Hi,
Here's a new project that you may find interesting. Its idea is to flip
the National Endowment for Democracy -- a CIA operation which creates
death squads in other countries and finances them to overthrow
governments and popular movements -- and instead create the INTERnational
Endowment for Democracy, which challenges the U.S. ruling class' concept
of "nation building" throughout the world and asks the people
of the world to contribute towards helping to save (and institute for the
first time) democracy in the United States.
This wacky idea was the brainchild of my friend, Professor Bertell Ollman
(NYU), the author of numerous books on Marxism and Dialectics. But what
began as a sort of "Yes-Men" comical satire had recently been
incorporated as a not-for-profit organization and is now taking on quite
a bit of serious substance, given the political and intellectual
"gravitas" of the individuals who have joined the
organization's board of directors. This eclectic collection of progresive
authors, professors, and activists includes:
Honorary Co-Chairs: Mumia Abu-Jamal, Ramsey Clark, Harry Magdoff, Annette
Rubinstein, Gore Vidal, Ellen Meiksins Wood, Howard Zinn;
Executive Committee: Bertell Ollman (President), Michael Brown, Barbara
Foley, John Manley, Michael Smith;
Legal Counsel: William Schaap;
Other Members of the I.E.D. Board of Directors: Amrita Basu, James
Cockroft, Bernardine Dohrn, John Ehrenberg, Francis Feeley, John Gerassi,
Martha Gimenez, Christine Harrington, David Harvey, Michael Hudson,
Abdeen Jabara, Mark Kesselman, Joel Kovel, Peter Kwong, Sandra Levinson,
Michael Parenti, Michael Ratner, Ellen Ray, Lynne Stewart, Immanuel
Wallerstein, Leonard Weinglass, Suzi Weissman, and Richard
Wolff.
You might recognize the names of some of these "heavy hitters".
To find out more about each of them, go to
http://www.iefd.org/about/index.php
One intriguing project the I.E.D. is initiating is the nominations of
people -- so send in yours! -- for an anually selected "Noble Prize
[yes, that spelling is intentional] for Democracy". I've
nominated Malik Rahim (though his name does not yet appear on the list on
the website), as someone who has contributed enormously to the real
democratization of the United States. Malik's work in establishing the
Common Ground collective in New Orleans challenges the utter and intended
failure of basic services in New Orleans not simply by writing about it,
but by directly creating a network of dual-power institutions and popular
assemblies -- that is, grassroots democracy in practice, and not just in
theory. [Note: Neither Malik Rahim nor Common Ground
<www.commongroundrelief.org> are in any way affiliated with the IED
nor as far as I know even aware of its existence. So please do not infer
any connection from my writing about them here.]
You can send in your nominations for the Noble Prize for Democracy in the
U.S. to <comments@xxxxxxxx> .
You might also be interested in reading the large collection of
Democracy-related articles on the website, and in sending in your own
articles or those by others that are relevant to this project, to that
same address.
Below is an abbreviated version of the APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD
that the IED is circulating. To learn more, please visit the websited at
www.IEFD.org. And,
please forward this entire letter to your friends and political
associates in the U.S. and throughout the world.
Thanx,
Mitchel Cohen
*********************************************************************
To see this message on the web site in an easy-to-read html format:
http://www.iefd.org/?r=r01
==============================================
URGENT APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD
==============================================
March 28, 2006
from the INTERNATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY (I.E.D.)
HELP! HELP! The house is on fire and we are all living in it. The
United States government and its dependent organizations, such as the
National Endowment for Democracy (NED), have responded to the fire... by
pouring more oil on it.
They call it "democratic nation building" - a fancy name for
the perpetual wars, theft of the commons, exploding economic
inequalities, weakening civil liberties (including the introduction of
torture), and the intensifying degradation and outright destruction of
our natural environment that lie hidden behind "free" trade and
the promise (seldom fulfilled) of a "free" election. Billions
of people outside America want this madness to stop, but what can they
do?
Our new and independent organization, the International Endowment for
Democracy (I.E.D.), believes it will only stop if democratic nation
building (the real thing, not the oil) is applied to the U.S., which is
the country most responsible for these frightening global developments,
and that people everywhere can play a role in bringing it about.
The I.E.D. is a new non-profit foundation whose Board of Directors
includes:
HOWARD ZINN (America's leading radical historian)
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL (America's most famous political prisoner)
GORE VIDAL (America's premier progressive novelist and
essayist)
ELLEN MEIKSINS WOOD (winner of the Isaac Deutcher Prize)
RAMSEY CLARK (world's leading human rights lawyer)
BARBARA FOLEY (Chair of the Left Alliance, the union of
progressive academic caucuses)
MICHAEL PARENTI (America's foremost critic of capitalist
democracy)
IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN (past president of the International
Sociological Association)
MICHAEL RATNER (President of the Center for Constitutional Rights
and past President of the National Lawyers' Guild)
and two dozen other major American progressive scholars, lawyers and
activists. Find the full Board of Directors at
http://www.iefd.org/about/?r=r01
IN BRIEF: If groups like the National Endowment for Democracy
(NED) use American government money (whence the "NATIONAL") --
and a big dose of hypocrisy -- to subvert democracy abroad, the
International Endowment for Democracy (IED) hopes to use foreign monies
(whence the "INTERNATIONAL") to help build a real democracy in
the country that needs it most, the U.S.A. (See DEMOCRACY LIBRARY,
section III of our website:
http://www.iefd.org/articles/american_democracy.php?r=r01 )
We also call on the international community to monitor elections in
the United States. Is there anyone left in the world outside the U.S.
who doesn't recognize the need for such monitors?
This is not because there is less democracy in America than anywhere else
- a few other lands are even worse off in this regard - but because the
DEMOCRACY DEFICIT from which our country suffers is a greater
threat to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of people all across
the globe than the actions of any other regime.
As victims of their own government's destructive policies, the great
majority of Americans have no interest in retaining them and would change
these policies in an instant if our democracy really worked as we're told
it does. That they haven't is because they can't, because the laws,
the elections, the media, the schools and other means for making such
changes have been bent out of shape (through systematic bias and,
increasingly, outright repression), hidden (through enforced ignorance),
bought up by Big Money especially this), and - when "necessary"
- stolen (as in the last two presidential elections). Who can doubt
that people everywhere have a huge stake in the democratization of
America?
THIS MAY BE A FIRST: Americans asking people from other countries for
help. Many recipients of this Appeal outside the U.S., however, are
probably still asking themselves - "Why should we help Americans
make needed changes in their country? Don't we have enough to do in our
own country?" The answer can be presented best by another question:
Is there any reader who lives outside the capital of his or her
country who believes it is a waste of time and money to try to influence
the policies of the government sitting in the capital? That's where
the main political power is. Well, in this period of American military,
economic and cultural imperialism, Washington has become the real capital
of your country, for it is there that many of the most destructive
decisions affecting your life are made. It would seem to make sense,
therefore, good political sense, to devote at least some of your time,
energy and money to helping bring about the kind of changes you want in
Washington. If that's at all possible...
At this moment in history, those of us who live in the United States are
in the best position to confront our common oppressor. The responsibility
we bear, therefore, is enormous, but our forces are weak. While the
current government's undermining of the democratic process, as
imperfect as it was, constitutes a growing threat to all dissenters, it
also provides us with a key issue on which our rulers are extremely
vulnerable. As the explosion of governmental hypocrisy clearly
attests, democracy remains the American people's favorite virtue. It is
on this crucial issue, with its broad ramifications for government policy
in America and around the world, that we need your help.
There are many groups in the United States that are trying to defend what
remains of our rapidly shrinking democracy and/or build a better, more
egalitarian one. Mostly they are small, and they all lack funds. The
International Endowment for Democracy (I.E.D.) wants to give people all
over the world an opportunity to participate in this crucial struggle by
making a donation (no matter how small) to us, which we will then
distribute to some of these groups. Apart from our small operating
expenses (no I.E.D. board members are paid), all the money received will
be passed on. As odd as this may sound, with this show of solidarity,
people everywhere can now help themselves by helping us to help them.
Maybe this doesn't sound so odd, after all.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
POTENTIAL CONTRIBUTORS should also know that we will not give
money to any political party, or accept money from any organization
involved in violent forms of political activity or from any foreign
government.
To American readers, who don't need our advice to donate money to
their favorite progressive organizations, we only ask that you continue
doing what you have been (okay, do a little more), but please forward
this appeal to your friends and acquaintances, especially those who
come from abroad. (Should you also want to show your support for this
initiative by making a donation, of course, we won't turn you away.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
THE SUCCESS OF OUR PROJECT depends on getting the word out to
millions of people throughout the world.
So...if you approve of what we are doing and think it could be important,
we urge you to send this appeal to all the people on your e-mail trees,
and to the websites and blogs you visit as well as to the discussion and
organizational lists to which you belong, particularly outside the U.S.
And please don't neglect your contacts in the media.
The MoveOn organization is said to have reached between ten and twenty
million Americans on behalf of Howard Dean during the 2004 presidential
primaries in just this way, but ours may be the first attempt to extend
this strategy to the whole world. It is certainly the first attempt to
use the internet to involve the whole world in the badly needed
democratization of the United States. The supremely serious nature as
well as the planetary scope of our problem is what makes this approach
necessary. The new technology of the internet is what makes it possible.
But it still requires a little help from you to make it happen.
-----------------------------------
WON'T YOU HELP?
-----------------------------------
See our website -
http://www.internationalendowmentfordemocracy.org or
http://www.iefd.org
- for information on the following, much of it in OVER A DOZEN
LANGUAGES.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
See HOW TO HELP for details on how to make a donation.
http://www.iefd.org/donations/?r=r01
--------------------------------------------------------------------
See our STATEMENT OF PURPOSE for a more detailed analysis of the
crisis in American democracy and what we hope to achieve.
http://www.iefd.org/articles/statement_of_purpose.php
See our PRESS RELEASE.
http://www.iefd.org/press/press_releases.php?r=r01
See WHO WE ARE for the background and publications of the members
of our Board of Directors.
http://www.iefd.org/about/?r=r01
See WHERE THE MONEY GOES for our priorities and procedures in
passing on funds (and, later, for how much money we received and who we
gave it to).
http://www.iefd.org/money/priorities.php?r=r01
--------------------------------------------------------------------
IN ENGLISH SECTION OF WEBSITE ONLY
See our DEMOCRACY LIBRARY, which contains some of the best
critical writing on this subject and is divided into the following
sections:
* National Endowment for Hypocrisy Democracy
* Stolen Election(s)
* American 'Democracy'?
* Is Democracy Compatible with Capitalism?
(HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for courses that deal with democracy at both
high school and college levels).
--------------------------------------------------------------------
See, too, sections on
* FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE / MANIFESTOS AND CHARTERS
* NOBLE PRIZE FOR DEMOCRACY
* DEMOCRACY QUOTES
* DEMOCRACY CARTOONS
* DEMOCRACY WATCH BLOG
* WORLD SOCIAL FORUM ON DEMOCRACY IN 2007
* CRITICAL BOOK, ESSAY, POEM, SONG AND CARTOON CONTESTS ON DEMOCRACY FOR
HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE
* LINKS
and Coming Soon:
* MEDIA REACTIONS TO THE I.E.D.
* DEMOCRACY VIDEOS
* N.E.D. vs. I.E.D. DOCUMENTARY
* CONFERENCES AND LECTURES
* LETTERS
* BIBLIOGRAPHY
--------------------------------------------------------------------
PLEASE FORWARD THIS APPEAL TO ALL YOUR CONTACTS
AND ASK THEM TO DO THE SAME.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
TO CONTACT US:
WEBSITE
http://www.internationalendowmentfordemocracy.org
or
http://www.iefd.org
E-MAIL
comments@xxxxxxxx (for readers' comments or questions)
REGULAR MAIL
International Endowment for Democracy,
P.O. Box 3005
Prince Street Station
New York, New York, 10012, U.S.A.
(for all of the above plus DONATIONS BY CHECK - please include e-mail
address with all letters)
====================================================================
PRESIDENT OF THE I.E.D.
Prof. Bertell Ollman
Dept. of Politics, NYU
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE I.E.D.
Prof. Michael Brown
(former Chair) Dept. of
Sociology, Northeastern Univ.
Prof. Barbara Foley
Dept. of English, Rutgers Univ.
(Newark)
Prof. Emeritus John Manley
(former Chair) Dept. of
Political Science, Stanford Univ.
Michael Smith
Lawyer
====================================================================
FOREIGN LANGUAGE VERSIONS
Arabic
http://www.iefd.org/lang/ar01.php?r=r01
Bengali
http://www.iefd.org/lang/bn01.php?r=r01
Chinese
http://www.iefd.org/lang/zh01.php?r=r01
Farsi
http://www.iefd.org/lang/fa01.php?r=r01
French
http://www.iefd.org/lang/fr01.php?r=r01
German
http://www.iefd.org/lang/de01.php?r=r01
Greek
http://www.iefd.org/lang/el01.php?r=r01
Hindi
http://www.iefd.org/lang/hi01.php?r=r01
Italian
http://www.iefd.org/lang/it01.php?r=r01
Japanese
http://www.iefd.org/lang/ja01.php?r=r01
Korean
http://www.iefd.org/lang/ko01.php?r=r01
Portuguese
http://www.iefd.org/lang/pt01.php?r=r01
Russian
http://www.iefd.org/lang/ru01.php?r=r01
Spanish
http://www.iefd.org/lang/es01.php?r=r01
Turkish
http://www.iefd.org/lang/tr01.php?r=r01
====================================================================
KEEP INFORMED
If you wish to be kept informed of later developments in our project
(in English), please send us your name and country by e-mail to
info@xxxxxxxx with "mailing list" in the subject line.
====================================================================
Copyright (c) International Endowment for Democracy 2006.
All rights reserved. Site launch: March 2006.
-----------------------
http://www.iefd.org/
-----------------------
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