Occupy World Street: A Global Roadmap for Radical Economic and Political Reform [Paperback]

Ross Jackson (Author), Hazel Henderson (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 2012

Ordinary citizens the world over have long paid the price for the swashbuckling behavior of the corporate and political elite. We've seen the reigning establishment widen the gap between rich and poor, champion endless growth on a finite planet, wreak havoc on developing nations, and ravage ecosystems in a mad race for natural resources.

Now, as demonstrators worldwide demand change, Occupy World Street offers a sweeping vision of how to reform our global economic and political structures, break away from empire, and build a world of self-determining sovereign states that respect the need for ecological sustainability and uphold human rights.

In this refreshingly detailed plan, Ross Jackson shows how a handful of small nations could take on a leadership role; create new alliances, new governance, and new global institutions; and, in cooperation with grassroots activists, pave the way for other nations to follow suit.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Publishers Weekly-
Jackson, chairman of the Danish-based foundation Gaia Trust and co-editor of Gaian Economics: Living Well Within Planetary Limits, provides a comprehensive and lucidly written history of neoliberal economics and its effects, tracing the inequalities inherent in neoliberal economic planning. Neoliberalism, as Jackson illustrates, isn't an inevitable historical development, but rather an "artificial construct" created by people with a self-serving strategy that neglects the rest of humanity. Jackson presents the fundamental flaws in modern economics, locates the turning point in regulation and economic behavior, and then shows how and why things have devolved to their current state through the actions of the IMF and WTO. He traces a new, emergent worldview, proposing a solution in the form of a Gaian economic system, in which smaller, decentralized, diverse communities with a degree of local democracy form the proposed utopia, in contrast to the branded neoliberal free market of corporate dreams. A return to a simpler, more satisfying, and sustainable lifestyle is both necessary and inevitable, Jackson argues. The book is a how-to, "get serious about survival" guide, laying out a "global governance structure" and providing us with several strategies to try to get there. Hopefully, Jackson's ideas won't fall on deaf ears.

"Many writers have inventoried the unfolding disasters that threaten the human future. Ross Jackson is one of the very few who goes on to spell out a visionary, yet practical, program of sufficient ambition to achieve a positive future. Best of all, he draws on his distinctive experience and credentials as a global currency trader to outline sound proposals for redesigning the badly flawed systems of global trade and finance that currently drive the world toward economic, social, and environmental collapse. This is a truly important book."--David Korten, co-founder of YES! Magazine, author of Agenda for a New Economy

"Amazing! Ross Jackson's proposal for post-collapse strategy is the first plausible, constructive scenario I have seen."--Dennis Meadows, co-author, The Limits to Growth

"Occupy World Street is a masterpiece which deserves to get wide circulation and commitment by world leaders."--Maurice Strong, Secretary-General of the UN Earth Summit, Rio 1992

"Occupy World Street is a monumental and inspirational call to action-and a long-awaited blueprint for how the actions should be implemented."--John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman

"Ross Jackson offers practical solutions to the course correction so sorely needed today."--John Renesch, author of Getting to the Better Future

"Occupy World Street is a profound and urgently needed roadmap for the future of human civilization"--Will Keepin, author of Divine Duality

"Jackson's initiative has the potential to unite hundreds of NGOs and millions of ordinary citizens in the streets behind a single simple proposal (that could change the current dysfunctional game.)"--Hazel Henderson, author of Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy

"A brilliantly detailed template for how to materialize enlightened global society."--Llyn Roberts, author of Shapeshifting into Higher Consciousness

"Ross Jackson, who is one of the world's wise elders, describes a range of new global institutions that can give birth to a world of sustainable prosperity."--Duane Elgin, author of The Living Universe

"Ross Jackson's reform proposals for our global institutions are more than astonishing-they are mind-blowing-pure creative genius. Let's do it!"--Clinton Callahan, author of Directing The Power of Conscious Feelings

"Ross Jackson has written the definitive analysis of why the current system cannot reform itself and why a completely new system must be born."--Jim Garrison, Chairman and President, State of the World Forum

"Ross Jackson presents us with an extraordinary global plan to tackle the multiple crises of our times-awesome in conception, sensitive in detail, and realistic enough to succeed."--Richard Register, author of Ecocities-Rebuilding Cities in Balance with Nature

About the Author

Ross Jackson, an expert in international finance and operations research, has long been an innovative leader in both the business and NGO worlds. He is chairman of Gaia Trust, a Danish-based foundation that supports the Global Ecovillage Network and Gaia Education, as well as hundreds of sustainability projects in forty countries. He is also director and owner of Urtekram, Scandinavia's largest wholesale organic-food company, and former chairman of Gaiacorp, foreign-exchange consultants and hedge fund managers. Jackson is the coeditor of When No Means Yes: Danish Visions of a Different Europe and Gaian Economics: Living Well Within Planetary Limits and author of And We ARE Doing It: Building an Ecovillage Future, among other books. He lives in Denmark.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing (January 31, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9781603583886
• ISBN-13: 978-1603583886
• ASIN: 1603583882
• Product Dimensions: 0.9 x 6 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #715,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding analysis and new vision of a sustainable society March 5, 2012

By John A. Suda VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

For those billions of people for whom the current political-economic system doesn't work-the Occupy Wall Street people, the Tea Partiers, the 99%-ers and have-nots, the middle and lower classes, and the rest of the unwashed masses, "Occupy World Street" is a starburst of enlightenment and a practical vision of hope for a new and advanced society.

The book is subtitled appropriately "A Global Roadmap for Radical Economic and Political Order." It functions in a substantial way as the missing "content" for the Occupy Wall Street movement people who know that global capitalism and its political elite are screwing the middle and lower classes and the world environment but don't know exactly how they are doing it and how to change things. The book provides an unusually lucid analysis of the American political-economic system which should make clear to the Tea Partiers what their real targets of rage should be (it's not merely the Democrats nor the federal government.) Nearly everyone else who wants a "big picture" comprehensive analysis of the global economic system will be educated by this book.

The author, Ross Jackson, identifies who and what is responsible for the 2008 financial meltdown and many other problems in society. Most prominent are a seriously-flawed "neo-liberal economic philosophy" and the political-elite class which sponsors that philosophy for self-interested reasons at the expense of the rest of us. Jackson makes clear that economic philosophical theory is not value free and is class politics in disguise.... But way more importantly than the mere class versus class struggle, the neo-liberal economic philosophy has created severe energy and environmental problems which are almost certain to lead soon to major economic and political disruptions affecting the entire globe.

The author's main perspective is as an environmentalist; he utilizes a systems approach of an overarching environmental model where the global environment is a closed, finite system and the economic, political, and other topics are subsystems of the whole. The book explains (in six parts and 17 chapters) how and why our existing economic model is failing and will create environmental, economic, and political chaos unless it is replaced soon with an economic model emphasizing "sustainability" and "development" versus simple "unlimited growth." Jackson explains in the second half of the book what we can do about it, hopefully before it's too late for future generations to have a chance for civilized life.

I have never heard before of Mr.Jackson, but he is bound to be (or at least should be) hailed as a top-notch public intellectual. He is a brilliant analyst of global economics, politics, and environmental matters; and a clever synthesist of the relevant economics, politics, philosophy, environmental science, psychology, sociology, history, physics, and biology, which apply to his examination.

He has an unusually broad and diverse background as a global currency trader, executive of a nonprofit environmental organization, software designer and businessman, and degrees in engineering physics, industrial management, and operations research. This may explain, in part, his ability to see major categories of human life with such a wide lens while also being able to analyze the subcategories and the factual data.

Part One explains the scientific and economic reasons why the neo-liberal approach of unending growth is unsustainable and a lie. It is a lie because it implies, at least, that everyone has a chance ultimately to achieve the high level of consumption of the successful capitalists and that the high consumption gravy train will go on forever. He uses biological, environmental, and mathematical data to show that the neo-liberal assumption of infinite natural capital has already resulted in net deficits of global energy resources, and that the world (and the neo-liberal economic system) will end frightfully unless we reduce population, give up the idea of "more of everything is better," redesign and downsize our economies, use less fossil energies, and emphasize sustainability.

The next two parts explain the politics and human factors which drive the irrational economic policies. He goes into good detail about historical economic theory from the mercantile period, to the classical free trade period, to our existing neo-liberal period. He clearly explains how and why the 2008 financial crisis occurred and why it is likely to repeat itself, and how the current debt crisis in Europe (and elsewhere) happened and why the European Union is not equipped even now to successfully deal with it. Any effort to address it (using the existing neo-liberal strategies) will be temporary and the crises will deepen.

His discussions on the neo-liberal insistence on a deregulated economic environment, free flow of global capital, and the use of exotic financial instruments and transactions, especially naked short sales, are the clearest I've read about how these elements de-stabilized the global economy. They will continue to do so as long as those who (very lucratively) benefit from them (the political elite) insist upon them regardless of the consequences to hapless small nations and their economies, small businesses, and people like you and me. He thoroughly and lucidly explains how this political-economic philosophy destroys real democracy, including in America. What we have, he says, is a corporatocracy which dominates much of political and social life through the forces of wealth and ideology.

Mr. Jackson is also a political-economic visionary of the highest order as shown in the second half of the book by his "break away" strategy where he sets out his alternative environmentalist paradigm. It is a new worldview emphasizing the finite reality of our natural resources, especially energy ones, and how we should alter much of what we do to comply with that reality. He argues for a new set of social values harmonious with a holistic sense of people and nature being part of one "system." The values of that system include smallness, localization, quality versus quantity, interrelationships, and long-term perspectives.

These values are organized into a moderately sophisticated set of new global political and economic institutions modeled much like the European Union but emphasizing environmental issues and designed to satisfy long-term environmental needs. This process will also lead to enhancing of true human values in the political sphere, especially in more effective democracies.

The "breaking away" strategy starts with small nation states building a new economic paradigm based upon the environmental perspective, rejecting the flawed and elitist global institutions we have now (the WTO, World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund), and even developing new currency systems. The nation states will be supported by a grassroots activist movement which will create local eco-communities and more self-reliant economies while lobbying existing political powers to get on board with the new paradigm. The measurements of success will not be GNP or GDP but the broader-based measures of social happiness and human rights.

(Take the case of the nation of Bhutan which measures its activity by a standard called "Gross National Happiness Index.")

The parts of the book explaining the roles of the neo-liberal economic philosophy and the political elite are solidly presented and not really new. The program of change he proposes, however, is new and intellectually sound. Being intellectually sound, however, is not sufficient to affect change. There is a gap, it seems, between the ideas and what is necessary to activate people at the grassroots level. Relatively few people in reality will even read this book. The ideas need to be connected to "street-level" understandings, perhaps tied to basic human values of respect and dignity. The roadmap proposed here, Mr. Jackson acknowledges, needs much more development.

(FTC disclosure (16 CFR Part 255)): The reviewer has accepted a reviewer's copy of this book which is his to keep. He intends to provide an honest, independent, and fair evaluation of the book in all circumstances.) Read more ›

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Occupy World Street: Food for thought May 26, 2012

By John Williamson TOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

To start with, author Ross Jackson's Occupy World Street is a lot more impartial than this reader expected. Though it's subtitled "A Global Roadmap for Radical Economic and Political Reform," its neutrality is surprising.

It's entirely too easy to use this book to point fingers at the 1% and how they're enriching themselves at the expense of the 99% majority. Some may read it and mentally highlight how this book expounds on the central issues that are at the core of the Occupy Movement's list of grievances, and why democracy has failed in the US and other countries. Author Jackson does contend that "almost all the social ills plaguing modern society are a direct result of too great a disparity in income." Since the neo-liberal agenda of the '80s, the disparity continues to expand rather than shrink.

To correct these economic and geopolitical inequalities, the author looks to scientist and environmentalist James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis and the overhauling of supranational institutions accordingly. Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis states that the earth is a self-regulating organism adjusted by a complex system of interdependent feedback loops. Ross Jackson is chairman of the Danish-based Gaia Trust foundation, and puts this vision of interdependence at the heart of a new, sustainable global economy.

This book is a first-rate introduction for anyone wondering how our global economy got to where it is now. Jackson provides a succinct overview of the role of the Bretton Woods institutions, as well as the policy changes that allowed monetary institutions to precipitate the 2008 financial meltdown and mortgage crashes.... The author offers something for everyone to ponder, and though the first half makes for somewhat depressing read, the book does not flounder in culpability, finger pointing and hopelessness.

James Lovelock has recently admitted to being 'alarmist' about climate change, and says other environmental commentators, such as Al Gore, were as well. Lovelock recently said he would not take back a word of his influential 1979 work Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, yet of his The Revenge of Gaia, published in 2006, he said he had gone too far in describing what the warming Earth would see over the next century.

The parts of this book explaining the roles of the neo-liberal economic philosophy and the political elite are solidly presented and not really new. The program of change that the author proposes, however, is new and logically sound. But being logically sound is not sufficient to affect change. There is a breach between the ideas and what is necessary to activate people at the grassroots level, so it does seem to come across as somewhat utopian. Comparatively few people will read this book, regardless of various groups touting it as a "bestseller" that will be read by many. The ideas presented here need to be connected to mainstream understandings. And Ross Jackson recognizes that the roadmap proposed here needs much more development. It may be utopian and idealistic in some ways, but it's good food for thought.

5/26/2012 Read more ›

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Recipes to live sustainably and meaningfully February 24, 2012

By Sergio Lub

Format:Paperback

Extraordinary insights and recipes to live sustainably and meaningfully while bypassing the fossil energy trap. I recommend this book to young couples, who feel ready to settle and offer a real world for their kids.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Surviving neoliberal disinformation May 31, 2012

By John C. Landon

Format:Paperback

One of the problems leaving activist change stymied lies in the flooding tide of disinformation that keeps the public confused about 'how the economy works', and 'what is going on' in that context. You just can't get an accurate picture from television, or newspapers, or from most economists, including liberal critics of neoliberal economics. What is worse, is that many leftists are themselves unable to penetrate all the details of the monumental con game that has been played. Exposing neoliberal mythology is not easy because the critiques are rare, often too general, missing the point, and do not see the real dynamics of the way economic elites have pulled the wool over everyone's eyes. This book is a highly useful general summary of the neoliberal swindle of the past generation, and, without excessive detail or analysis, covers all the bases in a way that can enable a coherent picture of what has befallen the world economy. Collecting all the pieces in one account is helpful in seeing the basic simplicity of the situation befogged without fail by news commentary.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A fine book to understand the challenges the world faces May 2, 2012

By Joseph Oppenheim VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

This book is a response the the Occupy Wall Street and other Occupy movements around the world, where the protestors know there is something wrong, the 1% vs the 99%, most people on the planet, but so far haven't come up with any comprehensive descriptions of the problems or possible solutions, because it is so complex. The author lays most of the blame on neo-liberal economics and related politics, beginning around 1980 with US president Reagan and Britian's Margaret Thatcher - basically complete free-trade and free movement of money with negligible government regulation, resulting in a transference of wealth from public hands and the poor and middle class, into the hands of the wealthy and well-connected. This all represented, in the US, along with, to a degree, Britain, which he calls "The Empire," where what has resulted in a corporatocracy, a form of fascism, where the political system is bought and paid for by large corporations where this capitalism seeks cheap labor and resources from around the world, all the while using up the planet's resources to the point where we are nearing a point of no return where the survival of the world's civilization is at stake unless we change this direction.

What the author claims is that we are going through a paradigm shift from Cartesian/Newtonian physics to Quantum physics at the world level, where the world is a living organism where it isn't "cause and effect" at the world view level, but everything is connected.... He offers a possible solution, a Gaian society, led by some small nations and leaders including some wise elders from around the world, to work together with new organizations and local currencies replacing the WTO, IMF and World Bank to work toward a sustainable planet which will change the way we live from from one of greed and accumulating money and material things to one where there is more meaning to our lives.

The book is divided into 6 parts - Planet under siege, Drivers of Destruction, The Empire, New values/New beliefs, Toward a Gaian World Order, Getting There.

Among the things covered are...

1. Global warming (carbon footprint), extinction of species, genetic engineering a risk, antibiotic resistant bacteria, monoculture (industrial farming reduces crop rotation, etc).

2. Corporatocracy is a threat to our civilization because it is overloading our ecosystem as exhibited above, plus overpopulation.

3. Peak oil is mere decades away - tar sand oil and natural gas via fracking use more energy to produce, especially when clean-up costs are included.

4. Tainter's Theory - civilizations solve problems using greater complexity until they become so complex the are overwhelmed by it and collapse.

5. Currently, nations measure progress by GDP, but GDP includes negative things like building of prisons, disaster clean-ups, etc. A more accurate measure GPI (progress)which started declining about 30 years ago.

6. Greater consumption leads to speculative bubbles. Bhutan has a Gross National Happiness Index.

7. Gini Coefficient measures income disparity where societies have shifted to "Greed is good" philosophy which at high levels as it is now, always leads to social and health problems with people rebelling.

8. Beginning in the 80's banks migrated from low risk investments to high risk ones including derivatives, high leverage, Credit Default Swaps, naked derivatives, unrestricted capital flows allowed speculators to get money out of countries fast if bets went bad leaving countries to suffer, front-running to exacerbate trends, repeal of Glass-Steagall, etc.

In sum, a very good look into the problems we face, though the author's solution is more speculative, but a good way to get our discussions started, so we can head in a better direction than we are now going. So, a fine book, even for neo-liberal supporters so that they know what is brewing. Read more ›