Books and resources
Welcome to the International Simultaneous Policy Organisation (ISPO) Books and Resources page.
Books and resources
Welcome to the International Simultaneous Policy
Organisation (ISPO) Books and Resources page.
Here you will find information on books and articles about SP published by ISPO or written by its trustees or officers. Also you will find links to on-line interviews with ISPO trustees or officers as well as a list of links to a selection of other international organisations.
Books
In this section you will find information on the book which launched
the SP campaign, The Simultaneous
Policy – An Insider’s Guide to Saving Humanity and the Planet,
and on the ISPO Making it Happen!
book series. Books presently included in the Making it Happen! series are:
Monetary Reform – Making it Happen! by James Robertson and John Bunzl
People-centred Global Governance - Making it Happen! by John Bunzl is now available for download!
To purchase hard copies of any of these books 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
all 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 info@simpol.org
Cheques 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 jbunzl@simpol.org. If ordering/paying via PayPal, please be sure to include
the name and postal address where your order should be sent.
The
Simultaneous Policy – An Insider’s Guide to Saving Humanity and
the Planet
by John Bunzl. Published by New European Publications, 2001.
Summary
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.
Endorsements
It's ambitious and provocative. Can it
work? Certainly worth a serious try.
Noam Chomsky
It is a good idea. What we need is politicians
who will give this issue a high priority.
Polly Toynbee
The Guardian
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.
Ed Mayo
Chief Executive, National Consumer Council, UK
Your idea for a simultaneous policy
is excellent.... Lets hope that people start to listen to this important message.
Helena Norberg-Hodge
Director of the International Society for Ecology & Culture
...the basic concept is excellent....
Let me know what develops!
Jakob von Uexkull
Founder and Chairman, Right Livelihood Award
Foundation
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.
Hazel Henderson
Author, Beyond Globalization: Shaping a Sustainable
Global Economy
…provocative
and potentially transformative. There are ideas here that could change the world.
Prof. Charles Derber
Dept. of Sociology, Boston College, MA, USA
A wonderful
book — one which I agree with whole-heartedly and regard as the most important
book I have read to date.
Anne Spilling
Jounalist, Berkshire, UK
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.
Tony Benn
Former Labour Member of Parliament,
UK
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.
Sir Richard Body
Former Conservative Member of Parliament, UK
Download additional preface by John Bunzl (written 2004)
ISPO Making it Happen! book series
The Making it Happen! series of books is published by ISPO. Each book looks at a specific reform proposal or subject area which may require the Simpol approach if its practical implementation is to occur. In each book an ISPO trustee or officer teams up with a well-known and respected expert or an advocate of a specific and important reform proposal. Alternatively, an ISPO trustee or officer is sole author.
1. Monetary Reform – Making it Happen!, by James Robertson and John Bunzl
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.
Endorsements
I’m happy to see two good ideas
merge into a single strategy.
Bernard Lietaer, author, The Future
of Money
[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.
Hazel Henderson,
author of Beyond Globalization and other books, and partner with the Calvert
Group of socially responsible mutual funds in the USA in creating the Calvert-Henderson
Quality of Life Indicators
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.
Margaret Legum, Chair of the Trustees
of the South African New Economics network.
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.
Pat Conaty, Senior Research Associate,
New Economics Foundation.
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.
Herbert Girardet, Chairman of Schumacher
Society, UK.
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.
Colin Hines, author, Localization:
A Global Manifesto
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.
George Monbiot, author, The Age
of Consent
A wonderfully
clear exposition of two very important ideas, which could be of mutual assistance
although neither needs the other for support.
Richard Douthwaite, author, The
Growth Illusion, Founder, Feasta
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.
Margrit Kennedy, author, Interest
and Inflation Free Money
Download book for free
2. People-centred Global Governance - Making it Happen!, by John Bunzl
Summary
As global problems such as global warming, global poverty, pollution, terrorism
and runaway corporate power increasingly outstrip the capacity of national and
international governance institutions to solve them, the issue of global governance
is rapidly moving up the international political agenda. In this book, Bunzl
draws on the work of a number of leading evolutionary thinkers to show that
both the process of globalisation itself, and the evolution of a binding system
of global governance, are natural parts of human evolution.
The central dilemma of achieving a healthy form of global governance, Bunzl shows, is that its implementation must be by popular consent, and yet it must also be consented to and implemented by nation-states. For only nation-states have the authority and capacity to do so. But present inter-governmental efforts to solve global warming and other global problems are proving wholly inadequate and are showing the nation-state system to be incapable of such a move. The solution, Bunzl argues, is to devise a way for global citizens to use their votes in their respective national elections to drive their politicians and governments to implement global governance and to do so in a way that does not require nations to act against their own self-interest. Furthermore, he presents the Simultaneous Policy as one means by which this can be achieved, arguing it to be the world's first genuine form of global electoral politics.
Beyond this, if the evolution of global governance is a natural, albeit by no means assured, evolutionary phenomenon, Bunzl argues that any organisation purporting to become the world’s over-arching institution of global governance would likely have to display characteristics which are in substantial accord with the dynamics of evolutionary transformation. These dynamics have, after all, already been set out very clearly by the prominent American philosopher, Ken Wilber, in his “20 Tenets of holons and holarchies". The value of Wilber’s 20 Tenets is that they provide reasonably objective criteria against which to analyse and compare the various existing and emergent global governance initiatives (as well as existing institutions such as the United Nations) to assess their potential, or otherwise, for evolving to become the world's organisation of binding global governance.
Bunzl proceeds to analyse the International Simultaneous Policy Organisation (ISPO), tenet by tenet, making a convincing argument as to its congruity with Wilber's Tenets and its potential for effecting global transformation at all levels of the human social holarchy towards a system of people-centred global governance. ISPO is also briefly viewed from Wilber's "all-quadrant, all-level (AQAL)" standpoint and ISPO's progress in the real world is also discussed, showing that it is already in the process of its own becoming.
By analysing ISPO in this way, Bunzl lays down the gauntlet - a challenge - to all other would-be global governance initiatives to declare themselves in similar fashion. From such a debate, both those with a special interest in globalisation and governance and the wider public will be able to see which initiatives have the potential to succeed and thus merit our active involvement and support.
Endorsements
A systemic and ingenious strategy for
applying people power in all countries to encourage their politicians toward
‘win-win global solutions’.
Hazel Henderson, Author,
Building a Win-Win World and Planetary Citizenship
Simultaneous
Policy (SP) is an evolutionary imperative in a competitive world that now demands
new forms of co-operation in order to address global issues that cannot be resolved
by one nation alone. In this new book John Bunzl analyses some key aspects of
governance and sets SP in the context of transformative evolutionary change
in our economic and political systems. The book is a timely contribution to
continuing debates about structures and processes of global governance, showing
exactly why our current international institutions are not fit for purpose.
David Lorimer, Editor, Network,
the magazine of the Scientific & Medical Network
In an age
when our problems are global and national governance structures are weakened
and inadequate, it is absolutely necessary to think about the shape of effective
global governance. This cannot be simply national government "writ large"
for that would also enlarge the problems and inefficiencies of national governance.
It must be a holistic and evolutionary governance system, and to the articulation
of the essential features of such a system John Bunzl's book makes a major contribution.
Highly recommended reading for everyone concerned with our collective future
on this small and largely mismanaged planet.
Dr. Ervin Laszlo, Futurist, author
and systems theorist. President of Club of Budapest
John Bunzl convincingly demonstrates
that if you want to contribute consciously to the successful advancement of
the evolutionary process on this planet, you should support the Simultaneous
Policy. The SP is a powerful and practical means of actualizing the next great
step in evolution on earth - the formation of a cooperative and sustainable
planetary civilization.
John Stewart,
Author, Evolution’s Arrow – the direction of evolution and the future
of humanity
This publication presents a unique long
term approach to governance and environmental issues. It offers solutions based
on the concept of unity in diversity. As such it is bound to produce controversy
and debate!
Diana Schumacher,
Former President, The Schumacher Society
Download book for free
Hard copies are also available. Please contact info@simpol.org for details.
Keynote Speech at Kannur University, India - Globalisation, Development, Public Policy and Management: Emerging Issues
Diana Trimble delivers a powerful speech on Globalisation, outlining the need " to ensure that it develops in its most positive manifestation, so that what we have is interconnectedness and a world in which all nations may benefit from the shared commons"
Global
Warming: More Inconvenient Truths
In response to Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, activist and campaigner,
Diana Trimble, responds with two further inconvenient truths that Gore and we
citizens, ourselves, must take on board if we are to solve global warming and
many other global problems.
Live
8 -- Making Poverty History? Or Entrenching Our Irresponsibility?
A few powerful men in suits cannot make poverty history, argues John Bunzl,
even if they want to. "Does the G-8 really, genuinely, have the power to
make poverty history? Does it really have that much power at all? Geldof and
Bono by all accounts certainly think so. But are they not, perhaps, simply in
thrall to the very attractive idea that some small group of people must have
massive power and could change the world if only we put enough pressure on them?"
Restoring
Democracy to a Company World
This op-ed by ISPO Creative Director Syd Baumel appeared in the May/June 2004
issue of Union Farmer Monthly, the newsletter of Canada's National Farmer's
Union. Baumel introduces SP and argues that farmers and consumers can use it
as a political tool to globalize humane and sustainable agriculture.
"Evolutionary
Biology and the Simultaneous Policy"
"Today, as humanity increasingly faces a critical point of crisis in terms
of our survival on planet Earth," writes ISPO Director John Bunzl, "it
is essential that light now be shed on how co-operation has worked in evolution,
and how it can be made to work now if we are to have a sustainable future."
Published in Network Review, 2004.
"Why
Forgiving Ourselves and Each Other is the Path to Global Justice"
This essay by John Bunzl argues that we can best achieve global justice not
by blaming competing nations, corporations and leaders, but by using the Simultaneous
Policy to turn the world's vicious cycles of destructive competition into cooperation
for the good of all. A shorter version was published as a guest editorial at
oneworld.net in February 2004.
"Voting
Your Global Conscience: The Simultaneous Policy offers an ingenious scheme to
take back the world"
Published in the Washington Free Press (Jan/Feb, 2004), this article by SP adopter
Syd Baumel quotes supporters and adopters of SP and offers a brief introduction
to the subject. For a more detailed version, click
here.
"Reform the WTO! - But Where are the Ideas?" (2540 words)
"IMF/WB/WTO:
Evil Dictators or Helpless Slaves?" (2650 words)
Both of the above articles attempt to show how the multilateral institutions
are, to a large extent, driven by the global competitive market rather than
driving it themselves as many believe. Article 1 is also available in French.
"The
Global Economy, the Simultaneous Policy and Satyagraha" (1260 words)
This article appeared in "The Gandhi Way", the newsletter of the Gandhi
Foundation in the UK.
"Competition:
Is it All it's Cracked Up to be?" (3000 words)
This article appeared in the AMED quarterly journal "Organisations &
People". Whilst politicians and business keep chanting the mantra of competitiveness
being synonymous with benefit for all, this article attempts to show the down-side
of competition and thus to expose the flawed mind-set of politicians and the
multi-lateral institutions.
"Beleaguered
on the Shores of Lac Leman - The WTO Invites the Activists to Tea"
(3200 words)
This article is an analysis of the WTO's predicament which shows why it is incapable
of achieving its stated objective of producing equitable prosperity and development.
It explains how the WTO's mission is based on a false premise and illuminates
the wider implications for the global economy. It follows the WTO Symposium
on "Issues Confronting the World Trading System" held July 2001 at
which John Bunzl was invited to address.
"To
Give In to the Protesters would be to Turn Democracy on its Head" (1900
words)
The title quotes UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's response following the G-8 summit
in Genoa, July 2001. The article exposes so-called 'democracy' as pseudo-democracy
and explains growing global voter apathy.
Article
for World Review (2500 words)
This article serves as an introduction to John Bunzl's book, The Simultaneous
Policy, and puts the SP proposal into the context of the current world predicament
of corporate globalisation.
"Le
Pen is Chief Beneficiary of Corporate Globalisation" (2100 words)
This article appeared in Sand in the Wheels, the newsletter of the activist
group ATTAC, and explains the links between the rise of the Far-Right, anti-corporate
globalisation and voter apathy. Also available in French.
John
Bunzl interviewed by Lucis Trust
As part of their "Conversation with Inspiring Servers" series, Lucis
Trust probes the spiritual basis of the global challenges addressed by the Simultaneous
Policy. Audio and transcript.
Co-op Radio
Show featuring SP recorded Vancouver, Canada, May 14th 2001.
This is available on CD. First half hour consists of an interview between presenter,
Diana Jewell, and ISPO founder, John Bunzl, concerning the SP concept. Second
half hour consists of live listener call-ins and John's responses.
Interview of
John Bunzl by Jay Fenello in September 2001
For the "Aligning with Purpose" talk-radio show, USA. This can be
heard on-line at www.aligningwithpurpose.com/radio.htm
but you will need RealPlayer software which can be downloaded free from www.real.com.
Alternatively, a file in low-fidelity MP3 format which does not require RealPlayer
can be provided.
For any further information, please contact
jbunzl@simpol.org
SP Partners are organisations that support the democratic
aims and principles of the Simultaneous Policy (SP). Becoming an SP Partner
encourages an organisation's members and supporters to personally adopt SP and
invites other democratically minded organisations to become SP Partners too.
While ISPO offers reciprocal support to its partner organisations and believes
their policies and programs to be worthy of support or consideration, ISPO does
not officially endorse the specific policies or programs of other organisations.
Partner organisations listed below have an international scope. Those with only a national, rather than international, scope can apply to be listed as partners on the websites of the relevant national SP organisation(s). For more information, please go to SP in your country.
The Love Foundation http://www.thelovefoundation.com
The Human Union http://www.humanunion.info
GlobalVote http://www.theglobalvote.org