The Alliance for Democracy Is Born
by Millie Barnet
In the same Texas Hill Country where the first populist movement
was spawned in the 1870s by farmers defending their economic livelihood
against corporate devastation, more than 250 people from across the U.S.
gathered in late November 1996 to found a national movement calling itself
the Alliance for Democracy. The mission of the Alliance is "to free
all people from corporate domination of politics, economics, the environment,
culture, and information in order to establish true democracy and to create
a just society with a sustainable, equitable economy."
The movement came about in response to an article "Real Populists Please
Stand Up," in The Nation, Aug. 1995, by Ronnie Dugger, writer and founding
editor of The Texas Observer, inviting "populists, workers, progressives
and liberals to reconstitute ourselves into a smashing new national force
to end corporate rule." An unprecedented response (l,700) to Ronnie
Dugger's "call" resulted in about 70 persons meeting in Chicago
to form a steering committee. The number of local chapters at the time of
the founding convention had reached 45. The Alliance seeks a multiracial,
multi-ethnic movement, with gender balance both in leadership positions
and in the meeting process. Learning how to conduct meetings in a truly
democratic way is part of what the Alliance is about; nothing is given;
being democratic is something to be learned.
In his opening address, Ronnie Dugger said, "We are here from 28 states.
We have just begun to organize. . . . We are in this for the long haul.
We will have our self-government back for ourselves, our children, and their
children. . . to do that we have to end the corporate domination of democracy.
. . . It is a work of years . . . of decades, that we start here tonight."
The second speaker was Lawrence Goodwyn, historian and author of The Populist
Moment, the story of the remarkable movement of farmers in the 19th century
to stop corporate takeover. Goodwyn told us, "This is the classic struggle
for power. In most places in the world people have overwhelming grievances,
yet popular movements are seldom successful":
It is difficult to put a movement together, and each generation starts at
square one, repeating the mistakes of the previous generation. There are
no democratic cultures, only cultures that have achieved some democratic
forms, and we are one of those.
Goodwyn is fearful for the future of democracy, and believes that fear must
drive us to be politically active. Most people are worse off than in the
past, but income of the top one percent has risen 100 % in the last five
years. "What we are fighting for is the soul of the republic."
The American people must realize that their problem is not themselves-it
is really out there, in the corporate system.
Another speaker was Howard Zinn, whose People's History of the United States
(1980) looks at our past from the point of view of those who did not necessarily
triumph: the discovery of Columbus from the viewpoint of the Arawaks, the
Constitution from the standpoint of the slaves, etc. Dr. Zinn recommends
direct action outside the formal channels (which he says are really mazes
in which we are invited to get lost). He observed that voting is a "puny
act" in a complex society where power and the people have a very intricate
relationship. The Declaration of Independence, he said, is the best representation
of democracy, affirming that the government is the instrument of the people
and has obligations to them, promoting life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness, and if these are not fulfilled, can be altered or abolished.
But it is not a legal document. The Constitution substituted the words "life,
liberty and property," and it is a legal document. It is time now that
we assert the Declaration of Independence again.
Molly Ivins said she wasn't sure what we had here, but she thought it was
great-people full of energy and hope, acting on behalf of a larger group
of citizens, galvanizing them the way the Million Man March did Black Americans.
Campaign finance reform is the sine qua non of change.
Jim Hightower, formerly Texas Agriculture Commissioner, now a radio commentator
and writer (There's nothing in the Middle of the Road but Yellow Stripes
and Dead Armadillos), said we must "wrestle back our world from the
fools; it's no longer enough to be progressive; we have to become aggressive
again." He quoted Jesse Jackson that we may not have come over on the
same boat, but we're in the same boat now. We have to organize, organize,
and agitate. Go to the people, to their meetings, to church, to where politics
is preached. Go door to door, join speakers bureaus, forge coalitions. He
urged us to hang together, not break up into fractious groups each with
their own pet issues (as leftists are prone to do), observing that keeping
progressives together was like loading frogs into a wheelbarrow.
David Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World, said that his
hope for the future arises from groups like this. We need to think boldly,
not just reclaim democracy from corporations but birth new institutions
and create a new culture-a life-affirming civilization. We have, he says,
created a pathological society based on the glorification of dysfunctional
behavior. A "global economy" puts money and corporations first,
whereas a planetary economy will be rooted in people and in local communities
and nature. A creative process must come, not from the dominant institutions
of this dying era, but from civil society, the creation of citizens in a
movement like this Alliance.
The Alliance for Democracy is still a fledgling organization, committed
to an open process, welcoming new members and new ideas. To join, send $l5
to Alliance for Democracy, P.O. Box 1011, North Cambridge, MA 02140-0009.
Four people together can form a local chapter.
