Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Sustainable California State Bank Initiative

http://www.californiagreenbacks.com/Volunteers_Needed.html

Volunteers needed:

1. We need thirty thousand on-line members who are willing to print out each state bank initiative and collect twenty signatures for each initiative from the same twenty registered voters. This will allow us to put multiple state bank initiatives on the voter’s ballot in record time. This will also create enough free publicity to educate the general public about the many ways public banking can cure our economy and environment. We will be applying to the board of elections to begin collecting signatures for the Sustainable California State Bank Initiative by February.
2. We need volunteers who are willing to print out the brochure/flyer promoting this website and hand it out at public speaking events. I think the best place to hand out the flyer is when a well-known author is talking about a book they wrote about the current financial crisis. Any public events about the environment, democracy, politics and social action are appropriate places to hand out fliers.
3. We also need a list of books about the financial meltdown and the Wall Street crooks that are ruining our economy and democracy.
4. We need to list of when and where financial authors are speaking in public along with a review of their books to post on the events page.
5. We need editors combing over this website and offering suggestions and links to important related articles.
6. We need legal scholars who want to help us formulate our initiatives.
7. We need volunteers to help us construct a stand-alone complementary currency initiative based on the WIR in Switzerland.
8. We need volunteers to help us construct a stand-alone initiative that is based on the Kucinich monetary reform initiative and the proposal to monetize Minnesota infrastructure debt (debt free money). http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/minnesota-bank-proposal.php
9. We need volunteers to research additional proposals and initiatives being offered in the United States and around the world that might offer useful legalese that we can incorporate into our state bank initiatives. For example there is a movement in Ireland to create greenback dollars to invest in sustainability. http://www.feasta.org/money.htm
10. We need economists who are able to offer financial analysis of how each initiative will work in the real world and how it will affect the economy. The technical information we need to create a manual and check list for starting a state bank that can be applied to California and all states.
11. We need volunteers to research the possibility of using the ballot box to create public banks on a county and city level. Are there citizen’s proposals that can be offered on a county and city level? For example can we gleam useful information from this county public bank proposal in Florida?http://investmentwatchblog.com/an-economic-solution-for-miami-dade-county/ Can a similar proposal be adapted for other counties?
12. We need volunteers to research the original California state bank proposal that Governor Pat Brown reportedly offered back in the 1960s. We need to modify that proposal and offer it to the current legislature for consideration. Somebody told Ellen Brown about the Pat Brown proposal. We need a volunteer to write Ellen and ask her to help us track down the the source of her information. Once we have the proposal it would also be interesting to write an article titled “ Governor Brown Proposes a California State Bank”.
13. We need volunteers to adapt and mirror this website for all fifty states.
14. We need to find copies of the two legal challenges to the Bank of North Dakota that went to the US Supreme Court. We need legal scholars who can anticipate additional legal challenges to each initiative and devise strategies for defending public banking on all levels of government.
15. We need someone to find a copy of the 1919 law that created the Industrial Commission that oversees the Bank of North Dakota. The North Dakota historical society will do the research for a fee. We also need a copy of the law that allowed the BND to offer a two million dollar Bond that was the start-up funding for the bank. We need to post this information on the website under 1919 North Dakota. We need to study this approach and come up with our own adaptation for Public Bank start-up funding.
16. We need technical assistance figuring out how to organize this website in an efficient and failsafe manner. The ultimate goal is to allow each on-line member to democratically participate in making decisions about the content of each initiative.
17. We need volunteers to offer sustainable infrastructure proposals big and small that can be posted under the technical page of this website. We need low tech solutions that only require micro funding and the best high tech solutions that might require large amounts of start-up funding. We need research proposals and honest business plans. The primary source of income for all of the mega financial institutions is skimming off Wall Street profits and gambling in derivatives. So any sustainable real economy proposals are welcome.
18. We need additional proposals for reform initiatives that will create a paradigm shift. Initiatives that represent a fundamental change in the economy, democratic participation, the environment, sustainability, local control and improving the middle class. We need to figure out how to decentralize the economy. We need to figure out ways to stop the wealthy corporate elite from hoarding resources. We need local proposals and initiatives that will build up middle class jobs, create a sustainable economy and increase public participation in a real grass roots democracy. For example this existing initiative would transfers all state revenues ( income taxes, sales tax, corporate taxes etc.) on to the rental value of raw land. http://www.prospercalifornia.com/
I believe this initiative would release a huge amount of pent up wealth in California. California has an underutilized gold mine of sustainable resources yet the wealthy elite and transnational Corporations are using property in California as a physical location to hoard (dump) tremendous wealth. If the tax structure where changed to force the elite to develop their properties or sell them to companies that will invest in improvements than great levels of stored wealth would be unleashed. Once we have 30 thousand on-line members who will committee to gathering 20 signatures each we can put as many far-reaching initiatives on the ballot as we want. This will create a flood of grassroots enthusiasm and renewed democratic participation at all levels of government. With-out a huge influx of democratic involvement our hopes of creating real change will fail.
19. Those who want to donate money can use their resources to creatively advertise this website. I think the best way to gather on-line activist is to keep this organization free of monetary influence. We do not seek donations except to pay for specific cost. For example we need to pay $200 to the board of elections before collecting signatures for each initiative.
20. We need volunteers who will post a link to this website on blogs, twitter, facebook and their own websites.
21. We need to develop a large forum that is broken into many topics that cover all of the areas mentioned above and all other areas of specific interest.
22. We need volunteers to write and publish U-tube presentations that explain what we are about and how people can participate in an interesting way.

For more information contact Jeff Heaton at JeffHeaton108@gmail.com

3 comments:

  1. Right on, you guys. I assume you're familiar with the Public Banking Institute (www.PublicBankingInstitute.org) -- they are planning a conference for this Fall, but also have a growing team of supporters and researchers, etc. Be sure to check it out, and good luck!

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  2. Great Initiative. I am sure you are familiar with Bill Still, creator of "The Money Masters" and "The Secret of OZ"

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLDjl6GEXIY&feature=channel_video_title

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  3. Kudos for your efforts!

    Kent Welton,
    PublicCentralBank.com

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