THE DEMOCRACY CENTER TURNS 15!
The Democracy Center On-Line
Volume 73 - January 26, 2007
Dear Readers:
The Democracy Center is now fifteen years old!
This new year, 2007, marks our anniversary, and so as we start I want to dedicate this issue of our newsletter to remember how we began, where we've been, and to acknowledge some of the many great organizations that have worked by our side – from California to Bolivia and beyond. All year we will unveil a series of new surprises including today, the on-line version of our new Democracy Center magazine (see below)!
Many, many thanks to all of you who have been with us these fifteen years. I think we're ready for at least fifteen more!
All best wishes,
Jim Shultz
The Democracy Center
THE DEMOCRACY CENTER TURNS 15!
It began with an unexpected letter from Washington. My wife and I were living in Bolivia, taking a year off from political work in California to be volunteers in an orphanage in Cochabamba. Friends at the Advocacy Institute wrote and asked if I would put together an advocacy training program for health activists in South Africa, then still governed under white apartheid rule. That February (1992) I arrived in Johannesburg and, without my really knowing it, The Democracy Center was born.
California
That fall, back in the US, my friends at the Advocacy Institute asked me to open a California office, "AI West" (which we took independent as The Democracy Center in 1997). We set up offices on Mission St. in San Francisco, with my old cohorts at Consumers Union and took on our first new work in California – helping progressive groups address the state's deep budget crisis. We produced a report, "State of Deadlock", that laid out a strategy. Then we pulled our advocacy allies together and led the founding of a new group that could provide serious progressive analysis on budget issues, The California Budget Project, which continues to flourish today.
When immigrants in California came under political attack – culminating in a right-wing ballot measure to keep undocumented immigrant children out of the public schools (Proposition 187) – we joined with our immigrant allies and jumped into the fight. The Center trained immigrant day laborers how to work with the media and helped rights groups plot their strategy. Later we published our popular guide to waging ballot campaigns, "The Initiative Cookbook", and dedicated it to California's immigrants.
Bolivia
In 1998 my family and I left California for Bolivia once again, for what was supposed to be a one-year break to write The Center's citizen advocacy guide, "The Democracy Owners' Manual" (Rutgers University Press). The book got written and published and sold enough to be reprinted twice. But as it turned out, my family and I never went back to California.
I was finishing up the manuscript for "The Democracy Owners' Manual" in early 2000 when here in Cochabamba the streets were exploding in protest in what came to be known as the Cochabamba Water Revolt. The Bechtel Corporation had come to Bolivia from San Francisco, just like I had and at about the same time, though with very different intentions. The Corporate giant from Beale St. had been handed control of the city's public water system and promptly raised rates an average of 50% for the city's poorest families, who in turn took to the streets to kick Bechtel out. The Democracy Center was reborn – outing Bechtel as the hidden owner and writing news dispatches that helped make the water revolt a worldwide story.
The Center's role in the Water Revolt drew a lot of attention and in the years afterwards a parade of wonderful young people from the US began showing up at my door and offering to help. We wrote more studies on Bolivia's experience with globalization. We led a successful global campaign to block Bechtel's $50 million lawsuit against Bolivia. We integrated ourselves with Bolivian social movements and tried to share with the world the lessons about democracy that this humble country in the Andes has to offer.
The World
Every year since that first flight to South Africa, the work of The Democracy Center has also become more and more global. We have done advocacy trainings for clean election campaigners in Mexico, women's groups in Tanzania, health advocates in the former USSR, and activists on a variety of other social justice issues in Thailand, the Balkans, Paraguay, and in other countries all over the world.
We have been especially involved in the effort to engage citizens in monitoring and advocating on how their governments raise and spend public budgets and have written three major studies: on budgets and human rights; tracking gas and oil revenue; and the influence of global institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Helping People Build Democracy from the Ground Up
I have been especially struck recently how in much of the world "democracy" has become a dirty word. People ask if The Democracy Center is funded by the US government and associate the word with the Bush administration's war in Iraq. "Democracy' is an ancient word, a noble one that we can't allow to be hijacked or diminished.
Here at The Democracy Center that word means something much more than elections. It means the right of all people to understand the public issues that affect their lives and to influence public decisions. All over the world – from California to Cochabamba – we have learned powerful and inspiring lessons from people practicing democracy day to day, often at great risk. That includes many of you reading this, with whom it has been our honor to work these fifteen years.
So what's next for The Democracy Center? Here's a glimpse of what we're up to:
Our New Magazine: This month The Democracy Center unveiled our new magazine about Bolivia, "Jallalla" an indigenous word which means, Live! Full of stories, photos and art that crosses politics and culture, you can read the on-line version here.
"Blog from Bolivia": Our popular Blog is now read by more than 3,000 people per day –by US journalists, Bolivian presidents, activists from around the world, and many old friends. Have a look at it here.
A New Book!: The Democracy Center team (eight strong now and a mix of people from Bolivia and the US) is wrapping up work on a major new book: "Dignity and Defiance: Stories from Bolivia's Challenge to Globalization". You can see a preview of it on the back cover of the magazine.
That is just some of what we are up to now – fifteen years and going strong!
We'd Love to Hear from You!
Finally, for our anniversary we'd like to hear from the people we have worked with over the years. We'll be setting up a page on our Web site of comments and memories from old friends (You know who you are!). If you'd like to join in take a moment and write something brief and send it either as a reply to this newsletter or email it to: JimShultz@democracyctr.org.
We look forward to hearing from you and we are grateful for all your support, interest and friendship over the years!
________________________________________________________________
THE DEMOCRACY CENTER ON-LINE is an electronic publication of The Democracy Center, distributed on an occasional basis to more than 4,000 organizations, policy makers, journalists and others, throughout the US and worldwide. Please consider forwarding it along to those who might be interested. People can request to be added to the distribution list by sending an e-mail note to: contact@democracyctr.org. Newspapers and periodicals interested in reprinting or excerpting material in the newsletter should contact The Democracy Center at contact@democracyctr.org. Suggestions and comments are welcome. Past issues are available on The Democracy Center Web site.
THE DEMOCRACY CENTER
SAN FRANCISCO: P.O. Box 22157 San Francisco, CA 94122
BOLIVIA: Casilla 5283, Cochabamba, Bolivia
TEL: (415) 564-4767
FAX: (978) 383-1269
WEB: http://www.democracyctr.org
E-MAIL: contact@democracyctr.org
Volume 73 - January 26, 2007
Dear Readers:
The Democracy Center is now fifteen years old!
This new year, 2007, marks our anniversary, and so as we start I want to dedicate this issue of our newsletter to remember how we began, where we've been, and to acknowledge some of the many great organizations that have worked by our side – from California to Bolivia and beyond. All year we will unveil a series of new surprises including today, the on-line version of our new Democracy Center magazine (see below)!
Many, many thanks to all of you who have been with us these fifteen years. I think we're ready for at least fifteen more!
All best wishes,
Jim Shultz
The Democracy Center
THE DEMOCRACY CENTER TURNS 15!
It began with an unexpected letter from Washington. My wife and I were living in Bolivia, taking a year off from political work in California to be volunteers in an orphanage in Cochabamba. Friends at the Advocacy Institute wrote and asked if I would put together an advocacy training program for health activists in South Africa, then still governed under white apartheid rule. That February (1992) I arrived in Johannesburg and, without my really knowing it, The Democracy Center was born.
California
That fall, back in the US, my friends at the Advocacy Institute asked me to open a California office, "AI West" (which we took independent as The Democracy Center in 1997). We set up offices on Mission St. in San Francisco, with my old cohorts at Consumers Union and took on our first new work in California – helping progressive groups address the state's deep budget crisis. We produced a report, "State of Deadlock", that laid out a strategy. Then we pulled our advocacy allies together and led the founding of a new group that could provide serious progressive analysis on budget issues, The California Budget Project, which continues to flourish today.
When immigrants in California came under political attack – culminating in a right-wing ballot measure to keep undocumented immigrant children out of the public schools (Proposition 187) – we joined with our immigrant allies and jumped into the fight. The Center trained immigrant day laborers how to work with the media and helped rights groups plot their strategy. Later we published our popular guide to waging ballot campaigns, "The Initiative Cookbook", and dedicated it to California's immigrants.
Bolivia
In 1998 my family and I left California for Bolivia once again, for what was supposed to be a one-year break to write The Center's citizen advocacy guide, "The Democracy Owners' Manual" (Rutgers University Press). The book got written and published and sold enough to be reprinted twice. But as it turned out, my family and I never went back to California.
I was finishing up the manuscript for "The Democracy Owners' Manual" in early 2000 when here in Cochabamba the streets were exploding in protest in what came to be known as the Cochabamba Water Revolt. The Bechtel Corporation had come to Bolivia from San Francisco, just like I had and at about the same time, though with very different intentions. The Corporate giant from Beale St. had been handed control of the city's public water system and promptly raised rates an average of 50% for the city's poorest families, who in turn took to the streets to kick Bechtel out. The Democracy Center was reborn – outing Bechtel as the hidden owner and writing news dispatches that helped make the water revolt a worldwide story.
The Center's role in the Water Revolt drew a lot of attention and in the years afterwards a parade of wonderful young people from the US began showing up at my door and offering to help. We wrote more studies on Bolivia's experience with globalization. We led a successful global campaign to block Bechtel's $50 million lawsuit against Bolivia. We integrated ourselves with Bolivian social movements and tried to share with the world the lessons about democracy that this humble country in the Andes has to offer.
The World
Every year since that first flight to South Africa, the work of The Democracy Center has also become more and more global. We have done advocacy trainings for clean election campaigners in Mexico, women's groups in Tanzania, health advocates in the former USSR, and activists on a variety of other social justice issues in Thailand, the Balkans, Paraguay, and in other countries all over the world.
We have been especially involved in the effort to engage citizens in monitoring and advocating on how their governments raise and spend public budgets and have written three major studies: on budgets and human rights; tracking gas and oil revenue; and the influence of global institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Helping People Build Democracy from the Ground Up
I have been especially struck recently how in much of the world "democracy" has become a dirty word. People ask if The Democracy Center is funded by the US government and associate the word with the Bush administration's war in Iraq. "Democracy' is an ancient word, a noble one that we can't allow to be hijacked or diminished.
Here at The Democracy Center that word means something much more than elections. It means the right of all people to understand the public issues that affect their lives and to influence public decisions. All over the world – from California to Cochabamba – we have learned powerful and inspiring lessons from people practicing democracy day to day, often at great risk. That includes many of you reading this, with whom it has been our honor to work these fifteen years.
So what's next for The Democracy Center? Here's a glimpse of what we're up to:
Our New Magazine: This month The Democracy Center unveiled our new magazine about Bolivia, "Jallalla" an indigenous word which means, Live! Full of stories, photos and art that crosses politics and culture, you can read the on-line version here.
"Blog from Bolivia": Our popular Blog is now read by more than 3,000 people per day –by US journalists, Bolivian presidents, activists from around the world, and many old friends. Have a look at it here.
A New Book!: The Democracy Center team (eight strong now and a mix of people from Bolivia and the US) is wrapping up work on a major new book: "Dignity and Defiance: Stories from Bolivia's Challenge to Globalization". You can see a preview of it on the back cover of the magazine.
That is just some of what we are up to now – fifteen years and going strong!
We'd Love to Hear from You!
Finally, for our anniversary we'd like to hear from the people we have worked with over the years. We'll be setting up a page on our Web site of comments and memories from old friends (You know who you are!). If you'd like to join in take a moment and write something brief and send it either as a reply to this newsletter or email it to: JimShultz@democracyctr.org.
We look forward to hearing from you and we are grateful for all your support, interest and friendship over the years!
________________________________________________________________
THE DEMOCRACY CENTER ON-LINE is an electronic publication of The Democracy Center, distributed on an occasional basis to more than 4,000 organizations, policy makers, journalists and others, throughout the US and worldwide. Please consider forwarding it along to those who might be interested. People can request to be added to the distribution list by sending an e-mail note to: contact@democracyctr.org. Newspapers and periodicals interested in reprinting or excerpting material in the newsletter should contact The Democracy Center at contact@democracyctr.org. Suggestions and comments are welcome. Past issues are available on The Democracy Center Web site.
THE DEMOCRACY CENTER
SAN FRANCISCO: P.O. Box 22157 San Francisco, CA 94122
BOLIVIA: Casilla 5283, Cochabamba, Bolivia
TEL: (415) 564-4767
FAX: (978) 383-1269
WEB: http://www.democracyctr.org
E-MAIL: contact@democracyctr.org
posted by The Democracy Center at 1:48 PM
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