regarding activism
Vast disparities of wealth,
environmental destruction,
excessive arms buildup...
these and many other policies
are all the precise opposite of what most people wish for.
These things can benefit only the few although they may
eventually lead to total destruction.
The power of money ensures the continuance of non-representational government
in the United States and around the world.
Little effective opposition exists within governments, so activism - political
action outside of political institutions - remains the most viable force
for change.
Widespread activism promoting
economic and racial justice and environmental sanity
may be the critical factor determining whether or not we can leave
to the next few generations
a physically decent world, and an essentially decent society.
representation
There is no obvious alignment between majority opinion
and government policy concerning major policy issues.
1
Common sensibilities are frustrated by the framing of issues in terms
put forth by those with inordinate wealth, political power, or media control.
2
human nature
To continue to allow the impulses of power and greed to dictate economic
and political policy is to commit ourselves to global disaster.
If ethical behavior is not systemic in the regulatory functioning of society,
un-ethical behavior will win out in competative systems of power.
3
Our evolved responses are mismatched with relevant cues in the modern world.
The fact that normally intelligent people could want to sacrifice the safety and well being
of their species, including their own decendants, seems to require that assumption,
4
indicating, among other things, that we have no inherited basis for
the process of selecting good leaders.
Natural impulses don't exist to help us recognise and enable good leadership
in this vastly altered environment.
The rational mind is our only effective tool.
the power of unions
The notion that human labor is a commodity,
allowing wages to be determined by the economy of supply and demand,
is inhuman. The inhumanity is most stark at the bottom
where there is always willingness to work for subsistence wages,
and even less than subsistence wages,
when the alternative is no income at all.
Without organized resistence,
we continue with disfunctional political systems
run by the business class.
The apportionment of generated wealth in this country,
as controlled by those political systems,
is extremely skewed.
Just as workers a century ago had to organize to resist
brutal treatment at the hands of corporate and government power,
organization is desparately needed today.
Corporate powers work insessantly and illegally to keep the less privileged
from effective organization.
5
unionization
This web site is for the formation
of what's called political unions...
"union" as in "labor union"
rather than a unification of diverse political states,
or an association of political parties.
A new union here can be a first attempt at publicly presenting a political cause,
or it can be an ancillary voice of a mature movement.
The intention here, though, is to formalize members' commitment.
Similar to the commitment of a member of a labor union
to participate in a strike in the eventuality that a strike is called,
a political union here provides a plan
for a specific political action,
and delineates the corresponding future conditions necessary
to trigger that action.
The call to action
may be conditioned, for instance,
on the number of committed members growing beyond some minimum threshold.
For example it could require 50 members before presenting a specific demand
at the next school board meeting, or 200,000 members before
calling for everyone to gather at the state Capital.
If the specified conditions are not met, say within a specified time,
then the commitment is dissolved.
When you join a union, you are commiting to participate
if the conditions are met
and the action is called.
scope
The range of interest here is not limited in principle.
An effective union may arise to address limited or local issues,
or federal and international policy.
Racist and other hate based and illegal activities will not be supported,
of course, a policy that includes comments on this site.
structure
A union is represented here by:
1. a statement of its political position
2. a statement of the action to which one is committing
when signing up as a member of the union
3. the conditions under which members may be called upon to honor that commitment
4. a membership database
creating a new union
To create a new union, you, as a self-defined union manager,
use the
New Political Union form
to define the union's intent,
including the action to which members are committed.
It's assumed that unions may also have their own separate web site(s).
becoming a member
To become an active committed member of a union, go to the sign-up section
at the end of the desciption page of that union, available through the
union list.