Birthing Global Civil Society
excerpt from
THE GREAT TURNING...
From Empire to Earth Community
by
David C. Korten

The alliance-building processes that gave birth to this global meta-movement became visible only in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro during the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), at which the world's heads of state gathered for an Earth Summit. The conference proved to be a landmark event in the human experience.

Its significance came not from the accomplishments of the official meetings. Their effectiveness was limited by the organized intervention of global corporations working under the banner of the Business Council on Sustainable Development and the International Chamber of Commerce to make certain the official meetings did not produce conclusions contrary to corporate interests.

On the other side of town, however, a gathering of eighteen thousand private citizens of every race, religion, social class, and nationality was making history as participants drafted informal citizen treaties setting forth agendas for cooperative voluntary action.

The citizen deliberations, which called for a sweeping transformation of human cultures and institutions, demonstrated that the peoples of the world share a common vision of the world in which they want to live.

Key elements of the consensus were summarized in the People's Earth Declaration: A Proactive Agenda for the Future. It ends with the following commitment:

"We, the people of the world, will mobilize the forces of transnational civil society behind a widely shared agenda that bonds our many social movements in pursuit of just, sustainable, and participatory human societies. In so doing, we are forging our own instruments and processes for redefining the nature and meaning of human progress and for transforming those institutions that no longer respond to our needs. We welcome to our cause all people who share our commitment to peaceful and democratic change in the inter­est of our living planet and the human societies it sustains."

From this modest beginning, global civil society has grown significantly in strength and sophistication to become an increasingly influential moral force for global transformation.

The process of documenting an emerging global consensus continued after the Earth Summit with the drafting of the Earth Charter. Often referred to as a Declaration of Interdependence, the Earth Charter reflects a global consensus reached through a decade-long worldwide cross-cultural conversation about common goals and shared values that began in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

Drafting it involved thousands of individuals and hundreds of organizations from all regions of the world in an open and participatory consultation process.

As a charter of people, rather than governments, it has no legal force. Rather than present a list of prescriptions or demands, it outlines the values of the emergent era, articulating an integral vision of a world dedicated to respect and caring for all life, deep democracy, human rights, economic justice, and peace.

It affirms that once "basic needs have been met, human development is primarily about being more, not having more." The charter recognizes that far from being at odds, individual liberty, strong communities, and respect for Earth are inseparable one from the other. Its moral principles align with the wisdom under­lying the teachings of all the world's great religions.

THE EARTH CHARTER

Preamble

We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise. To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace. Towards this end, it is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations.

Earth, Our Home

Humanity is part of a vast evolving universe. Earth, our home, is alive with a unique community of life. The forces of nature make existence a demanding and uncertain adventure, but Earth has provided the conditions essential to life's evolution. The resilience of the community of life and the well-being of humanity depend upon preserving a healthy biosphere with all its ecological systems, a rich variety of plants and animals, fertile soils, pure waters, and clean air. The global environment with its finite resources is a common concern of all peoples. The protection of Earth's vitality, diversity, and beauty is a sacred trust.

The Global Situation

The dominant patterns of production and consumption are causing environmental devastation, the depletion of resources, and a massive extinction of species. Communities are being undermined. The benefits of development are not shared equitably and the gap between rich and poor is widening. Injustice, poverty, ignorance, and violent conflict are widespread and the cause of great suffering. An unprecedented rise in human population has overburdened ecological and social systems. The foundations of global security are threatened. These trends are perilous — but not inevitable.

The Challenges Ahead

The choice is ours: form a global partnership to care for Earth and one another or risk the destruction of ourselves and the diversity of life. Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions, and ways of living. We must realize that when basic needs have been met, human development is primarily about being more, not having more. We have the knowledge and technology to provide for all and to reduce our impacts on the environment. The emergence of a global civil society is creating new opportunities to build a democratic and humane world. Our environmental, economic, political, social, and spiritual challenges are interconnected, and together we can forge inclusive solutions.

Universal Responsibility

To realize these aspirations, we must decide to live with a sense of universal responsibility, identifying ourselves with the whole Earth community as well as our local communities. We are at once citizens of different nations and of one world in which the local and global are linked. Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of the human family and the larger living world. The spirit of human solidarity and kinship with all life is strengthened when we live with reverence for the mystery of being, gratitude for the gift of life, and humility regarding the human place in nature.

We urgently need a shared vision of basic values to provide an ethical foundation for the emerging world community. Therefore, together in hope we affirm the following interdependent principles for a sustainable way of life as a common standard by which the conduct of all individuals, organizations, businesses, governments, and transnational institutions is to be guided and assessed.

Principles

I. RESPECT AND CARE FOR THE COMMUNITY OF LIFE

1. Respect Earth and life in all its diversity.
a. Recognize that all beings are interdependent and every form of life has value regardless of its worth to human beings.
b. Affirm faith in the inherent dignity of all human beings and in the intellectual, artistic, ethical, and spiritual potential of humanity.

2. Care for the community of life with understanding, compassion, and love.
a. Accept that with the right to own, manage, and use natural resources comes the duty to prevent environmental harm and to protect the rights of people.
b. Affirm that with increased freedom, knowledge, and power comes increased responsibility to promote the common good.

3. Build democratic societies that are just, participatory, sustainable, and peaceful.
a. Ensure that communities at all levels guarantee human rights and fundamental freedoms and provide everyone an opportunity to realize his or her full potential.
b. Promote social and economic justice, enabling all to achieve a secure and meaningful livelihood that is ecologically responsible.

4. Secure Earth's bounty and beauty for present and future generations.
a. Recognize that the freedom of action of each generation is qualified by the needs of future generations.
b. Transmit to future generations values, traditions, and institutions that support the long-term flourishing of Earth's human and ecological communities.

In order to fulfill these four broad commitments, it is necessary to:

II. ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY

5. Protect and restore the integrity of Earth's ecological systems, with special concern for biological diversity and the natural processes that sustain life.
a. Adopt at all levels sustainable development plans and regulations that make environmental conservation and rehabilitation integral to all development initiatives.
b. Establish and safeguard viable nature and biosphere reserves, including wild lands and marine areas, to protect Earth's life support systems, maintain biodiversity, and preserve our natural heritage.
c. Promote the recovery of endangered species and ecosystems.
d. Control and eradicate non-native or genetically modified organisms harmful to native species and the environment, and prevent introduction of such harmful organisms.
e. Manage the use of renewable resources such as water, soil, forest products, and marine life in ways that do not exceed rates of regeneration and that protect the health of ecosystems.
f. Manage the extraction and use of non-renewable resources such as minerals and fossil fuels in ways that minimize depletion and cause no serious environmental damage.

6. Prevent harm as the best method of environmental protection and, when knowledge is limited, apply a precautionary approach.
a. Take action to avoid the possibility of serious or irreversible environmental harm even when scientific knowledge is incomplete or inconclusive.
b. Place the burden of proof on those who argue that a proposed activity will not cause significant harm, and make the responsible parties liable for environmental harm.
c. Ensure that decision making addresses the cumulative, long-term, indirect, long distance, and global consequences of human activities.
d. Prevent pollution of any part of the environment and allow no build-up of radioactive, toxic, or other hazardous substances.
e. Avoid military activities damaging to the environment.

7. Adopt patterns of production, consumption, and reproduction that safeguard Earth's regenerative capacities, human rights, and community well-being.
a. Reduce, reuse, and recycle the materials used in production and consumption systems, and ensure that residual waste can be assimilated by ecological systems.
b. Act with restraint and efficiency when using energy, and rely increasingly on renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.
c. Promote the development, adoption, and equitable transfer of environmentally sound technologies.
d. Internalize the full environmental and social costs of goods and services in the selling price, and enable consumers to identify products that meet the highest social and environmental standards.
e. Ensure universal access to health care that fosters reproductive health and responsible reproduction.
f. Adopt lifestyles that emphasize the quality of life and material sufficiency in a finite world.

8. Advance the study of ecological sustainability and promote the open exchange and wide application of the knowledge acquired.
a. Support international scientific and technical cooperation on sustainability, with special attention to the needs of developing nations.
b. Recognize and preserve the traditional knowledge and spiritual wisdom in all cultures that contribute to environmental protection and human well-being.
c. Ensure that information of vital importance to human health and environmental protection, including genetic information, remains available in the public domain.

III. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE

9. Eradicate poverty as an ethical, social, and environmental imperative.
a. Guarantee the right to potable water, clean air, food security, uncontaminated soil, shelter, and safe sanitation, allocating the national and international resources required.
b. Empower every human being with the education and resources to secure a sustainable livelihood, and provide social security and safety nets for those who are unable to support themselves.
c. Recognize the ignored, protect the vulnerable, serve those who suffer, and enable them to develop their capacities and to pursue their aspirations.

10. Ensure that economic activities and institutions at all levels promote human development in an equitable and sustainable manner.
a. Promote the equitable distribution of wealth within nations and among nations.
b. Enhance the intellectual, financial, technical, and social resources of developing nations, and relieve them of onerous international debt.
c. Ensure that all trade supports sustainable resource use, environmental protection, and progressive labor standards.
d. Require multinational corporations and international financial organizations to act transparently in the public good, and hold them accountable for the consequences of their activities.

11. Affirm gender equality and equity as prerequisites to sustainable development and ensure universal access to education, health care, and economic opportunity.
a. Secure the human rights of women and girls and end all violence against them.
b. Promote the active participation of women in all aspects of economic, political, civil, social, and cultural life as full and equal partners, decision makers, leaders, and beneficiaries.
c. Strengthen families and ensure the safety and loving nurture of all family members.

12. Uphold the right of all, without discrimination, to a natural and social environment supportive of human dignity, bodily health, and spiritual well-being, with special attention to the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities.
a. Eliminate discrimination in all its forms, such as that based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, language, and national, ethnic or social origin.
b. Affirm the right of indigenous peoples to their spirituality, knowledge, lands and resources and to their related practice of sustainable livelihoods.
c. Honor and support the young people of our communities, enabling them to fulfill their essential role in creating sustainable societies.
d. Protect and restore outstanding places of cultural and spiritual significance.

IV. DEMOCRACY, NONVIOLENCE, AND PEACE

13. Strengthen democratic institutions at all levels, and provide transparency and accountability in governance, inclusive participation in decision making, and access to justice.
a. Uphold the right of everyone to receive clear and timely information on environmental matters and all development plans and activities which are likely to affect them or in which they have an interest.
b. Support local, regional and global civil society, and promote the meaningful participation of all interested individuals and organizations in decision making.
c. Protect the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, peaceful assembly, association, and dissent.
d. Institute effective and efficient access to administrative and independent judicial procedures, including remedies and redress for environmental harm and the threat of such harm.
e. Eliminate corruption in all public and private institutions.
f. Strengthen local communities, enabling them to care for their environments, and assign environmental responsibilities to the levels of government where they can be carried out most effectively.

14. Integrate into formal education and life-long learning the knowledge, values, and skills needed for a sustainable way of life.
a. Provide all, especially children and youth, with educational opportunities that empower them to contribute actively to sustainable development.
b. Promote the contribution of the arts and humanities as well as the sciences in sustainability education.
c. Enhance the role of the mass media in raising awareness of ecological and social challenges.
d. Recognize the importance of moral and spiritual education for sustainable living.

15. Treat all living beings with respect and consideration.
a. Prevent cruelty to animals kept in human societies and protect them from suffering.
b. Protect wild animals from methods of hunting, trapping, and fishing that cause extreme, prolonged, or avoidable suffering.
c. Avoid or eliminate to the full extent possible the taking or destruction of non-targeted species.

16. Promote a culture of tolerance, nonviolence, and peace.
a. Encourage and support mutual understanding, solidarity, and cooperation among all peoples and within and among nations.
b. Implement comprehensive strategies to prevent violent conflict and use collaborative problem solving to manage and resolve environmental conflicts and other disputes.
c. Demilitarize national security systems to the level of a non-provocative defense posture, and convert military resources to peaceful purposes, including ecological restoration.
d. Eliminate nuclear, biological, and toxic weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.
e. Ensure that the use of orbital and outer space supports environmental protection and peace.
f. Recognize that peace is the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, Earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part.

The Way Forward

As never before in history, common destiny beckons us to seek a new beginning. Such renewal is the promise of these Earth Charter principles. To fulfill this promise, we must commit ourselves to adopt and promote the values and objectives of the Charter.

This requires a change of mind and heart. It requires a new sense of global interdependence and universal responsibility. We must imaginatively develop and apply the vision of a sustainable way of life locally, nationally, regionally, and globally. Our cultural diversity is a precious heritage and different cultures will find their own distinctive ways to realize the vision. We must deepen and expand the global dialogue that generated the Earth Charter, for we have much to learn from the ongoing collaborative search for truth and wisdom.

Life often involves tensions between important values. This can mean difficult choices. However, we must find ways to harmonize diversity with unity, the exercise of freedom with the common good, short-term objectives with long-term goals. Every individual, family, organization, and community has a vital role to play. The arts, sciences, religions, educational institutions, media, businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and governments are all called to offer creative leadership. The partnership of government, civil society, and business is essential for effective governance.

In order to build a sustainable global community, the nations of the world must renew their commitment to the United Nations, fulfill their obligations under existing international agreements, and support the implementation of Earth Charter principles with an international legally binding instrument on environment and development.

Let ours be a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life.

http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/categories/News/

Books by David C. Korten:
The Positive Futures Network
www.yesmagazine.org

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Excerpts from, WHEN CORPORATIONS RULE THE WORLD:

Breaking the Silence — Taking to the Street

Four years after the first IFG* teach-in, on November 30,1999, some 50,000 union members, people of faith, environmentalists, youth, indigenous peoples, peace and human rights activists, feminists, small farmers, and others took to the streets in Seattle, Washington to express their opposition to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its role in sacrificing democracy to global corporate rule.

On that historic Tuesday thousands of protestors committed to nonviolent resistance courageously stood their ground in the face of the rubber bullets, tear gas, and pepper spray of violent police battalions.

Ultimately they played a major role in bringing the WTO negotiations to a stand­still. The week of teach-ins, marches, debates, and seminars involved as many as 60,000 to 70,000 people.

Because Seattle was the epicenter of what happened on that day, some called it "The Battle of Seattle" or "The Protest of the Century." Some simply called it "Seattle '99." Seattle, however, was only the tip of a very large iceberg.

Simultaneous protests around the world brought hundreds of thousands of people to the streets. Millions have participated in related protests — both before and since — in India, France, Thailand, England, Bolivia, Switzerland, Brazil, and many other countries.

* The International Forum on Globalization (IFG), a newly formed global alliance of activists engaged in opposition to NAFTA, GATT, and other free-trade agreements.

DEFINING THE ISSUES

The debates, dialogues, and street protests have brought into sharp focus a deepening struggle grounded in two sharply divergent world views. On one side are the forces of corporate globalization advanced by an alliance between the world's largest corporations and most powerful governments.

This alliance is backed by the power of money, and its defining project is to integrate the world's national economies into a single, borderless global economy in which the world's mega-corporations are free to move goods and money anywhere in the world that affords an opportunity for profit, without governmental interference.

In the name of increased efficiency the alliance seeks to privatize public services and assets and strengthen safeguards for investors and private property. In the eyes of its proponents, corporate globalization is the result of inevitable and irreversible historical forces driving a powerful engine of technological innovation and economic growth that is strengthening human freedom, spreading democracy, and creating the wealth needed to end poverty and save the environment.

On the other side are the forces of a newly emerging global movement advanced by a planetary citizen alliance of civil society organizations. This alliance is bringing together the most important social movements of our time in common cause, is self-organizing, depends largely on voluntary social energy, and is driven by a deep value commitment to democracy, community, equity, and the web of planetary life.

It is a movement of a million leaders, each contributing ideas and initiatives toward shaping the whole. In the eyes of its members, corporate globalization is neither inevitable nor beneficial, but rather the product of intentional decisions and policies promoted by the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the IMF, global corporations, and politicians who depend on corporate money.

They believe corporate globalization is enriching the few at the expense of the many, replacing democracy with rule by corporations and financial elites, destroying the real wealth of the planet and society to make money for the already wealthy, and eroding the relationships of trust and caring that are the essential foundation of a civilized society.

Whether out of ignorance or intent to discredit, pundits of the corporate press portrayed the Seattle demonstrators as selfish, ill-informed, and disheveled malcontents who sought to close national borders, end trade, and consign the poor to perpetual misery. In other words the pundits completely missed the real story, a troubling reminder of the sorry state of the corporate news media in the United States.

The Seattle demonstrations announced the birth of perhaps the most truly international movement in human history — a movement with a well developed analysis, a deep commitment to economic justice, and an informed and articulate membership for whom concern for issues relating to trade is incidental to their concerns for human and planetary life and their commitment to the democratic ideal that every person has the right to a voice in the decisions that affect their lives.

In public, members of the establishment echoed the press in dismissing the demonstrations as the work of hooligans. In private they expressed shock at the protestors' ability to stall the plans of the world's most powerful nations and corporations.

They soon mobilized to suppress, contain, or co-opt the dissenters through a combination of police repression and invitations to multi stakeholder dialogues and partnerships. The tide of public opinion seems increasingly to align with the protestors and even a few establishment voices are beginning to call for more substantive reform.

In its September 11, 2000 cover story, "Too Much Corporate Power?" Business Week released survey results that found 72 percent of Americans believe corporations have too much power over too many aspects of American life. Seventy-three percent feel the top executives of U.S. companies are overpaid.

Only 4 percent believe that America is best served when corporations pursue only one purpose—making the most profit for their shareholders. Ninety-five percent believe corporations should sacrifice some profit for the sake of making things better for their workers and communities.

Respondents made a clear distinction between corporations and small business. While 74 percent said big companies have too much influence over government policy and politicians, eighty-two percent said small business has too little.

Business Week observed that although corporations are providing profits and material goods in large quantities, most people believe there should be more to life, and corporations seem either unable or unwilling to provide it.

The article further noted that people are experiencing a sharp disconnect between the warm and caring images that corporations attempt to cultivate for themselves and what people actually experience when corporations invade their privacy, provide poor service, pay less than living wages for jobs that exhaust them and leave no time for loved ones, show disregard for their health
and safety, and corrupt democracy with huge campaign contributions.

A related editorial made four recommendations to Business Week's corporate readers that could have been copied right off protestor banners, "First, get out of politics ... then take responsibility for overseas factories," spread the wealth, and pay attention to social issues.

The issues will not be swept away by police oppression, public relations spin, or empty promises. They are structural and persistent and can be corrected only through deep change.

The resistance grows out of an awakening of the human consciousness to humanity's deeply destructive path, the shallowness of lives devoted to mindless material consumption, and the possibility of creating a world that values life more than money. An awakened consciousness will not be denied.

It's the Culture

If the economy was the key to understanding the old politics, culture is the key to understanding the new politics. In their new book The Cultural Creative*, values researcher Paul Ray and feminist author Sherry Anderson draw on extensive survey data to describe a deep awakening of cultural consciousness in America revealed in a changing balance in the distribution of adult Americans among three cultural groupings.

1. The Modernists: At 93 million (48 percent of adult Americans), Modernists are the largest cultural group in America. They accept the commercialized urban-industrial world as the obvious right way to live.

They focus on material progress and want their children to be better off materially than they were themselves. To these ends they honor the drive to acquire money and property. In their pursuit of material success they tend to spend beyond their means, take a cynical view of idealism and value winners.

To them, living responsibly means taking care of self and family. They are the leaders of America's most powerful corporate and political institutions and are the leading champions of corporate globalization.

Modernists see themselves as defenders of rationality, technological advance, prosperity, and individual freedom against the traditionalists, New Angers, and religious mystics who resist or question material progress.

They look to global corporations and financial markets as powerful engines of wealth creation engaged in converting the otherwise idle resources of the planet into usable products to the ultimate benefit of all.

If on occasion these institutions do harm, that is a necessary price of progress toward realizing the larger common good. The Modernist's numbers are relatively stable.

2. The Traditionals reject the materialistic values of modernism and call for a return to more traditional values and gender roles. They believe in community, family, helping others, volunteering, creating and maintaining caring relationships, and working to create a society based on traditional values.

They tend toward religious conservatism and seek to build stable relationships, often through their religious congregation. They have a tendency toward fundamentalism and religious, racial, and ethnic scapegoating.

About 50 percent of the U.S. adult population around the time of World War II, the Traditionals have since declined to about 25 percent (48 million adult Americans) and are in continuing decline in both absolute and percentage terms.

3. The Cultural Creatives: Less than 5 percent of adult Americans as recently as the early 1960s, Cultural Creatives now comprise 26 percent (50 million) of the adult population and are growing both in numbers and as a percentage of the whole.

They share with Modernists a receptivity to change, but reject materialistic hedonism, the cynicism of the, corporate media, and the greed and individualism of the consumer corporate culture.

They share with Traditionals a concern for human relationships, volunteerism, and contributing to society, but reject the Traditionalists' tendencies toward survivorism, sexism, exclusion, and belief in the right of humans to dominate nature. Sixty percent of Cultural Creatives are women.

Generally optimistic about human possibilities, Cultural Creatives look beyond both modernism and traditionalism to the possibility of creating inclusive, life-affirming societies that work for all.

They are at the forefront of contemporary social and environmental activism. Indeed, an individual Cultural Creative is commonly involved in as many as four to six different groups working for social and environmental change.

They provide the leadership for the movements and initiatives that are giving birth to the living democracy movement and they formed the core of the Seattle WTO protest.

The political history of the human species during the last half of the twentieth century was largely defined by the contest for state power between two extremist ideologies: communism and capitalism.

One emphasized community to the exclusion of the individual. The other emphasized the individual to the exclusion of community. Both uncritically embraced the materialistic values of cultural modernism and measured their performance by the material output of their respective economies, a realm in which capitalism easily and inevitably triumphed.

Communism died unmourned. Its former opponent vanquished, capitalism has stepped up its assault on life, equity, and democracy. The emerging struggle of the twenty-first century centers less on ideology and class than on culture.

The living democracy movement, capitalism's new challenger, measures progress not by increases in the aggregate consumption of the few, but by the quality of life of everyone.

It seeks not to capture state power, but rather to reduce and democratize it. It seeks not to eliminate the market, but rather to restore it.

It is driven not by the love of money, but by a .love of life. Its source of power is the awakening of a new cultural consciousness. Its defining goal is a civil society.