Every one of the people whose stories you read in this photo essay, and everyone now suffering in this economic crisis, deserves a direct vote in 2012 for what we need—health insurance and health care for all, millions of jobs for the unemployed to do the work our country needs, reduced student loan debt and other debts, reduced mortgage payments and a moratorium on foreclosures, and, for those of us who are young, the simple right to a future. We can no longer rely on the promises of politicians. Working together, we can give everyone a vote to get what we—the 99%—need to live lives of dignity, and to create a better future for our children.

Click here: “Photo Essay: The Voices of the 99%”

INITIATIVES FOR DEMOCRATIC CHANGE

IS PROMOTING A NATIONAL REFERENDUM IN 2012 SO THAT THE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS CAN VOTE TO SAVE THE AMERICAN DREAM. THE ECONOMIC, POLITICAL, AND ENVIRONMENTAL CRISES FACING OUR COUNTRY WILL NOT BE SOLVED UNTIL TENS OF MILLIONS OF AMERICANS HAVE VOTED DIRECTLY FOR SOLUTIONS THAT BENEFIT THE VAST MAJORITY. THROUGH THIS VOTE WE WILL HELP ELECT A GOVERNMENT COMMITTED TO IMPLEMENT THIS NEW DEAL FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, AND WE WILL ORGANIZE MILLIONS TO MAKE SURE THAT THEY DO SO.

The 2012 election may be the most important election in our lifetimes. It may well decide whether our country will recover from the worst economic crisis in 70 years, and whether we can slow down climate change soon enough to save the planet. It is clear that electing candidates and trusting to their promises is not enough to solve these crises.

We have an enormous opportunity over the next six months to create a different kind of election, to occupy the ballot for the 99% by giving everyone possible a direct say in their future and the future of the country.

If progressive organizations unite, we can create a national advisory referendum on November 6 to demonstrate majority support for progressive solutions to the economic and climate crises. This majority vote to tell Congress to enact the solutions we want is the essential first step toward solving these crises. We can create an agenda supported by most Americans that can defeat the Republicans.

We need a maximum mobilization of progressive groups in the next three months to meet deadlines to place measures on the ballot in a national referendum to save the American Dream. If we convince Democratic-controlled states, cities and counties to do so, as much as 40% of all Americans could vote directly for jobs, economic recovery, and democracy, and to repudiate the Republican agenda. (Throughout the rest of May, we will reveal other ways in which tens of millions more can vote directly to save the American Dream.)

These twelve Democratic-controlled states with over 80 million people can place progressive solutions on the ballot for the November 6, 2012 election:

ARKANSAS, CALIFORNIA, CONNECTICUT, DELAWARE, HAWAII, ILLINOIS, MARYLAND, MASSACHUSETTS, RHODE ISLAND, VERMONT, WASHINGTON, AND WEST VIRGINIA

With enough popular pressure, we can push to get the referendum on the ballot in these three states, with 28 million people, where Republicans only control one house of the state legislature by a vote or two:

COLORADO, NEW YORK, OREGON

CONTINUE

In addition to these fifteen states, more than a hundred Democratic-controlled cities and counties in other states can give millions more voters an opportunity to vote for progressive steps to end the economic and budget crises. The deadlines for these states to do so are roughly two or three months before the election, or from August 8 to September 6. The deadlines for most cities and counties are generally two and a half months before the election, or between August 24 and August 31.

(Note: Not a single initiative petition signature will need to be gathered. This is not the same procedure as an initiative campaign where groups spend months gathering hundreds of thousands of signatures. We are calling upon Democratic-majority governments to give voters a voice to solve the economic crisis.)

If 40% of Americans are able to vote directly to save the American Dream, and to repudiate the Republican agenda, this alone will dramatically transform the election into one that is much more for the interests of the 99%. But that's only the beginning. Through these votes, we can convince most Democratic candidates, including President Obama, to stand up for at least some of the goals of this referendum. If that happens, then every American who wants these reforms will be able to vote for them, directly in the referendum where it is available, or by voting for Democratic candidates who support them.

When Democratic candidates make this commitment to expanded democracy central to their 2012 campaigns, and pledge to implement the voters’ will, Democrats will retake Congress in 2012, retain the presidency, and retake control of some state governments.

By voting in a National Referendum to Save the American Dream, we can create a powerful progressive agenda and lay the foundation for a new deal for the American people. In the process of organizing the referendum we can also involve many more people in progressive organizations, and turn electoral victory in November into a successful fight in 2013 to make Congress implement what the majority has voted for.

NATIONAL REFERENDUM FOR JOBS AND ECONOMIC RECOVERY: WHAT YOU COULD BE VOTING FOR ON NOVEMBER 6, 2012

NOTE TO VOTERS: Every proposition (ballot measure) on this ballot is advisory in nature. While this is a state special election, the proposals on the ballot aim to influence the federal government to implement nationally what the voters want. If you agree that these should be national policies, vote yes. If you don’t want these policies implemented nationally, vote no.

Voting for any one of them will not directly result in any legislation being passed; in any taxes being raised or cut, or funding for any program being increased or decreased. Because we live in a democracy, however, your vote for or against may have an important impact on elected officials’ views, and on actual public policy. If the majority of voters vote for any given measure on this ballot, its actual implementation will require the further step of elected officials approving legislation.

The National Referendum to Save the American Dream is a project of Initiatives for Democratic Change. It is the first of several major projects to help democratize this country that we will unveil over the next year. Our goal is to research and publicize political strategies that can help create and maintain a progressive majority in the United States.

Initiatives for Democratic Change was formed in late 2010. Our primary purpose is to develop strategies to make it possible for everyone to vote directly for effective solutions to the economic crisis and to the catastrophe of global warming, and to defend and expand democracy.

We are the only progressive group in the country promoting concrete ways for tens of millions, and potentially the majority, of Americans to vote directly in 2012 for jobs and economic recovery programs, and to reject the Republican agenda.

We are a small group based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our founders have been primarily active in the peace movement and in student movements.

As you can see here, this referendum strategy is modeled on the nuclear freeze movement of the 1980s, which successfully called for a halt to the nuclear arms race and carried out the first national advisory referendum in our country’s history. More recently, we have been inspired by the Occupy movement and by the phenomenal success of activists in gathering millions of signatures in Wisconsin to recall Governor Scott Walker and in Ohio to successfully repeal the Republican anti-union law there.

We believe that the economy will not recover until the majority of Americans are able to vote directly for solutions that are supported by, and benefit, the vast majority of Americans, and on that basis elect a government pledged to implement this new deal for the American people. Through these votes millions more can be organized to make sure that the changes that the majority has voted for are actually realized.

CONTINUE

Similarly, neither the climate crisis nor the political crisis will be solved until the majority of Americans vote directly to solve them. For these reasons, the widespread use of advisory ballot measures in state and local elections, through which the majority of voters directly tell the U.S. government what we want and need, is essential to establish an agenda for fundamental reform.

We have set out deliberately to research and develop the most powerful ways for the majority of Americans to vote directly for progressive change. This spring we are doing outreach to convince national progressive organizations and Democratic elected officials to create a National Referendum to Save the American Dream.

Over the next month we will be announcing other strategies through which millions more people can vote. As a small group, we do not have the capacity to organize the referendum, but we will have information, petitions, and open letters on the website to encourage and enable others to act.

The most important question all of us need to ask ourselves is: What is the most powerful action we can take now, where we are, in our own states and communities, to mobilize the support of the majority of Americans for progressive change, and to turn this country around, starting this year? For more information, see Initiatives for Democratic Change.

Note: Initiatives for Democratic Change is not affiliated with the Democratic Party, nor did the Democratic Party have any input into the formulation of this referendum strategy. We are not affiliated with any political party or larger progressive group.

Thank you for visiting the IDC website.

            Our Website has been visited

times since May 1, 2012