simpol-04-autumn

It’s Simpol !The Simultaneous Policy News • Autumn 2004 • £1.00 where sold

Protecting the Right to WaterOne of the key measures proposed for global agreement within the Simultaneous Policy development process

Franklin Frederick writes on water as a global commons, and gives examples of international action to reducethe harmful impact of neoliberal privatisation practices. Page 3

Signing up SP Adopters at the WOMAD festival Page 5

John Bunzl, Director of the InternationalSimultaneous Policy Organisation,analyses the European Parliamentelection. Page 4

UK MP and Australian Senator sign pledgeto implement SP. Page 6

SP enters the European, UKand Australian Parliaments

plus all the latest news on theSimultaneous Policy campaign

Editorial

Welcome to a differently styled newsletter,newly available in both printed andelectronic form, occasioned by the ‘comingof age’ reported in the last issue: The firstpledges of support by politicians standing forthe European elections. And the felt need torespect the global outreach implicit in allthat happens within ISPO as a whole,wherever the action happens to be thatenhances SP’s impact on a waiting world.

An innovation in this issue is what is plannedto be a series of articles focused on SPMeasures in Process. On this occasion thetopic is Water as a Global Commons becauseof its relevance to Simpol-UK’s participationin the seminar on ‘Water: power politics andpublic services’ during the European SocialForum gathering in London in October 2004.

For the future, readers are invited to suggestother topics, and name specialists who theybelieve should be approached to share theirexpertise, with a view to building up anongoing ‘reference-bank’ of fact, opinion andfeedback through the pages of thisnewsletter.

And there's welcome news in CampaigningUpdates: Simpol-UK announces the firstpledge of support by a British MP and ISPO’sAustralia’s Coordinator reports the firstpledge from a Senator.

An occasional newsletter published for theINTERNATIONAL SIMULTANEOUS POLICYORGANISATION (ISPO : [email protected])

by Simpol-UK (www.simpol.org.uk)

Edited by Brian Wills ([email protected])

Production: Mike Brady

ISPO • PO Box 26547 • London • SE3 7YT www.simpol.org

The Simultaneous Policy

It’s Simpol !International Simultaneous

Policy Organisation

The International Simultaneous PolicyOrganisation (ISPO) brings together nationalSimultaneous Policy Organisations topromote the Simultaneous Policy (SP).

It is free to join the SP campaign byregistering as an SP Adopter. SP Adopterscan take part in developing, and ultimatelyapproving, the Simultaneous Policy. SPAdopters are welcome to participate in theirlocal SP Adopters’ Group.

SP Adopters are additionally invited to applyfor membership of their nationalSimultaneous Policy Organisation. There isan annual fee for membership. Membershipis conditional on accepting the FoundingDeclaration, which is sent to all successfulapplicants (and can also be found on theISPO website). Extract from the FoundingDeclaration:

“We at ISPO believe that the greatest barrierto bringing about the necessary changes isdestructive competition between nations toattract capital and jobs. The resultantdivisiveness not only drives us apart, settingperson against person and nation againstnation, it also permits each to justify thecontinuance of such behaviour. Co-operation, by contrast, can bring us togetherto solve our problems in the knowledge thatall of us are jointly responsible for ourpredicament. But we also recognise that co-operation to solve humanity’s problems willnot come about by chance. A practicalmethod of achieving it is required and thegravity of our current situation necessitatesspeed. The changes must therefore takeplace within our existing framework of worldpolitics and international relations.”

How do you want the world to be?

Exploring Simultaneous Policy measures in process 3

Water as a Global Commons

Franklin Frederick writes to raise awareness of thisissue, and gives examples of international action toreduce the harmful impact of neoliberalprivatisation practices.

He is the coordinator of the International FreeWater Academy project in Brazil which is a platformfor dialogue between social movements, religioustraditions and scientific research. And, with thecommunity group Citizens for Water, he participatedin legal action against the extraction of naturalmineral water in western Brazil by the NestléCorporation. This led to a court ruling that itsoperations at Sao Lourenço should cease in October2004. (Contact: [email protected])

For all of us now living on this planet, water has becomea major issue, and a problem. This is both a challenge anda wonderful opportunity!

Decreasing access to safe water

Water is a multidimensional entity because it hashistorical, cultural and spiritual dimensions, to namesome of its most important attributes. It has to do withhuman beings and with the whole of life on Earth. By itsown nature water can bring about human cooperation ona global level as no other issue can. In fact, now thatmillions of people – mainly in Southern countries – arealready facing lack of water, and their number isincreasing every day, this is clearly the only possible wayof finding concrete solutions for an international problemof this magnitude.

So how will we be able to develop global policies toprovide safe water in due amounts for every human being?

The 'conventional economics' solution

The answer, in current neoliberal thinking, isprivatisation, this being regarded as the solely effectivesolution. By giving a price to water, the argument runs,users will be more conscious of its value and take bettercare of it. Private companies will thus acquire the fundsto provide good water to those who can afford it. And, tostrengthen the argument, in the long term those who canpay will help to pay for those who can't.

This solution is the one supported by many of the world'smost influential institutions, such as the World Bank, theWTO and the IMF and, of course, by transnationalcorporations. Thus the issue of water has become focusedon economics, specifically to avoid worldwide debate onthe wider issues and divert attention from the creation ofa policy that could bring real, creative alternatives to thechallenge of shortages. Expanding the market for waterwill only build more competition and conflict, andincrease the number of those who do not have the meansto afford enough safe water for their requirements – as isalready happening.

Thus, as a planetary society, it is time to develop policies

that keep water as a fundamental human right and apublic good. For, contrary to neoliberal thinking, whateverhas a price is, in fact, devalued. There are things thatremain inexpressible in terms of the market and of pricebecause they are priceless, vital, or – as all religions haveput it – sacred.

So, as a concrete step towards achieving a worldwidepolicy concerning water, it is necessary forparliamentarians and citizens from as many differentcountries as possible to work together to implementplanetary legislation based on the human right to water,and prevent it from becoming one more item in the globalmarket.

Alternative solutions

Fortunately there are several initiatives able to offerguidance on appropriate policy measures. In the UK theFreshwater Action Network is an excellent example ofexisting NGOs that are building networks to exchangeinformation and share campaign strategies. But it is inLatin America where notable examples are to be found ofself-organised movements fighting to preserve water as apublic good.

In Bolivia, for instance, after the government privatisedwater supplies, peasants in the Cochabamba regionorganized their own protests. There were even armedconflicts in which some people were killed. But theprivatisation process has been reversed.

In Brazil, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops(CNBB) this year started a campaign on water, to bringthis issue closer to the remotest communities in mycountry. Civil society is not as well organised astransnational corporations in terms of coordinated actionand the promotion of global policies. So one of our mostimportant tools through which to defend our right towater is to make this issue known to as many people aspossible. For whenever citizens are aware of athreatening situation they are able to organize themselvesin whatever way is needed, developing bettercoordination and creating common alternatives andeffective proposals.

As a response to the need for help in these activities andstrategies, the International Free Water Academy(Academia Livre Internacional das Águas: ALIAS) has beenset up. Its aims are:– to revaluate the multidimensionality of water; and – to build a permanent platform of dialogue among socialmovements, religious traditions and scientific thinking.

The need for global action

Only by bringing together the combined efforts ofindependent scientists, religious institutions and socialmovements will global society be able to play aninfluential and effective role in the creation of a globalpolicy which respects both the planet and its livingcreatures.

We need all our capabilities, at all possible levels, to copewith the already too powerful pursuit of privatisation. Forwhatever happens to water will directly affect the futureof our planet and our societies.

The Simultaneous Policy www.simpol.org

4 Analysis

ISPO’s Director, John Bunzl, analysesthe European election result

As Britain’s main parties find themselves upstagedby the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in the 2004European Elections, supporters of UKIP shouldbeware the claim of its star candidate, TV presenterRobert Kilroy-Silk, that “UKIP were the only partythat didn’t lie” during the election campaign. Giventhat support for UKIP mainly represents a protestvote against New Labour and the Conservatives andis likely to fade by the next General Election, it maywell be that the only person who truly believes thatclaim is Kilroy-Silk himself. After all, the public wellknows that all parties bend the truth to suit theirpolitical purposes and UKIP is surely no exception.

UKIP wants greater independence for the UK and towithdraw from the European Union (EU). Meanwhile, NewLabour and the Liberal Democrats remain the EU’s ardentsupporters with the Conservatives split and the generalpublic, frankly, utterly confused.

So what is the truth about Europe? Do all our problemsreally stem from Brussels? Or are they rooted elsewhere?Many people are apt to blame the EU for intruding onBritish life and for being responsible for British autonomyleeching inexorably away. In some ways, they are right.But what is driving this process? Is it EU bureaucratslusting for increased power aided by over-compliantpoliticians at Westminster? Or are other forces at work?

To find answers, we should first recognise that the worlddoes not end at Europe’s outer borders; that Europe,important though it is, is far from being a self-containedeconomic unit and remains merely a part of the widerworld and thus subject to global market forces.

The truth is that the driving force behind Europe’sseemingly unstoppable integration is rooted in the fear ofits component nations to remain economically competitivewith the economic blocks represented by the USA, Chinaand the other far-eastern economies. To be strong - to becompetitive - Europe’s nations must therefore clubtogether. And clubbing together inevitably means eachnation relinquishing some of its sovereignty. As globaleconomic competition increases with more and more jobsand investment being lost to the economies of the FarEast, so the integrative “clubbing force” amongst Europe’scomponent nations inevitably increases.

Equally, however, as these forces of global economiccompetition become stronger, paradoxically they alsohave an opposite, unravelling effect on the EU. Instead ofbeing the bastion of social-market economics and boastingthe high labour and environmental standards that soattracted New Labour and the Lib-Dems to the Europeanproject in the first place, the transfer of investment andjobs to lower-cost parts of the world is instead forcingcontinental EU nations to progressively dismantle theirsocial markets.

That’s why the economies of German, France and Italy arein such trouble as they now face a painful adjustmentwhereas the UK economy, having already become

structurally more competitive during Thatcher’s reign, isdoing relatively well, albeit at the cost of labour, theenvironment and public services.

But the EU is also unravelling in another sense: itsincreasing size and relative wealth compared to the restof the world, is driving an economic migration of globalproportions. For although jobs are moving to poorercountries, it’s not their citizens who are the principalbeneficiaries. Instead it is the transnational corporationswho pocket the vast wage differential and use it to boostalready bloated executive salaries and to increase‘shareholder value’. As more and more migrants enter theEU to seek a better life, the welfare states of Europe, andsocial cohesion itself, is coming under increasing stress.

To redress these problems, governments are alreadytaxing their citizens to the hilt in an attempt to fundbetter public services and maintain social stability. Butthey cannot raise all the tax they need and yet theycannot look to major businesses for help since any threatto increase corporate taxes would only result in evenmore jobs moving elsewhere. So they are in a box with noway out.

Neither, for that matter, can they implement policies toprotect society or the environment since the higher costof those policies would only cause global investors andcorporations to move capital and investment to moreprofitable climes. As such, the will of the people hasbecome almost entirely subordinate to the profit-makingneeds of the markets as the parameters of permissiblepolicy open to any party in government are squeezed to apathetically narrow span.

Democracy has consequently degraded into pseudo-democracy; a hollowed-out parody of democracy in whichall political parties, regardless of colour, are forced toconform to a very narrow market and business-friendlystance for fear of the nation becoming “uncompetitive”.Little wonder ordinary citizens, whether of a right- orleft-wing persuasion, feel increasingly disenfranchised anddisempowered and little wonder we have rampant voterapathy.

So the result is a veritable ‘matrix’ consisting of twoopposing global forces, one integrative, the other divisive,with each paradoxically feeding off the other. With voterapathy and a widespread feeling of disempowerment,UKIP and other right-wing populist fringe parties thusemerge as the obvious beneficiaries of disenfranchisedvoters on the right while the anti-globalisation movementoffers solace to the disenfranchised of the left.

But while UKIP’s claim that our problems stem solely fromEurope may not be an outright lie, it is neverthelessultimately false. The problem, as with global warming,economic migration, monopolist corporate power,terrorism and global poverty, actually stems from the farwider context of globalisation: from the fact that today’sungoverned global market keeps the world’s nationslocked in ever more destructive economic competitionwith one another, impoverishing not just the globalenvironment and fuelling ethnic and religious conflict, butalso impoverishing the citizens of individual nationsthemselves, North and South.

As such, an international “clubbing together” merely at


Analysis/Events 5

the European level along the lines of the EU cannot hopeto solve it. Neither would a withdrawal by Britain or anyother country from the EU. For a fully independent Britainwould still be subject to global market competition andthus to the self-same forces that are presently fuellingdissatisfaction and unrest.

So if there is a truth to be told it is that, in a globalmarket, only global co-operation amongst the world’snations that makes the global economy work in theinterests of the environment and of ordinary peopleeverywhere can offer any plausible way out. And withpoliticians having already become the puppets of globalmarkets, it is the people themselves who will have to leadthe way.

Indeed, quite unnoticed in all the post-election anguishwas the fact that a number of European Parliamentcandidates and one winning MEP have put aside theirparty differences to pledge to implement theSimultaneous Policy alongside other nations. As readers ofthis newsletter will know, SP is a package of globalproblem-solving policies designed by people around theworld and it is to be implemented by all, or sufficient,nations simultaneously to avoid any nation, corporation orcitizen suffering a competitive disadvantage.

These citizens have “adopted” SP and thus pledge to votein future elections, not for a specific politician or party,but for any party or candidate – within reason – whopledges to implement it. With more and moreparliamentary seats and even entire elections being wonor lost on ever finer margins and with apathetic andprotest voters finding that SP offers them a new andpowerful outlet for their votes, politicians who fail topledge for SP will increasingly risk losing their seats tothose that do.

Time, of course, will tell. But as humanity and the planetbecome increasingly threatened by the global market’sdestructive forces it is not unlikely that another truth mayonce again come to be told, only this time at the globallevel: that when the people lead, the leaders will follow.

Simpol-UK AGM 16 October 2004

Since Simpol-UK was incorporated on 22nd March2004, the campaign has initiated a network of localgroups, gained national media attention andreceived the first pledges to implement SP frompoliticians in the UK and European parliaments.Members and Adopters are welcome to attend tohear reports on these exciting developments andjoin in the planning to take SP forward!

09:30 Doors open10:00 Welcome and introductory remarks by John

Bunzl10:30 Results of election for trustees 10:45 Overview of the strategic plan 11:15 Tea/coffee break11:35 Policy development proposals 12:00 Forming a local group and campaigns support

(Presentation of campaign pack and introduction of training video/DVD)

12:30 Close

National and local group events

Simpol-UK

14-17 October: European Social Forum, London.Simpol-UK will have a stall and is a partner is theseminar Water: Power-politics and Privatisation (whereFranklin Fredrick, author of our cover article, will bespeaking) and John Bunzl will speak at the workshopBoycott Nestlé: Holding Corporations Accountable.

16 October: Simpol-UK members’ Annual GeneralMeeting at Room 12, Friends House, 173 Euston Road,London NW1, 10.00 - 12.30.

23 October: Josie Sawers will speak on SP at a publicmeeting Boycott Nestlé: Holding CorporationsAccountable and run a workshop on SP. EdinburghUniversity, 13.00 - 17.30 (see www.simpol.org.uk forfinal details).

Cambridge Simultaneous Policy Adopters’ Group

Meeting the first Wednesday of each month from 7.30pm, top office, 23 St. Andrew’s Street, Cambridge.Contact CAMSPAG Coordinator, Mike Brady on 07986736179. Mike and Franklin Fredrick (author of ourcover article) will speak at the Cambridge Forum, CB1Café, 32 Mill Road, 19.30, 19 October.

Simpol-Reading

There will be a planning meeting on 12 October at19.00 at Nepal House, 97A, Swansea Road, Reading,RG1 8HA to organise a stall and leafleting at theReading International Festival on 23 October. Fordetails of this and other Simpol-Reading events,contact Coordinator Mo Adshead on 0118 950 2281 oremail [email protected]

Simpol-Penzance

Coordinator Barnaby Flynn is organising twice-weeklystalls in the pedestrican precint (see news briefs).Anyone wanting to know more about Simpol-Penzanceevents please call Barnaby on 07951 905 396 or [email protected]

Northampton

A public meeting explaining more about SP and howSimpol-UK can assist SP Adopters in campaigning locallywill be held at the Blackcurrent Centre, 24 St.Michael's Avenue, Northampton, NN1 4JQ, 7.30 pm on11 October. Call Mike Brady on 07986736179 forfurther details.

If you are interested in campaigning locally, downloadthe briefing paper ‘Setting up an SP Adopters’ Group’via the Simpol-UK website. For advice and materialscontact the Simpol-UK Local Group NetworkCoordinator Mike Brady on 07986 736179 [email protected]


6 Campaigning Updates

Cambridge MP pledgessupport for SP

Anne Campbell, Labour MPfor Cambridge since 1997,signed a pledge of support inprinciple for theSimultaneous Policy inAugust at the invitation ofCambridge SP Adopters'Group (CAMSPAG). She said:“There are a number ofpressing social andenvironmental issues onwhich we can only make

progress if there is international cooperation.”

In-principle support explained …

“Often a government”, she continued, “will not agree toimplement a policy which would benefit the planet, suchas a tax on aviation fuel, because that country wouldthen be disadvantaged economically. If all politiciansagreed to implement such policies if everyone else does,then this would enable many desirable outcomes andwould benefit us all. I am signing up to the SimultaneousPolicy pledge because I think it is a good idea inprinciple. If policies are adopted by the group in futurewith which I do not agree, then I would have to withdrawmy support.” (For a report in Cambridge Evening Newson 04/09/04 see http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/search/dispstory.asp?id=60955&db=1.)

Earlier in June, during the European Parliament election,Rosalind Gill, a LibDem candidate in the Eastern region,also signed the SP pledge along with Green partycandidates in other regions, among whom was CarolineLucas, MEP, re-elected.

… and why Cambridge figured prominently inthese pledges is revealed

It was there that a group of SP Adopters were the first tobegin active local campaigning. But the range and impactof their public awareness activities, within the shortperiod of a year, has successfully shown through thesepledges that the SP strategy achieves results.

Their experience – which is of course repeatable in similarconstituency situations anywhere – began with aninaugural meeting of the Cambridge SP Adopters’ Group(CAMSPAG) on 6 Aug 2003 convened by its coordinatorMike Brady. This was publicised by email, announcementson local BBC iCan and Indymedia websites, and posters inlocal shops, cafés and churches. Though that first meetingturnout was just four people, it led to a programme forfuture meetings. In October, there was a talk on the SPpolicy development process and, in November, the firstpolicy forum on the topic Making all trade Fair Trade washeld. An expert from the campaign to make Cambridge aFair Trade city explained the criteria, and the CAMSPAGcoordinator made the link to SP.

The aim of this and subsequent policy fora (so far onAchieving Sustainable Energy Use and Food Security forAll) has been to provide ideas for immediate action (suchas buying goods with the Fairtrade mark), supportingexisting campaigns (such as the Fair Trade city campaign,which has now been achieved), and encouraging people tobecome SP Adopters. Politicians were invited to attendthe policy fora. Press releases to the local media resultedin listings in the events pages of local papers andinterviews on local radio. Contacts made through theCAMSPAG meetings led to an invitation to speak about SPto the Cambridge Forum monthly café meetings on globaljustice issues, and participation in a question-time typepanel alongside one of the region's MEPs.

Then, before the European Elections in June 2004 door-to-door distribution of a few thousand leaflets brought innew Adopters and put SP on the radar screens of thepolitical parties. Letters and emails were sent to allcandidates by the CAMSPAG coordinator and localAdopters. And a stall was held at Strawberry Fair onMidsomer Common in the centre of town.

How politicians responded

Rosalind Gill presented her candidate's pledge at a policyforum. And Anne Campbell MP sent her form by post twomonths after being briefed on SP by the CAMSPAGcoordinator at her constituency surgery. While thatbriefing was clearly important, it is unlikely that SP wouldhave had the credibility required to convince anexperienced politician to give it her support without thefoundation built by local campaigning.

So campaigning goes on, in the expectation that, witheach new pledge from an MP, the gap betweengovernment policy and SP diminishes. To this endCAMSPAG is planning regular street stalls to encourage asmany people as possible to become involved in the policydevelopment process and, with the general electionlooming, to encourage other parties to give SP theirsupport.

And another pledge comesfrom AustraliaAs reported in It's Simpol! (Summer 2004), Simpol-Australia is contacting candidates for the federalelection, now scheduled for 9 October.

Arrangements were being madefor mailings to an estimated 1500candidates when nominationsclosed on 17 September. Thecampaign was given an earlyboost by Queensland's SenatorJohn Cherry (AustralianDemocrats) whose written pledgeof support for SP was received on16 September.

Key issues in the Australian election will be the economy(taxation, health and education) which has made for ahighly polarised race between the major contenders,


Campaigning Updates 7

Labor and the incumbent Liberal-National Coalition.Discontent with the two-party system has spawned aplethora of minor parties and independents campaigningon such issues as human rights, environment, fair trade,the Iraq war, etc. Current polling suggests that the Greenshave now become the premier 'third' party and shouldgain several Senate seats, some at the expense of theAustralian Democrats. The high-profile anti-globalistcandidate Pauline Hanson, who was recently imprisoned(and then acquitted) on odd political grounds, is seeking aSenate seat as an independent.

For several months this year, we saw a fierce campaignwaged against the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement.This came to an end when, in early August, the LaborParty agreed to support the treaty, with minoramendments. The debate generated valuable discussion ofthe nature of corporate power, and a number of SPadopters were prominent in opposing the FTA.

Simpol-Australia is asking all candidates to sign on insupport of SP -- and also to back the introduction ofcitizen-initiated referenda for constitutional change. Thelatter has already been endorsed by New South Walescandidate Klaas Woldring (Progressive Labour Party). "Moreprogress reports will follow", writes National CoordinatorBrian Jenkins, "because we expect to get a few morepledges from candidates" as the election campaigndevelops.

Stop press: Four more candidates from the Greens andOne Nation parties have pledged support. A post-electionanalysis of SP's emergence on the Australian politicalscene will appear in the Winter issue.

SP at the WOMAD Festival, Reading,UK, 23-25 July (World Organisation ofMusic and Dance)

Three volunteers from the audience represent the UK, Nigeria andChina in the game show Who gets the money?

A Simpol-theatre event, coordinated with the Simpol-Reading group, introduced the concept of SP to membersof the audience who were called up to hold the flags ofthree different countries, to represent participants in thegame show Who gets the money? The presenter, F.A.T.Cat, has a cheque for £300 million to invest in a factoryfor sports utility vehicles. Countries compete to attractthe investment by making offers in four rounds: access tomarkets, taxes, labour conditions and environmentalprotection.

The early rounds show how countries compete in a race to the bottom. The audience, in true game show style, cheeron the winning countries, until the show's assistant pointsout how conditions for citizens are deteriorating as onecountry is played off against the other and asks theaudience instead to boo when countries undercut eachother. By the last round, much to the presenter's disgust,the countries are encouraged by the audience reaction toagree to sign up to the Kyoto protocol on climate changeif everyone else does and to call for an international bodyto regulate transnational corporations. The presenterhurriedly awards the cheque to China – "Where I was goingto build my factory all along" – while the assistantencourages them to go back and renegotiate on the otherrounds.

John Bunzl then gave a talk explaining how the real worldfunctions in much the same way as the game show, andhow SP will enable governments to move from destructivecompetition to constructive cooperation.

News Briefs

Further interest in Monetary Reform : Making it Happen!(by James Robertson & John M Bunzl, 2003, London: ISPO,80 pp; ISBN 0-9546727-0-4). Schumacher UK hasdistributed copies to its members in lieu of a SchumacherBriefing, and has published supportive articles in itsNewsletter no.31 Jul-Dec 2004. On p.7 James Robertsonexplains how the booklet "takes forward the case formonetary reform in the Briefings on The Ecology of Moneyand Gaian Democracies". And on p.13 Mary Finnigan writesabout ISPO as an organisation "now catching theimagination of movers and shakers and ordinary peopleall over the world" under the title ‘It could be so Simpol’.(Contact: Yolanda Pot at [email protected] andlink to www.schumacher.org.uk.)

The search for co-funding the Cross-frontier opinionpoll continues. Readers will recall that the aim of thisproject is to test public opinion in the UK and India on theextent to which voters are willing to support politicianswho cooperate across frontiers with others who promotethe adoption of SP measures. It is taking longer to gainsupport from selected donors than anticipated, despitethe ground-breaking nature of the intended poll. ButAdopters who pledged contributions to cover half theprofessional costs will like to know that interaction withdonors continues, following advice kindly offered by OneWorld Action in London. (Contact:[email protected])

Mini-campaigning: Barnaby Flynn explains how it’s done …I have been setting up an experimental display stall at thebottom of the pedestrian precinct in Penzance throughwhich to introduce SP to passers-by. There have beensuccessful results because some of them sign the Adoptionform on the spot. So I aim to man the stall twice a weekfor an hour each time and am looking for morevolunteers. Anyone interested in helping please call 07951905 396 or email me at [email protected].

Other events: For other events see the box on page 5.Remember to send notice of events and feedback on howit has gone to the Local Group Network Coordinator [email protected]


It’s free to Adopt!

I provisionally Adopt SP, and undertake to vote at elections (if I am eligible to vote) for any candidate, within reason, whopledges to implement SP alongside other governments when all, or sufficient, other governments have also pledged to do so.Alternatively, I will encourage politicians in my preferred party to make the pledge.

I apply for membership of Simpol-UK and enclose my first annual payment of £25 (£10 unwaged/low-waged). Please sendme a membership pack and Simpol-UK’s Founding Declaration (UK residents or people registered to vote in the UK only -otherwise see the website for details of your National SP Organistion).

Please send me the representative’s/candidate’s pledge form (politicians may also tick the other boxes).

Please send me _____ copies of the leaflet How do you want the world to be?

Please send me _____ copies of John Bunzl’s book: The Simultaneous Policy at £12.50 each, including postage and packing(UK delivery – contact ISPO for prices outside the UK).

Please send me _____ large/medium white/pale blue cotton round neck t-shirts with the message: SP: How do you want theworld to be? at £12.95 including postage and packing (UK delivery – contact ISPO for prices outside the UK).

Mr/Mrs/Ms:_________________________________ Address: ______________________________________________________________ Postcode: _____________

Tel: _______________________________________ Email: ______________________________________ Signature: ___________________________________

Return form to: ISPO, PO Box 26547, London, SE3 7YT. Alternatively sign-up on-line.

How can we the people get our leaders to listen tous and not just to the rich and powerful? How canwe make our values their values, values like:

• fair trade and decent livelihoods• respect for life, health and environmental

sustainability• true democracy – not "corporatocracy"• freedom, security and equal opportunity for all• zero tolerance for terror of all kinds – state terror

and domestic tyranny included• unity in diversity among peoples, nations and

cultures• an end to weapons of mass destruction and to

war itself as an obsolete means of conflictresolution

If we the people had a say, would we vote for "moneytalks" and "might makes right" or for the rule of just lawsand the rights of individuals and communities? Would wevote to share and conserve the planet’s resources, or tohoard and squander them?

Why aren’t governments taking action?

Today, global markets and corporations so comprehensivelyoverpower individual nations that no politician or politicalparty dares make the first move to solve global problemsfor fear of putting their own nation at a significanteconomic competitive disadvantage. Though legislatorsknow that serious world problems such as global warming,monopolistic corporate power, poverty and environmentaldestruction all demand decisive action, they are loath toimplement the policies needed to solve them. Theylegitimately fear that in today's liberalized globaleconomy, investors, corporations and jobs would simplypick up and leave for more congenial destinations.However good their intentions, governments feel bound toconform to a straitjacket of market– and business-friendly

policies. That's why, whoever we vote for in the presentsystem, little, if anything, changes.

The Simultaneous Policy

The Simultaneous Policy (SP) is our "people's globalizationpolicy": a work-in-progress that all citizens who "adopt" SPare designing with the help of independent expert policy-makers. SP is to be implemented when all or sufficientnations are ready to do likewise - simultaneously.Simultaneous implementation means no nation loses outand all the excuses for inaction evaporate.

Here’s how the SP strategy works

By adopting SP, we join with Adopters in our own and othercountries who undertake to vote in future elections forANY political party or candidate, within reason, that signsa pledge in principle to implement SP alongside othergovernments. Alternatively, if we still have a preferencefor a particular party, our adoption signifies our desire forour party to support SP.

For a politician, signing the pledge to implement SP doesnot require a change of policies until it is time toimplement SP, and so carries no risk. But by moving theworld a step nearer to implementation, the politicianhastens the day when global politics shifts fromcompetition to co-operation and global problems, aboutwhich many care deeply, can be addressed effectively. Onthe other hand, failure to sign the pledge could cost thepolitician their seat and hand it to someone who willsupport SP. With many seats decided by small majorities,the SP voting bloc could make all the difference.

SP is already gaining public and political support. It is notan alternative to other campaigns, but a parallel strategy,enabling us to look beyond fighting to change existingsystems to joining with people around the world andcollectively answering the question:

How do you want the world to be?

Imagine a world Where values matter – Where leaders listenWhere the strongest superpower is we the people The Simultaneous Policy


simpol-04-autumn

Documents

Transcript of simpol-04-autumn