Starhawkwebs



	from “webs of power Notes from the Global Uprising”, Starhawk, WHAT WE WANT: ECONOMY AND STRATEGY FOR THE END TIMES What does the global justice movement want? What is our vision, our picture of an ideal society and economy? When we say “Another world is possible,” what kind of a world are we talking about? The global justice movement is diverse. It ranges from union leaders who want to secure a fair share of this economy for their members to old-line Marxists, to anarchists, to indigenous communities struggling to preserve their traditional lands and cultures. No one picture of the world can describe all the different viewpoints. No one vision may actually serve this tremendous diversity. And how could it? How could the aspirations of an urban office worker in Chicago be the same as that of a Mayan farmer in Chiapas? Why should we think that one form of economy or social organization should serve all? Nevertheless, there are certain commonalities, deep principles and imperatives, that I believe are shared across the broad range of the movement. Here are nine points that-attempt to define that common ground. Some branches of the movement might feel these principles don’t go far enough; they envision a society transformed in more far reaching ways. I am not trying to describe an ultimate ideal here, but to articulate what I see as the points of minimum agreement in the broader global justice movement. 1. We must protect the viability ofthe life-sustaining systems of the planet, which are everywhere under attack. 2. A realm of the sacred exists, of things too precious to be commodifled, and must be respected. 3. Communities must control their own resources and destinies. 4. The rights and heritages of indigenous communities must be acknowledged and respected. 5. Enterprises must be rooted in communities and be responsible to communities and to future generations. 6. Opportunity for human beings to meet their needs and fulfill their dreams and aspirations should be open to all. 7. Labor deserves just compensation, security, and dignity. 8. The human community has a collective responsibility to assure the basic means of life, growth, and development for all its members. 9. Democracy means that all people have a voice in the decisions that affect them, including economic decisions. 1. We must protect the viabilitv of the life-sustaining systems of the planet, which are everywhere under attack. The current global corporate capitalist system is unsustainable. It is based on a premise of unending growth, in a world of finite resources. It produces enormous quantities of wastes, Pollutants, and toxins, and depends on the common resources of air, water’ and land to absorb them, thereby externalizing its true costs onto those who suffer from its impacts. A system of sustainable abundance would mean that the true social and ecological costs of each product are accounted for rather than being externalized. Our first priority would be to end pollution at its source, not just to mitigate or clean it up. We would immediately begin a shift to the development and use of renewable resources and clean, renewable energy sources. We would protect biodiversity, habitat, and the diversity of ecosystems. We would ban potentially disastrous experiments such as the introduction of genetically engineered organisms. We would drastically reduce carbon emissions and attempt to forestall global warming. We would ban nuclear weapons. These ideas may seem impractical or utopian, but in fact the technology already exists or is in development to do most of them. In their book Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution Amory and Hunter Lovins and Paul Hawken discuss many examples of companies who have put these principles into practice and found them actually profitable even under the current system. 2. A realm of the sacred exists, of things too precious to be commodified, and must be respected. “Sacred” may mean places that have special meaning to indigenous cultures or local communities, ecosystems such as old-growth forests so irreplaceable and beautiful that to exploit them is a desecration, aspects of culture and the human heritage that are vitally important to a society, and the basic life resources such as water that we all need to survive. This principle implies that there should be a limit to commerce, however it is organized, that Jesus had a point when he chased the moneylenders out of the temple, that a social and cultural space must be reserved outside the marketplace, however the market is organized. 3. Communities must control their own resources and destinies. Both natural and human resources are best preserved and allocated by the communities where they are found. Outside ownership and exploitation do not lead to shared abundance. Communities can only be secure when they have control over their own food, water, energy sources, and other life support systems. Outside institutions such as the IMF and global trade agreements should not be allowed to dictate policies that override the democratic decisions made by communities. Certainly not all communities are enlightened, and local communities are capable of exploiting their own resources in destructive ways. But communities also have a vested interest in the long-term health of their environment and the sustainability of their resources. Complex negotiations between the needs and rights of individuals, communities, and the larger society will always be necessary under any system that recognizes all levels of rights. If this principle were followed as part of a whole system defined by all these nine points, excesses would be kept in check. 4. The rights and heritages of indigenous communities must be acknowledged and respected. Indigenous communities are nations with a right to sovereignty over their lands and the right to protect their cultures and traditions. International agreements among “nations” must include a voice for indigenous people; they must be on an equal footing with other nations. 5. Enterprises must be rooted in communities and be responsible to communities and to future generations. The purpose of business, however it is organized and administered, is to serve the community. Businesses and enterprises need a cific community that they are accountable to, they need to j rooted in a place and must not be infinitely free to chase around the globe seeking the lowest labor prices and the most lax safety standards. Accountability extends to future generations: enterprises cannot liquidate their assets, clearcut their standing old growth, mine their soil, or exhaust their resources to satisfy a short-term need for profits. Businesses are responsible parts of a whole economic ecology that needs to last into the long-term future. 6. Opportunity and support for human beings to meet their needs and fulfill their dreams and aspirations should be open to all. All forms of discrimination, all false privileges based on gender, race, class, age, ability, place of origin, sexual orientation, etc. should be abolished. This principle leads directly to a world .f greater abundance, for we would no longer stifle the creativity and innovation of much of the human race. 7. Labor deserves just compensation, security, and dignity. People who labor deserve to be paid enough to live with dignity, to enjoy safe working conditions, to have maximum control over their work lives, to be treated with respect, to enjoy job security, and to have security in case of illness or injury. Child labor, slave labor, and prison labor as well as pay standards below a living wage are unacceptable. 8. The human community has a collective responsibility to assure the basic means of life, growth, and development for all its members. As a community, we bear a responsibility for each other. At times, disease, injury, emotional breakdown, or sheer bad luck may plague us all. We need to help each other bear our burdens and weather the rough passages in life, and to do so graciously not as charity but as an aspect of our human solidarity, in ways that respect and. empower those in need. A strong public health system is part of our basic security. Public support for education determines the level O awareness of those citizens who will one day enact laws and elect representatives. A community is an organism - we must support its overall health and functioning if any part is to function well. 9. Democracy means people having a voice in the decisions that affect them, including economic decisions. In a representative democracy, we have some voice in choosing who will make decisions for us. In a direct democracy, we have a voice in the actual decisions themselves. Of course, on the scale of a nation as large as the United States, a purely direct democracy would be impractical. But this principle implies that we attempt to organize on scales in which people can have a voice in many of the decisions that impact their lives, and that we extend the principle of democracy to some nontraditional areas. Most businesses are currently organized on a top-down decision-making model. Democratic enterprises would encourage input from all levels and would favor self-management, worker ownership, and community input.

from “webs of power Notes from the Global Uprising”, Starhawk,

WHAT WE WANT: ECONOMY AND STRATEGY FOR THE END TIMES

What does the global justice movement want? What is our vision, our picture of an ideal society and economy? When we say “Another world is possible,” what kind of a world are we talking about?

The global justice movement is diverse. It ranges from union leaders who want to secure a fair share of this economy for their members to old-line Marxists, to anarchists, to indigenous communities struggling to preserve their traditional lands and cultures. No one picture of the world can describe all the different viewpoints. No one vision may actually serve this tremendous diversity. And how could it? How could the aspirations of an urban office worker in Chicago be the same as that of a Mayan farmer in Chiapas? Why should we think that one form of economy or social organization should serve all?

Nevertheless, there are certain commonalities, deep principles and imperatives, that I believe are shared across the broad range of the movement. Here are nine points that-attempt to define that common ground. Some branches of the movement might feel these principles don’t go far enough; they envision a society transformed in more far reaching ways. I am not trying to describe an ultimate ideal here, but to articulate what I see as the points of minimum agreement in the broader global justice movement.

1. We must protect the viability ofthe life-sustaining systems of the planet, which are everywhere under attack.

2. A realm of the sacred exists, of things too precious to be commodifled, and must be respected.

3. Communities must control their own resources and destinies.

4. The rights and heritages of indigenous communities must be acknowledged and respected.

5. Enterprises must be rooted in communities and be responsible to communities and to future generations.

6. Opportunity for human beings to meet their needs and fulfill their dreams and aspirations should be open to all.

7. Labor deserves just compensation, security, and dignity.

8. The human community has a collective responsibility to assure the basic means of life, growth, and development for all its members.

9. Democracy means that all people have a voice in the decisions that affect them, including economic decisions.

1. We must protect the viabilitv of the life-sustaining systems of the planet, which are everywhere under attack.

The current global corporate capitalist system is unsustainable. It is based on a premise of unending growth, in a world of finite resources. It produces enormous quantities of wastes, Pollutants, and toxins, and depends on the common resources of air, water’ and land to absorb them, thereby externalizing its true costs onto those who suffer from its impacts.

A system of sustainable abundance would mean that the true social and ecological costs of each product are accounted for rather than being externalized. Our first priority would be to end pollution at its source, not just to mitigate or clean it up. We would immediately begin a shift to the development and use of renewable resources and clean, renewable energy sources. We would protect biodiversity, habitat, and the diversity of ecosystems. We would ban potentially disastrous experiments such as the introduction of genetically engineered organisms. We would drastically reduce carbon emissions and attempt to forestall global warming. We would ban nuclear weapons.

These ideas may seem impractical or utopian, but in fact the technology already exists or is in development to do most of them. In their book Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution Amory and Hunter Lovins and Paul Hawken discuss many examples of companies who have put these principles into practice and found them actually profitable even under the current system.

2. A realm of the sacred exists, of things too precious to be commodified, and must be respected.

“Sacred” may mean places that have special meaning to indigenous cultures or local communities, ecosystems such as old-growth forests so irreplaceable and beautiful that to exploit them is a desecration, aspects of culture and the human heritage that are vitally important to a society, and the basic life resources such as water that we all need to survive. This principle implies that there should be a limit to commerce, however it is organized, that Jesus had a point when he chased the moneylenders out of the temple, that a social and cultural space must be reserved outside the marketplace, however the market is organized.

3. Communities must control their own resources and destinies.

Both natural and human resources are best preserved and allocated by the communities where they are found. Outside ownership and exploitation do not lead to shared abundance. Communities can only be secure when they have control over their own food, water, energy sources, and other life support systems. Outside institutions such as the IMF and global trade agreements should not be allowed to dictate policies that override the democratic decisions made by communities.

Certainly not all communities are enlightened, and local communities are capable of exploiting their own resources in destructive ways. But communities also have a vested interest in the long-term health of their environment and the sustainability of their resources. Complex negotiations between the needs and rights of individuals, communities, and the larger society will always be necessary under any system that recognizes all levels of rights. If this principle were followed as part of a whole system defined by all these nine points, excesses would be kept in check.

4. The rights and heritages of indigenous communities must be acknowledged and respected.
Indigenous communities are nations with a right to sovereignty over their lands and the right to protect their cultures and traditions. International agreements among “nations” must include a voice for indigenous people; they must be on an equal footing with other nations.

5. Enterprises must be rooted in communities and be responsible to communities and to future generations.
The purpose of business, however it is organized and administered, is to serve the community. Businesses and enterprises need a cific community that they are accountable to, they need to j rooted in a place and must not be infinitely free to chase around the globe seeking the lowest labor prices and the most lax safety standards. Accountability extends to future generations: enterprises cannot liquidate their assets, clearcut their standing old growth, mine their soil, or exhaust their resources to satisfy a short-term need for profits. Businesses are responsible parts of a whole economic ecology that needs to last into the long-term future.

6. Opportunity and support for human beings to meet their needs and fulfill their dreams and aspirations should be open to all.

All forms of discrimination, all false privileges based on gender, race, class, age, ability, place of origin, sexual orientation, etc. should be abolished. This principle leads directly to a world .f greater abundance, for we would no longer stifle the creativity and innovation of much of the human race.

7. Labor deserves just compensation, security, and dignity.
People who labor deserve to be paid enough to live with dignity, to enjoy safe working conditions, to have maximum control over their work lives, to be treated with respect, to enjoy job security, and to have security in case of illness or injury. Child labor, slave labor, and prison labor as well as pay standards below a living wage are unacceptable.

8. The human community has a collective responsibility to assure the basic means of life, growth, and development for all its members.
As a community, we bear a responsibility for each other. At times, disease, injury, emotional breakdown, or sheer bad luck may plague us all. We need to help each other bear our burdens and weather the rough passages in life, and to do so graciously not as charity but as an aspect of our human solidarity, in ways that respect and. empower those in need. A strong public health system is part of our basic security. Public support for education determines the level O awareness of those citizens who will one day enact laws and elect representatives. A community is an organism - we must support its overall health and functioning if any part is to function well.

9. Democracy means people having a voice in the decisions that affect them, including economic decisions.
In a representative democracy, we have some voice in choosing who will make decisions for us. In a direct democracy, we have a voice in the actual decisions themselves. Of course, on the scale of a nation as large as the United States, a purely direct democracy would be impractical. But this principle implies that we attempt to organize on scales in which people can have a voice in many of the decisions that impact their lives, and that we extend the principle of democracy to some nontraditional areas. Most businesses are currently organized on a top-down decision-making model. Democratic enterprises would encourage input from all levels and would favor self-management, worker ownership, and community input.