Word: rifkin
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Five years after its founding, the People's Bicentennial Commission is using an economic analysis to unify and reform American workers. The Commission was founded in 1970 by Jeremy Rifkin to provide "revolutionary alternatives for the Bicentennial years." Despite--or more likely because of--the ambiguities involved in that statement of purpose. Rifkin was able to convince some foundations to provide some of the original backing. The goal was education. The commission would do a lot of research and write books and teaching materials to put some substance behind the Disney-like productions the government was sure to come...
...Rifkin argues that political democracy is contingent on what he calls "economic democracy." He points to the fact that one per cent of the adult population in this country owns 72 per cent of all corporate stock as a principle index of how uneven the benefits of economic organization are. Moreover, "the 200 largest business corporations also control two-thirds of all of the manufacturing assets in the U.S.," making them "each giant fiefdoms" and giving them disproportionate economic and political power. The real enemies, though, are those families--like the Mellons, who have substantial holding in ALCOA, the Mellon...
...This is the first protest against the oil companies," Jeremy Rifkin, a staff member for the PBAC, said yesterday. "The Oil Party will be covered by the national media, and for this reason, we urge everyone to turn out, no matter what the weather is like. We need winter soldiers, not just sunshine patriots...
According to Rifkin, the main purpose of the Oil Party and the other events being sponsored by the PBAC is "to revive the revolutionary principles of 1776 and apply those to promote radical political change...
...Jeremy Rifkin and John Rossen, editors of this five-article anthology and members of the People's Bicentennial Commission--a body whose goal is to "recapture our revolutionary heritage and build on it a society worthy of our legacy," the Bicentennial celebration will provide the spark for the next American revolution. Revolution American Style "is not about how to counter the Bicentennial campaign" Rifkin writes. "It is about how to capitalize on it by building a mass revolutionary movement for a radically restructured America." While this movement is surely American, it is hardly revolutionary...