Monday, December 13, 2004|
It is time for new ideas It is also time to look at what is already being done to take back control of our country. We have to remember that, although the United States government is under the control of people we may not like, we can fundamentally change the system by taking care of our needs at the local, regional and state levels. It is the States that have the power to charter corporations and it is the States that can take those charters away. It is the cities that pay the police and fire departments It is local taxes that fund education. Our national government has become an institution whose only purpose is to make wars and enrich its corporate sponsors. We need to disempower that government and support institutions that protect our interests We cannot save the people who voted to elect George Bush. We must work to improve society in the areas we can control . We must set higher standards for air quality, business practices and education on a local level. We must support companies that do good business and boycott those that do not* And we must figure out how to stop paying tribute to a national entity that no longer serves our needs. Last week I had the pleasure of driving Gar Alperovitz when he was in the Bay Area promoting his new book America Beyond Capitalism.-Reclaiming our Wealth, Our Liberty, Our Democracy. Over lunch at Oakland's LeCheval, Alperovitz helped alleviate my post election blues with tales of people who are reshaping the systems that govern their lives. Here are a few examples: •The state of New Jersey recently approved a tax for people making over $500,000 – which is used to offset regressive property taxes for lower and middle income people. California has just approved taxes for those making more than $1 million–to help pay for mental health services. Obviously the press doesn’t cover these and many other innovative progressive strategies very well.... We think it’s time for progressives to get together and learn about what’s new out there, talk about it, and to begin to develop some real action efforts to move forward “beyond the usual” ways of doing things.
Please email me if you would like to start a political study - action group. And let me know of any ways to improve Gar's proposal, which I've reprinted at the end of this posting
*Marilyn Scholze presented the following suggestion for disempowering companies that do not support our interests:
We might use Move On's large membership to put pressure on large companies that support only Republicans. Andy Neuschatz wrote the following in response to Barry Willdorf's piece:
The essay about being "victims of bad management" (reprinted in lighter blue below the Alperowitz proposal ) rang very true to me. I'd love to hear politicians talking about how "Those Washington insiders have given away our airwaves to people like Rupert Murdoch" or "Those Washington insiders have given our land to companies that pay us with nothing but pollution and toxins" and the like -- WE own it, it was taken from us. I'd think we don't want to say anything about "power to the people", because for some reason in America when we hear "the people" we don't picture ourselves but mobs of angry dark-skinned weirdos. Focus instead on property ideas: it's our land, it's our airwaves... it's our lungs... (I find myself supporting a draft, because if Americans are going to support a war, we should do it thinking that it's OUR children, the neighbor kid, etc. who might die, not just some guy we don't know.)
As for "ownership society" -- can we get Dems to consistently use the phrase "owner/debtor society"? If that's what we're going to have, certainly nobody wants to be a debtor, but nobody would even want to be an owner if they know it means others are their debtors. It reminds us of the ugly underside of the every-man-for-himself philosophy: that some will lose. I wonder how many people think their investing skills are better than average.
Proposal to Develop and Test a “Pilot” Model For Living Room Political-Study-Work-Action Groups A great deal of new political energy was obviously developed during the recent election campaign–energy which gave people a sense of hope, and what we might do if we acted together. Moreover, a very large number of new people came into action–many for the first time. Many things need to be done in the coming period, both to capture the energy and keep up the momentum. These include direct political engagement, sharpening the framing of issues, developing new funding strategies, and–perhaps critically–getting people involved, directly, in things they can do locally to build up power and policy for the long haul, and for ultimate national action. A great deal has been written about how conservatives re-organized politically after the 1964 Goldwater defeat–and suggestions have been made that progressives now undertake the same kind of re-organizing effort. There is every reason to do so. But it is often forgotten that the post-1964 effort built upon at least a decade (or more) of serious conservative work to build up ideas and practical things people could do, state by state. (Just two markers: The American Enterprise Institute was established in 1942; Bill Buckley’s National Review was founded in 1951.) One lesson is obvious: Progressives need to find ways to truly develop new ideas and new strategies in politically relevant ways even as new organizing efforts are explored. Moreover, we need to do this in ways which involve new people–not just Washington think tanks. And we need to do so in ways which permit action at the local and state level, where people are and where the problems are building up–and above all, where they can find new ways to work together to support each other. If we are serious the kind of ideas and related concrete projects we undertake should also have two quite specific characteristics: (1) They should give people a sense of historical perspective and moral relevance–so that specific projects are intimately (not superficially) connected to deep values; and (2) Whenever possible they should reach across the traditional partisan divide to achieve left-right backing, especially at the local and state level, where common realities (and growing local pain) on the ground often make this possible. The kind of work that needs to be done also should aim to build intimate local group support–friends and neighbors, not outsiders. Possibly the kind of people who assembled in Moveon.org living room parties... but not exclusively so. No one has a clear formula and answer for how to do this. We need to explore new strategies, and test new ideas. Period. For the last several years we have been assembling information on positive new strategies which can be undertaken at the local and state level–and we have also been assembling information on “new thinking” about the relationship between values, on the one hand, and structural and policy proposals on the other. What we propose to do is attempt to test how we might best organize “Living Room Political-Study-Work-Action Groups” which might draw upon such materials with a view both to learning about the new values-structure theoretical work, and about the myriad possibilities and precedents which now exist for local and state action. Our hope would be to develop and refine a model (or models) for how best to do this among larger groups, possibly along the Moveon.org model, at a subsequent stage. In the first instance, we would also test how the new book “America Beyond Capitalism” worked to stimulate the kind of discussionaction we hope for. (The book summarizes a good deal of practical on-the-ground work, and new thinking by various authors and activists.) However, we would also like to test possibilities with various other books, pamphlets, etc. as time goes on We also would like to perhaps develop and test a modest video as one vehicle to help stimulate living room discussion.
Any ideas you can contribute will be greatly appreciated. (go to the yellow envelope at the very bottom of this website) A MESSAGE TO THE SHAREHOLDERS IN AMERICA By BARRY S. WILLDORF © 2004 Thomas Jefferson wrote: “That to secure these rights (Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness) governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” We Americans are fortunate that our country was founded on such principals. Tom Jefferson, George Washington, Ben Franklin and their like made us the owners of our government. Over time, and due to the collective wisdom of our ancestors, today we together are shareholders in the greatest venture presently existing. Collectively, as Shareholders in America, we own vast tracts of land, forests, rivers, large swaths of the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans. We own enormous stretches of sky. This is our birthright and ought to be our children's inheritance. We are landlords. Among our tenants are some of the wealthiest and most powerful corporations on the face of the planet. We lease mines and oil fields to these corporations. We give them rights to use our forests, to fish in our oceans, to graze their cattle, to send their messages over our airways. With all of this wealth, we should be very rich. We should be collecting considerable rents and royalties that could fill the national coffers. We Shareholders in America should be getting dividends for the use of our resources, as any reasonable group of shareholders might expect from an enterprise that possessed such enormous wealth. Yet this is not the case. Many of our Shareholders in America can’t even afford to spend a weekend on their own land. They can’t enjoy the benefits of medical breakthroughs developed in our own laboratories. Only the citizens of Alaska enjoy oil royalties from the use of government lands by energy companies. We are the victims of BAD MANAGEMENT. Our present CEO doesn’t even recognize that we Shareholders in America are the owners of these things. He treats our property as if it were something he can give away to his friends. A good example of this is the Social Security System. It is our insurance company and sells a pretty damn good product, an annuity that keeps many of our Shareholders in America out of poverty when they get old. Our CEO says that if we stop investing in our insurance company, we can use that money to invest with his friends who run stock brokerages and mutual funds. He says that we will then become “owners” in America. Well, here’s some news for Mr. Bush and his ilk, WE ALREADY OWN AMERICA, and it’s about time our CEO and his Board of Directors recognize it. What kind of CEO tells his shareholders and his customers that they ought to be doing business with his competitor? What kind of CEO gives away the property of the company he has been entrusted to manage to his friends? What kind of CEO works to diminish the value of his investors’ shares? The same kind of CEO that ran into the ground every other company that he got his hands on, that’s the kind. We, the Shareholders in America, ought to demand that our elected managers start running our collective enterprise more like a business and less like a drunken fraternity party. It’s high time we made deals where our tenants pay market rate for the use of our property. We have a right to demand a great big cleaning deposit from those oil, lumber and mining interests that rent our land. Those airwaves that belong to us should be accessible to us. Whenever a lease or license comes up for renewal or modification, we should demand better terms. We should make sure that the deals we made in the past are not currently in breach. Most immediately, we should demand that if our CEO thinks that his friends on Wall Street are selling a better product, he should implement changes that will make our product more desirable. Instead of closing up shop and leaving us Shareholders in America without our insurance company, he should be working to make us more competitive, more profitable and collectively wealthier. He should quit binging and start acting like a CEO.
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Last update: 12/21/2004; 12:27:12 AM .
