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WORLDWIDE (by Jiri Polak) Since the 1990s, it becomes increasingly evident that purely representative systems, based on the rule by political parties, are becoming untenable in the long run. The parties emerged in societies very different from those we live in at present. Having once been quite adequate representatives of citizens, party politicians have evolved into parasitic oligarchies. Our era is reminiscent of the ancien régime preceding the great French Revolution of 1789. Several political thinkers, including myself, have put forward visions of future truly democratic systems. Some of these visions have been presented in this Newsletter. The global DD movement also develops various types of strategy, hopefully resulting in the realization of these visions. Let us sum up these types and try to assess their value for the impending transition. 1.Local discussion groups. This is probably an indispensable beginning of every movement. The internet has dramatically increased opportunities for contacts and debates producing synergetic effects. Still, this is only the first step. 2.Local organisations. Such organizations seem to exist in most European countries and in many countries of both Northern and Latin America. You can also find them in Australia, New Zealand and Japan. They are probably registered with the authorities of their respective countries, but do not present themselves for elections as political parties. The most important among them is surely Mehr Demokratie e.V. in Germany, where it has achieved concrete results (inclusion of the right to I&R in the Constitution of Bavaria and Hamburg etc.). Important organizations exist in the USA, Holland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Spain, Italy, France, Canada, etc. 3. Local political parties. These parties only participate in local elections and only focus on problems concernig their town or region. For example, according to some sources, in Sweden, there are about 100 local parties, while there are 7 parties represented in Parliament. Among these local parties, one or two promote DD (e.g. Demoex in Valentuna). 4. Nation-wide political parties, either overtly promoting DD, or including DD procedures in their programs. E.g. Partido dos Trabalhadores in Brazil, European Sympolitia, Direct Democracy Party in Greece, Aktiv Demokrati in Sweden and others. 5. Direct citizen participation in budget processes (Porto Alegre, Albacete and other towns in Spain and France ...) 6. Citizen Deliberative Councils (Electronic town meetings in the USA, Citizen Juries in the USA, Great Britain and probably some other countries, Planning Cells in Germany and elsewhere, Scientific Deliberative Polling in the USA).... 7. Citizen Constitutions. The first document of this type is, of course, the Constitution of the USA (1789). It is dubious whether this really should be called a Citizens´ Constitution, but its historical importance cannot be denied. Only in the 1990s, a DD amendment to this Constitution was put forward by Senator Mike Gravel and his organization (Philadelphia II, later National Initiative for Democracy). In 2004, the Czech MDD published a draft of a Citizens´ Constitution for Czech Republic. At the time of writing, a few activists in Holland are beginnig to compile a draft of a Citizens´ Constitution for the EU. 8. Informal international networks using the internet. Without these networks, the global DD movement would not exist. 9. Formal international organizations. To my knowledge, about five attempts of this type have been made, so far without any palpable results. 10. Social Forums promoting
anti-establishment standpoints in a spontaneous way. THE SMILING MONSTER A few American voices: (quotations from a letter sent by Mr.Victor Guest to the Simpol discussion channel on 26 September 04): "Forwarded with Compliments of Free Voice of America (FVOA): Accurate and Interesting Commentary for America´s Huddled Masses yearning to Breath Free." Interview of Stanley Hilton, attorney for 9/11 taxpayers´ lawsuit, Alex Jones Radio Show "AJ: He is back with us. He is former Bob Dole´s chief of staff, very successful counselor, lawyer. He represents hundreds of the victim families of 9/11. He is suing Bush for involvement in 9/11. Now a major Zogby poll out - half of New Yorkers think the government was involved in 9/11. ... "We´ll have to recap this when we start the next hour, but just in a nutshell, you have a lawsuit going, you´ve deposed a lot of military officers. You know the truth of 9/11. Just in a nutshell, what is your case alleging? SH: Our case is alleging that Bush and his puppets Rice and Cheney and Mueller and Rumsfeld and so forth, Tenet, were all involved not only in aiding and abetting and allowing 9/11 to happen but in actually ordering it to happen. Bush personally ordered it to happen. We have some very incriminating documents as well as eye-witnesses, that Bush personally ordered this event to happen in order to gain political advantage, to pursue a bogus political agenda on behalf of the neocons and their deluded thinking in the Middle East. I also wanted to point out that, just quickly, I went to school with some of these neocons. At the University of Chicago, in the late 60s with Wolfowitz and Feith and several of the others and so I know these people personally. And we used to talk about this stuff all of the time. And I did my senior thesis on this very subject - how to turn the U.S. into a presidential dictatorship by manufacturing a bogus Pearl Harbor event. So, technically this has been in the planning at least 35 years. ..... " INTERNATIONAL USA 2 September, information from
Mr.Miroslav Kolar: New submission to http://democracy.mkolar.org/newURL.html
LINK: http://ReclaimDemocracy.org 27 September, a letter from Mr.Al Smith, Founder & Interim Director, www.MajorityVoice.com - Humanity´s Tool for Self-Rule (excerpt): "The first country (and it could be any country) to institute actual democracy will quickly become the shinig example for all the world to follow. Literal democracy will ebb the tide of corrupt laws, statutes and regulations which further enable the bleedership and banksters to bleed public wealth. Those increased public funds and a more public-need-attentive legislature (fearing loss of votes) will quickly increase the efficiency and honesty of that country´s government, providing their public even more assets with which the public good can be more greatly secured enabling that country to make quantum leaps toward a prosperous, equitable "civilization". Such a country would quickly attract the world´s attention, admiration and envy, spawning truly democratic processes everywhere. Remember that the structure of any currently so-called "democratic" government need not be changed. The only necessary change is the creation of a system which enables all it's citizens to participate effectively in the process of defining and proclaiming the public's true will regarding every issue which concerns them." .... 2 October, excerpt from a letter sent by Mr.J.Lugo to various channels: "It must now be asked if the current system can reform itself? ... No! ... Because this has already been tried with the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill of 2002. This bill was fought tooth and nail by both the Republicans and the Democrats. When it was finally passed, it had so many loop holes in it that it was useless. So, since both the Republicans and the Democrats proved that they like the current system, this means that they are unwilling to change it, therefore, it's up to the people to change the system by means of a voter referendum, so some organization is needed here. The current system is a mess and I think we will be better off without it. So, what do you think, if you agree that we should ban all political contributions and establish a weekly nationalized TV show for a three month long series of weekly presidential debates before an election, then send a blank email to 4it@ddtv.org "
30 October,
an information supplied by Mr.Lee Gottlieb (abbreviated): www.voicesfordd.com and take a look at the book called A Theory of Subversion which offers a different viewpoint of American history. One which theorizes how a group of rich Americans, who tried to help the German Nazis conquer a world that included the United States immediately changed strategies after Hitler's military defeat, and have since been frightfully successful with their economic assaults to conquer the nations of Earth. The book also describes a fictional working direct democracy called America: a vision of what the future can be if the will to create it exists. The book is in PDF format and can be downloaded and read at your leisure. ..... What is necessary is a change of the American system from one that favors wealthy, white males to one that attends the welfare of all citizens. It's removing the resources and power of the republic from their grip by changing the American system from a "representative" to a "direct" democracy. Nothing else will succeed, not the initiative nor referendum devices, for these are mere patches upon a system originally designed to keep political power from minorities and working whites. American newspapers, magazines, radio, and television are all controlled by these wealthy bullies, and working Americans rarely receive the information of the truths necessary to make sound decisions. I ask the help of all of you reading this mail who are not American citizens. Telling your American friends and associates about the website www.voicesfordd.com and the real possibility of creating a better and fairer world for all would be the equivalent of casting your vote in favor of the change. I beg you to cast your vote." GERMANY 30 September, from a letter sent by Mr.Vladimir Rott to the democracy-europe discussion channel: "Germany moves further on referendum path. Germany is one step further on its path to legalising referendums in the country after the ruling Social Democrats and Greens agreed on a possible text for the new law." Article: http://euobserver.com/?aid=17405&rk=1 The founder and most prominent representative of the European deliberative approach to Direct Democracy, Prof.Ph.D. Peter C. Dienel, head of the Forschungsstelle Bürger-beteiligung & Planungsverfahren, Bergische Universität Wuppertal. Inventor of the Planungszelle. Born in Berlin 1923; in 1951 graduated from Humboldt-Universität (Ev.Theologie); then stay abroad (among other Boston, Mass USA). Cooperation with Mr.Ned Crossby, founder and president of the Jefferson Center. 1961-67: Tagungsleiter, Ev.Akademie Loccum (among other focus on city planning, social policy, research planning, politics etc.) 1962 obtained a degree in sociology with Prof.Helmut Schelsky. 1968-1969 Planungsstab, Staatskanzlei des Landes NRW; simultaneously: chair of Sociology, PH Rheinland, Abt. Wuppertal. July 1969 ordinary Professor of Sociology and Social Pedagogy. Having discovered deficiencies in state planning, he designed and developed the Planning Cell. In 2002, Prof.Dienel was decorated with Bundesverdienstkreuz I. Klasse. The basic principles of the Planungszelle model:
(In spite of worldwide attention and appreciation, it seems that the democratic potential of the PCs is not yet fully understood, not even among the mainstream I&R advocates. However, the PCs - called there Citizen Commissions - have become one of the most important components of the draft of the Czech Citizen´s Constitution. Hopefully, the idea will successively spread to other countries.) Some recent works: Article Frischenzellenkur für die direkte Demokratie; In einer "Planungszelle" erstellten Bürger in Bayern Gutachten zur Gesundheitsreform. Tagung in Berlin (taz 28.05.2004) by Sebastian Sedlmayr Alles altert - der Staat könnte jung bleiben - A paper presented by Prof.Dienel to Harvard Business manager Contacts: dienel@uni-wuppertal.de UK New websites: http://www.goodworldmovement.net
9 October, information from Dr.Michael Macpherson: http://www.iniref.org/conf.html Direct democracy conference London, LSE
October 16-17 2004 SPAIN 27 October, from a letter sent
by Mr.Leopoldo Salgui to the democracy-europe discussion
channel: "AnotherDem is an original initiative in the democrat
activism arena, based mainly on the Net, though small physical groups have grown
in Barcelona and Madrid. AnotherDem was born in the Spanish local/regional elections in 2003. Then, a tiny group of democrat activists decided to overcome the classic tools of activism (websites, mail lists, ...) and created the concept of Trojan Iniciative. They had two tiny political parties, and decided to create an electoral coalition with a message as name: Another Democracy Is Possible and an aggressive logo (a hand voting into a bathroom). In the Net, they called people to join freely the electoral lists. Over a thousand independent persons joined the electoral lists, completing the electoral lists of two regions (Madrid and Valencia) and 22 big towns. Thanks to this approach, electoral time in radio and TV was available to promote the message: Another Democracy Is Possible. I did not participate in those elections. I am
an "old" democrat activist, member of a residual group of radical
democracy: I was closely watching those activities and I was surprised by the experience. I discovered the strength of the concept of Trojan Initiative. On the second day of those elections, I registered with the AnotherDem´s forum, and began to work actively in the project." To obtain more information, you are invited to
have a look at: "In every new election, many independent people fill the electoral lists. In the latest national election (March 2004), the concept of Trojan Initiative was generalized. Taking the opportunity of the national elections, More Trojan Initiatives were set up: ..........." CZECH REPUBLIC A poll organized by the Center for Research into Public Opinion at the Sociological Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences gave the following results: Degree of Satisfaction with the Government - percentage of satisfied citizens: Those satisfied with the program promulgated
by the Government: Those satisfied with the communication between
the Government and the public: Those satisfied with the work of the
Government: Those satisfied with the individuals forming
the Government: The demands scheduled to be put forward and addressed to the Government by petition at the Anti-governmental Demonstration organized in Prague on 17th November 2004: 1. Reduction of taxes; 2. Reduction of the salaries of the members of Government to at most double the average salary of the inhabitants of Czech Republic; 3. Regular and open reporting and publication of the financial transactions of the State: 4. Simplification of laws; 5. Increased support of nativity; 6. Prohibition of the MPs´ entrepreneurial activities, including their participation in Boards of Directors; 7. The same duties and privileges for members of Government and ordinary citizens; STOP FOR THE IMMUNITY OF MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT; 8. Always open voting in Parliament and Government; 9. The same health care and social benefits for the MPs and ordinary citizens; 10. Reduction of the debt of State; 11. Increased support for small- and medium-scale enterprise; 12. Increased state control over the banks; 13. Legalization of referendum and broadening of its competence. When shall we see people in other countries raising similar demands????????? SWEDEN Recently, the Swedish social democratic minority government declared that Sweden would start closing nuclear plants from 2005 on. This under the influence of two small anti-nuclear parties (Left-wing - former Communist - and the Greens) whose parliamentary support the Government needs to survive. However, according to polls, 64 % of the Swedes want to go on using nuclear energy as long as the plants are in good shape. Among social democratic voters, about 71 % (including some MPs) are in favor of continuing use. Even among grassroot voters of the antinuclear parties, the majority are against premature closure. The standpoint of the Government (although not expressed in so many words) is the following: "We don't give a damn what the citizens want. They don't understand what's good for them. We must explain to them that they are wrong and that they have to obey. No referendum may be held because it would probably go against us, which is unacceptable. We must stay in power, it's best for the country (and for us, so that we can go on doing what we want and having a good time)!" AUSTRALIA 27 October. A person (signature David) sent an information to the NewPoliticalSystem discussion channel stating that he had established a new political party called Active Democracy. HOW SAFE IS INTERNET VOTING? 24 September, from a letter sent by Mr.Vladimir Rott to the democracy-europe discussion channel: "Residents of four municipalities in canton Geneva will be able to cast their ballots online in Sunday's nationwide votes. But critics of the electronic voting pilot project say that it offers no real advantages and is a waste of money." ... "Officials said the system could not be broken into by computer hackers and that the server collecting the data was located in a secure room at police headquarters in Geneva. Those eligible to vote have been given a tamper-proof, single-use personal identification number which they are required to use when logging on to the virtual ballot box." .... "Project leader Daniel Brandil said he did not anticipate any problems with the counting of electronic votes." .... "But Petra Baumberger, an e-government specialist at Bern's Technical University, is sceptical about the future of online voting. ´Postal ballots long ago cancelled out the main advantage of voting electronically, which is to be able to vote without having to go to the polling booth,´ she said. Baumberger admits that electronic voting may temporarily swell the number of people casting ballots, but she considers the project to be a "luxury" public service." ...... "Successful trials of online voting at a local level in canton Geneva have prompted the government to build on plans to extend the project across the country. Internet voting experiments in Zürich and Neuchâtel are expected to follow next year. The federal government is footing up to 80 per cent of the costs of the trial projects, which are expected to reach up to SFr 7 million ($ 5.5 million). The Swiss authorities are expected to decide whether and how to pursue the idea of electronic voting in 2007." "But cantons which have not so far been involved in the trials have shown themselves to be less than enthusiastic about online ballots. While canton Bern is considering the idea, officials in St Gallen, Lucerne and Graubünden have decided to wait and see how the trial projects work elsewhere. ´Right now, electronic voting seems like an expensive investment and of little real use,´ said Kuno Schedler of St Gallen University´s Center of Excellence for Electronic Government." swissinfo, based on an article published by
NZZ (in German) For some time we at Citizens´ Initiative and Referendum I&R http://www.iniref.org have advocated that collecting endorsements of a proposal (for citizens´ initiative, Volksbegehren and the like) could be done on line. There would be no problem with protecting voters´ identity because signing/endorsing such a proposal is NOT secret. Also, hacking would not be much of a risk because endorsements could be double checked with the citizens who signed. Can anyone comment on experience with e-initiative, i.e. collecting endorsements online, in Switzerland or elsewhere?" Excerpt from an article published in the latest Global Outlook: Silent Death of the TruVote System. Athan Gibbs devoted his life "to making sure voters in future elections would know their votes mattered". He died in a mysterious car crash on Interstate Highway 65 in Tennessee in March. Athan Gibbs´ TruVote system was described as "one of the most promising technologies in the world for fixing democracies". In the wake of the 2000 presidential elections, where more than one million votes went missing, Athan Gibbs invented the TruVote vote-casting system.: "TruVote allows voters to touch their candidates´ names on a computer screen and receive receipts of their vote at the end of the process. They can then go to a Web site, punch in their voter validation number and make sure their vote was recorded." (The Tennessean.com, 14 March 2004). Bob Fitrakis writing in the Global Free Press (17 March 2004), describes Gibbs´ TruVote as a marvel. .... "The voter´s receipt allows the voter to track his particular vote to make sure that it was transferred from the polling place to the election tabulation center." .... Fitrakis seriously doubts that Gibbs´ untimely death was an accident: ´Coincidence theorists will simply dismiss the death of Gibbs as a tragic accident - the same conclusion these coincidence theorists came to when anti-nuclear activist Karen Silkwood died in November 1974 when her car struck a concrete embankment en route to a meeting with New York Times reporter David Burnham. Prominent independent investigators concluded that Silkwood´s car was hit from behind and forced off the road ... Gibbs´ death bears heightened scrutiny because of the way he lived his life after the 2000 Florida election debacle." Summary of the article Corporations have privatized the election process and now potentially control the votes by Steve Moore (Global Outlook, Issue 8 - Summer 2004) "It has been discovered by Bev Harris, that there was a ´back door access´ to Diebold program files, making it possible to change vote totals and erase any audit trail of the hacker´s actions. Diebold's GEMS central server could ´create minus votes´ Diebold spokesman David Bear said, "Yes, negative votes can be entered into GEMS." Rob Behler, who serviced Georgia´s Diebold system during the summer of 2002 said, "Not one of Diebold's 22,000 patched machines in Georgia was evaluated by Wyle and Ciber or thus qualified by NASED (State and Federal certification checkers) to be used in an election in November, 2002." These new black boxes are now in 30 States. According to Newsweek they "will be used by about 28 percent of the country in the November election." "The majority of Americans voted for Al Gore in the 2000 elections. Bush won. He was appointed by a conservative Supreme Court. The majority of Americans will probably vote for John Kerry in the coming 2004 election. Bush may win again! This time, Bush would be appointed by Diebold Elections System, Sequoia Voting Systems, Election Systems and Software and their backers in the military-industrial complex. And Americans will never know the real vote totals because there will not be a paper trail. .... The result will be a bloodless coup, the end of democracy and the installation of a de facto police state. Stealing one election could be called a fluke; stealing two elections is called a "democratic dictatorship". EUROPE The EU Constitution, presented by European oligarchies for ratification or voting, aroused increased activity on the part of European DD organizations and some individuals.
10 August, information sent by Mr.Heiko Dittmer to the democracy-europe discussion channel: A CAMPAIGN OF THE CIVIL SOCIETY CONTACT GROUP EDITORIAL
CIVIL SOCIETY CONTACT GROUP
5 October, information from IRI Europe: IRI Europe Launches
Briefing Service on EU Constitution Referendums By October 5th, eleven countries had announced referendums for 2005 and 2006; in another 13 member states, the issue of holding a referendum will be under consideration over the next months.
Among European DD activists, there are people who believe that a one-sided focus on I&R only, to be included in the nascent oligarchic Constitution, is not sufficient to give Europeans a truly democratic common base. To achieve this objective, ordinary citizens must have the opportunity to amend the existing Constitution in all sections that give power to oligarchies, excluding the citizens. Or else, ordinary citizens should have (or take) the right to write themselves a People's Constitution , excluding the oligarchies. This task has been assumed by a group of well qualified individuals, following the initiative of Ms.Filia den Hollander. 22 August,
from a letter sent by Mr.Vladimir Rott to the International-Democracy
discussion channel: "TAKE THE POLL TO BEGIN ON THE ´CONSTITUTION OF PARTICIPATORY
DEMOCRACY Here below you may find:
JOIN THE EUROPE-WIDE CITIZENS´ GROUP FOR THE CONSTITUTION
OF PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY AT: ................................................................... 5 September,
from a letter by Ms.Filia den Hollander: "Last Wednesday Ken
Kostyo and I had a very fruitful meeting. ..... It turns out that Ken is an
expert on sub-national constitutional law. We brainstormed about if writing an
alternative EU constitution would at all be possible (answer: yes), what
then should be in it, and how to go about with "whispering" it in the
right ears, i.e. a possible strategy to enable people to vote on this
alternative constitution. 27 September, from a letter by Ms.Filia den Hollander (addressed to several persons): Constitution The idea is to write a constitution which
Ratification For example in The Netherlands, but also in other places, a referendum could take place in the following fashion (Swiss model):
Who is who
27 September, from a letter by Mr.Eric Lim sent to NPSForum@yahoogroups.com To go to The Drafting of the People´s
Constitution for Europe, copy this URL: 4 October,
from a letter by Mr.Eric Lim sent to various channels: The strategy employed is described in the
Preface. 7 October, a
letter sent by Mr.Franz Isemann to the cicdd discussion
channel: 16 October,
excerpt from a letter sent by Mr.Leopoldo Salgui to the democracy-europe
discussion channel: "Definitively I cannot understand how democrat
activists could accept a "constitutional" text which keeps banned
every form of referendum (by simple omission), which allows only a degenerate
form of collective petition, and of course does not allow popular initiative for
constitutional amendments. Including also the lack of protection for the
electoral system and the ridiculous role of the unique elected institution, the
European Parliament. 17 October, a letter by Mr.Leopoldo Salgui sent to the democracy-europe discussion channel: "On 20th February, a consultative
plebiscite on the self-proclaimed constitution is scheduled to be held in Spain. 28 October, a letter sent to the democracy-europe discussion channel by Mr.Paul Carline: "I agree very strongly with Jiri. One of
the (false) assumptions of purely representative democracy is that we - the
people - are not competent to ´govern´ ourselves (including designing the
rules or laws and institutions which we recognise the need for) and that this
important and difficult task must be left to ´experts´. (Thank you, Paul! Admirably put! JP) 29 October, a letter sent by Mr.Bruce Eggum to the democracy-europe discussion channel: "I agree, Paul: ´The PRIMARY function of
a new citizens´ constitution for Europe would be to set out the alternative
VISION for Europe and the ideals and principles which must inform the
implementation of that vision." SIMPOL 7 September, an article sent by Mr.Mike Brady to the simpol discussion channel: "The following article on the SP pledge received from Cambridge MP, Anne Campbell, appeared in the Cambridge Evening News on 4 September with a picture of Anne." ... MP supports global change Available on-line at http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/search/dispstory.asp?id=60955&db=1 Anne Campbell has
pledged to support a policy to address global problems such as climate change
and unfair trade. Mike Brady, co-ordinator of CAMSPAG, said: "I am delighted Anne has signed up and hope she will encourage her colleagues in Parliament to do the same." In Cambridge, SP Adopters have held public meetings on possible strands for inclusion in the policy package, such as making all trade fair trade, achieving sustainable energy use, and food security for all." See www.simpol.org.uk for more information. 2 October, information sent by Mr.Mike Brady to the simpol discussion channel: "This is to inform you that the promised Simultaneous Policy campaign pack is now available at http://spdev.gn.apc.org/campaignpack/packindex.html . The pack contains information and advice and resources to help you in your campaigning. The methods (developed through experience on other campaigns) have been tried and adapted in Cambridge in particular, where we have persuaded our MP to sign the pledge to implement SP, have had a lot of local media coverage and are signing up Adopters. So the pack is a good starting point for those of you new to campaigning. Having said that, we are all going through a learning process in promoting the SP campaign so your feedback is most welcome. If there is anything in the pack which is unclear or contradicts your own experience, please let me know. If there is information on a particular area that you would like to see included or other resources, again please let me know. The pack on the site will be updated as the campaign develops. We will also be producing printed copies for those who would prefer to receive it in this way for which there will be a small charge (probably £ 5). If you are interested in receiving a printed copy, please let me know so we can decide how many to print. For those who prefer accessing information in a different way, a training film will be available on DVD and video at the AGM on 16 October. Details of how to order this will be available shortly." 13 October,
information supplied by Mr.John Bunzl: It features: "Water is a global commons" by Franklin Frederick of Citizens for Water (Brazil)
A quick explanation of the SP campaign and how to "adopt" SP follows at the end of this message. For more details, please visit our website." ............. Merry Christmas and further progress in the DD year of 2005! |
