Spectacle - Movement - Futures

Countercoup 2002
Proposal for a Nonviolent Insurrection
against Corporate Rule

ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT
Last updated: 2-27-2002

Available online at: http://www.nancho.net/cc2002/

This document gives an overview of the entire “Countercoup 2002” project, including “Countercoup Maine – The Movie,” “VirtualMaine.Net – The Website” and their respective educational, organizing, and post-corporate future-building resource modules.

Associated proposal documents include:

A multi-media project that simultaneously covers and creates a fictional (but politically
vigorous) populist anti-corporate campaign for Governor of Maine in 2002.

Cyber-home of “Countercoup 2002”: its organizing, communication, fund-raising and
media conversion/distribution center.

These associated documents read in their entirety provide the context of the master proposal.
For more information, please contact W. David Kubiak: kubiak@nancho.net

________________________________________________________________


ARRANGEMENT

PROLOGUE
1 OVERVIEW
    1.1 Structure
    1.2 Outcomes
    1.3 Organization
    1.4 Contacts
2 SUMMARY
    2.1 Background
    2.2 Foreground
        A. A Statewide (then National) "Media Education Campaign"
        B. Community Organizing and Grassroots Network Development
        C. Collation\Distribution of Resources, Tools, and "Best Practice" Models.
3 FINANCING
    3.1 Budget Projections
4 SCHEDULE
5 SPONSORSHIP & COLLABORATION
6 ABOUT BIG MEDICINE
    6.1 Major Activities
    6.2 Finances


________________________________________________________________


PROLOGUE

"In the last twenty years, our leading corporations have achieved a literal coup d'état and now control almost every lever of official power." - Ralph Nader

"The verdict is in: transnationals have pulled off nothing short of a corporate coup d'état, ushering in what David Korten calls ‘the era of Corporate Rule.’ In this context, a growing consensus is emerging among progressive intellectuals and activists in the North which holds that if citizens are to have any input into their communal futures, they must deal directly with the real power brokers -- no longer just the politicians but the people pulling their strings: the transnational corporations themselves." - Naomi Klein (No Logo)

"Our Maine problem is pretty simple: the big corporations bought our government, and we can't afford to buy it back." - Hilton Hafford (American Workers First)

________________________________________________________________

1 OVERVIEW

“COUNTERCOUP 2002”

Proposal for a Nonviolent Insurrection against Corporate Rule

"What country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time
that its people preserve the spirit of resistance." -- Thomas Jefferson

"Maine is the most corporate dominated state in the USA." Jim Freeman, Maine Native Forest Network

Less than 30 corporations now control 70% of Maine's land, 85% of her energy, and 90% of her print and televised media. This reign of corporate power has not only obstructed critical health, environmental, and labor reforms, it has reduced the state to the 48th poorest in the nation with the 2nd highest tax and electricity rates. Since 1994 paper corporations have spent $15 million to crush citizen efforts to control clearcutting, monoculture and pesticide use in Maine forests. In 2002, HMOs, pharmaceutical and insurance corporations have budgeted millions more to defeat popular Maine legislation and candidates supporting universal health care and cheaper prescription drugs. This is not a democracy, it's an emergency.
Envisioning, Organizing and Empowering a Post-corporate Democracy in Maine

The "Countercoup 2002" project is designed to challenge the accelerating corporate takeover of democratic politics and governance with an imaginative educational, organizational and action campaign. Its basic concepts grew out of the ideas and alliances developed during the planning and convening of the New Chautauqua, a three-day grassroots strategy summit attended by over 350 activists from 26 groups across the state (9/21~23/2001, Unity, Maine). This initiative will employ a variety of innovative tools to help create new media networks and organize inter-issue group coalitions powerful enough to challenge corporate rule, revitalize local communities, and promote the most promising post-corporate social, political and economic models now arising from grassroots groups worldwide.


1.1 STRUCTURE Countercoup 2002 consists of two interactive project modules:

A) Countercoup Maine - The Movie : a feature length film and related media project that documents a fictional (but very visible) 2002 gubernatorial crusade conducted during Maine’s first-in-the-nation Clean Elections campaign. (Co-candidates: Carolyn Chute and W. David Kubiak) Their platform will advocate symbolic secession from Corporate America, promote more muscular direct democracy, and noisily contest corporations’ “rights” to participate in politics at any level. It will exploit a variety of new and conventional media to raise public awareness of the corporate coup d’état, showcase the many Maine groups now confronting corporate rule, and offer a populist strategy for nonviolent democratic rebellion. To ensure the campaign and its post-corporate visions the maximum amount of publicity and impact, the movie and its associated weekly video news program will feature:
  • Movie-staged “rallies” and “press conferences” (both attended by real people and journalists reacting to real ideas) – all organized by movie generated “campaign offices” that will recruit real volunteers, make real phone calls, handout real (intriguing) literature, and build real grassroots networks;
  • Cameos from articulate/angry citizens, celebrities and spokespeople for activist causes;
  • Cheap, theatrical advertising - posters, T-shirts, ice cream trucks, fireworks, skywriting, etc;
  • Creation\distribution of novel political education videos to libraries, schools, video shops, etc;
  • Visual quotes from the news and related productions (Bulworth, Wag the Dog, West Wing, etc.);
  • Media feedback loops, e.g., filming citizens watching\reading the press response to the movie cast’s reaction to real coverage of the fictional campaign’s position and activities.
The movie and video series would thus fuse show business and political fiction so intimately with real people, events and media reaction that viewers will lose the ability (and perhaps the desire) to tell them apart. As the movie is covered in the news and that news is rolled back into the movie - and the campaign begins to marshal real sympathy and our candidates surface in the polls, it will be pretty damn hard for anyone to tell what is "real" anymore. In sum, if politics are indeed largely shaped by perception, we can not only generate innovative new media and organizing networks, we may also muster surprising political force.

B) VirtualMaine.net - The Web Site : a sophisticated tripartite Internet site designed to support the Countercoup Maine campaign, help organize new statewide anti-corporate coalitions, and offer successful governance and “best practice” models for political and economic renewal. (See the accompanying Virtualmaine.net Proposal

Both the movie and Internet site share three explicit purposes.
  1. Communicating the Message: Creating mediagenic anti-corporate “news” and alternative non-corporate media networks to attract attention, raise awareness and enlist participation;
  • Growing the Community: Exploiting new organizational techniques to build and empower distributed inter-group networks as effective strategic alliances;
  • Tooling up for the Future: Discovering and cataloguing new tools, resources and technologies; testing innovative governmental and fund-raising paradigms; sharing success strategies; and boosting public participation in policy-making.
    At a technical level, we intend to use a common set of production resources to repackage and disseminate project content in all the following formats. The complete proposal outlines specific Ways & Means for achieving a voice in each of these media and proposes realistic funding to accomplish our noted objectives.
    • Print: Newsprint, manuals, workbooks, pamphlets, and other literary media
    • Visual: Film, video cassettes, cable/satellite television
    • Audio: CDs, audio cassettes, radio
    • Personal: New Chautauqua teach-ins, town meetings, house parties, etc.
    • Integrated: Internet networking (combines print, visual, audio, and personal)

    1.2 OUTCOMES
    By the end of 2002, the project envisions the following objective results.
    • A statewide public debate on the history, meaning and impact of the corporate coup d’état;
    • A feature-length movie depicting a colorful, insurgent gubernatorial campaign that invokes populist ideas, challenges corporate rule, and organizes defiant new grassroots coalitions;
    • Three new statewide non-corporate media outlets: a monthly newspaper, a weekly TV news hour (carried by a network of 25 public access channels), and a bi-weekly radio show;
    • A growing network of at least 20 Maine towns (spanning all 16 counties) which have tried new democratic envisioning processes and cooperation for community security\renewal;
    • A 30-member coalition of single-issue groups collectively focusing at least 10% of their respective efforts on subordinating corporate power and reclaiming democratic sovereignty;
    • A high traffic website offering educational resources, organizing tools and communication services for ongoing mobilization, post-corporate evolution, and other inter-group activities.

    1.3 ORGANIZATION
    Countercoup 2002 is being coordinated by Big Medicine, a 501(c)(3) non-profit research and educational institute dedicated to democratic politics, sustainable economics and convivial human communities. The architecture and design of its unique web-based services are being developed by General Evolution Advocacy & Research (GENEVAR), an Australian technology provider. The project is particularly indebted to the original New Chautauqua sponsors for their continuing cooperation, planning and development assistance as well as to the many individuals and groups who have offered special technical talents to support specific Countercoup activities.

    1.4 CONTACT
    For the full project proposal or more info on Countercoup activities, please contact:
    W. David Kubiak, PO Box 13, Kennebunkport, ME 04046 (bigmed@nancho.net) or
    Lloyd & Ellen Wells, 35 Old Powerhouse Rd, Falmouth, ME 04105 (lloydP@wells.net)
    		•

    ________________________________________________________________

    2 SUMMARY

    THE COUNTERCOUP 2002 PROJECT

    By certain lights the most sinister threat facing the people of Maine and the world today is not terrorism but corporate domination of our politics, media, resources and visions of human being.
    In the US alone, corporations now spend over $3 billion per election cycle to mold our leadership to their needs, insert their proxies in the highest councils of governance, and appoint their allies to head the regulatory agencies charged with restraining their behavior on our behalf. Billions more are spent annually to fund legions of lobbyists and tailor our representatives’ votes, budgets and legislative “product” to their private fiscal needs. The societal control this power confers when abetted by total command of mass media is both unprecedented and ruinous to our dreams of social justice and democratic life. As once sovereign citizens we permitted the existence of corporations only to serve the public interest, not dictate the terms and values of our lives.

    Human citizens rightfully consider familial, communal, environmental and even religious factors when deciding public policy – for example, how a decision might affect our land, health, cultural traditions, spiritual evolution and/or children's future. Corporate ÒpersonsÓ, however, by law and design may only consider an act’s effects on their own growth and bottom line. Entities that can only perceive reality in red and black monetary terms are far too primitive and one-dimensional to deserve any voice whatever in our civil society, let alone predominant power.

    We propose to challenge that power – first by creating new media phenomena that make an open democratic debate on corporate usurpation possible, then by demonstrating our (few) remaining legal remedies to their encroachment and finally by organizing around alternatives to corporate rule.

    2.1 BACKGROUND

    The “Countercoup Maine” project grew out of ideas and alliances developed during the planning\ convening of the New Chautauqua, a three-day populist strategy summit attended by over 350 activists from 26 groups across the state (9/21~23/2001, Unity, Maine).
    (See www.newchautauqua.net for themes, schedule, participants and sponsorship list.)

    The consensus of the gathering was that we face unprecedented and escalating corporate control over the executives, legislatures and regulatory agencies of our state and national governments.

    Participants observed that our societal domination by huge profit-obsessed organizations is preempting our democracy, hijacking our media, imperiling our environment, and impeding the evolution of sustainable alternatives in the fields of community renewal, health, agriculture, energy, transport, trade, defense, etc.
    Further points of agreement:
    1. As citizens urgently concerned with the harms of corporate rule, we quickly need far more access to media to encourage public discussions of these problems and possible solutions;

    2. We require better educational & organizing techniques to draw more citizens into studies, debates and activism focused on democratic empowerment and the end of corporate rule;

    3. Since our political leaders and mass media now largely serve corporate interests, it is high time for a creative non-violent rebellion to challenge this subservience.
    Finally, representatives from 21 sponsoring groups agreed to collaborate over the course of 2002 to directly contest corporate domination of our politics with some form of cooperative campaign.

    2.2 FOREGROUND
    Based on the themes of the New Chautauqua, event organizer Big Medicine then developed the “Countercoup Maine” project in consultation with most Sponsor Groups and recruited Advisors and Consultants to help design and implement the plan.

    In sum, “Countercoup Maine” proposes to address the accelerating corporate takeover of our governance as a literal coup d'état and challenge it, nonviolently, in the oddly influential state of Maine with the following three-fold strategy:

    A. STATEWIDE (AND THEN NATIONAL) “MEDIA EDUCATION CAMPAIGN”
    (to publicly celebrate the many Maine groups and individuals now speaking out against corporate rule; to create new types of media where the subject can be honestly discussed; and to expand citizens’ awareness of promising countermeasures and post-corporate alternatives)


    Ways & Means
    1. Film: Production of “Countercoup Maine – The Movie” (working title), a cinematic docudrama about a semi-fictional gubernatorial campaign that challenges corporate rule in Maine. In form, this will be a feature-length digital movie on a defiant populist campaign advocating symbolic secession from Corporate America, more economic self-sufficiency, more direct democracy, and reclamation of popular sovereignty (by revising Maine’s Corporate Code and revoking corporations’ political and personhood “rights”). The campaign will present Carolyn Chute and David Kubiak as rightish\leftish co-candidates, but largely focus on the efforts of Maine groups\activists now working against corporate rule. In function, the movie shoot will offer a high profile platform for launching the other media noted below. (See accompanying "Countercoup Maine – The Movie” Proposal)

      Production Assistance: 2nd Maine Militia, Big Medicine, Center for Consensual Democracy, Maine Independent Media Center, Portland Media Artists, Portland Public Access Center, TrueMedia...)
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    2. “Countercoup Times”: Offering campaign news, articles on the history, harm and alternatives to corporate power and related content on a 4-page insert in The Maine Commons, a new free monthly newspaper from the Maine Independent Media Center.(current circulation: 8,000/month)

      Technical Collaborators: Maine Independent Media Center, Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD)

    3. “Countercoup Radio: The Big Medicine Show”: A biweekly half-hour news program drawing on the campaign movie content as well as the voices of citizen activists from across the state; distributed via local independent and collegiate FM stations as well as streaming Internet audio.

      Technical Collaborators: Salt Institute, Sound Ecology, Collegiate FM stations, WERU, WMPG, Free Speech Radio

    4. “ The MOC TV News Hour” : Development of a statewide alternative non-corporate TV news service. MOC (pronounced “mock”; short for the “Making Of Countercoup”) News content will feature action from the Countercoup movie campaign; commentary from leading activists, scholars and outspoken citizens; and as well as original content from local producers working independently to challenge corporate rule.

      Distribution: Broadcast – locally via 25~30 Maine public access cable stations
      (CTAM members) and nationally via satellite on Free Speech TV & Deep Dish TV. Video cassette: via Countercoup project staff and volunteers to local schools, libraries and rental video shops. (The second important reason to network local cable access channels together is to create Maine’s largest video cassette copying machine so that these programs can also be distributed manually to homes, groups and institutions statewide.)

      Technical Collaborators: Production - Maine Independent Media Center, Portland Media Artists, Portland Public Access Associates, TrueMedia; Distribution - Community Television Association of Maine (CTAM), Free Speech TV, IMC USA, Paper Tiger TV, Deep Dish TV

    5. Internet: Creation of a VirtualMaine website with print, discussion group and audio-visual database capabilities, one-third of which will publicize and interactively feed the Countercoup movie campaign. (See accompanying "VirtualMaine Web Development Proposal")

      Technical Collaborators: General Evolution Advocacy and Research (GENEVAR), Resources for Organizing and Social Change

    B. COMMUNITY ORGANIZING AND GRASSROOTS NETWORK DEVELOPMENT TO BUILD COALITIONS TO CHALLENGE CORPORATE RULE.

    Ways & Means
    1. Mini-Chautauquas - Organization of community meetings, teach-ins, house parties and the like around the state to inform, activate and organize citizens concerned with the many problems caused or worsened by corporate rule (cultural, social, political, economic, environmental, educational, religious, etc.). These meetings will be initiated both within and outside the campaign movie scenario, and focus on how local communities define the problems they face, how they would like to respond, and how to build networks with other communities in similar straits. Mini-Chautauquas take the action to the community in a free-wheeling format of the Unity, Maine New Chautauqua co-hosted with Jim Hightower.

      Collaborators: the 2nd Maine Militia, Maine Global Action Network, Maine Independent Green Party, Maine Youth Campfire Collective, Rolling Thunder Down-Home Democracy Tours.

    2. “Countercoup Primer” – Publication of an expandable loose-leaf publication offering entry level readings on our current corporate dominated plight, how we got here, and organizational guidance on what we can do about it. It is also designed to serve as an accessible introductory text for the Maine Green Independent Party’s 2002 series of “Resisting Corporate Rule” house parties, and for the corporate power teach-ins planned by the Maine Global Action Network (MEGAN) and the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy’s (POCLAD).

      Collaborators: Maine Global Action Network, Maine Green Independent Party, Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD), Lloyd P. Wells

    3. Initiatives (Direct democratic actions to seed, structure and sustain local organizing)

      To Weaken Corporate Power – Preparation of a model statewide referendum proposition and town meeting ordinance warrants to revoke corporate “personhood” and repudiate corporations’ right to participate in any elections, politics or governance.

      To Strengthen Citizen Power – Activation of local support for the National Initiative for Democracy, an upcoming nationwide campaign to fortify the people’s direct democratic prerogatives and prohibit non-human “persons” from influencing referenda, plebiscites or elections.

      Collaborators: National Initiative for Democracy (www.ni4d.org), Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (www.poclad.org)

    4. Internet: Creation of a VirtualMaine website, one third of which is dedicated to sophisticated communication and networking functions to facilitate citizen interaction in regional and inter-issue discussions, organizing and campaigns. (See accompanying "VirtualMaine Web Development Proposal")

      Collaborators: Resources for Organizing and Social Change

    C. COLLATION\DISTRIBUTION OF RESOURCES, TOOLS, AND “BEST PRACTICE” MODELS TO NURTURE POST-CORPORATE POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC ALTERNATIVES.

    Ways & Means

    1. Recreating Democracy: Promotion of the most radical, effective and proven experiments in Consensual (local) Democracy and Swiss-style (state/national) Democracy with publications, workshops and multimedia presentations; collaboration with the Democracy Foundation now working to strengthen representative democracy with popular initiative powers at all levels of government.

      Collaborators: Center for Consensual Democracy, Co-Intelligence Institute, The Democracy Foundation

    2. Internet: Creation of a VirtualMaine website offering an active database of the most promising tools, resources and paradigms for building healthy, democratic and sustainable communities; (See accompanying "VirtualMaine Web Development Proposal")

      Collaborators: New Way USA, Resources for Organizing and Social Change


    ________________________________________________________________

    3 FINANCING


    Fund Raising and Accounting

    The entire project will be primarily supported through grants, donations, and earned income from media products and other services rendered. Since the free publicity the movie\campaign module is likely to receive will greatly help market and pre-sell the final film (and render it commercially viable), we also feel justified in soliciting “non-profit investment credit” – low-to-no-interest-bearing loans - from would-be counterculture producers.

    To track and allocate donations, we will use the innovative system pioneered by Lloyd Wells, affectionately known as WAMPUM ("Wells Accounting Method for Prescribed User Mandates").

    WAMPUM exposes the project's line item income & expense details in such a way that contributors can target their support upon specific activities within the overall project, thus financially democratizing the relation-ship between donors and the programs or tactics that they favor.

    Contributions - generally

    At any event or gathering associated with the project, there will be opportunities to contribute financial and\or personal support by way of volunteered skills and services. A basic “Chart of Accounts” will be provided in the form of a ballot, allowing contributors to specify the allocation of their donation to a specific line item activity within the overall project.

    Funds collected for specific line item programs will be deposited to those programs and so recorded in the central accounting system. All contributions not specifically designated to a specific program will be added to the General Administration Account. Financial statements will be provided to any who ask.

    Contributions via the web
    (WAMPUM Online)

    Online donations will be accepted through a general ecommerce facility managed by Big Medicine, Inc. which will establish a central accounting clearinghouse to minimize overhead.

    This online donation interface can be customized to support a wide variety of programs so the single installation can be re-used outside of the Countercoup context to serve allied organizations.

    For instance, an online sales center can be set up to support the Changing Maine directory through online sales and donations to its parent organization, Resources for Organizing and Social Change (ROSC ). ROSC could pay a small administration fee per transaction and benefit from having a secure, credit-card capable interface for a tiny fraction of what it would cost to set one up on their own.

    Developing an online WAMPUM system is an extremely innovative and important aspect of the Countercoup project that could grow significantly in its own right. Since WAMPUM allows donors to channel their contributions directly to the causes and tactics that they believe in most deeply, the system should encourage significantly greater imaginative investment in and personal commitment to the causes and actions that they support.

    ________________________________________________________________


    3.1 BUDGET PROJECTIONS

    Film\Media Campaign
    Q2-2002
    Q3-2002
    Q4-2002
    Basic "film" production
    $20,000
    $30,000
    $30,000
    Video news production
    $15,000
    $12,000
    $12,000
    Public rallies\events
    $2,000
    $6,000
    $8,000
    Publications\Promotion
    $3,500
    $5,000
    $6,000
    Admin expenses
    $4,500
    $4,500
    $4,500
    Quarterly totals
    $45,000
    $57,500
    $60,500





    Countercoup Times
    Q2-2002
    Q3-2002
    Q4-2002
    Copywriting/Subediting
    $850
    $850
    $850
    Layout\Graphics
    $450
    $450
    $450
    Print
    $750
    $750
    $750
    Distribution
    $180
    $180
    $180
    Admin expenses
    $450
    $450
    $450
    Quarterly totals
    $2,680
    $2,680
    $2,680
    Grand total
     
     
    $8,040





    Mini-Chautauquas
    Q2-2002
    Q3-2002
    Q4-2002
    Advance Work\Promo
    $4,800
    $2,400
    $2,400
    Vehicles\Logistics
    $6,500
    $2,600
    $2,600
    Venues
    $1,200
    $3,600
    $2,400
    Proceedings
    $600
    $600
    $600
    Follow-up Organizing
    $2,400
    $3,600
    $3,600
    Admin expenses
    $3,600
    $3,600
    $3,600
    Quarterly totals
    $19,100
    $16,400
    $15,200
    Grand total
     
     
    $50,700





    Website and Content
    Q2-2002
    Q3-2002
    Q4-2002
    Promotion
    $120
    $2,400
    $3,600
    Technical services
    $20,000
    $18,000
    $12,000
    Content production
    $2,400
    $3,600
    $4,800
    Licenses and hosting
    $12,000
    $2,000
    $800
    Admin expenses
    $5,400
    $5,400
    $5,400
    Quarterly totals
    $39,920
    $31,400
    $26,600
    Grand total
     
     
    $97,920





    Summary
    Q2-2002
    Q3-2002
    Q4-2002
    Totals
    Movie Media Campaign
    $45,000
    $57,500
    $60,500
    $163,000
    Countercoup Times
    $2,680
    $2,680
    $2,680
    $8,040
    Mini Chautauquas
    $19,100
    $16,400
    $15,200
    $50,700
    Website and Content
    $39,920
    $31,400
    $26,600
    $97,920
    Quarterly totals
    $106,700
    $107,980
    $104,980
     
    Grand total
     
     
     
    $319,660





    Proposed Revenue
    Q2-2002
    Q3-2002
    Q4-2002
    Total
    Grants & Donations
    $55,000
    $50,000
    $45,000
    $150,000
    Movie Investment
    $60,000
    $40,000
    $30,000
    $130,000
    Other sources
    $5,000
    $15,000
    $20,000
    $40,000
    Grand total
     
     
     
    $320,000


    ________________________________________________________________

    4 SCHEDULE

    This section outlines a project calendar.

    2nd Quarter 2002

    • Start web site as project administrative hub
    • Implement WAMPUM accounting framework
    • Organize online donations gateway
    • Create preliminary public web site interfaces for Spectacle, Movement and Futures
    • Produce video script and begin filming
    • Schedule mini-chautauqua tour
    • Produce Countercoup Times insert for Maine Commons

    3rd Quarter 2002

    • Publicly launch web sites (accumulate content and complete site/external partner media links)
    • Full launch of campaign\mini-chautauqua tour
    • Introduce sample Town Meeting resolutions to reject corporate personhood and\or corporate rule
    • Continue primary film production
    • Release first installments of MOC News Hour
    • Continue publication of Countercoup Times
    • Prepare legal attack on corporate rule (statewide referendum to reject corporate personhood and\or legislative rewrite of Maine’s Corporate Code)
    • Continue developing web site and content

    4th Quarter 2002

    • Complete and release “Countercoup Maine – The Movie”
    • Continue community organizing\networking
    • Continue developing web site and content
    • Continue legal countermeasures against corporate rule
    • Establish autonomous MOC News Hour
    • Continue publication of Countercoup Times
    • Begin 2003 prep for New Hampshire 2004 Primary



    ________________________________________________________________

    5 SPONSORSHIP & COLLABORATION

    (Partial listings)

    “NEW CHAUTAUQUA” ORIGINATING SPONSORS
    2nd Maine Militia
    Alliance for Democracy
    American Workers First
    Bangor Clean Clothes Campaign
    Big Medicine
    Forest Ecology Network
    Greater Portland Labor Council
    Maine Youth Campfire Collective
    Maine Global Action Network
    Maine Green Independent Party
    Maine Independent Media Center
    Maine Labor News
    Maine Peoples Alliance
    Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association
    Maine Rural Workers Coalition
    Maine Youth Campfire Collective
    Native Forest Network
    Pax Christi–Maine
    Peace Action Maine
    Peace through Interamerican Community Action
    Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy
    Resources for Organizing & Social Change (ROSC)
    Sound Ecology
    Veterans for Peace–Maine
    Witness for Peace–Maine
    Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom


    CURRENT PROJECT TEAM

    2nd Maine Militia, Kezar Falls, ME, - project planning
    Big Medicine, Kennebunkport, ME, www.newchautauqua.net – project coordination
    Lloyd & Ellen Wells, Falmouth, ME, www.consensualdemocracy.org - project planning
    General Evolution Advocacy & Research, Sydney, AU, Social Change Online affiliate www.socialchange.net.au - web development
    Maine Global Action Network, Greene, ME – project planning

    COLLABORATION

    Technical Partners

    Community Television Association of Maine (www.ctamaine.org) - Distribution: MOC News
    Collegiate FM Stations - Distribution: The Big Medicine Show
    Free Speech Radio (www.webactive.com/freespeech) - Distribution: The Big Medicine Show
    Free Speech TV (www.freespeech.org) - Distribution: MOC News Hour
    IMC, USA (www.indymedia.org) - Distribution: MOC News Hour
    Maine Independent Media Center (www.maine.indymedia.org)
    – Creation: MOC News Hour & Distribution: CT news insert
    New Way USA (www.newwayusa.org) – “Best Practice” Resource Center
    Paper Tiger TV (www.papertiger.org) – Distribution: MOC News Hour
    Portland Media Artists (www.portlandmediaartists.com) - Creation: MOC News Hour
    Portland Public Access (www.ctn4maine.org) – Creation\Distribution: MOC News Hour
    Portland Time Dollars (www.mtdn.org) – Community renewal resources


    Guides & Mentors

    Chaordic Commons, Inc. – San Rafael, CA, www.chaordic.org
    Co-Intelligence Institute – Eugene, OR, www.co-intelligence.org
    Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility – Portland, ME, www.mebsc.org
    The Democracy Foundation – Washington, D.C., www.ni4d.org
    Rolling Thunder Down-Home Democracy Tours – Austin, TX, www.jimhightower.org

    ADVISORS AND CONSULTANTS [Partial Listing]

    National Advisory Board
    Ronnie Dugger - founder, Alliance for Democracy
    Richard Grossman - co-founder, Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy
    Doris “Granny D” Haddock - campaign finance reform activist
    Hazel Henderson - post-corporate economic futurist
    David C. Korten - author, “When Corporations Rule the World”
    John Rensenbrink - co-founder, Green Party USA & Maine Green Independent Party

    Maine Advisory Board
    Carolyn Chute - founder, 2nd Maine Militia
    Tammy Greaton - co-director, Maine Peoples Alliance
    Peter Kellman – labor historian, Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy
    Robert A. G. Monks - corporate accountability activist
    Rosalie Tyler Paul - chair, Peace Action Maine
    Ellen Wells - member, Good Life Center, Witness for Peace
    Lloyd P. Wells - Envisioner of Consensual Democracy


    COLLABORATION POLICY
    The Countercoup 2002 project is not only an equal opportunity employer and non-discriminatory collaborator, its entire success depends upon the widest possible diversity of affiliation. We have therefore actively recruited partners from the Hispanic, Afro-American, Native American, Asian, and gay\lesbian communities, and among our current compatriots, women now outnumber men.


    ________________________________________________________________

    6 ABOUT BIG MEDICINE

    Address: PO Box 13, Kennebunkport, Maine 04046

    Telecom: Tel (207) 967-2390 Fax: (207) 967-2808 Email: bigmed@nancho.net

    Legal Status: Federally certified research & education 501(c)(3): 2/1/01;
    EIN: 01-0535998

    Registered Purpose:

    “This non-profit corporation is being formed to increase public awareness, knowledge and discussion of large scale organizations as continuously evolving living systems with uncertain implications for the planet or our common future. To that end, Big Medicine will endeavor to:

    1. promote, conduct and/or publicize research on the evolution, nature and eco-social impact of large scale organizations;
    2. develop, create and/or distribute educational materials in all media concerning large scale organizations and their ecological, societal and psychosomatic effects in the world;
    3. develop, create and present workshops, seminars, conferences and other educational events that consider large scale organizations as living systems and examine their singular and collective effects upon our lives;
    4. explore, promote, develop, and/or publicize new models and technologies for more decentralized, democratic and human-scale economic/social organization;
    5. promote, develop, and/or publicize promising societal paradigms and strategies to satisfy the needs currently served by large scale organizations without their attendant drawbacks and liabilities.”
    FIRST PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT:
    “Wresting Away Corporations’ Collective Might,”
    Op-Ed Commentary, Maine Sunday Telegram 2/4/01
    (see http://www.nancho.net/newchau/wresting.html)

    6.1 Major Activities

    March 7-21: “Are Corporations Really Alive? (Are They now the Dominant Species?)”
    International Online Computer Conference hosted by Meta-Systems, Washington, DC
    Role: Lead organizer (see http://www.nancho.net/bigmed2001/bbonline.html)
    Contributors/participants: Tom Atlee, Ernest Callenbach, Noam Chomsky, David Korten, Ralph Nader, Howard Rheingold, Meg Wheatley, David Sloan Wilson, et al. (see http://www.nancho.net/bigmed2001/bbintros.html)
    Attendance: 1,200 plus

    March 21: Establishment of Big Medicine Mailing List
    Active egroup on Big matters. See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Big-Medicine/
    Role: Lead organizer (moderated by Christopher Case)

    June 21: Launch of New Chautauqua Web Site
    http://www.newchautauqua.net

    September 21-23: Unity New Chautauqua
    3-day hoedown and strategy summit for Maine activists cosponsored by 26 statewide grassroots groups & Jim Hightower’s Down Home Rolling Thunder Democracy Tour
    Role: Lead organizer (see http://www.newchautauqua.net)
    Contributors/participants: Carolyn Chute, Ronnie Dugger, Richard Grossman, Doris “Granny D” Haddock, Jim Hightower, David Korten, Reverend Billy
    Attendance: 430 plus

    October 27: Lewiston Solidarity Day
    Inter-group networking & strategy conference for central Maine activists
    Role: Co-organizer with ROSC & MEGAN (see http://nancho.net/lsd/lsd.html)
    Contributors/participants: Carolyn Chute, Tammy Greaton, John McClendon, Ethan Miller, Lucy Poulin, Charles Scontras, Jose Soto et al.
    Attendance: 190 plus

    November 17: Kennebunkport Anti-Corporate War Rally\Teach-In
    Day-long event on focusing on corporate, military and civil liberty issues, designed to link anti-war, anti-racism and anti-corporate globalization groups
    Role: Local sponsor (see http://nancho.net/newchau/17th.html)
    Contributors/participants: Rev. Ken Carstens, Carolyn Chute, Mary Donnelly, Lilian Guerra,
    Wendy Hazard, Peter Kellman, W. David Kubiak, Chris Marshall, Ethan Miller,
    Dr. Meryl Nass, Mike Prokosch, Matt Schlobohm, Michael Uhl, Arthur Whitman, et al.
    Attendance: 350 plus

    January 1: Launch of “The New Chautauqua Countercoup Times”
    A 4-page regular insert in the Maine Independent Media Center’s
    “Maine Commons” statewide newspaper
    Role: Publisher\Editor
    Circulation: 10,000

    January 8-17: Countercoup Brainstorm\Planning Meetings
    5 local inter-group meetings among allies around the state
    Role: Organizer\convener (See Countercoup Lead-in Events, page 9 of this document)

    February 17: Countercoup Video Activism Workshop
    An 8-hour hands-on advanced tech & artistic seminar for Countercoup video staff
    Role: Lead organizer
    Collaboration: Southern Maine Technical College, Maine Independent Media Center, Portland Public Access Center, Portland Media Artists
    Instructor: Kate Sibole, SMTC’s “Video on Location” prof
    Attendance: 10

    6.2 Finances

    Major donors to date:
    Rande Brown, Eastman Foundation, Foundation for Deep Ecology, Lloyd Wells, Virginia Lincoln

    Total income in 2001: $ 24,858
    Gifts & donations: $14,160, Interest-free loans: $7,000, Event income: $3,698.

    Total expenses in 2001: $ 25,870
    Event\field organizing expenses: $14,230, Office\overhead: $11,640