United Citizens Of The World, Our movement has a name

We have decided upon a name for the movement.

United Citizens Of The World

We have chosen this as it is unifying, striking, is not too specific (as we are campaigning on several issues), recognises the internationality of the movement, looks serious and official, and I feel promotes the values that we stand for.

I have reserved the domain name www.UnitedCitizensOfTheWorld.com. I will now be working on the website with a dedicated forum and on the movement's logo which will take inspiration from the UN logo.

I will need help in writing material for the website, with ideas for the forum and structure and with promoting. I will give trusted contacts some ftp access to the website to help in its development.

If you have any ideas concerning these, or want to help in any way please post in here!

Any help at all is immensely appreciated.

In order to set things rolling I will just post the translation of the basic political principles that were published by the United Citizens of Croatia.
They may not concur with Nathan's list all the way, but they are just an example. Mind that they were written from the perspective of Croatian political situation which has gone through great turmoil and this was written during big anti government protests in Zagreb...

I am posting these first of all to show how similar Nathan's idea was with mine and that's why I momentarily decided to join him.

I do not imply that these principles be adopted by the UCW but I think they are a good starting point for a systematic clean sheet of principles.

1. Humanism - central policy is based on solving the problem of unemployment, socio-economic crisis as a consequence of the global recession, poverty and it aims to build a society in which all individuals have an opportunity for a decent life.

2. Fairness and integrity - politics is contaminated with corruption and crime. Nobody who is corrupted can participate in the work of the movement. (this was a big problem in Croatia that's why it's so emphasized, I believe in the UK this problem is not so important)

3. Participatory democracy - creation of channels of communication between the public and the government. In time enabling referendum like voting on all major issues with the help of technology. A climate in which the government serves the people and listens to them instead of hiding behind closed doors. Naturally people can be influenced to have a wrong conviction with propaganda and psychological warfare so this is a bit tricky question.

4. Deeper integration of field experts in the work of the government. There are some things which can be called facts. Therefore sometimes the decision should be based on the advice from the field experts. (this goes with your ideas Nathan although you worded it differently)

5. Right to a free education. Money should not be the condition for finishing school. Many young people have been denied the right for education solely because they were poor. Only one's personal ability can be the judging factor.

6. Right for social security which guarantees that unemployed and other groups will not starve to death. Naturally abuses are common but that is a systemic problem not a political one. A system is needed which has strict control over slackers and abusers but enables everyone to have a minimum needed in order to stay alive. Starving people is the most stupidest way to stimulate economy because most of the people do not slack but are rather victims of this fallen economy. This sort of treatment causes much pain, health costs and personal disintegration. It causes crime and social problems.
There are other much better ways to stimulate people to work then with starving them out. Nordic countries are an excellent example at that.
Also the issue of homeless should also be solved. It should be our goal that if we were the ruling political party we should bring the number of homeless people down to 0 in at most two terms per country.

7. Emphasis on protecting the environment, natural resources, culture and cultural heritage.

...

There are more points but I will post them later if there will be interest.. Right now I have taken these most important issues in my point of view for now and put them on the table.



I didn't write about this issues but here are my thought on some of your points Nathan.

Drug issue: definitely has to be transferred from criminal to health issue. Cannabis should be legalized and sold by the state ( at first, later the private companies can start when the system gets developed) in conjunction with health advisory.

Religion issue: I understand your reasoning but I think you should put this issue aside until after we get some votes.
I don't mean hide it or lie about it, just don't say this to loud. Simply because the statistical implications would imminently make as a marginal political group.
I think this issue is better to be kept silent and be discussed later.
It is a political suicide to say it as you did in the mail.

Considering the ideas about immigration that you have presented, I find the name of the moverment a bit puzzling; limiting immigration seems to go against a united world citizenry.

I agree with you, it does seem to contradict itself a little.

We chose the citizens of the world as acknowledgement of the global nature of both the problems and because it is so far an internet phenomenon involving several nationalities. It also, as you say, promotes a sense of global community.

We also recognise, however, that immigration can cause problems in many regions of the world and have proposed not as such limited or capped immigration, but immigration that focuses on and aims to ensure sufficient integration, understanding of culture and active, positive participation in that culture by the immigrant. We hope that this approach could help reduce the isolation, social tension, crime and ghetto-isation of immigrants moving into a country that they may be completely culturally alien to.