PPI-014-Readers Forum

1998-04-23

Richard Moore

                  PEOPLES PRESS INTERNATIONAL (PPI)
 - a public service of CADRE (Citizens for a Democratic Renaissance) -

              CADRE home page -> http://cyberjournal.org
      PPI home page -> http://cyberjournal.org/cadre/PPI-archives
      CADRE library -> http://cyberjournal.org/cadre/cadre-library

              - Republication permission granted for
                 non-commercial and small-press use,
           with all sig & header info incorporated, please.
                       014-readers-forum.txt


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Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998
Sender: "Adkins, Gerald" <•••@••.•••>
Subject: RE: PPI-013-CADRE-Status-Report

Richard, thank you for this terrific outline of the significant progress
you and CADRE a making.  As a citizen of the USA I would like you to
point out in your speech how disaffected many in the US are with the
usurpation of our government by corporate entities.  The entire Congress
is bought and paid for by corporate entities.  "We the people" are
getting short shrifted and at the same time our quality of life is
declining.  For the benefit of our friends across the Atlantic and
Pacific, I would like to remind them that only a few Americans are
well-off.  Don't believe all you see on commercial television.  Jerry

G. C.  Adkins, M.S.
Human Resources Director
Saint Martin's College, Lacey, Wa.  98503-1297
ph:  (360) 438 4495 (direct line)
fx::  (360) 412-6199

        *       always be kinder than necessary

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Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998
Sender: Daniel del Solar <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Re: PPI-012-PPI-Status-Report

you might seek editorial/webpage help on this very worthy project. Being Cadre
Chief *is* time-consuming and there are doubtless others who will help you with
some of the tasks. Put out a call, dear Cadre Chief, for help. You may even get
it.

brother/comrade/cadre Daniel

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Dear Daniel,

How right you are.  There are several of us on the cadre team, and everyone
works hard and is dedicated, but we definitely need more help.  Here are
our most urgent needs, as I see them at 12.55 on 23 April, GMT:

        - website maintenance and upgrades
        - fund raising
        - editing / selecting material for PPI
        - library stocking
        - helping Jan with outreach -> •••@••.••• (Jan Slakov)

-rkm

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Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998
Sender: •••@••.••• (Blue Canary)
Subject: Re:  PPI-013-CADRE-Status-Report

 >Their _terms are a surrender of national sovereignty to a faceless
 >bureaucracy of corporate-appointed commissions (WTO, IMF, OECD, etc).  This
 >is the New World Order that right-wing folks talk about, and they're right:
 >our constitutions _are being sold out by _traitors in our national
 >governments.  Our freedom and democracy are being betrayed.  By rights, the
 >so-called "leaders" should all be tried for treason and embezzlement (aka
 >privatization), or at a minimum impeached.

Hello,

Have been enjoying your list.  By way of a brief introduction:
Recently I received my MS in physics.  Currently I am a full-time
graduate student at The Naropa Institute in the MA Environmental
Leadership program which is three years old.  Also an active program
at The Naropa Institute is Engaged Buddhism.  Naropa is Buddhist
inspired but secular.  It is unique for its contemplative mandate
in education and activism as also taught in both these programs and
others.

I am concerned about your comment for punishment and your "anti-
government" attitude which are both very understandable.
However, is it wise to spend our engergies on punishing "government"?
Is it not better to spend our energies on developing compassion and
understanding?

One of the aspects of the propaganda machinery is to pit "government"
against the people.  Really, our strongest weapon against global
corporatization is government.  Compassion and understanding might
be a powerful way to find a means of collaborating with government
against corporatization.  Let us not fall for the anti-government
propaganda of corporations.  Government is still the best bet we
have against them.  We need to find a way to assist government in
developing alternatives to global corporatization.

Cheers,
Claudia

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Dear Claudia,

Thank you very much for your observations.  As a matter of fact I've
written many times myself about how demonization of government is a ruse to
destroy democracy altogether.  We are in fact in full agreement.  But oh
the subtleties involved.  My complaint, above, is about how those currently
in office are sabotaging the infrastructure which they swore on oath to
uphold -- they are purposely destroying government from within.  My
complaint is warranted, and they should be impeached.

But our Constitution (.edu => USA) and our governmental structure, as you
say, deserve respect.  The best way we can "assist government", in my
opinion, is for the people to arise and elect their own slate of candidates
who take their oath to support the Constitution seriously.

Please stay in touch,
rkm


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Date: Sat, 18 Apr 1998
Sender: •••@••.••• (John Lowry)
Subject: Re: PPI-013-CADRE-Status-Report

Our demand should be to democratize the corporations, with full stakeholder
standing in their governance, and have the people decide which should be
dismantled and how the rest should be run.  Private property should be just
that -- property that is private to you.


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Date: Sun, 19 Apr 1998
Sender: "Lynette" <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Soapbox - The War on the Wharfies
        http://www.users.bigpond.com/Takver/soapbox


Hello
I'm wondering if you have heard of the Australian wharfs dispute
in your neck of the woods.

It appears to be a set-up by the companies to destroy the
wharfies unions. There was a deal in the Australian press a while
ago when it was leaked that the government had sent off-duty
armed forces personnel overseas to be trained, in secret, in
wharf work (sorry, I'm no good on the terminology).

Now of course, having been caught out already on that point and
having had to step back from that plan because of public outcry,
the government is claiming loudly that it would never send in the
armed forces to end a labour dispute+ACE- Naturally they won't now,
but that is quite obviously what was being planned.

This also means that this dispute, supposedly between the private
companies and the labour workforce, has been in planning with
government backing/support, for some time.

And it is VERY apparent that the company (can't remember the
name) is setting up a major courtcase against the Maritime Union
that could have major repercussions, in terms of precedent, for
Australian workers in any field.

I've sent a URL that gives details, and it also has a link to the
Maritime Union of Australia webpage. I'm hoping that at least we
can let others know what is going on here, which can only be a
test for larger scale programs elsewhere and later.

Love
Lynette F. Watters

Love is the Law. Love under will.

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Dear Lynette,

There's been a lot about this on Michael Eisenscher's list, and thanks for
your heads up.  When these kinds of thing happen it is important to see the
global connections.  There's been a major dock confrontation going on in
the UK for some time as well.  The press always reports such events as
national phenomena, it's up to us to point out that they are all responses
to the same corporate assault.

rkm

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Date: Sun, 19 Apr 1998
Sender: Global Times <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Re: PPI-008-"Globalization and the Revolutionary Imperative"

> * ANNOUNCEMENT  BOOK IN PROGRESS *
>         "Globalization and the Revolutionary Imperative"
>          - an annotated collection of topical essays -


Please keep us in mind for a review copy of this book when it comes out.
It sounds like just the kind of thing we would want to promote.

Many thanks,
Brian Hammer
editor
Global Times
Platanvej 30
1810 Frederiksberg C
Denmark

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Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998
Sender: "Nadia McLaren" <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Re: Sahtouris-1/3-"The Biology of Globalization"

Hi,

I'm having a problem finding this text.  THE URL has something
missing in the middle /.../. I've tried  various approaches on your
website, but no luck yet.  Help please.

Thanks, Nadia
    >                        "The Biology of Globalization"
    >                     Copyright 1997 by Elisabet Sahtouris
    >          http://cyberjournal.org/.../Biology-of-Globalization.txt

Nadia McLaren
Union of International Associations
Rue Washington 40
B-1050 Brussels, BELGIUM
Tel: (32 2) 640.18.08 Fax: 646.05.25
WWW: http://www.uia.org/ E-mail: •••@••.•••

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Sorry.  The way to find all articles is to go to the PPI home page:
    http://cyberjournal.org/cadre/PPI-archives

>>From there the archive material can easily be accessed.

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Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998
From: Glenda Robertson <•••@••.•••>
To: "Richard K. Moore" <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Re: PPI-013-CADRE-Status-Report
Organization: Calgary Community Network Assoc.

Hello, Richard.

I've been reading the CJ for a while and think your cause is worthwhile.
I read that you will be speaking about the WTO to an NGO meeting in the
near future.  From the sounds of it, you'll not do a great deal of good.

Revolutionaries and others wanting change often fling all sorts of
vituperation at the organizations they believe to be 'evil', etc.  All
this does is set up a polarity, which can never be helpful.  After all,
these organizations are made up of fallible humans.  Some may well be the
greedy, evil monsters you envision, but a lot more are just regular humans
who may have skewed values and may need a reality check.  However, as soon
as you slang them all, you end your chance of getting any of them to
rethink their actions and maybe even change.  This is how conflicts start
- you personify the other guy as evil and he personifies you as evil and
then there is zero hope of dialogue.

I'd far rather see you present excellent, indisputable facts about the
effects the WTO's policies are having which you think are bad or dangerous
for humanity.  Check out the sorts of reports they have been producing,
and then counter them, if you can.  You want to wake people up, not sound
so rabid that people will think you a flake and reject both you and any
good ideas you may have.  Raise red flags but don't wave red cloths in
front of the bulls.

Plenty of good causes have been ruined by extremism - don't fall into this
trap or you will spoil all you wish to accomplish and reasonable people
who might be attracted to your cause and persuaded by your ideas will shun
you instead.  Is this what you want?  You have an opportunity to make a
difference and perhaps create awareness of the problems you foresee.
Don't blow it by sounding like another extremist wacko, please.

International organizations, particularly those under the auspices of the
UN, were mostly set up with the best of intentions by people with noble
aspirations in a kinder age.  It may well be that they've been co-opted to
less noble purposes, but you'll go farther to point out the original
intentions behind the setup of the organization and how it may have
strayed than to simply trash it outright.  It would even help to point out
the good things which it has accomplished in the past and then contrast
the potentially harmful things it is planning nowadays and demonstrate how
it's strayed from its original noble purpose. These are the sorts of
arguments which will persuade regular people that you might have a good
cause.

Remember, credibility is everything.  It sounds like you're getting
opportunities to establish yours.  Aim to be a Nelson Mandela or a Desmond
Tutu rather than another conspiracy theorist.

Glenda Robertson

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Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998
Sender: valis <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Re: PPI-012-PPI-Status-Report: a suggestion

> PPI aims to be a "small town newspaper for the global village".  I, for the
> time being, am playing the role of "campaigning editor-publisher" of this
> small-town paper.  In a small town, an editor might make a campaign out of
> a "needed new playground for the kids", _this small-town editor is making a
> campaign out of a "new democracy for the people".  Same idea, same style,
> just a different scale.

PPI as a global Daily Blah?  OK by me, but what should its regular
subjects be?  I suggest that one of them should definitely be Germany.
Since this great and often troubled country seems to have conquered Europe
without firing a shot, its needs and internal quarrels should always have
a high priority.  I consider the German national election, in September,
to be the most important scheduled event this year anywhere in the world;
the run-up to it should be carefully observed for all the key people
and systemic contradictions that will be cast into bold relief.
Richard, you should look for a few accomplished Germany-watchers
at this Liverpool conclave.
                                                                   valis
                        "Poverty is violence."
                         -- Julianne Malveaux
                            (U. of California)

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Mon ami, if you see it as the "most important scheduled event this year
anywhere in the world" then surely you must have some words for us as to
why, so as kick off the thread, n'est pas?

I agree about the central role of Germany, and in fact I suggest that if
you focus on Germany's role in Western Europe you may be missing the main
act.  Germany's overt attitude continues to be imperialistic, and as usual
its main focus is Eastward and Southward; Europe is to be stablized, as a
base of operations, just as in WWII.

The whole Yugoslav destabilization episode has been largely a German
affair.  They are the ones who arm-twisted the European Commission into
approving Croation independence, which everyone _knew would lead to the
carnage in Bosnia.  It was in this backroom exchange that the UK got its
exclusion from the Social Chapter.

The recent NATO expansion followed precisely the boundaries of the
traditional German "sphere of influence".  We're seeing the _entire WWII
scenario being repeated, "without firing a shot", not just the Western
part.

But one can make too much of this, just as one can look at the world and
say it's dominated by the USA.  The USA and Germany are both firmly under
the control of the global capitalist elite and their actions must be
interpreted in that light.

Militarily, compared to the USA, Germany is a non-entity.  Germany and
Israel would be a closer match.  An out-of-control Germany is not one of
the possibilities, if that is what you fear.

The world regime which is being set up is based on regional factionalism
(see: SP Huntington, "Clash of Civilizations"), and Germany has obviously
been designated the "regional strongman" for Eastern Europe.

Send us some info,
rkm

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       ~-===================================================-~
                  "Seeking an Effective Democratic
                      Response to Globalization
                        and Corporate Power"

         - an international workshop for activist leaders -
*>--->  June 25 <incl> July 2 - 1998 - Nova Scotia - Canada

       > Organized by: Citizens for a Democratic Renaissance <
       ~-===================================================-~


          ~================================================~
                  Restore democratic sovereignty
                  Create a sane and livable world
             Bring corporate globalization under control.
          * CITIZENS FOR A DEMOCRATIC RENAISSANCE (CADRE) *
                      http://cyberjournal.org
                   mailto:•••@••.•••
          ~================================================~


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     Posted by: Richard K. Moore | PO Box 26, Wexford, Ireland
  mailto:•••@••.••• | http://cyberjournal.org
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