[discuss-dan] FWD: 2 messages of hope for despairing activists

[Doc Rosen <drdrdoc@dr.com>]

------Original Message------
From: DREYFALEX@aol.com
To: sharonalexander@mac.com
Sent: February 13, 2001 7:43:49 AM GMT
Subject: 2 messages of hope for despairing activists


The Resurgence of Citizens' Movements

by Paul Hawken



We are beginning a mythic period of existence, rather
like the age portrayed
in the Bhagavad Gita, in The Lord of the Rings, and in
other tales of

darkness and light. We live in a time in which every
living system is in
decline, and the rate of decline is accelerating as our
economy grows.


The commercial processes that bring us the kind of
lives we supposedly desire
are destroying the earth and the life we cherish. Given
current

corporate practices, not one wildlife reserve,
wilderness, or indigenous
culture will survive the global market economy. We are
losing our forests,

fisheries, coral reefs, topsoil,water, biodiversity,
and climatic stability.
The land, sea, and air have been functionally
transformed from
life-supporting systems into repositories for waste.
Feeling the momentum of
loss at the beginning of a new century, one wants to
close one's eyes. Yet
that is the very thing that will bring forth ruin.


I believe in rain, in odd miracles, in the intelligence
that allows terns and
swallows to find their way across the planet. And I
believe that we are

capable of creating a remarkable future for humankind.
In the United States,
more than 30,000 citizens' groups,nongovernmental
organizations, and
foundations are addressing the issue of social and
ecological sustainability
in the most complete sense of the word. Worldwide,
their number  exceeds
100,000. Together, they address a broad array of
issues, including
environmental justice, ecological literacy, public
policy, conservation,

women's rights and health, population growth, renewable
energy, corporate
reform, labor rights, climate change, trade rules,
ethical investing,
ecological tax reform, water conservation, and much
more.


These groups follow Gandhi's imperatives: Some resist,
others create new
structures, patterns, and means. The groups tend to be
local, marginal,

poorly funded, and overworked. It is hard for most
groups not to feel
justified anxiety that they could perish in a
twinkling. At the same time, a

deeper, extraordinary pattern is emerging. If you ask
these groups for their
principles, frameworks, conventions, models, or 
declarations, you will find

that they do not conflict. Never before in history has
this happened. In the
past, movements that became powerful started with a
unified or centralized
set of ideas (Marxism, Christianity, Freudianism) and
disseminated them,
creating power struggles over time as the core mental
model or dogma was
changed, diluted, or revised.


This new sustainability movement did not start this
way. Its supporters do
not agree on everything-nor should they-but remarkably,
they share a basic

set of fundamental understandings about the earth,

how it functions, and the necessity of fairness and
equity for all people in
partaking of its life-giving systems.   This shared
understanding is arising

spontaneously from different economic sectors,
cultures, regions, and
cohorts. And it is spreading throughout this country
and the world. No one
started this worldview, no one is in charge of it, no
orthodoxy is
restraining it. I believe it is the fastest-growing and
most powerful
movement in the world today, unrecognizable to the
American media

because it is not centralized, based on power, or led
by charismatic white
males.  As external conditions continue to worsen
socially, environmentally,
and politically, organizations working toward
sustainability multiply and

gain more supporters.


We will never recover what we have lost. It will take 5
million years to
restore the diversity of lost species. Nevertheless, in
50 years we can begin
the very necessary work of restoration. We can begin to
reduce carbon in the
atmosphere; recharge aquifers; bring back lands that
have been taken by
deserts; create habitat corridors for buffalo,
panthers, and gray wolves; and
thicken our paper-thin topsoil. What is possible in 50
years is a world that
is wonderfully messy and deliriously creative.  It
doesn't fit a single
scenario written anywhere by anyone. As for the United
States, it will not be
a country defined by technologies, measured in money,
or summarized by
demographics. It will be, perforce, a country in a

world defined by the acts of restoring life on
Earth-dancing, donning
costumes, singing, performing rituals, enjoying magic,
praying, worshiping,

and playing. This is the work of carefully
reconstituting what has been lost
by creating conditions conducive to life.In 50 years,
America will be a
culture whose industrial materials cause no damage to
anyone, on the short
term or the long term; it will be a society that
emulates the design
brilliance of nature, which we have yet to fully
appreciate. The great work
of this era will be extraordinary for defining its
goals not solely in terms
of a decade or even a century, but of millennia. The
American people will
have thrown

off the tyranny of compressive time, coercive work, and
erosive competition.
It will be a country still rent by massive
discontinuities as the momentum

of today's world extends far into the future, but it
will be a country that
is connected, aware, and committed to the future. It
will be an America that

can see-and can see that it knows all it needs to know
to sustain and honor
life.


That alone will distinguish it from where we are today.


Paul Hawken is the author (with Hunter and Amory
Lovins) of Natural
Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution and
The Ecology of
Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability.
---------------------
> Not A Backlash: Birth Pangs of A New Internationalism

> Remarks by AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney

> World Economic Forum

> Davos, Switzerland

> January 28, 2001

>

> I am honored to join this distinguished panel in
discussing a topic of

> such importance and moment. But the title of this
forum, "Addressing

> the Backlash Against Globalization," is a dis-service
to the discussion.

>

> What we witness is not a backlash, but birth pangs.
And it is not

> against globalization, but for a new
internationalism.

>

> This movement for a new internationalism is building
from the bottom up,

> not the top down. It features democratic protest, not
corporate deals.

> Its forum is the public square, not the boardroom.
And its promise is to

> remake the global economy so that it begins to work
for working people

> all over the world.

>

> We should be celebrating this new movement. Too much
attention has been

> given to the few who are violent, and too little to
the remarkable

> discipline of the many to non-violence.

>

> How remarkable it is that millions of young people
are communicating

> about sweatshops across the world wide web.

>

> How exciting that many feel morally compelled to
protest the inhuman

> conditions that workers face in countries on the
other side of the

> globe.

>

> How encouraging that children are calling their
parents to account for

> the abuse of child labor.

>

> How extraordinary that workers in industrial
countries will pressure

> companies in solidarity with workers in poorer and
weaker countries. Or

> that workers, environmentalists, religious leaders,
and students are

> coming together to call for workers' rights and human
rights and

> consumer and environmental protections in the global
economy.

>

> A new morning is dawning, and we should rejoice in
it.

>

> This new internationalism has blossomed not because *
as some here would

> suggest * the global economy has a public relations
problem.

>

> Billions of dollars in free and paid media exalt it.
The global

> economy's blessings are trumpeted * its blemishes
often ignored. From

> the editorial pages of leading newspapers to the
banquets of local

> business clubs, the hallelujah chorus is deafening.

>

> The current global system doesn't have a public
relations gap, it has a

> promise gap. Its performance does not match its
promise. And no amount

> of public relations can change that.

>

> Much of the debate has focused on trade and
investment policies. But

> trade is simply an instrument, and a minor one at
that. Development and

> democracy are the ends.

>

> The promise was that freeing up markets, deregulating
finance and

> joining the global market would provide growth, and
growth would provide

> development. If we get governments out of the way,
markets will work

> their magic, we are told.

>

> The reality of the last quarter century makes this
prescription harder

> and harder to swallow. Growth has been slower, not
faster. Instability

> is growing, not slowing. Inequality * among and
within countries * is

> rising, not falling. And Russia has rather
conclusively shown that if

> governments really get out of the way, the market's
black magic is

> likely to produce gangsterism rather than capitalism.

>

> Moreover, the much-celebrated corporate global
economy doesn't hold much

> hope for most poor countries.

>

> Foreign investment has increased sevenfold in 20
years. But 70 percent

> of it goes from one rich country to another. Eight
developing countries

> get another 20 percent -- with the bulk going to
dictatorships, not

> democracies. And the remainder is divided unequally
among more than 100

> poor nattions. This isn't a public relations problem.
This is a reality

> problem.

>

> That is why we should be celebrating the movement for
the new

> internationalism.

>

> Seattle, I'm proud to say, is often seen as the
turning point, the point

> at which a growing movement finally gained the
attention of a rather

> impervious establishment.

>

> There, workers, students, environmentalists and
religious activists all

> came together to call the World Trade Organization to
account.

> Developing country leaders objected to being locked
out of the

> backrooms. Union leaders representing workers in over
70 countries -

> rich and poor alike - marched shoulder to shoulder in
the demand for

> workers' rights.

>

> Since that time, we've been able to transform the
agenda of the global

> institutions * including this informal gathering.

>

> Led by the faith-based Jubilee 2000, we've put debt
forgiveness and

> poverty reduction on the agenda of the industrial
nations.

>

> The IMF, which for years told us it wasn't a
development agency suddenly

> discovered that it was. The World Bank rediscovered
poverty as a

> central focus. Its most recent report even suggests
that free markets

> aren't necessarily the key to the kingdom after all.

>

> Global corporations * even the most notorious like
Nike * have scrambled

> to put together codes of conduct. They are driven not
by a sudden attack

> of conscience, but by shareholder concern for their
reputations and

> their markets.

>

> The demand for workers' rights, human rights and
environmental and

> consumer protections will not disappear. Trade
accords will face

> difficult sledding without including them. Companies
will face

> embarrassment for violating them. And countries too
will eventually be

> challenged for trampling them. The International
Labor Organization, for

> the first time, has called on the world community to
curtail relations

> with Myanmar due to that brutal regime's policy of
forced labor.

>

> A global consensus has been reaffirmed on core
workers' rights. Now it

> is time to post those basic rights on the walls of
every factory in the

> world.

>

> The moral force of this movement cannot be denied. It
is profoundly

> threatening to the so-called Washington consensus *
and profoundly

> promising for poor and working people across the
globe.

>

> We don't need to exaggerate the accomplishments.
Global fairness is

> indeed on the docket for discussion, but now is the
time for action. The

> debts of the impoverished nations need to be
forgiven. Industrial

> nations must significantly increase development aid.
The World Bank

> should focus on supporting health and education. The
WTO needs a massive

> overhaul in how it operates. Companies need to change
their practices as

> well as their rhetoric. The casino financial economy
calls out for

> greater rules.

>

> But this movement for a new internationalism has only
begun to build.

> The harsh realities that drive it are likely to get
worse -- not better

> -- as the U.S. economy slows. The best and the
brightest of the next

> generation are enlisting in droves. Workerss across
the world are

> calling for a better deal.

>

> It is time to get on with the task.

Somos la misma familia,
Doc
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