Examine the Plan - Part 3: Building Support for the Global (and Domestic) Marshall Plan    

We offer this plan with a commitment to humility and a conviction that the Plan will not work unless people understand that it comes from our own commitment to the wellbeing of everyone on the planet. not from a  desire to advance American power or influence. Having an international agency administer the Plan makes it clear. from the start that this Plan is not another puppet for U.S. power.

We also insist that the plan be implemented with this clear message: although the West has superior technology and material success, we do not equate that with superior moral or cultural wisdom. On the contrary, our approach must reflect a deep humility and a spirit of repentance for the ways that Western cultures have dominated the planet through wars, environmental degradation, and a growing materialism and selfishness.

Our Mission

Given these distortions, it is central to our mission that the Global Marshall Plan conveys our recognition that we have much to learn from the peoples of the world. This includes understanding their cultures, their spiritual and intellectual heritage, and their ways of dealing with human relationships. So part of the program must also include cultural exchanges where we teachers, musicians, artists, religious leaders, authors, poets, and philosophers of the non-Western world into the cultural and educational systems of Western countries.

We view this not as an "international sop hop," thrown to soothe bruised egos, but as a genuine attempt to recognize that our superior technology and material success has not resulted in superior ethical or spiritual wisdom. We know there is much to learn from societies that are "under-developed" from a material standpoint, but highly developed from a spiritual standpoint, and more humanly sensitive than our own.

How do we Build Support?

To build support for the Strategy of Generosity and the Global Marshall Plan, the NSP asks people to take the following steps:

1. Participate in programs like Generosity Days. In the past we have used the traditional U.S. Tax Day to create local demonstrations and teach-ins in churches, synagogues, mosques, ashrams, unions, civic associations, college and universities. These events will focus on the Strategy of Generosity, the Global and Domestic Marshall Plan, and the strategies of the U.N. Millennium Goals and the One campaigns. They will also address any other projects that are founded on the Strategy of Generosity.

2. Write to your elected officials and communicate that the taxes we are paying should be used to support an approach to build peace. We also urge NSP supporters in Canada, England, and other countries, to do the same activity on their own Tax Day (the day that taxes are due).

   The Political Right-wing in the U.S. has used Tax Day to simulate a tax-revolt because they claim taxes are too heavy. Our supporters should be out in the streets providing non-violent counter-demonstratsions. These demonstrations must insist that Western countries can afford much more to alleviate global poverty, homelessness, hunger, inadequate education, inadequate healthcare, and to repair the global environment.

3. Work with local groups to have your own city councils and state legislatures endorse the Strategy of Generosity and the Global Marshall Plan. Where this does not happen and there is already a referendum or citizen-initiative procedure in place, local groups should use those to put an endorsement of the Strategy to Generosity and the Global Marshall Plan on the ballot.

4. Run for elected office on the platform of the Strategy of Generosity and the Global Marshall Plan. Or, for a fuller platform, use the entire Spiritual Covenant with America, which you'll find downloadable at www.spiritualprogressives.org.

   Using this idea, you will find many people who support your candidacy even if you have zero financial support. Running for office is an important way to force this issue into public debate. If you don't want to run for an elected office, you could run as a member of the slate of your favorite candidate for President-and get yourself elected to go to the national convention of your political party. And if that is not possible, you could follow candidates around during the primaries and elections and continually ask them to endorse the Global Marshall Plan and push the ideas at their public meetings. We will be happy to send you a questionnaire for candidates to fill in. In fact, we could even post it on our Website if you want.

5. Let us know if you have detailed knowledge of a particular country facing poverty, (including the US) or some other technical knowledge and want to contribute your expertise. You can help us develop further details of the program within the framework we've outlined.

6. Help fund an ad we want to put into mainstream media to introduce the idea of the Generosity Strategy

   Please sign and donate to the ad at www.tikkun.org/iraqpeace

Why Support the GMP?

There are other organizations and programs that promote some of the ideas presented in the GMP … and we applaud these efforts. We fully support the programs of the Millennium Goals and the One Campaign to reduce or eliminate the debt that third world countries owe Western banks. We also support the campaigns of dozens of anti-poverty groups such as Oxfam, Bread for the World, and Sojourners. Further more, we support the work of the Catholic Relief services, the Jewish Fund for Justice, and all other similar programs that do not attempt to turn recipients into members of a particular religion.

However, we believe that it is essential to articulate and fight for a larger vision than these individual programs … a vision of the TOTAL elimination of global poverty, homelessness, hunger, inadequate education, inadequate healthcare and a comprehensive repair of the global environment. Only then can we actually excite people enough to be willing to engage in the difficult in-fighting within the political arena leads to change.

We urge all groups that focus on ending world hunger to endorse and embrace the Global and Domestic Marshall Plan. Given the rough and tumble nature of Western politics, it may be that the seemingly utopian goals of the Global Marshall plan are necessary to mobilize enough people to exert adequate pressure on the established elites of power and wealth. This pressure will force those elites to support projects they perceive as more “moderate,” such as those of the Millennium Goals, One Campaign, Bread for the World, and Oxfam, etc.

Think of it this way: embracing and popularizing the idea of the Global and Domestic Marshall Plan may be precisely the best strategy to accomplish the more moderate goals of existing organizations.

-- Written by Rabbi Michael Lerner, edited by Martha Roden

Our profound thanks to Martha for her professionalism and generosity in volunteering to help us out; if you would like to volunteer with Tikkun or NSP central, please click here.