Monthly Archives: April 2014

Creating Democracy

Doesn’t it make sense to have creative flexible social relationships which benefit everyone?  We can create democratic structures specifically designed for each situation as a living, growing, learning process for all involved.  People all over the world are calling for democracy in their governments and work places.  They are building on the inspiration of the original dream of freedom on which the United States was founded.  The people of Tunisia are creating a government more democratic than our own.  They are learning from our omissions writing into their constitution equal rights for women and rights for the environment.  Organizations in our country are waking up to new democratic directions.  Despite or perhaps because of economic disparity, we are moving toward fairly compensating workers and giving women equal pay.  Social change which previously took millennia to occur is now occurring in decades and sometimes instantly. Change can come in the twinkling of an eye1.

 

Creative democracy enters the work place through CEO‘s and investors honoring, respecting and compensating workers for the fruits of their labor, giving workers a share of the profits of their labor. These are simple and powerful concepts whose time has come.  In the United States and around the world workers are beginning to create their own democratic corporations and to hire their own CEO’s.

 

Corporations are not bad. How corporations are organized, what their intentions are, and how their intentions are implemented are what make the difference as to whether a corporation is destructive or beneficial.   Profit is not bad.  The question is how are the profits used and to whose benefit.  Profits have the potential of creating great good.

 

 We learned from the totalitarian governments that top down management can be economically deadly.  When workers are compensated fairly, when they have ownership and participate in decision making: enthusiasm, inspiration and creativity flourish.  Quality and profits increase for everyone when workers are invested in the outcome of their labor.  When workers are in charge, they are more likely to produce products which benefit their community and environment.  

 

Purchasers of goods and services recognize the benefits of cooperative efforts. Creative democratic efforts flourish.  The companies and the workers thrive, as well as, the whole community when creative democratic organization is in place.  People appreciate and support organizations founded on right relationships.

1 Findhorn song

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Ed Ponder

In 1980 I had a powerful dream unlike any other I have had before or since that time.  When I awoke I told a friend, that I would be the first woman president of the United States.  His reply was that he didn’t think so.

I had to agree with him that it was an unlikely possibility.  The vision stayed with me over the years.  In 1989 I was attending a visioning workshop for coaches to assist the Chicago Public Schools to come up to national standards.  The vision workshop facilitator said that to implement your vision you have to share it.  I realized I was terrified at the thought of sharing my vision of becoming the first woman president.

Shortly after the visioning workshop I was at an organizational meeting for Earth Day ’90.  A stranger came up to me and asked me, “What do you do?”  I thought this was my chance to lean into sharing my vision.  I told him that I was running for president of the United States.  He asked me, “When?”.  I quickly calculated that the soonest I could be ready was 2004.  He responded that I looked like I was ready now.  He offered to take me home and gave me his card.  A year later I called him up telling him I decided to run for president in 1992.  We spent the next 9 years living and working together.

It turned out that man was Ed Ponder.  Ed is credited in the Illinois Blue Book as being the founder of the Environmental   Protection Agency.  He was instrumental in founding the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency which was used as the blueprint for founding the United States Environmental Protection Agency.  Ed became my mentor.  We worked for 9 years on technology to take all organic waste and turn it into products.  This technology is now being used all over the world to empower people to use their own waste as their source of energy.

  Ed supported my presidential campaign in 1992.  I ran for president again in 2004.  I have no intention of campaigning now for the presidential office. I am deeply committed to doing whatever I can do to assist our nation and the world toward healing solutions to the challenges we are now facing.  I believe a tremendous transformation is coming forward on all levels of our society.  Together we are the ones who can and will make that transformation wonderful.  I have given 34 years of thought to the changes which will make a lasting positive difference in our lives.   Which solutions we choose will make all the difference for our futures.  Deepening democracy is the key.

 

 

 

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Deepening Democracy Begins

Deepening Democracy Action Steps

The word “democracy” comes from the Greek words “power” and “people”.  Deepening Democracy is a movement taking place all over the world.  Deepening democracy in the financial sector brings greater wealth for all.  Deepening Democracy is not against corporations or against the wealthy. Empowering people is the purpose of democracies.  Cooperatives are about empowering people.  Deepening Democracy is about everyone thriving, everyone benefitting.  It is about abundance for all.

For hundreds of years there were kings and queens, royalty and serfs or peasants. The royalty controlled most of the wealth. Remember Robin Hood, even the animals in the forests belonged to the king.   In those days the serfs and peasants barely had enough wealth to clothe and feed themselves while royalty feasted. We inherited this system. Today there are full time workers who do not earn enough to feed themselves, and cannot pay their bills while CEO’s and stockholders feast. People are losing their homes while their pensions which the company promised them disappear. Just as in those olden times, those at the bottom are proportionally taxed the most.  This system is not democratic.  It does not support the power of people.

A democratic solution to our financial inequality today is cooperative action in the financial sector. There are many forms of cooperatives. A wonderful example of cooperative enterprise is the successful Mondragon Cooperative in the Basque region of Spain. Mondragon is the 10th largest corporation in Spain with 289 companies and cooperatives, 800,321 people and 15 technology centers. There are many companies in the United States which are successfully implementing cooperative practices. Southwest Airlines is an example of a successful employee ownership culture. My local grocery in Seattle includes the customers in its cooperative governance and profit sharing.  Our Silicon Valley geniuses set up companies with employee centered cultures. Cooperatives are a sign of economic wisdom and even brilliance.  The heart of cooperatives is respecting and valuing workers.

The beauty of cooperatives is that we can start them ourselves. Cooperatives can be worker owned and managed businesses. Cooperatives are a method for creating fairness in the distribution of financial wealth.  In the Basque Mondragon Cooperative the workers hire the CEOs of their enterprises and determine their salaries. The workers select the board of directors. Workers decide what products to manufacture or services to provide. They create the policies which will best serve their intentions.

Cooperatives increase social and environmental responsibility. Because the workers live in the community, they are most likely to choose policies which are for the benefit of the community and the environment. The shift toward worker responsibility becomes a shift toward greater product quality and financial equity, healthier work conditions and thriving community and environments. Enthusiasm and pride in accomplishments increase when workers are the ones making the decisions.

The government can encourage cooperatives through incentives and favorable legislation. For instance when a company decides to close its operating facility to move somewhere else, local governments can have in place legislation which supports, promotes and facilitates the use of the abandoned infrastructure for and by the employees. Such legislation benefits the employees as well as the health of the entire community.  It is important to elect persons who support cooperatives.

We have tremendous genius and power among us. We can create a beautiful healthy peaceful future for all.  Deepening democracy into all aspects of our lives is a key to greater loving caring and sharing, health wealth and happiness, abundance prosperity and riches for all.

 

 

 

 

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