ARC 109

About the ARC '09 Movement

ARC '09 is a movement is composed of individuals and organizations who are ready for a change, "hungry for justice," and who love peace and freedom. We have joined together to re-imagine our communities, our nation, and in conversation with the global community, to re-imagine the world.

In 2008, with attention focused on the U.S. national election, we chose to not be passive followers. We have to move forward, in Ella Baker's tradition, as grassroots organizers in concert with grassroots leaders.

The new administration inherits a debilitating debt and economic crisis, wars still in progress, and an obscene wealth disparity that has gone unabated for decades.  This will also be an opportunity for new thinking and a fresh start. We have serious challenges to address.  1/09 was the end of an election campaign, but the work of rebuilding, repairing, reconciling and re-imagining has only just begun. 

 

What can we do with ARC '09 as an organizing tool?

• We want ARC 109 to serve as a catalyst for a wide multi-issue discussion of what a post-Bush U.S. might look like.
  
• Wewant to solicit widespread endorsement of the ARC 109 platform (we will tally endorsements and publicize the score widely).  We want organizations and individuals to host discussions using the ARC 109 framework as the basis.  We will track discussions and help facilitate them when invited to do so.
  
• We would like to encourage the passage of referendums and resolutions by civic, political and professional organizations endorsing ARC 109.
  
• We want to educate and organize media and politicians to address and respond to the issues articulated in ARC 109.
  
• We will popularize the ARC platform through poetry slams, music lyrics, you tube videos, t-shirts etc.
  
• We will ask those on speaker circuits to put it out there to be discussed.
  
• We will make a website directory of groups working on the 10 areas and serve as a clearinghouse for info, resources and events related to the ideas and issues in ARC 109.  
  
• We will maintain a mega-blog to debate the points and as a clearinghouse for info and calendar for ARC 109 discussions and events.
  
• We want ARC 109 to serve as a stimulus for dialogue, and exchange that breakdown the silos that divide progressive communities. To help us educate one another we will create educational packets, including: films, internet resources, articles and videos for crossover education.  That is, if an immigrants rights group needs to know more about LGBT issues or a labor group needs to know more about the Israeli-Palestinian issue before signing off on the ARC 109 project, then a speaker or info packet could be provided.  Related to this is the notion that endorsements of ARC 109 cannot be partial endorsements.  It is not a ‘pick your favorite flavor’ menu but one that we want to try, as best we can, to cut from whole cloth.  That is, in order to mobilize or collective strength and be less fragmented, we need to try to get behind a modest consensus document.  We hope ARC 109 can be the beginning of that document.

One goal of this document is to launch a groundswell of pressure to address the critical issues of our time.  The other goal is to shift the discourse even if we do not agree on every aspect of what should be done.  We have to tell politicians and their handlers, pundits and their producers, that we don’t want to know about Michelle Obama’s dress or Cindy McCain’s make-up.  We don’t want to know about everyone with whom each candidate has ever crossed paths.  We want to know where they stand and what pledges they are willing to make on specific proposals that will move this nation/this world forward and help create a more just and peaceful planet. We expect to see policy initiatives and appointments in the first hundred days of the new administration to make good on campaign pledges.

DEBATE. DISCUSS. ENDORSE ARC 109
DEMAND MEDIA, POLICYMAKERS AND COMMUNITY LEADERS DO THE SAME.

Click here to read the ARC 109’s People’s Platform.