NOW WE THE PEOPLE

Who are struggling for a just society
Who care deeply about the future
Who have felt powerless in the face of globalising economic forces and anti-democratic executive government
Who oppose the dismantling of public resources and erosion of the human rights and civilised standards we had taken for granted
Who want to shape our destiny for a common humanity, not in ways that fuel division and conflict
Want to answer the economic rationalists and corporate globalisers.

The vision we share

We believe it is possible to build a society in which:
All human beings and communities would be accorded equal respect and rights, and diversity between individuals and cultures will be celebrated;
Cooperation - rather than extreme individualism and ruthless competition - would be the principal feature;
We would sustain the biological environment, which also has a value for our spiritual well-being
Indigenous Australians would be accorded the respect and support due to the first owners and custodians of traditional lands and waters;
Women would freely develop their full human potential, on equal terms with men;
The economy would serve the needs of people. Citizens have the right to paid work and government should ensure this occurs in a socially and ecologically responsible way;
Non-violence would be the preferred means to justly resolve social and international conflicts;
A secure family life is based on shared personal responsibilities and social support for children and their parents.
Now is the time to promote a community-wide discussion on these concerns
The coming of the new millennium is a time to take stock of humanity's achievements and shortcomings and to re-think a vision for a better society. It is time to reassert the values of cooperation between people and care for the global environment, and of equality and equal opportunity in terms of race, gender, sexuality and class.
The new millennium opens in a period of momentous technological advances and social changes. Some of these changes advance humanity's future but others threaten it. The benefits from positive technological changes are unevenly spread. In spite of technological advance, over one and a half billion people live in abject poverty. Hundreds of millions of people can be connected in an electronic web, yet divisions between people based on racism persist.
We can share a global human culture reflecting the extraordinary diversity in art and thought, yet the economic force described as globalisation can wreck communities and lives, and destroy ecosystems.
Technologies are now so powerful that they are the major influence on the global environment, as evidenced by global warming, and more localised environmental disasters. To reverse this escalating ecological crisis, we need to change our patterns of production and consumption. We need to pass on to future generations an environmental quality at least as good as that which we inherited.

Our public life

Public life and politics should express the community's valuing of democracy and debate, yet increasingly institutions such as parliament are losing the respect of citizens. Those holding office seem incapable of averting this decline which may have grave long-term effects on social cohesion and democracy.
Public life also relies on social trust, public morality and civil society - the network of voluntary organisations among citizens who share common interests. Civil society is being undermined by demands that voluntary associations, for example in the welfare sector, replace government support. Voluntary welfare associations are forced to behave like private corporations, eroding their original character.

Working life

For those in employment, squeezing work and family responsibilities into an expanded working week is increasingly hard. Within corporations, senior executives reward themselves with huge salaries and packages while the income of employees is tightly controlled. For others there is no paid work, often with resulting alienation, fracturing of family and social ties and loss of purpose. Trade unions have a vital role to play in workplaces and public life, and attempts to destroy them and the system of industrial regulation are eroding civilised standards in working life. The deregulation of the wages system has made over 25% of jobs casual, particularly affecting women and young people, and widened the gender-gap in incomes.

The power of the markets

Since the early 1980s, market-based philosophies have dominated public debate in Australia and world-wide. Markets may encourage efficiency in productive activities, stimulate innovation and sometimes improve service to consumers. Unregulated markets, however, concentrate wealth and power into the hands of a few and deprive others of material goods and power over their own lives. In Australia, unfettered market philosophies are leading to a radical transformation of society in which relentless competition and individualism are displacing notions of the common good or the public interest.
Ethics, mutual respect, knowledge, human rights and civilised social standards are corroded when strict commercial criteria are applied to and intrude on all aspects of life.
'User pays' philosophy applied to education and health, transport and communication, heritage and the environment, sport and the arts, ignores the reality that different groups in the community have different capacities to pay. In many areas, a price is put on previously free services that are of general social value.
Privatisation is a highly unpopular transfer of public wealth to private shareholders and public services to business. Successive governments which have implemented privatisation have served narrow commercial interests, not the public good.

Contesting economic rationalism

Societies struggled for over one hundred years to reject the law of the jungle of laissez-faire capitalism. Now the social contract achieved after the Great Depression and World War II, of full employment and a welfare system, is being deliberately eroded by unbridled focus on the bottom line.
The corporate world, never known for its idealism, is becoming even more ruthlessly devoted to the narrow and short-term considerations of share price.
The stripping away of regulatory constraints on the business world means that the boom-bust cycle may reassert itself with the kind of destructive power unleashed in the Great Depression. Deregulation and unbridled market philosophy may prove to be a move 'back to the future'.
Many people have resisted the moves toward 'economic rationalism' over the past two decades. Opposition to bank closures in the bush, to higher fees for university students, to exploitation of the natural world, to privatisation and cuts in public services, to marginalisation of Indigenous Australian rights - all these have generated powerful protest movements both within the established political and trade union organisations and in broad community movements and coalitions. From these protests we need to forge a constructive new vision for Australia, one which focuses on celebrating ideas of the common good, not sectional, market-based solutions.

There CAN be a better way

Let's have an open and inclusive debate on our shared vision and concerns, drawing on the positive and negative experiences in many countries during the 20th century. People of many traditions - liberal-democratic, social-democratic, socialist, feminist, green, religious and others, each with their own records of successes and failures - can contribute to finding contemporary solutions to these issues.
Join in this community-wide discussion in your locality, trade union, environmental or community organisation. Let's transform the national agenda and create a practical program for Australia as an alternative to the path of economic rationalism, racism and ecological destruction. Let's use all our intellectual, artistic and communications skills to achieve this goal.
We can celebrate real achievements around these values in the last 30 years in Australia, and refocus our efforts to meet the stark challenges now facing us.
This declaration is intended to stimulate discussion, not close it. Individual signatories share differing political perspectives, but broadly we agree on this statement.
We welcome your input into this national and inclusive discussion process. Discussion kits on key themes from this statement are being prepared, and will be available by post, by email and on our website. You can participate by taking part in meetings on the different topics, and by responding through the website or directly by email. You are encouraged to consider new topics that emerge out of discussions that you take part in.