[PAA-Discuss] FW: Announcing A New International Project for a Participatory Society - IPPS

[Lee Loe]

This is very exciting to me. If you look at the list of initial participants
I think you will recognize many of them. The ones I am acquainted with have
great intellects, integrity and a sincere – love of people and the planet,
to be corny. Anyway, check out this announcement of A New International
Project for a Participatory Society. Lee/Mom/Grandma Lee

 

  _____  

From: sysop at zmail.zmag.org [mailto:sysop at zmail.zmag.org] 
Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2006 2:31 PM
To: znetupdates at zmail.zmag.org
Subject: Announcing A New International Project for a Participatory Society
- IPPS

 

Hello,

In this ZNet Update mailing we convey a message from the activists of a new
International Project for a Participatory Society (IPPS). Born out of Z
Sessions on Vision and Strategy this new project starts with a membership of
59 activists from 18 countries. Here is their announcement...

====

IPPS Born

June 1 - 6, 2006 about thirty five people from eleven countries assembled in
Woods Hole, Massachusetts for what was called Z Sessions on Vision and
Strategy. 

Each day we had four sessions, each with a presenter, someone to comment,
and then discussions. Everyone who presented at one of these sessions also
attended the other presentations. Beyond the many sessions, we of course
also socialized and explored ideas and commitments. Everyone boarded at a
nearby friendly motel and ate at an also nearby famous oceanographic
institution cafeteria. The focus was “what we want” and “how we get it”--not
for the short term and for narrow issues, but rather for the long term and
more comprehensive issues. 

Sessions ranged from kinship vision, through political vision, into
international relations, and cultural and also economic vision. Issues of
organization, program, lessons from current experiments and struggles around
the world and especially ideas about long-term vision and strategy were
highlighted. For more on ZSVS, please see the site:
<https://www.zmag.org/junemtg.html> https://www.zmag.org/junemtg.html

Perhaps the most notable and unusual attribute of this gathering was the
extent to which, in just a few days, a tight and inspiring solidarity
emerged among those attending who discussed all manner of topics, but beyond
sharing ideas, also developed a sense of shared commitments. This
solidarity, in turn, fueled a desire to maintain ties and to expand our
efforts. Thus was born what we called the International Project for a
Participatory Society or IPPS ( <http://www.zmag.org/ipps.html>
http://www.zmag.org/ipps.html).

IPPS was not to be a vanguard or a party of any kind. Rather, IPPS was to be
a growing group of people, united initially by shared views and an intense
few days of discussion and debate, coming together to continue their
individual, joint, and collective work on behalf of winning a better world.
The group settled easily on an IPPS mission statement:

The International Project for a Participatory Society (IPPS) is a group of
people concerned with inspiring, facilitating, and supporting efforts to
develop, share, and promote vision and strategy for attaining a new
participatory society. 

IPPS stands for a classless economy based on self-management and equality,
for democratic and participatory politics, and for the elimination of
patriarchy, racism, and all other hierarchies and oppressions.

IPPS seeks to elaborate a vision of a participatory society in order to
demonstrate that there is an alternative to current race, gender, political,
environmental, and other injustices.

IPPS membership began as everyone who actually attended the Sessions in
June, but agreed that we would also invite those who had been invited to the
sessions but were unable to attend them. Beyond that group, it was agreed
that additional people could begin working with IPPS via contacts and
friends at any time, but that “official” membership would be
decided/ratified at yearly meetings – and that the next such meeting  would
occur on or around the U.S. Social Forum next Summer. 

At the Z Sessions, beyond agreeing on a name and mission statement for IPPS,
we also decided a project definition, basic principles/values, a date for
the next policy meeting at the US social forum next summer, and to present a
Participatory Society program at that forum.

We decided to focus on the following tasks in the next six months:

*         Creating a web site and blog system  for public communications,
etc. and a first incarnation of this now exists, at www.zmag.org/ipps.html

*         Researching experiments around the world in visionary institution
building

*         Creating an internal newsletter 

*         Developing tools to aid experiments in creating participatory
society institutions

*         Developing program for the U.S. Social Forum

*         Creating a speakers bureau for members

*         Assisting members with pursuing, evaluating, and publishing their
work 

*         Establishing means for dealing with internal disputes, conflicts,
errors, etc.

 

The essence of IPPS’s purpose is to contribute to enlarging the
attentiveness of the left to matters of vision and strategy and their
implications both for long term and present activity. IPPS is described at
its web site http://www.zmag.org/ipps.html  The initial membership list
appears below. We hope to work well together, and with others, in a growing
effort to better understand what a new and participatory society could be
like, and how our actions might help bring it into being.

 

IPPS Members


Ezequiel Adamovsky - Argentina

Michael Albert - U.S.

Bridgit Anderson - Great Britain

Jessica Azulay - U.S.

Normand Baillargeon - Canada

Elaine Bernard - U.S.

Peter Bohmer - U.S.

Patrick Bond - South Africa 

Jeremy Brecher - U.S.

Dennis Brutus - South Africa

Irina Ceric - Serbia/Canada

Daniel Chavez - Netherlands

Noam Chomsky - U.S. 

Carol Delgado - Venezuela 

Brian Dominick - U.S.

Mark Evans - England

Kendra Fehrer - U.S.

Susan George - France

Jonah Gindin - Canada

Sean Gonsalves - U.S.

Andrej Grubacic - Serbia/U.S.

Serge Halimi - France

Elizabeth Hartman- U.S. 

John Hepburn - Australia 

Pervez Hoodhboy - Pakistan 

Robert Jensen - U.S.

Ria Julien - Trinidad/U.S.

Naomi Klein - Canada

Sonali Kolhatkar - India/U.S.

Jamie LeJeune - U.S.

Rahul Mahajan - U.S.

Mandisi Majavu - South Africa

Felipe Pérez Martí - Venezuela 

Pablo Ortellado - Brazil

Ilan Pappe - Israel

Cynthia Peters - U.S.

John Pilger - Great Britain 

Evan Henshaw Plath - U.S.

Justin Podur - India/Canada

Thomas Ponniah - U.S.

Vijay Prashad - U.S.

Milan Rai - Britain

Carola Reintjes - Spain 

Manuel Rozental - Colombia 

Chantel Santerre - Canada

Lydia Sargent - U.S.

Steve Shalom - U.S. 

Devinder Sharma - India 

Marina Sitrin - U.S.

Chris Spannos - Canada

Marie Trigona - Argentina

Tamara Vukov - Canada

Harsha Walia - India/Canada

Hilary Wainwright - Great Britain

Tom Wetzel - U.S.

Greg Wilpert - Venezuela

Tim Wise - U.S. 

America Vera Zavala - Sweden

Howard Zinn - U.S. 

 

 

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