The overall mission of our Global Justice Movement initiative has been succinctly summed up by Buckminister Fuller as follows:

"To make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone."

Please forward to those you think might be interested. You can subscribe to this newsletter at the bottom of this page.

Welcome to the third issue of our Global Justice Movement newsletter. The Alberta Social Credit Party has joined with our efforts since the last e-mailing. This progressive organization has gone from 6 to almost 60 constituency associations within the last year. Please consider adding your organization to our list of supporters, which can be seen here.

In our first issue, available here, there was an article, Justice for Iraq, which reiterated a proposal on our web site for widespread ownership by Iraqis of the Iraq National Oil Company. Shares would be non-transferable for 10 to 20 years. Since then, American Senator Rick Santorum has written a letter to the office of American ambassador Paul Bremer backing this proposal.

Our Global Justice Movement web site has until now run entirely on volunteer labour. For our next phase, we will be seeking funds (aka begging) to enable us to reach more people with concepts of ideas of positive change. Please e-mail us at info@globaljusticemovement.org if you would like to help with this project in either an adminstrative or donor capacity or both.

Amnesty International, the AFL-CIO and the United Steelworkers of America were amongst those calling for an independent investigation into allegations of police abuse during FTAA protests in Miami in November. 20,000 people had taken to the streets to call for fair trade and respect of human rights.

A judge presiding over the cases of free trade protesters said in court that he saw ''no less than 20 felonies committed by police officers'' during the demonstrations. ''Pretty disgraceful what I saw with my own eyes. And I have always supported the police during my entire career,'' Judge Richard Margolius, 60, said, according to a court transcript. "This was a real eye-opener. A disgrace for the community.''

Protesting seniors were some of those subjected to the alleged police brutality. The upcoming court cases against the police could provide an opportunity to show that respect for civil rights remains in post 9-11 U.S.

rade representatives from 34 countries of the Western Hemisphere failed to reach any substantiative agreement during the meeting. The U.S. insisted on having its agricultural subsidies dealt with under the World Trade Organization (WTO). This was to protect U.S. farmers against the subsidies of nations outside of the FTAA trade area. In response, Brazil led a movement which further gutted the agreement. This initiative allowed Western Hemisphere countries to opt out of any FTAA strictures that are not to their liking.

Wilmar Castro, Venezuela's production and trade minister, felt the need to point out that ''human rights, cultural rights, social rights, the right to education, the right to access to goods and services are not reflected anywhere in this communiqué.''

In view of the lack of results, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick stated he will begin negotiating one-on-one trade agreements with many of the FTAA countries. The goal has been to establish an FTAA by January 2005, but that timeline now seems unlikely.

On January 9, representatives of leading Argentine businesses met in Buenos Aires and agreed to promote the Global Compact, the initiative by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to encourage the private sector to help meet the challenges of globalization. The event, organized by UNDP, introduced the Global Compact and focused on the role that business, in cooperation with other sectors, can play in advancing responsible corporate citizenship.

The Compact includes nine principles related to human rights, labour and the environment. It aims to bring businesses together with UN agencies, civil society and labour to help create a more sustainable and inclusive global economy.

Ten of the 39 companies and organizations at the meeting formed a group to promote the Compact The group will publicize the Compact's principles, arrange a meeting in March for companies to endorse it, set up a document resource centre, web site and secretariat, and organize seminars and workshops. Companies signing on to the Compact will indicate what initiatives they plan to implement its principles.

http://www.undp.org/

Increase the Peace. Join the WAVE
Working for Alternatives to Violence through Entertainment.

If violence is a learned behavior -- learned partly through the entertainment media -- then alternatives to violence can also be learned best through entertainment. Dennis Weaver, Edward James Olmos, Arun Gandhi (grandson of Mahatma) and others concerned about transforming the culture of violence serve on the Board of Advisors. Founded by film Producer Arthur Kanegis, Future WAVE is developing feature films with new kinds of heroes wielding techniques and strategies more advanced than violence.

Soon to be a Major Motion Picture - Based on a True Story

On one side are all the nations, police and armies of the World.
On the other, well…, there's Garry…
We'd say the odds are just about even.

1940 - As a promising young Broadway comedian, all Garry Davis wants to do is make people laugh. Then BOOM. World War II. He finds himself bombing Brandenburg. "How can it be right to blow up neighborhoods on one side of an invisible line when it's wrong on the other?" BOOM: Hiroshima. "One plane blows up a city? What if I'm asked to blow up Moscow? Everybody knows how to make war, but who knows how to make peace?" Anguished, Garry goes to Paris and renounces his exclusive national citizenship, declaring himself a World Citizen!

Paperless, but determined to go to Germany to rebuild the destruction he caused, he is blocked from entering -- and refused a return visa. So he lives on the borderline for months! Albert Camus, Albert Einstein, Albert Schweitzer, Jean-Paul Sarte, André Gide, and others come to his defense.

Garry's relentless effort to find a way to Brandenburg takes him on a remarkable journey that finds him studying at the feet of an Indian Guru, trying to walk to Germany from New Delhi, reducing-to-tears the feared Chief of the Iranian police and crashing the Khyber Pass border -- scattering warring Pathan tribesmen and Afghanistani border guards. Bureaucrats bluster and fuss, bounce Garry from country to country, fly him around the world to ports of no-entry -- even throw him in jail. But they just cannot break him. Garry, having stepped into a new space, above and beyond the nation-state system, always seems to beat them at their own game.

That is, until he steals across one too many borders, and is captured and detained for life! In a former Nazi concentration camp from which nobody escapes. All seems lost. It is his dark night of the soul.

Yet out of the darkness, Garry finds an inner strength. He draws from his acting ability, spiritual roots and his passion to find an amazing way to take charge, and transform his captors into his subjects! Flustered, they eject him! Freedom! But amazingly, Garry turns himself back in! Freeing himself is not enough -- Garry is determined to free his fellow inmates! And in the process he frees us all. He helps each of us realize that we are the world; that we each have it inside to create the world we choose.

Website: www.futurewave.org

The World Social Forum being held in a Bombay suburb is described in the Associated Press report as follows:

"Artists touched up anti-war exhibits, and food stalls barred multi- national brands like Coke and Pepsi as tens of thousands of people assemble for the World Social Forum, an annual gathering of peace and anti-globalization activists. The 6-day event in Bombay helps activist groups connect and develop alternatives to free trade policies harming poor countries.

Workers at the event take the anti-globalization theme to heart, keeping big industry brands out of vending booths, and so on. "This Forum will blow up the myth that there is no alternative" said W.R. Varada Rajan, a trade union leader. "It will also explode the myth that globalization has universal acceptance".

About 100,000 activists, political workers, and intellectuals from 130 countries are attending the event, which is being held for the first time outside Brazil. "It was such a big success in Brazil we just couldn't stop it, and felt we had to repeat it around the world" said Chico Whitaker, who was a key WSF organizer for the three first meetings. India was chosen for this one to ensure greater participation from Africa and Asia.

Nobel Laureates Shirin Ebadi and Joseph Stiglitz are among the speakers, which includes 1000 seminars, workshops and cultural programmes on militarism, peace, global trade, and so on. The war in Iraq is expected to be a focus, and we can't talk about globalization without talking about war, racism, and oppression, said Diane Nette, of the World March of Women, a women's group based in Canada. "The war in Iraq has seen social movements across the world coming together, and we hope to continue with it".

The WSF is a counterpoint to the meeting of business and government leaders at the World Economic Forum, held annually in the Swiss alpine resort of Davos. This years Davos meeting is scheduled for January 21 - 25.

- photo rabble from indymedia

Capital Homesteading for Every Citizen

What if

. . . every man, woman and child in America could receive each year through a local bank $3,000 of “interest-free” credit to invest in our nation’s growth and new technologies?

. . . every citizen could accumulate tax-free over a lifetime a “capital homestead” of $200,000 that would pay an annual dividend income of $30,000 to meet his or her retirement needs?

. . . this could be done without using any taxpayer dollars and without taking away anyone’s wealth?

An innovative look at how the money creation process can create justice and security in America through the power of the Federal Reserves 'discount window'.

More details and ordering information available here (PDF format).