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Democracy
Strategy Paper
Statements of Understanding
We believe true democracy
is built from the bottom-up and that local participation, organizing,
and solidarity, are intrinsic parts of global democracy.
We believe that corporate influence and manipulation of the public decision
making process and of the media are a serious obstacle to true democracy.
We are very concerned with the current lack of participation in the democratic
process by the majority of the world’s population. We believe this lack
of participation to a significant extent is due to lack of pertinent information
with regard to the substance and mechanisms of any given national system,
and we believe it constitutes a severe limitation to democracy.
We are equally concerned with the disempowerment, disenfranchisement and
disenchantment felt by the majority of the world’s population with regard
to political processes, democratic decision making, and popular influence
on policy making. We see this disempowerment, disenfranchisement and disenchantment
as intimately related to State policies of ignoring, undermining, or repressing
popular intents to influence the democratic process.
We believe that the media, the educational system, corporations, and other
financial interests, are engaged in a campaign of misinformation and miseducation
of the public which is leading to apathy and lack of public involvement
in international as well as national issues.
We believe the sense of individualism and self-interest which is prominent
in most of the world’s population is a serious impediment to a true democracy
based on solidarity. We believe the prominence of self-interest is caused
on the one hand by corporate-induced individualism, and on the other by
basic survival needs.
In direct connection with our beliefs regarding disempowerment, lack of
information, and self-interest rooted in the basic survival needs, we
believe poverty and the disparity of wealth are among the principal obstacles
to true democracy. Even world hunger is due, not to a lack of food, but
to a lack of democracy. The poor have no voice, no vote, in the market.
We equally see repression of civil and political rights on the basis of
race, culture, and gender, as a primary obstacle to democracy.
We believe that true democracy cannot be reached until both oppressors
and oppressed have recognized and consciously opposed the racism, classism,
sexism, heterosexism, ethnocentrism, imperialism and neocolonialism that
are reinforced through institutionalized violence and systematic aggression
practiced throughout the Americas and the rest of the world.
We recognize that this aggression emanates mainly from the US military-industrial
complex, which assists ex-military dictators, repressive military forces,
and neoliberal governments in other countries, as well as in the systematic
targeting of people of color, youth, the poor, and others, by the US prison-industrial
complex. We believe that opposition to these obstacles to democracy can
be effective only if we struggle to transform the structural socioeconomic
relations of racist capitalist patriarchy."
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STATEMENTS
OF ACTION
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We
propose raising funds for inner-city youths and other oppressed
constituencies to organize delegations for mutual exchange and
sharing of survival strategies.
We propose forming clearinghouses of information for activists
and independent media collectives. In particular we propose a
database with background information on the top enemies to democracy
in the hemisphere.
We propose forming intentional communities of shared resources
based on collective decision-making for our personal lives as
well as in our work.
We propose direct action protests against international and national
institutions that impede democracy (as defined above) on the dates
they hold their gatherings in whatever cities host them, or when
attendance is impossible in local solidarity actions.
We propose the establishment of an official U.S. Truth Commission
to try U.S. citizens responsible for human rights abuse in Latin
America in the 20th Century.
We propose consciously fighting consumerism in our societies and
our lives.
We will support and promote micro-lending schemes in the hemisphere
wherever they prove to be the best way to support community based
sustainable development.
We will adopt international human rights conventions at the local
level when our "elected" governments refuse to sign.
In this manner, we will take back the authority that is ours:
to subject ourselves to laws we have an influence on and that
we believe in as a society.
We propose to create civilian review boards with real enforcement
authority over police and military.
We propose issuing report cards on public figures, and to use
the information on these report cards to create a "Least
Wanted" list of the 10-20 most prominent enemies to democracy.
We propose organizing actions to demonstrate against the presence
of the listed individuals wherever they go on public business.
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Statements of Principle
As proponents of global
democracy, eradication of oppressive structures, and community building,
we know we have to live our own principles through community
involvement, consciously
combating our own oppressive tendencies, and promoting meaningful collective
decision-making in our homes, at our work-places, in our communities, and
in the society as a whole.
We have come to understand that global issues are local issues, and vice
versa. We must therefore work as solidarity activists on connecting domestic
or local issues with international issues through local solidarity actions.
We believe the globalization of solidarity work, human rights ethics and
legal instruments, and alternative information, are positive contributions
to democracy that we must support.
We believe living wages are a universal human right.
Derived
Positions
We are extremely concerned
with and stand in firm opposition to the nomination of John
Negroponte for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and Otto
Reich for Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemispheric
Affairs. The records of both of these men Negroponte as U.S.
Ambassador to Honduras in the Reagan Administration and Reich
in the State Department’s interagency Office of Public
Diplomacy for Latin America and the Caribbean (1983-86), assistant
administrator of USAID in charge of economic assistance to Latin
America and the Caribbean (1981-83), U.S. ambassador to Venezuela
(1986-89) show that they are enemies of democracy in the Western
Hemisphere.
We oppose the agreement for a Free Trade Area of the Americas
(FTAA), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the
World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the School of the
Americas and other schools that train military and police to
repress democracy with violence, the World Trade Organization,
and other institutions and agreements that impede democracy
in the hemisphere.
We are strongly opposed to the privatization of public spaces
and services. We believe this process is part of a State policy
to repress popular voices of discontent.
We oppose government spying on civilians.
We promote popular education programs that benefit inner-city
youth and other oppressed constituencies in the entire hemisphere.
We support public financing of election campaigns in the United
States, as well as electoral reform anywhere in the region designed
to curb corporate influence on the electoral process.
We insist on transparency in media ownership, and strongly support
obligatory public air time. We remind all governments the airwaves
are public, and we propose to reclaim them for the masses.
We strongly support U.S. ratification of the Rome Statute establishing
the International Criminal Court.
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