<font size="2"><font face="Calibri">If you have some time </font></font>have a look at this exchange - at the end is some stuff on havens and global democracy you may find of interest but you'll probably need to follow the thread from top to bottom or it might not make sense. the conversation was inspired by last Saturday's radical picnics, one at the Bank of England in solidarity with #occupywallst and the other on Clapham Common, for land and freedom :-)<div class="gmail_quote">
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<div class="gmail_quote"><font face="Calibri" size="2"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri;">
<br>Love mark<br><br>Hi all,<br>
<br>
Since there is some ethical advertising going on tonight, here’s my
shameless, albeit related to tomorrows picnic, plug:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://bsnews.info/Money_and_Finance.html" target="_blank">http://bsnews.info/Money_and_Finance.html</a><br>
<br>
The money and finance section of BSNews contains a collection of documentaries
and video blog series to help educate and provide a baseline understanding of
the concepts, tricks, ruses and deceptions behind modern banking and finance.
The three people mentioned below have taken what is essentially a dull and
boring although gravely important topic and have made entertaining and
educational films which draw the viewer in and make you want to learn more. For
those more at home with reading than watching YouTube, I heartily recommend
Ellen Brown’s ‘Web of Debt’ - a clear and concise explanation
of the problems and the solution.<br>
<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bill Still</span></b>’s wonderful
‘Secret of Oz’ is a must watch – trailer is here [ <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cq9yEVcGIU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cq9yEVcGIU</a>
]; entertaining and very informative – one of the few trusted sources
calling for real monetary reform. I met Bill last year and he’s an
incredibly generous spirit – he’s been on his journey for over two
decades now – I assured him that we’d sort out this, the mother of
all problems, within my lifetime. As the man says, “this <i><span style="font-style: italic;">IS </span></i>the civil rights struggle of the 21st
century”<br>
<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Damon Vrabel</span></b> is an ex Wall Street
insider who has seen the light and has now embarked upon a life course aimed at
solving the worlds problems which are fundamentally caused by the corrupting
nature of money. His lively delivery and grasp of the important facts in his
groundbreaking Renaissance 2.0 series [ <a href="http://bsnews.info/Renaissence_2.0_P1.html" target="_blank">http://bsnews.info/Renaissence_2.0_P1.html</a>
] is a joy to see.<br>
</span></font><font face="Times New Roman Italic" size="1"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman Italic";">We are not here to
curse the darkness, but to light a candle that can guide us through that
darkness to a safe and sane future. For the world is changing. The old era is
ending. The old ways will not do <br>
- John F.Kennedy<br>
</span></font><font face="Calibri" size="2"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri;"><br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Chris Martenson</span></b> is another
valuable contributor to the overall effort. His ‘Crash Course’ [ <a href="http://bsnews.info/The_Crash_Course_P1.html" target="_blank">http://bsnews.info/The_Crash_Course_P1.html</a>
] is essential viewing for those wanting a detailed breakdown of all aspects of
money. I particularly enjoyed Chapter 10 – Inflation where he charts the
cost of living in the US from 1665 to 2008 – the increase in inflation in
my own lifetime paints a gloomy picture for our immediate future but without
the understanding that this a deliberate policy, we’ll be hard pressed to
counter the effects and reverse this worrying trend. In the UK at present,
prices of most goods are set to double every ten years – we are literally
on the slippery slope heading for hyper-inflation – the poor, the working
class, wage earners of all income brackets are going to be affected by this so
its imperative we know the root cause. I came away with the thought – if
we want to stop inflation, we have to stop fighting wars. During times of
peace, the cost of living remains steady. Today’s agenda of endless war
is the perfect recipe for total financial meltdown.<br>
<br>
Enjoy and feel free to forward to friends, family and colleagues, especially
those working in banking and finance (many of whom are as much in the dark
about this stuff as most people)<br>
<br>
Thanks and kind regards<br>
<span>mike</span><br>
<br>
PS congrats Mark x<br>
<br>
</span></font><font color="#515151" face="Myriad Pro" size="2"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Myriad Pro"; color: rgb(81, 81, 81);">BSN has been
born out of activists’ frustration with the political and corporate bias
in the mainstream media (MSM). <a href="http://bsnews.info/About_Us.html" target="_blank">http://bsnews.info/About_Us.html</a><br>
</span></font><font face="Calibri" size="2"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri;"><br>
</span></font><p class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Thanks <span>Mike</span>, </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">The problem with all of the analyses you promote
is their tendency to limit their views of the problem to the finance sector, which
is just that, only one sector, albeit an important one, of the whole economy.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Here’s a brief extract from A World
to Win’s 2011 Manifesto of Revolutionary Solutions ( <a href="http://www.aworldtowin.net/Manifesto/Intro.html" target="_blank">http://www.aworldtowin.net/Manifesto/Intro.html</a>
) which begins to redress the balance.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Gerry</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p>
<h2><a name="132877c71e649d39_132877bbc71c2b45_13287792820da005_13280c8d78406c2e_source"></a><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="5"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The source of the crash</span></font></b></h2>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Though
many blame the “greed” of bankers and speculators on the money and
commodity markets for the crash, their rise to power was the result of the
insatiable demand for credit needed to fund the growth of commodity production and
consumption. </span></font></p>
<p><span><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The real source of the crash</span></font></span> is
to be found at the heart of the capitalist system of production, in the
“real” economy where labour adds value to the inputs. In capitalist
society people are employed to produce the commodities and services which are
bought and sold in the global marketplace: cars, refrigerators, trainers,
mobile phones, laptops, notebooks, net-books, tablets, food and drink, bus,
train and plane journeys.</p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Only part
of the value workers add through their labour is returned to them as wages. The
surplus remaining – after the other costs of production are deducted from
the income on sales – is distributed to shareholders as dividends, to pay
rent to landowners, and as interest to banks and other suppliers of credit.
Competition on price requires increases in the productivity of labour which
reduces the hours needed for the production of a commodity. So the value, which
is determined by the quantity of labour it contains, and hence the price of,
and profit from each commodity tend to decline as a result. To offset the
reducing profit derived from each ever-cheaper computer or car, more units of
each type of commodity must be manufactured and sold.</span></font></p>
<p><span><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This is the insane logic of capitalism.</span></font></span>
It pushes for growth not because it can, but because it must, until the limits
of the market are reached, stretched and oversupplied. And then growth goes
into reverse. Capacity is idled and then destroyed, while the exploitation of
those with jobs increases as costs are slashed.</p><div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-US">
<hr align="center" width="100%" size="2">
</span></font></div></div><div><div></div><div>Dear Mike and Gerry <br><div class="gmail_quote"><br>I think there is strength in both of your positions and I am looking forward to Gerry's response to you Mike. The weakness in your position, in my view however is its focus on national to the expense of local (ie direct democratic) and global (post Westphalian) solutions. The danger with such an approach is not so much to do with the political content you espouse, which broadly I agree with but with the reactionary forces it naturally aligns with in terms of dealing with (a) the challenge of state-corporate hegemony over popular decision making and (b) capitalist globalisation, which constitutes a global financial dictatorship (in the form of bond markets). While you might argue that your position is the perfect response to the latter, while the former can be struggled for after the event (of national monet reform) - I disagree. <br>
<br>One country or even a number of countries cancelling their debts, whether via genuine monetary reform and the launch of debt-free money, or just the (far worse, I agree) usual method of currency devaluation as was the case in Argentina may allow a country to regrow its economy along enlightened monetary lines (or, just on the traditional neo-liberal model in the latter case) but still the global hegemon remains at large, able to go where it pleases and other nations will be only so happy to remain friendly to the investment. Tax havens will remain, as will poverty in sub-saharan Africa and a host of other problems that require a global co-ordinated response. Worse, once a successful movement for national economic sovereignty takes root in one or more sufficienty influential / globally integrated countries there could be a race to the bottom as nations compete with each other to default and reduce their currency values, cut yet more services in order to become more attractive than the next for capitalist investment and so we have fracturing of the global family of nations that can all too easily lead to enormous economic problems and at worst, great power war. Likewise there is no guarantee that once the movement is successful there will be sufficient political interest or economic challenge for people to develop the new participatory politics that this email list is set up to support. Your view appears to be that state owned bank = public owned bank. But we are trying to forge a new approach to public ownership, based on full democratic participation, or a politics of the common. And this is very necessary if we are to change our culture towards humanity co=operation and connection as opposed to greed exploitation and competition. <br>
<br>Likewise internationally - where again competition between nation states rules, as commanded by the global dictatorship. So if one nation is on the road to some kind of recovery, effectively the rest of the world can go to hell and there is no incentive to look at the real nature of the political and social culture we are left with at the community level. However desirable, I do not see how the end of national deficit, state self-sufficiency and liquidity and a debt free system in one or more countries somehow guarantees social, economic and political justice. Only a movement based on new local and global and yes national political and economic forms can achieve that. <br>
<br>Yes - 100% I should like to see a political movement that focuses on monetary and linked tax reform (essentially embracing land tax via the capture of rental values for public purposes, and a new form of debt-free money backed by the same land), as my post about Israel and Palestine below makes clear. And, yes, a linked national and indeed personal debt cancellation (in the traditon of the original Mesopotamium / Hebrew 'Jubilee'). These ideas are what I believe in 100%, for Israel Palestine as for England, Argentina, India and elsewhere. But I do not believe in a national movement on its own to achieve them.<br>
<br>In order to really challenge the hegemon, what is needed is a movement that aims itself globally, wherre there is a universal system already, made up of lots of different institutions and, in the case of some of them - the bond market, IMF and others - controlling our national politicians in place. We need a movement to challenge and transform these institutions, in order to ensure support for the most vulnerable.<br>
<br>Just as once a strong, brutal King managed to unite the leaders of the many feudal communities that had warred so long with one another to create the beginnings of the modern nation state, so the global tyrant of elite capital owners, and the many undemocratic institutions that exist at the global level and which mainly exist to support their interests are now that uniting global King. And just as the next stahe of development of the nation state was to challenge the absolute monarch, to ensure a democratisation of the executive through the promotion of a Parliamentary Sovereignty with representation and suffrage for all, so we face the same challenge with the proto-global state represented by the G20, central banks, global stock and debt market traders, the IMF, Euro Stability Fund, UN Security Council and the rest. Without that, we will never force the redistribution of wealth, power and resources to the worlds poorest because they simply do not matter, are not represented on the world governance stage.<br>
<br>What allowed the people to challenge the King was when they themselves united as people had done in the first place to bring about the first national King, and as - in the UK's case - the Barons had done to challenge national King at Magna Carta. People had to do that, to nationalise themselves in the order to get some national rights, some rule of law that they had a part in framing - just as they did in the England in 1649, and in France and North America in the 18th C. Today, if we just stay nationally minded, however good our policies on money, land, tax, debt, education and so forth, we will leave ourselves as a people - the people of the world - divided, and therefore ruled over. It would be as if the peasants and the bougeousie and retreated into their local groups in the 17th C and decided to just let the King carry on controlling them through their local, grace and favoured strong men. This is how dictators like Assad, Mubarak and Ghaddafi stayed in power nationally and it is exactly how Henry VIII and is ilk worked in the past. But today, because of many factors this dictatorship is global. All the big issues are global issues: unemployment is a global issue, debt is a global issue, poverty is a global issue, climate change is a global issue etc etc. The need for global solutions is self-evident. We cannot go on having a world of competing nation states, do so will make the elite very happy - they will keep making money whether the markets go up or down cos they will always find safe havens for their money to make more money. Instead what is needed is a new global settlement, with the formation of a global democratic governing force, powered by people not people with money. And the only way to start that revolution is where all revolutions for new, better governments start always start, on the issue of tax, representation and new forms of political and economic sovereignty. <br>
<br>That is why I campaign for People's Assemblies. They are the future global drivers of a new global governance movement, a new sovereignty which is<br><br><b>1) local</b> (in that it constitutes a new site of power but also that eventually it will allow people to participate fully in local service provision, forging new social relationships, new locally unique cultural form and protecting all the most vulnerable, in human, natural ways, fundamentally impossible for any state or corporate interests, however well run) <br>
<br><b>2) national </b>- working with other Assemblies across the national realm to, crucially end/transform the present operations of the nation state. Yes! monetary + land tax reform, debt free money, national debt cancellation (so that banks and the land system are public owned) but also a new, decentralised, written constitutional settlement, as I said before, essentially so that public can no longer mean state which is the exact path to facism or facism lite (which is effectively, what we have to deal with). Something that goes beyond the revolutionary settlement of 17th/18th C by puting the future direction of the nation in the hands of the people, in both theory and practice. Direct/Real Democracy Now! -->> no carbon copy but in ways and means unique to each nation states own culture and history. Some new national institutions, some reformed old ones and some old ones abolished, but all linked to the new sovereigns, the assemblies so that sovereignty is not ultimately with the national decision making body, except where delegated, but with the people.So, for example here in Angleterre Libre! we might abolish or fundamentally reform Westminster, include a new English Parliament driven be delegates from each City and Rural Region with ultimate sovereignty vested at the neighbourhood level. In other nations the constutional challenges will be different, but similar as local conditions vary. <b><br>
<br>3) global</b> - working together in solidarity with Assemblies, likewise at the national level, also at the transnational - continental and world-wide. So with comms and support across all the communities and the development of a global agenda for change, which would essentially involve the formation of new international institutions of the common - ie fully participatory, and where appropriate the common democratisation of all the current international institutions, except where they are irredeemable in which case they must be abolished. Where this global agenda starts is the big question of the Assemblies movement today, which brings me back to the point about representation and taxation and sovereignty. <br>
<br>The national revolutions that made the modern capitalist state were formed by popular movements challenging the King's right to force taxation and other coercive measures. In his place people wanted a national body that could choose taxation levels based on some degree of popular will thru election processes - effectively after 17th C we could kick the bugger out although there were centuries of struggle to make 'we' not just male landowners. <br>
<br>But anyway, likewise today the global king has special quasi divine rights over its nation state subjects. So, capital can move where it wants to escape national taxation and nations must bow and scrape better than the next state to attract it into their domain. It follows that until A. there is a global power that commands capital to work in particular ways conducive to the public good and B. there is closure of all capitals many global hidey holes so that those that control and profit most from global trade and investment can be taxed effectively and fairly in order to pay of global public goods that are not attainable via said command (ie just like at the national level: where the state has the power A> to regulate businesses to protect human labour rights and the environment and B> tax individuals and corporations to pay for public goods not provided by businesses)<br>
<br>By all means let us put forward national programmes for money, tax and debt reforms. But let us link these to a programmme for constitutional reform which makes the people in the form of equals in assembliesm the sovereigns. And let us drive that movement from the assemblies themselves joined up across the realm. And, equally important let us encourage the same, and join up with assemblies across the continent, and the world. And let us all look to ourselves in this not just a local and national but also, to really finish the job (and avoid the risk of excluding the least privileged worldwide) we must never forget we need a global revolution. Simply put, that is the world historical challenge we face. <br>
<br>And, to do that to make a global revolution we have to start somewhere. and that place is time honoured. Corporations, bankers, market traders and other elite global owners of capital have an enormous representation in our national goverments, to the point that we can meaningfully call it a global financial dictatorship. <br>
<br>Therefore, let us start the revolution by calling for the closing of tax havens and the building up of the people assemblies / real and direct democracy movement as the new sovereign power. Closing tax havens will require aq global movement, and when we make ourselves into that, a global movement of peoples assemblies for the closure of tax havens so that monies for public goods can flow into the national treasuries we will have set our sights on the ultimate prize. National treasuries may do well, but what about those that do not - where the poorest of the world huddle to stay alive. We need a movement that puts them, the people of Kenya for example at the heart of what we do. So the closure of tax havens should be seen as the precursor to a global taxation of capital, with the destination of the tax revenues being decided by the Assemblies, redistributed direct to them unless the global consensus says it should go to another agent. We need assemblies to win this, to become a global movement and for the changes to be forced on vested interests - the global financial dictatorshhip - but also they need to see themselves as the future sovereign powers, where tax receipts taken locally, nationally and internationally by default, and according to local need, national and global consensus end up, so revenues can be spent on democratically decided local services. The Parliamentary sovereign power, will then be decentralised and made truly common. <br>
<br>I believe this kind of global thinking and a revolutionary focus on tax havens as a basic starting point needs to be embraced by the Assemblies movement and that communications between assemblies, manifestos and global days of action such as Oct 15th, should start this process. <br>
<br>Linked nationally to campaigns for monetary reform (and land tax to back the new debt-free money) and a decentralised constitutional settlement that puts powers to spend revenues, government bank-spend and sometimes lend to local businesses (interest free where possible), educate and raise children ('it takes a village to bring up a child' and each assembly can be a democratic school), and exchange public monies and resources ( citizen's income, social security payments and/or housing services) for democratically agreed employment, the last two when people are out of work or homeless and other traditional state functions made truly democratic. <br>
<div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"><div><blockquote><div><div><font face="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">
PS congrats Mark x<br>
Thanks Mike! :-)<br></span></font></div></div></blockquote></div></blockquote><div>Here's the mail I sent round earlier this week, about Israel and Palestine and a possible common cause for the two polities. It was sent to 15M International about J14 Israel, the
Palestinian self-determination movement and the wider, common struggle. <br>
<br> > Two points that might link the two struggles of Israel J14 and
Palestine economically are (1) the subsidising of settlements by
Israeli taxpayers, much of the profits from which end up in private
financial hands. Another potential link would be (2) a campaign to unite
the two polities to reduce housing costs and regressive tax burdens (
such as income tax ) by calling for an Israel-Palestine wide land value
taxation. <br>
<br>The latter would mean the socialisation of land rents throughout
the realm, with a tax-free band for small land-holdings or those on
lower incomes whose properties are used for owner/family residences.
This would effectively kill private property speculation by big
corporate developers and their bank-rollers), reducing house prices
while also creating a new government fund for Palestinian and Israeli
public goods, with monies to be redistributed justly across the green
line. (Receipts, the rent-tax being based on market value of land in
question, would be highest in upmarket places like Rothschild Blvd in
Tel Aviv and lowest/zero in the poorest settlements). <br>
<br>I would like to propose this idea is being actually about cracking
down on tax evasion, rather than thinking of it as a new tax. There is a
strong intellectual argument, which I happen to agree with which says
that rent is the return on land, and that it belongs to everyone because
the rental value of any piece of land is based upon its location value,
the level of which is based on either (a) natural resources, nature or
God-given, in the case of eg a place full of precious metals or (b)
collective not individual human effort, as in the case of a piece of
property which is located near a tube station, or great shops or a
beautiful historic building. Either way, the value has been created by
collective, common processes which means that morally and rationally the
rental value, or economic fruit of that land belongs to everyone.
Therefore it should be available for the public purse, and landowners
should not be able to cream the rent just coz they had the capital to
purchase the land at artificially inflated and inaccessible prices. <br>
<br>'Artificially inflated' is the right phrase because of the fact of
Riccardo's 'Law of Rent'. This says that if rent remains privatised,
rising wealth in the realm all or nearly all ends up in rising property
prices ( instead of rising wages, for example). Hence, giving big,
medium and even small capitalist landowners the free lunch of the right
to collect rent returns on the community asset par excellence land or
real estate is in effect the ultimate, 'best kept secret' tax haven. <br>
<br>Yesterday, at our Bank of England picnic while talking with folk
from UK Uncut ( whose whole inspiring campaign, now emulated across the
world ) is ALL about tax evasion, as I posted last night in a report,
we were looking for a relevant global focus on Oct15 and we obviously
talked about tax havens. Wouldn't it be great if Uncut linked up with
15M? I mentioned yesterday our idea to make the day of action about tax
havens, and obviously the obvious place to start on this is, as Uncut
have thus far done, on corporate tax avoidance. But what if we brought
the land question into the mix too? Wouldn't that be hugely powerful?
It is inscribed on a sign on the pediment of the Royal (ex-stock)
Exchange building, high above us, and next to the Bank of England where
we picnicked yesterday 'The Earth is the Lord's and the Fullness
Thereof'. <br>
<br>Hey - the bourgeois bankers that built the City of London I itself a
huge tax haven with powers, still to this day believe it or not over
the Queen and the Prime Minister - they wrote that quote in their
supposed piety. Let us hoist them on their own petard!! If we are
serious about global r'evolution - we must focus on taxation,
representation and closing the loopholes that allow global players,
corporate and individual - literally get away with murder. In the West
Bank, Nigeria, England, Libya, Israel or wherever - everywhere - they
rule with impunity because all the fiscal and political rules are set in
their favour. We need a global movement that changes that, which
democratises the fiscal and economic rules so that the owners of capital
have nowhere to run to. <br>
<br>And to do that we need to identify the loopholes and privileges that
the same elite keep secret from us - the best way to attack the
financial elite, bankers corporations investment houses and mega rich
individuals is to focus our collective forces on their tax freedoms and
their representations at the highest levels of governance. While at the
same time demanding and building new democratic structures that include
all, both to drive the campaign mobilisations but also in preparation
to take power at the grassroots and global levels.<br>
<br>Participation not False Representation! Down with the global
financial dictatorship! Close the tax havens! Tax the landowners! Take
back the power to create money! Back money with land! Tax international
transactions! No corporate representation without taxation!
Redistribute tax to the people's assemblies! <br>
<br>So let us think carefully about tax havens for Oct 15. <br><br>Let
us surprise people by including private land in our definition of tax
havens. And let's keep the focus on the finance institutions - bankers
not only use traditional tax havens constantly, but they are also
probably the biggest private property owners of all. <br>
<br>There was, coincidentally another radical picnic yesterday in
London. The official 17$ one was at the Bank of England, in solidarity
with Occupy Wall St, but also other good comrades held another one ( and
now it is a week long camp! ) on Clapham Common. <br>
<br>The event was for land and freedom, and inspired by The English
Diggers (also known as The True Levellers, the equivalent of the
sans-cullottes in France and likewise as direct democrats /
proto-communists betrayed after the revolution by the bourgeois and
later, palace counter-revolution. The Diggers were a revolutionary
group that fought for Parliament over King in the English Revolution of
1649. Their leader Gerard Winstanley was a very charismatic person whose
many sayings echo down the ages. One unforgettable one is 'The Earth is
a Common Treasury for All' <br>
<br>And what's needed, in Palestine and Israel just as in England,
France USA Spain Greece and elsewhere is exactly that: for the seizing
of the land's economic value it's rental stream at market value FOR
PUBLIC PURPOSES ie as a 'common treasury for all'. <br>
<br>At the same time, banks - being a public services, and also by right
part of the commons -should have their private power to issue public
credit removed. When a government gets forced to do both those things,
there is the possibility for a new kind of money, backed not by thin air
as is now the case, or by Gold or Silver as in the past but finally by
the ultimate collaterel, the ultimate resource, the rock itself - land
or 'real property' as it is known in English Law. <br>
<br>If the government -any government, UK, Euro, Palestinian-Israel,
other were able to capture the rental value of the land and issue a new
form of debt-free money backed by the value of the land that is its
sovereign right if democratically constituted (ie when sovereignty vests
ultimately direct democratically with the local assemblies, and
therefore the gov is rightly constituted as a decentralised federal body
) then the land itself is now the government's ( ie the people's)
collateral (backing its money) and source of revenue ( via socialised
rents). <br>
<br>This is surely as it should be? Income tax and other regressive
taxes on human effort can then be reduced and people putting their feet
up and creaming in the rent like the banks and land developers ( eg in
the settlements, subsidised even before land tax is considered, by
Israeli taxpayers!!) and people like the Duke of Westminster in London
(who also owns tracts of Spain) can be stopped. <br>
<br>Plus a direct-linked Money Reform would mean would mean the end of
national deficits, unsustainable inflation based on the system of
fractional reserve and Central Banks and global capitalists pulling
national politicians strings.. Ok I've said enough. At the heart of it
all is the question of access to land. The hottest dispute here in the
Uk is Dale Farm. With that - land access in the form of lower rents,
lower land prices and common spaces for assemblies to build communes
together without government intervention except in cases where abuses of
power are taking place we can build the New Jerusalem. <br>
<br>Jesus Peace and Blessing Upon Him put the question of land access
best of all, so I will quote him last ' the birds have their nests and
the foxes have their holes but the Son of Man hath nowhere to lay his
head' - Son of Man, read Palestinians, poor Israelis, Dale Farm
Travellers, Indignados everywhere. <br>
<br>In short humanity itself. <br><br>Love and Solidarity!<br></div></div>
</div><br></div></div>Apathy is Dead <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/solarider/5254770064/#/photos/solarider/5254770064/lightbox/" target="_blank">http://www.flickr.com/photos/solarider/5254770064/#/photos/solarider/5254770064/lightbox/</a><br>
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