Global Commons Action Plan (aka Global Marshall Plan)

Please investigate the following resources re: the developing Global Commons Action Plan framework.

Click the audio widget below to listen to a ten-minute excerpt from a recent interview of G. Edward Griffin, author of The Creature from Jekyll Island.   This book regards the history of the "Federal Reserve System" - which is a huge, unconstitutional (therefore illegal) scam foisted on the American public in 1913 (alongside the equally unconstitutional, therefore illegal scam known as the "IRS"). Both the Federal Reserve and the IRS were created via passage of the 1913 Federal Reserve Act, which contained many unconstitutional provisions (and, not surprisingly, was never ratifed by the states, as required by law). 

Creation of the Federal Reserve usurped a core intent of the US Founders, as set forth in the Constitution, which stipulated that Congress ("the People") would retain the sole right to issue currency.  Creation of the IRS, meanwhile, usurped the intent of the US Founders, as set forth in the Constitution, that a man was not to be taxed on the fruits of his labor (taxes were instead intended for property, corporations and estates - the latter of which are barely taxed today, almost all the national income tax burden now falling upon the working poor and middle classes).

While I feel Griffin's materials serve as a good resource for general introduction to the Federal Reserve topic, I take issue with the emphasis placed on several of his themes, as follows;

• At times, Griffin conflates "the Government" with the greedy private-sector actors who've seized control of the government, and who have run our government at least since the days of 1913, from the corridors of private power and industry. 
• Griffin points out that the Federal Reserve System and the international financial cartel it represents is in the business of "privatizing profits while socializing losses" (as has always been true of the international corporate sector, esp. our world's largest transnationals).  However, he mistakenly concludes that the Fed - ie: the consortium of major banks which the Fed represents - has lent to developing nations thinking principly of "making money" versus the more important historic themes in that equation, as pointed out by John Perkins in his best-selling book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
• Griffin also tends to misse the point when mentioning that the US Founders wanted a currency backed by silver or gold (vs. "fiat currency") while not pointing to the much more important fact - that the Founders wanted the government to issue currency directly ("debt-free currency"), as controlled by Congress, versus the illegal and unconstitutional Fed system; whereby it's guaranteed society that will become "legally" (read, "illegally") indebted to those who control the apex banking institutions, since every dollar of new currency is accompanied by an interest factor.

These things mentioned, my recommendation is for the formation of a combined Truth and Reconciliation Commission and citizens Class-Action Lawsuit, to pursue historic damages against the Fed cartel on behalf of the public, 1913 forward. Any compensatory damages related to this process would be substantive, and could help alleviate the absurd debt burden now being foisted upon the shoulders of future American generations via this long-running scam and con game re: "privatizing profits while socializing costs."

Read about the concept of World Citizenship and the related international governance movement.

Brandt Equation Report - Download and read the Brandt Equation Report.  This is an updated version of the early 1980s Brandt Commission reports.  The Brandt Commission was chaired by former German Chancellor Willy Brandt, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for helping to reunite East and West Germany.  The Brandt Commission produced two reports - "North-South" and "Common Crisis" - which concluded that the great future challenges in our world would stem from the growing divide between haves and have-nots.  What makes the Brandt Equation recommendations so powerful, is that the ignored advice of the Brandt Commission, has resulted in the primary environmental and social problems we've subsequently witnessed.  The Brandt Equation work is helping to inform the developing GCAP process. 

www.GlobalMarshallPlan.org - Official website for the European-centered group which, since 2003, has organized a series of conferences and publications promoting the main GCAP/GMP versions in circulation. To get more involved in promoting the Global Marshall Plan, yourself, please visit their What Can I Do? page.  The book, "Global Marshall Plan: A Planetary Contract" is recommended background reading.  To read the Foreward to this book, just click here.  You may read the full text online via the following links: Planetary Contract Part I, Planetary Contract Part II. 

www.SpiritualProgressives.org - The Network of Spiritual Progressives is a mainly US-centered group, drawing people from all religious traditions and the progressive mainstream, to support Global Marshall Plan concepts.  Here, you can read an NSP article outlining their support for the GCAP/GMP framework.

www.GlobalisationfortheCommonGood.info - Globalisation for the Common Good is an international movement, drawing together leaders from the traditional worlds of economics, politics and religion, who all support the creation of a substantially more just world. This network also strongly supports the growing Global Marshall Plan agenda.

Mixed Feelings over WTO Failure in Geneva - This August, 2008 article provides a birds-eye view of ongoing apex World Trade Organization talks, which are contentious.  For the first time, some of the poorer nations are standing together, to protect their most vulnerable citizens.  On a related topic, Prince Hassan has recently addressed the lack of progress tackling global poverty, exemplified by the recent G8 meetings in Japan, by calling for new legal rights for our world's poorest citizens.

Why the US has Really Gone Broke - Chalmers Johnson has long been one of our world's foremost scholars, addressing the topic of the phenomenal waste of human and social potential, and material resources, related to excessive military spending in the US and abroad.  He, along with just a handful of principled others, have been "voices crying in the wilderness" regarding the deep social and economic parasitism that is today's US and international "military industrial complex."  In the preceding February, 2008 article, Chalmers plots the decline of US economic strength, from the WWII years to today's sorry state of affairs.  Johnson is also the author of Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of an American Empire, Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic, and The Sorrows of Empire: Miltarism, Secrecy and the End of the Republic.  This may not qualify as "fun reading," but it should nonetheless be considered "required reading," for all who truly want to understand how and why things have gone wrong.

www.Solari.com - Many ask, "Yes, but how in the world are we going to fund such ambitious plans, as the Global Commons Action Plan framework envisions?"  There are many answers to that question.  Here's one of them...

Catherine Austin Fitts is a former Assistant-Secretary of HUD (US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development).  During the first Bush administration, she began documenting that billions of dollars of HUD funds were being illegally siphoned off, into "black budget" operations.  She traced this activity to Pentagon and CIA operations, as well as overt criminal activity.  Ever since, Ms. Fitts has led a courageous campaign to expose misdeeds at the highest levels of power in our world. 

In terms of understanding how we might wrest an added "1% of GDP" for enlightened "Overseas Development Assistance" from our governments - a current, core Global Marshall Plan objective - we first must understand the following; Thousands of billions of dollars - yes, thousands of billions - have already been stolen from the US Treasury in recent years; with the tab placed on the backs of "average taxpayers."  It gets worse... 

The proceeds of this largesse - effectively, given by certain unaccountable elites to themselves, often, under false pretences - has gone to fund expanded warfare, large-scale environmental destruction, and the growing polarization between our world's haves and have-nots.  Nor has all of this been completely hidden from view.  For example, how many of you know that Donald Rumsfeld, as US Secretary of Defense, held a press conference on September 10, 2001, and openly announced that over two trillion dollars was missing from the DoD's own internal budget controls? (you can watch the video clip, in case you don't believe it).

Here, I would just ask that all who want to see the GCAP/Global Marshall Plan project succeed, support calls for truth and accountability being put forward by such courageous individuals, as Catherine Austin Fitts.  In fact, the GMP movement cannot succeed unless it begins to better emulate such forms of "enlightened courage."  Mere begging for added funds or enlightened change won't do it (though perhaps it "should").  We also need to obtain the Truth about what has been done with our public funds and public trust, then demand some form of related Reconciliation (ie: a Truth-and-Reconciliation, or Restorative Justice process).

Ms. Fitts notes, "Total undocumented accounting adjustments for reported periods for the Department of Defense amount to a whopping $3.3 trillion, or $11,700 for every American. The Department of Defense has failed to produce independent audited financial statements since the requirement went into effect in 1995."  The following is the conclusion to an important article written by her, "Where is our Money?  Let's get it Back," that I urge all to read -

"Trillions of dollars are missing.   Where did it go?  Who has it?   Let's act on what we learned the last time around - "Crime that pays is crime that stays."  This time, let's ask and answer the right question: "Where is the money and how do we get it back?"

Another very comprehensive resource on the Solari website, related to this topic, is their "Where is the Money?" page.  This is a resource worth investigating in depth, and referring others to.

UN Millenium Development Goals - The UN MDG agenda is also embraced by the Global Commons Action Plan project, though the GCAP/GMP objectives are somewhat broader, and more directly address fundamental causes.  The MDG agenda calls for halving the worst forms of global poverty by 2015, and proposes an ambitious slate of improvements in areas related to human health, childhood education and women's rights.  United Nations Association chapters in both the United States and elsewhere are active promoting the MDG agenda, on an ongoing basis.  The next MDG High-level Meeting will take place in September, 2008.

www.Global-Commons.org - The objective of the Coalition for the Global Commons is to bring together a successful Convention on the Global Commons in 2010, laying the foundation for an opportunity to formally launch the Global Marshall Plan framework at the "Rio +20" meeting in Brazil, in 2012.   All may participate in the Global Commons dialogue process, centered around the new Global Commons website.

www.UNASD-Petition.org - The Board of Directors of our San Diego UNA chapter recently unanimously approved a bold and promising new Declaration Against Pre-emptive War and Geneva Convention Violations petition.  Just click the preceding link to read this document, and endorse it.  Would you like to put your own "John Hancock" on the line, as being in favor of a better world for all, instead of just sitting on the sidelines?  Well, this is your chance!