Next system/democracy collaborative news ;”Public Finance for the Future We Want”

Jay OwenReforming Global Finance, Beyond GDP

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Hazel Henderson, Editor
The Guardian Examines ‘New Left Economics’  The transatlantic work of the Democracy Collaborative and our allies took center stage in this “long read” article in The Guardian by Andy Beckett. “The new leftwing economics wants to see the redistribution of economic power, so that it is held by everyone—just as political power is held by everyone in a healthy democracy,” Beckett writes. One concrete example highlighted in the article is the Democracy Collaborative’s community wealth building work in Cleveland, Ohio and how it inspired a similar approach in the city of Preston in the United Kingdom.    
Read The Guardian article…   

Candidate Calls For Fossil Fuel Shutdown  
Presidential candidate Jay Inslee, the governor of Washington, this week proposed a set of climate crisis policies that include “the buying out and decommissioning of fossil fuel assets,” with a goal of “phasing out fossil fuel production nationwide, with a special focus on a just transition for workers and the protection of communities that are reliant upon fossil fuel extraction.” The Inslee “Freedom from Fossil Fuels” proposal broadly mirrors the agenda laid out in the “Taking climate action to the next level” report The Next System Project published last year. Our YouGov poll earlier this year shows there is a sizable public mandate for strong action to phase out the fossil fuel industry and support a green transition for workers. 
Read our take…   

The New York Times, The New Republic Feature Next System Project Work 
A June 22 New York Times article on how communities in the United Kingdom have responded to spending cuts imposed by the central government highlights the transformation of the UK town of Preston under the leadership of Preston councilor and Democracy Collaborative fellow Matthew Brown. The Times article calls the success of what has become known as “the Preston model” of community wealth building “an irony of austerity’s consequences. Championed as a spur to rugged individualism, it has prompted communities like Preston to intensify government’s role in economic life.”  
Read the Times article…  

The New Republic, meanwhile, published “The Road Not Taken,” a look at the struggles of Lordstown, Ohio in the wake of a decision by General Motors to close its auto plant there. The “road not taken,” the article reveals, is the path of employee ownership, which The Next System Project director Joe Guinan and researcher Peter Gowan discuss in the article. “The workers should get a chance to come up with ideas for how they could keep their jobs, and give them the right to take over that plant if it’s being sold or closed,” says Gowan, author of the Right to Own report that outlined the proposal. 
Read The New Republic article…