simpol-07-autumn

The Simultaneous Policy News • Autumn 2007

ISPO • PO Box 26547 • London • SE3 7YT www.simpol.org

It’s Simpol !

Protecting the global locally! Pictured Above: Simpol at the Camp for Climate Action 2007 Policy Suggestions Explained: Precycling Insurance and Remodelling Companies page 4/8

Adam Jacob's end-to-end cycle diary page 7

John Bunzl's New Book!

3 New UK MPs

Simpol Global Justice Strategy Forum

Why Rock Won't Save the Planet

UK Adopters Alerts

Future Possible Scenarios to Avoid

Contents Editorial p. 3

Informing the debate on policy suggestions : Precycling Insurance explained by James Greyson p. 4Patrick Andrews and Brian Wills give us the lowdown on Remodelling Companies p. 8

Policy Development: UK Adopter Alerts ! p. 12Global Justice Forum & AGM p. 6

Newswatch: p. 13John Bunzl responds to the Evening Standard'snegative coverage of Climate Camp andGeorge Marshall tells Guardian readers "why rockwon't save the planet"! Simpol around the world:3 new UK MPs! p. 3Words of support from Lembit Opik (MP) p. 11

Campaigning for SimpolBarnaby sets up Brighton adopters group p. 6Adom Jacob's 10 day solo cycle ride diary p. 7

New Cartoon:The wacky humour of Susanne B. Trimble "Future Possible Scenarios to Avoid" p. 11

The Simultaneous Policy

It’s Simpol !

ISPO • PO Box 26547 • London • SE3 7YT www.simpol.org

International Simultaneous Policy Organisation

Simpol promotes the Simultaneous Policy, which aims to deliver social justice around the world, resolve global problems like environmental destruction and regulate the economic power of international capital for the good of all. Simpol seeks solutions to problems that individual national governments cannot resolve by acting alone. This is because the problems transcend national boundaries, and because the global competitive system means that any government that acted alone to try and resolve such problems could effectively make its country uncompetitive.

Simpol aims to achieve these objectives by encouraging ordinary people around the world to oblige their political representatives and governments to move toward coordinated international resolution of global issues for the good of all. This is because it is only by countries all agreeing to implement changes at the same time that problems no individual government dares tackle alone can be resolved in a satisfactory way. Simultaneous implementation of such policies would ensure that no country became uncompetitive as a result of pursuing policies that were right for the planet and which embodied people’s higher aspirations.

All you need to do is sign up as a Simultaneous Policy Adopter which costs you nothing. By so doing you agree in principle to vote at elections for any candidate, within reason, who has signed a pledge to implement the Simultaneous Policy alongside other governments. Alternatively, if you have a party preference, your Adoption signifies you will encourage your preferred party to make this pledge. This is the simple mechanism Adopters use to advance their cause.

Simpol’s approach is peaceful, open, and democratic. If you Adopt you will have the opportunity to contribute to the formation of specific policies that answer global problems and join with others in using your vote in a new and effective way to drive the politicians of all parties to implement these policies.

How do you want the world to be?

An occasional newsletter published by Simpol-UK (www.simpol.org.uk) for the

INTERNATIONAL SIMULTANEOUS POLICY ORGANISATION (ISPO)[email protected]

Edited by: Diana Trimble ([email protected]) Production: Diana Trimble

Cover photo: Wayne & Jody of the Brighton ~Adopters group pictured at the Climate Camp march (Barnaby Flynn)

Meeting up in Cyberspacewww.myspace.com/simpoluk; http://simpol.blogspot.com; Second Life: SP Adopters' hang out, Tangun.

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New book now available!

John Bunzl, founder of the Simultaneous Policy, has now made available, online and free of charge his new book People-Centred Global Governance – Mak-ing it Happen! Just go to the global site at www.simpol.org and click on Books and Resources. To pur-chase hard copies directly from ISPO, payment can be made either by cheque or via PayPal. On receipt of payment we will mail you the book immediately upon receipt. Please note that any profits from book sales go to funding the SP campaign. Prices per copy including postage and packing: UK £12.50 USA $25 EU €23 CH Sfr. 36 AUS A$38 Denmark Dkr. 170 Sweden Skr. 210 Canada C$32 Japan Yen 2200 NZ NZ$46. For prices in other currencies or for multiple copies, please contact [email protected] in the appropriate currency should be made payable to “ISPO” and sent to: ISPO, P.O.Box 26547, London SE3 7YT, UK. Payment can also be made via http://paypal.com to [email protected]. If ordering/paying via PayPal, please be sure to in-clude the name and postal address where your order should be sent.

Editorial/UK MPs 3

The Simultaneous Policy www.simpol.org

This issue’s cover shot features two Brighton adopters flying the Simpol flag at the 2007 Camp for Climate Action. One important victory to come out of the camp, was the adoption of Simpol by environmental author George Monbiot, who was there as a speaker. His talk, on the need for political solutions as well as direct action, was right up the Simpol street and we are glad to have him as an ally.

In addition to being fun – kind of like a festival with a purpose – this year’s Climate Camp (protesting the planned expansion of Heathrow airport) was a great example of local and global issues converging for the common good. It was inspiring watching seasoned activists with an international perspective on the climatic dangers of increased aviation coming together with “accidental activists” from the local area who were just trying to save their communities. The very clear message was that climate change refugees are neither a spectre from the future, nor categorically people in foreign lands:

if expansion goes ahead then the people of the villages surrounding Heathrow will indeed lose their homes. For a couple of interesting perspectives on Climate Change activism - from Live Earth to Climate Camp - that have appeared in mainstream media recently, see Newswatch on page 13.

Also in this issue – you asked for it and now you have it: policy proposal clarifications on “precycling insurance” and remodelling company structures. I hope you enjoy the debut of our new cartoon “Possible Future Scenarios to Avoid” and Adam Jacob’s diary of his cycle journey across the UK.

We are absolutely delighted to add another UK MP to our list, which is now at 26! See below for the latest news on that.

Last but not least big thanks go to Mike Brady who has been doing production on the newsletter up until this issue, and who still does loads for Simpol including serving on the Policy Committee and being temporary national coordinator for Brazil.

Editorial

Simpol adds 26th MP! Keep track of updates on www.simpol.org.uk!Celia Barlow, Labour MP for Hove, is the latest MP to add her support to the Simpol solution. She said, "Co-operation between different nations is paramount in terms of tackling the world's greatest problems such as climate change and poverty. Unilateral action, though important, cannot solve these international problems." Other new MPs are Roger Godsiff (Labour), Birmingham, Sparkbrook & Small Heath, and Lembit Opic (LibDem), Powys. They join the 23 MPs listed below. Your MP not on the list? Contact us for a letter you can send to him or her. Tom Brake LibDem Carshalton & Wallington Lorely Jane Burt LibDem Solihull Malcolm Bruce LibDem Gordon Bill Etherington Labour Sunderland North Lynne Featherstone LibDem Hornsea & Wood Green Don Foster LibDem Bath Andrew George LibDem St Ives Mike Hancock LibDem Portsmouth Sout6h Philip Hollobone Conservative Kettering Martin Horwood LibDem Cheltenham Jim Knight Labour Dorset South John Leech LibDem Manchester Withington Martin Linton Labour Battersea John McDonnell Labour Hayes & Harlington Andrew Pelling Conservative Croydon Central John Penrose Conservative Weston-super-mare Adam Price Plaid Cymru Carmerthen East & Dinefwr Paul Rowen LibDem Rochdale Adrian Sanders LibDem Torbay Mark Williams LibDem Ceredigion Tony Wright Labour Cannock Chase Rudy Vis Labour Finchley & Golders Green Richard Younger-Ross LibDem Teignbridge

4 Informing the debate on policy suggestions: Precycling Insurance


Precycling Insurance – a new and improved, greener, cleaner economic instrument!

This article expands on and explains James Greyson’s policy proposal, a summary of which is on the Simpol-UK website and appeared in the Spring/Summer newsletter.

The current scenario: a lose-lose game

Nations seek ‘security’ by together spending well over a trillion dollars each year on (at best) threatening each other. They talk for decades about cutting global emissions, without agreeing how to do it. People can be brilliant within narrow fields but, let’s face it, we’re collective dunces when it comes to the wider goal of making the planet more habitable. Without anyone ever really meaning to, we’ve locked ourselves into a global ‘game’ that looks set to end with no winners. Simpol creates a valuable space to look at this global game and propose improved rules or game-plans. New rules may work only when all significant players implement them at the same time; this is inherent to global problems. What else can our global situation tell us about the kinds of policies which may succeed where others have failed?

We are one…but how can we all win?

The interconnectedness of global problems is often mentioned without quite saying what it means in practice for policy-making. Almost any common list of global goals is now so deeply joined-up that it is not realistic for any single goal to be met without the other goals also being met. For example the level of cooperation needed for a stable climate will remain absent so long as the weak increasingly suffer and the strong increasingly invest in weapons. The most basic choice of framing the climate change problem around emissions, energy and carbon could lay behind our collective inability to address it. Global goals and global problems are ‘codependent’ and solutions may not exist in the same ‘boxes’ as the problems.

The many expressions of human civilisation together with its living and physical basis is the most complex system known. Politics, finance, culture, society, technology, ecosystems and geology are interwoven into a grand tapestry affecting and affected by everyone. This complexity does not fall apart neatly into convenient parts for study by specialists. Policies which address parts of the global whole inevitably cut vital links and deliver only the illusion that a complex problem is being ‘managed’.

What then can be done with complex interconnections? Appreciating the world as a whole

is a spiritual tradition that has probably been around for as long as homo sapiens. Understanding the world as a whole is a branch of the scientific field of ‘systems thinking’ that has attracted increasing attention over recent decades. ‘Systems’ may sound remote, like playthings of corporate bosses and governments, when in fact every part of society is stuck tinkering with symptomatic details and obvious direct influences, leaving the potential of underlying leverage points vastly unexplored.

Donella Meadows1 defines leverage points as “places within a complex system …where a small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything”. Problems which don’t improve should tempt people to look beyond wish-lists of direct changes (more awareness here, fewer cars there, less emissions, etc) towards possible leverage points which could trigger the necessary direct changes. Climate strategies show what not to do. Climate change is separated out from other global conditions (“it’s a priority”) and all efforts are aimed at the direct variable of emissions levels. The dream is that nations will overcome their economic fears and agree to constrain emissions in time to duck irreversible climate instability.

Bigger isn’t always better – maybe “enough” is enough!

The fear of losing out economically is common to all global problems and makes economics a fertile field for digging up leverage points. Since it’s little use asking people to do the right thing despite getting poorer, governments consider price signals for changes they desire. They can do this with regulations, taxes, subsidies and issuing tradable permits to pollute. With government support, industry can also adjust price signals such as with deposit-refunds, producer responsibility subscriptions (e.g. the German green dot scheme) and obligatory insurance (e.g. public liability insurance). When any issue, sector or ‘solution’ becomes urgent enough governments consider targeting it with one of these economic instruments. This targeting approach creates market distortions (unfairness between sectors or nations) which impedes the use of any instruments and guarantees a small response to big problems. Despite this I know of no government that is researching economic instruments able to work across issues and sectors. Similarly governments doggedly pursue economic growth without apparently researching whether the underlying growth ‘model’ may have passed its use-by date.

Precycling Insurance continued 5


Unsustainability has appeared as a bonanza for growth, with price signals disconnected from ‘externalities’ (damage to society and the environment). This damage brings a catalogue of rising costs which, despite being unproductive, add to economic activity. The same damage also brings rising economic inactivity which is not measured at all by growth. Overharvested or polluted land and water, resources lost as wastes, people deprived of basic needs, and regions struck by conflict or disasters are all unavailable to contribute to growth. Economic inactivity and unproductive activity are steadily and quietly drowning future growth prospects. Yet so long as the damage remains reversible, politicians may be reassured that growth can continue, just not growth as usual.

Conventional growth runs like a ‘conveyor belt’, turning free resources from nature into saleable products and then into accumulating wastes in the air, land and water (or ‘ecosystem waste’). Success with this ‘linear’ growth model means running the conveyor a bit faster every year; taking, making and dumping ever more, without meeting more people’s needs. Conventional ‘solutions’ try to slow down the conveyor by constraining its emissions (or other unwanted effects) when the underlying problem is that the entire model is obsolete. Growth can be generated instead from activity which meets needs, prevents rising concentrations of ecosystem wastes and generates new resources within industrial, ecological and geological cycles. In other words the linear economic model can be joined-up into a circular economic model, thereby tackling climate change and hundreds of other symptomatic problems at source.

Prevention rather than cure!

The physical and technical changes to achieve a circular economy are well-known, having been discussed at length as ‘sustainable development’ over recent decades. What has been missing is an economic instrument able to efficiently adapt the old model into the new. How should externalities be built into price signals? It’s no use trying to measure potentially unaffordable and irreversible damage. Global complexity means that damage cannot be accurately predicted and allocated to those responsible. However it is possible to use the measurable risk of products ending up as wastes in ecosystems as a proxy for unpredictable future damage, in the same way as insurance uses current risk factors to deal with unpredictable mishaps. The only difference with conventional insurance is that premiums would be spent not on damage but on preventing damage by investing in

societal, industrial and ecological capacity to make new resources instead of wastes (ie investing in ‘precycling2’). Dealing with waste before it piles up has far-reaching benefits, not just for recycling and not just for ‘waste issues’.

These investments could address most or all sustainable development issues if applied globally to all significant producers and all products. Chemicals, fuels, equipment, houses, roads and most other human works take part in the economy of products. Even product components and most natural resources are products. Every product can be ‘precycled’; all ecosystem waste is avoidable. Existing recycling insurance3 can be generalised to encompass all options for preventing ecosystem waste. Introducing ‘precycling insurance4’ is a way of saying that externalities are better prevented than suffered. It says that changes are needed which match the urgency and scale of all global problems. However it does not prescribe how any business should work nor how anyone should live. Producers could avoid premiums by innovating to ensure their products have a future as a new resource (for people or nature) or they could just pay premiums which subsidise changes elsewhere. Energy and resource efficiency would rise (and continue rising without limit). Market choice would expand and the self-interest of customers and investors would stimulate change unimaginably faster than any attempt to constrain the economy.

Premiums could be invested either directly by precycling insurers or through intermediaries according to some foreseeable principles. Investments should:• Work preventively, for example primarily aiming to stabilise the climate, not to accomodate worsening weather nor to recover from disasters. • Aim high, for example by expanding productive diverse ecosystems and designing communities that improve the ecology of their region5

• Add to people’s options for living and working, for example by supporting new trends, jobs, processes, products, collaborations and hope.• Support people’s enthusiasm, for example by facilitating local and sectoral dialogues about the future, including monitoring and proposing investments. • Fit together into plans for the future, for example using the Natural Step process6 visually to explore what can be done over time.

Precycling insurance would be operated within the market, by new or existing insurers. This allows responsibility for externalities to be retained where it belongs, rather than being transferred to government. Government could be freed of much of its current ‘command and control’ role with environmental issues but would play an essential

6 Precycling Insurance continued/Global Justice Forum/Roving Campaign


role in international agreement, legislating and oversight of precycling insurance. Savings from a reduced volume of regulation, efficient collection from few producers (rather than many consumers) and prevention of damage to economic growth would allow both prices and taxes to be minimised.

Precycling insurance offers broad sustainable development, including rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions without the need for emissions caps or rationing. However, some legacies of unsustainability would remain, such as extreme inequalities of wealth, over-population and a cultural dependence upon violence when resolving conflicts. The last of these is driven by an unintended incentive built into economic growth calculations. Higher weapons spending by governments shows up as higher economic growth so warring nations falsely appear more successful. This disincentive to peace and security can be reversed simply by omitting weapons-related spending from Gross Domestic Product to define a Gross Peaceful Product7 (GPP) from which economic growth would be calculated in future. Groups of nations could signal their peaceful intentions by adopting GPP, which would reward investment in non-combative security with higher economic growth and establish an international virtuous cycle of reduced threat and reduced weapons spending. Vast flows of funds could be redirected to where help is needed. With high-leverage interventions such as Gross Peaceful Product and precycling insurance, the economy can be adapted to entice people to live cooperatively with each other and with nature. Economic growth is not endangered if we do this, though we are if we don’t.

James Greyson is an independent sustainability analyst and advisor, based in England. [email protected]

References1. Meadows D, Leverage points: places to intervene in a system. Sustainability Institute, Vermont, 1999: p1. www.sustainabilityinstitute.org/tools_resources/papers.html2. O’Rorke M. Public information campaign on precycling. California: Prepared for City of Berkeley: 19883. European Union. Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive 2002/95/EC. 2002. www.europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l21210.htm4. Greyson J, An economic instrument for zero waste, economic growth and sustainability. Journal of Cleaner Production. Elsevier, 2007;15: p1382-1390. www.blindspot.org.uk5. Birkeland, J. Positive Development: From Vicious Circles to Virtuous Cycles. (in press).6. Holmberg J, Robèrt K-H. Backcasting from non-overlapping sustainability principles: a framework for strategic planning. International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology 2000;7: 291-308. www.naturalstep.ca/resources.html7. Greyson J. Systemic economic instruments for energy security and global security. NATO Science Programme Advanced Research Workshop. 4 – 7 July 2007, Naples, Italy. (Springer: in press) www.blindspot.org.uk

Confirmed speakers at this event include:Charles Secrett, who is the former director, Friends of the Earth UK; Colin Hines, activist, author and former economist for Greenpeace; Aubrey Meyer, director, The Global Commons Institute; David Wasdell, director of the Meridian ProgrammeJohn Bunzl, founder of the Simultaneous Policy.Each speaker will present for half an hour including a question and answer session and there will be a mid-morning coffee break and an afternoon break for lunch. If you're increasingly fed up with hearing about global problems and want to work on practical solutions, be they local, national or global, then this forum is for you!

This event is free but as capacity is limited please contact Diana Trimble at [email protected] in order to confirm your place in advance.

After the forum, at 3:30 pm, is Simpol's Annual General Meeting. It's open to all Adopters, although only members can vote. You can join on the day, or in advance. Just contact Diana at the above email.

Our roving campaigner, Barnaby, has been focusing on Brighton in recent months and finding it a great place to develop SP UK! Here's his latest news:

The Bright-n-Simpol Adopters’ Group is thriving with regular monthly meetings: 3rd Thursdays at 7.30pm at the Brighton Peace and Environment Centre (BPEC). Attendance is growing and we have a core group of active regulars. Since the New Year, Local Adopters and I have held stalls at several Brighton events and regular street stalls.

We've been networking with other groups such as Transition Town Brighton and the Green Party, BPEC and Brighton Climate Change and aim to arrange more meetings. We've also started a yahoo discussion group. Subscribe at:[email protected]

Simpol Pledged MEP Caroline Lucas of the Green Party is putting herself forward for the Brighton Pavilion constituency at the next election. It is widely rumoured that she could well be the first Green Party candidate to win a seat in Parliament. We have work to do regarding getting meetings with the other candidates in the area. If you would like to contact me for further information or to volunteer your precious time please call 01273 205983Or email [email protected]

Mark your calendars! 24th November from 9.00am to 2.30pm Simpol-UK is hosting a Global Justice Strategy Forum at the South Place Ethical Society (Conway Hall) 25 Red Lion Square, London

Adam Jacobs Cycle Journal 7


Adam Jacobs Gives Personal Account of Cycle across UK!This past summer one of our adopters volunteered to ride his Simpol-emblazoned bike from Land's End to John O'Groats to raise awareness of our campaign. Below is his travel diary for the ten days of his cycle ride, with approximate distances.

Day 1: SUMMER SOLSTICE – Starting lineThe 7 am. start became an 8 am. start, as I had left so much until the last minute to organise! Even though it was wet and windy, my mum, some of the SimPol squad and other friends congregated to see me off. Once away, I felt the support of the prevailing south-westerly wind on my back, and made steady 20 m.p.h. progress up the A30. I soon got used to being pressure-washed by passing vehicles! The weather turned milder as I traversed Cornwall, and I reached Exeter after 8 hours of cycling. I got to my mums house, and there we feasted, I rested, and sent the first video blog from my mobile phone to be uploaded to the SP website. Thanks to Rob Wicke for that. Miles: 120

Day 2: Friday 22nd JuneFeeling well rested, I straddled my trusty steed again in changeable conditions; got to the end of the street and sheltered under a tree during a sudden short downpour! With cycling, one is vulnerable and sensitive to the atmospheric environment, and I love it! A weird thing occurred in Glastonbury when I went to climb the Tor with my support van driver Pete. We agreed to meet there, but missed each other, and thinking I should just carry on started cycling in the wrong direction! It was only a few miles before I realised, so I soon got over my frustration, and made a pleasant journey up through Wells to Bath. Miles: 90

Day 3: Saturday 23rd JuneAfter a night in the skanky Youth Hostel, I took the iron horse into a bicycle workshop, and the mechanic there kindly cleaned the whole chainset for me. Joyously, I ascended Lansdown Hill out of Bath, and there by the road was a dead badger. I slung it down the bank into the bushes, and a man walking up the road greeted me. “John o’Groats,?”, the Irishman enquired. “I’ve just walked from there and I’m heading for Land’s End! This is the forty-sixth day and I’ve just finished the Cotswold Way.” We wished each other good luck, said goodbye, and I set off again north to ride through wet Cotswold hills, and the Gloucester puddles! Miles: 120

Day 4: Sunday 24th JunePete and I were amongst the first lucky people to stay in the eco-bunkhouse in All Stretton near Shrewsbury, and after breakfasting in this beautiful location, off I was again, bound for Liverpool. The weather was fine, with no wind to speak of. With it being a Sunday and me feeling a bit tired, I was

in no hurry to overly exert myself, or contend with too many towns and cities, so after I had ridden 50 pleasant miles, I put the bike in the van and we drove a further 35 miles to my friend’s house in Toxteth. He was playing in a gig at an Irish bar that night, so we went along and had a few glasses of Guinness! Miles: 70

Day 5: Monday 25th JuneIt was 3a.m. by the time I got to sleep, and when I eventually came to, it was grim weather outside. I was chauffeured to a place on the coast to the north of Liverpool, and after procrastinating and downing a strong coffee, I donned all my wet-weather gear and set off in an awkward manner, snaking through the ferocious headwind and rain that now befell me. This continued at a high intensity for about twenty minutes, and just as I was wondering if the rest of the day would be this much of a struggle, as if by magic, the road took me slightly inland out of the direct wind, and fortunately I passed high hedges which gave protection. As the day rolled on, the sky became increasingly clear, and the road up to Kendal had little traffic. I was enjoying myself! But the old pedals on the bike were shot; the bearings were crunching! Miles: 75

Day 6: Tuesday 26th JuneWith -amazingly- only slight soreness of the legs, and after purchasing new pedals in Kendal, I continued up the last leg of England. I passed Penrith and Carlisle and made it along some short stretches of road with a shocking amount of heavy-goods vehicles charging at around 60 m.p.h. with little or no margin to the left of the white line! Well, on this day I crossed into Scotland and followed the road that winds alongside the M6, beautifully free of traffic. The terrain seemed familiar, almost friendly, though barren. As the dusk fell, I turned off the main road to ride the last eight miles across to Wanlockhead, the highest village in Scotland. I saw a man who said, “It’s all uphill from here!” I sighed and replied, “I have already done a hundred miles today, so a few more should be o.k.” “Yes,” he said assuringly, “You’ll be there in half an hour.” So I passed over a cattle-grid and started along a little road that wound up into the hills. I was pleased to discover that the slope was just gentle, and anyway the dimly-lit scenic valley was very beautiful. Miles: 100

Day 7: Wednesday 27th JuneOur paths did not cross until now, but four men from Nottingham raising money for Marie Curie cancer research had set off on bikes from Land’s End two hours after me on Thursday 21st, and were also cycling end-to-end over ten days!

continued p. 10

8 Informing the debate on policy suggestions: Remodelling Companies


In 2006 Simpol-UK’s Policy Committee or-ganised a Policy Consultation open to Adopt-ers worldwide. This identified key Policy areas, listed some proposed policy measures and solicited Adopters’ preferences that were then expressed as percentages in the report published Iin It’s Simpol! The mea-sure proposed under the same heading as this article gained majority endorsement.

But some requested further data in order better to assess its relevance to SP. What follows amplifies the original outline, by quotes from appropriate references.

Should supplementary information be re-quired, the authors offer to respond to enquiries via [email protected] and [email protected].

Remodelling Companies to Become Stakeholder-Governed OrganisationsBrian Wills and Patrick Andrews

Definitions and history

By the word Company we mean: “A legal association formed to carry on some commercial or industrial undertaking” (1). Within this generic term we are interested in the form known as the Corporation, defined in the same dictionary as “A body of people that has been given a legal existence distinct from the individuals who compose it; a fictitious person created by statute, royal charter, etc.” It’s impor-tant to note the words “fictitious person” because this is entirely an artificial, man-made creation that has been exploited since the 14th century by private individuals who have grouped themselves together for commercial purposes. They have sought to pro-tect themselves from responsibility for the actions of the corporation.

The problem is that this lack of responsibility, ac-companied by considerable power, tends to lead to irresponsibility and lack of morality.

Morality and externalities

The film The Corporation (2) explains how this comes about. Though it is obvious that producing and trad-ing under limited liability over centuries has enabled the innovators involved to create wealth in which millions of humans have shared, most private corpora-tions are set up to make a profit for shareholders. Other than through payment of taxes, which it tries to minimise, the corporation does not take responsibility for what it takes from its environment to help it func-tion – e.g. the things governments provide, such as roads, postal services and security, and the things that nature provides, such as fresh air, water or minerals. The directors of the corporation are under pres-sure from shareholders to externalise any costs that society permits, and to “maximise shareholder value” without regard to future sustainability. It is outside direct processes of democratic control that might mitigate its activities which damage society and the environment, as high-profile events such as the toxic gas tragedy at Bhopal and the financial collapse of Enron serve to show.

It is noteworthy that nothing in the law requires directors to put shareholder value first. The law says the director’s duty is to the company, and if the con-stitution of the company states a more noble purpose, the directors must follow this (the fair trade company Cafédirect has been set up this way). But this is very unusual. “Corporations simply respond to what people want”, explains Joseph Stiglitz (3). “One or two instances of corporate misbehaviour might be overlooked, but the problems are clearly systemic.”


The Simultaneous Policy (SP) campaign arises from the original book by John Bunzl, published in 2001.

Although the new book is now available (see inside cover) you can still get the original.

"It’s ambitious and provocative. Can it work? Certainly worth a serious try." Noam Chomsky

"The really big issues today now cross national frontiers and individual governments cannot cope with them in isolation." Sir Richard Body Former Conservative Member of Parliament, UK

The Simultaneous Policy by John Bunzl is available from ISPO for £9.95 plus P&P or order from the website www.simpol.org.uk

The

SimultaneousPolicy

John M Bunzl

An Insider's Guide to SavingHumanity and the Planet

Foreword by Diana Schumacher

Remodelling Companies continued 9


Others go further and write about the Pathology of Commerce, arguing that corporations can now be described as psychopaths in the evolving history of human organisations.

Indeed, Ray Anderson, the Chief Executive Officer of Interface, the world’s largest manufacturer of floor coverings, suggested (in 2) that most corporations are “plunderers”.

“My goodness” he declared, “some day people like me will end up in jail... The first Industrial Revolution is flawed. It is not working. It is The Mistake. We must move on to another and better industrial revolution and get it right this time.” The new purpose is to do no harm and to “climb Mount Sustainability.”

From business “command and control hierarchies” to “network governance”

Such a huge undertaking, requiring a major shift in human aspirations and perceptions, may seem unattainable. But there are writers who encourage us to believe not only that it is achievable, but also that desirable changes are already under way.

One is Paul Hawken, who wrote in Blessed Unrest (4): “One does not have to demonise the corporate system to recognise that it has no means to account for its negative impacts.” A stimulating theme of his book is that, to protect itself from these and other externally damaging aspects of our lives, human society is developing its own system of immunity from the “pathologies of power.”

This takes the form of “a movement of no name” that is immeasurably bigger than any countervailing grouping that has occurred before, and comprises “coherent, organic, self-organised congregations involving tens of millions of people dedicated to change.” And, to show just how real it is, he and colleagues have created a relational database as “an information commons” that will steadily build up a list of relevant non-governmental and civil society organisations throughout the world via www.wiserearth.org.

Then there is Dee Hock, founder of VISA International and author of Birth of the Chaordic Age (5) who describes the evolution of a very different type of organisation that he describes as chaordic, designed according to nature’s tried and trusted principles. More information can be found at www.chaordic.org.

Another writer, more specifically concerned with business governance, is Shann Turnbull.

In A New Way to Govern (6) he agrees with Anderson’s analysis by saying: “Command and control hierarchies are so ubiquitous that their shortcomings are accepted as part of the natural order of things. A key argument of this pocketbook is that these flaws are terminal” because of the “tendency of centralised power to corrupt; the difficulty of managing complexity; and the suppression of ‘natural’ – human – checks and balances.”

Network governance in successful evidence

What Turnbull proposes is the widespread replication of multistakeholder organisations that practice network governance, successful examples of which already exist in such enterprises as the Mondragón Corporación Cooperativa (www.mondragon.mcc.es) in Spain and Keiretsu business groups in Japan.

“Over the longer term, companies simply don’t need shareholders” writes Turnbull. “Many economists argue that privatisation is required to provide finance for a business to expand. They are wrong – expansion can be financed for public interest enterprises through cash flows from customers.” So he outlines mechanisms for phasing out investors and establishing new structures such as a community governance board, with a key role in organisational design.

The steady growth of Mondragon refutes the accusation that a complex, cooperative structure stultifies innovation. It has become, in effect, a transnational corporation that employs more than 80,000 people (and even has its own university with 4000 students!). It is headed by a Congress comprising 650 delegates from all member cooperatives, underpinned by a Standing Committee. This is made up of 20 elected members representing the corporation’s 14 divisions and is the governing body responsible for monitoring the performance and management of the next layer down: the General Council.

Within this there are three executive groups to run the business day-to-day. The guiding principle throughout is that the whole should remain a human-scale organisation, even as it expands, and it thus has inbuilt feedback mechanisms by which the interests of employees, customers, suppliers and the local community are represented.

10 Remodelling Companies continued/Adam's Cycle Ride continued


There are many other organisations that apply the multistakeholder principle. Some are very familiar to us in the UK – building societies, for example, or the John Lewis Partnership. Fair trade companies, too – e.g. Cafédirect – have customer and supplier representatives on their boards, alongside directors appointed by shareholders. In fact, a new term has been coined to describe such organisations – social enterprises.

So is it realistic to expect we can start to “climb Mount Sustainability” soon?

Yes, because the threat of climate change has triggered a tipping point of awareness that ‘something needs to be done’. Thus in November 2007 an international conference will be held in Brussels entitled: “Beyond GDP: Measuring progress, true wealth, and the well-being of nations.”

Hosted by the European Commission, European Parliament, Club of Rome, OECD and WWF, its objective will be to clarify which indices are most appropriate to measure progress, and how these can best be integrated into the decision-making process and taken up by public debate.

Though this objective does not specifically address the management of corporations, here we have evidence that, at international level, questioning

what businesses are for is gaining mainstream status. So, clearly, from top-down and bottom-up, “the game’s afoot” (as Shakespeare might encouragingly assert). And Simpol is already an active player …

We agreed to ride together for this day 7 as we were all headed for Rowardennon y.h.a. on Loch Lomond. Though they picked a strange route around Glasgow, it made a nice change to follow another navigator. They arranged a rendezvous point with their support van driver, but unfortunately Pete couldn't find it. They were kind and produced a big bag of peanut-butter and honey sandwiches with wholemeal bread! This kept me going, along with some energy bars. Riding with these guys was essentially different. They had a single-file system where each person would take a turn to ride in front for one mile, then drop back to the rear. In this way, we'd tuck in behind as close as possible and benefit from the slipstream created by the leader. I noticed that generally they went faster on the flat than I, but slower going uphill, and going down they didn't pedal at all, but rather freewheeled and tried to better each other by getting in someone’s slipstream and catapulting past! Miles: 75

Day 8: Thursday 28th JuneAfter staying by the incredible Loch Lomond, I started on a very bumpy 200 metre track leading to the jetty from which we could get the passenger ferry across the water, and so commence the northward marathon. I got a puncture immediately!

Lucky for me these riders had all the gear in their van right by the jetty, and the driver soon came over with a pump and a spare inner-tube so I could fix the wheel whilst we waited for the boat. It only took foot passengers, so the vans had to drive the long way round the perimeter of the loch. There were a dozen people wanting to get across, and normally the boat carries only two bicycles, and when everyone else had got on and the lads had pleaded to get all four of their bikes on board, I was preparing myself for maybe having to wait for the next boat. I was so pleased that the boatman said I could also come aboard and squeeze my bike in somehow! The trip took about 10 minutes, and the scenery was spectacular, even though it was overcast. The boat looked mightily loaded-up and seemed to carve deep into the water, but chugged merrily along, sending ripples over the dark green water. Come lunchtime, I took my leave of the eager four, as I had developed a strain behind my left knee, and had a good couple of hours rest. Then I entered the Highlands in the drizzling rain, and my heart began to sing with joy experiencing the sensations of riding through the moody glen, with it’s mini-Rivendell, and sheer rock escarpments with dozens of waterfalls coursing down... Miles: 70 concludes next page

Adam's cycle diary continued from p 7

Acknowledgement:

Our grateful thanks to Shann Turnbull for reading a draft of this text and making helpful suggestions for its improvement.

References

1. The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. OUP, 1993.2. Mark Achbar & Burt Simpson: The Corporation. www.thecorporation.tv 3. Joseph Stiglitz: Making Globalization Work. Allen Lane/Penguin, 2006. 4. Paul Hawken: Blessed Unrest; how the largest movement in the world came into being and how no one saw it coming. Viking/Penguin, 2007.5. Dee Hock: Birth of the Chaordic Age. Berrett-Koehler, 1999.6. Shann Turnbull: A New Way to Govern: organisations and society after Enron. New Economics Foundation, London, 2002 (also available via http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/pa-pers.cfm?abstract_id=319867). For readers who would like to learn more about Dr Turnbull’s work as Principal of the International Institute for Self Governance, Sydney, Austra-lia, email [email protected] or refer to

www.linkedin.com/pub/0/aa4/470

New Cartoon/John Bunz's New Book/Adam's Cycle Journey continued 11


Day 9: Friday 29th JuneWith the strain Magick’d away thanks to good food and rest, I rode solo for the whole day well ahead of the Notts lads, hugging the bank of Loch Ness, and made good time in ideal weather with a cool breeze past Inverness and up to what was by far the swankiest of all the y.h.a.’s: Carbisdale Castle. More like a grand mansion than a castle, the building was large and roomy, and presided over a wood and a lake, with splendid views up and down the valley into the hills beyond. It boasted white marble carvings of semi-naked damsels, and had clean, fresh-smelling sheets and beds and rooms! Plus it had a great restaurant. There we dined, and subsequently visited a local bar where local musicians were playing folksongs. We sampled three different single-malt scotch whiskies, and witnessed a prime, sublime sunset and full moonrise. Miles: 60

Day 10: Saturday 30th June – Crossing the finish line!Feeling good, and with fine weather, I set off from the Castle on the last stretch of my journey. I encountered virtually no traffic, the roads were open and the scenery breathtaking. I reached the north coast and rode up and down many hills before coming to Thurso, and battled through an increasingly strong headwind.

Adam's journey continued from p. 10 The coast itself was quite picturesque, and to my left the ever-looming cliffs of the Orkney Isles were quite dramatic. Eventually, after a number of brief stops, I rolled down the hill to the finish line. I was pleased to have made it to John o’Groats in the ten days. As we opened a bottle of champagne I looked across to what looked like an ancient guesthouse and saw the large van parked outside belonging to the Nottingham lads. They all climbed in and were off triumphant, and we waved to each other! They must have got there a good hour or more before me. Anyway, there wasn't anything there to hang around for so my team got in the wagon and sped off down the road to Wick to get washed-up and out to a celebratory feast. Miles: 90

Summary:The whole trip was brilliant, despite the rain, strains and traffic. I am looking forward to doing much more riding, and I can’t recommend cycling enough as a form of transport and recreational enjoyment. As for SP, I hope more people are more aware of it, and decide to link-up effectively. Miles: 870!

Go to last page for picture of Adam and his proud Mum having some celebratory fizz at the finish line!

"We live together at once, on the same planet. There are some things we should do together, at once, on this same small planet. The compelling logic of Simultaneous Policy is really collective common sense - it's a campaign to find out how common sense really is!"

Lembit Opik, LibDem for Montgomeryshire, and our most recent UK MP to sign the Simpol pledge.

(See page 3 for the full list of 26 UK MPs)

Back cov er


Title: Regulating Derivative Markets

Proposer: David Smith ([email protected])

Summary: There are countless derivative instruments but all can be used either defensively (as a form of insurance) or as a means of speculation. I think they ought to be limited to defensive use. To take a simple example: put options on a stock. If the purchaser holds the stock before buying the option that is defensive. But he could buy the option and when the price goes down, buy the stock at a knock down price and then exercise the option. This is speculation of the worst kind.

Title: Regulation of sale of debt

Proposer: David Smith ([email protected])

Summary: The level of defaults on ‘sub prime’ mortgages in the US affects world markets and possibly the real economies, because these debts are sold on without being understood by the purchaser. The panic has affected credit and interest rates everywhere. In an interdependent world this probably has more effect on third world economies than on us. Surely there could be some kind of regulation which would force banks to evaluate such transactions properly beforehand. Why hasn’t the international financial community already set its house in order? I don’t know but partly because it is not very farsighted, but also there is a lack of will.

Title: ETI (Environmental Tax on Imports)

Proposer: Ian Greenwood [email protected]

SUMMARY: A new VAT style tax could beneficially be placed on sales of imported products (eventually incorporated into the price), and the funds invested in projects mitigating against climate change/adapting to its effects. Uniquely, the proposal is to return an equal share of the funds direct to those projects in the producer nations which would otherwise be unable to afford them - fairer trade. An Environmental Tax on Imports (ETI) if adopted and hypothecated could be an opportunity to enhance global partnerships, to stabilise oil/gas prices (extending their availability) and to reduce the frequency/cost of disasters or resource shortages, tending to reduce harmful consumption and waste.

12 New Policy Suggestions/UK Adopter Alerts

New Policy Suggestions

In order for a policy suggestion to go forward and be voted on by all Adopt-ers, it must first gain the support of 5 Adopters. So please write in and let us know which ideas you back and would like to see put to the vote! Or if you need more info on any of them, just let us know.

Email us at: [email protected]

This year voting will be conducted on-line in the ‘policy zone’ of www.simpol.org.uk

Policies up for voting are those submitted since the last round, those that received more than 50% support last time and those that have beenre-submitted by a group of 5 or more adopters (as discussed in the last newsletter and noted above). Voting will run from ____ to ____You can view suggestions submitted so far and leave and read comments onthem in the policy zone.

The Simpol-UK Policy Committee handles processing of suggestions. This was elected last year. Nominations and volunteers were invited in the last newsletter, but none have been forthcoming.

John Bunzl and Mike Brady have agreed to continue in a caretaker capacity until next year.

If anyone is interested in being co-opted to the Committee, please contact [email protected] on, give it a go!

UK Adopters Alerts!

Policy Committee Elections

Online Policy Voting

If you'd like to suggest a policy, just visit the policy zone at www.simpol.org.uk.


Newswatch 13

News coverage of the recent Camp for Climate Ac-tion held in August at Heathrow airport gives a good insight into the sorry state of the debate about how action can be taken to halt climate change. A full-page article in the London Evening Standard (20th Aug. 2007) by City columnist, Neil Collins, is a good case in point.Collins has some sympathy for the overall objective of safeguarding the planet but ultimately dismisses the protestors’ demands as “highly dangerous”, since “Our prosperity is build on our ability as a trading nation, and globalisation has made trading much more competitive.” He continues: “Real eco-nomic damage will be done, if the brains that power the City decide that they’ve had enough of fighting their way in and out of the country. They could eas-ily relocate if the transport becomes bad enough, taking the hundreds of thousands of jobs the City generates with them. Other countries, looking envi-ously at this highly attractive industry, are wonder-ing how to take it from us.”

Such, then, is the justification for continuing airport expansion: if we don’t do it, our competi-tors will - so we must do it or we’ll only lose out. The protestors, and the wider global justice move-ment, would be foolish to continue to ignore this rationale. Like it or not, it is this rationale that has powered neo-liberalism to its present dominant posi-tion largely regardless of the movement’s counter-veiling efforts. So Collins’s comments on the fear of Britain incurring a competitive disadvantage ought to be taken seriously and welcomed in the sense that they provide a very valuable entry-point for the debate that needs to be had about how the inter-national competitiveness barrier can be overcome. By continuing to ignore this key issue, the global justice movement in general – and climate activists in articular - risk consigning themselves to a largely negative, confrontational stance which is likely to be of little value beyond simply raising public aware-ness. But by now, on global warming at least, there is no shortage of public awareness. So that is why the global justice movement now needs to swing towards the more positive, solutions-oriented ap-proach that Simpol would enable it to provide.Furthermore, by using the entry-point provided by those such as Collins, Simpol would elucidate that his proposed solution – greener aero-engine technol-ogy – can only hold water if, and only if, govern-ments co-operate to impose really stringent emis-sions regulations on all aero-engine makers. Collins says: “The aircraft of the future will be cleaner,

greener and quieter, but Rolls Royce – a rare exam-ple of a world-competitive British company – will not keep investing the billions needed to make better engines if there is an undeclared war on air travel.” That may be so. But what Collins ignores is that, while governments continue to compete destruc-tively for jobs and investment, the emissions restric-tions they place on aero-engine makers can only be mild and inadequate. Only if governments are fully released from the threat of losing jobs and invest-ment could Collins’s solution prove right. He, and the climate activists it seems, could both benefit from something Simpol.

Why Rock Won’t Save The Planet – reprinted from the Guardian (Thursday July 5, 2007) with kind permission from the author George Marshall founder of the Climate Outreach Information Network and the blog climatedenial.orgThis article keenly exposes the futility of popular culture’s approach to solving planetary crises and how such efforts mask the real problem – inability to organise collective action due to “collective denial”. After reading it, I wrote to Mr Marshall about the Simpol solution and he wrote back with a warm and supportive reply. – Editor.This Saturday, Live Earth, a series of huge concerts around the world, will use music and modern media, in the words of the organisers, to “trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis”. I sincerely hope that it works, but I fear that our refusal to acknowledge climate change has very deep roots - too deep to be addressed by feel-good con-certs. After all, we have known about climate change for a surprisingly long time. The first serious warnings came in 1965 and climate change has been at the top of the political agenda for 15 years. For years, the assumption has been that if people only knew more about the seriousness of the issue, they would act. We have had a decade of terrifying research, voluminous reports, portentous political statements, interactive websites, Sunday supplement pull-outs, and screaming banner headlines. We are certainly better informed - 85% of people now say that climate change is a major problem - but we seem to have developed the knack of separating what we know from what we do. It would be generous to say that we have done nothing. It is worse than that. We have done everything we can to accelerate towards the cliff: larger cars, hotter houses and an insatiable hunger for air travel. So Live Earth is trying a new approach. If we can’t produce change with the cold facts, it reckons, maybe we can capture people’s imagination by mak-ing climate change accessible, groovy, sexy and fun.It is a marketing logic that works well for consumer goods, and let’s face it, global rock concerts would shift any product. If Live Earth were Live Knitwear,

Newswatch!

John Bunzl comments on the Evening Standard's City columnist and his view of competitiveness, climate change and activism.

14 Newswatch (continued)/Adam's Cycle Journal (continued)


Editor's Note:

We are still gratefully accepting donations to help defray the costs of Adam’s journey!

If you can help, you can either send via paypay to [email protected] or post a cheque to Simpol-UK at 27 London Road, Bromley BR1 1DF

Pringle would shoot into the FTSE 100. Live Earth will undoubtedly create a buzz and interest around climate change. But I do not believe it will produce significant change because it fundamentally misun-derstands the challenge. The reason we are not doing enough about climate change is not because we don’t know about it, or that it is not hip, or that we don’t care. The problem is that we are locked into patterns of collective denial and have adopted a wide range of strategies to avoid accepting personal responsibility. We argue that the primary responsibility for the problem always lies with someone else - Uncle Sid, or rich people, or, increasingly, the Chinese. Or, as some cynical columnists will say, it is those jet-setting hypocrites on stage at concerts such as Live Earth. And many people don’t blame anyone; they are just waiting for someone else to sort it out. Psychologists observe that the more witnesses there are to a crime, the lower the chance that any of them will intervene. Major assaults can happen in busy shopping streets and no one does anything because they are all looking at their watches and saying, “I wonder when the police will get here?” I fear that Live Earth could fall straight into a similar trap. It could create two billion bystanders getting hip to the climate beat and demanding to know when someone is going to do something about this awful climate change thing. Live Earth also plays strongly to another powerful denial strategy: the adoption of minimal and tokenis-tic behaviours as proof of our virtue. One concern is that people will believe that their participation in the concerts is in itself an action against climate change. And we can be sure that the rock industry has such an overinflated sense of its own importance that it will hammer this message home at every opportu-nity. “Here we are,” it will shout through the speaker stacks; “the world’s greatest rock stars and

two billion people all standing shoulder to shoulder demanding that something happens about climate change. WOW!” This could be a revolution if it were a mass rally with clear political objectives. Imagine millions of people taking to the streets around the world with a coherent agenda for slashing greenhouse gas emissions. But it is not. It is a rock concert with climate infomercials spliced between bands singing about the people they fancy. The music will contain virtually no mention of climate change and will lack the anger, fear and aggression needed to galvanise change. The 80,000 people in Wembley will not march on parliament, they will march to the car park and drive home, happy in the knowledge that they have really done something about climate change and had a fun day to boot. To be fair to Live Earth, it is calling on people to “answer the call” and sign a pledge. But this is not the core agenda of the concerts - it is a tag on. When you enter the pledge, you are told that the actions that count are turning off your lights more than you do at the moment and using the bus once a week. These are fine as first steps, but I worry that people are tempted to stop there. We need to be honest with ourselves that the low-carbon economy will simply not permit long-distance holidays, com-muting by car, mass consumption and the continua-tion of poorly built and maintained housing stock. Rather than concentrating on small steps or per-sonal abstinence, Live Earth could be promoting a far more exciting vision of the sustainable low-carbon world we need to create: a world based around health, animal and social rights, justice for the poor, good housing for all, and the promotion of happiness rather than consumption. This is what would inspire real social and political change. ———

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