permaculture

[lbsaltzman@aol.com]

Well I certainly believe that globalization is an example of the dominator 
model of human culture (See Riane Eisler's "The Chalice And The Blade" for a 
discussion of dominator societies) and the emerging global corporate culture 
is antithetical to a sustainable future.? here is Joanne Macy's prescription 
for the Great Turning from her website 
(http://www.joannamacy.net/html/great.html).



Learn Together How to Demystify and Supplant Corporate Rule



Many people imagine that the basic dynamics of global economics and corporate 
rule are too complicated to understand, unless one is an economist or MBA. To 
dispel this illusion is an imperative step toward personal empowerment and 
collective action. Teaching each other in groups, we can use our innate 
common sense to grasp the nature of growth economics, the role of 
corporations and their cost to our society and planet.

Citizen study circles are one of the greatest social inventions of our time. 
Engrossing and fun, they elicit our innate curiosity, raise our sights, and 
widen our horizons, while offering an immediately rewarding experience of 
community. They uncover our capacity to think cogently about big issues of 
common concern--a capacity that we may not have suspected we had. They 
increase our respect for our self and each other, breaking down barriers of 
isolation and powerlessness.

These functions are multiplied when participants, wanting to embody the 
convictions or the values that arise, undertake projects together--and the 
groups become study-action groups. The energy that is unleashed, when we move 
out to do together what we may have felt inadequate to do alone, can 
transform our lives and our society.

Participation in study-action groups has given direction to my own life. When 
my children were in high school we met with assorted neighbors to follow a 
plan of study on macro-economics, reading selections, taking turns 
facilitating, and eventually coming up with joint projects involving a 
community garden and a food coop. Ten years later, wanting to learn about the 
care of radioactive waste, I invited selected friends to join me in a new 
study-action group with a curriculum we co-designed. Because of the strong 
concerns and emotions stirred by the subject matter, we were grateful to 
include a spiritual component in every session. This helped us sustain our 
motivation and become informed enough to testify in government regulatory 
hearings.

How to Organize a Study-Action Group




Choose a guide or manual (see resources below) or make your own if you have 
previous experience.



Determine the number of sessions the group will hold and the frequency and 
length of sessions. Experience has shown that weekly or fortnightly meetings 
of 1 1/2 - 2 hours work well.



Issue an invitation (by calling up selected friends, or putting a notice on 
public bulletin boards, or the like) and aim for the optimal size of 8-12 
people (don't expect people to commit before they've come to the first 
session to try it out).



Select a venue such as your local church, synagogue, mosque, or school, or 
consider the possibility of meeting in the home of one or more participants.



Take time in your first meeting to review guidelines for successful 
study-action groups. These are included in the manuals listed below and 
generally recommend rotating facilitators, which adds greatly to the group's 
vitality. In addition, consider the desirability of including an opening and 
closing circle in each meeting as a way of grounding everyone in our shared 
humanity and shared hopes, and as a reminder that this is more than just an 
intellectual exercise.



Make use of interactive processes to help participants sustain motivation, by 
relating to the material with their hearts and bodies as well as their minds. 
You can select from the many described in Coming Back to Life (by myself and 
Molly Young Brown, New Society Publishers), which are specifically geared to 
help us feel our relationships with the larger world.





Resources for Study-Action Groups on Corporate Rule

While this list is not exhaustive, I can vouch for the quality and relevance 
of each of these study guides.

Roots of Change is a study circle program developed by the International 
Society for Ecology and Culture with three goals: 1) To encourage a broad 
analysis of the origins and workings of the global economy. 2) To promote 
discussion of the impact of globalization on participants' own communities 
and communities around the world. 3) To generate strategies for effective 
local action.

Contact ISEC USA, PO Box 9475, Berkeley, CA 94709; Telephone: (510) 548 4915. 
Email isecuk@gn.apc.org

Tackling Transnationals is one of several online study courses offered by 
International Study Circles (ISC). It aims to provide an understanding of how 
transnational corporations operate and how they affect economy, politics and 
culture at local, national and global levels. Another ISC course, Women and 
the Global Food Industry, brings a critical understanding of how conditions 
of globalization affect women workers engaged in the production and retailing 
of food.

All materials are online at www.tsl.fi/ifwea/isc/index2.html

Challenging Corporate Power, Asserting the People's Rights is a ten-session 
study guide by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom 
(WILPF). Its two-fold purpose is to: "...frame learning and discussion in 
ways that focus on the root causes of corporate and state oppression [and] to 
direct efforts for change in law and culture toward those public officials 
and public bodies that must take the authority to place economic institutions 
and all corporate entities under the control of a self-governing people."

All materials are online at www.wilpf.org/corp/cintro.htm. For a printed 
version of the materials, send a check for $15 made out to WILPF to: WILPF, 
1213 Race Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.

Perspectives on the Global Economy, is an eight-session discussion course on 
economic globalization developed by the Northwest Earth Institute. This 
course addresses "...the structural aspects of globalization...how the global 
economy impacts the environment, food production, the culture, and world-wide 
economic and social equity...and how people concerned about globalization are 
taking steps to seize control of their futures."

Participation in a NWEI discussion course is arranged through the Institute 
or one of its affiliates by contacting: Northwest Earth Institute, 506 SW 
Sixth, Suite 1100, Portland, OR 97204; www.nwei.org; email webinfo@nwei.org.

Globalization for Beginners is a two-hour workshop developed by United for a 
Fair Economy. Its objectives are to: "Connect perspectives and concepts about 
globalization...to familiar issues in the U.S...; expose the intersection 
between concentrated corporate power and the establishment of the 
rules...governing international trade; identify the connections between 
decisions made by...the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO and the effects of these 
decisions on people's lives; and provide information and resources and 
stimulate interest among activists for conducting education and action."

The $65 workshop kit may be ordered from the UFE website: 
www.ufenet.org/order/index.html#PopEd or email info@ufenet.org.


-----Original Message-----
From: Tommy Tolson <healinghawk@earthlink.net>
To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tue, 3 Jul 2007 7:36 am
Subject: [permaculture] Political Control Over Globalization



Colin Mason writes, in /The 2030 Spike, "/Failure to redress the poverty 
most humans live in, and an almost total lack of political control over 
globalization - which is irresponsible in the pure sense of the word - 
are likely to increase economic disproportion and the conflict it causes."

I read over and over that the thing feeding Islam's radical 
fundamentalists is poverty and powerlessness to maintain traditional 
cultural values.  The reason Osama bin Laden gave for 9/11 was the US 
military occupation of Saudi Arabia, which Wasabis consider holy, thus 
inviolate.  Note that there is no longer an obvious US military presence 
in Saudi Arabia.  Does it pay to punch the US in the nose in front of 
God and everybody big enough to look?

If Permaculture embraces the principles of personal responsibility for 
the state of the world, why is there not an organized response to, or 
even a conversation about, globalization on this listserve?  I know of 
no organized response from Permaculture, per se, to globalization.  Are 
we resigned to the inevitability of corporate dominance?  Do we seek to 
fly under the corporate radar to avoid this fight with the unbeatable 
foe?   How wonderful is that?  How much of the troubles in the world can 
be directly attributed to multinational corporations that are beyond 
political control?  Aren't we ultimately responsible for the behavior of 
our corporate persons?  Are we asleep at the switch of global citizenship?

What can we do to gain political control over globalization?   Shouldn't 
we be doing it?  Haven't corporations had it their way long enough for 
us to tell where it takes us?  Can we allow this course to play itself 
out?  Dare we?  Who is it up to?

Smiles.
Tommy Tolson
Austin, TX

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