New World Alliance - Introductory Brochure

"New political parties such as the Citizens Party have formed in the United States. ... [A] more visionary, global movement ... has now been incorporated as the New World Alliance."
-- Hazel Henderson, The Politics of the Solar Age, Doubleday, 1981

In the late 1970s -- long before national political commentators like John Avlon and Joe Klein began writing about the “radical middle” (see 50 Thinkers and Activists Try to Describe the Radical Middle elsewhere on this website) -- a radical middle / transpartisan perspective began taking shape in the U.S.

Its first political vehicle may have been the New World Alliance (1979 - 1983). The Alliance's introductory brochure, "A Different Kind of Political Organization," is reproduced below.

To view the Alliance's main web page - which includes its political platform, multiple print-media mentions, and comments from 15 former members - just click HERE.

Governing Council of the New World Alliance meets at a lodge near Phoenicia NY, September 1980.

It is not just running for office. It is the way we treat each other, as individuals, as groups, as governments. It is the way we treat our environment. It is the way we treat our selves.

Politics has to do with where we shop, what we eat, how we maintain our health. It has to do with the kinds of schools we create, the energy we use, the neighborhood organizations we build, the work we do.

Politics involves our way of seeing the world, of developing our consciousness, of awakening our whole selves. It has to do with our attitudes, our values, our innermost dimensions.

The New World Alliance is a gathering of people from all areas of the country, from all walks of life, and from all parts of the social and economic spectrum, who have come together around a new vision of politics.

We know that millions of people today have come to believe, as we have, that the traditional political parties and organizations -- whether of the left or right -- do not have solutions to our problems.

We know that millions of people today are moving, as we are, toward new forms of politics inside and outside the traditional structures, building new organizations in their communities and regions, thinking for themselves, discovering their own solutions and their power to make a difference in the world.

The New World Alliance seeks to identify these creative new forces around the country -- to help draw them together in a larger and more effective network -- to encourage others to join in taking these new paths -- and to transform the agenda of American politics during the decade ahead.

A POLITICS OF HOPE that treats the problems and scarcities before us as opportunities to clarify our sense of what is truly important in life;

A POLITICS OF HEALING that goes beyond traditional polarities of left-against-right and us-against-them and in all matters promotes cooperation and community, understanding and mutual aid;

A POLITICS OF REDISCOVERY that rekindles such traditional values as self-reliance, wholesome living, thrift, generosity, neighborliness, community, and the honoring of excellence;

A POLITICS OF HUMAN GROWTH that fosters the fullest development of each person’s potential by working to improve our birthing and parenting, our nutrition, our health and fitness, our family and community life, our education, our arts and sciences, our way of growing old, and our way of dying -- all the things that make us more fully human;

A POLITICS OF ECOLOGY which understands that we are only one part of a seamless web of life, that damage to any part is damage to the whole, and that we are responsible for life on earth;

A POLITICS OF PARTICIPATION that provides every member of society with a full and equal opportunity to influence the political and economic institutions affecting their lives, and that fosters personal responsibility to fulfill that task;

A POLITICS OF APPROPRIATE SCALE that eliminates needless bureaucracy, removes the special privileges which maintain unnecessarily large concentrations of wealth and power, and wherever feasible encourages smaller industries, businesses, cities, and farms;

A POLITICS OF GLOBALISM that recognizes we are all citizens of an emerging planetary civilization, in which we must observe the rights and needs of people everywhere as fully as our own;

A POLITICS OF TECHNOLOGICAL CREATIVITY that develops the fullest potential of contemporary science by putting it in service to constructive activity, and guiding it by humanistic and ecological -- rather than technocratic -- values;

A POLITICS OF SPIRITUALITY which understands that we are at one with all creation, that each human being possesses a core of infinite worth, and that the way we do things is as important as the things we do.

Those of us who have come together in the New World Alliance have been involved in a wide variety of activities for personal growth, social change, and ecological awareness. We have experienced this new kind of politics in operation, and we know that it works, here and now, in everyday life.

Therefore, we are creating the New World Alliance as a force which will help in the coming years to:

We are not a political party, nor another special interest lobby, but rather something far more fundamental: An Alliance of individuals to encourage ALL of us to look deeply and questioningly at our attitudes and values, our institutions, and the way we live . . . and, together, to create a New -- and better -- World.

[For an elaboration of these goals and many more, see the pdf of our political platform HERE.]

-- Advance a new global vision that rejects the inevitability of war, permanent enemies and permanent crisis;

-- Replace the demands of narrow nationalism with concern for the interests of people everywhere;

-- Promote the self-determination of all nations, and an end to political, cultural, and economic repression of the small and weak by the strong and powerful;

-- Reduce centralized control of the economy, whether by government, corporations, labor, or finance capital;

-- Recognize the existence and the importance of informal, non-market economic activity;

-- Transform our present wasteful, resource-depleting society into a high-efficiency society based on renewable resources;

-- Preserve ecological diversity and provide a clean, safe, and healthy environment for all life;

-- Emphasize the importance of scientific development of technologies that are appropriate for use in everyday life;

-- Promote a holistic approach to wellness rather than crisis-oriented responses to illness.

“Living” Political Platform [A Transformation Platform: The Dialogue Begins, 98 pp., 1981]

The White Eagle is a traditional Native American symbol of spiritual transformation, sacredness, watchfulness for the well-being of the coming generations. It is also found in many other cultures.

The New World Alliance was born from a conviction that our nation is at a crossroads where our ideas and institutions must advance to meet the problems and opportunities before us.

The Alliance originated from a process of cross-country networking by Mark Satin, and a 21-page questionnaire answered by over 350 people [from across the U.S. who were involved] in a variety of personal growth and social change activities. The questionnaire asked what specific policies, programs, and processes could be fostered by a new transformation-oriented political organization.

The first Governing Council, selected by questionnaire respondents, met in 1979 to found the New World Alliance.

[There were 39 seats (excluding staff seats) on the GC. People rotated in and out; this list consists of those GCers whom I feel made the most positive practical or moral contributions to the organization. Their identifiers are almost always from the brochure. - ed.]

Leonard Duhl, M.D.
School of Public Health, University of California-Berkeley, CA

Stephen Woolpert
Department of Political Science, University of Maryland, MD

EXTRA: Some Other Alliance People Who Deserve Mention Here

[Added by M.S. for this website.]

SUBSEQUENT STAFF MEMBERS

Paul Bundick
New World Alliance (staff), DC

Kathleen Hennessy
New World Alliance (staff), DC

FLAGSHIP CHAPTERS AND THEIR CONTACTS

Washington, DC
Jim Easterly

New York City
Michael Blinick and Wendy Mogey

Milwaukee
Mary Kopac

Dallas
Susan Walton

Greater Los Angeles
Gerald Goldfarb and Joe Simonetta (L,A.)
Mel Gurtov and Laura Klure (Riverside)

San Francisco Bay Area
Alanna Hartzok

SOME SOURCES OF CRUCIAL EARLY ASSISTANCE AND / OR ADVICE

Diane Brown
Institute of Noetic Sciences, CA

Elizabeth Campbell
Association for Humanistic Psychology, CA

Jerry Fletcher
U.S. Dept. of Education policy analyst, DC

Guy Gran
World Bank consultant, DC

Mildred Loomis
School of Living, PA

Clear and True Marks
Decentralist activists, CA

John D. Marks
Former U.S. State Dept. official, DC

Lou Mobley
Former IBM executive, MD

Virginia Senders
Psychologist and group facilitator, MA

Robert Theobald
Futurist, WA

“FOUNDUING SPONSORS” OF THE ALLIANCE’S NEWSLETTER, RENEWAL

[Twenty-six issues were published and mailed to members. Most of these sponsors became advisors to Renewal’s successor newsletter, New Options (1984-1992).]

Ernest Callenbach
Author of Ecotopia and Ecotopia Emerging, CA

Willis Harman
Consciousness-change advocate, CA

Hazel Henderson
Futurist and “anti-economist,” NJ

Karl Hess
Decentralist author and activist, WV

Patricia Mische
World-order author and activist, NJ

Jeremy Rifkin
Holistic and ecological thinker, DC

James Robertson
Critic of the job-centered economy, Britain

Carl Rogers
Co-creator of “humanistic psychology,” CA

John Vasconcellos
State legislator focusing on self-esteem issues, CA