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THE PEOPLES' SUMMIT
The OTHER Economic Summit, TOES '97 - Denver, June 20 - 21, 1997
"Working Alternatives: A World That Works"
Day 1 Coordinator for TOES:
Queries:
"What works to create real wealth? By and for whom?"
Open 24 hours from 4:00 p.m. Thursday to 4:00 p.m. Sunday
7:30 a.m.
9:00 - 10:30 a.m. (St. Cajetan's, CU - Auraria Campus)
11:00 - 12:30 p.m. (CU - Auraria Campus)
12:00 noon (Outside the Convention Center, the G-8 International Media Center)
12:30 - 1:30 p.m.
1:30 - 3:00 p.m. (CU - Auraria Campus)
3:15 - 4:45 p.m. (CU - Auraria Campus)
4:00 p.m. (17th and Welton, Denver)
4:00 - 6:00 p.m. (TOES Media Center)
5:00 - 6:00 p.m.
5:30 - 9:30 p.m. (North 1130A, UC Denver - Auraria Campus)
5:30 p.m. (Great Hall, Iliff School of Theology
6:00 p.m. (Exposition and Steele)
7:30 p.m. (Trinity United Methodist, 1820 Broadway, Denver)
Day 1: Morning Plenary
Queries:
"What Works to Create Real Wealth? By and For Whom?"
9:00 - 10:30 a.m.
Plenary Speakers:
The composition of the mini-plenaries and conference plenary(ies) was determined by consensus among the various people working on program for the Denver Peoples' Summit and TOES. The criteria for choosing plenary speakers, as for creating panels, were those developed and articulated by the Denver Peoples' Summit Program Committee in the minutes of their meeting on Feb. 6, 1997:
"We want all panels, plenaries, and workshops at the Peoples' Summit to reflect our communities' diversity. To that end, we agreed that at least half of the speakers in such meetings must be local, must be grassroots, must come from the communities most marginalized by the G-7, and must be women."
Day 1 Plenary Speaker Biographies:
Dr. Fox will be speaking in reference to a recent book by Ernst Von Weizsäcker and Amory and Hunter Lovins entitiled Factor Four: Doubling Wealth; Halving Resource Use.
A house in California's hot central valley that needs no air conditioning; 18-watt compact fluorescent lamps that do the job of standard 75-watt bulbs; a textile mill that reduced its water use by 80 percent; a lightweight train system that functions on demand, like an elevator, and uses a tenth as much fuel per passenger-mile as driving.
Radically improved resource efficiency is not only possible - it's profitable. And, as shown by these examples and many others described in Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use (Earthscan UK, 1997), prove that it's already being done and is giving its practitioners the competitive edge.
Factor Four provides a needed counterweight to the prevailing dogma of labor productivity. Its message: in an age of underemployment and environmental degradation, it's time to shift the balance back from labor to resource productivity.
We can - and should - use natural resources at least four times more efficiently, enabling us to live twice as well while halving the stress we place on our environment, argue authors Ernst von Weizsäcker and Amory and Hunter Lovins. Instead of using ever more resources to make ever fewer people more productive, we should employ more people and fewer resources, solving two critical problems at once.
How? The first half of the book details 50 case studies of industries and companies that have profitably achieved fourfold (or better) increases in resource productivity. Although specific techniques may not necessarily be transplantable to other sectors, example after example shows that in diverse applications resource efficiency solves environmental problems at an economic gain.
The second half of the book examines how markets can be streamlined and taxes reformed to eliminate perverse incentives and reward efficiency, enabling wealth to grow sustainably while resource use does not. Efficiency, as the authors point out, "is not the same as doing less, doing worse, or doing without." Rather, it means extracting more wealth from the same unit of resources. The benefits of factor-four efficiency are enormous and exciting: increased profits, strengthened national and local economies, reduced pollution and waste, and improved quality of life.
Efficiency offers the greatest payoff to countries with large labor forces and small energy supplies. It is bound to become a global trend, perhaps flowering first not in the overdeveloped North but in the less developed South: for many countries, this path offers the only realistic and timely chance of prosperity coupled with meaningful and sustainable development.
Efficiency, as the authors are at pains to point out, "is not the same as doing less, doing worse, or doing without." Rather, it is extracting more wealth from the same unit of resources. The benefits of factor-four efficiency are enormous and exciting: increased profits, strengthened national and local economies, reduced pollution and waste, and improved quality of life.
The ideas laid forth in Factor Four are simple, yet not fully understood, and poorly employed in today's markets. The challenge is to overcome the institutional and cultural barriers that inhibit resource efficiency from being at the forefront of today's thinking. Only then will the market get smarter by rewarding efficiency, not waste. Factor Four explains how.
To order Factor Four, please contact Rocky Mountain Institute's Publications Department at 970-927-3851 or orders@rmi.org. For more information on making your organization sustainable, contact Auden Schendler at RMI.
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11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. (Tivoli 444)
Children: They are our greatest hope for the future, but also, they are often the first to suffer when things go wrong.
The panel will challenge the G-8 leaders to think about what kind of world they are creating for our children. Will it be a world driven by unaccountable economic forces - a world of stagnant wages; fractured communities; poisoned air, water and food? Do we really want our children to inherit a despoiled planet? Or will our leaders take responsibility to restore the democratic and economic values we need to build a secure and healthy future for our kids?
Convenors:
11:00 - 12:30 p.m. (Tivoli 320B)
What will it mean to have an economic system that is not centered around multinational corporations, their finance system and their politicians?
What qualities of an economy would lead to sustainability, greater equity, community, the full blossoming of each person's potential?
What examples are there already in microcosm of this form of economy, for example community credit unions and revolving funds, watershed councils in the Pacific Northwest, local currencies, FAIR trade, and so forth.
Organizer:
11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. (Plaza 114)
The goal of the progressive strategy sessions is to provide a forum for people who want to discuss with others similarly disposed what are the models and strategies that have the greatest likelyhood of promoting self determination for people, moving us toward an ecologically sustainable future, and reigning in the forces of darkness. Occasional resource people may be asked by the facilitator to speak for 4-5 minutes. MAI and what to do about MNCs are high on
the list of problems to be addressed but not exclusive of land use problems, corrupt politics, and global warming.
The outcome of these meetings will be a list of one dozen action strategies (as detailed and specific as possible) that will stand before a plebecite ballot of all registrants on Sunday. People who can't stay that long will be asked to give their vote to a friend or "interest block."
The tentative schedule of meetings is one in the morning and one in the afternoon Friday, one on saturday, and the last Sunday morning. The ballot will be set for Sunday at lunch.
Organizers:
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11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. (North 1607)
Conventor and Speaker:
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11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. (Plaza 206)
Speakers:
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1l:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. (Tivoli A)
What is the World Bank? And what does it have to do with you? In this session, we will present information and discuss the roles, goals, and new developments of the World Bank. Panelists will discuss the ways in which the World Bank uses policy reform to promote the interests of multinational corporations, the gender implications of the Bank's work, and what citizens' can do to radically reform the Bank.
Convenor:
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11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. (Tivoli 640)
Queries:
"What are the real conditions for democracy?"
Facilitator:
11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. (South 118)
Facilitator:
1:30 - 3:00 p.m. (North 1207)
Facilitator:
1:30 - 3:00 p.m. (West 145)
Queries:
"What works to transform money into a tool for local prosperity?"
The economic system is deeply flawed and has served to concentrate money, land and power in the hands of a few. The concentration of economic power and ecological devastation have heralded the collapse of many civilizations and empires. At this time in history, humanity must choose between the health and well-being of our planet, humanity, and other lifeforms, or the further enrichment of the ruling elite. The choice is clear. The Summit of 8's policies serve the short-term interests of the rich; the Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI) blatantly favors the rich over all environmental and human rights concerns.
Understanding how the monetary system works is the first step towards creating a system which serves human needs and recognizes the value and importance of the biosphere upon which all our lives depend. The local currency movement will reorganize the global system by creating healthy local communities that recognize and respect their interdependence, and work cooperatively to restore the Earth, recognize the rights and wisdom of indigenous people, and respect the rights of all people - regardless of class, gender, age, or race. Our panel, and the workshop which follows immediately afterward, will enable people to create community currencies at the grassroots level.
What is real wealth? Western civilization has confused money with wealth. Most of the world's money is chasing other money in the cyber-casino of the global financial markets oblivious to the devastation being wreaked upon the world's ecosystems and people. While species go extinct, forests are decimated, rivers are poisoned, and people starved, the money is blindly directed towards greater profits destroying the world in the process. The global economy has been shaped by military force, money, greed, fear, and a massive propaganda campaign. Money is a tool of empire, which has served to transfer wealth and power from the many to the few. All monetary systems based upon debt have this fatal dynamic. The ancient religious taboos against usury were well justified, but have been forgotten.
The illusion that money is wealth needs to be shattered. Real wealth is a healthy planet and healthy relationships between all lifeforms; it is inner peace, world peace, balance and harmony in the home, the community, the world. Local currencies are a powerful tool towards raising consciousness, building community, and restructuring our economies in a sustainable direction. Community currencies challenge the system by showing how money is backed by our belief systems.
Money can be created by banks or governments to serve their interests, or it can be created by people in a community to serve their needs. Local currencies help communities to recognize their inner strengths, the gifts of their members, and the value of cooperation. Local currencies inspire people to live in accordance with their values, to follow their inner passion rather than chase after an obsolete notion of "success." They enable people to make a contribution to their community and receive what they need or desire in return. They nurture relationships and demonstrate how local production for local needs benefits the community, as well as reducing the stress upon distant communities who have been forced into near slavery and starvation to provide resources and services to the world's wealthy. Creating community currencies encourages participatory democratic processes and shows how non hierarchical systems empower people, and nurtur hope, creativity, respect, and compassion. In a perfect world, money would become obsolete, and the gift economy would flourish.
1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. (Tivoli 320B)
Moderator and Organizer:
1:30 - 3:00 p.m. (Tivoli 640)
Queries:
"What are the real conditions for democracy?
Facilitators:
Moderator:
To subscribe to the international Chiapas-L e-mail list, send a message to:
Tell Mexican President Zedillo and Consul General Barros what you think:
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1:30 - 4:45 p.m. (South 118)
Queries:
"What Works for Re-embedding the Economy?"
The principle for these workshops is "dialogue" rather than information exchange. In these workshops our dialogue will take place in the hope that by the end we have gotten to know each other a little better. I have been thinking a good deal about the alternatives we are trying to create and make work. My objective for these workshops - and if they work well, future workshops - is to raise the question: What is my responsibility for the problems of the world that we are now facing, such as global warming. There will be emphasis on "responsibility; our personal responsibility" for the problems that we are talking about. Once I know my part in this problem, then working on it becomes easier. Thich Nhat Hanh in his book For A Future to Be Possible suggests five precepts for guiding this process, which hopefully ends with a sort of "vow" - for want of a better term - which one makes and then carries out. In fact I have in mind to read these precepts and if possible to see if we can find a way to practice them, or similar precepts, at the end of every Gandhian Economics workshop. Such a process can't be done in one and a half hour format. Three hour format makes it somewhat probable.
Organizer:
"Gandhian Economics" will last for 3 days. It may well turn out to be a 3-day long conversation taking place in a "Gandhian space."
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1:30 - 3:00 p.m. (North 1202)
This panel will explore case studies of the effects of international trade agreements on the environment and on people. This will be a practical application of a Presbyterian Church Study through the use of case studies developed by John Wade and the Sierra Club.
Organizer:
At the end of each day (about 5 pm), there will be a response by the Faith Community to each day's program.
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1:30 - 3:00 p.m. (Plaza 203)
Facilitator:
Vic Sidel is a graduate of Princeton University with honors in physics and of Harvard Medical School with honors in biophysics, and trained in internal medicine and public health. In his work in the Bronx he has been concerned with service, teaching, and research in community health. He is a Past President of the Public Health Association of New York City and of the American Public Health Association and served as a member of the New York State Public Health Council. He is deeply involved in international health work; he has studied health care in a dozen countries and has been a consultant for the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF). Dr. Sidel was one of the founders of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) in 1961 and was its president in 1987-88. In 1993 he was elected Co-President of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), the recipient of the 1985 Nobel Prize for Peace. He has spoken and published widely on the economic, social, environmental and health consequences of the arms race and on the risks posed by the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. He is co-editor of War and Public Health, published in 1997 by Oxford University Press in conjunction with the American Public Health Association.
According to their web page, Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) has expanded its mission to encompass new challenges to human health and survival, from childhood lead poisoning, workplace contaminants and violence in the U.S. to large-scale industrial pollution in Eastern Europe and emerging threats to Earth's life-support systems. Increasingly, PSR's programs tackle problems that disproportionately affect the most vulnerable among us - children, the poor and people of color.
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1:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. (North 1511)
The notion of "sustainable consumption" has featured prominently on the world environment and development agenda since the Rio Earth Summit five years ago. But how much closer are we to understanding the implications of developing "lifestyles within the planet's means and to which all can reasonably aspire"? How much further have we gotten in designing appropriate strategies for government, business and civil society to further this ideal?
Sustainable consumption is not only about quantitative reductions in energy use and other forms of dematerialisation. It is ultimately about an appraisal of the ways in which we can achieve an acceptable and sustainable quality of life for all. It includes new approaches to economics, new technologies, new configurations of markets, and new types of taxation as well as radical lifestyle changes. How can the drivers of consumption - markets, technology, regulation and values - be influenced to steer consumption onto a more sustainable path? How can we achieve a new balance between work, leisure, and consumption?
The workshop will in the first instance identify a manifesto of ten things that every Tom, Dick and Josephine could be persuaded to do to change their consumption patterns. Second, since TOES '98 (UK) is going to focus on the subject of sustainable consumption, the workshop is an opportunity for TOES '97 participants to make a direct input into the design of TOES '98.
Facilitator:
New Road Map Foundation, P.O. Box 15981, Seattle, WA 98115; phone; 206-527-0437; fax: 206-528-1120; e-mail: newroadmap@igc.apc.org. They do not have a website, although if you search under "Your Money or Your Life", or "Joe Dominguez" or "Voluntary Simplicity" you will find webpages that include some of New Road Map's work.
1:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. (Tivoli 444)
Is economic growth incompatible with sustainable development (environmentally-sound economic development)? If economic stagnation is responsible in part for global unemployment and corporate "downsizing," are there strategies to global economic growth which address both the need for sustainability and social equity? Are World Bank/IMF policies in the "Third World" promoting economic growth or responsible for unemployment in the U.S. and other industrialized countries? Are there alternatives to "neoliberal" economic policies and the NAFTA/GATT approach which promote economic growth without detrimental effects to the environment and local producers?
Panelists invited to this forum are asked to address the above questions and if they wish, to respond to the arguments made in a paper presented by the Green Policy Group at TOES '97: "Neoliberalism, Globalization and Sustainable Growth (The Origins of Neoliberalism and the Prospects for Its Demise)."
Convenors:
1:30 - 3:00 p.m. (Tivoli C)
The Economists' Statement on Global Climate Change, which received 2,600 signatures, one of the largest consensus statemets in the history of economic policy making.
Organizers and Speakers:
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1:30 - 3:00 p.m. (Plaza 206)
Speakers:
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1:30 - 3:00 p.m. (Tivoli 320A)
The IMF, one of the most powerful financial institutions in the world, calls the shots on many key economic issues of our day, including debt, interest rate regulation and economic growth policies. This workshop will discuss the ways in which the IMF is an obstacle to global economic justice, focusing in particular on its role in creating and prolonging the debt crisis. Panelists will also address legislative and citizen action that can be taken to rein in the power of the IMF.
Convenor:
1:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. (North 1607)
Proponents of sustainable and equitable development in South Africa hope that the Summit of the Eight and the Peoples Summit (June 20-22) in Denver will highlight what is working and lead to new solutions for some of the problems facing the newly democratic South Africa. In a panel discussion on Friday, June 20, at 1:30 p.m. on the Auraria Campus, panel participants such as Yunus Chamda, Mayor of the Vaal, South Africa, and Dennis Brutus, renowned African poet and political activist, will discuss economic development in South Africa, particularly since the nation's first democratic local elections, held in November 1995.
Mayor Chamda, who is visiting Denver from the Vaal for the Summit, was elected mayor of the Vaal in the first non-racial local elections in South Africa's history. The Vaal, a large metropolitan community one hour south of Johannesburg, is currently developing a "sister community" link with the city of Denver. Mayor Chamda is expected to discuss the challenges of local development in a post-apartheid South Africa. These include trying to integrate City Council, prevent ethnic violence, and provide services for previously disadvantaged communities.
Dennis Brutus, poet and political activist, was arrested in South Africa in 1963. Mr. Brutus was shot in the back while trying to escape, and was subsequently sentenced to eighteen months of hard labor. He was held captive on Robben Island, off the coast of Capetown, South Africa, where he spent time breaking stones with Nelson Mandela. Mr. Brutus is visiting Denver from Pittsburgh, where he is currently Professor of African Studies and African Literature.
Other panel participants include Scott Haase and Anne Grady. Mr. Haase is an engineer with NEOS Corporation, who is currently involved in bringing solar-powered electricity to remote parts of South Africa. Mr. Haase is also current Chair of the Colorado Coalition for the New South Africa (CCNSA). CCNSA seeks to facilitate cultural, technical and business links between Colorado and South Africa. The present major focus of the group is to develop a formal City relationship between Denver and the Vaal, a large metropolitan area of 1.5 million people. Ms. Grady directs the South African Community Building Partnership, a joint U.S./South African project to pilot sustainable development projects in up to three South African communities, whose diverse populations are intended to represent South Africa in microcosm.
Interviews with any of the panel participants can be arranged by contacting Scott Haase at the number below.
Facilitator:
The Vaal is a large metropolitan community located approximately one hour's drive south of Johannesburg. Mr. Chamda was recently elected mayor of the Vaal through the first non-racial local elections in South Africa's history. Mr. Chamda is a member of the ANC and is active in local and national economic development issues in South Africa. Mr. Chamda could discuss the challenges of local economic development in a post-apartheid South Africa. In particular, he could discuss the challenges faced by local governments as they try to integrate City Council structures, prevent ethnic violence, implement community programs, provide services for previously disadvantaged communities and other aspects of creating an equitable local economic dispensation. Mr. Chamda could also discuss the development of the Sister City link between Denver and the Vaal and how he envisions this link benefiting both communities.
NEOS Corporation is a small, woman-owned business specializing in the development of alternative energy technologies for rural electrification. NEOS has been working with the Province of Mpumalanga in South Africa to develop and implement a provincial-wide rural electrification program for those regions of the province that are beyond effective reach of electric utility lines. The program being developed will involve training of local utility personnel and community-based NGOs, job creation, access to technology (household photovoltaic electric systems), access to system financing, and provision of a service (electricity) in an environmentally and economically sustainable manner.
The Search for Common Ground is a non-profit organization affiliated with the Institute for Sustainability (Denver University) and several other South African-based organizations and Universities. The group is presently developing a project in South Africa that is Focusing on working with Communities to undertake and implement their own sustainable economic development initiatives. The projects focus n racially and ethnically diverse communities and one of the major points of the project is work with the communities to increase communication and cooperation across racial and ethnic lines.
3:15 - 4:45 p.m. (North 1207)
Facilitators:
3:15 - 4:45 p.m. (West 145)
An interactive workshop for those interested in creating their own community currencies.
Format: A brief overview of the creation of "Boulder Hours" by activist Jhym Phoenix. A brief look at the history of money, the need for local currencies and an update on the local currency movement. Resources of interest to activists will be made available, as well as the opportunity to network, most of the time will be "open space" and self-organizing.
Facilitators:
3:15 - 4:45 p.m. (Plaza 203)
Organizer:
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3:15 a.m. - 4:45 p.m. (North 1511)
Queries:
"What Works to Strengthen Shareholder Activism in Socially Responsible investment?"
Recently Majorie Kelly, editor of Business Ethics asked, "What's All the Fuss About Stockholders?" The fuss is just this: If the underlying purpose of capitalism becomes defined as maximization of shareholder value, then corporate policies are framed under this mandate,which is reinforced by investors' demands. Thus, the term "Shareholder Capitalism" has come into use at a time when, due to overnmental distribution of shares in the transitioning economies of the Former Soviet Bloc nations, there are more shareholders in the global market place than ever before. Yet, the speculative nature of the market place makes shareholders the most transient of all stakeholders. Furthermore, shareholders, particularly in reference to pension funds and mutual funds, are often under the control of a few money managers, who are chasing quotas, commissions, and quarterly performance measurements. Investment decisions become obscured from the investor's view, and owners (in the form of stockholders) are even more distanced from the corporate policies of the underlying investments and their consequences.
This coincides with a period when global financial markets are operating in a virtually borderless environment which is de facto largely unaccountable to any regulatory body or government. Not only has the volume of global financial flows, by many accounts, far exceeded the joint productive economic activity of the advanced nations - but transactions are being conducted at nanosecond speeds across computer screens. The resultant market pressure is causing corporations to focus more than ever on short term speculative financial corporations to focus more than ever on short term speculative financial activities, often under the guise of hedging. This has given rise to referring to the financial market place as the "global gambling casino."
An alternative concept is "Stakeholder Capitalism," which considers shareholders as only one of many stakeholders which include customers, employees, communities, society at large, and the environment. In this scenario corporations would still retain fiduciary responsibility to operate as viable economic entities, but would be held equally accountable to social and environmental considerations. Due to the prominence attributed to return on investments, a move to the stakeholder approach will require a major shift away from a strictly quantitative measures to a more inclusive strategy.
The Socially Responsible Investment Community offers some effective tools for embedding stakeholder values in investment decisions. Socially Responsible Investing (SRI), raises consciousness and connects the cause and effect of investment decisions. SRI promotes an understanding among investors that reinvesting in their own communities and responsible companies; diverting funds from corporations that promote environmentally unsound or socially unjust practices; and challenging such corporate practices through shareholder activism - does not come at the expense of sacrificing financial gain but instead increases overall economic security.
Taking the discussion even further, Amy Domini, creator of the Domini Social Index and one of the pioneers of SRI , expresses the need to challenge the very essence of "Shareholder Capitalism": "Our system of rights and ownership structure evolved to provide society with much needed goods and services in a timely and effective way... The social investment industry has the potential to slow or reverse the common wisdom that the purpose of the corporations is to provide financial return, to remind society that the purpose of Microsoft, for example, is not to return profits to investors. The purpose of Microsoft is to provide computer sofware. Profits are only a means to that end. Our job is to construct a framework within which corporations give us food, clothing, shelter, health care and comforts we ask for while also not causing us harm." (The Green Money Journal, Spring, 1997)
Facilitator:
Indeed, the prevailing consensus seems to be that the purpose of capitalism is the maximization of shareholder value. But shareholders are the most transient of all stakeholders. Once they sell their shares their commitment to the company ends -- unlike other stakeholders, particularly employees, the community in which the corporation is located, and society at large.
This morning we heard David Korten's distinction between a market economy and capitalism. According to Korten, since capitalism is ruled by big capital, it is inherently anti-market and anti-democratic. But who are these capitalists? As in most cases, "them " is us. Any one of us who has a savings account, a money market account, an IRA, a mutual fund, a pension fund, or any number of investment vehicles, is a capitalist.
Recognizing that capital investments are an intrinsic part of the capitalistic structure, this panel looked at how socially responsible investing (SRI) tools can help us move from the myopic shareholder perspective to a system that considers all stakeholders.
Buie Seawell, Clinical Professor of Ethics and Law at the Daniel's College of Business, University of Denver, focused on the issues of governance and democracy. The emergence of large corporations required large government. Freedom has come to mean freedom to do as we please instead the original meaning, which was freedom to govern ourselves. He brought up an old movie entitled Rollerball in which corporations did rule the world. Seawell spoke about the quality of self-governance, and stated that the first touchstone is transparency. He also spoke about corporate ownership of the media as being a great impediment to self-governance.
Kathy Leonard, President of the Center for Responsible Investing and Chair of the Colorado Network of Business for Social Responsibility, agreed that the current system was flawed. She suggested the social investing approaches can begin to address some of these issues. One of these tools is screening investments. This can be done through avoiding companies who policies or products you do not wish to endorse, While this may seem passive, it does have an impact because companies don't like to be avoided. There is also the positive approach, investing in companies you want to support. More direct approaches would be community loan fund investments, or the shareholder activist approach. Shareholder Activism is having a large impact on the Tobacco Industry, for example, as pressure mounts for pensions funds to divest from tobacco stocks. First Affirmative Financial Network, to which Kathy Leonard is affiliated, has been actively involved in persuading divestiture from Tobacco. (Some FAFN representatives just recently lobbied the Florida Pension Fund to divest from tobacco stocks.) Often when shareholder resolutions are filed, companies are willing to dialogue about the issues at hand in order to avoid bad publicity.
One of the myths around social investing is that people feel, "I'm too small to make a difference." So George Gay, President of First Affirmative Financial Network and Board member of the Social Investment Forum posed an exercise that he and Alisa Gravitz of Co-Op America often present in such groups. If everyone were too look into their wallets and count their money; the credit limits of all their credit cards, savings and checking account deposits, insurance
policies, and any investments, and add these all up, the net economic impact of the people in the room may be as much as 25,000,000 dollars. One of the messages is that if you pay attention along the way, you might have more power than you expect.
Kathy Leonard also mentioned her role with Business for Social Responsibility, which is a 1,200 member organization ranging from Fortune 500 companies to smaller businesses. BSR is an inclusive, rather than an exclusive, organization. Being a member is not an endorsement of a company, BSR offers itself as a forum to dialogue for change and offers tools to move from Shareholder Capitalism to Stakeholder Capitalism.
George Gay spoke on behalf of Amy Domini, Creator of the Domini Social Index, who was unable to attend. He said that some issues Amy might have addressed are: When is it moral or ethical for a corporation to do what isn't moral or ethical for a human being to do? Why
do corporations exist? Were they created to maximize shareholder value? No - they were created to deliver goods and services to benefit society. The purpose of Microsoft is to produce software, not to enrich shareholders or to make Bill Gates the richest man in the world.
There are many myths about social investing, one most investment in community development or in non-profits are takes the form of charitable donations rather than investments which offer returns. Accion International's payback rate on loans to poor women in Latin America far exceeds the pay back rates of commercial banks. George Gay spoke about his experience working in government programs: you can put $1,000 in at the top of a government program and be lucky if $200 gets to the intended recipient or project. Non-profits, on the other hand are more effective, and tax policies favor non-profits. He briefly mentioned a current project of FAFN to develop partnerships with non-profits.
George Gay quoted David Berge of Vermont National Bank saying that last year social investing to him was about goats. He recounted stories about some goat farmers that his programs have helped. Berge has some new stories to tell, but they are strictly Vermont community type of stories demonstrating the personalized relationship to banking that a socially responsible approach can create. A good deal of social investing is about local investing where you can see the results.
One of the biggest myths about social responsible investing is that it underperforms. Companies hide behind the ERISA laws - Employee Retirement Investment Security Act. These laws interpret fiduciary responsibility as not allowing consideration of social criteria because it is perceived to raise risk and lower returns. According to George Gay, who has studied extensively the issues of fiduciary responsibility, this is an inaccurate interpretation.
Furthermore, a recent study which won the Moskowitz Award (a new award for promoting socially responsible investment) written by John B. Guerard, Jr., Director of Quantitative Research at Vantage Global Advisors, concludes that there is no significant difference between the average returns of a socially-screened and unscreened universe.
Kathy Leonard pointed out another myth, which is that social screening can't effect change. There was a time when social screening wasn't mainstream. Now it is very much mainstream and companies are paying more attention to the multiple issues for which securities are screened. Also, it raises consciousness and begins to connect people's values with what they do with their money. Most Americans share a common set of values - personal safety, education, living in a community they can be proud of, health quality, etc. Capital flows influence things in America more than other things do. Influencing investments enhance shared values. If we get people to include values in financial decisions, the connections become clearer.
Buie Seawell asked George Gay if there is screening for corporate governance? For example, in the case of Texaco, which is certainly not a model responsible company, it did respond in a responsible way to present concerns (discrimination issues), demonstrating good corporate governance. George Gay responded that screening for this is not as well developed as other screens. There needs to be better screening for Compensation Committees and interlocking directorship. Industries elude certain issues on the basis of proprietary information.
There is presently an issue before the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) to disallow some shareholder resolutions dealing with employment and other such issues, claiming it is not the business of the shareholder. Everyone is urged to contact the SEC in protest. The ICCR (Interfaith Council on Corporate Responsibility) is spearheading this campaign to stop this action.
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3:15 - 4:45 p.m. (Tivoli 320A)
Contact:
Back to List of Events on Day 1
3:15 - 4:45 p.m. (Tivoli 640)
Organized by:
A radical new investment treaty, the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), is being surreptitiously negotiated by members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). These negotiations began in 1995 and have reached virtual completion without the scrutiny and cooperation of citizens, the media or elected officials. A recently liberated copy of the draft text is now passing freely through countless inquisitive hands and is even plastered on the Internet (http://citizen.org/gtw/). But the public, and even our Congress, is still completely unaware of this extreme corporate bill of rights.
The MAI dismantles most barriers to international capital flow by banning many of the laws which states use to regulate investment, referred to as "performance requirements." Performance requirements are any conditions or terms that a government may make prior to accepting a foreign investment, such as: hiring local personnel, establishing joint ventures, purchasing or using locally provided goods or services, export requirements and so on. For instance, the federal Community Reinvestment Act that requires banks to adequately service the credit needs of low income communities could be challenged by a foreign investor based on the MAI's ban of performance requirements.
Multinational corporations or investors that might challenge a performance requirement or any other MAI violation, would have the legal tools, or "standing," to directly sue the government and could even be entitled to monetary damages. Therefor, legislation that governments utilize to protect environmental quality, labor rights, small businesses and community development could be trumped by international "corporate courts." Lori Wallach, Director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, said this about the proposed MAI: "[It] is an outrageous global corporate welfare program. Countries would owe all sorts of new favors to foreign corporations and investors who would also be newly empowered to sue governments in closed international tribunals if the governments didn't pay up. The MAI seems nothing less than a corporate power grab much like the GATT and NAFTA."
Along with the ban on performance requirements and the corporate legal standing, the proposed MAI establishes National Treatment. Simply put, this means that foreign corporations and investors must be treated equally or better than domestic corporations and investors. The National Treatment sounds relatively benign until state tax incentives or subsidies are considered. For example, to promote the growth and stability of small locally owned businesses, that cannot readily compete with large wealthy multinationals, states will often provide tax breaks or regulation flexibility. National Treatment would disallow such advantages unless the same advantages were granted to foreign multinationals, who clearly do not have similar needs.
Liberating a copy of the draft text has enabled Public Citizen, and a growing number of other organizations, to begin critical discussion on the MAI. Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch has teamed up with The Preamble Collaborate, a new progressive D.C. based think-tank, and launched an international Campaign of Inquiry designed to correct these exclusive negotiations and expose the dangerous substance of the MAI. At this years Peoples' Summit in Denver, Colorado, Public Citizen and Preamble would like to facilitate a panel on the MAI. Speakers might include representatives from each respective organization, as well as from the environmental, labor or community reinvestment constituencies. We would like to run the panel twice on different days and plan additional press stunts as well.
For more information or to obtain sample letters that you can send to your local newspaper and elected officials, check out Public Citizen's web site, http://www.citizen.org/gtw, call us at 202-588-7777, and subscribe to our listserv by sending an e-mail message to ctaylor@citizen.org.
To receive reports, updates and articles on the Multilateral Agreement on
Investments (MAI), subscribe to the MAI listserv. Write to:
listproc@essential.org reading ONLY:
For more information about the MAI (links suggested by Emilie Nichols):
Back to List of Events on Day 1
3:15 - 4:45 p.m. (Plaza 114)
The goal of the progressive strategy sessions is to provide a forum for people who want to discuss with others similarly disposed what are the models and strategies that have the greatest likelyhood of promoting self determination for people, moving us toward an ecologically sustainable future, and reigning in the forces of darkness. Occasional resource people may be asked by the facilitator to speak for 4-5 minutes. MAI and what to do about MNCs are high on
the list of problems to be addressed but not exclusive of land use problems, corrupt politics, and global warming.
The outcome of these meetings will be a list of one dozen action strategies (as detailed and specific as possible) that will stand before a plebecite ballot of all registrants on Sunday. People who can't stay that long will be asked to give their vote to a friend or "interest block."
The tentative schedule of meetings is one in the morning and one in the afternoon Friday, one on saturday, and the last Sunday morning. The ballot will be set for Sunday at lunch.
Organizers:
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3:15 - 4:45 p.m. (North 1806)
Queries:
When dealing with Social Economy, we refer to local initiatives that have four main goals:
Social Economy approaches problems at two levels simultaneously: it aims for both economic progress for community residents and a lessening of social problems.
Social Economy initiatives might include business firms, housing development corporations, credit unions, banks (e.g., North Shore Bank in Chicago), cooperatives and community development corporations. The actions of countless hardworking and committed individuals and organizations are shaping a new field and creating the elements of an alternative economic paradigm.
Speakers include, but are not limited to:
Back to List of Events on Day 1
3:15 - 4:45 p.m. (North 1607)
Government programs to "adjust" national economies to the global marketplace take different names in the North and the South, though their underlying policies and impacts are generally the same: dismantling social safety nets, downsizing public education, healthcare, and pensions, reducing governments' abilities to regulate markets, etc. This workshop will make the connections between today's fiscal crises and how public deficits are being used to leverage the dismantling of social programs in the United States and around the world.
Convenor:
Summary:
Government programs to "adjust" national economies to the global marketplace take different names in the North and the South. What we call "structural adjustment" in the Global South, we call "Reaganomics" and the "Contract for America" in the United States, though their underlying
policies and impacts are generally the same. The negative effects include dismantling social safety nets, downsizing public education, healthcare, and pensions, and reducing governments' abilities to regulate markets and tax wealth. This workshop will make the connections between today's fiscal crises and how public deficits are being used to leverage the dismantling of social programs in the United States and around the world. We will use Kenya as an international example of structural adjustment (with a focus on women), and show how cutbacks in education and programs for youth in the US are a domestic parallel.
The G-7 perspective accepts these negative social effects as the necessary cost of global economic restructuring. The policies the G-7 governments promote through legislative action, World Bank/IMF participation, and trade agreements support the accumulation of wealth and
power by transnational corporations and the richest 10% of the population at the expense of the vast majority. This IS the problem. The goal of our workshop is to show that these negative effects are not isolated in one community or one country, but are the necessary consequence of global restructuring everywhere.
Alternatives include:
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3:15 - 4:45 p.m. (Plaza 206)
Queries:
"What works to create sustainable cities?"
This panel will explore practical ideas that embody values of social and environmental justice that are actually working on the ground in small, medium, and large cities, as well as some rural communities, all around the world. These values can and are being incorporated in local government policy. They also shape the voluntary efforts of community groups. Topics to be covered range from urban design, democracy and culture, to energy, water, transportation, food and agriculture, waste, health, the economy, and recreation. This workshop will be of interest to students in urban and environment studies, public administration, geography, and planning; community leaders, activists, and anyone concerned about and committed to building a more just and sustainable society.
Facilitator:
Speakers:
Peoples' Summit/TOES Media Center
"Curtis Room" (2nd Floor), Executive Tower Inn, 1405 Curtis St., Denver, CO (across the street from the G-7 Press Center); tel: 303-982-1984; fax: 303-892-1983. Hotel Front Desk: 303-571-0300. Before June 20 or after June 22, call the Colorado Progressive Coalition: 303-866-0908 or AFSC Denver: 303-832-4789.
Peoples' Summit Video Library & Screening Room
(Tivoli 440)
Video screenings throughout the three days of the conference. A list of the videos is available at the registration desk.
Peoples' Summit Staff Workroom and Speakers' Lounge
(Tivoli 442)
Indigenous Peoples' Genocide Memorial
(June 20-22, Auraria Campus, Auraria Square)
Names of indigenous people and peoples destroyed through imperialism will be read aloud in a three day commemoration of their lives, and acknowledgment of their on-going struggle.
Indigenous Peoples' Map of the World
(June 20-22, Auraria Campus, Auraria Square, in front of St. Cajetan's)
Eight foot-by-eight-foot visual depiction of indigenous peoples struggles around the globe.
List of Events on Day 1
On-Site Registration Begins
Tivoli Multicultural Student Lounge, CU - Auraria Campus,
just West of Downtown Denver at Speer Blvd. & Auraria Parkway.
Day 1 Plenary: What is Real Wealth?
First Set of Day 1 Panels and Workshops
(Tivoli 444)
(Positive futures Network) (Tivoli 320B)
(Plaza 114)
(North 1607)
(Plaza 206)
(50 Years Is Enough) (Tivoli 320A)
(Tivoli 640)
(South 118)
MAI Press Conference
Public Citizen's Trade Watch on the Multilateral Treaty on Investments (MAI)
Lunch
12:00 - 1:30 p.m., Central Presbyterian Church, 1660 Sherman Street, Denver
(Part of the Tribunal on Crimes Against Nature and Indigenous Peoples. Vandana Shiva will also speak at the "Biopiracy" panel at 3:15-4:45 p.m. later in the day.
First Afternoon Set of Day 1 Panels and Workshops
(North 1207)
(West 145)
Two Sceptial Practitioners and
One Practicing Sceptic Confront the Issues
(Tivoli 320B)
(Tivoli 640)
(3 hour workshop) (South 118)
(North 1202)
(Plaza 203)
(South 118)
(North 1202)
(Tivoli 320C)
(Plaza 206)
(50 Years Is Enough) (Tivoli 320A)
(Tivoli 320C)
(Plaza 206)
Second Set of Afternoon Panels and Workshops
(Summit on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 1) (North 1207)
(West 145)
(Tivoli 230B)
(North 1511)
(2nd part of a 3 hour workshop) (South 118)
(Colorado Coalition for a Single Payer) (Tivoli 320A)
(Plaza 213)
(Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch) (Tivoli 640)
(Plaza 114)
(North 1806)
(50 Years Is Enough) (North 1607)
(Plaza 206)
(Tivoli 444)
SEIU Local 105 Justice for Janitors Demonstration
Globalization, Social Change, and the Media
Panel followed by cash bar.
Fourth Set of Panels and Workshops
(Plaza 114)
Includes MAI Strategy section (Public Citizens' Trade Watch)
Peace Summit at the Peoples' Summit
Peace Summit Reception beween the two speakers.
Student Hunger Banquet
End the Politics of Cruelty: Bandas de las Calaveras
Procession of the Unrepresented Victims of Globalization
"The G "ate", the rest went hungry"
Unique street theater to protest the destructive policies of the rulers of the world and to remember their victims. Featuring Su Theatro, 25 years of Chicano Art and Activism, and The Blockheads, 15 foot tall evil puppets of the G-8.
Ecumenical Christian Worship Service
Program Abstracts
What Is Real Wealth?
"How can the market operate to realize the common good?"
"What are the potential and limits of the market for sustainability?"
(Tivoli 320, UC Denver - Auraria Campus)
Opening
Introduced by Val Phillips, Peoples' Summit Planning CommitteeDay 1 Plenary: What is Real Wealth?
Moderators:
11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Panels and Workshops
Day 1: Workshop
The Child in the Global Economy
Speakers:
Back to List of Events on Day 1
Day 1: Workshop
Positive Futures Network
Envisioning a Post-Corporate Society
Panelists:
Back to List of Events on Day 1
Day 1: Workshop
First Progressive Strategies Sessions
Day 1: Panel and Workshop
Impacts of Structural Adjustment on Nicaragua
Day 1: Panel and Workshop
Religion in Cuban Society/Labor in Cuba
Day 1: Panel & Workshop
Understanding the World Bank:
A Discussion for Activists
Speakers:
.
Day 1: Panel and Workshop
Working Alternatives to Neoliberalism
"What works for the marginalized peoples of Mexico?"
"What is preventing the peoples' solutions from working for them?"
Panelists:
Back to List of Events on Day 1
Day 1: Panel and Workshop
Worksharing: Timesizing, Not Downsizing
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1:30 - 3:00 p.m. Panels and Workshops
Day 1: Panel
Corporate Control of the Media
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Day 1: Panel
(The Creating Community Currencies workshop follows immediately, 3:15-4:45, West 145.)
Creating Community Currencies Panel
Enabling Sustainability and Re-embedding Money
Does Karl Polanyi's discussion of money as a fictitious commodity have any relevance here?
"What works to build community and at the same time support individual human development?"
Back to List of Events on Day 1
David Boyle is Editor of New Economics magazine, and has been working with the New Economics Foundation in London since 1987. He is the author of Building Futures and What is New Economics? and has written and broadcast widely about new kinds of money. He will speak on "Future Money," the future of money, the currency revolution, and so forth.
Day 1: Panel & Workshop
An Ecological Economics (Part 1)
Sustainability and Business: an Oxymoron?
Two Skeptical Practitioners and
One Practicing Skeptic Confront the Issues
Speakers:
Back to List of Events on Day 1
Day 1: Panel and WorkshopFocus on Mexico (Part 1)
Part 2 of "Focus on Mexico" takes place on Sunday, June 22, 8:45-10:30 a.m. (North Classroom Bldg. 1806).
"What Works for the marginalized peoples of Mexico?
(Example: David Werner's Healthwrights project in Sinaloa)
"What is preventing the peoples' solutions from working for them?"
Example: The Zapatista critique of Neo-Liberalism.
Speakers:
Links to Background on Current Events in Mexico:
Suggestions from Emilie Nichols (Denver Alliance for Democracy), e-mail: efnichols@aol.com, which she got from Evan Ravitz, e-mail: evan@vote.org (Epicenter/Alliance for Democracy; Boulder Green Alliance, and Colorado Progressives).Chiapas Listerver
majordomo@profmexis.dgsca.unam.mx,
leaving the subject line blank, and
with ONLY these words in the body of the message:
subscribe chiapas-l your-email-address
.
The "l" in "chiapas-l" is a lower case "L", not a one.
You will receive an e-mail message back telling you about the group and how to unsubscribe if you want to later. You should save this message for future reference. You can expect several messages per day, about 3/4 in Spanish, 1/4 in English. This list is organized out of UNAM, the largest University in North America, in Mexico City.
President of the Republic of Mexico
fax: 011-52 (5) 515-1594
e-mail webadmon@op.presidencia.gob.mx.
48 Steele Street
Denver, CO 80206
tel: 303-331-1871; 303-331-0169.
Day 1: Panel and Workshops
Gandhian Economics:
(3 hour event: 1:30 - 4:45)
The Wealth of The Poor and The Poverty of the Wealthy
"What works to create healthy local economies given the global context?"
"What can people and communities do to re-embed economies in their communities?"
Initiator:
Participant:
Day 1: Panel and Workshop
(must be in the afternoon)Hope for a Global Future: A Faith Response
Moderator:
Speakers:
Respondents:
Panel and Workshop
The Impact of Globalization on Children's Health
Speakers:
Day 1: Panel and Workshop
Is Sustainable Consumption Possible?
Panelists:
Back to List of Events on Day 1
David Boyle is Editor of New Economics magazine, and has been working with the New Economics Foundation in London since 1987. He is the author of Building Futures and What is New Economics? and has written and broadcast widely about new kinds of money.
Day 1: Workshop
Alternatives to Neoliberalism:
North-South Reforms and Sustainable Growth in an Interdependent World
Moderator:
Panelists:
Back to List of Events on Day 1
Day 1: Workshop
The Politics and Economics of Climate Change
Roundtable Discussion of the Economists' Statement on Global Climate Change
Economists' Statement on Climate Change
Endorsed by Over 2000 Economists including six Nobel Laureates
Redefining Progress
One Kearny Street, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94108
tel: 415-781-1191; fax: 415-781-1198; e-mail: info@rprogress.org
Day 1: Panel and Workshop
Sustainable Agriculture and Sustainable Energy Development in Cuba
Day 1: Panel and Workshop
Understanding the IMF and Debt:
A Discussion for Activists
Speakers:
Back to List of Events on Day 1
Day 3: Panel & Workshop
What Is Working in South Africa?
Visiting Mayor from South Africa to Highlight Local Concerns
Speakers:
Back to List of Events on Day 1
3:15 - 4:45 p.m. Panels and Workshops
Day 1: Summit on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - Part 1
Biopiracy, Intellectual Property Rights, and Indigenous Peoples
(Abya Yala Fund, New Alliance for Indigenous Liberation and Self-Determination, American Friends Service Committee)
Panelists:
Back to List of Events on Day 1
Day 1: Workshop
(The Creating Community Currencies Panel occurs immediately before this Workshop, at 1:30 - 3:30 p.m., in the same room.)
Creating Community Currencies Workshop
Back to List of Events on Day 1
Day 1: Workshop
An Ecological Economics (Part 2)
What Works to Link Theory to Practice?
Sustainable Communities Redefine Progress
Convenors:
Day 1: Workshop
From "Shareholder Capitalism" to "Stakeholder Capitalism": A look at Socially
Responsible Investing
Panelists:
Report of Session
Tying into the theme of the day, "What is Real Wealth?", Marjorie Kelly, of Business Ethics magazine, asked "What's All The Fuss About Stockholders?" She asked, "Where does wealth come from? More precisely where does the wealth of public corporations come from? Who creates it?... To judge by the current arrangement, one might suppose capital creates wealth..."
Day 1: Panel & Workshop
Health Care Policies
Speaker:
Day 1: Panel & Workshop
Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch panel on the
Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI)
Speakers:
subscribe MAI-NOT your name organization state
This may be the first you've heard about the MAI, but it won't be the last.
i.e.: subscribe MAI-NOT Chantell Taylor Public Citizen DC
Day 1: Workshop
Second Progressive Strategies Sessions
Day 1: Panel and Workshop
A Social Economy That Works
What Works to Provide Income Security?
Is a Social Economy based on volunteering indeed an alternative, small-scale, imaginative economy that opens the way to a more democratic and ore communitarian social life?
Or is the Social Economy movement merely a form of self-managed poverty subsidized by the state in order to answer the recriminations of those who are at the margins of society?
Is an alternative Social Economy a way for people to take charge of their own destinies?
Or is it just an exercise in self-exploitation that holds only exhaustion in store for those who enter into it?
The limits and possibilities of social economy will be stressed by referring mainly to the experience of Québec and France. With respect to the French Collective Utility Work program, Rifkin's optimism about the role of social economy will be called into question. As far as Québec is concerned, I will underline the danger of bureaucratizing the social economy. There are three dangers: 1. The loss of autonomy; 2. dependency that may reduce the voluntary sector's capacity for innovation; 3. institutionalization. As J. Reckart points out: "it is questionable whether an agency that receives most of its funds from the government can still be called voluntary or is, ore accurately quasi-governmental."
Day 1: Panel and Workshop
Structural Adjustment in the North: Domestic Links to Adjustment in the Global South
Speakers:
Day 1: Panel & Workshop
What Works for Just and Sustainable Cities?
"What works to protect the land, create and protect people's access to land, and invigorate communities?"
"Could the split-rate property tax promote home ownership and quality of affordable housing, renew downtowns, and help curb urban sprawl?
The traditional property tax system in the United States overtaxes buildings and undertaxes land, encouraging urban sprawl and discouraging the maintenance of both residential and commercial buildings and the efficient use of urban space. Sixteen cities in Pennsylvania are currently implementing revenue-neutral "split-rate" or "two-tier" property tax systems. These local tax-reform measures decrease the tax rate on buildings to encourage maintenance and improvements, and increase the tax rate on land to encourage efficient site utilization, reduce urban sprawl, and discourage land speculation. Cities adopting a split rate property tax system have experienced significant improvement in the quality of their residential and commercial building stock, increased employment and decreased crime rates. In 1995,
