Modern corporate advertising and consumer culture tends to divert the attention of people from the obvious source of true culture, and the basis for employee cooperative and community ownership: grassroots personal projects and memory and recognition of loved ones and history of the basis of modern activism and education.  These go beyond back further than the World Social Forum, Mother Jones, A. Philip Randolph, Samuel Gompers, the Rochdale Pioneers, and Robert Owen.   Following the modern university, modern logic begins before Newton and Descartes in the efforts of Thomas Aquinas, a philosopher minister student of Albert Magnus.  The essential role of Christ's teachings of justice, therapy, love, and integrity thus appear in activism, spiritual practice like in Tai Chi or Yoga, and psychotherapy.  Making your own ice cream, for example, is also one easy way to start.

      The Microsoft Anti-Trust case is also an interesting example of corporate ideological influence in the U.S., and the difference with Europe.  The subject becomes a good opportunity to recognize the importance of Public Interest groups, consumer activism like Reverend Billy advocates, and local empowerment efforts. 

By Frances Moore Lappé

Cultures live or die not because of their natural endowments but according to whether their ideas sustain life. ("It's the ideas, stupid!")

Ideas either serve life or not. And unfortunately for our species' chances, our idea of democracy-our shorthand for the system we use to shape society and solve problems-itself is life-stifling. Accepting the idea that democracy equals elections plus a market economy, we do not question an especially peculiar notion: that a market driven by a single rule, that of highest return to existing wealth, can return benign outcomes for all. We cling to this nonsensical belief-that in a game of Monopoly all players win-even as it so concentrates wealth that it leaves almost a billion of us without the means to eat.

Several years ago a group fo folks started a GEO group on Yahoo groups. Over the years different people acted as custodians/ownsers of the group. It was passed on to me a couple of years ago.

Since we have this forum, I'd like to delete that one. There has been no activity in a very long time. I will post one message to it suggesting that folks come to this website.

 If I don't hear any objections, I'll delete the Yahoo group in about a month. Please post a reply if you have any thoughts.

 Cheers,

William Cerf

Brooklyn, NY

Welcome to the first official issue of GEO's new electronic newsletter. We close the past twelve years and 77 issues (volume 1) and open a new volume in our work of sharing stories of hope, creativity and vision in the work of building a just, sustainable and democratic society. 

Democratic Practice Across Sectors 

Frank Lindenfeld, co-founder of GEO, dear friend, husband and father, scholar, visionary advocate for democracy, and tireless worker for social and economic justice, passed away on June 8, 2008.

Frank's wisdom, kindness, dedication and gentle manner touched the lives of many people and his spirit will live on in the work that we do together to build a better world.

This forum is dedicated to celebrating Frank's life, work and his impact on his communities and on the world. Please share your thoughts, memories and inspirations. 

By Yvonne Poirier

Editors' note: Yvon Poirier is an editor of the International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development, from which this article is copied. The Japanese Seikatsu Club Consumers' Co-Operative Union was the subject of both the spring and summer issues of GEO (#s 12 and 13) in 1994. Seikatsu has grown since then to include 290,000 households. It is notable for its combination of worker and consumer co-ops, its insistence on high food quality, and for its direct involvement in local politics in the Tokyo area. Yvon comments that the current conservative government is doing all it can to undermine co-ops and other similar sectors.

By Lauren Kozol 

Past issues of GEO have reported on the emergence of a particular type of worker cooperative, the home care cooperative. In the 1980s, the federal government followed the lead of state governments like Wisconsin and acknowledged that elderly and disabled people who need help in day-to-day living are best served by in-home assistance. Medicare and Medicaid funding that would have otherwise been used only for nursing homes would now be applicable to home care services. With "the gray tsunami" of aging baby boomers looming, demand is only going to increase for the next few decades.

A legal battle over corporate claims to be treated as persons with accompanying constitutional rights has been going on for over 100 years in the U.S. At stake is the ability of corporations to use "free speech" and other rights accorded to citizens to exercise enormous power over the political process, and to intimidate citizens who challenge them on environmental and other issues.