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GLOBAL MARSHALL PLAN INITIATIVECoalition for the Global Commons
Welcome to our site! In 2003, a group of visionary Europeans prominent in government, civil society, and business created an initiative to bring a new marshall plan to the world’s people. They were inspired in part by their experience with the historic Marshall Plan (1948-1951) that helped rescue their families from the devastation of World War II. Their memories of U.S. generosity, combined with their deep knowledge of current inequalities in global aid, trade and finance, inspired them to imagine a great leap forward in global organization and assistance, called the Global Marshall Plan Initiative. Now named the Convention on the Global Commons, that Initiative is represented in the United States by the Centre for Global Negotiations. It has been taken up by us, a group of Bay Area progressives, to nurture, to support and to offer as an antidote to the sad destruction of our planet through war, greed and inequality – Members of the Global Marshall Plan
Group/USA/SF Bay Area
Vision Imagine a world where millions of ordinary people, including experts of all kinds, rich and poor, have democratic input into the rules for world trade. Imagine a global civil society that balances the viewpoints of the bankers and politicians, who now control international finance, with those of other stakeholders in the world economy. Imagine a world where climate change is clearly addressed with sustainable solutions at local and regional levels. Imagine a world without poverty. Not feasible, you say. Impossible. Until now! As the Internet has made possible communication on a global scale, it also makes feasible an unprecedented convergence of civil society from throughout the world. With the interactive tools made famous by Wikipedia – the online encyclopedia –we are now able to elicit and concentrate the voices of the world’s people into a single document for reforming the global economy and environment. global-commons.org There has never been anything like this. It will give expression to the Global Commons. More than 10,000 non-governmental organizations – people grouped into charitable, educational, environmental, labor, healthcare, feminist and other kinds of extra-governmental groups – are expected to write and rewrite the documents on the global commons. These documents ultimately will express the will of the people in running the multilateral institutions that undergird globalization. Nor will business and political groups who currently enjoy privileged access to trade and finance be excluded. ALL the stakeholders in this interdependent river of money, trade, information, and culture that flows beyond national boundaries will be given voice in the Convention on the Global Commons. In addition to making it possible to write new rules for multilateral institutions, the Convention on the Global Commons also will advocate a new form of taxation to fight global poverty and curb climate change and pollution. Global commons fees could be assessed on currency transactions, world trade, global pollution, arms trade, maritime freight, ocean fishing, seabed mining, offshore oil and gas, satellite orbital parking spaces, electromagnetic spectrum usage, non-sustainable resources, and energy consumption. These global commons taxes, which would add a small fraction to every transaction or activity that takes place across national borders, are a more reliable and equitable source of international financing than the usual form of bilateral aid from rich countries to poor nations, which decades of experience has proven inadequate to the task. Our Global Commons interactive site will be formally launched in the spring of 2008 with announcements in several cities around the globe, including San Francisco. Following a two-year period devoted to collecting input at this site, there will be an international conference in 2010 to consider the results. We invite you to join us, and, as a first step, take a look at our FAQ page. |
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Overwhelmingly, Americans want to end hunger . . . |
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. . . at home . . .
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. . . and abroad.
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Here's the good
news:
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| Over 50 years ago,
America initiated the Marshall Plan. It virtually wiped out hunger in
Europe. An effort of such scope and size has not been attempted since. It is time to attempt one now. With all the stakeholders having a say, and all of them doing their part. Rich and poor. North and South. Government, business, and the grassroots. It can be done, and will be done. With your help and input. |