How we've kept going over Twenty-five Years

How we've kept going over twenty-five years:

My two political principles for twenty-five years (ie since setting up The Fair World Project) are:

1) Don't do anything in secret

It will be dis-covered.

2) Keep moving the flag further out

Ie, place your propodal just ahead of the where the Progressives are and call them to it.

Then, move your offer one step on from there, again and again.

That way, the initial proposal (which was *not*, then, 'In the domain of fashion, becomes normative (just as our earlier Campaign for Interest-free Money has now become).

I hope this helps.

simple, really!

http://www.humantruth.info/voter_stupidity.html

But, sometimes simple=correct.

As in, greater equality is good for everyone.

And:

You cannot have capitalism *and* peace.

And:

The answer is Co-operative Socialism.

But: that involves fixing (replacing) *all five* mechanisms that capitalism uses:

Theft, Rent, Interest, Profits-to-shareholders and Unequal-pay-for-work

Ie TRIPUp

Sometimes too much complexity is chaos.

Sometimes *enough* complexity is enough!

To create an abundance of diversity and creativity.

(Think 'Chemistry'! One Periodic Table, 100 or so elements, three building blocks (protons, electrons, neutrons), two principles (entropy and enthalpy) fused into one(Gibbs Free Energy) . . . Leads to the entire Universe: All within All. Yee-ha!)

A lttle history

When 'I' (re-)started this political work in 1994, I termed it 'The Fair World Project" (since the S-word, Socialism, was verbotten, then).

At some point I came to the conclusion that:

Fairnes  =  Equality  +  Equity

Hence the concept of Socially-Determined Equality/Equity/Fairness/Inequality.

Thus:

The plan for Co-operative Socialism produces equality and difference/diversity.

While we don't, I think, have much evidence on societies with absolute equality (and, as you say, that's not possible given our genetic dissimilarity) the research outcome is that people in more equal societies are happier, while increased inequality correlates to decreased happiness/increased unhappiness.

www.equalitytrust.org.uk and The Spirit Level cite the research findings.

I hope this helps!

Thanks and best!

John

The Logic

The logical train is:

Capitalism is inequality and creates more inequality.

But greater equality is good for all of us, the planet included (see the evidence in The Spirit Level book and at www.equalitytrust.org.uk note: evidence not opinion).

So, for peace, sustainability and harmony we need an economic, social, personal system that creates greater equality: which capitalism, however managed, cannot do.

The latter is due to the fact that the global economic referrent, money, circulates as interest-bearing debt (rent and profits-to-shareholders are ciphers/stand-ins for interest: these are three of the four types of usury).

That, quite artificial life form (usury) is destroying the planet because its (quite artificial) 'need' to make the maximum return in the shortest possible time maximises the generation of pollution, the chemistry of which (and I'm a now-retired/discarded PhD Chemist) is:

Materials   +   Energy   -->   Wealth   +   Pollution

In capitalism, the sale-value of the Wealth created has to be greater than the £-cost of the Materials+Energy.

This, then, concentrates money: which increased concentration goes back into the wealth+pollution cycle: generating exponentially-increasing amounts of pollution. As observed.

So, the economic sysyem that creates greater equality, with all its benefits, is already defined.

It's called the plan for Co-operative Socialism.

Details of which are in the papers' section at www.interestfreemoney.org as a composite of all policies that have been heard over twenty-five years which aim to *replace* capitalism, *not* manage it.

There are a number of videos and a radio interview on YouTube, which may be found by searching the hyphenated term:

"Co-operative Socialism".

The Labour and Co-operative Movements Contrasted

Just as there are two forms of capitalism: the authoritarian version, The Conservative Way, loyalty, and The Liberal Way, no rules, laissez-faire, do-as-you-please capitalism, there are two not-capitalisms.



They are the authoritarian loyalty-demanded, not-capitalism.




And the stringently not-authoritarian not-capitalism.

Thus, it may be that the Labour movement operates/is manipulated into the following pattern:

     Here's a problem, here's a debate, now the vote, now loyalty: demanded.

The true Co-operative and Socialist way is:

    Here's a circumstance, what are the options, let's try this, review, adjustment, success.

Radio Interview on Co-operative Socialism

Radio Interview on Co-operative Socialism

Wow!

Just found this.

https://youtu.be/3coMQcPi7Uw

By searching YouTube with the term:

"Co-operative Socialism"

Please share this to your families, friends and networks.

Thank-you!

The Next Forty Days

As I type this, the scaffolders are marching back and forth along the fast-disappearing scaffolding outside 'my' bedroom window.

This is a metaphor for the next forty days.

Like it or nor, Brexit will happen at the end of those forty days.

We can moan it.

Or we can define what life here, outside my bedroom window, and within, shall be like, after those forty days; as the scaffolder rolls up the green net.

As his co-workers loosen the clamps that hold down the boards and scaffolding tubes, those items get repurposed.

Likewise the old institutions.

Some must be retired, some repurposed, but, for all, life goes on.

So, I propose, Occupy-style, that we mainstream, now, 'What can be, what needs to be, what must be'.

That 'What must be' must be non-authoritarian but not-chaotic.

It must be ecological remedial, socially harmonious, personally nourishing.

I, therefore, propose and request that we institute a forty-day, completely decentralised global discussion to examine the living plan for Co-operative Socialism.

That plan is entirely non-hierarchical, so this proposed discussion could start in any of the following five 'rooms':

  A) The replacement of the ownership of economic resources by time-limited undertakings for 'Co-operative Careship' of those resouces on a 'Better-than-fully-repairing-leases'concept.

   B) The abolition of 'Rent, Interest and Profits-distributed-to-Managers, CEOs and Shareholders' as, both, unecessary *and* harmful.

   C) The introduction of human incomes based on 'A Living Income for Everyone' and, if wished, Paid Work Income between socially-determined lower and upper limits', with as many human needs Community-Provided-and-Free-at-the-point-of-use' (think 'Public Libraries).

   D) A wealth-creating, wellness-creating workplace network organised as appropriate Co-operatives (of which there seem four types), all transparently, and enthusiasically, operating according to Internationally-agreed Co-operative Values and Principles and supported by a not-for-profit-interest-free, community co-operative money, banking and finance system.

   E) A personal and political-structural inversion: from 'What can I, or we, get?' to 'What can I, and we, give?).

   F) A joyful global embrace: of peace and true co-operation, through equality (see 'The Spirit Level' book and www.equalitytrust.org.uk ) as Co-operative Remediation of planet, people and individuals: a global Co-operative Commonweal of national and local Co-operative Commonwealths, 'Thw wellness of all, in The Wellness of All'.

For those who find acronyms helpful, the above is based on the aide-mémoire, 'TRIP-Up'.

ie, The five mechanisms that have existed: but, which *must*, and *can*, be replaced:

      TRIP-Up = Theft, Rent, Interest, Profits and Unequal-pay for work).

Thank-you to the scaffolders for your work!

Now, again, I can see the sky and trees!

And go out and put my washing on the line!

John Courtneidge

Littlehampton

12 September 2019