• Background
  • Urgent Need for Change and Reform
  • Why Poverty and Inequalities
  • Permanently Ending Wars
  • Fromm’s Prescription For a Sane Society
• Key Actions
  • The President:
  • -- Order immediate cease fire
  • -- Apologize to countries harmed by the U.S.
  • -- Provide massive relief efforts in countries harmed by U.S.
  • Congress Enact Legislation that:
  • -- Ends war funding and occupations
  • -- Eliminates all military aid
  • -- Repeal war powers legislation
  • -- Sets aside SOFAs
  • -- Create WPAs & CCCs
  • -- Rapidly rump up to full employment
  • -- Provide Medicare for all
  • -- Nationalize the Fed
  • -- End Foreclosures and the Trading of Mortgages and Derivatives
• Major Elements
• Scope
• Vision
• Goals
• Agenda
• Education
• Network
• Funding
• Subscribe
  • To receive emails
  • To pick an agenda item to work with others on
  • To be a zip code coordinator

Note: The Strategic Plan featured on this website is a draft - an ever-changing document awaiting your comments, proposed additions & recommendations. Email Fisher@PeopleNow.org, Fax 703-521-0849 or phone 703-725-7849. Thanks

    

Greetings:

Thanks for visiting WeThePeopleNow.org.

This websites outlines the non-partisan, non-hierarchical (no ‘sacred ruler’) People’s Universal, Common Strategic Plan for a Peaceful, Prosperous and Just World which proves that such a world is possible, proposes how to achieve it and includes:

• What We the People Must Do to Continually Refine and Implement the Strategic Plan.
  
  
• The Common Agenda  which summarizes the work that must be done to permanently end wars, poverty, inequalities and have a peaceful, prosperous world. 
  
  
• The Summary of Funding Sources shows that there are more than enough funds to end poverty and hunger, accomplish the work in the Common Agenda, eliminate the annual deficit, pay down the national debt and end ALL AUSTERITY PROGRAMS WORLDWIDE.
  
  
• The Summary of Employment Opportunities including new WPAs, and CCC equivalants throughout all states.

Priority Actions

• Provide both Jobs at Living Wages and Affordable Necessities of Life for All and ensure the homeless. hungry and sick have adequate, decent, warm shelter, nutritious food and healthcare immediately (Common Agenda Item #1).
• End US Wars and Occupations and Permanently Disarm with No Layoffs. (Common Agenda #3 & 4)
• Make Funds Available from Summary of Funding Sources in particular (Common Agenda #22):
  •  "Coin" high value serialized coins.
  • Nationalize the Federal Reserve and recoup and disgorge the trillions of dollars granted, loaned or otherwise provided to financial institutions (Common Agenda #20).
  • Enact Very Progressive Property Taxes on the Aproximately $70 Trillion of Assets and Other Property of Corporations and Individuals and Eliminate Income, Sales, Estate and Other Taxes (Common Agenda #19).
• Adamantly oppose austerity programs, and fear mongering over debt, sequestration and the fiscal cliff which are Trojan Horses and hoaxes being used to decrease corporation taxes ($205 billion so far), cut social spending and ultimately privatize/eliminate Medicare and Social Security.

Introduction

Although we should be optimistic about the future, we must realize that:

• Our country is experiencing massive unemployment, poverty, diplomatic, political, constitutional, health care, climate change, ethical and other crises.
  
  
• Many of our public and private sector officials are not telling us the truth, have articulated no real solutions to these crises and show little if any empathy for their fellow human beings.
  
  
• To be successful we must work together from a common plan.

To help us complete the Strategic Plan we urgently request your comments, suggestions, ideas and help to refine and implement it.

This plan will ultimately list and describe everything of significance that needs to be done to accomplish this, with links to the websites of other organizations and individuals that have taken the lead on a specific section on which they are passionate.

These leaders will form or already have a working group to co-author a specific section of the Strategic Plan which will be published as an e-book as outlined below.

The below Table of Contents of the Strategic Plan provides an outline of its major elements. Each item in the plan can be accessed by clicking on that item.

Introduction

I. Purpose

II. Objectives

III. Background

A. Urgent Need for Change and Reform

B. Why Poverty and Inequalities

C. Permanently Ending Wars

D. Fromm’s Prescription For a Sane Society

E. Summary of Major Elements

IV. Scope

V. Key Elements/Documents of this Strategic Plan

A. Common Vision Statement for All Humankind

B. Common Goals

C. General Problems Standing in the Way of Reaching the Common Goals

D. Underlying Causes of These Problems

E. [Attachment A.] Common Agenda

F. [Attachment B.] Summary of Funding Sources

VI. What We The People Must Do

A. Establish an Office to Coordinate Implementation of the Strategic Plan

B. Enroll Others

C. Establish Working Groups for Each Agenda Item

D. Implement an Information and Education Program

E. Implement a Nationwide, Critical Mass Network and Communications System

F. Develop an Editable Working e-Book of the Strategic Plan.

G. Introduce the Strategic Plan to Congress

H. Help Strengthen the Congressional Progressive Caucus

I. Demand Public Servants Do Their Jobs and Replace Those Who Don’t

J. Initiate Humane, Private Prosecutions Against Senior Officials Who Break the Law

Background

This Strategic Plan, outlines what must be done to permanently end poverty, wars and inequities and have a permanently peaceful, prosperous, just world. It shows where the funds will come from to have such a world, eliminate deficit spending, pay off the national debt at a reasonable rate and prevent the economic collapse that many are predicting. It shows where the educated and trained workers will come from to help do the work. It proposes ways for us activist to get organized, prioritize and divide up the work and accomplished needed priority actions before the 2014 General Elections. This is a huge undertaking. This plan needs considerable refinement.

Charles Ferguson, Director of the Oscar Winning Documentary 'Inside Job' and Author of 'Predator Nation', in his Blog -- "How Financial Criminalization Crashed the Economy, and the Culprits Got Off Scot-Free," states:

 “The real challenge is figuring out how the United States can regain control of its future from its new    oligarchy and re-store its position as a prosperous, fair, well-educated nation. For if we don't, ... we may face the steady immiseration of most of the American population.”

Robert Kall, Executive Editor, Publisher and Website Architect of OpEdNews.com, in his August 12, 2012, opednews.com article, Do You Think Obama Was the First to Order Assassinations?, stated:

“. .. . the first step to fixing and then changing something for the better is to be aware of, and to diagnose the full extent and the etiology [causation] of the problem.”

This plan prescribes how we can diagnose the full extent and the etiology of the problem, take strong, powerful actions and regain control of out future.

Poverty is not due to a lack of resources/funds or because people are born lazy.

Accumulated knowledge and advances in science, technology, automation, computers, productivity, communications, education, training, health care, transportation, the internet and psychology makes it possible to eliminate poverty and have a permanently peaceful, prosperous, just world.

Adlerian psychologists, the late Willard and Marguerite Beecher, in their outstanding, 1970's essay The Problem of the 20th Century: Poverty in the Midst of Plenty, Chapter 5 of their book Sin of Obedience, state:

As proof of this, according to Forbes.com in 2012, the world's 2,000 leading companies/corporations had total annual sales of $36 trillion; about half of the world's gross domestic product and a total employment of only 83 million, about 1.2% of the world’s population.

In their essay the Beechers state what we know: "Nevertheless, many people today are still cold, hungry, and sick.'" 

For 12 years of the Great Depression there were stores of merchandise, fertile ground, natural resources, trained manpower, machines and technical know-how, yet they went unused. Why?

The Beechers blamed "businessmen" -- the owners and executives, who maximize profits and their salaries and increase their assets by selling their products at the highest possible price and producing goods at the lowest possible cost by keeping employment and wages to the minimum possible.  

The fact that the businessmen do not pay their workers enough to buy the products which they themselves produce is arguably the primary cause of poverty in the world as well as the exponentially growing wealth divide.

Obviously, not all businessmen do this, but most of them do.  

The Beechers stated that these businessmen have persisted because:

• Because they are the custodian of the rites and practices of the price/profit system and [they and their agents] also sit in high government circlesand their agents occupy high government positions [in the White House, Congress, the Courts the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Housing Administration, the Small Business Administration] to administer our common affairs which includes writing the laws, rules and regulations for their businesses and the amount of taxes they are required to pay.
  
  
• Thanks to a myth that still surrounds him -- the superstition that he created the proliferation of goods that now surrounds us.— and the businessman frequently believes this himself, although the facts do not bear him out. In fact:
  
  • The engineer and the scientist made possible the technology for production, while working people used these techniques to manufacture the goods.
    
  • The businessman merely exploited the efforts of engineers, scientists and workers for his personal profit — nothing more.
    
  • The businessman himself does not serve any genuine purpose in the current era.

Over thirty-five years have passed since the Beechers’ essay was published, the businessmen still do not serve any genuine purpose and still exploit the efforts of engineers, scientists and workers.

They own/control and are the CEO's of most of the large corporations, banks, financial institutions, rating agencies and the media, are making money with money, charging exorbitant interest rates as high as 35%, compounded daily, on the money that they are willing to lend and foreclose on homes, small farms and businesses.

They caused the current worst recession since the great depression and are making it even worse with austerity programs in Europe. They are attempting to enact austerity programs in the U.S. and to reduce and privatize social security and Medicare.

The businessmen force their employees to make campaign contributions and have markedly increased their own campaign contributions, negative campaign advertisements, job promises, honorariums, gifts [all bribes] to legislators, public officials and judges who in turn have:

• Enacted hundreds of unjust injurious laws and make scores of unjust, injurious court rulings - e.g. Citizens United (See Common Agenda Item # 5. Set Aside Unconstitutional Injurious, Unjust Laws) which allow the businessmen to charge any interest rate they like, conjure up and trade worthless derivatives, hide their immense wealth overseas, outsource jobs and pay very little or no taxes or tariffs.
  
• Cut public workforces, reduced public workers’ wages, not provided government jobs programs like the WPA and CCCs and reduced unemployment benefits so the businessmen would have a large unemployed workforce desperate to work for any salary.
  
• Deregulated their industries, allow them to pollute, use robo-signings and foreclose on homes.
  
• Not prosecuted them for obvious crimes.
  
• Appointed then and their agents to positions in the government that are supposed to regulate their industries.
  
• Provided them with subsidies and bailouts.
  
• Cut Corporation taxes.

These businessmen are also attacking unions, slandering government workers and the poor to try to make them believe that they are the problem.

They ARE destroying the "American dream".

According to Richard D. Wolff, Professor Emeritus University of Massachusetts in Amherst, in his article "Deepening Economic Divisions:"

• "Over the last 30 years, most US workers have gotten poorer when you sum up flat real wages, reduced benefits (pensions, medical insurance, etc.), reduced public services, and raised tax burdens. US workers borrowed huge amounts [from the "businessmen"], exhausting themselves, stressing family life, and taking on unsustainable levels of debt until the global crisis hit in 2007.
  
  
• Now, the US working class buying power could no longer grow: rising unemployment kept wages flat, while no more hours of work or borrowing was possible. Reckoning time had arrived. U. S. capitalism  lost its foundation and failed miserably.
   
• The businessmen, however, have gotten much richer since the 1970s, as every measure of US income and wealth inequality attests. The richest 10-15% -- those cashing in on employers' good fortune by not raising wages -- helped bring crisis by speculating wildly and unsuccessfully in all sorts of new financial instruments (asset-backed securities, credit default swaps, etc.). The richest also contributed to the crisis by using their money for lobbyist, campaign contributions and rendering government regulation and oversight inadequate to anticipate or moderate the crisis or even to react properly once it hit."

Charles Ferguson, Director of the Oscar winning documentary “Inside Job” and Author of “Predator Nation,” in a Huffington Post Article, describes the ingrained criminality of the financial sector:

It is no exaggeration to say that since the 1980s, much of the American (and global) financial sector has become criminalized, creating an industry culture that tolerates or even encourages systematic fraud. The behavior that caused the mortgage bubble and financial crisis was a natural outcome and continuation of this pattern, rather than some kind of economic accident.

These crimes and exploiting their workers has paid off for the businessmen. According to Forbes.com, in 2012, the world's 2,000 leading companies/corporations had total assets of $149 trillion, which had increased by $84 trillion (129%) since 2003 and $11 trillion over just the past year. They also had total annual profits of $2.64 trillion, which had increased by $2.1 trillion (437%) since 2003. The Forbes 2000, leading/largest companies included 528 U.S. corporations/companies with a total of over 33.4 trillion dollars of property/assets including several trillion in cash.

These companies are not investing or hiring, hence not serving any genuine purpose in society. It is a myth to believe that they will invest their riches in jobs.

American household wealth, property and assets, totaled more than $58 trillion in 2010 concentrated in top 10% of the population.  In 1992, the top tenth of the population controlled 20 times the wealth controlled by the bottom half. By 2010, it was 65 times. Our graduated income-tax system redistributes a small amount of money every year but does little to slow the polarization of wealth.

Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett in their book The Spirit Level: Why Great Equality Makes Societies Stronger, show that as inequality increases, essentially all social ills, crimes, suicides, drug abuse, child abuse, violence, divorce, bad health and even the stress on the wealthy, increases dramatically.

Permanently end poverty and wealth and income inequities we must refine and implement the Strategic Plan for a Peaceful, Prosperous, Just World for example:

• Educate the people to the fact that it is the businessmen, described by the Beechers, and many of our public servants who are behind the increasing unemployment, foreclosures, bankruptcies, homelessness, war and poverty.
  
• Enact a  progressive property tax on both wealthy corporations and individuals as outlined in Common Agenda Item #22 Simplify and Reform Tax Codes, Enact Very Progressive Property/Assets Taxes on Corporations and Individuals and Eliminate Income, Sales, Estate, Gift and Other Taxes  will both provide funds for the work in the common agenda and markedly decrease inequities something income taxes will not do.
  
• We must replace and/or humanely and privately prosecute “businessmen" and our public servants who are breaking the law.

We will have the worldwide economic breakdown and depression predicted by the Beechers unless drastic steps are taken.

The time is ripe. Let’s work together to force the businessmen to abdicate, implement methods to distribute Abundance and eliminate poverty once and for all.

No viable, military threats to the U.S. exist.

Wars are illegal.

The Constitution calls for Congress to declare wars, a common defensive not offense and state guards (militias) not standing armies.

Despite there being no threats and wars being illegal, the Department of Defense employs over three million well educated, highly trained, individuals with 450,000 of them overseas in offensive not defensive positions. DoD also has several hundred thousand individual buildings and structures and spends over a trillion dollars a year on useless Cold War weapons systems, illegal wars, drone attacks, covert operations and useless overseas bases that are generating terrorists and ill will against the U.S.

At least 90% of DoD resources and funds are being wasted on imaginary enemies, obsolete weapons systems, ships that are sitting ducks, unneeded bases, huge standing armies personnel, facilities and land that could be put to much better use in new WPA and CCCs and working on such things as climate change and alternative energy sources.

The primary excuse for this waste is if defense funding is cut, workers will be laid off and unemployment will increase.

The solution -- no involuntary layoffs - have excess U. S. troops as civilians and MIC workers help organize and work in new WPAs and CCCs and/or put them to work on items in the Common Agenda.

To permanently end wars we must refine and implement the Strategic Plan for a Peaceful, Prosperous, Just World including in particular Common Agenda items #3 through 7.

Prescription For a Sane Society

In his book The Sane Society, Erich Fromm, the accomplished psychologist, sociologist and author provides his prescription for a sane society as one “in which all aspects of life are interrelated and dedicated to the advancement of human life rather than material production" and states:

• We all long for meaningful work.
  

• We must take the responsibility for the life of all men, and develop on an international scale a relative sharing of the wealth. This must lead eventually to forms of international co-operation and planning, to forms of world government and to complete disarmament.
  

• Changes in ownership must be made be made to the extent to which they are necessary to create a community of work, and to prevent the profit motive from directing production into socially harmful directions.
  

• Income [and wealth] must be equalized to the extent of giving everybody the material basis for a dignified life.
  

• Man's use by man must end, and economy must be become the servant for the development of man.
  

• Capitol must serve labor, things must serve life.
  

•  "No change can be brought about by force; it must be a simultaneous change in economic, education, political and cultural spheres. Changes restricted to one sphere are destructive of every change."

  • Fromm is correct. Change must be brought about by understanding and cooperation. Even if we could force change, reactionary forces would just get stronger and reverse the change.
    

  • As for simultaneous change in all spheres, if we pass legislation to try to reform Wall Street and the “cultural sphere” of greed, “divisive politics” and “money in politics” do not change the reforms will not work.
    

  • In the economic sphere we need co-management of all who work in an enterprise, to permit their active and responsible participation. Workers should pick their own leaders.
    

  • In the political sphere, return to the town meetings, by creating thousands of small face-to-face groups, which are well informed, which discuss and whose decisions are integrated into a new "lower house."
    

Also, almost everything is interrelated. We must end wars to have funds to have full employment so that when we release nonviolent offenders from our overcrowded prisons the can be gainfully employed and pay restitution to victims of their crimes.

Major Elements of the Strategic Plan

• Its Common Goals which include:

• Provide Both Employment Opportunities Doing Meaningful Work at Living Wages and Affordable Necessities and Needs of Life for All. - Common Agenda Item #1.

• Reform and Reorganize Congress and the Executive Branch so that the government is organized and dedicated to ensuring these goals are met, Common Agenda Item #4

• No involuntary layoffs as a result of this strategic plan. Some transfers will be necessary but workers will be able to choose what work they do and where.

• The Common Agenda consisting of plans and actions which will ultimately list everything of significance that must be done with links to additional information. This will help us prioritize actions, divide up the work, avoid duplicating efforts, conserve resources and make networking and developing cooperative efforts easier.

• The summary of Funding Sources, which clearly shows that there are more than enough funds and resources to pay for the common agenda, have a peaceful prosperous, just world, eliminate deficit spending, pay down the national debt and that AUSTERITY PROGRAMS ARE ABSOLUTELY UNNECCESSARY.

• Establishment of Working Groups for Each Common Agenda Item to Divide up the Work.

• Development and Implementation of a Comprehensive, Factual People’s Information and Education Program
  
  
• The Development and Maintanence a Comprehensive, Nationwide, Democratic, Critical Mass Network Using Zip Codes and an Advanced Communications System.
 

By working and networking with others from a comprehensive, common strategic plan that list everything that needs to be done in one place, work can be divided up, duplicated efforts avoided and accomplishment of critical items ensured.

Attachment B to The Strategic Plan for a Peaceful, Prosperous, Just World

DRAFT

Outline Of the Summary of Funding Sources
and Cost Avoidance Measures

Excerpt of a few funding sources with more detailed information available at the Summary of Funding Sources

Funding Sources and Cost Avoidance Measures:

No layoffs will result from these actions; transfer will be necessary.

1. Reprogram 100% of the funding and budgets for wars, occupations, nuclear weapons, covert operations, overseas bases and facilities the war on terror, torture, assassinations, armed drone attacks, etc.
2. Reprogram all but about $100 billion of the remaining annual current spending, appropriations, budgets and contracts for the large standing Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force and DoD civilian workforce, obsolescent weapons systems and state side bases, etc.
3. Integrate the Federal Reserve into the Federal government as proposed by a refined H.R. 2990. Government provide grants and/or zero interest loans directly to states, manufacturers and small businesses.
4. Simplify and reform tax codes.
   1. Enact very progressive property/assets taxes with very reasonable zero tax brackets, e.g. up to $500,000 on the financial assets and all other property of:
      1. Corporations, companies, hedge funds and other entities
      2. Individuals,

These entities and individuals have a total of at least $70 trillion in taxable assets and property, much of which is concentrated in the wealthy 1% and the too big to fail.

 16.  As necessary, Congress "coin" high value $100 billion to $1 trillion serialized coins.

Conclusions

As these funding items are phased in and the Common Agenda accomplished, income, estate, gift, capital gain, sales taxes can be phased out. Inequalities will decrease. There will be no need for the recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles Commission and other austerity programs, or to increase the national debt or its limit.

Fair Use Notice: The material on this site is provided for educational and informational purposes. It may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of scientific, environmental, economic, social justice and human rights issues etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have an interest in using the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. The information on this site does not constitute legal or technical advice.