Thursday, Nov. 8, saw the opening of the "US Strategy Summit on Global Corporate Power and Democracy." In New York City. The Summit's purpose is to address the problem of intertwined corporate/state power and control over people's lives and to explore concrete solutions.

The Summit is also timed to co-ordinate in solidarity with pro-democracy actions around the world this weekend to contest the meeting of the World Trade Organization in Doha, Qatar, in the United Arab Emirates.

The opening session of the New York Summit began with a panel discussion, the premise of which was that corporations wield too much power in the public sphere, power which dominates private citizens.

David Korten, founder of The People-Centered Development Forum, started off and went right to the heart of the matter saying he felt it was no longer a question of restraining corporations, but that it was time to "eliminate them".

Korten said this is necessary because the corporate-capitalist economy is a , "suicide economy, not only is it destroying its own foundations, but the foundations of life here on Earth".

Korten felt that in order to be able to leave this capitalist paradigm, people need to start viewing cities and populations, "not as pools of money seeking to replicate themselves, but communities of people creating life".

As part of such a change, community activists and organizers need not focus so much on having the answers and dictating the solutions to others but instead focus on, "creating the space and structures for people and communities to create their own solutions".

Michael Schuman, a lawyer for Communities Venture, proposed some solutions in relation to Korten's call for change.

Schuman suggested supporting and investing in local businesses, self-reliance in terms of goods, services and foods and creating more local currencies.

"One of the virtues of a local money system is Wal-Mart will never accept local money," Schuman said.

A general solution which he proposed was the idea that ," different communities need to work together to maximize self-reliance, minimize [but not eliminate] trade [between communities]," Schuman said.

He said that the idea of self-reliant communities acting in a network of mutual support, spoke of the notion of, "two types of globalization".

According to Schuman, one kind of globalization, "pits communities dangerously against one another, the other kind nurtures community development worldwide. The choice is obvious".

Chaia Heller from the Institute for Social Ecology built on Schuman's idea of mutually acting communities and called them a "confederation".

She said that first, direct democratic structures need to be established in local communities and cities which then would link up and work together.

"Cities, towns and villages should then confederate around shared principals," Heller said. "Make this direct, democratic confederation contest the state".

She emphasized that this network should not be designed to work under or within the state, but to replace it.

Heller believes that small, local groups can affect such large scale change.

"If we learned one thing from Sept. 11, it does not take a lot of people to bring the system down," Heller said. "I don't agree with their methods. I don't believe in violence. But I think we saw the fragility of the capitalist system".

Completing the discussion and also speaking of the Sept. 11 events and what has been going on in this country since that day, Reverend Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou said that he was bothered by the way religion was being abused to serve violent and oppressive ends.

He asked, "How do we break the monopoly the right has on the 'freedom' and 'democracy' and 'God' talk?"

In answer to his own question Rev. Sekou said, "we have had national prayer meetings to justify war mongering. Jesus stood against empire and a prostrate church and that's why he wound up on the cross. The very biblical story itself is a liberatory narrative, everyone else has bastardized it. We need to rescue the language."

Rev. Sekou believes that language is not only a battle between left activists and the right, but that it incurred problems amongst activists themselves, particularly between white and black activist communities.

Progressive and white activists need to be able to, "go into black communities and say 'how do we serve you'?, and not worry about whether they read Chomsky or if they wear Nikes," Rev. Sekou said.

He added, "all communities have something teach, it means listening to, and not talking so much".

After the panel presentation, the assembly broke up into various working groups to discuss some of the ideas brought up by the panel and other issues ranging from local democracy to sexism and racism.

The Summit runs from Nov. 8 - 10 at Rutgers Presbyterian Church in New York City.