E-Newsletter, June 18, 2007

The Alliance for Democracy
E-Newsletter, June 18, 2007

In this issue:

National news:

Countdown to the US Social Forum
Plan now to declare "Independence from Corporate Rule"

Chapter news:
AfD West:

South Puget Sound: confronting corporate power and building coalitions
Greater Seattle chapter co-sponsors impeachment event

AfD East:

New York AfD supports clean money elections
North Bridge Alliance starts dialog on localization
Boston-area chapters host Justice Rising editor Jim Tarbell

AfD Mid-west: AfD member works on water resolution

Calendar: Before July 15: Tell Congress to keep postal rates friendly to small journals

Allied Actions:

Web resource: Impact of "free" trade on public health
SiCKO sneak preview at US Social Forum

National and chapter news:

Countdown to the US Social Forum
The US Social Forum begins next week, and we're happy to report that all seven workshops proposed by AfD activists were approved. We look forward to sharing AfD's work and our perspective at the Forum and building the people's movement under the banner, "Another World is Possible--Another U.S. is Necessary!" For a complete list of workshops and descriptions, see http://www.thealliancefordemocracy.org/html/eng/2463-AA.shtml

In addition, we've created a "Petition to Elected State Officials's on the Security & Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP)" to be signed by visitors at our tables in the Democracy and Water Tents. It requests that the U.S. withdraw immediately from any further participation in the SPP and that all agreements, regulatory changes, and other actions already underway must be immediately voided and further action cease. View a PowerPoint on the SPP at http://www.sierraclub.org/committees/cac/water/WaterThreatsNAFTASPPAtlantica.pdf

Thanks to all the members who have given to our Spring appeal. We can still use your help to support all that we are doing at the US Social Forum--such as shared costs for the Democracy and Water Tents, table displays, materials and banners. So if your appeal letter is still sitting on your desk, please mail it today. Or contribute online at www.thealliancefordemocracy.org/join.html (not a member yet? Support our work by joining today!)

Plan now to declare "Independence from Corporate Rule"
This July 4th marks the 10th anniversary of the "Declaration of Independence from Corporate Rule," written by AfD founder Ronnie Dugger and former council member Al Krebs and read in front of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.

For this Independence Day get together with other AfD members or other groups and write your own short "Declaration." Read it in front of City Hall. A simple action might be to declare independence from specific corporations. Write their names on large cardboard and rip-up as you call out their names. Call the press, let them know what you plan to do--where and when. For inspiration read: About AfD at http://www.thealliancefordemocracy.org/about.html and Ronnie's "A Call to Citizens: Real Populists Please Stand Up!" http://www.thealliancefordemocracy.org/html/eng/1270-AA.shtml

AfD West

South Puget Sound: Confronting corporate power and building coalitions
Susan Bee, South Puget Sound (Olympia, WA) chapter president, will be attending the US Social Forum as a member of the Sierra Club's Confronting Corporate Power Task Force for a workshop on corporate power and democracy, and working in the Democracy Tent. Chapter member Rus Geh is also planning to attend to film more episodes of the Reclaiming Democracy T.V. with Susan. For information on how you can support the show or get DVDs of past programs, see http://www.sounddemocracy.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=32&Itemid=34

This chapter is also starting a ten-session study group on challenging corporate power and creating authentic democracy in June, led by chapter member Monica Hoover, assisted by Terry Macinata, and featuring materials by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. (see http://www.sounddemocracy.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=6&Itemid=55)

In August, the chapter is planning a progressive picnic with the Thurston County Progressive Network to celebrate, provide a time and space for other groups to have an annual meeting, and to focus on what groups could do locally to work together on the underlying common problems that all single issue groups share. The chapter is also planning a local elections candidate forum, and support the current campaign for publicly financed campaigns in Washington state.

Greater Seattle chapter co-sponsors impeachment event
The Greater Seattle AfD chapter is co-sponsoring a forum and workshop on impeachment later this month, featuring author and former Prosecuting Attorney, Elizabeth de la Vega, journalist David Lindorff, and constitutional scholar Phil Burk. Local activists in the "Washington for Impeachment" movement will also be featured. The event takes place Sunday, June 24, in Pigott Auditorium at Seattle University, and will feature a "train the trainer" workshop on impeachment and a take-home "constitution kit" for participants, for outreach after the event. For info, contact Rebecca Wolfe at rr.wolfe@comcast.net.

AfD East

New York AfD supports clean money elections
Ethel Silverberg, of the Capital District (NY) chapter writes:
Progress is being made in Albany. With the support of Governor Spitzer whose platform included clean money initiatives, New Yorkers can expect a clean money bill before session ends this month.

Citizen Action has lead a statewide campaign to pressure the NY State Assembly to support full publicly financed elections with the cooperation of numerous not-for-profits. The Alliance for Democracy has been at the forefront with continual lobbying and asking legislators to sign a "Dear Colleague" letter which asks them to indicate their backing for these campaign reforms. In addition, Citizen Action is holding Town Hall meetings all over the state with each local district's legislators attending.

My guess (writes Ethel) is that there will be a bill, but loopholes may need to be plugged in other years. Resistance has come from Joe Bruno the State senate leader who said voters don't "give a hoot" about campaign finance. At present he is under scrutiny for some shady dealings but still was re-elected to head the Senate. Sheldon Silver, a very powerful leader of the Assembly, has for some years promoted a bill featuring partial public financing. This has been implemented in New York City for certain offices and was quite progressive for the time. However, those "partial" contributions will still come from special interests. We'll see what comes of this major push but the press--or lack thereof--doesn't help.

North Bridge Alliance starts dialog on localization
The North Bridge Alliance for Democracy chapter's film series presented an encore screening of "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil" with the Concord Unitarian Universalist Green Sanctuary Committee. Discussion after the film focused on protecting and promoting local agriculture, with material on hand from the Massachusetts chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association. Many participants learned about the event through Concord's agricultural commission. Plans are being made to continue meeting through the summer to discuss promoting a local economy.

Boston-area chapters host Justice Rising editor Jim Tarbell
North Bridge and Boston-Cambridge chapters took the occasion of a visit to our area by Jim Tarbell, editor of the Alliance's quarterly newsletter Justice Rising, and his wife, Judy, to throw a potluck in his honor. Former AfD council member Mary White's home in Concord was full of lively conversation over appetizers and dinner for several hours on a beautiful evening. Afterwards members met with Jim who started the discussion with a history of how he had become involved with the issue of corporatization of the world economy. Then he called for comments on the newsletter. All seemed to be pleased with the current format. Several suggestions were made for topics to be covered in future editions including democracy and energy. Then there was a lively discussion of how to get the message out to those "beyond the choir". One suggestion was to send out a two page email to an extended list such as Tom Wodetzki's in Mendocino. Another was to write a letter to the editor that could be sent to such a list so that others could submit the letter to their local newspapers. Jim said he already had ideas of groups to whom he would like to send copies of Justice Rising. Members were delighted to have the opportunity to meet Jim and Judy.

AfD Mid-West

AfD member works on water resolution
June Rusten, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, renewed her membership recently with a note about organizing on behalf of a local resolution to ban bottled water at city council meetings and promote the use of municipal water. The resolution, entitled "Drinking Tap Water is Thinking Green" was introduced to the City Council by the Panthers for Social Justice of Washtenaw (MI, the county of Ann Arbor). It passed unanimously in early June.

June wrote, "Your letter of May 10 encouraged me to let you know of our efforts to counteract the efforts of Nestle to continue to make huge profits from taking Michigan water for bottled water. We hope that you can let conferees at the June Social Forum in Atlanta--especially in the water tent, know of our Resolution to Drink Tap Water and Think Green! We hope our resolution catches on throughout the US. Please share it."

If your community has a municipal water system, consider passing a resolution promoting your local water. Convincing people to "tap into" this local resource is an important part of protecting both natural water resources and local public water infrastructure from commercial exploitation. For information on the Ann Arbor resolution, email June at junear5575@sbcglobal.net

Calendar:

Before July 15: Tell Congress to keep postal rates friendly to small journals
New postage rates could gut the budgets of small-press magazines across the nation and the political spectrum, thanks to government adoption of postal regulations written, in part, by media giant Time Warner. But there's still time to protest.

No one argues that the US Postal Service has to cover costs. But rate hikes shouldn't be determined by big publishers. Most magazines, which knew a rate hike was coming, budgeted for a 10 to 12 percent increase. But the Time-Warner plan calls for big hikes for small publishers and discounts for big ones. Now small publishers find they may face postage costs going up by as much as 30 percent.

Many small-press and progressive magazine publishers are spreading the word about this hike. Read more at the Democracy Now! Website at http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/24/1446244 , and respond to Congress from several magazine and media websites, including The Nation, at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070604/moyers1 , and FreePress.net, at http://action.freepress.net/freepress/postal_explanation.html.

Allied Actions

The impact of "free" trade on public health
If you are concerned about the threat that international trade agreements pose to public health, check out http://www.cpath.org/id29.html , the news and update page for the Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health. You can read reports on attempts to improve provisions to protect health, labor and the environment in proposed trade agreements with Peru, Columbia, Panama, Malaysia, and South Korea. With a national movement building to repeal "fast-track" authority for trade agreements now is a good time to pick up talking points on the impact these agreements have had on everything from tobacco use to drug prices to regulations covering safe drinking water.

"Sicko" sneak preview at US Social Forum
The Healthcare-NOW Coalition will host a special preview showing of Michael Moore’s new film “SiCKO” June 28 at the US Social Forum, to support their work bringing a simple, comprehensive, non-bureaucratic single payer health care system to Americans. This is, after all, the insurance system that most Americans say they want, and the one they believe would deliver the best care to the greatest number of people, but it would mean an end to the for-profit healthcare and health insurance industry, and an end to the cash they pump into election campaigns.

SiCKO was screened in Sacramento earlier this month in support of single-payer health care. The film opens nationwide on June 29. For more information on Healthcare-NOW’s programs, visit www.healthcare-now.org.

Monday, June 18, 2007