With Respect to Transition Cascadia

Don't get me wrong, I concur completely with the bioregional concept and approach. That is why I have tried on Transition Oregon to start a group called Transition Willamette Valley Watershed.

However, I think it equally as important that we take the communal and inter-community approach. Thus you could see my unsuccessful, to date, attempts to organize a Transition Jefferson/Westside and a Transition Eugene/Springfield and Vicinity groups.

Eugene is a bourgeois super-sprawled atro city. If it were its own bioregion and not associated with the farther Northern reaches of Cascadia, I would suggest that it be called the State of Treesgon. The colors of the U of O Ducks are gone green and fool's gold. If I were Emperor of Eugene, I would be Michael of
Ro(ad)mania. The great majority here almost never leave their cars, thus there is a very alienated atomized unfriendly lack of community here associated with the non-existence of village centers and the endless zoned residential sprawls with drive-to and drive-thru malls. Napoleon Blownapart.

Having seen Salem, Corvallis, Portland, and areas between and my knowledge of the history of the built environment, I'm guessing that all metropolitan areas within Cascadia suffer the same PLAGUE.

In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin
Eugene

Land Reform in Venezuela (and Elsewhere?)

Two hundred peasants reported dead in Venezuela, partially because a State Forced (National Guard) Land Reform.

It is almost the opposite of early New England's Shay's Rebellion where the Capitalist backed "Militia" of the States of Massachusetts and Connecticut accompanied by local mercenary thuggery (police) killed and imprisoned farmers who wanted a fair deal and were not getting it.

Brings to mind the Conservatives', partially true (and when so or even not but hysterically propagandized, very virulent) counter to Marx's Labor Theory of Value (which I see as a subset of the French Physiocrats construct that nature is the source of all value). That is, Locke's Labor Theory of Property.

We, as Friends and Socialists should respect such up to the point that some, if not many, of the Capitalist persuasion view money as a tool and not simply (and fairly) a medium of exchange.

It should be very obvious to all that are willing to look on objectively that one of the biggest criticisms of Capitalism is the irrational (and inequitable) ways and means by which it allocates resources.

When there was a virgin landscape to rape, it, Capitalism and its pretensions to the so-called “free market”, to many seemed like the most successful system in the history of man. But, now that we are on the other side of the peak of earthly finite resources, tragically aggravated by the preposterous supply-side experiment (which will be recorded as the over-supply side era blind to the tragic adverse affect on workers’, and eventually owners’, effective demand.), it should be clear to us all that a plan and implement modus operandi is necessary, and that Resource Allocation (RA) be a paramount topic of discussion and action.

In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin
Peoples Equity Union
Eugene, OR, USA

Response to AFL-CIO Report on Columbian Union Deaths

It's probably a safe assumption that the PSUV and their associated and high solidarity Unions are not in the least way responsible for the death of Union members in Columbia.

Au contraire, whatever tension being minded, felt, and experienced between Venezuela and Columbia stems from the basic fundamental paradigm difference of "Free Trade" (i.e. USA and mostly European Lackey Capitalist Corporate dominated) and lack of "Fair Trade" and owner/worker relationships and environmental stewardship concerns (the puppet International Capitalists' resistance to the popular ALBA Movement).

AFL-CIO has a window of opportunity to align correctly with the signing of a letter of intent between the USW and Mondragon (like the Basque region of Spain the ore and the energy for furnace fires was/is depleted and the heart mind bodies were/need to be dedicated to new solutions which were/will be libertarian cooperative communitarian in design, form and materialism.

The USW acronym needs to be redesignated as United Socialist Workers and become the direction of AFL-CIO and our relation to international with the goal of world unity and cooperation.

Whereas, the "One Big Union" was the slogan of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) so should it be as the Industrious Workers of the World and in transition the International Workers of the World, as resource constraints and humanity moves us more towards the relocalization artisanry opportunities for everybuddy, leaving none behind.

We can unite with the now aligned nations or you can hold out for a White House USA Summit of the G(one).

It's our choice.


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin
Peoples' Equity Union
Eugene, OR, USA

TARP and Related Matters

As DeFazio and others have suggested fire Summers and Geithner, but take back ALL the TARP money, not only that given to AIG and Goldman Sachs.

Put the money into a Peoples Equity Fund for allocation to community betterment/worker owned projects for ecological economic redevelopment which is inclusive, equitable, humane, altruistic, healthy, needs and peace oriented, and sustainable,

DeFazio talks of "infrastructure". What does he want more squandered "stimulus" money, a continuation of the National Highway Act of 1950? Sorry, Peter, you're right on the front end, but wrong from then on.

Decommission the military and end military spending as fast as possible and dedicate some if not much of that money to the comprehensive education program that will be necessary to transition to such a cooperative communitarian economy.

Much more to write, but limited space.


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin
Eugene, OR
(the unresponsive DeFazio's district)

Comment on Michael Moore’s Website Regarding Health Care Reform

Then there's Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), Columbia Health Systems, Humana, and many, many more. Then there is General Electric, Siemens, and many, many more, Pharmaceutical Companies. Doctors whose revenue motivation is to cut and poison.

Then there was the famous US Government Hill-Burton Act. Perhaps some can defend this, but like most government public works (e.g. National Highway Act, subsequent amendments including O'Bomber's recent "Stimulus") my opinion is that they went way too far in their supply side corruption.

I favor a single payer, but I also favor a single provider, with drastic immediate cuts in medical spending on the order of 30 to 40% in the next 3 to 5 years and 60 to 70% within the next 10 to 20 years.

With respect to budgeting, a medical policy board and regional and local administrators made up of ETHICAL (that may be hard to find) health care professionals who are acutely aware of the fraud and abuse in the medical care system. Shannon Brownlee and Nortin Hadler come immediately to mind.

Concerning the Provider Situation, that's where the Budgeting Committee will have to get tough. All for-profits need to be converted to non-profits, but that will not be nearly good enough. Unemployment Compensation and/or Social Security should be offered to all displaced workers and much effort put into the function of job retraining.

It's gone way too far, has been going way too far for far too long, and it's time we stopped the massive complicity to corruption and decadence.


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin
Eugene, OR, USA

With Respect to thee Peoples' Equity Union

Don,


Given the tinyness of the Peoples Equity Union, yes, money for experimentation is not available.

Traditionally, as you well know, R&D has been shared between Governments and Corporations, and the very rare instances of recent history private individuals and closely held businesses.

My eutopian (good place) vision is that ALL Banks would convert to a combination savings bank for depositors, Equity Union for Investors. It would be up to the democratic process to see if and how much Governments contribute funding to the Equity Union and/or directly to community betterment organizations (CBOs), as I think that you are proposing.

Corporations would dissolve evolving into community/worker hybrid cooperatives with the utopian (ideal place) eventually being a unified, equitable arrangement where the distinction between community cooperator and worker cooperator became irrelevant.

Anyway, it's still much more theory than practicality, as I write.

I'm torn between whether or not to wish you luck in getting your funding from traditional sources, because I believe that you potentially have a life-enhancing product that would be highly beneficial to people, but I don't want to encourage the very unfair, inequitable, exclusive, inhumane, unsustainable Capitalist system.

Keep in touch.


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin

Local Request for Equity Union Funds

The led grow lamps will work. i have been working on this for about 2 years. Funding disappeared with the sub prime mortgage collapse. i was sceptical of the interest free loan you offered. kind of something for nothing thing. but it was not for nothing. it was to further the equity union. i have worked out 90% of the bugs, where others fail. i will succeed. mostly because my "unsuccessful" prototypes perform better than other groups "Successful" in production lights.

peace

Don Goerz
Exec. Director
Led Tek

***************************************************
Well, the local Peoples' Equity Fund has tentatively dedicated $20,500.

If that is enough for you, you'd have to demonstrate beyond almost any doubt the validity of the technology and have an assured market that would guarantee the payback.

I prefer to call it equity sharing rather than a no interest loan.

In other words, let's say the Equity Union was able to raise $500,000 but you were able to create valuable services to the region and the world and equity opportunities for a low-income/no or very little equity community or communities, and a certain amount of your revenues were earmarked for other community betterment projects then maybe we would only require that you pay back $450,000 or better still, we as the equity sharers would be a community owner of your community/worker hybrid cooperative. It would be subject to negotiation.

We could not sell our equity shares and if we disapproved of the direction the cooperative was taking (let's say investing in Christmas lights or lasers for weapons systems, or poor and/or undemocratic management), we could call our equity back but only at par value. Though if there was highly significant sharing we would build in legal stipulations as to what and how any earmarked revenues could be redistributed to other "ventures". Any variations from the legal stipulations (we'd keep them concise, fundamental and understandable) could carry with it a severe monetary penalty (not a lawsuit, but probably require you to divest your cooperative/productive equity and assets to us and pay a penalty for any uncooperative pursuits that you pursued.


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin
343-3808

TARP and the Peoples Equity Union

ALL THE MONEY that was doled out under Bush's TARP should be paid back to the Federal Government and put into a Peoples' Equity Fund.

Contact me to discuss what we do before or after O'bomber does the right thing for a change and sets his Attorney General and Treasury Secretary to do just that, and I'll give you some really good ideas on how some or all of that money could be reallocated for inclusive, equitable, humane, healthy ecological economic redevelopment.

Mike Morin
Eugene, OR
(541) 343-3808

With Respect To World/European Social Forum

With Respect To World/European Social Forum

Regarding the planned European Social Forum of 2010:


Good to see World Organizing manifesting itself in a regional context.


To whatever extent we can get people together to introduce, discuss, inculcate, and progress the ecosocialist agenda and that of world unity and cooperation, the forums will hopefully continue to serve a purpose.


One problem that I have is the "jet set" modality of the participants. I could be and hope to be and probably am very wrong about that statement.


We need to move beyond the world round organizing and communicating and bring such to local and regional levels. A good conceptual initiative is The Peoples' Agenda for Alternative Regionalisms www.alternative-regionalisms.org/?page_id2 . They have an excellent agenda. Not surprisingly those of us within the belly of the Leviathan (The USA Economic/Military hegemony) have no representation in the organization.


It is very frustrating trying to organize within the local community and region in the Eugene, OR, USA. People here are either brain-dead, complacent with their current competitive advantage, drugged, tobaccoed, and alcoholic, cowardly, and/or otherwise non-committal. To many, the concept of peace means withdrawal and the absence of hassle. The monster is too damn big in the USA.


Hugo Chavez has been relatively successful in organizing the ALBA coalition, the Latin American/African Alliance (ASA), cooperative ties with Iran and Russia and China. The USA and his European allies are still too uncooperative and hell-bent on their premier role in a world hierarchy to join such an alliance of world unity, equity, and cooperation.


They (the USA and their Fascist complicit media) will continue to obfuscate and pathetically beat the war drum while continuing a self-interested ecocidal, suicidal and attempted genocidal linear trajectory Capitalism. They will fail, but how much damage will they do in the mean time?


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,


Mike Morin


Peoples Equity Union

Eugene, OR, USA

Commodities Dealers vs. Community Cooperatives Concerning Oil and Other Resources

Commodities Dealers vs. Community Cooperatives Concerning Oil and Other Resources


(The premise of the article to which I responded was that Commodity Dealers were driving the price of oil way too high)


Half true.

Commodity dealers are hard sucking parasites and their effect on the cost of home heating oil and gas (and electricity) could be fatal to many this winter and/or increasingly very soon.

Community buying/producer cooperatives direct trading should replace the existing exploitative and parasitic economic relationships for fossil fuels, agricultural, products, and other "commodities". Citizens' Energy Cooperative, which buys its home heating oil from Venezuela, may be a good, though small and isolated, example of how an alternative economic system could be structured.

It is my considered opinion that we are in an era of post-peak oil. Oil is a stock resource; therefore the long-term scarcity justifies high prices. Also, the demand side management and the environmental costs (including climate change) would justify much higher taxes (at least on gasoline) and caps on its use.

We must make the commitment of reducing automobile use by 80% in the next 20 to 40 years, by rebuilding neighborhoods/villages and reallocating goods and services to those neighborhoods/villages so that almost all can get what they need and reasonably want within walking distance of their homes, and so that a maximum amount of people can work at home and/or within walking distance of their homes.

Such would be a major boom to the building trades and with the proper education and training rectify the terrible structural unemployment situation that now exists in the United States.

Green Jobs, Equity, and Carbon

Green Jobs, Equity, and Carbon


Friends of the Earth (FOE?) of which I am one, I am also a Friend of the People (FOP?)

??
no, no.

I am equally Friend, equally Socialist (that's why I go by the names Mohandos Mao and Mohandos Lenino).


These Friends have it half correct. Cap and trade is a sham, a racket, an invention of Wall Street types.

We should implement carbon taxes and maybe caps, but we need to consider a workable transition so that we do not have power outages and freezing and starving people.

Wind and PVs are an illusion. Neither supplies the voltage and amperage needed to do the great amount of work that our society has grown accustomed to.

The key to a bountiful green (building) economy is the reversal of the thirty, fifty, one hundred year trend of sprawl development, particularly in the United States (that's what I know).

By rebuilding neighborhoods and reallocating goods and services to those renovated neighborhoods (made walkable, meaning that the great majority of people will be able to get what they need and reasonably want within walking distance to their homes).

Such a tremendous commitment and dedication of resources will be a boom for the building trades and will create the effect of reducing automobile usage by 80% in the next 20 to 40 years. Neighborhood, commercial, community and work/telecommute centers will be centrally placed in what are now alienating, automobile dependent, strictly residential areas, alleviating the problems associated with post-peak oil and climate change and bringing with it the neighborly qualities of life associated with communities and neighborhoods, that most individuals and families currently lack.

If we do this, we can take the opportunity to retrofit for weatherization, passive solar design (heating and cooling), electronic environmental controls, solar assisted hot water and drying systems, limited wind and PVs.

Also if done correctly, we can make changes in ownership arrangements that are much more fair and just, and work towards an equitable distribution of wealth among neighborhoods/villages.

Concerning FOEs suggestion of a publicly financed economy, we would optimally transition the "private sector" to a quasi-public one working in cooperation with public funding programs. The ideal would really be to phase out the government programs as much as possible.


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin
Eugene, OR, USA

Chavez Sends 15,000 Military Troops to Columbian Border

I disagree with Hugo's strategy here. The use of the Institutionalized Violence of the Military is counter to Fidel Castro's proclamation that we are all policeman.

A military man, like a national flag is a symbol of oppression and divisiveness.

To counteract the USA funding of the Columbian military (and arming of plain clothesed Columbians?) Hugo should supply his plainclothesd citizen allies with weapons, if necessary.

I think that if citizens whether armed or unarmed were meeting and working together with each other over common and mutual interests, it would be much more productive than employing military resources and personnel.

I am Libertarian Socialist, and/but would not welcome a Military presence whether it be Socialist or Capitalist in my neighborhood/village, community, region.

Mike Morin
Eugene, OR, USA

Peace Flag Project

Here's a great socialist project and I'm serious about doing it.

Let's replace all the national flags (at the UN General Assembly and everywhere else) with the Rainbow Peace Flag in all the languages of the world and in regions/locales.

Anybuddy want to work on that project?


In Peace/Paz, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin
Jefferson Westside Neighborhood
Eugene-Springfield and Vicinity
Willamette Valley Watershed
Pacific NW of the North American Continent
Finite Planet Earth
Solar System
Infinite Universe