Basic Rights Socio-economic principles Income or purchasing capacity The Party's Over Strengthening the UN ---- Basic Rights PROUT is the acronym for the Progressive Utilization Theory, a socio-economic paradigm proposed by the philosopher and spiritual teacher Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar. It proposes the maximum utilization and rational distribution of all physical, psychic and spiritual resources, for dynamic progress and equilibrium for all beings. Political democracy requires a population that is well educated, with a high standard of morality and a keen socio-economic consciousness. Otherwise money can manipulate elections and corrupt politicians. The better option is economic and grass-roots democracy. Economic democracy means regional, democratic control of resources, ceilings on the super accumulation of wealth, employee ownership and cooperative management of medium-scale economic enterprises, and guaranteed employment with sufficient wages for purchasing basic necessities--food, clothing, housing, education and health care. An ideal constitution should guarantee these rights and prevent financial exploitation. Selfish greed has created a tremendous gap between the rich and the poor. Materialism is rapidly destroying our natural environment with no thought for the future. There is need for deep structural transformation. Below are some very brief points that we believe should be included in new constitutions: 1. Every person is guaranteed the five minimum necessities of life: food, clothing, shelter, education and medical care. 2. Every person has the right to a job with adequate purchasing power. 3. Cultural expressions and indigenous languages must be protected. 4. The country's bio-diversity and endangered species must be protected. 5. Spiritual practices for self-realization must be protected. 6. No expression of these rights can be allowed to violate cardinal human values. Three socio-political principles must be guaranteed: 1) people should not be allowed to lose their jobs until and unless alternative employment can be arranged for them; 2) people should never be forced to convert from one religion to another; 3) no one’s mother (native) tongue should be suppressed. The penal code must be based on universally accepted cardinal human values such as the right to a decent life. Capital punishment is banned. Quality education must be guaranteed for all and free of political interference. This includes objective knowledge, ethics, character building, creativity, spirit of cooperation and service, and self-knowledge. We are all members of one human family without divisions. No person can be discriminated against because of race, ethnic origin, gender, language, beliefs, health status, etc. Economic democracy is essential to eliminate poverty and continually elevate the standard of living of everyone. For this reason, the following policies should be implemented: 1. Private enterprise will only be permitted and encouraged for small scale businesses that produce non-essential items. 2. Most enterprises should be run as shareholder cooperatives. Industrial and agricultural, producers and consumers coops will produce essential items. 3. Key industries will be administered by the local government and be public enterprises run on a no-profit no-loss basis. 4. A ceiling on income and wealth will be established to prevent super-accumulation and economic exploitation. 5. Raw materials should not be exported out of the country. Rather they should be processed or refined in the local region and then sold for local consumption. The excess can then be traded, exported or sold abroad. 6. The banking system should be run as cooperatives, while the Central Bank will be controlled by the government. Money must not be printed indiscriminately and should be based on some sensible proportional quantity of bullion. 7. In addition to the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of the government, there should be an independent Financial/Audit arm of government. This will monitor government spending and publicize the strengths and weaknesses of its programs. This entity/agency will audit all accounts of the three branches of government and prevent corruption. All of these powers of government should function independently. 8. The first priority of the government shall be to guarantee the production of the five minimum necessities to all people at accessible prices. Each region of the country must be made self-sufficient in these five necessities. 9. Impoverished regions will become developed especially through the development of agricultural cooperatives, agro-industries and agrico-industries. 10. Income tax should be abolished, rather tax should be placed on the production of goods. Wealth taxes to limit over-accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few is necessary. Ceilings on income and wealth will also assist in this regard. This decentralization of the economy will create economic democracy, in which the local people will make all economic planning decisions. Foreigners may not interfere in economic planning - they can move to the economic region and thereby identify with it and be part of it. Profits may not be exported out of the country, but rather should be re-invested for the development of the country. In order to root out exploitation and build a just and benevolent society, the below six points should be borne in mind: - 100% employment for local people - Maximum industrial development - Avoid importing outside products - build local industries and then import due to necessity - The local language as the medium of instruction - The local language as the primary means of communication - Local socio-economic demands ---- Socio-economic principles 1 - Diversity is the law of nature and uniformity will never be. Purport: Variety is the chief characteristic (dharma) of the Cosmic Force of creation. No two objects in the universe are identical, nor are two bodies, two minds, two atoms or two molecules. This variety is the force of creation’s forte. Those who want to equate everything must fail, for this is unnatural. All objects are equal only in the unmanifest or potential state of the Cosmic Force, and so those who think of equating everything invariably think of the destruction of everything. 2 - The minimum necessities of all should be guaranteed in any particular age. Purport: The Cosmic Entity is my progenitor, the Cosmic Operative Principle is my carer and the three worlds are my homeland. So every thing or object of this universe is the common property of all humanity. Nothing in the universe is cent percent equal in both quality and quantity; therefore the minimum necessities of life should be made available to everybody. In other words, food, clothing, medical treatment, accommodation, education and so on must be provided to all. Humanity’s minimum necessities however, change with the change in eras or ages. For example, for conveyance the minimum necessity may be a bicycle in one age and then an airplane in another age. The minimum necessities must be provided for all people according to the age in which they live. 3 - The surplus goods and services, after distributing the minimum necessities, are to be given according to the social value of the individual's production. Purport: The surplus wealth, after meeting the minimum necessities of the age, will have to be distributed among talented people according to their merit. Motorcars instead of bicycles, for example, should be provided to meritorious people in recognition of their accomplishments to provide them with greater opportunities for social service. ‘Serve according to your capacity and earn according to your necessity' sounds good to the ears, but will reap no harvest in the hard soil of the world. 4- The increase in the standard of living of the people is the indication of the vitality of society. Purport: Meritorious people should certainly receive greater amenities compared to the level of minimum necessities allocated to people in general, and there should be never ending efforts to raise the level of minimum necessities. For example, today common people need bicycles whereas meritorious people need motorcars, but there should be proper efforts to provide common people with motorcars also. After everybody has been provided with a motorcar, it may perhaps be necessary to provide each meritorious person with access to an airplane. After providing every meritorious person with access to an airplane, efforts should be made to also provide every common person with access to an airplane, raising the level of minimum necessities. In this way efforts for rising the level of minimum necessities should go on endlessly, and on this endeavour shall depend the all round material prosperity and development of humanity. P R Sarkar Ananda Sutram 1962 ---- Income or purchasing capacity? Question: What do we want, increase in per capita income or increase in purchasing capacity? Answer: Prout suggests that increases in per capita income are not a sufficiently reliable and scientific index to determine the standard and progress of a particular unit. Rather, this approach is misleading and deceitful, because it refers to a simple mathematical calculation of total national income divided by total population. This does not give the correct picture of the standard of living of the people of a particular unit, as the wealth disparity in society is concealed. Per capita income shows the mean and not the variation of income distribution. If inflation is also considered, the reliability of per capita income is further reduced. On the other hand, purchasing capacity is the real index of how a person's economic needs can be met by their income. All Prout’s plans and programmes in the economic and social sphere should be aimed at increasing the purchasing capacity of the people. Note that Prout stresses increasing purchasing capacity and not per capita income. Per capita income is not a proper indication of the increase in the standard of living of the people because while people may have very high incomes they may not be able to purchase the necessities of life. On the other hand if the per capita income is low but people have great purchasing capacity they are much better off. So purchasing capacity and not per capita income is the true measure of economic prosperity. Everyone's requirements should be within their pecuniary periphery or purchasing capacity. People will earn their required purchasing capacity through work. There will be no unemployment in such as progressive-minded socio-economic setup as local people on the local level will control the economy. When local people control the economy there is no chance of outsiders exploiting the local people. That local non-profiteering economy will develop self-reliance and it will be easy to keep everyone employed in such a consumption-motivated economy. Consumption economy produces for consumption needs not for profiteering tendencies. Rational profits from a business are distributed as wages, salary, bonuses, dividends to provide proper purchasing capacity. P R Sarkar 10 December 1987, Calcutta From Questions and answers, Prout in a nutshell 12 ---- The Party's Over (Transcript of a programme broadcast by ABC radio in Australia Wednesday 28/05/2003 with guest Peter Lewis - Editor of Workers Online.) Research into executive pay commissioned by the NSW Labour Council makes explicit what most of us have suspected for some time: the multi-million dollar CEO packages are a rolled gold rort. The Council asked a team of respected academics headed by Dr John Shields from the Sydney University's School of Business to analyse the return these astronomical wages deliver to shareholders, workers and the broader community. These are not a bunch of sociologists applying some whacko leftist theory; it is a sober analysis of share return, dividends and long-term viability. You rarely see an animated academic, but when the researchers came into Labour Council to brief us on the results a few months ago it was as if they had discovered the equivalent of El Dorado. Here's what they found. - Executive remuneration levels in Australia grew over the decade 1992-2002 from 22 times average weekly earnings to 74 times the average wage. - At the same time, executive option packages, with 'long-term incentives' - such as share bonuses, share purchase plans and share option entitlements increased from 6.3 per cent of total remuneration in 1987 to 35.2 per cent of total pay ten years later. This all confirmed what everybody expected. But then the academics found something that surprised them They cross-referenced the pay levels of Australia's top 150 CEOs, as outlined in the Australian Financial Review's annual executive remuneration survey and compared it with the performance of their company. Crunching the numbers, they found the often-stated link between high executive pay and company performance does just not exist. Indeed, their evidence was that as an executive's pay increases, the performance of the company actually deteriorates. Against three criteria: return on equity, share price change and change in earnings per share, their analysis shows that the best performing companies paid the lowest wages and the worst performing firms were paying the most. To those who have argued that you need to pay astronomical salaries and throw in Lotto-style options to get executive 'talent', we can now confidently say that their emperor has no clothes. The Labour Council research shows that once a CEO's salary exceeds the average weekly wage by a factor of 20, there is a demonstrable deterioration in company performance. What this means for unions is that the debate about executive pay now transcends a moral argument about corporate excess and becomes a very real issue of job security for working people. If an executive takes home a salary that is outside the 1:20 matrix there is a real chance the company is in big trouble. The union movement's challenge is to use this information strategically: industrially, politically and financially. Industrially, workers should be questioning the distribution of profits armed with this research. The salary of executives becomes a legitimate issue to be pursued during enterprise bargaining negotiations. Politically, unions need to push governments to make decision about corporate pay more transparent and accountable. The current situation, where it is governed by the Australian Stock Exchange, now a listed corporation itself, is an untenable conflict of interest. We also need to convince Labour Governments to use purchasing policy to force firms to moderate executive pay. In the same way that Tony Abbott uses government funds to promote individual contracts, Labour must use its financial levers to promote corporate responsibility. And financially, we must wake the sleeping giant that is the union movement' s influence in superannuation - taking the next step in protecting our members long term interest through our stewardship of industry super funds. Fund trustees must seriously question whether their member's retirement savings should be invested in companies that pay extreme salaries, given the negative impact on performance. As researcher John Shields pointed out last week, the idea that there is some rational global market for talented CEOs is a myth that has been perpetuated by those at the top of the corporate cabal. Like all else, this market is constructed. But that's political theory; the message from this research is that when you look at the numbers the claims for high CEO pay just do not add up. The message for the Top End of Town is clear: the party's over. For further information about Workers Online http://workers.labor.net.au/latest/ ---- Strengthening the UN Central to our concern is the UN. We rightly expect that the humanist sentiments being expressed globally will be properly represented at the UN and that decisions made will bear moral weight. The UN's failure is to transcend geo- or socio-political interests, and be pro-active and creative in pursuit of humanist ends. This highlights an important front for peace activism. This failure can be traced to the UN's structural limitations. Delegates to the UN General Assembly and Security Council are appointed by the governments of the various member states. Delegates don't necessarily have a background in humanitarian work and are more likely to be diplomats and to have a trade-related brief from their governments. Issues of prime humanitarian concern, such as eliminating hunger, constantly point to injustices in the global socio-economic system. Similarly, military intervention by dominant regimes to further their strategic economic ends reveals a world held hostage by unrestrained greed. Can humanist sentiment - as an underlying intent of benevolence toward all beings - underpin our interactions, laws and institutions? If this is the goal of peace activism then let's establish meaningful representation at UN level. The UN already recognises a drift away from its chartered purpose and has tried to correct it by accepting an NGO Forum to which it has given observer status at the General Assembly. Having gone this far, the next step is to recognise the need for meaningful input from a representative body of humanitarian interests. This could be achieved by instituting an assembly of delegates directly elected by the world population with one delegate per (x) million people. Candidates for this body would have to have a proven track record in humanitarian work in any sphere or aspect (physically in the field, courageously, economically, intellectually, or spiritually). This assembly would focus on the world's humanitarian priorities and make them a priority of the UN. As a directly elected body of highly regarded people, this would give moral force to the UN to adopt real solutions to poverty and conflict and deal with vested interests that continue to hamper this work. A strong and coordinated attack on human rights is gaining momentum daily as international law is ignored and domestic laws are passed that can be used to arbitrarily define and deal with any form of civil disobedience. Vested interest is a strong cohesive force and a relatively small group of people have consolidated their power and privilege at the expense of human and environmental well being. Civil society will have to meet this challenge in a coordinated way.