Monday, June 21, 2010

The Move to Amend coalition and its member organizations will be presenting a series of sessions, leading up to a "Peoples Movement Assembly"at 1pm, on Friday, June 25th. These are all a part of our own "Democracy Track" . . . if you'll be in Detroit, come aboard, and join us!


For links to more detailed descriptions of the events below, see http://www.democracytrack.org/


MovetoAmend.org is a coalition dedicated to ending the illegitimate legal doctrines that prevent the American people from governing ourselves.
 Move to Amend at the U.S. Social Forum
“Today the business once transacted by individuals in every community is in the control of corporations, and many of the men who once conducted an independent business are gathered into the organization, and all personal identity, and all individualities lost. Each man has become a mere cog in one of the wheels of a complicated mechanism. It is the business of the corporations to get money. It exacts but one thing of its employees: Obedience to orders. It cares not about their relations to the community, the church, society, or the family. It wants full hours and faithful service, and when they die, wear out or are discharged, it quickly replaces them with new material.
The corporation is a machine for making money, but it reduces men to the insignificance of mere numerical figures, as certainly as the private ranks of the regular army


Monday, June 14, 2010

http://www.slowfood.com/
Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.
 

To do that, Slow Food brings together pleasure and responsibility, and makes them inseparable.
Today, we have over 100,000 members in 132 countries.



                                                                CHECK IT OUT....

CULTURES OF RESISTANCE from Cultures of Resistance on Vimeo.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Either a person comes to a place of some self-knowledge and thereby
learns to contribute something genuine to life, or they add to all that
is inauthentic and distorted in the world. No one can be neutral on the road of life and death
.”
Michael Meade from The Water of Life

Thursday, June 3, 2010

MOVE YOUR MONEY.....A PEOPLE POWERED MOVEMENT.....THIS DOES NOT COST YOU A PENNY.....MOVE YOUR MONEY....TAKE ACTION AGAINST CORPORATE CRIME.

http://moveyourmoney.info/

The big banks on Wall Street -- JP Morgan/Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley -- have had an incredible year, getting huge taxpayer bail-outs, making record profits and paying out multi-million dollar bonuses to their CEOs while many of them are still participating in all the highly leveraged activities that caused our housing and credit crisis in the first place. 
I'd like to say the good news is that Congress is poised to pass major financial reforms later this month, so the President can sign the bill before the 4th of July. The problem is the bill they're planning to pass isn't good enough. Don't take it from me. Here's what the New York Times said about it last week:
The financial reform legislation making its way through Congress has Wall Street executives privately relieved that the bill does not do more to fundamentally change how the industry does business.

Despite the outcry from lobbyists and warnings from conservative Republicans that the legislation will choke economic growth, bankers and many analysts think that the bill approved by the Senate last week will reduce Wall Street's profits but leave its size and power largely intact.
In other words, too big to fail banks will still be too big to fail. It's time to take matters into our own hands. So today we're joining the Move Your Money campaign started by the good people at The Huffington Post. Declare your independence from big banks and pledge to Move Your Money to a local community bank or credit union today.

PLEDGE TO MOVE YOUR MONEY TO A COMMUNITY BANK OR CREDIT UNION RIGHT NOW

Community banks and credit unions don't act like the big banks. Typically, they're more responsible in how they manage their money, they're more closely connected to the people and businesses who live near them, and they're more inclined to make loans they know will get paid back. And your local credit union isn't going to ask Congress for a multi-billion dollar bail-out either. These are the qualities most people want banks to have.

The idea is simple.

To regular Americans this issue isn't Left or Right -- it just makes sense. If enough people move their money from a big bank to a smaller, more local, more traditional community bank, we can break up the big banks ourselves. By working together, we won't have to wait for Congress make change happen.

TAKE THE PLEDGE AND FIND A CREDIT UNION OR COMMUNITY BANK NEAR YOU


We can send a message to Congress, the President and every candidate running for office that we don't trust big banks with our money. But it's up to us to do it.

Let's get started right now. Thank you for everything you do.

-Charles

Resources

It may seem daunting to move your money or to get other people and organizations in your town to follow your lead. We put together these resources for you to use and share with others. Can’t find the info you need here? Check our FAQ. If you still can’t find an answer to your question, contact us and we’ll do our best to help you out.

Checklist

7 Easy Steps to Move Your Checking Account

Big banks have the advantage of inertia. Moving your checking and savings accounts is not as simple as switching grocery stores. You’ll have to maintain both your new and old accounts for a few weeks until everything switches over. That can be a little tricky, especially if you’re living paycheck to paycheck. After you’ve found your new financial institution, follow this simple sequence compiled by Stacy Mitchell of the New Rules Project’s Community Banking Initiative and keep an eye on things. It should go smoothly and, in a few weeks, you’ll be in a brand new banking relationship.
1. Open your new account.
In most cases, you should be able open a checking account with an initial deposit of between $25 and $100. At a credit union, you’ll also become a member and co-owner at the same time.

2. Order your new debit/ATM card and checks.
These typically arrive within 1 to 2 weeks. You may also want to apply for a credit card from your new local institution.

3. If you use direct deposit, ask your employer to reroute your paycheck to your new account.
When you open your new account, ask the bank or credit union for a direct deposit authorization form that includes your new account information. Give this form to your employer and anyone else who makes direct deposits to your account. It may take one or more pay cycles for the change to be made, so keep your old checking account open and watch for the switch.

4. Contact companies that direct-debit your account.
Using your last bank statement, make a list of any businesses that you’ve authorized to directly debit your account. Ask your new bank or credit union for an automatic payments authorization form that includes your new account information. Send this to the businesses on your list.

5. Set up online bill paying for your new account.
If you like to pay bills online, set up bill payment information for your new account. Meanwhile,stop any automatic recurring payments you have established through your old account.

6. Close your old account.
Once you have started receiving direct deposits into your new account and are sure that there are no outstanding checks or automatic debits that need to clear, close your old account. Warning: do not just withdraw the last dollar and assume the account will fade away on its own. Your old big bank may start charging you fees for having an empty or inactive checking account. Instead, follow the bank’s procedure for closing out the account.

7. Enjoy your new local banking relationship!
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Tuesday, June 1, 2010




Check out this lecture by Noam Chomsky: "The Center Cannot Hold: Rekindling the Radical Imagination"


On this Memorial Day special, we spend the hour with the world-renowned political dissident and linguist Noam Chomsky, professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, author of over a hundred books. He spoke recently here in New York addressing more than a thousand people at the Left Forum. He began by discussing the case of Joseph Andrew Stack, who crashed his small plane into an office building in Austin, Texas, hitting an IRS office, committing suicide.