Wonderful Groundhog Day and Merry Midwinter (or summer, if you're Down
Under)! England, it seems, keeps ahead of the rest of this pack, as
you can read below. Welcome aboard new subscriber Allen Smith for whom
the land issue became his monster pet peeve by the time he was working
in construction 1990-95. "I never heard of Henry George until 2004 or
2005; I can't tell you how much that wonderful discovery has done for
my mental health and my ability to have conversation." Well put,
Allen. If any reader knows anyone else who'd enjoy the News, put them
in touch. Thanks.
CONTENTS:
* 32nd N. American Conference of the CGO
** Biannual IU in Buenos Aires
1. Good Press: Financial Times; Morning Star
2. News: A Smaller Example of a Larger Principle
3. Numbers: A Councilman's advice & Ireland's richest speculator
4. Movement Progress: News from Ireland, Managua
5. Letters: Evening Post
6. Obituaries: Dan Kryston; Chuck Metcalf
7. Likable link: Speech by Iroquois warrior and chief Sconondoa;
Spirit of Twain
8. What You Can Do: Partner up; Land Rights Course
9. At the Margin: Quips and Quotes
10. Publication affairs: Contributors, About the Georgist News
* The 32nd North American Conference of the Council of Georgist
Organizations July 30 - August 6, 2012, Next to Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania at the Camp Hill Radisson
Tentative Program
Two public outreach sessions:
A panel on the hot Marcellus Shale controversy, focusing on collecting
a royalty or severance tax and on including mineral rights in the
property tax. A debate on whether to replace property tax with a
non-real-estate tax. We are looking for a neutral moderator and the
best advocates of abolishing property tax we can find.
Sessions of general interest to Georgists:
Land value tax in Pennsylvania
Land and race, from Thaddeus Stevens to Martin Luther King
Sessions to make us more effective: Strategic Planning. Marketing your
message.
Networking and Skills Exchange. Feedback from Focus Groups.
New Methods in Georgist Education. Toastmaster-Style Speeches.
Open Mike.
Sue Walton, conference administrator, sns at swwalton.com
** Biannual IU in Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 15-18
All the Georgists of Argentina hope that a crowd of Georgists from
around the world will join them in Buenos Aires. To register for the
conference, please contact Hector Sandler: hsandler at speedy.com.ar
and copy the accountant Gonzalo Lecuona (Secretary General of the
ASAP) gonzalo_lecuona at me.com. Thank you.
1a. Good Press: Comment in the Financial Times
by Steven Clarke, via Carol Wilcox, Labour Land Campaign
[Article by Samuel Brittan, 26 Jan 2012]
'Diogenes was right to value more than happiness'
"This is an instance of the way in which he (or his advisers) is
irresistibly drawn to fashionable left-of-centre gimmicks but eschews
genuinely radical measures such as stopping official support for arms
sales or instituting a land value tax."
1b. Good Press: In the Morning Star - London
by Pete the Temp, 14 Dec 2011
If you'd like to polish your skills, Occupy London has workshops,
talks, and working groups laboring hard to incubate and cultivate
practical solutions to the global crisis. I saw a talk here on the
land value tax, a campaign that could radically restructure how
property and wealth are managed. If you go to St Paul's be sure to
find Robin Smith, representative of the radical Systemic Fiscal Reform
group from Cambridge. Robin, believe it or not, used to be a Tory
councilor.
http://morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/113164
[On-site video interview with Robin here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS_9_Kj8AiY
poor sound quality]
2. News: A Smaller Example of a Larger Principle
The conventional media sometimes cover the reform of tapping natural
values for public benefit while de-taxing our efforts. To keep up to
date, visit The Progress Report daily. Here is one of the latest
articles:
Whales for Sale - If people pay for what they take, do they take
less and use the source of their harvest more wisely?
"Saving Whales by Putting a Price on Their Tail?"
http://www.progress.org/2012/whaling.htm
To establish a shared frame of reference for a discussion about how to
solve economic issues with friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers,
try sending them the progress.org link.
3. Numbers: A Councilman's advice & Ireland's richest speculator
The Future - One happy trend, one tall warning, lots of unaware
economists, and one enlightened politician.
"Homicide drops in US despite fallen economy"
http://www.progress.org/2012/bozarthm.htm
Indicators Update - Where in the business cycle are we? Is the worst
over, or is more misery yet to come?
"Why are bonds outperforming stocks over long term?"
http://www.progress.org/2011/quinsean.htm
4a. Movement Progress: Site Value Tax in Ireland
by Kevin Smyth, January 31, 2012
A report has been issued on introducing Site Value Taxation in Ireland
by Ronan Lyons on behalf of the Smart Taxes Network. The report
assesses the obstacles to implementing SVT in Ireland and how these
can be overcome. It also assesses the revenue potential of the tax and
the distribution of land values in Ireland. http://tinyurl.com/7u2ndo9
4b. Movement Progress: News from Managua
by Paul Martin, Director, HGIEC / CEIHG, Managua, Nicaragua,
ceihg at ceihg.org, January 1, 2012
For news stories on the CEIHG Managua:
http://www.ceihg.org/News_IHG.htm
Please put a web link to the website of the Henry George International
Education Center/Centro Educativo Internacional Henry George
(HGIEC/CEIHG) http://www.ceihg.org and a separate link to the Georgist
Community Fund (GCF) http://www.ceihg.org/FCG.htm on whatever links or
contacts pages you may have on your Georgist or social justice
oriented website. We have just updated and improved our website
presentation and invite you to take a look. We probably already have a
link to your own Georgist website on the CEIHG website at
http://www.ceihg.org/IHG_orgs.htm but if we don't, we would be happy
to add it. Just e-mail us with the address (URL) of the homepage.
The CEIHG's first Georgist Community Fund year-end celebration and
"common fund" distribution took place in Nicaragua Dec 28th. We had 81
participants in all and handed out the "citizen dividend" to 19 of our
42 current members. Thanks to the five international Georgists
(MarkS., CayH., TedG., JeffS. and GilH.) who made the effort and
connected with us at the event.
For years, many of you have said kind words about all the "great work"
Paul Martin and the CEIHG (IHG) have been doing in Nicaragua. Thank
your for all your moral support! But all those P&P courses and all
those hundreds of graduates amounted to practically nothing ... until
now, because we have changed our way of thinking about our purpose and
strategy and have discovered the GCG paradigm of movement building.
Now, with the GCF, each qualified CE graduate and each qualified
Georgist proponent worldwide can become part of an international
movement of shared understanding and public demonstration. Now we can
accumulate all the energy we invest in teaching and graduating
informed students. Now we can expand our numbers into a recognizable
movement with influence far beyond what has been possible without such
an association. Won't you help with this process by becoming a member,
today? For a sane, secure, and prosperous progress for all:
Common Rent and Private Wages!
5. Letter: Evening Post
from Wyn Achenbaum, January 4, 2012
Description of a Georgist community in Delaware a century ago:
In Arden Town
Bird and Bush Life Sacred
Single Tax in Practice
Evening Post, 1914-05-09; Volume LXXXVII, Issue 109, p.10
http://tinyurl.com/7st4msm
6a. Obituary: Daniel J. Kryston (1942-2012)
by Steve McErlain, Jan 8, 2012
Daniel Joseph Kryston a Chestnut Ridge, NY resident for 35 years, died
Friday, January 6, 2012 surrounded by his loving family at Nyack
Hospital. He was 69. Mr. Kryston was an attorney for the City of New
York for 40 years. He was born March 16, 1942 in Bronx, NY to Frank
and Henrietta Kryston. He married Elizabeth in 1967. He was a past
president of the Municipal Engineers of the City of New York. Dan was
a strong advocate of social justice and served as chair and president
of the Henry George School of Social Science until illness forced him
to retire. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth; daughters, Koreen
Kryston Thomas and her husband Rowland and Janeen Kryston Waddell and
her husband Sean; five grandchildren, Sophie, Rowland and Charlotte
Thomas and MacKenzie and Jackson Daniel Waddell; brother, Frank
Kryston and numerous nieces and nephews. A Mass of Christian Burial
will be held 11:30 AM Wednesday, at St. Margaret's R.C. Church, Pearl
River, NY. Viewing is Tuesday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 PM at
Wyman-Fisher Funeral Home Inc. In lieu of flowers friends may send
memorial donations to St. Dominic's Home, Executive Director, 500
Western Highway, Blauvelt, NY 10913 or United Hospice of Rockland,
11 Stokum Lane, New City, NY 10956. http://tinyurl.com/6rmppu5
6b. Obituary: Chuck Metcalf (January 8 1931 - January 11 2012)
by Orion, Jan 19, 2012
Member of the Forum on Geonomics, Chuck Metcalf was such a wonderful
man. I heard him play standup bass over the years and was always
enthralled. I hired him for a gig and we put a trio together,
practicing every week. I used to ask him to play louder on his
exquisite solos; he said, No I want the people to listen. After
hanging with Chuck for a while, I started calling him "the furrowed
brow". He emailed me about a demonstration on Tax Day 2011, so I went
to a meeting in Oakland; I've been immersed in the Occupy Movement
ever since. I offer my condolences to you all for yours and my great
loss. http://chuckmetcalf.com/
7a. Likable Links: Speech by Iroquois warrior and chief Sconondoa
by Ed Dodson, January 10, 2012
A new PowerPoint presentation to use as the basis for a classroom
discussion of our shared rights to land. The text is a speech made by
Iroquois chief Sconondoa in 1752 at a council with representatives of
the English colonies. I have added an introduction describing the
territorial battles between the "First Americans" and European powers
and colonists. Sconondoa's views are honestly expressed, and they open
the door for serious discussion of such issues as the claim to
territory by right of conquest, and the very idea that land can be
bought and sold. A narrated version of this PowerPoint is now online
at Authorstream.com. http://tinyurl.com/85kob8w
7b. Likable Links: Spirit of Twain
by Wyn Achenbaum, January 24, 2012
Some might enjoy these websites:
http://www.spiritoftwain.org/
http://www.ghostoftwain.org/
And this sounds promising, if you have reason to be in Nevada on April
14 of this year: Mark Twain on Taxes: Tahoe-Incline Performing Arts
Theater, Incline Village, NV. Doors open at 6, the trouble begins at
seven. mcavoylayne@gmail.com; 775-833-1835
8a. What You Can Do: Looking for Partners
by Fred Harrison, fred.harrison at talktalk.net, January 10, 2012
Publication of my IU-sponsored book in July, 'Nature and Society,'
coincides with various other initiatives. Taken together, these
present the opportunity for a systematic re-launch of the Georgist
paradigm that might make it possible to blast our way into the public
consciousness. If there are significant events which could be added to
my calendar, please let me know. I am hoping that UK-based activists
and organizations can gather for a Council of War in London in early
September. A similar event ought to be held in the US in the autumn.
The objective: to assess the viability of existing approaches to
communicating the Georgist paradigm, identifying possible
alternatives, and establishing priorities for action. This initiative
ought to include Denmark and Australia. I am looking for partners.
8b. What You Can Do: from Land Rights Course
by Alanna Hartzok, Earth Rights Institute,
alanna at earthrights.net, January 1, 2012
There are Two Days this year when we can create special events to
affirm that The Earth Belongs to Each and Everyone One of Us. On these
Two Days we can present the earth rights ethic as a way to address
environmental destruction and end the ravages of war. These Two Days
are the Days of Equinox - the time of equal balance of dark and light
that we all experience the world over on March 20th and September
21st. These are global commemorations that are growing each year,
encouraged and supported by a number of organizations and websites.
Let us create events that show the connections between how the earth
is "owned" and how the earth is treated. When the land and resources
are fairly shared, human beings have basic needs met and can give more
time and attention to environmental concerns. With access to land and
a fair economy, people naturally care for the earth because their
consciousness is uplifted, rather than ground down by needs for
personal survival. March Equinox Earth Day Events:
http://www.earthsite.org
The International Day of Peace is on Equinox Friday, September 21.
http://www.internationaldayofpeace.org
9. At the Margin: Quips and Quotes
No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is
in session.
- Author Unknown (tho' it may have been coined by Gideon J. Tucker
and appropriated by Mark Twain)
Labor: One of the processes by which A acquires property of B.
- Ambrose Bierce
Theories are private property, but truth is common stock.
- Charles Caleb Colton
10. Publication affairs: Contributing to this issue
Along with those acknowledged above with each blurb,
Editor: Jeffery J. Smith
Assistant Editor: Caspar Davis
Archivist: Stewart Goldwater
Owner: Robert Schalkenbach Foundation
Founder: Adam Jon Monroe
Send your news and other interesting material to the Georgist News,
jjs at geonomics.org or gn at progress.org. The deadline for the next
issue is the 25th of this month.
The Georgist News, a project of Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, is an
email newsletter brought to you free of charge. Its purpose is to keep
you updated on the latest news, citations, events, and initiatives of
relevance to people who, like Henry George, seek a world free from
special privilege and the causes of poverty.
Do you know someone who'd enjoy reading the GN? Please forward them an
issue and ask them to subscribe, or send us their eddress. As always,
it's free. Thanks.
The Georgist News is also available online: http://www.Georgist.com/
The Georgist News, Volume Fourteen, Number Seven, February 1, 2012 |