A Green New Deal

Redefining economic development for the 21st Century

Systemic Crisis• a transition to Qualitative development

– an issue not just of destructiveness but of the suppression of positive potentials

• interconnectedness of social & environmental.

• issues of appropriate Production, Consumption, Exchange & Regulation

• critical/oppositional approaches necessary, but positive vision essential.

Historical Perspective-1

• Not simply a matter of correcting the excesses & deregulation of post-1980 capitalism

• Not simply a matter of restoring postwar manufacturing or regulation.

Historical Perspective-2Unleashing Potentials

• Possibilities suppressed after the Great Depression

• Capacities subordinated at the beginning of class society / civilization

• ...in a new context of planetary integration, individuation & information commons.

Basic Elements• Direct focus on human & environmental need.

– can this be capitalistic?

• Human & ecological scale: biomimicry• Transformation of both markets & the state• Creating a Culture of Abundance

– new forms of economic security

• Supporting all-round human Creativity• Defending the Commons (old & new)• Redefining ownership to support stewardship

and participation.• Community: the nexus for all the above

Transforming Markets & the State

• Social & environmental values are being structured into markets: FSC wood, LEED building, LFP food

• New enterprise networks changing the balance of competition & cooperation

• Decentralized forms of regulation: 3rd party certification, social finance, etc.

• Indicator systems to guide design

Transforming Markets & the State-2

New rules in tune with eco-processes:

• EPR: redefining ownership to support stewardship, justice & participation.

• changing the DNA of the firm

• the “Stakeholder Corporation”: B Corp

• Localization & accountability

• Social- & eco- accounting

Affirming Abundance

• New forms of economic security: community currencies, basic incomes, etc.

• Undercutting monetary scarcity: the end of debt-based money

• Valuation of all social and environmental assets.

• Free culture (as in free speech not free beer): “trade recipes not cookies”

Business in Transformation• needs to reorient to the needs of

community and planet in its goals and means.

• needs to expand its moral and legal status to include its workers and all stakeholders affected by its actions.

• needs to support positive business activity in every community.

• special difficulties of small business in the existing economy.– need for a fundamental shift in economic

resources from the Wal-Marts to the Small-Marts.

Labour in Transformation• needs to reorient to the nature of wealth, not just

its distribution.• needs to acknowledge productive activity

everywhere: non-cash economy, etc.– needs to defend community & worker interests

everywhere: marginalized communities, etc.

• needs to recover & defend the quality of work life—craft, etc.

• needs to support the democratization of work life– co-ops, etc.

• needs to support regenerative small business while defending worker interests.

Education & Change• Learning: intrinsic to postindustrial production

and exchange. • What is the appropriate relationship between

schools and adult education?• Not simply about inequality, but about new forms

of production. • Activism increasingly involves knowledge of

production: food, energy, building, craft, manufacturing, information, self-development.

• New combination of theory & practice: the apprenticeship model

‘Insurmountable Opportunities’

“The future ain’t what is used to be.” (Y. Berra)

• Opportunities for marginalized groups to leapfrog via eco-literacy.

• Pressures to narrow the struggle:– Dangers of falling into new market mentality or narrow “jobs”

preoccupation.– Old-line c.e.d. and labour organization needs to be reformed.– NGOs: also need to adapt.

• Possibilities for creative combination of for-profit initiatives for non-profit goals: NGO independence

Endless Questions• How do we work together as

movements and diverse communities?

• How do we financially support our efforts in the transition?

• How do we build participatory valuation systems into planning?

• DeCarlo: how do we navigate a Just Transition from brown to regenerative production?

• How do we accomplish the whole range of educational tasks necessary?

Power to the Imagination!