He wrote this article, which was first published in Empirical magazine. It looks at the link between money and rebellion, and some of the groundbreaking changes advocated by those working to democratize finance and money, including public banks, unemployed worker co-op formation, government-created credit bypassing private banks, and a trillion-dollar coin to jump start the economy and shrink public debt. Just as in 2013, it's time for popular education to lay out these issues and solutions.
In 2013, Dave Lewit, active with the Massachusetts Public Banking working group and a former Alliance chapter coordinator, looked at the aftermath of the "Great Recession" and what organizations and theorists were proposing to address systemic problems with our global and national financial systems.
He wrote this article, which was first published in Empirical magazine. It looks at the link between money and rebellion, and some of the groundbreaking changes advocated by those working to democratize finance and money, including public banks, unemployed worker co-op formation, government-created credit bypassing private banks, and a trillion-dollar coin to jump start the economy and shrink public debt. Just as in 2013, it's time for popular education to lay out these issues and solutions.
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![]() Public banking activists in California and across the country are celebrating the passage of AB 857, authorizing California cities, counties, and the state to create their own public banks. The bill was signed into law in October by Governor Gavin Newsom after being filed at the start of the session by Assembly members David Chiu and Miguel Santiago. But the bill’s filing was preceded by years of city-level advocacy, with local public bank groups in Los Angeles, Oakland, Humboldt County, and San Francisco, among others. These groups worked with city councils and county government and built connections across issues to bring a diverse coalition together in support of the bill once it was filed. With San Francisco and Los Angeles both working on filing bank plans under the new bill, look for these cities to join North Dakota and American Samoa, as well as dozens of other countries where public banks are established, in being able to provide non-profit, transparent, accountable and affordable finances for public purposes—putting public money to work for the common good, rather than Wall Street profits. Alliance Co-chair Nancy Price was one of dozens of CA Public Banking Alliance campaigners who met with Assembly and Senate committee members in the spring and early summer to help shepherd the bill through several committee hearings and votes, and to help fend off unfriendly amendments. “The combined efforts of Coalition members and endorsers of this bill, as well as calls to the legislature and committee members and in-district visits led to success,” she said. “And this California win will give a huge push to Alliance sponsored campaigns” for public banks, currently underway in Massachusetts and Portland OR. ![]() At a time when, across the country, communities are told to cut back on water usage to protect the environment while bottled water corporations pump water for their own profit, the people of a small town in southwest Maine have taken a large step toward local control and long term protection of water. At their August 20 town meeting, Brownfield residents voted 136-17 to enact a new “Town of Brownfield ME Water Extraction Ordinance.” The ordinance puts limits on how much groundwater can be pumped from local wells. It also ensures the town can stop water extraction if testing demonstrates that groundwater levels are falling. In addition, the ordinance also bars large-scale extraction for bottling and sale, and puts controls on water-related truck traffic. Voters in Edison NJ have overwhelmingly rejected their mayor's plan to turn over the township's wastewater system, and part of its water system, to a joint venture between two corporations.
SUEZ North America, a private water utility company, and KKR, an equity firm, would have operated the facilities under the name Edison Environmental Partners, and leased the equipment from the town. Instead, following a landslide "no" on the proposal in a special election, the township will create a water department and beef up its existing sewer department to do maintenance and repair. The election was the result of a grassroots petition drive and local organizing over most of the past year. While SUEZ and KKR modified their proposals in response to opposition by the community, cutting the length of the contract from 40 to 25 years and offering money to install air conditioning in township schools, Edison residents held their ground. In June, nearly 5,000 petitions were received by the township council asking that an ordinance be introduced to require Edison to permanently own and operate the sewer and water systems that were to be turned over to SUEZ and KKR. In response, SUEZ and KKR sent out investigators who posed as representatives of the "Edison Utility Improvement Program," showing up at the homes of petition signers, reportedly inquiring about whether they signed the petition and why. Water privatization, whether of resources or infrastructure, is not the answer. Edison needed only to look to Hoboken to see a pattern of indifference from water profiteers to real concerns about service and safety of the public water supply. The Alliance for Democracy worked with residents in Lawrence MA, many years ago to prevent the private takeover of their municipally-managed sanitation system, and from our support of local rights-of-nature ordinances to local control of producer to consumer food sales, we are big fans of keeping vital systems under the public's oversight. We hope that Edison residents remain involved in setting up the new water department and that this example of democratically-determined municipal control of water is an inspiration to other communities looking to take back control of their water and sanitation systems. Alliance in Oregon helps win and defend single payer study, ballot measure on campaign contributions8/6/2019 Oregon’s legislature has approved a ballot measure for the Nov 2020 ballot to amend the state’s Constitution to allow limits on campaign contribution at the state, county and city levels, to allow disclosure of contributors, and to allow political advertisements to also include information on who paid for them. But that hasn’t put a stop to a citizen effort to collect enough signatures to get a similar measure on the ballot.
Oregon is one of only five states that have no enforced campaign contribution limits—the others are Alabama, Nebraska, Utah and Virginia. The result is outlandish amounts of money given and spent in elections--$37 million in the last gubernatorial race, with $2.5 million coming from Nike founder Phil Knight alone--and an increasingly clear line between money and inaction on issues of concern to voters. For instance, Republican legislators who skipped the state to block a vote on a clean energy jobs bill also received large donations from companies whose bottom lines would have been impacted by the legislation. Still, Oregonians are continuing to collect 220,000 signatures statewide to get the a similar measure on the ballot, since it’s possible for the state legislature to rescind their approval. Alliance council member Joan Horton said that legislators take the signature drive seriously, and knowing that people in their districts were out working for the measure spurred them to support a referral “A continuing signature drive is “insurance” that the legislature will not rescind their referral of SJR18 during 2020’s short session. According to our attorney, we are not on the ballot for certain until that short-session is over next year. He says it’s very unlikely to be rescinded, but it’s a chance we don’t want or need to take”, she said. Alliance national co-chair David Delk noted that in Portland, the local chapter’s efforts will be focused on having the 2020 state ballot measure approved by city and county voters and supporting efforts elsewhere in the state. Every expectation is that it will pass locally, since Portland and Multnomah county voters have already approved two other local ballot measures by about 90%, though implementation is still partly tied up in court. The chapter will also join with other supporting organizations to make sure that when the question passes, contribution limits established under it are not too high and the implementing legislation is loophole-free. In another legislative win Oregon also approved two legislative study committees on a single payer health care plan for the state, and a state public option. David, who also leads the Health Care for All Oregon Metro chapter, said “The single payer study committee is expected to write legislation to implement such a program in Oregon. Passage of this study committee is quite exciting for Oregonians and moves the ball forward for Oregon to be the first state in the nation to create a single payer health care system. Remember, everybody in, no one out!" ![]() Thanks to the California Public Banking Alliance's coalition building, AB 857, which authorizes California cities, counties, and the state to create their own public banks, has advanced through the state Assembly and two of three Senate committee hearings. Just yesterday, July 3rd, the Senate Governance and Finance Committee voted 4-3 to send this bill to the Senate Appropriations Committee. AB 857 needs more support, so we ask our California alliance members to visit the California Public Banking Alliance homepage and scroll down to Sign the Petition, Send a Letter to Your Representative, or Sign an Organization Endorsement Form. Want to know more? You can access a factsheet here. There are still hurdles as Wall Street banks and the US Chamber of Commerce increase efforts to defeat the bill. Because AB 857 was amended in the Senate Governance and Finance Committee, if it gets through Senate Appropriations and passes on the Senate floor, it was go back to the Assembly floor for a concurrence vote. Alliance Co-chair Nancy Price has been among CA Public Banking Alliance campaigners meeting with committee members over the past months. As she says, “The combined efforts of Coalition members and endorsers of this bill, as well as calls to the legislature and committee members and in-district visits have led to success to date. There’s more to do to get AB 857 to the Governor’s desk and signed into law which would give a huge push to Alliance sponsored campaigns in Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington DC. Basically AB 857 provides for a city or county, or a Joint Powers Authority, a combination of cities and counties together in a large geographic area, to apply to the state for a charter to establish a public bank. Already groups are working on city or county bank organizing in many parts of the state. A related Senate bill could set up a state public bank by changing the state’s revolving infrastructure loan program to a depository bank. The California effort is part of a constantly growing movement for public banking, with Alliance-affiliated campaigns active in Oregon, Washington DC, and Massachusetts. In Massachusetts, H935/S579, which creates a public bank to fund municipal infrastructure projects, had its first hearing before the legislature’s Joint Committee on Financial Services in late May. Advocates for the bank explained how it would work, the difference between a bank and a revolving loan fund, and the low risk in making these types of loans. Alliance national campaigns coordinator Barbara Clancy told the committee that the bank builds on recent advocacy, including a push to divest Boston pension funds from fossil fuels and corporations involved in the prison industry, and to move $250 million of the state’s pension’s operating funds to impact investments and local banks. “We have the need, expertise and values to be one of the first states to successfully establish a public bank… a model of public finance which is flexible, cost-effective, and rooted in the community-minded values of voters,” she said. The Spring 2014 issue of Justice Rising focused on Public Banking: Creating Jobs, Building Communities. You can read it online here, or request printed copies by contacting afd@thealliancefordemocracy.org or calling 978-333-7971. ![]() by Jim Tarbell After the rousing launch of our map of the Economy for the Common Good in Mendocino County on April 29 with Emily Kawano and Keith Taylor, we quickly began the process of capturing that energy and launching the whole project into the future. On May 19, over two dozen citizens dedicated to fulfilling the promise of the Economy for Our Common Good, gathered to outline all of the issues, projects and campaigns that need to be part of the new economy. These themes were then taken up by a larger public gathering on June 15 that covered many issues involved in Building the Economy for Our Common Good. We began with a great communal singing of the Melanie DeMore song Lead with Love, which led into testimonials from organizations already on the map and a community-base media group aiming to be citizen-driven and worker-owned. From there we broke into three groups looking at:
As we ere breaking up, one enthusiastic participant exclaimed, “this is the best meeting I have been at in years. We did not just talk, we came up with actions to do.” Not in Mendocino County? Visit this page for information on the Grassroots Institute's solidarity economy mapping curriculum, and consider organizing to create a similar map where you live. by Bonnie Preston
Since Maine’s town meeting season of 2011, 55 towns have passed the Local Food and Community Self Governance Ordinance (LFCSGO), which gives small farmers who sell directly to their customers an exemption to licensing and inspection requirements. For some reason, the Maine Municipal Association (MMA), a statewide membership organization which provides an array of services to assist municipalities in their governance, has never supported the LFCSGO. The MMA doesn't set policy, but instead supports needs that are frequently beyond the scope of what small towns in particular can do for themselves. Yet they have recently recommended a seriously modified version of the LFCSGO to towns that ask for their advice on this issue. On March 16, the Portland campus of the University of Southern Maine hosted the Maine Hunger Summit, and Local Food Rules was there.
Conference organizers invited us to participate to give our perspectives on how food sovereignty, or the ability of communities to control land use, production of food, and how it is sold or otherwise distributed--can help address hunger. Our two presentations drew an audience mostly made up of students. They listened intently, asked good questions, and stayed around after the presentations to talk with us. One of our presenters, Suzanne Dunham, was the lead organizer for passing a Local Food and Community Self Governance ordinance in her town of Greenwood, Maine. Suzanne manages the local farmers market with her husband. She recounted how several people have used their town's ordinance, which allows unlicensed farmers to sell face-to-face with customers, to test a product to judge if it might be worthwhile to get licensed so it can be sold through more conventional retail channels. At least one farmer has moved from farmer's market to store distribution, adding to her family's financial well-being as well as adding economic development to the town. Other farmers and home-based food producers in town are simply happy to be able to use the farmers market for some legal extra income. Craig Hickman, a Maine state representative who is a small farmer and B&B owner, told about his efforts to add a right-to-food amendment to the state constitution. This would ensure people's rights to feed themselves on a local level, bringing aspects of the Local Food Community Self Governance Ordinance statewide. Jesse Watson, a permaculturist, talked about how the intense focus of permaculture on improving the soil will enable more people to grow their own food, providing greater resilience to our food system. Sonia Acevedo has a micro-farm in a poor town, and convinced people that farmers markets are not just for the elite. She said that in her town, poor people buy food from poor farmers, and it works; no one goes hungry. Matthew Hoffman, head of the Food Studies Program at USM, is looking for more ways to connect us with his students. We were delighted to present to these committed young people, and look forward to future collaboration. Urban meets rural will be a win-win! California Governor Gavin Newsom is taking "unprecedented steps" to block President Trump's attempts to send water to San Joaquin Valley's agriculture interests. In the fight to protect the Delta's water, fishery and ecosystems, not to mention the drinking water of 25 million Californians, California has temporarily stopped deferring to the federal government on environmental rules, and is drawing up its own regulations. Newsom's move will potentially add a court showdown over whether the federal government has to comply with state law to the 45 lawsuits the state has brought against the Trump administration on other issues.
The question has also gone to the Legislature, with California Senate Bill 1 requiring the federal government's actions on water to comply with the state's Endangered Species Act. You can read more here, including how some federal environmental officials feel caught in the middle between the state and the White House. Newsom's focus on protection hasn't gone unnoticed. In this commentary by Don Nottoli, a Sacramento County supervisor and chair of the Delta Counties Coalition, and Bill Dodd, a CA senator representing the Delta, Newsom is praised for rejecting the twin tunnels proposal and thereby calling for a more thoughtful process to conserve water and preserve the Sacramento Delta while also addressing irrigation needs. They praise Newsom's openness to "a more holistic approach that could include alternatives like water use efficiency measures, levee restoration, additional storage and other local projects supported by the Delta Counties Coalition." They note that while the two-tunnel project was rejected, a single tunnel plan is still on the table, though its impacts have not been studied and there are no details about its size, location, cost or operation. What is certain, though, is that a tunnel alone won't be a sustainable solution for California water needs. "The funds allocated for tunnels would be better spent on regional portfolio-based measures, including strengthening levees, restoring ecosystem habitat, increasing water use efficiency, developing local and regional water supplies, and providing additional surface and groundwater storage and recharge." they write. "This winter’s storms underscore how much excess runoff we could have captured for future droughts and retained if we had more reservoir and groundwater recharge projects completed." |
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