“Only mass social movements… [with] a comprehensive vision for what should emerge in the place of our failing system, as well as serious political strategies for how to achieve those goals… can save us now”.
Naomi Klein, 2014, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate
The Earth Holocracy Proposal presents the aspirations and solutions of sustainability and ‘real democracy’ advocates and movements worldwide. Upon the bedrock of the re-presented and explicit, far-reaching consensus, the Proposal articulates a popularly-based vision and, furthermore, advocates a set of best-practice strategies by which to realize this vision – that is, the sustainable, just and peaceful world of common aspiration.
The Earth Holocracy Proposal is a proposal for effective action – just in the nick of time!
The Proposal upholds the ‘alternative consensus’ view that the saving of the world and global civilization is a task that rests solidly upon the shoulders of the people – specifically, upon the shoulders of the membership of Local Communities everywhere. As such, it is a proposal for the establishment of a new, decentralized system of participatory democracy – built from the grassroots. It offers tools and strategies to further the self-empowerment, self-organization and effective collaboration of Local Communities worldwide – united and mutually empowered in a ‘movement of movements’ based upon the broad platform of ‘Global Solidarity for Local Self-Determination‘.
The invitation here is for participants to collaboratively hone, remake if necessary, and improve upon the Earth Holocracy Proposal and its presentation. Our aim is to provide a solid platform for building a viable “movement of movements” by virtue of agreeing upon a “comprehensive vision for what should emerge in the place of our failing system” and “serious political strategies for how to achieve those goals”.
All honest advocates of a genuinely democratic and sustainable future for global civilization are welcome to participate.
Please not that these Vital Conversations serve as the key online vehicle for meaningful participation in furthering the 10 Priorities of the proposed Global Holocratic Assembly. Participants are welcome to strengthen our networking by joining the Global Assembly HERE.
In these conversations, we build upon the broad agreements of sustainability and real democracy advocates worldwide as presented within the Earth Holocracy Proposal.
Please join the Vital Conversations of your Choice.
I. Achieving Sustainability in Time
II. How to Begin?
- Opening Up Public Dialogue and Debate
- Establishing Civil Organizations for Whole Community Engagement
III. The “Real Democracy” of 21st Century Aspiration
IV. Local Community Empowerment
V. Building a Viable Movement of Movements
VI. Ensuring the Authenticity and Fruitfulness of the Democratization Process
VII. Decentralizing the Economy to Achieve Sustainability and ‘Real Democracy’
VIII. Building the New Decentralized System of Participatory Democracy From the Grassroots
IX. Attaining Justice – Facilitating a Smooth Transition to a Sustainable and Equitable Global Society
X. Creating the New World Map from the Grassroots
XI. Democratization of the Financial System
VITAL CONVERSATIONS
I. Achieving Sustainability in Time
How could the present generation of humanity accomplish the shift to a life-sustaining civilization in time?
“We believe that to attain sustainability, a right to local self-government must be asserted that places decisions affecting communities in the hands of those closest to the impacts. That right to local self-government must enable communities to reject unsustainable economic and environmental policies… and must enable communities to construct legal frameworks for charting a future towards sustainable energy production, sustainable land development, and sustainable water use, among others. In doing so, communities must challenge and overturn legal doctrines that have been concocted to eliminate their right to self-government…”
Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, Mission Statement
The purpose of this Vital Conversation is to lay basic foundations of broad agreement in regards to “the global sustainability crisis” – consolidating a mutually acceptable analysis and effective presentation of the sustainability issue’s 1) extreme urgency; 2) root cause, and 3) only viable solution – (herein presented as) the socio-politico-economic empowerment of Local Communities.
This Conversation relates to the Global Holocratic Assembly’s Priority 1: Raising Public Awareness
Join this Vital Conversation HERE.
II. How to Begin?
“We have come to the point where the courage of exceptional individuals won’t suffice;
we now need humanity as a whole to become heroic.”
Ed Ayres, 1999, ‘Why Are We Not Astonished?’
How to galvanize the broad support and engagement of global humanity – “the every-day people”, “the 99%” – in shouldering the responsibility for ensuring the future of the planetary biosphere, and with it, the future of human civilization?
This is a broad, mighty and key question: join the discussion HERE.
This conversation focuses upon the issues of, and strategies for,
1) “Opening Up Public Dialogue and Debate” and
2) “Establishing Civil Organizations for Whole Community Engagement“.
Join the discussion HERE.
III. The “Real Democracy” of 21st Century Aspiration
As the ultimate purpose of all these Vital Conversations is to create a “movement of movements”, our objective here is to agree upon our goal, where we want to head – that is, the basic type of global socio-politico-economic system that we wish to establish.
Our conversation begins by recognizing the commonality of our aspirations – as expressed in modern social movements (and represented within the Earth Holocracy Proposal series):
“There have been periods in history when large numbers of people rebelled about the way things were, demanding change… today we are experiencing another period of rising outrage and discontent, and some of the largest protests in world history. … The overwhelming demand is not for economic justice per se, but for what prevents economic issues from being addressed: a lack of real democracy – [now defined] as the call for a society and a world in which people are able to participate in decisions affecting their daily lives, and in which both the benefits and principles of democracy – eg. freedom, equality/justice and solidarity – are experienced in daily life…”
Isabel Ortiz, Sara Burke, Mohamed Berrada and Hernán Cortés, 2013, World Protests 2006-2013, Executive Summary
Exemplary Statements:
“This Charter advocates a form of democracy capable of returning decision-making power concerning the fundamental aspects of life back to the population. A democracy based on participation in social and political life, one which enables joint decisions on how we want to live. It is, therefore, a wager on a new political agreement built in an open way and with the active participation of citizens. A new agreement based on the recognition of society’s capacity to organize, create institutions, and self-govern.”
Movimiento por la Democracia [Spanish Movement for Democracy] 5 February 2014, English edition 26 June 2014, A Charter for Democracy
“Society has to own and democratically control the financial system – develop[ing] a participative and active democracy at community, national, regional and global level.”
Social Movements for an Alternative Asia (SMAA), 13 April, 2014, Economy for Life in our Earth Community
Join this Vital Conversation HERE.
Participants in this conversation are also invited to join in a “sub-conversation” wherein the fundamental democratic right of all peoples to self determination is explored with regards to Catalonia’s Vibrant Independence Movement and core issues of democracy highlighted by the movement’s conflicts with the Spanish nation-state. Join this sub-conversation HERE.
IV. Local Community Empowerment
In this Vital Conversation, our objective is to agree upon the most viable way to accomplish the political empowerment of Local Communities.
Here we are seeking agreement as to how best to
- liberate ‘the 99%’ from ‘the 1%’
- accomplish the decentralization – or relocalization – of power and wealth
- return the seat of political power (from its currently centralized position) to the local or municipal level
- “flip the pyramid” – put Local Communities on top
- uphold the fundamental democratic right of Local Communities to be self-governing – to freely direct their own affairs, steward their own natural environment and resources, safeguard their own ‘life, liberty and security’, and advance their own well-being
- initiate the process of establishing a new socio-politico-economic system – a decentralized participatory democracy – from the grassroots
As always in this site’s conversations, we draw upon the world’s best practices and humanity’s most fruitful tactics – as presented within the Earth Holocracy Proposal (and beyond). Here we explore the benefits to be gained by a rights-based approach to activism, and collectively determine the value of the Earth Holocracy Proposal’s Local Community Declaration of Rights (based upon the International Bill of Human Rights) to further global democratization.
This Conversation relates to the Global Holocratic Assemblies Priority 2: The Self-Empowerment of Local Communities
Join this Vital Conversation HERE.
V. Building a Viable Movement of Movements
In this Vital Conversation our aim is to agree upon a comprehensive vision and broadly unifying platform for building a viable, worldwide, mass social movement, thereby igniting the people power required now in order to resolve the extreme political, social, industrial, and environmental crises of our pivotal time.
The movement herein proposed would be fundamentally based upon the key understanding that the only realistic way to ensure a viable future for global civilization is by decentralizing power and wealth – by socio-politico-economic re-localization, by effectively liberating Local Communities to manage their own lives, direct their own destinies, and steward their own natural environments. This ‘key understanding’ provides the motivational power of the movement as it appeals to the natural concern of all people to bequeath a living earth and good life to their children and future generations.
Under scrutiny here – that is, up for reworking – is the Earth Holocracy Proposal’s Statement of Global Solidarity for Local Self Determination. This Statement is itself primarily composed of excerpts from the statements of numerous pro-democracy movements and organizations, thereby providing an authentic, popularly-based starting point for our task.
The Earth Holocracy Proposal holds that the popularly-desired, decentralized system of participatory democracy will not – and cannot – be built from the top down. Its new political agreements cannot and will not be imposed from above. The new socio-politico-economic system of ‘Real Democracy’ can only be built from the grassroots – from the self-empowerment and self-organization of Local Communities everywhere.
Our objective in this Vital Conversation is to ultimately agree upon a statement of global solidarity that may serve as the basis for a mutually-empowering, global “movement of movements”, articulating a new social contract between Local Communities everywhere, providing the foundation for a new socio-politico-economic system – built from the grassroots.
This Conversation relates to the Global Holocratic Assemblies Priority 3: Building a ‘Movement of Movements’ for Local Self Determination
Join this Vital Conversation HERE.
VI. Ensuring the authenticity and effectiveness of the Democratization Process
Our objective in this Vital Conversation is to agree upon a “best-practice” organizational model for the genuine democratization of society, and for successfully (and swiftly) negotiating the transition to sustainability.
Here we are building upon the solid foundation of humanity’s brilliance and magnificent working solutions arising therefrom – as presented within the Earth Holocracy Proposal. In this Conversation, our starting point and ultimate objective is to collectively assess, hone, and improve upon, the proposal’s advocated organizational model, the “Holocratic Circle”.
Presented in Volume Four, The Holocratic Circle is a customized fusion of best practices for achieving the egalitarian, transparent, accountable, efficient, horizontal, ethics-based, harmonious and fruitful collaboration popularly called for and now required. Its key design processes are modelled upon the well-proven “Sociocratic Circle” or “Integrated Learning Circle” of Sociocracy. For the most practical of reasons, widespread adoption of the advocated holocratic organizational model (wherever equally effective, locally-sanctioned processes are not available) is crucial to the purported viability of the Earth Holocracy Proposal.
This Conversation relates to the Global Holocratic Assemblies Priority 5: Adopting an Ethics-based, Egalitarian, Transparent and Efficient Organizational Model
Join this Vital Conversation HERE.
VII. Decentralizing the Economy to Achieve Sustainability and ‘Real Democracy’
“When power resides with people and communities, life and innovation flourish. When power is centralized in distant government agencies or corporations, the life is sucked out of the community…
“The mounting human and environmental costs [of] corporate-led economic policies… have awakened millions of people to the reality that the health of a community depends in substantial measure on its ability to set its own economic priorities and control its own economic resources. Strong communities and material sufficiency are the true foundation of economic prosperity and security and an essential source of meaning.
“Less visible [than street protests or calls for reform], but even more important, is a spreading commitment to rebuild local economies and communities from the bottom up.”
David Korten, 2007, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community
In this Vital Conversation, our agenda is to agree upon a viable set of strategies or key design principles for achieving economic decentralization.
Our motive here is to ensure the long-term sustainability of the world environment and the health and prosperity of the world’s many peoples and local communities. Here we are building upon humanity’s prolific abundance of sustainability initiatives, key design principles, working solutions and honest analyses – as presented in the fifth volume of the Earth Holocracy Proposal series, titled Economic Decentralization.
Explore the proposal’s Volume Five onsite: Economic Decentralization
This Conversation relates to the Global Holocratic Assemblies Priority 7: Decentralizing the Economy to Achieve Sustainability and Real Democracy
Join this Vital Conversation HERE.
VIII. Building the New Decentralized System of Participatory Democracy From the Grassroots
The aim of this Vital Conversation is for participants to agree upon a viable, best-practice way to actually build a completely new, genuinely democratic, decentralized system of participatory democracy
- as called for by the real democracy movements of the world
- as required in order to accomplish the shift to a life-sustaining civilization in time
- and as scientifically evidenced as necessary for achieving the sustainable and equitable management of the commons
The Earth Holocracy Proposal holds that, once the proposed ‘movement of movements’ inspires global humanity to unite in the interests of realizing our common aspirations for a peaceful, ecologically-sound and just world, a new, decentralized system – served by a transparent, ethics-based, accountable ‘Public Service Body’ that is linked in mutual support and cooperation from the local to global levels – could be built quite swiftly and smoothly.
Please cross-reference this Conversation with the Global Holocratic Assembly’s Priority 6: Building the new genuinely Democratic and Decentralized Politico-Economic system from the Grassroots
Join this Vital Conversation HERE.
IX. Attaining Justice – Facilitating a Smooth Transition to a Sustainable and Equitable Global Society
Humanity has its work cut out for itself to successfully negotiate the transition to a just, genuinely democratic and sustainable global civilization. Luckily, there are way-showers to emulate and working models to draw upon.
The Earth Holocracy Proposal points to ‘Restorative Practices’ for meaningfully resolving issues of injustice and wrong-doing.
Restorative Practices resolve injustices and wrong-doings at various levels and situations of society by processes for promoting understanding, mutual responsibility and constructive responses.
In Restorative Practice, “offenders take meaningful responsibility for their actions, taking the opportunity to right their wrongs and redeem themselves, in their own eyes and in the eyes of the community”. According to John Braithwaite, restorative justice is “a process where all stakeholders affected by an injustice have an opportunity to discuss how they have been affected by the injustice and to decide what should be done to repair the harm”.
Please see – from Volume Six, Part Four of the Earth Holocracy Proposal – the Restorative Justice article.
This Conversation relates to the Global Holocratic Assembly’s Priority 8: Attaining Justice: Facilitating a Smooth Transition to an Equitable and Inclusive Society through Restorative Practices
Join this Vital Conversation HERE.
X. Creating the New World Map from the Grassroots
The process of establishing a new, decentralized, genuine ‘Public Service Body’ (as proposed) will naturally involve generating a new Map of the World – a map which authentically represents the world’s peoples, a map which is created upon the basis of peoples’ clear collective identity, the decision of local people, and a collective commitment to justice.
To guide its vision and inform its strategies for accomplishing socio-politico-economic decentralization, the Earth Holocracy Proposal looks to the common-sense Progressive Utilization Theory [PROUT] of P.R.Sarkar – from which we derive the following:
In order to accomplish decentralisation, PROUT seeks to formulate ‘units of economic self-sufficiency’, or socio-economic units. The formation of such a unit would be the decision of local people. Such a decision would be based upon such factors as common economic and social problems, common geographic potentialities and problems, common cultural legacy and language etc. Cultural and ethnic factors are quite relative, and they may or may not be helpful in establishing economic divisions. More to the point is that there should be a sentiment for cooperation among the local people to meet the common goal of economic self-reliance. Local people are those who have merged their economic interests in a particular region. Anyone may settle in any socio-economic unit. Current political bodies (countries, federations, states, etc.) may contain one or several socio-economic units.
For planning purposes, each socio-economic unit is further divided into ‘blocks’, based upon economic, geographic and population considerations. The goal of a decentralized economy is to make each block self-reliant.
– The Proutist Writers Group Of New York Sector, The Progressive Utilization Theory: A Comprehensive Guide to the Study of PROUT, Chapter Three
Participants in this Conversation will aim to hone and agree upon a viable strategy for re-making the map of the world based upon agreements amongst and between the Local and Regional Communities of the world.
This Conversation relates to the Global Holocratic Assembly’s Priority 10: Creating the New World Map from the Grassroots
Join this Vital Conversation HERE.
XI. Democratization of the Financial System
^^^
“When the history is finally written… it’s likely all of this tumult – beginning with the Arab Spring – will be remembered as the opening salvo in a wave of negotiations over the dissolution of the American Empire.
“Thirty years of relentless prioritising of propaganda over substance, and snuffing out anything that might look like a political basis for opposition, might make the prospects for the young protesters look bleak; and it’s clear that the rich are determined to seize as large a share of the spoils as remain, tossing a whole generation of young people to the wolves in order to do so. But history is not on their side.
We don’t know precisely what will come out of this round. But if the occupiers finally manage to break the 30-year stranglehold that has been placed on the human imagination… everything will once again be on the table – and the occupiers of Wall Street and other cities around the US will have done us the greatest favour anyone possibly can.”
‘Occupy Wall Street rediscovers the radical imagination’
The young people protesting in Wall Street and beyond reject this vain economic order. They have come to reclaim the future.
David Graeber, 25 September, 201
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