The Simultaneous Policy: An Insider's Guide to Saving Humanity and the Planet
By John M Bunzl 
Founder of the International Simultaneous Policy Organisation (ISPO) 
Foreword by Diana Schumacher 

Synopsis
New preface, 2004
Shortlist of Endorsements
How to order
List of Further Endorsements
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Review by Dr. Aidan Rankin

The greatest barrier to solving our global environmental, economic and social problems is destructive competition between nations to attract capital and jobs, harming society and the environment around the world. The Simultaneous Policy offers a solution and also outlines a political campaign which transcends party politics and offers the prospect of global transformation and survival. 
The Simultaneous Policy is a lucid analysis of globalisation and a compelling solution to global problems such as global warming, out-of-control global financial markets and the growing power of transnational corporations.

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It's ambitious and provocative. Can it work? Certainly worth a serious try. 

It is a good idea. What we need is politicians who will give this issue a high priority.

I thought your proposal was an elegant idea of how change could occur. It reflects the core ideas of how to create consensus around change. This is the biggest challenge that we have.

Your idea for a simultaneous policy is excellent.... Lets hope that people start to listen to this important message.

...the basic concept is excellent.... Let me know what develops! 

The Simultaneous Policy is a creative proposal to accelerate progress toward a sustainable global economy. Many movements and grassroots globalists working for these goals can coalesce around such innovative initiatives.

…provocative and potentially transformative. There are ideas here that could change the world. 

A wonderful book — one which I agree with whole-heartedly and regard as the most important book I have read to date.

Simultaneous Policy is a very stimulating book and by substituting internationalism for globalization, co-operation for competition, humanity for markets and wisdom for materialism you have unlocked a powerhouse for good.

The really big issues today now cross national frontiers and individual governments cannot cope with them in isolation. This is where Simultaneous Policy comes in. … [It] is the only way a host of problems can now be solved. Simultaneous Policy is the alternative.

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I agree with the case the International Simultaneous Policy Organisation (ISPO) is making about the failure of anti-globalization forces to propose effective alternatives to the status quo. I believe your organization's proposals are an important step forward. They address the real problems we face with proposals that deserve to be taken seriously. I hope that many of those who took important first steps in Seattle, Washington and Quebec City will now take the second step and take either the ISPO programme, or any alternatives they wish to propose, into the political arena. Anti-globalization demonstrators have the attention of the world. If they wish to hold that attention, and start to make an impact on policy, they must now follow the ISPO's lead and propose workable alternatives to the status quo.

Working from an East-West perspective in which the interdependency of Buddhism combines with the economics of E.F. Schumacher, Bunzl argues for a program of restoring social control over the blind destructiveness of corporate globalisation by simultaneous government policies across world borders. The need for simultaneity of sovereign state action is an important new dimension of a debate affecting all planetary life. 

…well argued and well thought out. It goes against our bias for the human scale but may be necessary.

…compelling and provocative. The structure and progression of the [book] fit your argument perfectly. 

Your main theme is a crucial one and I hope it will be heeded. …your approach is unusual because most authors concentrate on 'what' first and leave 'how' as a secondary consideration – or duck it altogether.

…I believe [the Simultaneous Policy] offers a prophetic and practical approach to the global politico-economic problems of our generation. … Certainly it is one which would appeal to Quakers.

Bunzl is, I feel, the first writer on the 'sustainable society' to advance beyond rhetoric and grapple with the problem of how such a society might be achieved.

SP represents a rare breakthrough in addressing  the critical global crisis we face ecologically, environmentally, economically, socially, and, above all, politically.

Your [book] eloquently describes the crucial problems facing the world today. It explores the inadequacy of the nation state in dealing with these problems and the inability of the United Nations to move beyond its current constraints. Simultaneous Policy is an elegant theory which takes many ideas from different places. We must all work to bring these ideas from theory into practice.

…the financial world order has become quite cancerous to both people and the planet and what is needed are intelligent and creative solutions appropriate to the situation. Your proposal to create a level playing field for all that incorporates environmentally sustainable policies is just such a creative solution.

…we concur with your comprehensive and insightful analysis of the challenge before us. We also agree that social and environmental programmes are being subordinated to the demands of the global economy and that, if there is a meaningful remedy to hand, yours is as constructive as any we've seen to date.

Simultaneous Policy is a most promising strategy for discovering and establishing a more equitable, efficient and sustainable economic order.

The concept of Simultaneous Policy (SP) is a wonderful way of implementing cooperation which is the new law of human survival in the globalized world. With it goes moral education inducing a new system of values to satisfy the requirements of the New Age.

I must admit that the Simultaneous Policy is a very provocative document. When you start reading this document, it evokes sharp reactions within you because it challenges the alternative visions and ideas that are closer to your heart and mind. But, by the time you finish it, you realize that there are a host of alternatives to existing alternative visions and strategies for the betterment of our lives.

....the idea of the Simultaneous Policy is both brilliant, and I believe, essential to breaking the international gridlock of greed and non-sustainability we have created for ourselves. .... [It] represents the most essential missing piece of the global solutions dilemma.

…the best ideas are the simplest. With a system like this, there's no way for governments to wriggle out. All excuses evaporate. It's a system which unmasks all those seeking to hide behind theoretical impossibilites. I can't wait to see what follows. Well done SP!

I found you work full of interesting ideas which I would recommend that people read.

In a time where so many urgent symptoms claim our attention, it seems there is not enough courage nor time to address the fundamental roots of global present problems and viable roads to face them. The Simultaneous Policy is a simple, peaceful, low-risk and clear invitation for humankind to jump — in two steps — from a present spiral headed toward auto-destruction, into another one oriented toward life, cooperation and spiritual growth. To share is to live.

…the great merit of your [book] is its proposal for a plausible solution to the many questions, whose urgency much of the left seems prepared to ignore.

…the SP proposal is a practical means of moving toward global governance. It should be an effective means of achieving cooperation where any individual government that behaves co-operatively will be disadvantaged until all other governments also do so. …I wish you the best of luck with your important work.

I am sure that The Simultaneous Policy is likely to be of great interest [as] a way of striving for an alternative whilst being integrated in the current economic system...

Mr. Bunzl's vision of all nation's agreeing on a Simultaneous Policy of co-operation for world peace, sustainable world development, and alleviation of poverty is mankind's one hope of a sustainable quality lifestyle for all.

Wishing you God speed in your endeavours to progress our humankind with the Simultaneous Policy!

Tim Noonam of the World Business Academy envisions an Intellectual Overhaul that would lead to a Worldwide Megashift in the perception of Reality, the kind of shift which according to him, historian Lewis Mumford claims has occurred only three or four times in recorded history. The late Dr. Willis Harman, Founder of the Institute of Neotic Sciences, prophesized that the latter part of this century would witness a fundamental Transformation; to me, the Simultaneous Policy has all these potentials. What a great Intellectual and Academic Project for this century! 

Isn't John Bunzl's Simultaneous Policy good stuff?

Simultaneous Policy is the first book I have seen that offers any real hope of achieving the reforms necessary to overcome global threats to the environment and human welfare.

…an essential contribution to the debate that is taking place at this time of transition and rapid change in society. 

With his concept of Simultaneous Policy, John Bunzl delivers an important piece in the puzzle that governments around the world can use to resolve the pressures of increasingly integrated markets. ... It is, perhaps, one of the few workable solutions to bridging the sustainability gap.

The Simultaneous Policy proposal is a creative and imaginative one which deserves widespread circulation, and it could provide a central rallying point for the myriad of movements and organisations who agree with anti-globalisation principles. The more people that learn about the idea, the more likely it is to succeed. … This idea is not purely theoretical: it is being promoted in the real world by a real organisation, and deserves support.

Simultaneous Policy is indeed a fascinating and important contribution to the global movement to construct creative alternatives to our current system of international relations. I am particularly struck by the Policy's direct answers to the fundamental problems of competitive global relations.

I am in total agreement with the central theme of needing to drastically curb corporate abusive power. I am just delighted someone has thought up a very practical way of doing so.

Every citizen, activist and organization that cherishes a vision of globalizing justice — of levelling the planetary playing field so all can play by a fair set of rules — must get seriously acquainted with the Simultaneous Policy, a benign conspiracy to take back the world, lawfully and democratically, one vote at a time. It's an audaciously grand vision, as social and political revolutions typically are until history makes them just another part of the scenery. John Bunzl's very carefully reasoned Insider's Guide to the what, how and why leaves little room for doubt that this global sea change could happen if only we voters insist.

I admire your broad and long term thinking which so many people shy away from because they see too many obstacles. Seeing obstacles is fine: it is in the nature of life itself. It should not discourage us from taking responsibility and developing a longer term vision, quite the contrary: just because there are so many obstacles, challenges and problems ahead, we need to be bold and far sighted in order to create the future that we want. If we don't, the future will be as stark as we fear it will be. Your book and SP helps us to look ahead and create the future. I fully agree with SP and I don't see why anyone in his right mind would be against it.

From my vantage point as an evolution biologist, John Bunzl's Simultaneous Policy is an idea whose time has come and an imperative if we are to evolve humanity from its juvenile competitive stage to its cooperative species maturity. A wonderful "no risk" strategy for finding agreement on important issues in building global community!

Thank you for conceiving of such an elegantly simple but thoroughly plausible concept to stop the competetive global insanity. . . . [It is] the simplest strategy yet to overcome the unsustainable stalemate of ruthless competition vs. global cooperation: a truly elegant, cost-free plan to empower humanity to bring about sanity.

I would like first of all to transmit you how appreciative I am of the essential contribution your initiative SP could make for our planet and for a majority of human beings. With your idea, we can all now consider achievable the possibility of making the shift from just the sharing of common global goals and values, to the crucial phase of achieving their concrete and simultaneous implementation. We believe that times are now mature, and that what we were all missing was to find "The Mechanism" to achieve our global goals. ...You have precisely framed that mechanism in a very efficient and elegant way..."

I am impressed with how visionary [Simultaneous Policy] is. If only so many folks weren't so blinded by, and believing to be dependant on, the present systems then what you so well propose would be embraced in a heartbeat ... as I am sure it will gradually be as more people become aware of how spectacularly the present operating systems fail humanity — indeed any living thing on this beautiful ball in the sky.

...to this point in my life, I've found nothing more worthwhile of becoming involved with than SP. Sometimes all the hard work at the grass roots level for various organisations can feel futile in the broader, oppressive political landscape and SP speaks directly to changing the broader political landscape ... it's most inspiring and has caught my attention and passion like no other movement before.

Chomsky, Illich, Freire, Pilger, Orwell, Benn, Rifkin, Gandhi, Galbraith and others…all are impressive thinkers and strong humanitarians. [They] are very good at diagnosis, prognosis and also good at launching a fervent call for change to avert the impending global catastrophe. What they are less good at is providing a clear and comprehensive strategy for change. … Your book provides a way to break free from this inertia for everyone. It is the best kind of idealism; it couples a vision of change with a clear and comprehensive means by which this change can be achieved.

Well done for launching such a clever strategic campaign to get big business to act responsibly. I couldn't agree more with your realisation that competition is driving the destruction of our lives and planet.

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1. Introduction 
Two World Problems 
Personal Statement
2. Community: Within and Between 
The Four Stages of Community 
3. Undercurrents of Global Community Development 
Pseudocommunity 
Chaos 
Emptiness or More Chaos? 
The Golden Merry-go-Round 
Global Market "Dictatorship" 
Pseudo-Democracy supplants Democracy 
Political Leaders 
Global Simultaneous Implementation: Fantasy or Necessity? 
4. From Competition to Co-operation 
The United Nations 
The Nation State 
The European Union 
Fighting over Sandwiches 
The Need for Leadership 
5. Finding Solutions 
The Simultaneous Policy 
Aims 
Scope 
Measures 
Principles 
From Theory to Practice 
6. SP: Adoption by Advanced Democratic Countries 
Ideological Conflicts 
Overcoming Funding from Big Business 
Third Party Adoption 
Adoption by Main Centre-Left Parties 
Two-Party Democracies 
SP and Gaining Public Support 
7. SP: Adoption by Non-Industrial & Developing Nations 
Adoption by Developing Countries 
Adoption by Non-Industrialised Countries 
Reassurance and Setting an Example 
8. The International Simultaneous Policy Organisation (ISPO) 
ISPO's Powers over Governments 
SP: Change Measures 
SP and Benefits for Business 
SP and Benefits for Politicians 
SP and Benefits for the Public 
Campaigning and Spiritual Values 
Campaigning Methods and Strategy 
9. Symptoms, Causes and Non-Governmental Organisations 
Symptoms and Causes 
Environmentalism or Ecologism? 
Pricing the Environment 
Charitable Status 
10. The Call to Commitment 
Postscript

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The principal barrier to implementation of any significant measure to improve today's environmental, economic or social problems, be they in advanced, developing or non-industrialised countries, is destructive competition. Global de-regulated capital flows and corporations know no national boundaries and by their ability or threat to move elsewhere, force nations to compete with one another for capital, jobs (and therefore votes) and ever scarcer natural resources.

With increased government reliance on capital markets to finance public deficits and on corporations to maintain employment, internationally mobile capital effectively precludes the implementation of any national policy that might incur market or corporate displeasure. The markets have consequently engineered strong leverage over the economic, social and environmental policies adopted by any country ensuring that only market-friendly, neo-liberal policies are pursued — regardless of the party in power . The result is the strangle-hold of pseudo-democracy in which, whatever party we elect, the policies delivered remain substantially the same. Since virtually all nations are part of an increasingly integrated global economy, they are all subject to the same strangle-hold. In advanced countries, it is exerted directly by the market itself, ably assisted by the WTO; in developing countries, by the market and through "structural adjustment" imposed by the IMF or the World Bank; in non-industrialised countries by the virtual absence of any foreign direct investment leaving them to the consequences of warfare, poverty, disease, increasing numbers of refugees and so on. 

No nation can exit from this predicament by seeking to re-regulate financial markets because such action would cause capital flight, devaluation and inflation if not outright economic collapse. Similarly, policies that seek to address environmental or social problems requiring higher public spending or higher costs for industry are precluded on the grounds of uncompetitiveness, adverse market reaction and the threat of job losses. In de-regulating capital markets, nations have therefore unleashed a force they can no longer unilaterally control – a global competitive merry-go-round now spinning so fast that no nation can get off (unless it is forcibly ejected by the market itself). 

This paper therefore argues, firstly, that politics – regardless of the party in power – has effectively been paralysed into a market-friendly position from which it cannot escape. Secondly it argues that fundamental changes to the capitalist system are essential before there can be any hope of closing the 'sustainability gap' or of expecting any tangible results from international agreements on reduced emissions. Thirdly, since capitalism can only be changed and controlled by politics — which has itself already been paralysed — we are heading for environmental, economic or social collapse without the means to alter that course. Solutions that fail to address the central barrier to reform that global free markets and international competition represent are therefore effectively dead in the water.

In spite of this state of affairs, this book sets out a feasible means not only of regaining control of global financial markets and corporations, but of going much further towards creating the conditions for a global society and economy more compatible with Nature and the needs of human nature. The disturbing growth of far-right political parties is a sure sign that failure to do so could well prove catastrophic. This book therefore argues that a fundamental transformation from international competition to global cooperation is required, for only through global co-operation between nation states can destructive competition be eliminated and meaningful changes implemented. Crucially, it also sets out a practical method of achieving this. It therefore represents something of a "missing link" without which the many solutions now being proposed by leading economists and ecologists are likely to remain confined largely to theory. 

To break the vicious circle of global competition, both between nations and between corporations, all nations need to act simultaneously by implementing the Simultaneous Policy (SP); a range of measures to re-regulate global markets and corporations in order to restore genuine democracy, environmental protection and peace around the world. SP thus calls upon peoples all over the world to recognise the futility of conventional party politics and to unite both by taking policy out of the hands of politicians and, by force of their numbers and their votes, by bringing political parties into competition with one another to adopt SP. By separating the adoption of SP from its implementation, SP transcends party-political differences and allows voters, NGOs, politicians and governments to adopt it without risking their respective personal or national interests. It therefore represents political action of a kind not yet seen: a New Politics of cooperation and community which transcends both the divisions of conventional party politics and the dilemmas of maintaining international competitiveness. SP thus offers a real prospect – perhaps the only prospect – of beneficial change and survival. 

This New Politics has profound implications for North-South relations, the global environment, world economics, global governance, Green parties, non-governmental organisations, international relations, national domestic politics and, not least, for the triumph of the human spirit. 

John Bunzl – March 2001.

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Published in "Fourth World Review" and in "New European"
This monograph provides a refreshing, lively look at the problems of globalisation and their possible solutions. For John Bunzl is not a politician or an activist, neither a bien pensant academic nor a professional conference-goer. Instead, he is the director of a medium-sized business in South London, who has thought about politics, society and the nature of man. Bunzl keenly admits that 'at the time of writing, my lifestyle is very much at odds with what I have written regarding the need to liberate oneself from the masters of greed and envy and recognise that "man cannot live by bread alone".' Yet that, in a sense, is the whole point of 'Simultaneous Policy'. Individuals can only transform themselves with limited success unless they act en masse. Similarly, it is impossible for nations, acting alone, to stem the globalist tide. Alone, they are powerless against transnational corporations and the 'free' movement of capital. As Bunzl knows well, this process does not really offer 'free trade' at all, but protectionism on behalf of the multinationals. 

Bunzl's interest in economic and political reform began when he read E.F. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful, which he (rightly) regards as being as valid today as it was in 1974, when it was written. Schumacher called for a return to a human scale in the organisation of politics and economics. He articulated a growing nervousness about the growing centralisation of power, and in economic growth as an end in itself. For Bunzl, Schumacher's predictions of environmental degradation and the collapse of shared values have been more than realised. Far from bringing peoples and nations together, the end of the Cold War has intensified economic competition. It has removed from international capitalists the moral obligation to behave humanely and the pragmatic desire to do so. More than that, the fall of communism has been accompanied by the triumph of neo-liberalism. As mechanistic as 'vulgar' Marxism, this ideology places the market and economic growth above considerations of equity and or the need to preserve settled communities. Neo-liberalism's dialectic of change is global in scope and scorns local traditions, peculiarities or needs. The World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund and other neo-liberal bastions impose their will increasingly on governments, North and South. In this sense, the old anarchist slogan is coming true: 'Whichever way you vote, the government always gets in'. Only now these governments are minimalist in social policy and tied to a free-market agenda. 

The idea of a 'simultaneous policy' came to Bunzl when he looked at Europe's Green parties, admired their opposition to unprincipled, unplanned 'growth' but realised that they were impotent. Impotent because of, rather than despite, their growing electoral strength, since politics today mean compromise with corporate power, not the ability to change things. Resistance to globalisation has been fragmented, fissiparous and unstructured. Often, it is manipulated by violent extremists, as we have seen most recently with the 'May Day protests' in London. Many opponents of globalisation call themselves anarchists, reviving the [conveniently] untested philosophies of Bakunin, Proudhon and Kropotkin. Yet the system they oppose represents the unacceptable face of anarchy — the 'anarchy of production', as Marx called it, plus the breakdown of a coherent moral order. Bunzl realises that globalisation requires global solutions. A change of course requires nations to act together, much as they did when the United Nations was formed half a century ago, but at a much more profound level. If national governments cannot 're-regulate' business, a coalition of nation states, North and South, can do so. In Simultaneous Policy, Bunzl draws up a three-stage plan for social and political reform. Measures range from, in the first instance, the dismantling and banning of nuclear weapons, the banning of political funding by big business, working towards a series of 'change measures to transform major corporations and institutions into ones that are more compatible with a healthy society and environment'. Bunzl is not an 'anti-capitalist', like those who demonstrate on Western streets. Like the real (as opposed to simplified) Adam Smith, he wants individual enterprise to serve human need. Like Herman Daly, pioneer of the 'steady state' (or balanced) economy, he wants economics to be returned to its origins as a branch of moral philosophy. Economic systems, including markets, are man-made, and so it is nonsense to argue that we cannot control them. 

The virtue of Bunzl's monograph is that it combines healthy idealism with a good dose of practical wisdom. His conditions for cancelling Third World debt are quite stringent, allowing plutocratic elites no room for manoeuvre. His work should be therefore be required reading for Robin Cook, Clare Short and Madeleine Albright (or whoever succeeds her). Bunzl is, I feel, the first writer on the 'sustainable society' to advance beyond rhetoric and grapple with the problem of how such a society might be achieved. He is aware that, as in so much else in life, the starting point must be the individual human being. This means that his intense political engagement is tempered by a sense that the underlying problem is moral and spiritual, not political. I feel that the 'simultaneous policy' idea is only beginning to take shape, and so there is far more to come from Bunzl. As such, I commend his work to our readers. 

Other book reviews have appeared in the following publications and are also available. Contact jbunzl@simpol.org for details: 

Resurgence : by John Coleman 
Green Events : by Malcolm Aitken 
Corporate Watch Magazine: by James Rees 
CCPA 'The Monitor' : by Diana Jewell 
Positive News : by Ted Dunn 
Fourth World Review : by Sir Richard Body 

All these available in English only. Other reviews not so far published to our knowledge have been written by: Richard Stimson. 

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The International Simultaneous Policy Organisation is pleased to launch the first book in its Making it Happen Series: Monetary Reform — Making it Happen!

In each of the compact, accessible volumes of the series, ISPO Founder John Bunzl teams up with a different internationally prominent expert to show how the Simultaneous Policy (SP) can stimulate global reform in a vital policy area. Each book also provides practical tools that readers can use to accelerate the implementation of SP worldwide.

Next in the series: Integral Global Governance – Making it Happen! Anticipated publication time: Spring 2006.
 

Monetary Reform
Making it Happen!

By James Robertson and John M Bunzl

Published by the International Simultaneous Policy Organisation, London, 2004
Paperback, 80 pages, £5.00

A brilliant treatment of a question which has never been so urgent.

Synopsis
Praise for Monetary Reform
How to order
Excerpt
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Pressures for a new political economy are becoming stronger as worldwide protest against the present form of globalisation and anxiety about American 'imperialism' continue to grow. The new political economy will need to combine economic efficiency to meet human needs with social justice and environmental sustainability. It will require changes in our institutions, particularly those concerned with money and finance.

Monetary Reform: Making it Happen! explores an international solution to this economic challenge that would link two proposals that have come forward in Britain during the past three years. One is for monetary reform as proposed by Joseph Huber and James Robertson in 2000. The other is for Simultaneous Policy, as proposed by John Bunzl in 2001.

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I’m happy to see two good ideas merge into a single strategy.

[This book] clarifies the pressing need for monetary reform as one of the essential foundations of a sustainable global economy.  Opposition to such reforms by the Washington Consensus, including even minimal taxes on currency trading to reduce speculation, is beginning to crumble! Developing countries are now banding together to oppose the hypocrisies of conventional trade, finance and banking promoted by the IMF, the WTO and their special interest supporters. Overcoming the global grip of this Washington Consensus will require continued and expanded civil society campaigning --  which can include promotion of the Simultaneous Policy strategy of concerted introduction of these reforms in many countries -- in a similar way that the Group of 21, led by Brasil, China and India were able to expose the hypocrisies of US and EU protectionism at the WTO Cancun Summit.

These proposals for monetary reform – how money should come into existence – are really very simple, though the subject appears complicated. They are easily accessible to anyone who knows the present system is not working for most of humanity. The international civil society movement for change has reached a critical mass. It needs practical alternatives. Robertson and Bunzl present proposals applicable nationally and internationally that go to the heart of a new economic order.

Monetary reform, land reform, and ecological tax reform are the key building blocks of a socially just, new economy. Simultaneous Policy is the essential organising tool to enable global citizens to achieve political implementation.

Creating a sustainable and just world remains an elusive yet deeply noble cause. The contribution of our debt-based monetary system to the workings of the global economy needs to be much better understood. Global monetary reform, as so ably outlined here, is an essential precondition for real change. This book fills an important gap in our knowledge.

As one would expect from the authors concerned ‘Monetary Reform- Making it Happen!’ makes a stimulating addition to a debate about one of the most important, but as yet too inadequately understood, changes required to the financial system globally.

This is a brilliant treatment of a question which has never been so urgent. James Robertson tackles the issue which underpins everything else we are concerned about and, as always, he does it with clarity and panache.

A wonderfully clear exposition of two very important ideas, which could be of mutual assistance although neither needs the other for support.

This proposal of Robertson and Bunzl will create a new starting point for the discussion of realistic and practical ways and means to create the necessary changes for a more just global society. The combination of approaches to monetary reform and democratic-decision making across national boundaries could offer a win-win solution for both. It will resonate positively with a growing number of Cultural Creatives around the globe, aiming to promote the changes necessary for a more just and democratic world order.

Excerpt from Monetary Reform

from the SUMMARY

The first two chapters on monetary reform are by James Robertson. Although much of the detail in them refers to Britain, the same outline applies broadly to other countries too. 

The historical perspective in Chapter 1 brings out some of the parallels between the aims of monetary reform in the 19th century and now, and some of the differences between that time and ours. It suggests that the historical evolution of the monetary system between then and now points to the Huber/Robertson proposal as the next step forward. 

It also points out that a key difference between then and now is that monetary reform must be dealt with today in an international context. Another difference is that now public awareness is becoming widespread that big changes in the monetary and financial system are needed. People's aspirations for a greener, juster, more people-centred way of life, a new direction of more peaceful progress, and a new consciousness about our place in the planet, are growing. But recognition is also growing that those aspirations cannot be fulfilled, so long as the perverse incentives and compulsions of the present money system shape how we actually live. 

Chapter 2 summarises the proposal for monetary reform published in Creating New Money, and brings out its international as well as its national significance. It notes some of the main obstacles to it that have become apparent and some of the objections that have been made to it, including those based on the risk of damage to a national economy's international competitiveness. 

Chapter 3 is written by John Bunzl. It introduces the Simultaneous Policy approach and explains its potential relevance to monetary reform proposals such as Creating New Money, as well as to other reforms advocated by global justice campaigners and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). It outlines in more detail the obstacles to the implementation of monetary reform likely to arise from the reaction of global markets, and it explains how Simultaneous Policy could potentially overcome them. Specific arguments in favour of the Simultaneous Policy approach are discussed as well as its potential disadvantages and responses to them. 

Chapter 4 re-emphasises the importance of an international campaign for monetary reform. It will probably be based initially on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) mobilising citizens' interests worldwide, bringing in small businesses and other sectors inadequately served by the present money system, and then spreading to growing numbers of mainstream politicians, political parties, government officials, financial experts and economists. 

That chapter and the Briefing conclude with some practical suggestions about what can be done to promote monetary reform by its supporters 

• in their own nation, 
• co-operating internationally, 
• and provisionally adopting the Simultaneous Policy. 

Monetary Reform: Making it Happen! will be published January 1, 2004. ISBN: 0-9546727-0-4. Copies can be ordered in advance from ISPO (see below). Also available from bookstores.

Price: £5.00 Paperback (£6.00 including postage & packing.) For international prices, contact ISPO. All of John Bunzl's royalties will be donated to the SP campaign.

Please make cheque payable to "ISPO" and mail to: 
International Simultaneous Policy Organisation
P.O. Box 26547
London SE3 7YT, UK

Payments can also be made via paypal. 

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Reviewed by Susana Piohtee

In the tradition of the ‘Teach Yourself’ and ‘How To’ books of the 1950s and 60s, this first of a proposed series of co-authored handbooks, ISPO – Making It Happen, provides enough information about its topic for the reader to ‘take matters further’ should they so wish.

The concept of using the Simultaneous Policy (SP) internationally ‘to make things happen’ provides the thread that will run through all the books in the series.   Each book will focus upon a specific topic. 

In this first of the series the subject under scrutiny is Monetary Reform. Between them, the authors have a profound knowledge of, and solid practical background in banking, government and commerce.  Both men are pragmatic visionaries, willing to lay themselves on the line in order to bring about radical change that whilst essential to the survival of humanity, is hugely challenging to the perceived wisdom of today’s mainstream economic thinking, and evokes vociferous and powerful objection from those with vested interests in the current status quo. 

The first part of the book gives a brief history of our current monetary system.  It shows why Monetary Reform is needed, and how proposed reforms will result in ‘money serving the people instead of vice versa’ and thus beneficially change the lives of billions of people worldwide.  The second part of the book explains how a breathtakingly simple yet visionary concept called ‘the Simultaneous Policy’ (SP) has the potential to ‘make this happen’ by enabling each one of us to use our  vote to transcend party politics and challenge the lobby power of multinational corporations; even take on the might of the US dollar.

Refreshingly, this is not a ‘they’re wrong, we’re right’ book, but one of an increasing genre of writing that whilst acknowledging mistakes made and the very real challenges of overcoming these, talks the reader through a series of practical actions that have the potential for resolving  the hitherto apparently intractable and destructive consequences of these mistakes. 

Objections to SP are dealt with sympathetically, yet demolished one by one. 

By the time we reach the last chapter, we begin to realise that what we are being offered is a chance to contribute to a truly democratic process and lead our government …… rather than the other way round!  Given the Life-threatening activities of most national governments at this time, how can we not take up this opportunity!

Monetary Reform is not most people’s idea of a sexy topic! Perhaps this is why so many of us remain in woeful ignorance of the simple facts about the manner in which money is created today.  And perhaps it also explains why a non-accountable, profit-making Banking Community defining national and global indicators for economic success has remained virtually unchallenged, except by a handful of campaigners, for so long.  Hopefully this handbook will contribute to changing all that!

For me as the two most significant monetary reform concepts to emerge were:

• the notion that public currencies (i.e. those needed to implement and maintain public services) should be created ‘debt-free’ and spent into the community rather than, as is the case now,  created as interest-bearing repayable loans, and;

 
• that any ‘profit arising from the creation of  currency’ — referred to in the book by the old term of SEIGNIORAGE  (a fee payable to a government for coining bullion) — should become public revenue instead of private profit unavailable for spending on public need. 

It also becomes clear how these mechanisms of money creation inevitably undermine the work of those various NGOs and other charitable organisations, often referred to as The Global Justice Movement,  by making the social and environmental reforms they support and campaign for ‘too expensive’ to sustain. 

James Robertson argues the case for monetary reform well whilst acknowledging the huge challenge achieving this presents given today’s global economic interdependence.  In the third chapter of the book he hands over to John Bunzl to explain how the Simultaneous Policy (SP) would hugely increase the chances of success.

John Bunzl, the man behind the Simultaneous Policy (SP) is nothing if not a man of courage.  To go public with a concept that initially appears totally outrageous -- challenging not only long established political and economic procedures, but the might of the International Banking Community as well -- requires courage and faith.

Chapter Three details the simple but ingenious step-by-step SP methodology by which citizens can use our political vote with clout!  The distinction between the adoption of SP (i.e., embracing the principle) and its implementation, are explained, making it clear that adopting SP does not exclude following individual activities; but provides the means for organisations to co-operate and support each other while continuing their own campaigns. 

As the author says, this should appeal to people across the political spectrum, whether committed Party members, protest or tactical voters, or one of the huge number of individuals whose alienation from our whole political system is such that they cannot see the point of voting at all. 

By becoming SP adopters an individual would no longer be faced with the only option of using his/her vote to support one or another Political Party — with all the  accompanying baggage of adversarial win/lose outcomes inherent to ‘Party’ politics.  By becoming SP adopters we can encourage all politicians / candidates, their parties, and thus governments to adopt SP themselves by pledging to implement SP reforms and policies.  What a brilliant idea!  How can it not hold appeal for all who desire to improve the effectiveness of our so-called democratic processes?

We are shown how SP would only be needed to enable national governments to implement policies that though highly necessary for global welfare would, due to ‘free’ market competition, have a very real negative impact upon the ‘first-mover’ country if implemented unilaterally; but which if implemented simultaneously by a sufficient number of countries would go a long way towards bringing to a halt the economic insanity that has already plunged humanity into self-destruct mode.  An important distinction between SP and political activity that attempts to force governments into reform is that SP facilitates positive change by removing this risk to national governments of first-mover disadvantage.  It allows each government – or governing body — to continue implementing current policies until such time as enough consensus has been built up nationally and globally through the adoption of SP to make the popularly desired reform a politically viable choice.

Although SP tactics can only work directly within nations in which citizens have the vote, an indirect affect will be felt by non-democratic nations via pressure from trade partner nations. 

John Bunzl describes the SP process as ‘a strategy for building consensus for the future’.  Whilst the actual detail of the policies SP is to consist of could, if members so decide, be formulated by expert and independent policy makers, they will be determined by, or at least consented to, by the citizen members of the International Simultaneous Policy Organisation (ISPO) themselves, not dictated by politicians, or global business institutions. 

As well as presenting very persuasive arguments in favour of SP, its founder doesn’t hesitate to acknowledge and respond to the many arguments against it.   He recognises some to be realistic and others to be phoney objections used to protect the advantage of those with vested interests in maintaining the status quo.  He comments that though SP is not a political reform in itself but a practical took for facilitating the democratisation of our current political procedures; it is a process that would likely enough of itself lead to political reform. 

It struck me that the initials of The International Simultaneous Policy Organisation, ‘ISPO,’ can just as easily stand for ‘IS Possible’! From reading between the lines it seems that ISPO has arisen from a combination of what A Course in Miracles calls ‘miracle mindedness’  (the ‘knowing’ that recognises the inherent goodwill and desire for right human relations within each human being), and the ‘can do’ thinking beloved of today’s Management Gurus.  Its approach would appear to be the first ever ‘bottom-up’ consultation and decision-making process that cannot be stymied by greedy shareholders or company director,  incompetent middle management, or controlling ‘leaders’..  The gift of SP is that it offers ordinary concerned people who have no powerful connections or strings to pull, the opportunity to be instrumental in bringing about a major transformation of the human condition.

It is clear that SP’s success as a tool for transformation depends upon enough people (‘enough’ does not mean vast numbers) becoming SP adopters.  The responsibility for making this democratic process work, well and truly lies with each one of us.  We are being offered the chance to practise right human relations in action, and the ending to this story will be written by you and me. Given humanity’s current lemming-like flight into oblivion, John Bunzl’s comment that SP is ‘not unrealistic when seen as a developing process against the backdrop of a seriously deteriorating world situation’ is perhaps a mild understatement. 

Susana Piohtee is a psychotherapist specialising in personal and organisational growth and community facilitation. She currently works with a Housing Association and its tenants to tackle and prevent anti-social behaviour and community conflict. She describes herself as a “systems buster”; a remover of barriers and builder of bridges and as a co-learner and traveller who aims for the re-cognition of the divinity within humanity.

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