From: glevy@PRATT.EDU
Date: Tue Mar 28 2006 - 14:22:22 EST
---------------------------- Original Message -----------------------
To see this message on the web site in an easy-to-read html format:
<http://www.iefd.org/?r=r01>
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URGENT APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD
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March 28, 2006
from the INTERNATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY (I.E.D.)
HELP! HELP! The house is on fire and we are all living in it. The
United States government and its dependent organizations, such as the
National Endowment for Democracy (NED), have responded to the fire...
by pouring more oil on it.
They call it "democratic nation building" - a fancy name for the
perpetual wars, theft of the commons, exploding economic
inequalities, weakening civil liberties (including the introduction
of torture), and the intensifying degradation and outright
destruction of our natural environment that lie hidden behind "free"
trade and the promise (seldom fulfilled) of a "free" election.
Billions of people outside America want this madness to stop, but
what can they do?
Our new and independent organization, the International Endowment for
Democracy (I.E.D.), believes it will only stop if democratic nation
building (the real thing, not the oil) is applied to the U.S., which
is the country most responsible for these frightening global
developments, and that people everywhere can play a role in bringing it
about.
The I.E.D. is a new non-profit foundation whose Board of Directors includes:
HOWARD ZINN (America's leading radical historian)
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL (America's most famous political prisoner)
GORE VIDAL (America's premier progressive novelist and essayist)
ELLEN MEIKSINS WOOD (winner of the Isaac Deutcher Prize)
RAMSEY CLARK (world's leading human rights lawyer)
BARBARA FOLEY (Chair of the Left Alliance, the union of progressive
academic caucuses)
MICHAEL PARENTI (America's foremost critic of capitalist democracy)
IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN (past president of the International
Sociological Association)
MICHAEL RATNER (President of the Center for Constitutional Rights and
past President of the National Lawyers' Guild)
and two dozen other major American progressive scholars, lawyers and
activists. Find the full Board of Directors at
http://www.iefd.org/about/?r=r01
IN BRIEF: If groups like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
use American government money (whence the "NATIONAL") -- and a big
dose of hypocrisy -- to subvert democracy abroad, the International
Endowment for Democracy (IED) hopes to use foreign monies (whence the
"INTERNATIONAL") to help build a real democracy in the country that
needs it most, the U.S.A. (See DEMOCRACY LIBRARY, section III of our
website: http://www.iefd.org/articles/american_democracy.php?r=r01 )
We also call on the international community to monitor elections in
the United States. Is there anyone left in the world outside the U.S.
who doesn't recognize the need for such monitors?
This is not because there is less democracy in America than anywhere
else - a few other lands are even worse off in this regard - but
because the DEMOCRACY DEFICIT from which our country suffers is a
greater threat to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of
people all across the globe than the actions of any other regime.
As victims of their own government's destructive policies, the great
majority of Americans have no interest in retaining them and would
change these policies in an instant if our democracy really worked as
we're told it does. That they haven't is because they can't, because
the laws, the elections, the media, the schools and other means for
making such changes have been bent out of shape (through systematic
bias and, increasingly, outright repression), hidden (through
enforced ignorance), bought up by Big Money especially this), and -
when "necessary" - stolen (as in the last two presidential
elections). Who can doubt that people everywhere have a huge stake in
the democratization of America?
THIS MAY BE A FIRST: Americans asking people from other countries for
help. Many recipients of this Appeal outside the U.S., however, are
probably still asking themselves - "Why should we help Americans make
needed changes in their country? Don't we have enough to do in our
own country?" The answer can be presented best by another question:
Is there any reader who lives outside the capital of his or her
country who believes it is a waste of time and money to try to
influence the policies of the government sitting in the capital?
That's where the main political power is. Well, in this period of
American military, economic and cultural imperialism, Washington has
become the real capital of your country, for it is there that many of
the most destructive decisions affecting your life are made. It would
seem to make sense, therefore, good political sense, to devote at
least some of your time, energy and money to helping bring about the
kind of changes you want in Washington. If that's at all possible...
At this moment in history, those of us who live in the United States
are in the best position to confront our common oppressor. The
responsibility we bear, therefore, is enormous, but our forces are
weak. While the current government's undermining of the democratic
process, as imperfect as it was, constitutes a growing threat to all
dissenters, it also provides us with a key issue on which our rulers
are extremely vulnerable. As the explosion of governmental hypocrisy
clearly attests, democracy remains the American people's favorite
virtue. It is on this crucial issue, with its broad ramifications for
government policy in America and around the world, that we need your help.
There are many groups in the United States that are trying to defend
what remains of our rapidly shrinking democracy and/or build a
better, more egalitarian one. Mostly they are small, and they all
lack funds. The International Endowment for Democracy (I.E.D.) wants
to give people all over the world an opportunity to participate in
this crucial struggle by making a donation (no matter how small) to
us, which we will then distribute to some of these groups. Apart from
our small operating expenses (no I.E.D. board members are paid), all
the money received will be passed on. As odd as this may sound, with
this show of solidarity, people everywhere can now help themselves by
helping us to help them. Maybe this doesn't sound so odd, after all.
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POTENTIAL CONTRIBUTORS should also know that we will not give money
to any political party, or accept money from any organization
involved in violent forms of political activity or from any foreign
government.
To American readers, who don't need our advice to donate money to
their favorite progressive organizations, we only ask that you
continue doing what you have been (okay, do a little more), but
please forward this appeal to your friends and acquaintances,
especially those who come from abroad. (Should you also want to show
your support for this initiative by making a donation, of course, we
won't turn you away.)
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THE SUCCESS OF OUR PROJECT depends on getting the word out to
millions of people throughout the world.
So...if you approve of what we are doing and think it could be
important, we urge you to send this appeal to all the people on your
e-mail trees, and to the websites and blogs you visit as well as to
the discussion and organizational lists to which you belong,
particularly outside the U.S. And please don't neglect your contacts
in the media.
The MoveOn organization is said to have reached between ten and
twenty million Americans on behalf of Howard Dean during the 2004
presidential primaries in just this way, but ours may be the first
attempt to extend this strategy to the whole world. It is certainly
the first attempt to use the internet to involve the whole world in
the badly needed democratization of the United States. The supremely
serious nature as well as the planetary scope of our problem is what
makes this approach necessary. The new technology of the internet is
what makes it possible. But it still requires a little help from you
to make it happen.
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WON'T YOU HELP?
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See our website -
http://www.internationalendowmentfordemocracy.org or
http://www.iefd.org - for information on the following, much of it
in OVER A DOZEN LANGUAGES.
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See HOW TO HELP for details on how to make a donation.
http://www.iefd.org/donations/?r=r01
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See our STATEMENT OF PURPOSE for a more detailed analysis of the
crisis in American democracy and what we hope to achieve.
http://www.iefd.org/articles/statement_of_purpose.php
See our PRESS RELEASE.
http://www.iefd.org/press/press_releases.php?r=r01
See WHO WE ARE for the background and publications of the members of
our Board of Directors.
http://www.iefd.org/about/?r=r01
See WHERE THE MONEY GOES for our priorities and procedures in passing
on funds (and, later, for how much money we received and who we gave it to).
http://www.iefd.org/money/priorities.php?r=r01
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IN ENGLISH SECTION OF WEBSITE ONLY
See our DEMOCRACY LIBRARY, which contains some of the best critical
writing on this subject and is divided into the following sections:
* National Endowment for Hypocrisy Democracy
* Stolen Election(s)
* American 'Democracy'?
* Is Democracy Compatible with Capitalism?
(HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for courses that deal with democracy at both
high school and college levels).
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See, too, sections on
* FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE / MANIFESTOS AND CHARTERS
* NOBLE PRIZE FOR DEMOCRACY
* DEMOCRACY QUOTES
* DEMOCRACY CARTOONS
* DEMOCRACY WATCH BLOG
* WORLD SOCIAL FORUM ON DEMOCRACY IN 2007
* CRITICAL BOOK, ESSAY, POEM, SONG AND CARTOON CONTESTS ON DEMOCRACY
FOR HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE
* LINKS
and Coming Soon:
* MEDIA REACTIONS TO THE I.E.D.
* DEMOCRACY VIDEOS
* N.E.D. vs. I.E.D. DOCUMENTARY
* CONFERENCES AND LECTURES
* LETTERS
* BIBLIOGRAPHY
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PLEASE FORWARD THIS APPEAL TO ALL YOUR CONTACTS
AND ASK THEM TO DO THE SAME.
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TO CONTACT US:
WEBSITE
http://www.internationalendowmentfordemocracy.org
or http://www.iefd.org
E-MAIL
comments@iefd.org (for readers' comments or questions)
REGULAR MAIL
International Endowment for Democracy,
P.O. Box 3005
Prince Street Station
New York, New York, 10012, U.S.A.
(for all of the above plus DONATIONS BY CHECK - please include e-mail
address with all letters)
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PRESIDENT OF THE I.E.D.
Prof. Bertell Ollman
Dept. of Politics, NYU
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE I.E.D.
Prof. Michael Brown
(former Chair) Dept. of Sociology, Northeastern Univ.
Prof. Barbara Foley
Dept. of English, Rutgers Univ. (Newark)
Prof. Emeritus John Manley
(former Chair) Dept. of Political Science, Stanford Univ.
Michael Smith
Lawyer
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Russian http://www.iefd.org/lang/ru01.php?r=r01
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Turkish http://www.iefd.org/lang/tr01.php?r=r01
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KEEP INFORMED
If you wish to be kept informed of later developments in our project
(in English), please send us your name and country by e-mail to
info@iefd.org with "mailing list" in the subject line.
====================================================================
Copyright (c) International Endowment for Democracy 2006.
All rights reserved. Site launch: March 2006.
----------------------- http://www.iefd.org/ -----------------------
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