[E-rundbrief] Info 1122 - IOPS-message for a Participatory Society

Mo Jul 23 18:09:52 CEST 2012

E-Rundbrief - Info 1122 - International Organization for a 
Participatory Society/ IOPS:
An Open Message to All Who Seek A New and Better World. Messages by 
Noam Chomsky and Cynthia Peters.

Bad Ischl, 23.7.2012

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

================================================

An Open Message to All Who Seek A New and Better World

We are members of what is called the the Interim Consultative 
Committee of the International Organization for a Participatory 
Society - or IOPS for short.

IOPS is actually an interim entity, pending a future founding 
convention. IOPS was convened just a few months ago and already has 
over 2,100 members from 85 countries and a ten language site, despite 
that it is barely known publicly. IOPS is currently building local 
chapters, which will unite to form national branches that in turn will 
compose an international organization.

We send this open letter to invite you to please visit the IOPS Site 
(http://www.iopsociety.org/)  to examine its initial features - 
including especially and most importantly its Mission and Visionary 
and Programmatic Commitments (http://www.iopsociety.org/about ).

The IOPS commitments emerged from a long process of discussion and 
debate. We believe they correspond closely to the most prevalent, 
advanced, and widely accessible political beliefs on which to build an 
organization for winning a better world.

We also hope and even believe that if you read and consider the IOPS 
commitments, you will likely find that they are congenial to your 
interests and desires and that they provide reason for great hope that 
IOPS can become a very important organization in the coming years.

If we had to summarize the IOPS commitments, we would note that they 
emphasize:

     * that IOPS focuses on cultural, kinship, political, economic, 
international, and ecological aims without a priori prioritizing any 
of these over the rest;

     * that IOPS advocates and elaborates key aspects of vision for a 
sustainable and peaceful world without sexism, heterosexism, racism, 
classism, and authoritarianism and with equity, justice, solidarity, 
diversity, and, in particular, self-management for all people

     * and that IOPS structurally and programmatically emphasizes 
planting the seeds of the future in the present, winning immediate 
gains on behalf of suffering constituencies in ways contributing to 
winning its long term aims as well, developing a caring and nurturing 
organization and movement, and welcoming and even fostering 
constructive dissent and diversity within that organization and 
movement and based on its commitments.

We think hundreds of thousands of people, in fact, millions of people, 
will, on reading the commitments, overwhelmingly agree with them. We 
hope that if you look at the commitments and feel that way, you will 
join and advocate that others join as well. If you instead have 
problems with the IOPS commitments, we hope you will make your 
concerns known so a productive discussion can ensue.

On the other hand, we also understand that agreeing with the IOPS 
commitments will not alone cause those same hundreds of thousands and 
even millions of people to join IOPS. There are numerous reasons why a 
person might support the IOPS commitments and even hope that IOPS 
grows and becomes strong and effective at the grassroots, in every 
neighborhood, workplace, and social movement, and yet, at the moment, 
not join. Our best effort to summarize obstacles people may feel to 
joining even while they like the IOPS commitments, and to address 
those obstacles also appears on the IOPS site, in a Why Join IOPS 
Question and Answer format. Essentially we argue: If not now, when? If 
not us, who?

Asked to provide a succinct summary paragraph for the IOPS site about 
his involvement, Noam Chomsky wrote: "Hardly a day goes by when we do 
not hear appeals – often laments – from people deeply concerned about 
the travails of human existence and the fate of the world, desperately 
eager to do something about what they rightly perceive to be 
intolerable and ominous, feeling helpless because each individual 
effort, however dedicated, seems to merely chip away at a mountain, 
placing band-aids on a cancer, never reaching to the sources of 
needless suffering and the threats of much worse. It’s an 
understandable reaction that all too often  leads to despair and 
resignation. We all know the only answer, driven home by experience 
and history, and by simple reflection on the realities of the world: 
join together to construct and clarify long-term visions and goals, 
along with direct engagement and activism shaped by these guidelines 
and contributing to a deepening of our understanding of what we hope 
to achieve… IOPS strikes the right chords, and if the opportunities it 
opens are pursued with sufficient energy and participation, diligence, 
modesty, and desire, it could carry us a long way towards unifying the 
many initiatives here and around the world and combining them into a 
powerful and effective force."

And as Cynthia Peters wrote: "You hear it all the time. There is 
always another urgent crisis. They don't just come in a steady stream, 
they seem to multiply geometrically. More draconian policies with 
life-threatening consequences, more corporate control, more prisons, 
more bombs, more funerals. With so many immediate fires to put out in 
our day-to-day organizing work, how can we make time to attend to 
larger issues, such as long-term strategy, vision, and movement 
building? IOPS creates the space for us to do the essential work of 
movement building and envisioning and then seeking a better world. 
Without these elements, we'll continue to work in isolation. By 
enlivening and enriching IOPS with your presence, you will both give 
solidarity to and receive solidarity from so many others -- across the 
world -- in the same situation -- up to their necks in the daily 
fight, and at the same time turning their creativity and energy 
towards revolutionary social change. That is not just good company. 
It's the solid beginnings of another world being possible."

We hope you will join us as we try to make it so.

Signed,

Ezequiel Adamovsky - Argentina
M Adams - U.S.
Michael Albert - U.S.
Jessica Azulay - U.S.
Elaine Bernard - U.S.
Patrick Bond - South Africa
Noam Chomsky - U.S.
Jason Chrysostomou - UK
John Cronan - U.S.
Ben Dangl - U.S.
Denitsa Dimitrova - UK/Bulgaria
Mark Evans - UK
Ann Ferguson - U.S.
Eva Golinger - Venezuela
Andrej Grubacic - Balkans/U.S.
Pervez Hoodbhoy - Pakistan
Antti Jauhiainen - Finland
Ria Julien - U.S./Trinidad
Dimitris Konstanstinou - Greece
Pat Korte - U.S.
Yohan Le Guin - Wales
Mandisi Majavu - South Africa
Yotam Marom - U.S.
David Marty - Spain
Preeti Paul - UK/India
Cynthia Peters - U.S.
John Pilger - UK/Aus
Justin Podur - Canada
Nikos Raptis - Greece
Paulo Rodriguez - Belgium
Charlotte Sáenz - Mexico/U.S.
Anders Sandstrom - Sweden
Boaventura de sousa Santos - Portugal
Lydia Sargent - U.S.
Stephen Shalom - U.S.
Vandana Shiva - India
Chris Spannos - U.S.
Verena Stresing - France/Germany
Elliot Tarver - U.S.
Fernando Ramn Vegas Torrealba - Venezuela
Taylon Tosun - Turkey
Marie Trigona - U.S.
Greg Wilpert - Germany/Venezuela/U.S.
Florian Zollman - Germany

http://www.iopsociety.org/

-- 

Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
Wolfgangerstr. 26, A-4820 Bad Ischl, Austria,
fon: +43 6132 24590, Informationen/ informations,
Impressum in: http://www.begegnungszentrum.at
Spenden-Konto Nr. 0600-970305 (Blz. 20314) Sparkasse Salzkammergut,
Geschäftsstelle Pfandl
IBAN: AT922031400600970305 BIC: SKBIAT21XXX

--

Ausgezeichnet mit dem (österr.) "Journalismus-Preis von unten 2010"

Honoured by the (Austrian) "Journalism-Award from below 2010"