Before Radical Middle -- "Ten Key Values"

In 1984, some time after the “radical middle” began to take shape (see New World Alliance and Best “New Age” Political Books of the 1970s elsewhere on this website), 62 thinkers and activists from across the U.S. came together in St. Paul, Minnesota, to found what eventually became the U.S. Green Party. (The original entity was called the Green Committees of Correspondence.)

Although the U.S. Green Party is now identified with the political left, at its inception it was far more diverse. Along with socialists and anarchists, the St. Paul meeting included political seekers of all sorts -- futurists, cultural feminists, Washington, D.C.-based environmentalists, bioregionalists, attorneys, ecofeminists, corporate consultants, former Governing Council members of the New World Alliance, government officials, humanistic psychologists. . . . It would be fair to say that, at its founding, the Green Party was an emergent “radical middle” organization two decades before its time.

The document that came out of that founding meeting -- the “Ten Key Values” statement -- is a classic statement of early radical middle philosophy, questioning, and wonder. (In fact, it consisted almost entirely of questions -- albeit highly pointed ones.)

Even its composition reflected its protean origins. It began to take shape spontaneously one night at a marathon plenary workshop led by grassroots activist Jeff Land (author of Active Radio) and Mark Satin. The drafting continued through the weekend under the auspices of a diverse core of people including feminist activist Charlene Spretnak (author of The Resurgence of the Real), Satin, and various members of Murray Bookchin's Institute for Social Ecology, and continued for many months afterwards as Spretnak on the West Coast and Satin on the East Coast received and solicited the input of dozens of others.

Thanks to Spretnak's willingness to cover the massive long-distance phone bills (an impediment to collaborative writing that Internet-age activists would never know), Spretnak and Satin spent ridiculous numbers of hours on the phone attempting to integrate every contributor's relevant thoughts and perfect every dash and comma.

The final version of the original document appeared toward the end of 1984. Since then it’s been reprinted by Green parties and groups around the world, and modified by them, too -- often quite extensively -- to reflect their own views (something they were invited and even encouraged to do) or to more faithfully reflect the “Four Pillars” of the German Green Party. The version below is one of the originals.

(For some other versions of the document, click onto the Green Parties website and then click onto “North America” and then “Green Values.” For two more "origin stories" for the document, see Greta Gaard, Ecological Politics: Ecofeminists and the Greens, Temple Univ. Press, 1998, pp. 141-45; these pages can be accessed via Google by clicking HERE and then typing Spretnak's or Satin's name into the "Search in This Book" searchbox.)

“Ten Key Values”

Introduction

This list of values and questions for discussion was composed by a diverse group of people who are working to build a new politics, which has kinship with Green movements around the world. We feel the issues we have raised below are not being addressed adequately by the political left or right. We invite you to join with us in refining our values, sharpening our questions -- and translating our perspective into practical and effective political actions.

Ecological Wisdom

How can we operate human societies with the understanding that we are PART of nature, not on top of it?

How can we live within the ecological and resource limits of the planet, applying our technological knowledge to the challenge of an energy-efficient economy?

How can we build a better relationship between cities and countryside?

How can we guarantee the rights of non-human species?

How can we promote sustainable agriculture and respect for self-regulating natural systems?

How can we further biocentric wisdom in all spheres of life?

Grassroots Democracy

How can we develop systems that allow and encourage us to control the decisions that affect our lives?

How can we ensure that representatives will be fully accountable to the people who elected them?

How can we develop planning mechanisms that would allow citizens to develop and implement their own preferences for policies and spending priorities?

How can we encourage and assist the “mediating institutions” -- family, neighborhood organization, church group, voluntary association, ethnic club -- to recover some of the functions now performed by government?

How can we relearn the best insights from American traditions of civic vitality, voluntary action and community responsibility?

Personal and Social Responsibility

How can we respond to human suffering in ways that promote dignity?

How can we encourage people to commit themselves to lifestyles that promote their own health?

How can we have a community-controlled education system that effectively teaches our children academic skills, ecological wisdom, social responsibility and personal growth?

How can we resolve personal and intergroup conflicts without just turning them over to lawyers and judges?

How can we take responsibility for reducing the crime rate in our neighborhoods?

How can we encourage such values as simplicity and moderation?

Nonviolence

How can we, as a society, develop effective alternatives to our current patterns of violence at all levels, from the family and the street to nations and the world?

How can we eliminate nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth without being naive about the intentions of other governments?

How can we most constructively use nonviolent methods to oppose practices and policies with which we disagree, and in the process reduce the atmosphere of polarization and selfishness that is itself a source of violence?

Decentralization

How can we restore power and responsibility to individuals, institutions, communities and regions?

How can we encourage the flourishing of regionally-based cultures, as distinct from a dominant monoculture?

How can we locate the power of our political, economic and social institutions closer to home in ways that are efficient and practical?

How can we reconcile the need for community and regional self-determination with the need for appropriate centralized regulation in certain matters?

Community-Based Economics

How can we redesign our work structures to encourage employee ownership and workplace democracy?

How can we develop new economic activities and institutions that will allow us to use our new technologies in ways that are humane, freeing, ecological, and responsive to communities?

How can we establish some form of basic economic security, open to all?

How can we move beyond the narrow “job ethic” to new definitions of work, jobs and income that reflect the changing economy?

How can we change our income distribution pattern to reflect the wealth created by those outside the formal, monetary economy -- those who take responsibility for parenting, housekeeping, home gardening, doing community volunteer work, etc.?

How can we restrict the size and concentrated power of corporations without discouraging superior efficiency or technological innovation?

Postpatriarchal Values

How can we replace the cultural ethos of dominance and control with more cooperative ways of interacting?

How can we encourage people to care about persons outside their own group?

How can we promote the building of respectful, positive and responsive relationships across the lines of gender and other divisions?

How can we encourage a rich, diverse political culture that respects feelings as well as rationalist approaches?

How can we proceed with as much respect for the means as the end, the process as well as the product?

How can we learn to respect the contemplative, inner part of life as much as the outer activities?

Respect for Diversity

How can we honor cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, religious and spiritual diversity within the context of individual responsibility toward all beings?

While honoring diversity, how can we reclaim our country’s finest shared ideals -- the dignity of the individual, democratic participation, and liberty and justice for all?

Global Responsibility

How can we be of genuine assistance to the grassroots groups in the Third World -- and what can WE learn from such groups?

How can we help other countries make a transition to self-sufficiency in food and other basic necessities?

How can we cut our defense budget while maintaining an adequate defense?

How can we promote these ten Green values in reshaping our global order?

How can we reshape the global order without creating [the equivalent of] just another enormous nation-state?

Future Focus

How can we induce people and institutions to think in terms of the long-range future, and not just in terms of their short-range selfish interest?

How can we encourage people to develop their own visions of the future and move more effectively toward them?

How can we judge whether new technologies are socially useful -- and use those judgments to shape our society?

How can we induce our government and other institutions to practice fiscal responsibility?

How can we make the quality of life, rather than open-ended economic growth, the focus of future thinking?

A Personal Afterword, by Mark Satin

After the Ten Key Values statement was issued, I hoped Greens would dedicate themselves to ONE activity only -- assiduously recruiting candidates and helping them run for office -- and that comfort with the Ten Key Values statement (non-ideological and open to a wide range of interpretations) would be the sole criterion for Green candidacies.

In a scheduled plenary speech at the first Green Gathering (1987) and in corridors and over dining tables at the next two Gatherings (1989 and 1990), I passionately argued for that position. No political platforms, no non-electoral activities, no divisive internal bickering -- just focus on the knitting: Finding good people & getting them elected to office. Suppressing our egos and "being of use," as the great Marge Piercy says.

But it was not to be.

To this day I am convinced that, had we followed that path, we would be significantly more influential than we became.

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