8) ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY
‘Indigene’ (Latin = ‘self-generating’) 'Community' (Latin = 'com' = 'together' + 'munus' = 'gift or service')
Humanity's worldwide indigenous heritage cultivates 'Economic' (Greek 'oikos' = 'home' + 'namein' = 'manage' from 'manus' = 'hand' = 'care & nurture') 'Democracy' (Greek = 'power of the people') in a system of checks and balances spanning many tens of thousands of years. On every continent and throughout every ocean peoples cultivated two essential practices for human empowerment described under the 'Haudenosaunee' (Iroquois = 'People of the Longhouse') Great Law of Peace as well found every place on earth :
1. Extended connected multihome housing provided privacy for individuals and families and economies of scale among critical numbers of individuals, families and specialties with opportunity to work in proximity inter-generationally, in multi-disciplines for essential goods and services. Typically 50, 100 or 150 people group together in such as Longhouse (apartment-like) or Pueblo (townhouse-like) complexes. Proximity enables generations to collaborate easily as well for domestic labours to be grouped together so that medicine, healing, nourishment, clothes making, repair, communications etc. With women grouped together in each specialty and accounting for their specialized contributions, then female intelligence and decision-making become integrated into the life-blood of both economy and politics.
2. Production Societies (eg. Guilds in Europe) were organized grouping diverse specialists both male and female to invest and work together in diverse fields. Ownership was progressive from youth to elder recorded through time-based accounting upon the string-shell (eg. in the North American North-east: Wampum, Esnoguay, Seewan, Kayoni, Africa's Cauris shell etc.). Integrated accounting created essential human value system links between: a) capital, b) currency, c) condolence (social-security), d) diplomatic conveyance (shared resource harvesting adjustments), d) collegial-education, f) math-based communications, g) costume affiliation and identification. Typically the Production Society accountant recorded the labours of each member and recognized this investment through the string-shell. Members: a) voted with their string-shell within each production society, b) could exchange these for goods and services (continent wide), c) were cared for during times of illness, injury and duress with accommodations of string-shell, d) as individuals and groups would resolve disputes through the string-shell (time-based accounting) as a time-equivalence compensation, e) grew in ownership and decision-making over the course of a lifetime from young apprentice to elder master according to experience and knowledge. f) time-based accounting facilitated 'time-management' as a common denominator of human affairs, science and industry. g) proudly displayed Production-Society affiliation through the stringshell on clothing. Each youth choosing a profession or Production Society went through a personal inner and outer search called the Vision Quest which becomes a life-long spiritual foundation for one's professional choices. A youth's question would be "What are my gifts for community?".
Political Democracy as is practiced in councils all the way from the family, multihome building, village (Kanata), region, nation, confederacy and Continental Congress is a subset of the primary empowerment in Economic Democracy. The following are steps which can be taken to 'organize from our tree-roots' and restore Economic Democracy today.
YouTube video 2 minutes 18 seconds Douglas on Economic & Political Democracy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=pEWHESuIP_s
WHAT AUTHORITY TO WE DELEGATE BY VOTING?
'Democracy' from the Greek means 'power of the people'. When citizens vote, what authority to they understand they are delegating to choose candidates for president or as representatives in Congress? Are citizens authorizing 'murder' on their behalf? in pre-emptive war? for oil? to taint our food supply with Genetically Modified Organisms? to poison rivers, lakes, atmosphere and soils for millions of years with Complex Synthetic Poisons & Radio-active isotopes? to excuse corporations from taxation? to buy politicians and their friends multiple homes and cottages? to send politicians and their friends on vacations and trips worldwide?
Because a voter prefers 40% of a candidates policies and chooses this candidate as the best option among other bad choices, does this mean the candidate chosen is a 'representative'?
IS REPRESENTATIVE POLITICAL DEMOCRACY MATHEMATICALLY POSSIBLE?
Indigenous peoples of the world, understood that Political Democracy has a whole list of mathematical misrepresentations and therefore based their government on 'Economic Democracy' based in 'community' (Latin 'com' = 'together' + 'munus' = 'gift or service'). Over the course of a lifetime each apprentice in specialized Production Societies or Guilds contributed their labour & knowledge, which was accounted for as more and more shares. With each citizen owning shares in their fields of expertise (professions, trades, studies etc) and 'caucused' (Iroquois = 'grouped together in like-interests'), they gained power and authority to act within their fields of expertise in relationship with many other specialists who are delegated the same authority.
Elders mentor youth in learning trades. Youth provide elders and the Production Society fresh ideas, energy and mobility. With 'economy' (Greek 'oikos' = 'home') centred in the multihome dwellings of indigenous people worldwide (Longhouse are apartment-like and Pueblo are townhouse-like) recognized and accounted for the Caring Professions. Women, elders and others centred in care and nurture professions were grouped together in specialized Production Societies where they could collaborate and receive recognition, accounting and empowerment in the economic and political cycle. This natural flow of learning and profession enabled families to pass down natural learning from elder to youth, yet without rigidity, youth were free according to the dictates of their Vision-Quest to choose the profession of their choice. Some families and multihome dwellings were as well centers of excellence within specialized trades sometimes with knowledge passed down over tens of generations so that family clans were associated with certain specialties.
ECONOMIC & POLITICAL DEMOCRACY COMPLEMENTATION
Indigenous People structured Political Democracy as a complementary subset in Multi-home, Village, regional, National and Confederate Councils to include representatives of the Production Societies and Clans. These ownership societies were based in a pride of being able to 'welcome' fellow humans in inclusive economies made possible through time-based human resource economic accounting integrating all community values. Inclusive ownership in relationships for the essential means of production in the Production Societies is quite different from modern 'exclusive' property ownership for things and land. Those interested in learning more about humanity's original 'indigenous' (Latin = 'self-generating') heritage and the sovereign power of First Nations here please visit: https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/relational-economy/8-economic-democracy