Organization for Help to Save US Democracy

29 March 2006

Press Release:

New American Organization Appeals to Peopleof World to Help Save Democracy in the U.S.

March,2006

A new organization, the INTERNATIONAL ENDOWMENT FORDEMOCRACY (I.E.D.), announced today that it has issued anURGENT APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD to donate money tohelp support democracy in the country that needs it mostatheUSA.

The Board of Directors of the I.E.D. includes HOWARDZINN (America's leading radical historian), MUMIA ABU-JAMAL(America's most famous political prisoner), GORE VIDAL(America's premier progressive novelist and essayist), ELLENMEIKSINS WOOD (winner of the Isaac Deutscher Prize), RAMSEYCLARK (world's leading human rights lawyer), BARBARA FOLEY(Chair of the Left Alliance, the union of progressiveacademic caucuses), MICHAEL PARENTI (America's foremostcritic of capitalist democracy), IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN (pastpresident of the International Sociological Association),ANNETTE RUBINSTEIN (America's longest active socialistteacher), MICHAEL RATNER (President of the Center forConstitutional Rights and past President of the NationalLawyers' Guild), DAVID HARVEY (world's most citedgeographer), MARTHA GIMENEZ (founding editor of THEPROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK), HARRY MAGDOFF (co-editorof America's premier Marxist theoretical journal, MONTHLYREVIEWauntil his sad death on Jan. 1st), and two dozen othermajor American progressive scholars, lawyers andactivists.

"If the U.S. government has its 'NATIONALENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY' (N.E.D.) to promote itsself-interested view of democracy in other countries, it isonly fair", says N.Y.U. Politics Department ProfessorBertell Ollman, who is the President of the I.E.D., "thatthe people of the world should have an 'INTERNATIONALENDOWMENT' to push their idea of democracy inside the UnitedStates."

"When the government of the country that likes tothink of itself as 'THE GREATEST DEMOCRACY IN THE WORLD' hasjust stolen two presidential elections", Ollman continues, "and spreads unnecessary wars, theft of the commons,exploding economic inequalities, environmental degradation,and outright torture in the name of 'DEMOCRATIC NATIONBUILDING'and 'DEMOCRACY PROMOTION'; and then financessupposedly independent organizations like the NATIONALENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY (NED) to subvert foreign governmentsof which it disapprovesawhen, in short, 'DEMOCRACY' not onlyrhymes with 'HYPOCRISY' but has come to embody ita it istime for everyone suffering from these policies to uniteacross national borders to bring them to an end."

To aidin this task, the INTERNATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY(IED) is appealing for donations, no matter how small, fromall those victimized by our government's actions. Apart fromthe organization's minimal expenses (no one on the Board ispaid a salary), all of this money will be passed on to someof the many groups (no political parties) already working tochange these policies by defending and extending democracyINSIDE the United States. THIS MAY BE A FIRST: AMERICANSSEEKING HELP FROM PEOPLE OUTSIDE THE COUNTRY, RATHER THANTHE OTHER WAY AROUND.

Professor Ollman explains, "Our viewis that DEMOCRATIC NATION BUILDINGaTHE REAL THING, NOT THEHYPOCRITICAL VERSIONaMUST BEGIN IN THE COUNTRY THAT NEEDS ITMOST, THE U.S.A., AND THAT PEOPLE EVERYWHERE HAVE A ROLE TOPLAY IN BRINGING IT ABOUT. This is not because there is lessdemocracy in the U.S. than anywhere elseaa few othercountries are even worse off in this regardabut because theDEMOCRACY DEFICIT from which we suffer in the United Statesis a greater threat to life, liberty and the pursuit ofhappiness of people all across the globe than the activitiesof any other regime."

"THE CONNECTION WITH OUR RAPIDLYVANISHING DEMOCRACY", Ollman continues, "comes from the factthat, as victims of these same destructive policies, thegreat majority of Americans have no interest in retainingthem, and would change them in an instant if our democracyreally worked as we're told it does. That they haven't doneso is because they can't, because the laws, the media, theschools, and other means for making such changes have beenbent out of shape (through systematic bias), hidden (throughenforced ignorance), bought up by Big Money (especiallythis) and, when 'necessary', stolen (as in the last twopresidential elections)."

"WHO CAN DOUBT THAT PEOPLEEVERYWHERE HAVE A HUGE STAKE IN THE DEMOCRATIZATION OFAMERICA? And with the I.E.D., they now have a chance to helpthemselves by helping us to help them."

THE I.E.D. ALSOCALLS ON THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO MONITOR ELECTIONS INTHE U.S. "Is there anyone left in the world outside theUnited States", Ollman asks, "who doesn't recognize the needfor such monitors?"

In keeping with the organization's aimof giving the people of the world a voice in U.S. affairs,the I.E.D. is also exploring the possibility ofco-sponsoring a WORLD SOCIAL FORUM ON DEMOCRACY TO BE HELDIN EITHER OHIO OR FLORIDA IN THE SUMMER OF 2007, one yearbefore the next presidential election. "A World Social Forumheld at 'ground zero' of our last stolen election", Ollmansays, "would help both Americans and our foreign guestsacquire a deeper understanding of the meaning of democracyand of what is necessary to defend and extend it."

TheI.E.D.'s APPEAL for funds has just gone out to over twentythousand people who are being asked to forward it toeveryone on their e-mail trees, who are, in turn, beingasked to do the same, and so on. The MoveOn organizationreached millions of Americans on behalf of Howard Deanduring the 2004 presidential primaries in just this way, butours may be the first attempt to extend this tactic to thewhole world. It is certainly THE FIRST ATTEMPT TO USE THEINTERNET TO INVOLVE THE WHOLE WORLD IN THE BADLY NEEDEDDEMOCRATIZATION OF THE UNITED STATES.

The I.E.D. has alsolaunched a website - www.iefd.org (much of it in over adozen languages) to help gather donations and to expand onthe analysis that underlies our project. An extensiveDEMOCRACY LIBRARY of critical works divided into sections on"The National Endowment for Hypocrisy Democracy", "StolenElection(s)", "American 'Democracy'?" and "Is DemocracyCompatible with Capitalism?" (along with manifestos,cartoons, quotations, blog andessay/book/poetry/song/cartoon contests on these subjects)has also been added as a unique educational resource forcourses that deal with democracy on both high school andcollege levels.

For further details, including a copy ofour URGENT APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD, see ourwebsite www.iefd.org

TO CONTACTUS:

WEBSITE www.iefd.org orwww.internationalendowmentfordemocracy.org

ENDS
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