David Korten: We Know Who Stole the Economy—National People’s Action Moves to Take It Back

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:


We Know Who Stole the Economy—National People’s Action Moves to Take It Back
"Listen to and work with your base to create a shared, big-picture narrative."

by David Korten
posted Dec 03, 2013


There are a great many civil society organizations doing good work in service to nature, justice, and democracy. Few, however, demonstrate the strategic sophistication of National People's Action (NPA). The NPA, which was founded in 1972, is an informal association of more than 200 grassroots organizations mostly representing working-class families. The NPA provides a place for these groups to work together to advance economic and racial justice.

I highly recommend the NPA's two reports, "Long-Term Agenda to the New Economy" and "Creating a Long-Term Agenda for Change: A Case History of National People's Action." The latter is filled with lessons from their 5-year planning process, which will be relevant to other organizations committed to advancing a just, sustainable, and democratic new economy.

What most caught my attention is the clarity with which the NPA focuses on changing the rules that hold in place an economic system that assures continued global-scale environmental, social, and political failure. These are six vital lessons that caught my attention in reading these two reports.

1. Listen to and work with your base to create a shared, big-picture narrative that names the problem and its cause, envisions the desired future, and provides a strategic frame within which to identify and prioritize individual campaigns that serve as stepping stones toward that future.

The NPA narrative identifies an economic system that empowers financial markets and corporations to concentrate financial power without limit as a primary source of environmental, social, and political failure. It goes on to envision the institutions of a new economic system designed to maintain a just distribution of wealth and provide all people with the opportunity to achieve a secure and meaningful livelihood. ........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/we-know-who-stole-the-economy-national-people2019s-action-moves-to-take-it-back