Posted by Editors on July 21, 2008 at 07:03:58:
Many people have told us IT CAN BE DONE!… that is…, Living in a democracy …
Margaret Mead, for one…
“Never doubt that a small group of individuals can change the world.....indeed it is the only thing that ever has."
and Albert Einstein ...
“We cannot hope to solve the problems we face today with the same level of thinking that created them. The mind is like a parachute. It works best when its open..."
Einstein also declared that only a SOCIALIST society can solve all its perennial problems.
Democracy is still possible in our America.
And there is Abraham Lincoln…, who was very specific in naming the most fundamental problem we have which prevents us from exercising the DEMOCRACY which we so desperately need in order to live aa a truly FREE people...
“In as much as most things are produced by LABOR, it follows that all such things of right belong to those whose Labor has produced them. But it has so happened in all ages of the world, that SOME have labored, and OTHERS have, without labor , enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits. This is wrong, and should not continue. To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as nearly as possible, in a most worthy object of any good government.”
Abraham Lincoln’s “good government” vision is found in the Economic Democracy construct which is described and explained in the Forums. Please address it. Your constructive comments are welcome.
The rationale for transforming our present political and corporate autocracies is based upon the following social and political realities .
It is axiomatic that ownership of productive property is the key to having control of one’s well being. This most emphatically effects how we are governed in a modern, industrial society.
Our society today has been transformed dramatically from the days when most people lived and worked on their own farms, and had near complete control of their lives primarily because they owned the necessary “tools” with which to make a living.
Since then, our economy has evolved to a point where all the tools for our necessary social production are owned and controlled by the major corporations leaving We, the People of this modern age, without the means to decide for ourselves the best ways to govern and meet our daily material needs and wants.
The major corporations which have control of the production for our survival supplies …, food, housing…, transportation, etc., pretty much determine how we eat, dress, transport ourselves to our work places. Corporate property rights completely remove any aspects of our democratic rights which are supposed to be the foundation of our civic governments.
During the time we work on private corporate property, We give up our civic “citizenship” rights to the corporation and its governing body.
Private Property ownership of society’s tools of production supercedes our Constitution’s guarantees of democracy’s involvement in matters that affect our lives.
We, the People, as a nation whose majority of citizens, are working class, suffer needlessly because our SOCIETY does not OWN the industrial properties needed for our survival needs..,, a condition which automatically EXCLUDES us from having an effective, democratic voice and vote in all matters that affect our lives….
We can all agree We don’t want people living in poverty. We don’t want a political government which does not respond to our everyday critical needs.
Logic compels us to consider a peaceful and legal transformation, as guaranteed by the Constitution, which places the ownership of our socially necessary industries, which are presently held by private parties…, to “social” ownership, thus guaranteeing the democratic involvement of We, the People, in all government and industrial matters which determine our quality of life.
We can only be a truly “FREE” people when We have the everyday democratic empowerment to make decisions in the two most important public places in our lives…, in our government and in our necessary industrial and service institutions such as, among others, education and health care.
Today, because most of our population does not own tools to produce survival needs, our lives are effectively governed by the major corporations where we use the privately owned corporate tools to produce most, if not all, of our needed goods and services. In the least, these corporations have a dominant control of supply and prices of all small business operations., and, in effect, all small businesses actually work for the giant privately owned corporations ! Because of the economic power of these corporations, their influence in our economy and our political government, has limited whatever effective democracy exists for We, the People.
But we needn't continue to be oppressed by such a modern development, which is a logical outcome of capitalism’s economics. We can resolve most, if not all, our economically based social and government problems which make our lives difficult and insecure. How? Simply by organizing, forming the necessary “political” party activities which will lead to electing OUR like minded Representatives from in our communities and our industrial work places.. where they will legislate to have Congress enact the Amendment Clause to legally and peacefully implement a genuine democracy in all our institutions upon which we depend for our daily needs and wants. And in the meanwhile, during the time period when OUR Reps in Congress are preparing for the historic transformation, We will be organizing ourselves in our present work places to be prepared for an orderly transformation for our work place departments to be fully set up to continue operations in all our socially necessary industries and services…, without a hitch in the transfer ..., from private corporate government to an Economic Democracy…
Repeat! The Constitution provides for such needed legislation
We have our U.S. historic precedent for changing our institutions of government. Our nation's Founding Fathers paved the way when they broke from King George and the British mercantilists, the ruling economic class at that time, who planned to control the American colonies as their cash cow, in the same we way the private corporate governments use us today.
Our US Constitution enables us to institute democratic rules in our necessary social institutions.
We CAN have a direct voice and vote in our industrial and service work places where the essential products and services originate prior to being offered in the market for our consumption...
Question… Were We to have the means to democratically decide how to best organize our needed economic resources..., would WE price ourselves out of the markets which stock OUR own produced products and services, as is most currently illustrated in this high priced gasoline market which has transferred great wealth to its private OIL investors and owners at the expense of the rest of us? Of course NOT!
We would set exchange values using a new, equitable system of remuneration which will enable us to obtain needed goods and services easily met by our earned incomes at 4 or 5 times more the consumer power than exists today under the WAGES system!
This is a CALL to those of us who are willing and able to join in starting a third political party whose mission is to bring genuine democracy into all our necessary social institutions…, a new society in which we have a direct voice and vote in all matters that affect our lives.
We can do it! OR do we sit back and we give this societal mess to our kids and theirs?
Is there anyone? Let’s talk about it.. Inquire Pfans@aol.com. and let’s get this democracy ball rolling.
There’s plenty of room on the ballot for We, the People.