context and present relevance as part of an engrossing civic
- curriculum for our countrys schoolchildren. Involving all students
- during their later elementary and secondary school education in
- practical civics experience so as to develop both their citizen
- skills and the desire to use them, under the rule of law, can enrich
- schools, students, and communities alike. Where teachers have made
- such efforts, the children have responded responsibly and excitedly
- to the frequent surprise and respect of their elders. Schooling for
- informed and experienced participation in democratic processes is a
- major reservoir of future democracy and a profound human resource to
- be nurtured.
-
- In conclusion, these tools for democracy have fairly common
- characteristics. They are universally accessible, can reduce
- government and other deficits, and are voluntary to use or band
- together around. It matters not whether people are Republicans,
- Democrats, or Independents. It matters only that Americans desire to
- secure and use these facilities or tools.
- Without this reconstruction of our democracy through such
- facilities for informed civic participation, as noted above, even the
- most well-intentioned politicians campaigning for your vote cannot
- deliver, if elected. Nor can your worries about poverty,
- discrimination, joblessness, the troubled conditions of education,
- environment, street and suite crime, budget deficits, costly and
- inadequate health care, and energy boondoggles, to list a few, be
- addressed constructively and enduringly. Developing these democratic
- tools to strengthen citizens in their distinct roles as voters,
- taxpayers, consumers, workers, shareholders, and students should be
- very high on the list of any candidates commitments to you. Unless,
- that is, they just want your vote, but would rather not have you
- looking over their shoulder from a position of knowledge, strength
- and wisdom.
-
-
- Ralph Nader
- February 1, 1992
-
-
-
-
-
- --
- daveus rattus
-
- yer friendly neighborhood ratman
-
- KOYAANISQATSI
-
- ko.yan.nis.qatsi (from the Hopi Language) n. 1. crazy life. 2. life
- in turmoil. 3. life out of balance. 4. life disintegrating.
- 5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.
-
-
-
-