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Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 21:38:25 -0300
To: •••@••.•••
From: David Cameron/Nancy Sherwood <•••@••.•••>
Subject: steps
A community will evolve only when
the people control their means of communication.
-- Frantz Fanon
The above meme is sort of added by accident as posting signature to rkm's
points for action arrived at in Bear River. It may be goal#1!
Everywhere there are alternate presses, niche journals, private zines, and
many, many websites for alternate thoughts.
I suggest compiling contacts for these grass-root resources and
cross-posting analysis articles, objectives of CDR, etc.
I guess the place to start this activity would be where-ever we
individually are now. For instance, I e-talk to David Orton of Greenweb
Nova Scotia (whose efforts are aimed at evolving a biocentric point of
view), so I send him CDR postings that I feel might ring a bell with him. I
also post to a local enviro-activist who is spearheading action in our
municipality to limit herbicide & pesticide use in lAWN CARE and public
land care. My "service" to her was connecting her to Greenweb which has all
the pertinent research available on the subject +is willing to lend its
voice to the battle.
If we can be of immediate "use" in people's struggles against whatever
aspects of the corporate piracy they may be engaged in, they will be more
likely, I think, to listen to our call to sanity.
The web structure for CDR arrived at in Bear River seems practical. One
aspect of communications that I am experiencing is that many sane people
tend to refuse the use of the computer-seeing it as one more unnecessary &
very suspect intrusion of the corporate agenda into their lives. So they
can't be reached by web or email. This is another reason it may do CDR well
to cross-post to alternate media. The web must be as diverse in its means &
structure as the people it seeks to influence.
Also, many grass-roots thinker/activists are very local, not big-name
movement people or organizors(such as in Nova Scotia, Keith Helmut who
speaks eloquently & thoughtfully on these matters to Quaker Friends). They
have their small spere of influence. CDR could possibly offer them a
slightly larger stage. RKM's dog & pony circus could help do that as could
just encouraging these people to participate here in this forum. Compiling
names & addresses(snail & email) of such people and repeatedly, gently
inviting their participation might be useful.
I really appreciated rkm's comments about how activists discount one
another & play the internal political game. If everyone in CDR can avoid &
discourage this tendency, that alone will be a big service to the
"movement". Of course, along with the great tolerance this entails, it also
begs the creation of boundaries and defined limits to that tolerance.
Enough for now!
David Cameron
EarthSea
Box 95 Riverport
NS Canada BOJ 2WO
902 766 4129
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>Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 09:01:11 -0400
>From: <name withheld, sent to me privately>
>To: "Richard K. Moore" <•••@••.•••>
>Subject: building a movement for a Democratic Renaissance
>
>Dear Richard,
>
>In applying one's energies and resources to activist endeavors, a sort of
>triage occurs. Priorities are analyzed using value criteria that we each
>bring to the table.
>
>In reviewing your papers and posts since our meeting in Boston, I've come
>to the conclusion that you, like Ronnie Dugger, place an equalization of
>the pie slice at the top of your agenda, along with usurpation of excessive
>corp. power. Although I don't argue against the latter, the former is
Dear x,
I wonder how you got that impression? I see the "pie slice" issue as
having been a trap, something that allowed "us" to get bought off for the
past two centuries, trading democratic self-governance for a piece of a pie
stolen largely from others and from the environment.
The top of my agenda is a livable world, run sustainably in all ways, with
a profound respect for cultural diversity and local self determination.
And I see genuine democracy (which is a very complex topic) being the key
to success in other areas.
>RKM:
>> But the common - "no wing" -
>> message would be about the need for grass-roots democracy, and an overthrow
>> of the corporate-dominated top-down fat-cat propaganda system. As Carolyn
>> Chute says, "There's no left or right, just up and down. All the fat cats
>> up there having a good time, while the rest of us are down here struggling
>> to survive."
I'm quoting Carolyn here, but I don't see this "struggling to survive" as
being a pie-slice issue, but rather an issue of self-determination, and the
right to operate in more locally-based economies.
>My priorities involve minimization of negative impacts on the Commons, and
>education of the public as to the causes of them and possible remedies. In
>my view, reduction in human numbers is part of the remedy. My plate is full
>with this agenda, and I find I have no additional time to be active in
>either Alliance (yours or Ronnies). I will try to keep abreast of your
>activities, and will gladly consult with you if there are specific areas
>(such as financial mkts) in which I can offer guidance.
I appreciate your "tracking" us, and welcome your inputs and feedback
whenever you have time.
I applaud your efforts re/ "minimization of negative impacts on the
Commons", and public education is certainly of great importance. But I
have a strategic issue to raise...
The public is _already much more enlightened (despite constant
propaganda) than the policies we live under. In poll after poll, large
majorities express a desire to bring corporate power under control, to have
stronger environmental protections, to stop reckless genetic engineering,
to support human rights strongly in foreign policy, etc. Imagine if the
mass media told the truth instead of lies? How much more enlightened would
public opinion be then!
My point is that we do _not live under a democratic system, that
our polices are decided by the elite corporate agenda, and educating the
public still further about _policy issues has little if any political
consequence.
That is why I see democracy itself (including democratization of
communiations media) as being the core central issue most worth working on.
We _must, somehow, establish vibrant democracies so that what people
believe and understand can make a difference!
in solidarity,
rkm
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crafted in Ireland by rkm
-----------------------------------
A community will evolve only when
the people control their means of communication.
-- Frantz Fanon
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