Chapter 10-I-i
Uniting Resources
More on paying dues; A simple formula for success


We have already presented arguments in favor of building a dues-supported organization, but for the benefit of those who may be reading here in a non-linear manner, we believe that it is well worth it to briefly reiterate, and amplify, the major points we made.

As we have stated previously, the primary purpose that we imagine for this organization will be to provide the means for citizens to organize ourselves democratically, in order to unite our resources, and to apply our united resources to a political purpose that will enhance our Common Good.

Making democratic decisions as to how to apply these united resources will be the primary business of the Local Groups, and of all the Congresses.

We think that it is imperative to this purpose that a very strong and well-developed discipline be imposed to ensure that dues are paid by all Governing Members. We believe that a modest level of dues, on the order of $5 per month, will provide the organization with the capacity to raise substantial sums that can be put to an effective and powerful political purpose, to serve the nation’s Common Good.

Many people who set out to build organizations shy away from the idea of collecting dues. More people will be induced to join, they reason, if membership is free. And levying dues is not fair to the economically disadvantaged, many would say.

Such factors may be indeed be deleterious for many types of groups, and those factors must certainly be considered for the organization we imagine as well. But we believe that in weighing the pros and cons of building a free membership organization, versus building an organization that is self-financed through dues collections, the number of factors on the ‘pro’ side of the ledger for collecting regular dues far outweigh the ‘cons’.

As we mentioned previously, $5 per month is less than 17 cents per day. In a society in which a single discarded aluminum can is worth 5 cents, it is hard to imagine that anyone in this society cannot find the means to make this degree of ‘sacrifice’. While it may be true that a free membership organization might attract more members, more quickly, at the outset, what would the purpose be of an organization with lots of members but no money? How would the organization sustain itself, let alone affect a political purpose? And wouldn’t the organization attract many members with little commitment to responsible participation? And wouldn’t allowing free membership make the organization more vulnerable to people joining, (possibly from other organizations), with the deliberate purpose of disruption?

We think that people will be willing to pay this modest level of dues to an organization that provides them the means to act collectively in their own self-interest. We think that people are hungry for the means to ‘take back America’ from the clutches of powerful special interests, and we think that they will realize that by uniting our resources in this way, we can amass substantial sums, sums that will be under our own democratic control, which we can use for effective and powerful communications to achieve our purposes and goals.

Many very powerful dues-based groups already exist, but none of them, to our knowledge, is democratic. People pay their dues to support the purposes and goals of these organizations, without even having any control at all over how their dues are spent. The National Rifle Association, a very powerful and well known dues-based group, does not release its membership figures, but it is assumed to have many millions of members. It has used the hundreds of millions of dollars it collects in dues to build a highly developed communications network, (it publishes 17 different magazines, for example), which it uses to both proselytize its members, and raise ever more money from them. AARP, another very powerful dues-based group, has over 35 million dues-paying members, and it uses those dues to exert a powerful influence over certain spheres of the nation’s political life.

As we have already said, this idea we are proposing cannot succeed unless it attracts millions of members. We believe that if groups like AARP, and the NRA, can build dues-paying memberships of tens of millions, we can also rally a dues-paying membership numbered in the tens of millions around our powerful moral cause.

The key to doing so is dues. We will use the dues we collect to communicate our powerful Basic Message of True Democracy, and the Common Good, and as we communicate this powerful moral message, we will attract more members, which means we will have more money for more communications, which we will use to attract more people to our moral cause, and so on.

This is a simple but immensely powerful formula for building an organization and gaining collective power. It has been used successfully, by many different types of groups, for a very long time.

It works. This formula just plain works. And there is nothing stopping us from using it. Augmented by the inherently powerful, and intrinsically democratic potential of interactive digital communications technology, this time-tested formula for gaining political power will provide us with the key to a new age of Democracy, and Justice for the Common Good.

From the traditional folk song Blue Water Line:

Just 20 thousand quarters, and 40 thousand dimes
And we'll ride again to glory on the ole Blue Water Line
We'll have William Jennings Bryan, stokin' coal on Number 9
If ever'body gave then we could save the ole Blue Water Line.

(William Jennings Bryan was a populist politician of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was a staunch and determined enemy of corporate power. In an address to the Democratic National Convention in 1896, he brought down the house in thunderous applause when he declared to the powerful corporate ‘trusts’ of that era, “You shall NOT press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall NOT crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”).


Previous Page..........................................Table of Contents..........................................Next Page