Much is Expected

Natural Rights.

You know we all have them not because some king said so; nor because we have a Declaration which declared them “inalienable” rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; nor because the Constitution guarantees them under the Bill of Rights: freedom of speech, religion and press.

We have natural rights because we are humans living in this world.

Following the horrors of World War II, Eleanor Roosevelt became the driving force behind the United Nations Human Rights Declaration (1.), which clearly identified natural rights as the birthright of people throughout the world, regardless of nationality, religion, race or ethnicity. 

Today, it is painfully clear that our political and corporate contender "leaders" have been drinking from the river Lethe. You remember Lethe from your Greek mythology class. That's the river of forgetfulness and oblivion. The point is that our contenders for leadership have forgotten that we all have natural rights, and perhaps we are more interested in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness than never ending jingoism, puffery and nauseating billionaire butt-kissing.

Failing all this natural rights talk, perhaps, an old statement from a well known publication will get the message across from the 99.9% to the .1%:

“… For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.” Luke 12:48

So, as one of the “many” it's up to us to make a new declaration. Let's declare that anyone, who serves as a representative of the public, deals with public funding or an individual’s investments, or sells any product or service to the public - most especially global corporate CEOs and “C” level managers - must be bound to respect and honor the natural rights of people, including customers and employees not only in their home nation, but worldwide… globally, if you like. 

Finally, the ethics statements and mission statements of all of these "leaders" as well as every Global Corporation must declare and honor the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (2.) and the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact (3.). 

The point is if you are charged with the honor of serving the people of the world as a public leader or global corporation leader, then you are personally bound to respect the natural rights of people throughout the world. Much is expected of you. And, as a contender for that job it's up to you to prove that you are worthy.

What do you think?

1. Brief background about The Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/history.shtml

2. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948: http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml

3. The Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact:

https://www.unglobalcompact.org/what-is-gc/mission/principles

The Movement

An Antidote for Our Corporate Controlled World

How we meet the challenge of the new corporate-controlled world or surrender to it will define the very nature of the world for our children and grandchildren. It is a war in which we may chose to participate or ignore.

The world in which we live is not the same one in which our parents and grandparents enjoyed. It’s not even close. 

• First, the United States has devolved into an oligarchy (1.) more similar to a Fascist empire than a representative democracy.
• Today we are living in a world in which the ruling elite, that is less than one percent of the world population, holds more wealth than the entire remaining seven billion people who inhabit it. (2.)
• Worse, worldwide, our government representatives have sold us out by agreeing to give the global banks and corporations power to overrule federal, state and local laws via the pending, secret, trade treaties, such as the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). (3.) 

Contrary to the ruling majority Supreme Court justices, most humans intuitively know that corporations are not human beings. In fact, corporations have no soul. Surprised? I didn’t think so. Interestingly, it’s only been since the rise of the Robber Barons following the American Civil War that corporations became the chosen means for pillaging public assets and Robber Barons' immunity shields.

Today, driven by their insatiable desire for profit and control, the great grandchildren of the Robber Barons' corporations, the global corporations / banks of today, will be empowered to dissolve our natural rights - the birthright of every person on this planet: the right to life, liberty and happiness via the TPP agreement and others like it.

Explains Sen. Bernie Sanders, “Let’s be clear: the TPP is much more than a “free trade” agreement. It is part of a global race to the bottom to boost the profits of large corporations and Wall Street by outsourcing jobs; undercutting worker rights; dismantling labor, environmental, health, food safety and financial laws; and allowing corporations to challenge our laws in international tribunals rather than our own court system. If TPP was such a good deal for America, the administration should have the courage to show the American people exactly what is in this deal, instead of keeping the content of the TPP a secret.” 

The Movement

What can we do to stop the dismemberment of our natural rights?

We can not expect support from our government representatives because they only respond to the desires of the oligarchy, as the Gilens/Fulcher study underscores. (Please see Resource 1 below.). And, even if they did, we still face the enormous Oz-like omnipotent global corporations / banks.

That said, ultimately, with the intrinsic power of seven billion human beings alone, we have the inherent, herculean strength to transform our world economic system from predatory capitalism into a new, humane one. 

How would a new economic system look?

Pope Francis recently described the new economic system as a system which does not "sacrifice human lives on the altar of money and profit”, but ensures the poor the "sacred rights of labor, lodging and land”. (4.)

Dr. Benjamin R. Barber: “The revolution has started. In 1776, the American colonists protested that the English monarch no longer exercised sovereignty on behalf of their lives, liberties and estates, that in effect English sovereignty was in default. Today, the cities of the world, where more than half the world's population lives, and where 80 percent of its wealth is generated, are protesting that the nations to which they are subsidiary no longer are able to guarantee their long-term sustainability in the face of climate change, nuclear proliferation, global disease and unjust global markets, that in the face of dysfunctional national governments and a new default of sovereignty, it is their inherent right to assume the responsibilities of common governance necessary to sustaining their citizens. To do this, they must avail themselves of the legion of urban networks from the UCLG and the C40 to Metropolis, CityNet and the World Cities Summit already in play. But they must also forge new institutions to assure their common and global interests.” (5.)

Here are 12 steps you can take in your hometown

1. Make your community part of The Movement

Work to make your city / metro region united and strong by making the wheels of government turn for US, the 99.9%, then work with other regions globally to resolve common challenges. Explains Dr. Benjamin Barber, the “Devolution to cities is both policy and fact. It is happening and is increasingly being embraced by governments desperate to see action in a world paralyzed by ideology and cant.” 

2. Work locally to reverse Citizen's United vs. Federal Election Commission

3. Work locally to repeal three, Bill of Rights busting laws: 

(a) the USA PATRIOT Act

(Yes, Congress repealed the Patriot Act. But it was in name only. Now we must work to revise the Freedom Act.) 

(b) the Military Commission Act

(c) Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012

4. Establish a Constitution Protection Zone in your city or town.

5. Work locally to re-establish the Glass-Steagall Act

6. Work locally to abolish the CIA

7. Work locally to establish a national public works program to maintain our infrastructure.

8. Work locally to adopt a Robin Hood tax.

9. Create a local, sustainable, distributed energy system in you hometown.

10. Work locally to retrieve the trillions of dollars now being expended through the "Deep Black Ops Budget" and put it to use serving the needs of the people by creating decent paying employment and returning the billions of dollars stolen from the 99.9% during Depression.2.

11. Create a state bank in your state, e.g. North Dakota State Bank and use “crowdfunding” resources rather than international banks to help fund your new businesses.

12. Establish a monthly forum to discuss The Movement and reach out to your neighbors and friends.

The Movement
Philosophers

Gene Sharp

Howard Zinn

Henry A. Giroux

Daniel Sheehan

Chris Hedges 

Ellen Brown

Economists

Paul Krugman

Joseph Stiglitz

Thomas Piketty
Paul Craig Roberts

Futurists

Michel Bauwens

Jeremy Rifkin

Benjamin Barber

Resources

1. “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens”, Dr. Martin Gilens, Professor of Politics at Princeton University, and Dr. Benjamin I. Page, Gordon S. Fulcher Professor of Decision Making at Northwestern University, American Political Science Association, Sept 2014.

2. “Wealth: Having It All and Wanting More,” Deborah Hardoon, Senior Researcher, Oxfam GB; 19 Jan 2015. Go here for a summary statement or here for a PDF of the Oxfam Issue Briefing.

3. “Sen. Bernie Sanders: The Trans Pacific Trade (TPP) Agreement must be Defeated”, 29 Dec 2014, PDF.

4. “Pope Francis Condemns Corruption And 'Unbridled Capitalism' In South America”, Reuters, 12 July 2015

5. "The Devolution Revolution", Dr. Benjamin R. Barber, 9 June 2015, The Huffington Post.

Life, Liberty, Happiness… *

They are the natural rights; the inalienable rights which can not be taken away from or given away by any human being; rights not given by governments, dictators, clergy or royalty. They are the rights which everyone has from birth:
the right to life,
the right to liberty,
and the right to pursue happiness.

Motivated by the dream of the three natural rights, people, worldwide, have fought countless rebellions, revolutions and world wars.

But it appears to no avail as our governments and global corporations have actively conspired - in secrecy - to strip away our natural rights.

With the most recent sellout by the congress and the president, the global corporations are gloating over their accomplishment, the passage of the Fast Track (Trade Promotion Authority) into law.

Why is Fast Track and the TPP Poison for People Everywhere?

The Fast Track law allows the backers of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to bypass congressional and public review of trade partners, terms and objectives of the TPP trade agreement. In essence, it pre-approved TPP before anyone even knows what is in it and without congress saying in advance what should be in it.

From the little bitty bits of information which have managed to see the light of day, the TPP ensures that the laws of national governments will be trumped by a global corporate addiction to profit at any cost. With the TPP passed into law, human beings throughout the world will lose their national and local government protections against corporate exploitation.

For example, under the TPP, corporations may sue federal, state and local governments for loss of future profit if local laws forbid them from destroying our environment, polluting our water, charging usurious rates, or delivering defective products. We, the people, will have no legal defense under our own federal, state or local laws.

Worse, the TPP establishes a precedence of secrecy because it was passed by our own representatives, who themselves were sworn to secrecy so as not to share with us, the people, a single word of the treaty’s contents. Our president, senators and representatives - trashing their sworn oath to preserve and defend the Constitution of the United States – sold out their own people for the benefit of the ruling 1% who own the global corporations.

They expect us to passively pay no attention to the most heinous crime ever perpetrated upon humanity - the attempted obliteration of our natural rights.

What will it take to meet the challenges of the corporate-controlled world?

Next post…

The Movement
An Antidote for Our Corporate Controlled World

* Matt Damon reads excerpts from a speech Howard Zinn gave in 1970 as part of a debate on civil disobedience.