Comments:

This is good but it reads like a laundry list of depressing problems with society. It's also very academic sounding/sounds like a party platform. I think it should be a "vision" or someting like that, more then an "agenda" which seems more like a political party platform. The first couple paragraphs in "Values" section are great, but then the list of all the things we stand for seems unecessary and possibly infinite. Also, I like the idea of stressing the values, and morality of our group more then specific political initiatives, I think that is where the first SDS had its power, in its ethics and almost patriotic commitment to democracy.

Do we not want to sound academic? Are we an anti-academia organization? I do agree this needs a little more passion though. I'm not sure if we have to choose between an "agenda" and a "vision" in fact I feel like our Mission Statement will be stronger if it consists of both. Like a political platform it will explain all of what we think is wrong with society, unlike a political platform it will convincingly and theoretically explain why we think this is wrong and what our vision of a new society would look like. I think some of the biggest problems with the PHS was that it was too much ambiguous "vision" and left out a lot of "agenda" that we will have to include if we want to be taken seriously (eg, "feminism, globalization, gay rights, environmental issues, immigration, etc.") That being said, I'm also not a big fan of the list of the things we stand for at the end of the Values section and would encourage anyone to rewrite that part stressing morality and commitment to democracy. Maybe I'll try later.

INTRODUCTION: AGENDA FOR A NEW MILLENNIUM

We are people of the new millennium, united in moral outrage at the oppressed and ravaged world we inherit, and optimistically engaged in working towards a new and truly democratic world.

Democracy, in world history, has been a fragile, contested, unfinished, and relatively recent growth. Defining democracy can be difficult. In theory it means a civilization where the population of that society controls the government. In the realm of law it requires free, universal, secret, adult, and equal suffrage; the classic civil freedoms of speech, conscience, assembly, association, and the press; and freedom from arrest without trial. By this legal definition, the majority of nation states achieved a democratic government within the twentieth century. However, as these representative democracies were slowly attained through the political, social, and cultural struggles of the last century, it became increasingly apparent that the legal definition of democracy did not necessarily attain what its theoretical counterpart implied.

Because every generation has inherited an unequal world where nationality, religion, ethnicity, race, gender, and class give some more power, more money, and more freedom than others, certain people have had and continue to have more control over society. Because of this inequity, the struggle for democracy in the latter half of the twentieth century has become principally a struggle for equality. What troubles us most, as people entering the twenty-first Century, is the erosion of that equality in recent years, in both the national and international arena, and its implications for the future of democracy.

On a purely economic level, inequality has reduced democracy to a sham, ensuring that the executive of the modern state, regardless of party affiliation, is rarely more than a committee for managing the affairs of the wealthy. The concentration of wealth everywhere is reaching record levels. In the United States, according to the most recent estimates, the richest one percent of the population owned more than 43 percent of the nation's wealth. The richest half percent alone owned more than 34 percent -– over 50 percent more wealth than the bottom 90 percent of the population (and even in the bottom 90 percent, most of the wealth is concentrated at the top). Globally, the figures are even more astonishing. Fewer than five hundred people around the world own more than the combined income of more than half the planet's population. These vast concentrations of wealth are inherently undemocratic. The deregulation of corporate activity and the decentralization and underfunding of the regulatory structures that remain, accompanied by the centralization of large sums of money, has been a disaster for the western world. The true owners of the public lands, pension funds, and the public airwaves are the people, who today have little or no control over their pooled assets or their government.

All human beings have the right to a life that will let them achieve their full potential and true democracy would be guaranteeing each member of a society equal rights, regardless of sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, race, gender, and class. Since the beginning of modern civilization, men's dominance over women was firmly established. Our history has been marred with oppression of and brutality towards women. We continue to live in a system of male domination, known as patriarchy, in all its forms, both subtle and overt—from oppression, inequality, and discrimination to domestic violence, rape, trafficking and forced slavery. Politically, after years of struggle for the vote, women still struggle with not being paid equally for their work, not being equally represented in the government and international negotiations, and not having control over their own bodies. In addition, differences in sexual orientation continue to create a part of society that remains unequal. We watched in distress as the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act” passed in the house and almost put inequality directly into the United States Constitution. Racial inequality also remains a very large problem in many nations around the world, especially the United States. The struggle for overcoming the effects of 200 years of slavery and the displacement of Native Americans from their land have been left largely unfinished. We watched in horror as Hurricane Katrina devastated the largely black population of New Orleans while the strongest nation in the world failed to provide adequate means of reconstruction and temporary housing. We watched in disgust as the house passed (HR) 4437, trying to turn the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants into aggravated felons overnight, make lawbreakers of anyone who assists them, and fund construction of a massive wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. We must never forget that we are a nation of immigrants, a rich tapestry of nationalities, races, religions and creeds who have come together to forge a new, classless society based on equality of opportunity and the individual freedoms and inalienable rights protected by our Constitution.

We witnessed, and continue to witness, other inequities and atrocities. In a democracy that is supposedly based upon rationality and majority rule, the United States government continues to fight a war in Iraq that the majority of U.S. citizens do not support. Furthermore, the government has failed to provide rational and reliable reasons for entering the war in the first place. The so-called "war on terror" that has been repeatedly invoked as a rationale to justify entering the war has morphed into an assault on the civil liberties of the people of this country. The Executive Branch has used Homeland Defense monies to spy on citizens exercising First Amendment rights and is allowed surveillance of libraries, readers, the Internet and computer users, through the U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act. This reveals that the lack of real democratic control over the government can be taken advantage of in times of crises, and be used to attack even the most basic rights and liberties.

While these and other problems either directly oppressed us or rankled our consciences and became our own subjective concerns, we began to see complicated and disturbing paradoxes in the surrounding world. Although capitalist society has raised production to the point where everybody could be provided with a decent life — enough to eat, a comfortable place to live, health care, educational and recreational opportunities, and an education — millions in the United States and around the world continue to go hungry, without shelter, without adequate medical attention, and without the educational and recreational tools they need to thrive as human beings. As world population continues to radicalize, the United States continues its national and international misconduct through unchecked exploitation and the sapping of the earth's physical resources.(<--this sentence is unclear - what does it mean?) Although mankind desperately needs compassionate and humane leadership, the United States rests in national stalemate, its government's goals profit-driven and self-interested, its democratic system apathetic and manipulated rather than "of, by, and for the people."

Our work is guided by the sense that we may be the last generation in the experiment with living. But we are a minority–the vast majority of our people regard the temporary equilibriums of our society and world as eternally-functional parts. In this is perhaps the outstanding paradox: we ourselves are imbued with urgency, yet the message of our society is that there is no viable alternative to the present. Beneath the reassuring tones of the politicians, beneath the stagnation of those who have closed their minds to the future, is the pervading feeling that there simply are no alternatives, that our times have witnessed the exhaustion not only of Utopias, but of any new departures as well. Feeling the press of complexity upon the emptiness of life, people are fearful of the thought that at any moment things might thrust out of control. They fear change itself, since change might smash whatever invisible framework seems to hold back chaos for them now. The fact that each individual sees apathy in his fellows perpetuates the common reluctance to organize for change. The dominant institutions are complex enough to blunt the minds of their potential critics, and entrenched enough to swiftly dissipate or entirely repel the energies of protest and reform, thus limiting human expectancies. Then, too, we are a materially improved society, and by our own improvements we seem to have weakened the case for further change.

A certain stereotype portrays the people of the United States as contented, spoiled, and selfish in our material prosperity. Yet, we witness our families, friends, and neighbors struggling to support themselves as they sink increasingly deeper into debt. For so many middle and working class Americans, retirement has become a distant dream. Jobs with security are continuing to drain from our cities and towns, leaving employment prospects bleak for our nation's youth, especially those on the lower end of the income scale. We feel a pervasive sense of anxiety and despair about the future of our families and communities. From this despair comes a desperate yearning for a new kind of social order - one in which all people, rich and poor, have the means (at least) to satisfy their basic needs for shelter, sustenance, and health. It is to this yearning, at once the spark and engine of change, that we direct our present appeal. The search for truly democratic alternatives to the present, and a commitment to social experimentation with them, is a worthy and fulfilling human enterprise, one which moves us and, we hope, others today. On such a basis do we offer this document of our convictions and analysis: as an effort in understanding and changing the conditions of humanity in the late twentieth and the early twenty-first centuries, an effort rooted in the ancient, still unfulfilled conception of man attaining determining influence over his circumstances of life.

Values

It is no accident that we have taken our name from the radical student movement of our nations past. We are all the heirs to a stillborn revolution, one which shook the establishment to its hollow bones in the Sixties and Seventies. Our revolutionary forefathers and foremothers were killed at Kent State, gunned down in their black ghetto beds, clubbed in Chicago, and gassed in People's Park. We have learned from their failures and accomplishments and continue to share many of their initial values.

We regard the human race as infinitely precious and possessed of unfulfilled capacities for reason, freedom, and love. Human beings have unrealized potential for self-cultivation, self-direction, self-understanding, and creativity. It is this potential that we continue to regard as crucial and to which we appeal, not to the human potentiality for violence, unreason, and submission to authority.

While avoiding the rigid traps of particular ideology, we come together behind a number of common principles.

We believe that peace is possible; we believe that peace is necessary. Wars born from imperial ambition erode a free society and further an agenda of fear, violence, and injustice. We call for the end of the occupation of Iraq and a gradual withdrawal of U.S. military presence throughout the world.

We believe that the War on Drugs is a war on the poor, on the youth, and on minorities. We support the elimination of minimum mandatory sentencing, the liberalization of drug laws, and serious consideration of cannabis legalization.

We believe that price setting cartels should be opposed at all costs.

We believe in fair trade. “Free” trade is anything but free, as it is largely dependent upon the abuse of Third World workers at the hands of the corporate elite.

We believe in an economic system that considers people and the environment before profit. We support the rejuvenation of unions, the expansion of the democratic workplace movement, and the establishment of a living wage.

We believe in the democratization of art; end the arrest of individuals engaging in file sharing activities.

We believe in the right for all consenting adults to be married before the eyes of the law regardless of gender and sexual orientation.

We believe that our nation is gripped by a desperate and escalating addiction to oil. We desire investment in alternate energy sources in both the long and short terms.

We believe that the youth have a critical role to play in our participatory democracy. We call for increased student rights and increased socio-political awareness among the younger generations.

We believe in continued prison reform; restorative justice and rehabilitation must always be favored over punishment.

We believe unconditionally in the basic human freedoms established in the Bill of Rights as well as those enumerated in the UN Charter.

We believe in a government for, of, and by the people. We admonish those leaders who have fallen under the sway of corporate lobbyists and special interest groups.

We believe in class-based affirmative action in addition to those programs which are already in effect.

We believe in a humane foreign policy that is based upon multilateralism and cooperation. We eschew our government’s legacy of brutality, unjust war, and cloak-and-dagger operations, and international hardball. Overseas policy must be geared towards enriching both our country and the world.

We believe in urban renewal and beautification of inner cities through green space programs.

We believe that capital punishment is barbaric and ineffectual and call for an immediate cessation of the practice.

We believe in a simplified tax code. Clarification and minimization will allow more financial freedom on a personal level and made government indiscretion more difficult.

We believe that healthcare should be affordable and readily available for all people.

We believe in a balanced budget that is more evenly shared among the various organs of government. We find the magnitude of military spending appalling, especially when it comes at the expense of health and humans services.

We believe in extensive campaign finance reform and the repeal of many ballot box regulations. The vitality and availability of so-called “third parties” is critical to the success of our democratic system.

We believe in progressive solidarity. We support our brothers and sisters engaged in the struggle for peace and justice across the globe.

We believe in the power of the individual to substantiate change. Individuals and small groups need to have a voice in government and should no longer be silenced in favor of monolithic corporate and political organizations.

We believe in diversity. The multiplicity of perspectives that encompass all individuals must be given an equal opportunity to enrich and strengthen our freedom and our awareness of injustice.

Never heard of media concentration? Guess why: media concentration.

The media cartel that keeps us fully entertained and permanently half-informed appears as if it is expanding here and contracting there. Certain members expand while others collapse or are devoured. But while the players tend to oscillate the overall Leviathan continues to grow bigger, louder, forever taking up more time and space, in every street, in countless homes, in every other head.

Media omissions, distortion, inaccuracy and bias have become commonplace and although this is commonly acknowledged outside the USA, those very same omissions, distortion, inaccuracy and bias, make it difficult for the average American citizen to obtain an open, objective view of many of the issues that involve their country. How can we pose as a functioning democracy when the masses are unable to make informed choices and decisions? Responsible government by popular consent cannot exist without an educated public.

Although there is no formal censorship in the USA “Market Censorship” has taken its place. The mainstream media do not want to run stories that will offend their advertisers and owners. In this way, the media end up censoring themselves and not reporting on important issues. In order to feed their appetite for sustained advertising revenues the major media companies avoid programs with serious complexities and disturbing controversies that interfere with the gluttonous consumption embodied in every commercial break. Documentaries, cultural and critical materials are pushed to the back of the line.

Because many of these large media company owners are entertainment companies and own operations and businesses across various industries they will rarely cover a diversity of opinions and issues. For example, one cannot expect Disney, to talk too much about sweatshop labor when it is accused of being involved in such things itself. Furthermore, media corporations share board members with a variety of other large corporations, including banks, investment companies, oil companies, health care and pharmaceutical companies and technology companies, making criticism of those industries rare and overindulgent.

Equally important, the television channels or newspapers/magazines owned by such large corporations rarely criticize economic, political or other policies that go against the interest of their parent company. The threat to diversity and real competition is real. Smaller companies without such an arsenal of distribution and cross-selling possibilities, face either going out of business, or being bought out. The resulting concentration of ownership, while maybe not a monopoly in the strictest sense, leans towards an oligopoly of information producing a common interest amongst such companies in keeping out competing enterprises and competing ideas.

The rise of the cartel has been a long time coming. It represents the grand convergence of the previously disparate US culture industries into one global superindustry providing most of our imaginary "content." Movies, TV, radio, magazines, books, music all of which used to be separate fields, are now one, the whole terrain divided up among the giants. The newsprint sector, what is left of the public airwaves and the Internet are all now under attack by the same colossi.

What we have today is not a problem wholly new in kind but rather the disastrous consequence of an evolutionary process whereby that old obstacles have become considerably larger — and that great quantitative change, with just a few huge players now co-directing all the nation's media, has brought about enormous qualitative changes. The monoculture, vociferously victorious, offers, by and large, a lot of nothing, whether packaged as "news" or "entertainment."

This qualitative diminution seeps through the words of our top government officials. Earlier United States Presidents like Franklin D. Roosevelt argued that American democracy was strong “because it is built on the unhampered initiative of individual men and women joined together in a common enterprise.” Sixty years later, after the September 11 attacks had shaken the nation, President George W. Bush urged Americans to pull together by going out and spending money, or taking a trip to Disney World. Consumerism has become our sustenance.

But a society cannot be sustained by merchandise and brand labels. It is time for us to break the IV of commodities that has been so violently thrust into our veins, made possible only by the persistent exploitation of poor, colored, and Third World workers. If our victory lies in sustained cultural revolution amongst youths and other oppressed colonies (immigrants, laborers, homosexuals, women) with which a productive dialogue can be held, we need to dismantle the carefully constructed web of the media cartel that continues to barricade grassroots political upheaval.

The cartel’s ascent has made extremely rare the sort of marvelous exception that has always popped up, unexpectedly, to startle and rejuvenate culture — the genuine independents among record labels, radio stations, movie theaters, newspapers, book publishers and so on. But they have mistakenly underestimated the power of the people. United we will form our own media, our own culture, and dismantle their grip on society.

Create new topics and categories as necessary

Other possible categories to flesh out in this new mission statement:

Democracy

Political Reform

Political Participation

Foreign Policy

Increasing Militarization and necessity for Peace and Disarmament

A Real Road to Peace in the Middle East

Trade Policy

Civil Rights and Equal Rights

Women’s Rights

Racial Discrimination

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Immigrant Rights

War on Terrorism

Environmental Justice

Economic Justice / Social Safety Net

Welfare: A Commitment to Ending Poverty

Universal Health Care

Labor

Free Speech and Media Reform

Housing and Homelessness

Environment

Measuring Economic Progress

Culture of Learning and Current Education

The Fractured Left and Lesser Evilism

Call to Radical Action!