When I interact with people and touch on the issue of the nascent corporate-funded neo-fascist state, I often notice very similar reactions: either apathy born out of a sense of impotence against an entrenched and corrupt system, or willingness to do something about it, but unsure about what to do.
Let me acknowledge that I'm aware of the fact that there are many social justice and progressive organizations around the country that are doing great work, and are getting results. However, I think the decades-long relentless attack against democracy by a very powerful cartel of supra-national corporations, who have been able to burrow their way into state capitals around the country, requires an extraordinary level of strategic planning, leadership, funding, and nationwide coordination.
I've been thinking about this challenge for years, and when Occupy Wall Street sprung up I hoped it would develop into that type of operation. In fact, I still think it, together with other organizations, can still do so and take the fight against the imposition of corporate-funded oppression and the undermining of democracy, to the next level.
I'm going to ask you to do three simple things: (1) Make an honest assessment about how you can get involved in the fight; it could be time, anywhere from 15 minutes a day, or a week, or whatever level you can (depending on your situation). (2) Do as much as you can to "unplug" your mind from the influences of the American mass media, which is incredibly toxic and harmful to your ability to understand the threat we're under. (3) Once you feel comfortable about understanding the issues, reach out to as many people as possible to share the information, and recruit others to the cause: saving democracy, and working towards a just and sane world.
Regarding the importance of understanding the issues, I'm going to ask you to watch the following report by Bill Moyers: United States of ALEC - Revealing the hidden world of ALEC — corporations and state legislators colluding to write laws and remake America, one statehouse at a time.
In an encore broadcast, Moyers & Company presents “United States of ALEC,” a report on the most influential corporate-funded political force most of America has never heard of — ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. A national consortium of state politicians and powerful corporations, ALEC presents itself as a “nonpartisan public-private partnership”. But behind that mantra lies a vast network of corporate lobbying and political action aimed to increase corporate profits at public expense without public knowledge.
To learn exactly how this ALEC-paid influence peddling works, state by state, please take a look at this recently published (PDF) report:
Buying Influence - How the American Legislative Exchange Council Uses Corporate-Funded "Scholarships" to Send Lawmakers on Trips with Corporate Lobbyists.
This issue of corporate influence-peddling in our state capitals is the genesis of the nascent total-information-awareness surveillance police state.
This is issue is also masterfully covered in an article by Ross Gittins on the Australian publication, BusinessDay: The four business gangs that run the U.S.
IF YOU'VE ever suspected politics is increasingly being run in the interests of big business, I have news: Jeffrey Sachs, a highly respected economist from Columbia University, agrees with you - at least in respect of the United States.
In his book, The Price of Civilisation, he says the US economy is caught in a feedback loop. ''Corporate wealth translates into political power through campaign financing, corporate lobbying and the revolving door of jobs between government and industry; and political power translates into further wealth through tax cuts, deregulation and sweetheart contracts between government and industry. Wealth begets power, and power begets wealth,'' he says.
As I study and research what ALEC does, and how incredibly successful they have been, I came to the conclusion that in order to counter-act their democracy-killing efficiency, a similarly-structured coalition needs to be formed. In Moyer's report, he mentions an organization that has been established to do exactly that:
American Legislative and Issue Campaign Exchange (ALICE).
The American Legislative and Issue Campaign Exchange, or ALICE, is a one-stop, web-based, public library of progressive law on a wide range of issues in state and local policy. As our name may suggest, ALICE may be understood as a very partial antidote to ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), the corporate-backed group that has for nearly 40 years provided model state law and connection to corporate lobbyists to its nearly 2,000 state legislator members.
So here's my suggestion: Progressive organizations need to form a nationwide coalition that is highly structured, focused, and disciplined. This organization should have a person (or team of people) assigned to each of the 50 legislative state houses (exactly how ALEC does it). These people then have two main functions: (1)
Identify and expose every single politician member of ALEC; (2) Cultivate relationships with progressive-leaning politicians and collaborate on ways to pass
ALICE-type legislation.
If this "umbrella" organization could form an alliance with Occupy Wall Street, then OWS could focus on street-level activism, highly-organized and effective protest campaigns, and the development of alternative economic models, housing, and grassroots campaigns.
Some of this stuff may seem a little overwhelming, but here's the fun part... I'm doing this experiment to show you that you can take very small steps that do not put you out in any way, that are easy, but that can have a huge impact.
If you have a facebook or twitter account, please share these links:
If you know of other progressive organizations that are doing work around the country, or know of additional information resources, please share them below in the comments section.
Finally, I'm in communications with other people who are interested in developing concrete ideas on how to effectively take on the nascent Oligarchy. Our approach is to come up with highly-structured, focused, cohesive, and disciplined strategies, and how to make it as easier as possible for people to get involved (like plugging into a powerful computer grid or network). Please contact me here to stay in touch, or send email to contact@raypensador.com.