News from the Network, Vol. 5, No. 12

This has been a very busy week. A great deal has been happening to get word out about how the Just Third Way as applied in Capital Homesteading has the potential to resolve the current economic — and political — crises that seem to be popping up with increasing frequency. To that end, here's what's been happening:

• This past Wednesday saw the 336th consecutive CESJ meeting. Many people were able to attend in person. The CESJ monthly meetings are important not only for conducting business, but also as educational sessions and to report on how initiatives are moving forward. If you have an initiative you want to report on, let the Secretary know ahead of time so it can appear on the agenda, and have your report ready to go at the appropriate time (a written report that you submit and give a brief summary is most useful and informative). Also note that, due to the special needs attached to having people attend via telephone, we are making a greater effort to adhere to some basics of "parliamentary procedure," e.g., only one speaker at one time, discussion of motions only after being seconded, "yea" votes before "nay" votes, and so on.

• Plans for the annual "Rally at the Fed," scheduled for Friday, April 20, 2012 at 11:30 am outside the Federal Reserve Board of Governors building in Washington, DC, are starting to gel. The Rally is shaping up to be a significant event this year. If you are planning to attend from out of town, we have negotiated a special price at a local hotel if we can guarantee a minimum number of rooms. Let us know as soon as possible if you want to reserve a room.

• The National Field Secretaries are moving forward with clarifying their role and in what areas they should be focusing their efforts.

• Monica W. has been cultivating contacts in Ohio, participating in various community meetings and groups concerned with how to reverse the downward trend in the American economy. She is also investigating the possibility of integrating her concern for social justice with a professional outreach with Equity Expansion International, Inc., to surface working models of broadened ownership combined with Justice-Based Management.

• Everyone should visit the Coalition for Capital Homesteading website and sign the Declaration of Monetary Justice.

• Norman Kurland and Joe Recinos attended an Occupy event in Washington, DC, and met with a number of people who might be key to moving the monetary and fiscal ideas of the Just Third Way forward.

• A number of "gadgets" have been added to the blog (to your right) that will make it easy to receive updates by e-mail, "share" with your Facebook friends, and "tweet" people in your network. This should help us market our ideas to a broader audience.

• Speaking of marketing, Joy Alamgir has ordered another two cases of the CESJ edition of his father's book, Notes from a Prison: Bangladesh. Consider ordering a copy or two from Amazon or Barnes and Noble (please — we don't sell retail; CESJ can only handle wholesale), and post a review. The book is worth it.

• Also consider purchasing and reviewing other CESJ publications (links to your right) and, of course, sending the links around to your network. (And please keep in mind that we can only handle wholesale orders here.)

• As of this morning, we have had visitors from 52 different countries and 49 states and provinces in the United States and Canada to this blog over the past two months. Most visitors are from the United States, Canada, the UK, India, and the Philippines. People in Argentina, Poland, the United States, French Polynesia, and Ireland spent the most average time on the blog. The most popular postings this past week were "Thomas Hobbes on Private Property," "Aristotle on Private Property," "The Crimes of Rick Santorum," "Toward a False Equality," and "The Crimes of Mitt Romney."

Those are the happenings for this week, at least that we know about. If you have an accomplishment that you think should be listed, send us a note about it at mgreaney [at] cesj [dot] org, and we'll see that it gets into the next "issue." If you have a short (250-400 word) comment on a specific posting, please enter your comments in the blog — do not send them to us to post for you. All comments are moderated anyway, so we'll see it before it goes up.

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