Survey on crisis
Please see the link below to an online survey based on the ‘work-in-progress’ developed by SEARCH Foundation members on the global finance and economic crisis. Take a few minutes to work through the questions, to assist in finding the best way to communicate about this crisis with working people, and to find practical demands and policies we can promote and support.
The survey was developed by Don Sutherland.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=O2n15eRJDNwdtQLQLLRVkg_3d_3d
The turmoil and crisis in the global financial markets and its flow on into the real economy has raised the intensity of public commentary and debate about economic policy, economic ideas and future social and political development.
For most of us who have been critical of and opposed the neoliberal capitalism of the past 2 decades or so this is a new opportunity to educate and campaign through stronger public support for a real alternative.
The SEARCH Foundation believes that the essence of this real alternative is that the twin and mutually dependent interests of the majority of the population and the natural environment must be protected and nurtured. This is true for those among our members that emphasise control against capitalism’s excesses and those who, in agreeing with this, also hold to the view that the problem lies within capitalism itself.
To that end we have published a “work in progress” statement that in its present form has been developed by a small group of SEARCH members. You can read the current version here:
http://www.search.org.au/archives/584
We do not see the current version as a final, definitive statement which people can endorse or oppose.
Rather, we wish this version to be improved through further membership contribution and also by people who are not members or are not associated with SEARCH.
Above all, we are keen to explore the potential for a multi dimensional educative project about the system in which we live and what the alternatives to it might be in the light of the unfolding crisis. We seek ideas about how that educative project might include local, national and international actions that build the prospects for real policy change and social development.
Thus, we invite you to write a critique of the current version of the SEARCH Statement. We hope you might be able to write something between 300-500 words for publication at our web site.
Without in any way limiting what you might wish to say, we suggest that the following questions might be addressed:
• what are the weaknesses of the current version?
• how might the current version be improved?
• how might the current version be used to build public support for real change in the interests of working people and the natural environment?
• what is your overall assessment of this version?
In solidarity,
Peter Murphy, Don Sutherland
