The following press release comes from GTI’s friends at the Next System Project, led by Gar Alperovitz and Gus Speth:
For many months now, we have been developing and incubating the Next System Project as an effort to help catalyze a wide-ranging discussion of the deep systemic challenges – economic, political, social, and ecological – we face as individuals, communities, and as a nation. Prominent among these are growing wealth inequality, escalating climate change, persistent racial inequities, violence against women, the decay of civil liberties, and the continued erosion of our democracy at all levels.
The goal of the Project is to put “the system question” on the map for wide-ranging national debate, dialogue, and ultimately action. We need a diversity of ideas, and open discussion. We hope to explore and debate thoughtful approaches that take us beyond rhetoric into a range of substantive system-changing institutional and policy approaches and strategies.
It’s rare that ideas matter in politics. Usually, what matters is simply the momentum of entrenched power. But every so often history gives us an opening to something new. When the old stories no longer explain the world around us, when it is obvious that something is deeply wrong, new ideas can matter, and matter a great deal. Our present moment in history appears to be one of those times. Unless we can seize it, and come together to develop and implement a plausible alternative systemic direction, the current downward trajectory of pain and decay will likely continue.
The first step is free and open debate. Today we are releasing a major public statement on the systemic crisis, The Next System: It’s Time to Face the Depth of the Systemic Crisis We Confront. It has been signed by over 350 leading activists, academics, business leaders, policy makers, labor leaders, and environmentalists. Signatories to the statement do not agree on everything, of course. But they have made clear that they affirm the importance of a serious national discussion of the growing systemic crisis and possible systemic alternatives. A rich and effective debate is only possible with a diversity of viewpoints and perspectives.
This statement is now open for signature by any and all who support our call for a national conversation on systemic change. If you have not done so already we encourage you to read the statement, share it with your colleagues, and consider adding your name as a signatory. You can find the statement on our website, thenextsystem.org. A PDF version, with the names of the 338 signatories who had signed before we went to print, can also be found here, and printed copies are available from >The Democracy Collaborative for those who would like them.
Additionally, working with >Softbox films, we have produced >a short film aimed at bringing these critical issues to a wide audience. The film features climate activist Bill McKibben, actor Danny Glover, economic and social equity advocate Angela Glover Blackwell, whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, and many others who believe it’s now time to start asking and answering the hard questions. The film is being released along with the statement. We hope you will watch it and share it with your networks.
We are also publishing our first report: The Next System Project: New Political-Economic Possibilities for the 21st Century, an essay on the thinking that led to the Project and the goals of the effort; it can be downloaded >here. The report also provides a brief survey of systemic alternatives that have been proposed by various writers and activists, and that are now beginning to be more widely discussed. We have also begun commissioning a series of working papers in areas where new research ground must be broken and new issues brought to the table. Wherever possible we will be working with people and groups who have done pioneering work in connection with the various topics, hopefully boosting capacity that already exists rather than duplicating important work already underway.
In May – together with a number of allied organizations – we will be hosting a national webinar conversation and dialogue on systemic change. Joining us on the panel will be Juliet Schor, Professor of Sociology at Boston College; Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of PolicyLink; and Gerald Torres, Jane M.G. Foster Professor at Cornell University Law School. The webinar is set for 3:00pm Eastern on May 20, 2015, and registration is available >here.
Future newsletters will be sent on a bi-monthly basis, and will contain updates on the project as it develops, along with highlights on other items of interest. The Next System Project can also be found on >Facebook and on >Twitter, and we can be reached via email at nextsystem@democracycollaborative.org.
Today’s launch initiates a multi-year commitment to foster essential national debate through research, communications, convenings, policy proposals, and other strategic activities. We encourage you to forward this newsletter to friends and colleagues who may be interested.
