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The Economics of Peace Conference: A ‘Stimulus Package’ for the New Economy John Bloom October 29, 2009 distinction between full employment and full engagement in Five days of intensive presentations, workshops, and coneconomic life in the Sarvodaya villages. versations focused on the elements of an economy for the 21st Jacob Needleman and Sam Keen, two noted philosocentury were at the heart of The Economics of Peace phers and authors, began the Monday sessions, Conference held in Sonoma, California, October 18with a deep dive into the psyche, mythology, 23, 2009. The conference was co-convened by archetypes and consciousness of money RSF Social Finance and Praxis Peace Institute. and economic activity from the view of the World-renowned speakers such as James inner human being. In the evening, David Galbraith and Vandana Shiva were keyKorten gave a fiery presentation outlining notes at the conference. Both of them the agenda for a new economy based upon explained the current state of economic overcoming the ills of the current one. crisis from the point of view of systemic Korten spoke about the value of re-localizinequity, and made recommendations for ing economies and exposing the abuses of how we can solve our economic problems Wall Street and large corporations. by taking a long-term view of what is needed Tuesday morning, Judy Wicks, the founder to restore the environment, have a more just, of White Dog Café in Philadelphia, spoke about non-vio“Creating a Non-Violent World through Local Living lent econoEconomies.” She discussed her decision to collaborate my, and stem with other local restaurants the disasters of climate to support local farmers, change. pay living wages to staff, and The concepts and remain sustainable. Out of this practices of local living decision, the Business Alliance economies were another for Local Living Economies central theme through(BALLE) was formed. Wicks out the conference, was followed by Stephanie Rearevidenced primarily by ick, who spoke on “Real World the innovative idea of Caring Economics: TimeBanksiting the conference in ing and Social Justice”. Rearick the local living economy is the leader of the Dane County of Sonoma. Conference International activist Vandana Shiva (WI) TimeBank, the most sucattendees made use of cessful TimeBank in the US. local restaurants, hotels and guest stays with local residents. She explained how time could Plenaries and workshops were held in the reconditioned Sebasbe used as a cur- Entrepreneur Judy Wicks tiani Theater, the Sonoma Community Center, and rency to support exchange activities that would other spaces connected with local businesses. not normally be funded by federal currency. Local musicians and artists performed at each of Ellen Brown, author of Web of Debt, then the events. presented ample evidence of why the issuance of The Sunday night opening ceremony included debt as money by banks has caused such enorthe Mayor of Sonoma reading a formal City mous economic hardship. Using the model of the Council Proclamation recognizing the importance successful Bank of North Dakota, a state-owned of the conference, followed by a brief presentabank, she proposed that it would be possible to tion from Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (who do the same in California and thus return ownerrepresents Sonoma). Don Shaffer, President and ship of the bank to the people that it serves. CEO of RSF, spoke briefly about the importance The focus on Wednesday was the practice of transforming the way the world works with of worker-owned cooperative businesses. Two money toward an economics of peace. Shaffer leaders from the Mondragon Cooperatives in was followed by A.T. Ariyaratne, founder and Spain, Mikel Lezamiz and Fred Freundlich, spoke president of the Sarvodaya Shramadana MoveEconomist James Galbraith at length about the founding and evolution of ment in Sri Lanka. Dr. Ariyaratne outlined the Mondragon, which has developed into the largest worker-owned values of Buddhist economics, the eight-fold path with a focus co-op in the world (with over 34,000 workers). Their activities on right livelihood. He spoke particularly about the important 22 Evolving News for Members & Friends include everything from industrial manufacturing, to agriculture, to their own bank and insurance companies, to mention just a few. There were also several Northern California workerowned businesses on hand to discuss methods of running cooperatives: Alvarado Street Bakery, Arizmendi Bakery, and Rainbow Grocery. Thursday morning started with speaker Tom Greco, author of The End of Money and the Future of Civilization. Greco made a passionate plea for us to take back the credit commons from the banks by creating our own mutual credit clearing mechanisms. This is a tried and true model that has been in use by businesses through barter for many years. He suggests that it could have much broader applications for how we conduct economic activity. Greco was followed by noted environmental attorney Andrew Kimbrell. Kimbrell spoke on “Salmon Economics”. He described the entire life cycle of the salmon and explained how it could serve as a model for how we could think about economic cycles as meeting everyone’s needs rather than just those of the few. He also articulated what the salmon have to tell us about the symbiotic relationship between local and global economies. Friday closed with some reflections on the conference, via the humor of Swami Beyondananda, followed by an exploration of next steps. It was also announced that videos of the plenaries will be posted on the conference website: www.economicsofpeace. net. There will also be footage of many of the workshops and panel discussions. The five-day event marked a watershed in economic thinking. By bringing together leaders and practitioners in transformative economic practices, new collaborations and projects were already developing before the end of the conference. As one participant said, “It is amazing when you bring 200 people together for five days to talk about money. When else has that ever happened?” Each afternoon of The Economics of Peace conference there were workshops related to the many facets of money and financial systems. Monday there were four offerings. RSF President & CEO Don Shaffer led a packed workshop entitled “Social Finance: Building Regional Capital Markets.” RSF Social Finance CEO Don Schaffer Through a brief presentation and small discussions, the group explored: what would the economy look like if active and diverse regional capital markets were developed? What will it take to create more place-based markets and means of exchange? Can we rebuild our sense of community self-reliance in relation to national and international economies? Also on Monday afternoon, Norman Solomon addressed the barriers and opportunities of “The Green New Deal.” He explored how the quest for green sustainability might merge with the drive for economic justice. He presented what some of the new strategies need to be, and the challenging dynamics of the current situation in the media, financial systems, and the psychology of economic crisis. Charles Eisenstein led a workshop Spring 2010 on Sacred Economics, the title and subject of his forthcoming book. This workshop explored the many perspectives of gift economics. He talked about the history of money systems that organically encourage sharing instead of competition, egalitarianism instead of polarization of wealth, and the building of social, natural, cultural, and spiritual capital, instead of their destruction. As a step toward peace, he proposed the radical idea that all workshop participants make investments that earn 0% interest. Trent Shroyer led “Sustainable Economic Cultures,” which looked at several models of sustainable economic Author and activist David Korten practices including: Gandhi’s Swaraj, the no-growth movement in Europe, and examples of Ivan Illich’s post-secular vernacular domains. On Tuesday, four more workshop sessions followed a panel presentation on complementary currencies. C.J. Callen, Pilar Gonzales, and I led a conversation on “Money, Race, and Class.” This facilitated conversation served as a safe space to talk about some of the most complicated and unaddressed issues in economics and our financial systems. The approach allowed for a depth of conversation that supported listening and speaking in such a way as to allow for transformation in the participants’ way of thinking. Following the morning plenary theme of local living economies (as articulated by Judy Wicks and Stephanie Rearick), Kelley Rajala and Derek Huntington of Sonoma County GoLocal Cooperative and Mary Rick of BALLE presented “Accelerate the Sustainability Movement in your Community.” They worked with the processes of forming a values-based network, mapping the resources of the community, developing sustainability policy, and implementing community-based financing models. This workshop was well attended as there is significant interest in relocalizing economies and understanding what that means from economic, cultural, and political perspectives. Richard Logie, the founder of GETS (Global Exchange Trade System), led an introductory workshop on what the elements of a complementary currency or credit clearing exchange might look like so that participants would have a context for working in this innovative business-to-business system. He used the lessons of VISA and the European Union to demonstrate the work of creating new agreements, setting up a framework of exchange methodology and standards so that users of the system can work toward mutual ownership of it. Richard also led a much longer, more detailed workshop on Thursday entitled “Get Real! With Currency: 50 Questions You Should Ask Before Starting Your Own Exchange.” The final Tuesday workshop was led by David Ransom on “Taking a Leap: A Marxist Look at Social Change in an Epoch of Economic Revolution.” Ransom looked at the impact of technology in relation to the value of labor and posed the question about whether the current economic revolu23 tion will bring about a social revolution as more and more of the work force is displaced. Wednesday afternoon saw four workshops that touched on a wide range of topics. Sam Keen addressed the topic “Money and War: The Quest for a Moral Alternative.” He focused on the issue of social and economic justice as the avenue for achieving peace. Woody Tasch, author of Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money, presented his work under the same topic. Tasch has been developing the notion of patient capital as an approach to investing that will rebuild local economies and change our attitudes about expecting or extracting short-term returns on investments that tend to bring about ecological and cultural degradation. Osprey Orielle Lake led the workshop “Respect for the Global Commons.” Lake was the artist-in-residence for the conference and also spoke about the value and beauty of our environment and natural systems, and the rightful use of these precious compromised resources. The fourth workshop was offered by Bev Bell and Mateo Nube. Named “Towards a Just Ecological and Economic Transition,” they presented the stories of those directly impacted by the financial crisis. They showed how those communities have developed practical solutions to the challenges through community self-determination. What they demonstrated was that economic security and ecological sustainability need not be in opposition if worked through with transformative power. Thursday, following a panel discussion on fair trade, Andrew Kimbrell went into much more detail about the concepts and practicality of “Salmon Economics” in a workshop. Bob Graham, one of the pioneers and leaders of micro-enterprise, led a practicum called “The Next Step After Putting Micro-entrepreneurs into Business—Helping Them Become Successful.” With a focus on Central America, he spoke about the fact that while microcredit has made credit accessible to millions of people at the bottom of the pyramid, rates of poverty have not changed. He proposed a new direction for micro-credit as a tool to alleviate poverty in a more systemic and sustainable way. Friday morning, prior to the closing session, there were three workshops offered. Daniel Pinchbeck presented “Why We Launched Evolver: A Social Network for Conscious Collabora- tion.” He spoke about his involvement with the new technologies of the internet as a way to engage with provocative and important questions such as: could the social technologies of the internet help us replace many of our financial transactions with exchanges based on trust and reciprocity? Can a social network be designed to help reengineer our current society, offer new ways for people to collaborate, and organize for social change? Julianne Maurseth led a workshop (“Purpose and Outcomes for Conference Participants”) designed to weave together many of the insights gained at the conference. And Pilar Gonzales, Katrina Steffek, and I led a conversation called “What If…” which explored scenario thinking for the new economy. This participatory workshop elicited from attendees the tools they had gained throughout the week and then asked them to imagine how they will apply them to their home, organizational, or work life— their real life economies. On Friday, the conference conveners each shared some appreciations and closing reflections on the conference, and I would like to leave you with my own closing comments summarizing the week: “During our journey here together in Sonoma we have been traveling new economic terrain, challenging social terrain, and transformative cultural terrain. I put this in the progressive tense—not because we are a room full of tense progressives—but, because the work of economic change will yet be hard, and seem long. Let’s take joy in every step forward, practice forgiveness so that it can heal, and, finally, trust in the nature of wisdom, the wisdom of nature, and in the aspirations of the human spirit as we see each other anew in our economic life. May peace be with you.” John Bloom is the Director of Organizational Culture at RSF Social Finance, and a member of the Council of Anthroposophic Organizations. This article is reprinted with permission from the “Reimagine Money” blog, rsfsocialfinance.org/blog/. Look for John’s recently published book, The Genius of Money, which is available from steinerbooks.org. And it is reviewed in this issue, on page 12. Hawthorne Valley, Ghent, NY New VISUAL ARTS YEAR New In depth training and practice in Painting and Sculpture. Ongoing studio classes will be the central focus of our studies, augmented by seminars in related subjects. Significant time will be given to self-directed studio time. Seminar Courses & Sculpture: Patrick Stolfo Painting & Drawing: Martina Angela Müller The Alkion Center offers part time programs in Foundation Studies & Waldorf Teacher Training For program descriptions & further information: www.alkioncenter.org [email protected] 24 Evolving News for Members & Friends