Fracking’ issue tests citizens’ authority

Letter to the Editor
Canton Repository
Posted Dec 30, 2010
http://www.cantonrep.com/opinion/letters/x1599383372/-Fracking-issue-tests-citizens authority

TESTIMONY AT PLAIN TOWNSHIP TRUSTEES MEETING ON FRACKING

Greg Coleridge, Director, Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee
14. December. 2010

Thank you for sponsoring this hearing to listen to community concerns. I encourage you to support enacting an ordinance prohibiting gas drilling in your community.

The discussion and debate surrounding the issue of hydralic fracking in Plain Township is more than simply about drilling for natural gas. It’s also more than about water contamination associated with drilling. It’s even more than about property values and road safety connected to increased truck traffic.

The core issue is about democracy, about self-governance. It’s about whether the citizens of Plain Township and their elected Trustees have the authority to protect their citizens or not. It’s at root whether citizens have the right to decide by ordinance what a gas drilling corporation can and cannot do to protect the health, safety and welfare of their community.

Who (or what) possesses more power? Citizens? Or corporations?

Claims that drilling corporations have some god-given, cosmic or legal constitutional right to do what they want, when they want, and where they want is an assault on We the People’s right to protect our own community -- politically, economically and environmentally.

Throughout history, corporations have escaped democratic control in three different ways:

1. By working to shift decision making from one political level to another (local to state, state to national, national to international). Drilling corporations have done this by working to pass a state law removing the right of local communities to control gas drilling.

2. By working to shift decisions from the legislative level to regulatory agencies – which are easier to influence. The compliant and corporate friendly…and funded… Ohio Department of Natural Resources is Exhibit A on this front, and,

3. By shifting decision making from the legislative arena to the courts – where judges can be easily influenced to buy into the ridiculous notion that corporations have same constitutional Bill of Rights protections as human beings.

Citizens are waking up. Local public officials are waking up. People are tired of being pushed around, led around, and given the run around by corporations.

The time has not yet arrived when the created is greater than the creator. We the People through laws and charters create corporations. They are legal creations of government provided with privileges to do what we feel will serve the common good. They’ve not been given permission to tell us what to do or how we should run our cities, villages and townships.

I applaud the efforts of Plain Township to consider passing an ordinance that asserts the Township’s right to decide what the people of Plain Township, not some outside gas drilling corporation, considers best for protecting the health, safety and welfare of your community.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHgvOzv32JA&feature=player_embedded

For All The People – Cooperatives in America

John Curl's book is an exhaustive study of cooperatives, mutual aid and intentional communities from the First Nations to the present. Scores of obscure and forgotten groups can be discovered here. What Curl shows is the record of struggle by ordinary people to construct a humane and democratic way of life in the face of opposition and adversity.

You find that there is no division between class struggle or organization at the point of production and the formation of coops. Nor is there a real split between political movements and alternative building. For the Knights of Labor and the Populist Party alternative building went hand in hand with union organizing or political action. Socialism, from its very inception as a tendency, right up to, and including the foundation of the Socialist Party, meant cooperative production, or as it was expressed as the “cooperative commonwealth.”

While parties and unions built alternatives, the people involved with them sometimes did so at different periods. When a union was broken or a workplace struggle defeated, the members would turn to community building or forming a coop. If these failed, they would then return to union organizing or party-building.

It turns out that all left wing organizations built cooperatives and mutual aid societies, including the Communist Party. Even the left wing New Dealers got in the act, encouraging the formation of consumer and farmers coops, as well as surprisingly, cooperative communities. While Curl's study is limited to the USA, one must also remember that in the early-mid 20^th Century, the European Social Democrats built an entire counter-culture of cooperatives, mutual aid societies, schools, and associations. While this development was most prevalent in Austria and Germany, Northern Italy and the Scandinavian counties were not far behind.

This unanimity around cooperation leads me to question the accuracy of the notion of “state socialism.” While some people such as anarchists, cooperative socialists and syndicalists were “pure cooperators”, the rest of the left preferred a mixed economy of coops, municipal and nationalized industries. State socialism must then be a matter of degree and the term ought only be applied where the economy would be fully dominated by the state sector. Since everyone likes coops, anarchists and cooperative socialists ought to be able to approach “state socialists” in a positive, rather than negative manner. The following questions ought to be asked; “You support coops in this area, why not elsewhere? Don't you think cooperative principles could be applied to the industries you seek to nationalize? Couldn't there be a form of national ownership that is not statist?”

Many cooperatives failed, and most intentional communities collapsed in short time. Curl gives the reasons for these failures. One was external problems. The capitalists did everything in their power, from economic warfare to terrorism, to crush alternatives. Governments, in the pay of their corporate masters, were hostile and used the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to prevent the formation of the cooperative federations which could have been of assistance to fledgling coops. Later governments enacted doubled-edged coop legislation which was used to control, de-radicalize and steer the cooperative movement in a more capitalistic direction. There were also funding problems. Banks refused to lend money and the government wouldn't help either. New coops were saddled with heavy debt-loads or were grossly underfunded.

Then there were the internal problems. Ideological differences fractured groups. There were organizational problems, especially a lack of experienced personnel for the “nuts and bolts” daily coop activities. Naive idealism ruined many an intentional community, unworkable ideas like large-scale communal living and a lack of practical members. (Lots of philosophers, fewer carpenters and farmers.) Coops often over-extended themselves in good times, which lead to collapse and bankruptcy in bad times.

See http://www.pmpress.org/content/article.php?story=johncurl

Economic [In]Justice By the Numbers/Call Congress

·     Percentage of America’s net worth (source: Economic Policy Institute) owned by top 1%: 34
·     Percentage owned by top 10%: greater than [ > ] 70
·     Percentage owned by bottom 90%: 29
 
·     Percentage of income controlled by top 1% of Americans in 2007: 24
·     Percentage of total increase in American incomes from 1980-2005 that went to richest 1%: > 80
 
·     Number of times as much on average CEOs of largest US companies earned in 1980 compared to average US worker: 42
·     Number of times in 2001: 531
 
·     Amount generated (according to the Congressional Research Services) if Estate Tax is capped in 2011 at 35% after a $5 million tax free allowance: $11.2 billion
·     Amount generated if Estate Tax is capped at 45% after a $3.5 million tax free allowance: $18.1 billion
·     Amount generated if the current 55% Estate Tax is maintained: $34.4 billion
 
·     Amount of record profit posted by US corporations (source: Bureau of Economic Analysis) during third quarter of this year: $167 billion
·     Percentage increase from same time last year: 28
·     Current US unemployment rate (due in large part to corporations not creating US jobs): 9.6%
 
·     Number of unemployed workers for every new job created: 5
·     Number of people unemployment benefits lifted out of poverty in 2009: 3 million
 
·     Percentage worse off current recession would be (source: Labor Dept study during Bush administration) without unemployment insurance (UI): 18
·     Amount of jobs preserved in each quarter by continuing unemployment insurance: 1.6 million  
·     Number of dollar increase in economic activity for every dollar spent on UI: 2
 
·     Total amount of tax cuts to those with incomes above $250,000 per year (according to Tax Policy Center) if Bush cuts are continued: $700 billion
·     Average tax cut of richest .1% if Bush cuts are continued: $370,000
 
·     Recently released total of bailout by the Federal Reserve to US and foreign banks and corporations during the economic crisis: at least $3.3 trillion
 

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=  
 
“My point [is] that the wealthiest plutocrats now actually control a greater share of the pie in the United States than in historically unstable countries like Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Guyana…I’m appalled by our growing wealth gaps because in my travels I see what happens in dysfunctional countries where the rich just don’t care about those below the decks. The result is nations without a social fabric or sense of national unity. Huge concentrations of wealth corrode the soul of any nation…I don’t know if that makes us a banana republic or a hedge fund republic, but it’s not healthy in any republic.”
-      Nicholas Kristof, New York Times (Plain Dealer, 11/21/10)

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=  
 

Call Senators Brown and Voinovich using the US Action Congressional Hotline 1-866-606-1189

Messages:
Extend unemployment insurance through 2011.
Don’t extend tax breaks for rich.
Don’t cut estate tax on wealthy.
Bail out people, not Wall Street banksters. 

Three Stories, Three Children: On the Requiem Road

The elderly native man stares at the white woman across the table of the greasy spoon in Kamloops, British Columbia, where they both wait for a bus. It is November 25, 2010.

His name is George.

“I lived my whole life on our reserve, just south of Calgary. As a young boy, I got taken to the Catholic residential school north of us. That’s where I got all these.”

The man lifts his shirt and reveals deep scars on his chest and arms. Another deep furrow runs across his head.

“But that wasn’t the worst. It happened one night in winter. Cold as hell, and blowing hard. These three little girls from our reserve had all been raped by the head priest. The oldest girl was only seven. The others must have been five or six. The eldest one said to the others they had to run away. They was just in little cotton nightgowns, no shoes or nothing. But they escaped and ran off into that blizzard.”

The man looks down and shakes his head.

“They didn’t get more’n a mile. I was on the search team that found ’em. All three of ‘em were still holding each other’s little hands, lying face down in the snow. When we reached ‘em, the priest, the guy who’d raped them, got all mad and started cursing, like he was mad at them.

“That’s when I saw the oldest girl start moving. She weren’t dead. But when the priest saw her move she told me to just leave her there. He turned away from her and left her there, dying in the snow.”

The man is about to continue when his bus arrives.

“I couldn’t leave her there …” he begins. He turns to his wife, who has sat next to him the entire time, nodding sadly.

“We gotta go” he says to the white woman.

2. Far to the west, a day later, William Combes shuffles into the Ovaltine café on Vancouver’s hastings street skid row with his few belongings stuffed in a backpack. He nods and smiles at me, for we haven’t seen each other in weeks.

“I been drinking again, really bad” he begins apologetically, for he knows how much I rely on him, and how he relies on that reliance.

“The memories again?” I ask.

“Yeah, but it’s like now, I ain’t got nowhere to talk about it. Not now, with your radio show gone. That was the way I got by, talking on the show …”.

I nod, remembering with more than anger how his lifeline was severed so brutally. I say quickly,

“I’ve got a new show, a blog radio program. You have to come on it.”

He looks at me wearily, then reaches into his bag and extracts a nearly-empty bottle and swigs from it. We let the minutes tick by, hoping for something.

Finally William says,

“Remember when the Queen came to our school? How she took away those ten kids?”

“Yeah, I checked on that. She was definitely in B.C. in the fall of ’64.”

“I remembered their names. Some of ‘em. The boys.”

I pull out my notepad.

“There was Harvey and Ralph Parker – Metis boys from Lytton. They were in the group taken away by the Queen and Philip, after the picnic at dead Man’s Creek. Five other boys went, and three girls. They were all in the smart group in school.”

The ten children were never seen again.

“Are you remembering anything else William?” I asked.

He nods sadly.

“George Adolph and Ralph Arnuse, they were with me that day, they saw the kids taken away. And how she made ‘em all kiss her foot.”

“What?”

“The Queen had on these white gloves, and she put out her foot and told all those ten kids they had to kiss it. They all did.”

William shuddered and started coughing.

“I started talking about it the next day in school, said it wasn’t right. Then the nun told me if I said anything against the Queen I’d get killed for it.”

I stopped jotting notes and looked at him carefully.

“There’s more, isn’t there?”

The man nodded.

“I seen Brother Murphy throw that epileptic boy off the fire escape, three stories up. Murphy did that to a bunch of kids.”

“How many?”

William screws up his eyes and stutters,

“Happened all the time. I’d say fifteen. Twenty.”

“He killed that many kids?”

“Sure. Nobody survives that kinda fall. Murphy burned a few of them in the school furnace. I saw him do it once.”

William wouldn’t eat anything that day. I managed to get some oatmeal into him but he quickly threw it up into a urinal.

3. That night, waiting for a bus on Hastings street and sheltering from the rain, I encountered Josephine, an aboriginal prostitute I’ve known for years. Somehow, she’s still alive, although tonight she was bleeding from a new wound to her forehead.

“Eduardo did it. I still owe him.”

She sat next to me in the bus cubicle, watching warily for the Guatemalan pimp and drug dealer who rules a two block stretch of Hastings as his personal fief. The cops don’t go near him. Rumor has it that he used to be a political activist in his homeland. Now he murders people.

“Killed Francine by jumping on her head, over at the Patricia” recounted Jo to me once, years ago.

“She owed him fifty bucks. Made the mistake of telling him off.”

Jo was cold that night, and I offered her my coat. She smiled shyly and declined.

“Are you safe?” I asked.

She just tilted her head at the stupidity of the question, but being native, said nothing.

The elderly native man stares at the white woman across the table of the greasy spoon in Kamloops, British Columbia, where they both wait for a bus. It is November 25, 2010.

By Kevin D. Annett - www.hiddenfromhistory.org

Tell Sen. Voinovich to Pass the DISCLOSE Act

The Citizens United Supreme Court decision in January allowed corporations to divert money from their treasuries to influencing elections -- specifically for so-called independent "issue ads." Most of these contributions/investments went to front groups so that corporations didn't have to disclose their identity or amount.

The Supreme Court ruled, however, in Citizens United by an 8-1 margin that existing disclosure laws (meaning those who contribute/invest in political campaigns) should be required to reveal the size and source of the funds.

This last point was largely ignored as well over $100 million in shadowy funds poured into the fall elections.

Earlier this year, the House passed the DISCLOSE Act which would shed light on these secret contributions/investments. The Senate now needs to do the same. Provisions of the Act are below.

Call or fax Senators Voinovich and Brown urging them during this "lame duck" session to pass the DISCLOSE Act. Senator Brown always supports the Act. Senator Voinovich can be persuaded to do the same.

Several of us from Cleveland met with his aide on Wednesday urging the Senator to take one more independent step away from the Republican Party position (most Repubs oppose the Act).

Call Voinovich today!

Name / Local Office Number / Local Fax Number (Faxes are better than calls)
Senator George Voinovich / 216-522-7095 / 216-522-7097
Senator Sherrod Brown / (216) 522-7272 / 216-522-2239

The DISCLOSE Act legislation will address seven major provisions:

1. Enhance Disclaimers
Make CEOs and other leaders take responsibility for their ads.

2. Enhance Disclosures
It is time to follow the money.

3. Prevent Foreign Influence
Foreign countries and entities should not be determining the outcome of our elections.

4. Shareholder/Member Disclosure
We should allow shareholders and members to know where money goes.

5. Prevent Government Contractors from Spending
Taxpayer money should not be spent on political ads.

6. Provide the Lowest Unit Rate for Candidates and Parties
Special interests should not drown out the voices of the people.

7. Tighten Coordination Rules
Corporations should not be able to “sponsor” a candidate.


Posted on Mon, Nov. 29, 2010
Inquirer Editorial: Transparent elections

Time has all but run out for the Senate to take a modest and reasonable step to restore sanity to out-of-control campaign spending.

Although a majority of senators favor the DISCLOSE Act, Republican lawmakers are blocking a vote. The measure, which passed the House last summer, proposes a basic requirement that people who donate hefty sums for election ads identify themselves.

What's wrong with that?

In this year's midterm elections, at least $125 million was donated secretly to defeat or support various candidates. It was the first time in nearly 40 years that such large amounts of secret money influenced an election, for which the blame goes to the Supreme Court's tragically misguided ruling in the "Citizens United" case.

Rest of Philadelphia Inquirer editorial at
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20101129_Inquirer_Editorial__Transparent_elections.html

Interview on Anarchism

Our good friend from Argenta, Dick Martin, is part of an interview on anarchism in an article in the Victoria University's paper THE MARTLET See

http://martlet.ca/martlet/article/anarchy-society/

Supreme Court to hear whether corpses have PERSONAL privacy rights

The madness continues...actually increases. The hearing of this case before the US Supreme Court is scheduled for January 19, 2011 — two days prior to the one year anniversary of the Citizens United decision. If the court agrees with AT&T, they may change their slogan from “Your World. Discovered.” to “Our World. Secret.”

Thanks to Terry Lodge for forwarding this. His comments with the posting were:
"After all, we don't want to embarrass them by releasing governmental investigatory reports of how we, the people, are gouged, raped, pillaged and poisoned by corporations..... 'Please, mister, it's humiliating to know we had an uncontrolled radiation release for days that will kill thousands of people, and didn't catch it; we'd feel a lot better if you didn't tell anyone....' 'Please, mister, we feel bad enough about poisoning all those wells when we took down that mountain; can't you have a heart?' "


SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2010, Issue No. 92
November 18, 2010

Secrecy News Blog: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

DO CORPORATIONS HAVE PERSONAL PRIVACY RIGHTS?

The Supreme Court will decide next year whether corporations are entitled to "personal privacy" and whether they may prevent the release of records under the Freedom of Information Act on that basis. FOIA advocates say that assigning personal privacy rights to corporations could deal a crippling blow to the Act.

The case before the Court -- known as FCC v. AT&T -- arose from a FOIA request to the Federal Communications Commission for records of an investigation of a government contract held by AT&T. The FCC found that the requested records were subject to release under FOIA. But AT&T challenged that decision and won an appeals court ruling that the documents were law enforcement records that were exempt from disclosure because their release would constitute "an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy" -- namely, the "personal privacy" of AT&T.

The appeals court noted that the word "person" is defined in the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) to include corporations, and it went on to infer from this that the FOIA exemption for "personal privacy" in law enforcement records must logically extend to corporations as well.

But "that analysis does not withstand scrutiny," the government argued in its petition (pdf) to the Supreme Court for review of the case. Personal privacy can only apply to individual human beings, it said, and not to other entities. "The court of appeals' novel construction would erroneously create a new and amorphous 'privacy' right not only for corporations but also for local, state, and foreign governments [which also fall under the APA definition of 'person']."

A concise description of the pending case as well as key case files and amicus briefs filed with the Supreme Court by several FOIA advocacy organizations are conveniently available from the Electronic Privacy Information Center . (EPIC prepared one of the amicus briefs and I was among the signatories to it.)

Corporate information that qualifies as a "trade secret" has long been exempt from disclosure under the FOIA. But prior to this case, no court had ever held that a corporation also has personal privacy rights.

If affirmed by the Supreme Court, the appeals court ruling "could vastly expand the rights of corporations to shield their activities from public view," said Sen. Patrick Leahy this week, and it "would close a vital window into how our government works."

"Congress never intended for this [personal privacy] exemption to apply to corporations," he said. "I also fear that extending this exemption to corporations would permit corporations to shield from public view critical information about public health and safety, environmental dangers, and financial misconduct, among other things -- to the great detriment of the people's right to know and to our democracy."

"I sincerely hope that our nation's highest Court... will narrowly construe the personal privacy exemption, consistent with congressional intent," said Sen. Leahy . "Should the Court decide to do otherwise, I will work with others in the Congress to ensure that FOIA, and specifically the personal privacy exemption for law enforcement records, remains a meaningful safeguard for the American people's right to know," he said.

FCC v. AT&T is scheduled to be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on January 19, 2011.

Never mind "For Sale"

Pittsburgh Bans Natural Gas Drilling

An example of citizens resisting corporate Constitutional rights. People have a right to decide economically, politically...and environmentally...what goes on in their communities. This is also an example of corporate power based on something other than 1st Amendment Free Speech rights. It's why any effort to amend the Constitution to abolish "corporate personhood" must include ALL Constitutional rights -- not simply the 1st Amendment [www.movetoamend.org]

"Provisions in the ordinance eliminate corporate 'personhood' rights within the city for corporations seeking to drill, and remove the ability of corporations to wield the Commerce and Contracts Clauses of the U.S. Constitution to override community decision-making."

Pittsburgh Bans Natural Gas Drilling
A historic new ordinance bans natural gas drilling while elevating community decision making and the rights of nature over the "rights" associated with corporate personhood.
by Mari Margil, Ben Price
posted Nov 16, 2010
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/pittsburg-bans-natural-gas-drilling

Radio Interview on "View From Anarchist Mountain"

I was interviewed on Radio CHLY last Wednesday. Topics being my two last books, "View From Anarchist Mountain" and "The Impossibilists." . Click on link to hear the program - http://www.archive.org/details/UnboughtAndUnbossed196Nov102010

Lots o' Links of Corporate Assault on Democracy

BACKGROUND
=============

For those who wish to approach the issue of corporate personhood from a religious perspective...
Do corporations have souls?
By THE REV. EDMUND ROBINSON
October 30, 2010 2:00 AM
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101030/LIFE/10300303

Henry Demarest Lloyd's Wealth Against Commonwealth.
http://www.ebooks.burnedbookspublishing.com/04003852/index.html
[It took former Ohioan John Storm 5 years to convert this 1894 classic to an electronic format. Find the time to read it!]


NEWS
=====

The Cost of a Vote Goes Up
By EDUARDO PORTER
Published: November 6, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/opinion/07sun3.html

The Re-Education of a Citizens United Denier
The Supreme Court didn't just let corporations in; it created a new kind of money broker.
Mark Schmitt | November 5, 2010
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_reeducation_of_a_citizens_united_denier

Big spenders: How candidates backed by outside groups fared
By Anupama Narayanswamy Nov 3, 2010
http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/

Editorial: Judges and Money
States that hold judicial elections must adopt public financing and strict rules barring judges from cases involving major financial supporters
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/30/opinion/30sat2.html?emc=eta1

Economist Joseph Stiglitz: Put Corporate Criminals in Jail
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/investing/joseph-stiglitz-corporate-crooks-to-jail/19684353/?icid=sphere_copyright

Small Town Declares Freedom from Fracking
Licking Township, Pennsylvania Declares Freedom from Fracking
http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/pennsylvania-township-declares-freedom-from-fracking


TAKE ACTION
============

Pass the DISCLOSE ACT THIS YEAR!
In January, the Supreme Court strengthened corporations' grip on our government and political process with a dangerous ruling, overturning more than 100 years of election law.
The results of that ruling led to millions of dollars of secret, undisclosed contributions that influenced this year's elections.
To combat the new, unregulated corporate influence over elections, the House of Representatives passed the DISCLOSE Act - because democracy is strengthened by casting light on spending in elections.
It is time for the Senate to act on this critical piece of legislation. Tell Senator Harry Reid to bring the DISCLOSE ACT to the floor of the Senate this year.
More at http://readersupportednews.org/pass-the-disclose-act-this-year

Visit MoveToAmendOhio.org
For more action ideas. Click on the Take Action link.

Rootscamp
Karen Hansen and I will be doing a workshop tomorrow in Columbus at Rootscamp on Ending Corporate Rule in Ohio and the US. If you’re attending, join us! www.ohiorootscamp.pbworks.com

Revolt Spreads to Britain and Germany.

While the Greeks, Spanish and French have been battling their respective sociopath dominators now the Germans and the British have gotten into the spirit of the day.

50,000 British students hit back at the greed creeps wish to increase tuition fees. In Germany tens of thousands of citizens force 17,000 riot cops to surrender in a massive anti-nuclear blockade.

Now when will us Canucks get a little backbone?

5 Observations from the Vote on Akron Ballot Issues

The votes are in. Four of the seven ballot measures (Issues 12-15) passed. Issues 11, 16 and 17 failed.

1. The recall provision of Issue 12 was the poster child to basically gut the initiative and referendum provisions of the city charter. Anger over last year’s recall campaign was manipulated to shield these other “direct democracy” provisions of the charter. The initiative, referendum and recall are 3 completely different “direct democracy” provisions – grounded in state constitutions and municipal charter across the country going back more than a century to enable citizens to “do democracy directly” and keep public officials accountable between elections. The initiative permits citizens to create a law (via signatures gathered on a petition followed by an election) that citizens feel their elected representatives would not otherwise enact. The referendum permits citizens to undo or reverse a law passed by elected officials via signatures gathered on a petition followed by an election. The recall permits removal of an elected official via signatures gathered on a petition followed by an election. Framing the issue about the recall and abuse of it was the tactic. It worked -- as much as those opposed to the Issue tried to inform voters of the initiative and referendum provisions. Still, in spite of it all, Issue 12 only passed by less than 3%. Pretty remarkable.

2. By my count, there were 32 other charter amendment changes on the ballot elsewhere in Summit County in addition to the seven in Akron. Only five were voted down (two in Stow, and one each in Twinsburg, Mogadore and Peninsula). That means 85% of proposed changes passed. That seems about right – as most people sadly don’t pay much attention to their charter – which is the equivalent to their local constitution. Nevertheless, charters are perceived as boring, legalistic and confusing. The defeat of three of seven of Akron’s charter amendment proposals comes to 43% -- nearly three times the rate elsewhere in the county. And this was in the face of the 11th hour blitzkrieg of negative mailings.

3. Voters in the Village of Peninsula were asked to vote on Issue 69. What was Issue 69? It was a vote (for no more than 15 people) of who should serve on the Village Charter Commission – presumably a Commission that will soon meet. Imagine if Akron had elected its charter review commission instead of it being handpicked by the Mayor. The original “problems” and “issues” with the current charter might have looked very different – those addressing the economic and social needs of people and neighborhoods rather than how to consolidate political and economic power in City Hall. Yes, city council would have had to approve the recommendations of the body before anything could appear on the ballot. But a “people’s” charter review commission would have set a very different table for discussion and deliberation than the handpicked commission. By the way, Mansfield also elects their charter review commission. Who knows how many other communities do the same across the state.

4. “Citizens for Akron,” which supported passage of all the issues, raised $86,000 based on their most recent campaign filing. Save Our City, which opposed Issues 11-16, only raised a few thousand dollars. Might the results have been different if there had been a move even financial playing field? “Citizens for Akron” drowned out the voices of Save Our City with their repeated mailings to voters during the last week. The stunning irony of this is that “Citizen for Akron” used their big money war chest to promote, among the issues, Issue 14 – which argued that more political money is needed to increase political competition and educate voters.

5. Speaking of “Citizens for Akron,” who were the fine, outstanding Akron residents loyal to their community who funded the $86,000 campaign to pass Issues 11-17.
$25,000 from First Energy corporation
$15,000 from Goodyear Tire & Rubber corporation
$10,000 from Rubber City Arches, LLC.
$10,000 from GOJO Industries, Inc.
$6,000 from Brouse McDowell, LPA. - Law firm.
$5,000 from Myers Industries
$5,000 from Roetzel and Andress, LPA.- Law firm.
$5,000 from Thomarios.
$2,000 from Cavanaugh Building corporation.
$1,000 from the Daniel Pohl Family Lmtd Partnership.
$1,000 from Cardinal Maintenance and Service Co., Inc.
$1,000 from Cardinal Environmental Services, Inc.
Here’s the originals:
www.docstoc.com/docs/57697165/Who-Funds-Citizens-for-Akron--Corporations-of-course!

Not a single Ohioan. Not a single Akron resident. In fact, not a single human being. All are businesses of one type or another. No doubt looking at their “contribution” more as an “investment” – looking to get something in return.

Corporations – at every level of government, more and more dominate politics. Elections don’t by themselves equate to a democracy. If they did, there would’ve been a thriving democracy in the former Soviet Union and in current China – as election turnouts were/are extraordinarily high. What makes a democracy real is when every person has a legitimate chance to have their voice heard and opportunity to shape the decisions affecting their lives.

Corporations increasingly influence elections and corrupt the body politic because they increasingly gained constitutional rights as “persons.” Corporate “free speech rights” in elections is an absurdity. This nation’s founders never intended it. The Bill of Rights was meant to protect human beings, not corporations. Corporate political power must end.

There’s a national and state campaign to (re)assert citizen power over corporate power. It’s called Move to Amend. Go their website (www.movetoamend.org) and sign the petition calling for a constitutional amendment to abolish corporate personhood. The state chapter is www.movetoamendohio.org. Download the resolution calling for abolishing corporate constitutional rights. Take it to whatever group(s) you may be a part of. Get them to endorse it. The only ways to legalize democracy and end corporate rule is when We the People take charge. If you’d like someone to speak before a group you may be a part of, contact AFSC at 330-928-2301.

Walmart Beaten In Mexico

Here is an excellent story from Narco News on how movements in Mexico have beaten back the evil Walmart Empire. See

http://www.narconews.com/Issue67/article4245.html

Also check out Al Norman's (Walmarts Number One Enemy) organization Sprawlbusters See

http://www.sprawl-busters.com/aboutsb.html

Neoclassical Economics, Good Bye and Good Riddance!

The following was written by economics students at Berkeley CA

a week ago with the intention of launching an international

student movement in oppositionto neoclassical domination.

Kick It Over Manifesto

We, the undersigned, make this accusation: that you, the teachers of neoclassical economics and the students that you graduate, have perpetuated a gigantic fraud upon the world.

You claim to work in a pure science of formula and law, but yours is a social science, with all the fragility and uncertainty that this entails. We accuse you of pretending to be what you are not.

You hide in your offices, protected by your mathematical jargon, while in the real world, forests vanish, species perish and human lives are callously destroyed. We accuse you of gross negligence in the management of our planetary household.

You have known since its inception that one of your measures of economic progress, the Gross Domestic Product, is fundamentally flawed and incomplete, and yet you have allowed it to become a global standard, reported day in, day out in every form of media. We accuse you of recklessly projecting an illusion of progress.

You have done great harm, but your time is coming to a close. Your systems are crumbling, your flaws increasingly laid bare. An economic revolution has begun, as hopeful and determined as any in history. We will have our clash of economic paradigms, we will have our moment of truth, and out of each will come a new economics – open, holistic, human scale.

On campus after campus, we will chase you old goats out of power. Then, in the months and years that follow, we will begin the work of reprogramming your doomsday machine.

Sign the manifesto at
www.kickitover.org

Vote NO on Akron Ballot Issues

The source of all legitimate power of any representative democracy is the citizenry. Not elected officials. Not economic power elites. Not the media. Not self-serving interest groups. But the people.

Therefore, any law or rule that weakens the power of citizens to influence elected officials or diminishes the ability of citizens to directly govern themselves is a threat to democracy and self-governance.

Several issues on the ballot in the City of Akron this November pose a direct threat to citizens and democracy. The following are those which pose the greatest direct threat:

Issue 11 doubles the limit (from $15,000 to $30,000) of contracts that can be awarded unilaterally by the Mayor without competitive bids. City Council would have no voice. Citizens would have no voice.

Issue 12 raises the amount of signatures needed by citizens to place an issue on the ballot from approximately 3,600 to 13,000. That’s more than a 350% increase – effectively shutting down any citizen-led effort to place any issue on the ballot for voter consideration.

Issue 14 abolishes the campaign finance limits currently in the city charter – limits passed overwhelmingly by voters in 1998 following a citizen-led initiative to collect signatures to place the issue on the ballot. The limits would be replaced with higher political contribution amounts and permits city council to establish even higher amounts in the future. Higher political contributions amounts will make it more difficult for citizens without money to be heard and their neighborhoods helped. It also reduces political competition. The Brennen Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law issued a report last year that concluded that lower political contribution limits led to greater political competition. Their report examined elections in 42 states over 26 years. Read the report at
http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/electoral_competition_and_low_contribution_limits/

Issue 16 allow the city administration to lease Akron’s steam plant to a private corporation. Previous efforts at “privatizing” the facility resulted in loss of public control and taxpayers having to pay millions of dollars. Keep public utilities public.

Citizens deserve to have greater, not fewer, powers and rights to make decisions over their lives and communities. These ballot issues lead citizens in exactly the wrong direction.

Please consider voting No on these ballot issues.

Most Censored Stories Include Banks/Banking/Currency

Project Censored has listed issues of banks/banking/currency as among its top “censored” news stories the last 2 years — including the #1 issue in both its 2010 and 2011 reports.

Censored 2011- The Top 25 Censored Stories!
http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/10/top-25-censored-stories-released/
1. Global Plans to Replace the Dollar
19. Obama Administration Assures World Bank and International Monetary Fund a Free Reign of Abuse

Censored 2010- The Top 25 Censored Stories!
http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/category/top-stories/top-25-of-2010/
1. US Congress Sells Out to Wall Street
6. Lobbyists Buy Congress
8. Bailed out Banks and America’s Wealthiest Cheat IRS Out of Billions

Monahan Brothers March into DC - Part I

Here are a few pictures of the arrival of the Monahan Brothers and supporters to DC. We marched from Arlington Cemetery to the Lincoln Memorial for a rally, which included unfurling a 100+ foot long Preamble to the Constitution. The couple of hundred people in attendance were asked to sign -- affirming that the Constitution and Bill of Rights were meant for people, not corporations. Next we marched to the US Capital for a few pictures holding signs. We ended up at a part across from the US Supreme Court holding signs.

More Monahan March pictures

More images are at gettyimages.com (search "Monahan")

Sabotage of Public Transit?

I once lived in a suburb outside of Montreal and worked downtown. My shift ended at 11:30 PM The metro arrived at the same time as the main bus to the suburbs left, and by the time you got up the stairs the bus was pulling away. This meant a 30-40 minute wait, and in winter this meant 30 below. All the bus system had to do was have the bus leave a mere 2 minutes later and we could make the connection.

The bus from the ferry to down town Nanaimo arrives at the same time as the boat from the Mainland. Of course, it takes about 10 minutes to disembark, so no bus and a 40 minute wait till the next one. Adjusting the bus schedule 10 minutes would mean ferry passengers could take public transit to their homes.

The bus connecting Vancouver Airport to the Tsawaasen ferry to Vancouver Island arrives three minutes after the cut-off time for purchasing ferry tickets. Since the ride from the airport already takes an hour and the next ferry leaves in an hours time, you will take 2 hours to be able to take the ferry. Simply moving the bus arrival time back five minutes and you could make the ferry!

A passenger train runs up Vancouver Island connecting the city of Victoria to other smaller cities and villages. The natural traffic flow is from the smaller cities to the large population centre of Victoria. There are also the suburbs outside of Victoria which could be well served by a morning rail connection. Guess which direction the train runs and at what time? It leaves Victoria at 11AM, arrives at its northernmost city, Courtenay, at 2 PM, then leaves back to Victoria at 3 PM, arriving at 6PM. Totally useless for anyone living in the smaller cities or suburbs.

Why? I suspect the Montreal example is one of bureaucratic indifference. For the other bus systems, it looks as though they are trying to benefit the taxi companies. As for the rail road, it seems deliberate sabotage to help the petroleum/auto complex, since thousands of auto rides would not be taken with a rational schedule.

A rational, people-oriented transit system is not possible as long as it is run by bureaucrats tied to the corporate system.

"What's it to you?": Canada Admits its Crime, Again

by Kevin D. Annett

Thousands of children died in the (residential) schools and their families were not informed of the deaths or the burial sites.

- Murray Sinclair, chair, ”Truth and Reconciliation Commission” (TRC), to Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples, September 29, 2010

The lingering remnant of my home-bred naivety and trust in authority – even a murderous one – did a leap for joy today when I read these words by Murray “Tonto” Sinclair. In my dreams, I suddenly envisaged the police raiding the offices of the Catholic and Anglican and United Church and hauling away records and fuming church officers, now that mass murder by these august bodies has been admitted.

But only for a moment.

My Dad once observed that studying a problem is a typically Canadian way to avoid doing anything about it. And we won the war against the Indians, after all. Winners don’t arrest themselves for their crimes: even when they finally are forced to look at all the dried blood on their hands. What they do is absolve themselves of everything and wash the blood away, just like Pontius Pilate did: with the help of their paid stooges among their victims.

It’s more than comical that a genocidal mortality first cited in The Ottawa Journal as early as November, 1907 is suddenly being “discovered” by the latest batch of overpaid federal Commissioners. Or that the same folks are pretending that their “discovery” will mean anything at all, when the churches and government responsible for the slaughter have already legally indemnified themselves for the crime.

I was nevertheless pleased by Sinclair’s words, because it’s good to be vindicated. All the late-night research and public protests and head-banging and unanswered media releases over nearly twenty years has done something. Old Joe Hendsbee, a blacklisted communist and soul brother, called it the “piss on them enough” factor: You piss on anyone long enough and they’ll have to respond.

In the spring of 1997, when I first released to the Canadian press my collection of testimonies and documents demonstrating the enormous residential schools death rate now “officially” recognized by the ones who did it, nobody in the media responded. I repeat: nobody.

This non-response continued down through the years, even after a United Nations affiliated Tribunal confirmed my evidence in 1998, and two books and a documentary film of mine elaborated in detail the facts of a church-sponsored Canadian genocide to the world.

As I describe in my latest book, Unrepentant: Disrobing the Emperor,

Without exception, the media meekly continued their policy of the previous five years. With canine curiosity, they had initially sniffed around the edges of what they perceived as an opportunity to improve circulation, but with the more recent sound of a commanding corporate voice, they contented themselves with lifting a collective hind leg over the residential schools issue, and then trotting off in pursuit of their normal coverage of worldwide oddities and community trivia. (p. 138)

My favorite example of media indifference (read censorship) happened in October, 1998, when I gathered five survivors of sexual sterilization programs at the Nanaimo Indian Hospital who all wanted to tell their story to the press. A national Globe and Mail reporter in Vancouver hemmed and hawed when I called him up with the news, and he finally asked if I could transport the five of them to his office, rather than him go to them. Then he added quickly,

“On the other hand, don’t bother. No-one would believe this stuff anyway.”

Almost as hilarious was the reaction of a CBC TV reporter at our first Aboriginal Holocaust Day rally in April, 2005, who challenged me by declaring,

“But what proof do you have that children were actually murdered in residential schools?”

I turned and pointed to Harriett Nahanee, an aging woman who had seen teenager Maisie Shaw kicked to her death by United Church minister Alfred Caldwell at the Alberni residential school, and I said to the reporter,

“Talk to Harriett. She’s an eyewitness to a killing.”

The CBC woman turned pale, frowned, and actually hurried off in the opposite direction.

But that’s all behind us now, so it seems. It’s in vogue to talk about dead Indian kids in Canada – at least, from a distance, and without, perish the thought, any talk of who is responsible or bringing them to trial.

My friend Peter Yellow Quill of the Long Plains tribe in Manitoba said it best, at a protest we held against the TRC last June in Winnipeg.

“Imagine somebody steals your car. Then he knocks on your door and apologizes for doing it; but then he drives away again in the stolen car. That’s what Canadians like to call Healing and Reconciliation towards Indians: lots of nice words and apologies are said, but nothing ever changes.”

Being under our boot his entire life, Peter Yellow Quill is a total realist, and bears the truth that isn't fit to print. But I have been accused of being a cynic.

So let’s give ourselves the benefit of the doubt, as we are so good at doing. Let’s imagine, for a moment, that all the lawyers and confidentiality agreements suddenly die, and church and state become willing to tell the whole truth, put themselves in the dock, and actually do justice according to the victims, rather than themselves. What would we see?

We’d witness precisely what would happen if 50,000 and more white children had have been done to death in aboriginal-run “Caucasian residential schools”:

A massive criminal investigation. Arrests of church and government officers, and their prosecution. The canceling of tax exemptions to churches that killed children. Public memorial sites and museums. History books that reflected the real history. And a nation-wide repatriation program that would finally give all the murdered children a proper burial.

That’s what would satisfy a white traitor like me. But it’s still only my view. To Peter Yellow Quill, and Harry Wilson, who is dying on the streets of Vancouver, nothing short of the return of everything that was stolen from them will suffice: starting with the land itself.

Of course, the world doesn’t listen to Indians like Peter and Harry: only to the bought and paid for ones, like Murray Sinclair of the TRC. Which is why we’ll continue to hear a lot about healing and reconciliation - and why 50,000 little corpses will vanish.

Would you have it any other way?

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

Kevin Annett is a community minister, author and award-winning film maker who works with the London-based International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State. His latest book Unrepentant: Disrobing the Emperor (O Books, UK, 2010) can be ordered on Amazon Books.

Kevin's New Radio Show is at - http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hiddenfromhistory/2010/10/16/resurrection-kevin-annett-is-back-on-the-air

Ecuador - Attempted Right-wing Coup Defeated

Today there was an attempt by the police and parts of the military to overthrow the reformist government of Rafael Correa. It was defeated by popular mobilization and the refusal of the lower ranks of the military and a top general to support the plotters. The American corporate state and the Ecuadorian oligarchy must be scared if they are willing to attempt something like this. Mind you, they were successful in Honduras, but this time it looks like the psychopaths bit off more than they can chew. Correa promises to kick fascist ass (not in those words exactly, but he seems to be serious) lets hope he is and doesn't wimp out like Chavez did with his would-be killers. For more info see;

Update

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/4149/statement-ecuadors-most-important-social-movements

http://www.counterpunch.org/hallinan10082010.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/07/ecuador-police-suspects-held-uprising

http://mostlywater.org/more_washingtons_failed_ecuadorean_coup_attempt

http://mostlywater.org/node/96960

http://www.zcommunications.org/ecuadors-correa-haunted-by-honduras-by-mark-weisbrot

http://mostlywater.org/failed_washingtonsponsored_ecuadorean_coup_attempt

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/4138/coup-attempt-ecuador-result-sec-clintons-cowardice-honduras

http://www.marxist.com/ecuador-mass-insurrection-defeats-coup-detat.htm

The Rigor of Research and Fundamental Monetary Change

Greg Coleridge, Director, Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee
American Monetary Institution Conference, October 1. 2010, Chicago, Illinois

Today is not simply the first full day of this conference. It’s also, October 1, the first full day of our nation’s fiscal year. Our country begins today with a fresh budget, a clean slate, a new plan that seeks to match our fiscal blueprint with our social and economic needs. At least that’s what’s supposed to happen. Many years, including this one, there is no federal budget that Congress and President have agreed to by October 1.

Nevertheless, today is as good a day as any to (re)commit ourselves to view our government and economy with fresh eyes and an inquisitive mind. When it comes to economic matters, this includes not simply looking differently at our federal budget policies and federal tax policies but also our federal monetary policies.

For probably everyone is this room, this makes absolutely perfect sense. Budget, tax and monetary issues go hand in hand. Understanding our nation’s politics and economy are directly linked. Seeing the connections between wars and the power, or lack thereof, to directly create or control money by We the People are a given.

But that’s not true for the majority of people in this country. Monetary issues are foreign, alien, cosmic – on the same level of familiarity as understanding the nebulas of the universe. What exactly is money? How is it created? What purposes does it serve? Who controls the monetary spigot? And how does it profoundly impact virtually every other element of our economy, nation and world?

If aware of monetary issues at all, these are questions people ask.

That’s how it was for me. I’m relatively new to this field. I never learned about monetary issues in school, never heard or read about it in the “mainstream” news, never debated whether or how to organize around it in activist organizations over the 25 years of social change organizing.

But then I discovered it. I read. And read some more – including the Lost Science of Money -- twice. I organized others to study and discuss. I helped organize Steve Zarlenga to come to Cleveland to conduct a workshop. We organized delegations to meet with aides to our two US Senators and three area US Representatives – encouraging them to read, study and co-sponsor the American Monetary Act. We’ve shown and continue to show the film Money as Debt. But it’s only the beginning. We’re all only at the start of what needs to happen to bring fundamental change – to democratize our society, including democratizing our money. This is our quest – part of what needs to be our life’s work.

It all begins at the beginning – with study and research – rigorous study. The Lost Science of Money is the single best example produced on monetary issues.

Rigor is the operative word. It means taking the time to widely, deeply, exactly and precisely examine a topic. It’s what I learned from those who launched the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD), which nearly 20 years ago began as a group of frustrated activists who were tired of constantly reacting and responding to one corporate assault at a time and decided to step back and examine the state of social change organizing. POCLAD instigates democratic conversations and actions that contest the authority of corporations to govern. Their analysis evolves through historical and legal research, writing, public speaking and working with organization to develop new strategies that assert people’s rights over property interests.

POCLAD began focused on historical and legal research and study on the nature of the corporate form. I became involved a few years after its start.

POCLAD was among the first organized groups to deeply examine the issue of corporate rights. What they discovered was the American Revolution was waged against not simply against the King of England and his Army, but also his Crown Corporations – the Massachusetts Bay Co, the Carolina Co, the Plymouth Co, the Virginia Co and others. Corporations were originally subordinate to the public and their elected representatives. Corporate charters were democratic instruments used to define, not regulate, corporate actions. Legislatures and courts controlled by Democrats and Republicans dissolved corporations that acted in ways not defined in their charters, or licenses. The ability of corporations today to do what they want, where they want, when they want was never intended by our nation’s founders. Corporate behavior not a given. It’s not like gravity or some other law of physics. It can be changed.

POCLAD injected the concept of “corporate personhood” into our culture. They cautioned against the distractions of spending too much time reacting to this or that boycott, pleading with corporate executives to sign voluntary codes of conduct, or working legislatively to slightly reduce the amount of poison permitted in our air or water. Changing constitutional and legal governing rules was more important than changing political faces, political parties, or laws regulating corporate harm. The right to decide and the right to rule by human persons were paramount. The Bill of Rights were intended for people, not corporations -- which are no more than a bunch of legal documents.

As it dug deeper and reflected on what it learned, POCLAD realized the core issue was not corporate power, but our lack of power – our disempowerment. It was about overcoming the “colonialization of our own minds” – that is, that our history and culture limited what was considered possible, practical, and achievable. Gaining and retaining real self-governance should be our ultimate quest. Finally, POCLAD believed that rigorous study and research on this issue was the single most important “action” that needed to be taken -- given the lack of understanding of these issues, including among social change activists. Helping activists reframe strategies and campaigns to address core causes could only happen if corporate constitutional rights was first dissected.

POCLAD produced a definitive work, Defying Corporations, Defining Democracy (an equivalent of sorts to the Lost Science of Money on corporate rights) and other books; a newsletter, By What Authority; and held “Rethinking the Corporation, Rethinking Democracy” workshops across the country.

These messages and lessons from my involvement with POCLAD over the last dozen years is the lens I look through when reflecting on the importance of rigorous study and research today on monetary issues as the essential first step of real social change.

Why begin with rigorous research and study? Six reasons.

1. To know history. We must know what’s worked and what hasn’t; who are our past heroes and sheroes; and what lessons can be applied today. We must know what Aristotle said about money existing not by nature but by law. We must know that We the People actually issued our own money (Continental and Greenbacks) – and that they were effective. We must know how the moneymaking powers became privatized or corporatized in our nation and across the world. And we must know how money backed by precious metals in the past have caused recessions/depressions and placed monetary authority in the hands of bankers and those outside our nation.

2. To understand how monetary issues are connected to other issues. The privatization/corporatization of money is not an abstract issue. It’s connected to our national debt and deficit through the interest incurred from having to borrow money that could be publicly created. It’s associated with taxes, as borrowed money must be paid back with interest. It’s linked to wars and occupations as financial interests have encouraged nations to borrow money to wage wars which create economic dependency. It’s related to the environmental crisis, as natural resources must be exploited to generate the income to pay for the exponential debt that corporatized debt money creates. And it’s connected to jobs, education, health care and infrastructure as government issued democratic money could be issued debt and inflation free if spent on meeting real social and economic needs. This is especially timely since tomorrow hundreds of thousands of people will be rallying in DC calling for jobs and education. Nowhere in the list of One Nation Coming Together demands is there a call for the issuance of debt and inflation free government issued democratic money.

3. To learn what’s happening elsewhere. The corporatization of money has caused economic havoc in nations the world over – from Latvia to Brazil to Iceland to Greece to dozens of others. This has resulted in resistance and alternatives – including resistance to the IMF/World Bank in many nations and the recent alliance of Latin American Countries (ALBA), which launched earlier this year a regional electronic currency - the Sucre. Exciting positive developments are occurring in the US as well -- a case in point being the national Green Party’s Monetary Reform Plank.

4. To avoid becoming distracted by “reforms” which fail to address the core problem. Why Lake Erie, a few miles from where I live, is the most dangerous of the Great Lakes because of its shallowness. Lack of depth on any issue makes one highly susceptible to the latest diversionary “reform” winds that can easy lead one off course. The entire debate around congressional banking reform siphoned off tremendous energy for what in the end turned out to be pathetic legislation that will further consolidate financial institutions and permits the continuation of derivatives and other form of casino financial speculation. Critically important campaigns connected to the effects of corporatization of money, such as working to extending unemployment insurance, placing a moratorium on home foreclosures and addressing the climate crisis, are nevertheless campaigns that focus on saving those who are drowning downstream rather than preventing people from being thrown into the water upstream. Those who promote other forms of financial reform, such as auditing the Federal Reserve, state owned banks and local financial alternatives are also diversionary. There, of course, there are elections, the greatest sinkhole of activist time, energy and resources, where changing faces is often presented as the surest approach to changing fundamental structures and rules.

5. To know how to respond to arguments. Any widespread call to democratize money will result in a plutocratic pushback of epic proportions. Arguments against fiat money have gone on for centuries and have been well chronicled in the Lost Science of Money. Only those who are well grounded from research and study will be inoculated to withstand the intellectual germs from those who claim:
- Government is incompetent, corrupt, inefficient, can’t be trusted, all of the above
- There no historical successes of democratic money
- The Federal Reserve is a government institution
- Banks know what they’re doing – let them be in charge
- The only honest money is money backed by gold or silver
- Let the economists and the invisible hand of market take solve our financial problems.

6. To develop a reservoir of knowledge needed to intelligently create campaigns, strategies and tactics. While research and study are a beginning, they aren’t the ends. Our eye on the prize is the democratization of money and by extension the democratization of our society. That can only happen after we have a firm foundation of the theories, experiences, issues and practitioners. When well grounded, we can then be in a better position to explore how one-at-a-time issues, like the current jobs crisis or climate change or the home foreclosure epidemic can be used as stepping stones to build our cause for fundamental change. We can also better consider how efforts to audit the Fed and local currencies might be complementary rather than competitive strategies in the quest to pass the American Monetary Act. Ultimately, we must popularize this issue if it’s ever going to go viral. This can’t happen unless we develop culturally appropriate educational tools and connect what seems to be an abstract issue to everyday problems.

These are then the main reasons why study and action of monetary issues is critical.

In conclusion, when and where social change movements throughout history have been successful have been when and where at last two characteristics have been present. The first is where people engage in what can be called a deliberate “action-reflection” process – where people in community reflect on their condition, where they’ve come from, who they are, who they want to be, what they want to do. This reflection drives their actions, which, in turn, provides experiences to circle back to reflect on what worked and what needs to be tried next. This action-reflection-action-reflection process never stops. The Christian base communities of Central and South America are maybe the most familiar examples to us that led to a number of revolutionary social and political liberation movements.

The second characteristic of successful social movements is the dual strategies of social change and social service organized by the same people and groups. Gandhians understand this concept well. It means to work on changing macro structures, laws, rules and institutions at the same time as working on creating local or parallel structures that show what can be done if people were in charge. Argentineans call this “horizontalism.” These local or parallel structures serve important meeting social needs, recruitment, publicity, and experimentation purposes. Calling for fundamental structural changes gains credibility and constituents if we’re working to address short term needs through grassroots and democratic monetary projects and groups.

I raise these two characteristics because I feel the drive for profound monetary change, for the democratization of money, has plenty of constructive room for macro action strategies and for micro complementary monetary projects that when added together will create a social movement for real change.

Henry David Thoreau wrote: "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to every one striking at the root."

May our collective work on monetary issues during this new fiscal year and beyond -- of rigorous study and research, of action, of macro and micro, be focused not on branches, but on roots.