Public Banking Promoted in the Nation’s Capitol

An enthusiastic, diverse, overflow crowd attended the DC Public Banking Center’s forum, “Public Dollars/Public Bank in DC: Building Our Future,” held in downtown DC on October 21st. The Alliance’s Ruth Caplan introduced the panelists selected to represent a broad spectrum of voices.

Gar Alperovitz, author of What Then Must We Do? and co-chair of the Next System Project, opened the evening by talking about how public banking fits into the next American Revolution. He spoke about ecologically sustainable, community-oriented change and the socialization/democratization of wealth which he sees as bubbling up in this country today, not as some far away utopia.


Nomi Prins spoke from her years on Wall Street where she left her last position as a managing director at Goldman Sachs to speak truth to Wall Street power. From her most recent, All the Presidents’ Bankers to her earlier book,  Other People’s Money: The Corporate Mugging of America,  Prins has written about money power in America and is a strong advocate of public banking. You can watch her video here.

Horst Gischer,  came from German to talk about public banking in Germany as an academic studying monetary economics and public financial institutions.  The campaign looks forward to an ongoing relationship with Gischer. His remarks are here.



Jessica Gordon Nembhard, author of Collective Courage, shared the inspiring history of the African American cooperative movement from urban buying clubs to farmers coops and placed the campaign for public banking in this context.

Harold Meyerson, Washington Post columnist and editor-at-large of The American Prospect magazine, made the case for cities being the incubators for creative progressive change in the U.S. His presentation is here.

The evening ended with questions from the audience and a rousing call for people to get involved with many people coming forward to say they want to help. You can watch the Q & A session here.


This was a big leap forward for the DC campaign for a public bank, but there is still much hard work ahead.  The Alliance for Democracy is very pleased to be the fiscal sponsor for the DCPBC, part of our national campaign for public banking.

Thanks to Stephen L. Kolb for the video clips.

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Return of the blog!

As you can see from the date of the post below, we've gone a while without updating this blog, mostly because we got more active on Facebook and Twitter--and, of course, we encourage you to follow the links and connect with us there too! But from time to time we have a little more to say than can comfortably fit in a Facebook post or in 140 characters, so we'll be posting longer news items here, and linking to them there. Yes, we're being a little retro here, but if it gets the job done quick and easily, that's what we care about most.

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Our 2013 activity report online!

Read our 2013 report online and learn how our work this year helped preserve the commons, block corporate rule, create alternative media, and promote public banking. Thanks to everyone who contributed to these successes, whether through activism or membership.

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A local, post-carbon grid? Learn more!

If you have some time this week to go a little deeper with what's going on with alternative energy policy, check out some of the links in Oregonians for Renewable Energy Progress's "Winter Reading List."

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More Democracy Convention video

In addition to our Democracy Convention video of Earth Democracy sessions, there are also recordings of Debra White Plume speaking at the closing convention, a panel discussion on civil rights and African-American men, and interviews with Medea Benjamin and Dane County supervisor Leland Pan online here. Definitely worth checking out!

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"Global Frackdown" support from the muddy banks of Brazos Brook

Gasland director Josh Fox supports the Global Frackdown from the banks of the Brazos River, in Parker County, Texas. Despite drought conditions, Parker County uses more than 30% of its available water for fracking. Take a look at where the banks of the Brazos are (not to mention the boat launch) and figure out for yourself whether that's the best possible use for an irreplaceable resource.

 

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Defending Water demands Anacortes City Council vote to terminate Tethys Water contract

Sandra Spargo, who has organized a strong campaign in Anacortes, WA, against what would be the largest water bottling plant in the country, has written this letter to the Anacortes City Council asking to formally terminate the agreement. Termination would prevent Tethys, which has backed out of the project, from transferring their end of the agreement to another bottling corporation.

In her letter, Sandra notes that the city's deal with Tethys was made without citizen input, with voters getting just one day's notice on the council vote, and without opportunity for public hearings. The backroom nature of the agreement has led to a need for a fresh start, she asserts.

"Now is the time to rekindle citizen trust, guaranteeing no loophole that will carry mistrust and fear and continue to paralyze our town," she writes. This is an election year, and hopefully a refocus on "the people's business" will lead the council to shut the door on the possibility of massive water takings from the Skagit River.

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Protecting the initiative petition process state by state

This short paper from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund outlines attacks on the initiative petition process by pro-fracking forces opposing community rights ordinances. While the paper focuses on Ohio and hydrofracking, this tactic could conceivably be used anywhere where voters organize to control corporate misdeeds through direct-democracy ballot questions.

Few municipalities have the right of initiative petition, so protecting the laws already on the books is doubly important. This November, Ohioans will be convening a founding convention of the Ohio Community Rights Network (OHCRN), with the goal of rewriting the state constitution so that it recognizes the right of towns and cities to self-governance. Similar networks already exist in New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania.

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