Democracies need MORE “Progressive Voices”

Excerpting, editing, comment by Carolyn Bennett

A new and dangerous phase of the class war begins, the editors of Between the Lines Radio Magazine wrote this week.

The bitter irony, they say, is this. “Super-rich corporations and individuals bankrolling the [‘conservative’] machine are the same forces who — in their ardent advocacy of reckless financial deregulation and billion-dollars tax breaks for the wealthiest citizens — caused the global economic meltdown.”

The manipulation of the public, of eligible voters “often succeeds because the U.S. commercial media system, particularly radio, is dominated by right-wing extremist voices who use the public airwaves as an echo chamber to spread lies and distortions in support of the agenda of powerful corporations and the super rich.… Countless ‘ditto-heads’ dominate the radio airwaves, broadcasting hours of back-to-back right-wing programming.”

Every day of the week, “2,570 hours of conservative talk are broadcast” — 10 times the amount of progressive talk. Every day of the week, “254 hours of progressive voices are broadcast.”

Will Progressive Voices increase

next year, the years after that?

Will existing Progressive Radio Voices

survive?

Healthy Democracies in global community cannot survive without them.

Sources and notes
The weekly (progressive-voiced) radio magazine Between the Lines is a production of Squeaky Wheel Productions, Inc., http://www.btlonline.org/2010/101126-btl.html(P.O. Box 110176, Trumbull, CT 0 6611), fiscal sponsor: The International Center for Global Communications Foundation Inc., http://www.firstgiving.com/betweenthelinesappeal

Squeaky Wheel Productions, Inc., is a nonprofit community media organization whose mission is to promote and foster public awareness of points of view, news and information — generally ignored or marginalized in [mass] media — in order to encourage a more just and democratic global community. http://www.squeakywheel.net/ [info@squeakywheel.net]

International Center for Global Communications Foundation Inc works “to promote and foster public awareness of the peoples, cultures and current affairs of nations throughout the world and to encourage peace and understanding through various forms of media and other methods of information exchange.

“To develop television and radio programming with an international and educational perspective that is socially responsible, informative and entertaining, dealing with such topics as worldwide human rights, earth rights and environmental issues.

“To assist in the development of a new type of international and educational journalism in which the reporting of international events and conditions are reported in conjunction with people from those countries who are most affected by those events.

“To sponsor and promote television programming, symposia, lectures, conferences and workshops which foster communications between the peoples of all nations and the United States…” http://www.firstgiving.com/17751

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PROGRESSIVE LEFT Framing Fairer Future ─ Lucas

Caroline Lucas’s Good Society, Social Democracy article excerpt, minor editing By Carolyn Bennett for Today’s Insight News
“A positive future for social democracy depends upon a genuine political commitment to social and environmental justice”

Lucas is talking to Europe, but think USA, too
Increasing numbers of reports underline that happiness and well-being do not depend on endless economic growth and material wealth; but rather on contented families, strong communities, meaningful work and personal freedom. So it becomes clearer that the policies we need to live good lives are precisely the policies we need to tackle the environmental and social challenges we face today.

In order to reassert the values of social democracy and unite the left to protect the well-being of people and planet, we therefore need explicit policies designed to reduce inequality and reduce climate emissions. We must pull lower incomes up ─ in the short term through a living wage, in the longer term via Citizens Income ─ and, crucially, levy proportionate taxation on the highest incomes. Research by Compass has found considerable public support for a fairer tax system to redistribute wealth, with 78 per cent in a recent poll saying they would support a tax system whereby the richest 10 per cent pay at least the same percentage of their income in tax as the poorest 10 per cent. Fair policies to cut emissions through a system of individual carbon rationing will also play a key role in this new social democracy.

“What’s clear is that right-of-centre political ideology, with its fondness for free market deregulation, privatization and public spending cuts, does not hold the solutions to the challenges that we face. It is the responsibility of social democracy to combat the continued rise of the right by staying true to the values of its socialist roots and placing fairness at the heart of the political economy. We need a social democracy founded on ecological sustainability, wealth redistribution, cultural innovation and human well-being.

“The progressive left must provide a positive and hopeful vision for a greener, fairer future – anything less will amount to a political and a moral failure that Europe [Think USA too] simply cannot afford.”

Caroline Lucas is Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, and a Member of the European Parliament for the South East of England. Lucas is a leading authority on green politics, climate change, international trade, animal welfare and peace issues. She is standing in Brighton Pavilion as the Green PPC [Prospective Parliamentary Candidate] for the upcoming general election.


Sources and notes
“Where now for Social Democracy in Europe? (A positive future for social democracy depends upon a genuine political commitment to social and environmental justice),” by Caroline Lucas, January 15, 2010, http://www.social-europe.eu/2010/01/where-now-for-social-democracy-in-europe/
The United Kingdom’s “most influential ideas and action-based political pressure group with over 30,000 members and supporters enabling people to go out, take action and make real change happen,” Compass was launched in 2003 with publication of its Vision for the Democratic Left.
Compass is building the ideas and organization for a new progressive consensus based around its “core values of democracy, equality and sustainability ─ instead of silos, we know you cannot have one without the other two. As the planet gets hotter and the poor get poorer,” Compass campaigns “collaboratively with progressive politicians of all parties, pressure groups, trade unions, think tanks, NGOs, academics, activists, campaigners and across civil society. We’re building a coalition for a radical 21st century politics the country [UK] needs now.” Direction for the Democratic Left, http://www.compassonline.org.uk/index.asp; http://www.compassonline.org.uk/about/index.asp