Sunday, November 18, 2012

Draft Equitist Constitutional Amendment & Enabling Statute



Dear Reader,

The Equitist Advocacy group has published -- circa the May 5th, 2011 anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx [this timing is probably no accident!] -- a detailed NON-"New-Dark-Ages" solution to the "Hell-On-Earth" horrors that are now diarrhoeally deluging globally, before our traumatized eyes:  the totalitarian, '''humanocidal''' self-degeneration of global capitalist society.

The text of that most-detailed-yet specification of their proposed solution is reproduced below.

Their "Citizen Stewardship Equity Rights" version of Marxian "Associationism", that is, of "Association(s) of Producers" as the core of the new, leading, "democratic communist" human-social relation of production, with its "real subsumption" of the present survivals of all past, previously-elaborated human-social relations of production, is, to my reading, designed to facilitate the universal innovative entrepreneurship of self-organized collectives of citizens, as potential "collective self-employers".

It proposes to do so by supplying what has heretofore been missing for its manifestation to become broadly possible, namely, collective access to collective-ends-directed means of social production for the vast majority, i.e., for we, the "modern proletarians" [who do not own any -- or any substantial -- capital with which we might buy access to such means of production], the advent of which access would enable us to render ourselves no longer "proletarian", no longer proletarians, no longer "alienated [sold-for-a-wage] labor".

I think that the overall context of that solution-component -- the Citizen Stewardship Equity social relation of production -- owes a lot to David Schweickart's books "Against Capitalism", and "After Capitalism".

Their "Democratic Ecological Management" solution-component, i.e., their "Citizen Externality Equity Rights" component, set out in Section 2, below, is a solution-approach that I have never encountered the like of anywhere else.


They present their solution as a "Constitutional Amendment", or as an "Amendatory Constitutional Annex", but it should really be presented in the form of four brief Amendments to the "Bill of Rights" of the Constitution -- an amendment each for each "generalized equity" right to be constitutionally established, i.e., one "Bill of Right" Amendment for the Citizen Externality Equity Right, one for the Citizen Birthright Equity Right, one for the Citizen Stewardship Equity Right, and one for the Citizen Allocational Equity Right.  The bulk of what they now call a "Constitutional Amendment" should become the statue, enabling the operationalization of these four "generalized equity" rights [although it is true that making the detailed bulk of the new, revolution-institutionalizing legal framework a statute rather than a Constitutional Amendment opens it more to sabotage -- because of the relative ease of  alteration of mere legislation, vis-a-vis constitutions -- by the post-Revolution enemies of the Equitarian Revolution, seeking to undo it].

I find a lot to quibble with in the details of their solution-text, below, but its very capability to "out" such quibbles may be one of its greatest services.


Some [RE-]SOURCES:

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/Equitism-entry.htm

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/AmendmentCoverLetter/AmendmentCoverLetter.rtf

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/AmendmentXXVIII/AmendmentXXVIII.pdf

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/Theory/PoliticalEconomicDemocracy/PoliticalEcon\
omicDemocracy.htm


http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/Theory/PoliticalEconomicLawOfMotion/PoliticalEc\
onomicLawOfMotion.htm




Regards,

Miguel





Proposed Amendment XXVIII to the U. S. Constitution,
Draft #6, 05 May 2011:
Constitutional Establishment of the Equitarian Reform


Section 1. [Stockholder Equity Rights and Constraints] All Enterprises under
Joint-Stock ownership, and operating within the sovereign territory of the
United States of America, shall be operated in accord with the principles of
Capital Equity and of Stockholder Democracy.

Sub-Section 1.a [Stockholder Referenda] Contributors of money, or of other
capital property, for the purchase of shares of the common stock of a
Joint-Stock Enterprise, shall have the constitutional right to nominate, elect,
and recall/replace Directors to the Board of Directors of that Enterprise, to
promulgate and to vote upon owner resolutions, and to vote upon other important
matters, including compensation, for Directors, and for Senior Management, and
donations of Enterprise funds to political candidates, and/or to political
causes, on the basis of one vote per share of common stock owned. All such
matters shall be decided by majority vote of the owners of record of the common
stock, except for political donations. Motions for the latter shall require at
least a three-quarters favorable majority vote of the owners of record to carry.
The results of such owner referenda shall be binding upon Enterprise Management,
who shall be civilly & criminally liable for violations thereof.

Sub-Section 1.b [Tribunals for Stockholder Equity] Congress shall provide, by
statute, for a system of federal circuit courts, the Tribunals for Stockholder
Equity. The specific function of these Tribunals shall be with regard to
Stockholder Equity Rights and Constraints: to adjudicate actions, brought by one
or more Citizens, alleging that the Management, or one or more Directors, of a
Joint Stock Enterprise have acted in violation of Stockholder Equity Rights and
Constraints.

Sub-Section 1.c [Countervailing Citizen Rights] Citizens are empowered, by
constitutional right, hereby granted, to organize and enact, using their own
resources, Boycotts of the products and/or of the services offered for sale by
Joint Stock Enterprises that said Citizens deem to have intervened in the
Legislative, and/or Judicial, and/or Executive, and/or Economic-Democratic
processes of the United States of America as a whole, or in that of any Region,
State, County, or Municipality thereof, in a manner or manners that they, in
their own individual, and/or collective, judgment, deem to be inimical to the
General Welfare.

Section 2. [Citizen Externality Equity Rights and Constraints] Citizens who
suffer the infliction of External Costs upon themselves, in their places of
residence, by a local operating unit of an Enterprise, shall acquire thereby
Externality Equity in said Enterprise, as a Collective Property, Social Property
constitutional Right.

Sub-Section 2.a [Election and Recall/Replacement of Public Directors] This
Property Right shall be exercised as a voting right in the nomination, annual
election, and potential recall/replacement, of Public Directors, to an
Enterprise Board of Public Directors, constituted as a Second House of the
co-management committee of each such local operating unit. Each local operating
unit Public Director nominee, to be nominated, must reside in the geographical
area of the Electorate of that unit, and, to be elected, must receive a majority
of the votes of the Electorate for that unit. The apportionment of Public Board
Electorate geographical areas, and the determination of the number of Citizens
of local operating unit Electorates to be represented per Public Director, shall
be re-determined annually by majority vote of the Citizen-elected County
legislative body within whose jurisdiction the local operating units reside.
Public Boards shall consist of odd numbers of Public Directors to preclude tie
votes. Each Public Board Director shall be subject to special elections for
Recall/Replacement, by petition of 5% or greater of their Electorate, and shall
be replaced if a majority of their voting Electorate so votes, by the
Replacement Candidate receiving the largest plurality of votes.

Sub-Section 2.b [Mitigation of External Costs and Optimization of External
Benefits]Each co-management committee Second House is hereby constitutionally
empowered to co-manage the Externalities Budget of the Annual Operating Plan of
its Enterprise local operating unit, in mutual cooperation with the First House
of that unit's co-management committee. The Second House shall negotiate with
the First House thereof for the mitigation of the External Cost burdens
generated by that unit, for the optimization of any External Benefits generated
by that unit, and regarding the rate of taxation for the External Cost
generation still permitted to that unit. The Negotiating Position(s) of each
Public Board shall be framed and modified by that Board by majority vote of its
Directors.

Sub-Section 2.c [Funding of Public Board Operations] The Permitted-Externalities
Taxes shall, in part, fund the special operations of their Public Board
regarding the remediation of those specific External Costs. General operations
of Public Boards shall be funded by a Potential External Costs Tax, paid by each
Enterprise local operating unit, levied to offset the public hazard of Potential
External Costs Production created by its existence. Rates of local operating
units Potential External Costs taxation shall be re-determined annually by majority vote
of the Citizens-elected County legislative body in which the local operating units reside,
along with rules for External Cost taxes assessment and Tax Credit determination
for External Benefits generated by said local operating units. Monthly salary compensation
of Public Directors from these funds shall be set by the Citizen-elected
legislative body of the County in which the Electorates of said Public Directors
reside.

Sub-Section 2.d [Externality Identification] Each Citizen member of the local
Externalities Electorate of a given Public Board shall have plaintive standing
to bring one or more complaints before that Board, alleging External Costs
suffered by that Citizen individually, by a part of the Electorate to which that
Citizen belongs, or by the entirety of the Electorate to which that Citizen
belongs, and alleging that those External Costs are produced by one or more
Enterprise local operating unit or units co-governed by that Public Board.
Confirmation of said allegations by majority vote of that Public Board shall
empower it to Negotiate with the First House of its co-management committee for
that local operating unit, for preventive mitigation, or for remedial taxation,
or for a combination of both, regarding so-confirmed External Costs Production.

Sub-Section 2.e [Tribunals for Externality Equity] Congress shall provide, by
statute, for a system of federal circuit courts, the Tribunals for Externality
Equity. The specific function of these courts shall be to adjudicate cases where
Externality Production and/or Externality Taxation negotiations between the two
Houses of the co-management committee of a local operating unit have deadlocked.
Such cases may be brought by the First House of that co-management committee,
by its Second House, or by both Houses together.

Section 3. [Associations of Public Directors: Powers and Constraints] The
Citizen Externality Equity Public Directors of the local operating unit level
shall organize Associations of Public Directors at the Municipal, County, State,
and Regional levels, one Association per Municipality, County, State, and
Region, and one National Association of Public Directors, and may also, given
(re-)authorization by majority favorable vote in an annual Public referendum,
participate in Continental and Global Associations of Public Directors.

Sub-Section 3.a [Associations of Public Directors: Purpose] All such
Associations shall be constituted for the purpose of coordinating Policy, and of
expressing the will of their Publics, regarding larger-scale economic geography,
and societal morphology, beyond the scale of the Enterprise local operating
unit, by means of Policy Resolutions.

Sub-Section 3.b [Associations of Public Directors: Election and Replacement]
Each Association Director of each such Association of Public Directors shall be
empowered to propose, and to vote upon, proposed Policy Resolutions. Each shall
be nominated for election by a Citizen or Citizens residing within the
geographical unit of jurisdiction of the Association, and shall be annually
elected or re-elected, for up to ten consecutive terms, by majority vote of the combined
Public Directors Electorates of the geographical unit represented, on a one
Citizen, one vote basis. Each Association Director shall be subject to special
elections for Recall / Replacement, by petition of 5% or greater of their
Electorate, and replaced if a majority of the Electorate voting so votes, by the
Replacement Candidate receiving the largest plurality of votes. Each Association
of Public Directors shall consist of an odd number of Association Directors, to
preclude deadlocks due to tie votes.

Sub-Section 3.c [Policy Resolution Compliance] Policy Resolutions adopted by
majority vote of Municipal, County, State, Regional, National, Continental,
and/or Global Public Directors Associations shall be offered to all included
lower-scale Associations of Public Directors, and to all included local
operating unit Boards of Public Directors, on a non-binding, advisory basis,
with respect to actions in response required of included Associations and Boards
of Public Directors. Compliance or non-compliance with Policy Resolutions of a
higher scale of Association, by act of a lower scale of Association, or by act
of a local operating unit Public Board of Directors, shall be on a voluntary
basis, determined by majority vote of said Association, or Board, of Public
Directors.

Sub-Section 3.d [Funding of Association Operations] Operating expenses of each
Association of Public Directors shall be funded by dues paid by all Public
Boards of Directors included in the geographical unit represented by that
Association, in an amount re-determined annually by majority vote of all included
Public Board Directors.  Monthly salary compensation of the Association Directors
of each Association from these funds shall also be set annually by majority vote
of all Public Board Directors included in the geographical unit represented by
that Association.

Section 4. [Citizen Birthright Equity Rights and Constraints] Congress shall
endow, for every Citizen child born from the date of ratification of this
Amendment, a lifetime Social Trust Fund, equal, in initial real value, to all
other such individual Citizen Birthright Equity Social Trust Funds, sufficient
to support, in whole, or, at least, in then-affordable part, as determined, and
as re-determined annually, by Congress, the expected lifetime healthcare,
education, work-life career, unemployment insurance, home purchase, retirement
pension, and other social-baseline life necessities of that Citizen, and such
that part of those funds, as allotted by Congress, may be applied, by court
order, to pay reparations in the event of one or more criminal convictions of
that Citizen.

Sub-Section 4.a [Social Trust Funds: Abuse/Moral Hazard Mitigation] Each
Citizen's disposition rights over the Social Trust Fund assigned to that Citizen
shall be constrained so as to militate against its misuse. Congress shall enact
statutes governing the disposition of Social Trust Fund assets. The national
Electorate shall elect, to four year terms, limited to three consecutive terms,
in elections coinciding with Presidential elections, eleven Commissioners to a
national Commission for Citizen Birthright Equity, which shall promulgate, by
majority vote, rules and regulations for the exercise of Citizen Birthright
Equity, and which shall manage a national Social Trust Funds Administration.
Said rules and regulations shall be administered by said Social Trust Fund
Administration, whose operations shall be funded by Congress. Each Commissioner
shall be subject to special elections for Recall/Replacement, by petition of 1%
or greater of the national Electorate, and shall be replaced if a majority of
the Citizens voting so vote, by the Replacement Candidate receiving the largest
plurality of votes. The Citizen Birthright Equity Social Trust Fund of each
Citizen so endowed shall remain Social Property unless or until its assets pass
into the Personal Property of that Citizen through their lawful expenditure.

Sub-Section 4.b [Social Trust Funds: Sources of Funding] Citizen Birthright
Equity Social Trust Funds shall be funded, in part, by a portion of the proceeds
of the Citizen Stewardship Equity Social Property Rents, paid for the usufruct
of Production Plant and Equipment Social Property held in Stewardship by Citizen
Stewardship Equity Cooperative Enterprises of all kinds, as well as by general
Federal tax revenues, as budgeted annually by majority vote of the Congress.

Sub-Section 4.c [Tribunals for Birthright Equity] Congress shall provide, by
statute, for a system of federal circuit courts, the Tribunals for Birthright
Equity. The specific function of these courts shall be to adjudicate actions
brought, by any Citizen, or Citizens-class, disputing a decision or decisions
regarding requested disposition of Citizen Birthright Equity Social Trust Fund
assets, by the Social Trust Funds Administration.

Section 5. [Citizen Stewardship Equity Rights and Constraints] Each adult
Citizen is hereby empowered with a Citizen Stewardship Equity constitutional
Right to participate in initiating the formation of, and in the democratic
self-governance of, Associations of Producers, in the form of Qualified Citizen
Stewardship Equity Cooperative Enterprises, whose Boards of Directors, and whose
local operating unit co-management committee First Houses (if any), shall be
nominated, elected, and potentially recalled and replaced, by majority vote of
their Citizen Steward Members, on a one Citizen, one vote basis.

Sub-Section 5.a [Citizen Stewardship Equity Cooperatives: Compensation of
Citizen Stewards] Each Citizen Steward member of such a Qualified Cooperative
Enterprise shall have the right to contingent annual compensation in the form of
an equal share in the annual net profits (if any) of that Cooperative
Enterprise, and also to job-performance-based monthly, semi-monthly,
or weekly compensation, per an hourly rate set by the Enterprise Board of Directors,
and not necessarily equal in value to that of other Citizen Steward Members
who perform under different job categories.

Sub-Section 5.b [Citizen Stewardship Equity Cooperatives: Rules of Democratic
Self-Governance] The Board of Directors of each Qualified Citizen Stewardship
Equity Cooperative Enterprise, and the First Houses of each of its local
operating unit co-management committees (if any), shall consist of odd numbers
of voting members, to avert tie votes. The electoral base for the Board of
Directors shall consist of the totality of the Citizen Steward Members of the
Cooperative Enterprise as a whole, and, for the First House of the
co-management committee of each local operating unit (if more than one such
exists), shall consist of all of the Citizen Steward Members who regularly
perform full-time work in that local operating unit. Candidate Board Directors,
and candidate co-management committee First House voting members, shall be
nominated by the Citizen Stewards forming their respective electoral bases, from
among those respective electoral bases. Such voting Members, including the
Enterprise General Manager, and the local operating unit General Manager (if
any), who shall chair their respective Boards or co-management committees,
respectively, shall be elected by said electoral base on a one Citizen Steward Member,
one vote basis, by majority vote of the respective electoral base Citizen Steward Members,
for each candidate voting Member, to the limit of the number of voting members
of the governing body to be so elected. Each elected Board Member, or
First House co-management committee voting Member, shall be subject to
special elections for Recall/Replacement, by petition of 5% of their electoral base
Citizen Steward Members, and replaced if a majority of that electoral base voting
so votes, by the Replacement Candidate receiving the largest plurality of votes.
Congress shall, by statute, set forth the detailed rules for Citizen Stewardship Equity
Cooperative Enterprise democratic Self-Governance.

Sub-Section 5.c [Citizen Allocational Equity Rights Regarding Social Property
Assets] The Office shall allocate financial assets Social Property to each
Qualified Social Bank Citizen Stewardship Equity Cooperative Enterprise in
accord with an equal per capita availability of such Social Property financial
assets by State, pursuant to the principle of Citizen Allocational Equity. If
unequal per capita allocations are permitted by majority vote in a referendum of
all voting-qualified Citizens of the United States of America, then such
allocations shall be permitted only on a temporary and remedial basis, e.g., for
the purpose of the remediation of the social consequences of past allocational
inequities. The terminal date of any referendum-stipulated unequal geographical,
per capita allocation of Social Property asset-values shall be stipulated in the
terms of any such referendum presented to the voters. That terminal date shall
be no later than twenty years from the date of the last day of the voting on
that referendum. The principle of Citizen Allocational Equity includes the
constitutional Right, established hereby, for collectives of Citizens, organized
as candidate Citizen Stewardship Equity Producers' Cooperative Enterprises, or
as candidate Citizen Stewardship Equity Social Bank Cooperative Enterprises
(given that their By-Laws and business launch plans/expansion plans meet
Congressional, statutory criteria, and meet Office regulatory criteria) to be
granted access to the quantities of Social Property financial assets requisite
to launch, or to expand, their operations. Any Citizen collective, which is
candidate for Citizen Stewardship Equity Cooperative Enterprise formation, shall
have standing to bring suit in the Tribunals of Allocational Equity against one
or more Social Bank, and/or against the Office of the Custodian of Social
Property, if a majority of its Members deem that either or both have violated
the constitutional Rights established for it by this Section. The principle of
Citizen Allocational Equity also includes prohibition of operation of any
Enterprise in any branch of product/service supply as State Property, if any
mixture of four or more Citizen Collectives, Qualified for provision of Social
Property to operate in that branch by one or more Social Banks, or Joint-Stock
Ventures, are extant as potential mutually competing Citizen Stewardship Equity
and/or Joint Stock Enterprises.

Sub-Section 5.d [Tribunals for Stewardship and Allocational Equity] Congress
shall provide, by statute, for a system of federal circuit courts, the Tribunals
for Stewardship and Allocational Equity. The specific function of these
Tribunals with respect to upholding Citizen Stewardship Equity Rights shall be
to adjudicate legal actions alleging violation of said Rights by any Actionable
Party. The specific function of these Tribunals with respect to upholding
Citizen Allocational Equity Rights shall be to adjudicate legal actions brought
by one or more Citizens alleging violation of said Rights by one or more Social
Banks, and/or by the Office of the Custodian of Social Property.

Sub-Section 5.e [Office of the Custodian of Social Property] Congress shall
institute a national, Federal Office of the Custodian of Social Property. The
general function of this Office shall be to manage Citizen Stewardship Equity
Social Property assets, maintaining and updating, as appropriate, an Office
Standard Design for same for each international standard product/service
category, and endeavoring to maintain a competitive market, served by multiple
Citizen Stewardship Equity Cooperative Enterprises and/or Joint Stock
Enterprises, in the markets for each such product/service category, as a matter
of Constitutional Public Policy. The special function of this Office shall be to
procure, via competitively-bid contract, from Qualified Citizen Stewardship
Equity Producers' Cooperative suppliers, or, but only in the absence of
competing such suppliers, to directly produce, under its own management, and
using its own Social Property production assets, Standard Design Plant and
Equipment Means of Production assets, for each competing Citizen Stewardship
Equity Producers' Cooperative which Qualifies for Stewardship of said assets,
and which formally applies to the Office for Provision of such assets.

Sub-Section 5.f [Custodian of Social Property: Function, Election,
Compensation, and Recall] The national Electorate shall elect, to four year
terms, limited to three consecutive terms, in elections coinciding with Federal
Presidential elections, a national Custodian of Social Property. This elected
Officer shall oversee the promulgation of regulations, and the implementation of
Congressional statutes, for the exercise of Citizen Stewardship Equity; shall
oversee the promulgation of Office Standard Designs for each international
standard product/service category, shall oversee the updating of Office Standard
Designs for which competitive technological obsolescence, advances in safety
features, and/or advances in Social Best Practices otherwise, in this Officer's
judgment, or per injunction of a Tribunal for Stewardship and Allocational
Equity, calls for their updating, and shall manage all national Social Property
assets. The compensation of the Custodian of Social Property shall be budgeted
annually by Congress, and shall be maintained in equality with that of the
President of the United States. The national Custodian of Social Property shall
be subject to special elections for Recall/Replacement, by petition of 1% or
greater of the national Electorate, and replaced if a majority of that
Electorate voting so votes, by the Replacement Candidate receiving the largest
plurality of votes.

Sub-Section 5.g [Citizen Stewardship Equity Cooperatives: Stewardship of Social
Property] Citizen Stewardship Equity Cooperatives, lawfully granted usufruct of
Means of Production Social Property assets, shall not be construed as
collectively or personally owning said assets.  Each Stewardship Cooperative
Enterprise shall retain its Stewardship Equity Rights of socially-productive
disposition of said assets, while remaining in good standing in regard to the
statutes of Citizen Stewardship Equity Self-Governance, of Solvency, and of use
of such assets, in compliance with their Provider-approved, Board-approved, and
local operating units co-management committees approved Annual Operating Plans,
and in accord with the statutes of Citizen Externality Equity. Otherwise,
Social Property asset Stewardship Qualification may be revoked, by action of
the Social Bank Cooperative Enterprise which had been the direct Provider of
Social Property assets to the thus disqualifiable Citizen Stewardship Equity Producers'
Cooperative.

Sub-Section 5.h [Stewardship Cooperatives: [Self-]Provision of [Non-]Standard
Production Assets] Each Qualified Citizen Stewardship Equity Producers'
Cooperative shall have the right to procure Office non-standard Means of
Production from the Office, given the endorsement of their Office non-standard
Production Plant and Equipment Designs by the Social Bank Stewardship Enterprise
which is the direct Provider of the Social Property component of its financing.
Each Citizen Stewardship Equity Producers' Cooperative shall have the right to
procure its own Production assets, Office Standard in Design, or of its own,
Office non-standard Design, directly, from Provisioners other than the Office,
such as from other Stewardship Equity Producers' Cooperative Enterprises, or
from Joint-Stock Enterprises, by means of its own resources, only if approved by
the Social Bank Cooperative Enterprise that is the direct Provider of the Social
Property component of its financing. Assets so acquired shall be deemed the
Collective Property of the Stewards of the Stewardship Equity Cooperative
Enterprise so-acquiring, rather than as Social Property, as their Private
Property, or as their Personal Property.

Sub-Section 5.i [Stewardship Cooperatives: Social Rents in Return for Use of
Social Property] Each Stewardship Cooperative Enterprise, receiving Provision of
Means of Production, Social Property assets, Office Standard, or non-standard,
from the Office, shall remit a monthly Social Property Rent to society, in
return for the usufruct of the Social Property held in Stewardship by it,
proportionate to the value of those Social assets, and paid via the Office.
These Social Property Rent revenues shall help to support Social Self-Investment
in the form of production of Means of Production Social Property, and in the
form of Public Infrastructure Social Property, as well as in the form of the
income of Social Bank Cooperative Enterprises, and in the form of the funding of
Citizen Birthright Equity Social Trust Funds.

Sub-Section 5.j [Gratis Replacement of Insured Cooperatives' Obsolescent Social
Property] The Office shall duly Re-Provision Insured Citizen Stewardship Equity
Cooperative Enterprises who formally apply for this Service, if they hold, in
Stewardship, assets no longer of Office-Standard Design. The no longer
Office-Standard Plant and Equipment assets shall be replaced with new,
Office-Standard such assets, whenever the relevant Office's Standard Designs
change, given the return of the previous, now non-standard Provision to the
custody of the Office by that Cooperative. This Re-Provisioning Service
shall be provided at no added charge to such Cooperative Enterprises.
This Re-Provisioning Service shall be provided in return for periodic premiums,
paid to the Office, by such Cooperative Enterprises, for Insurance against
changes in Office Standard Designs that result from technological/competitive
obsolescence of the previous Standard Designs, and/or from advances in
safety features, and/or from advances in national or international Social
Best Practices otherwise (Social Depreciation, Moral Depreciation,
Non-Physical Depreciation Insurance).

Sub-Section 5.k [Provision of Social Property Assets to Producers' Cooperatives:
Eligibility] Citizen Stewardship Equity Producers' Cooperatives shall be
Eligible for Provisioning and Re-Provisioning Services, if Qualified for the
granting, in Stewardship, of Office Standard Design Social Property. Operations
to determine such Qualification shall be delegated, by the Office, to
specialized, competing, democratically self-governing Citizen Stewardship Equity
Cooperative Enterprises, certified by the Office, per Congressional statutory
criteria, and per Office rules and regulations, to be Qualified to function as
competing, self-governing Social Bank Cooperatives. Each such Social Bank
Cooperative Enterprise shall be restricted, by the Office, by Charter, to
operate within a specific geographical locus. Each shall be granted Stewardship
of Office financial assets Social Property, allocated to it in accordance with
the principle of Citizen Allocational Equity, for use in the purchase of
Office-Standard-Design Production assets from the Office, for transfer to the
Stewardship of non-bank Stewardship Equity Producers' Cooperatives under its
credit administration. Each such Receiver of Office-Standard Design Production
Plant and Equipment Social Property must be further Qualified for such Provision
by means of the approval of their Annual Operating Plans/Budgets by the Citizen
Steward Members-elected Board of Directors of that Social Bank Cooperative
Enterprise which is the direct Social Property Provider to said Citizen
Stewardship Equity Producers' Cooperative. The income of each Citizen
Stewardship Equity Social Bank Cooperative Enterprise shall be limited to a
percentage, re-determined annually by Congress, of the Social Property Rent
revenues actually received by the Office from the Citizen Stewardship Equity
Producer's Cooperatives who receive Social Property in Stewardship via that
Social Bank, under its credit administration, and shall be remitted to that
Social Bank in monthly payments by the Office. A given month's Social Rent share
payment to a given Social Bank for a given Producers' Cooperative under its
credit administration shall be withheld in the event of a default of that
month's Social Rent payment by that Producers' Cooperative. Social Rent share
payments to a given Social Bank for a given Producers' Cooperative under its
credit administration shall cease permanently in the event of the Insolvency of
said Producers' Cooperative.

Sub-Section 5.l [Stewardship Equity Social Banks: Stewardship of Financial
Social Property] Each Citizen Stewardship Equity Social Bank, lawfully allocated
partial usufruct of Social Property financial assets by the Office of the
Custodian of Social Property, shall not be conferred any ownership of said
assets, on behalf of its Citizen-Steward Members, either collectively, or
personally. Each Citizen Stewardship Equity Social Bank Cooperative Enterprise
shall retain its Stewardship Equity Rights of socially-productive disposition of
said financial assets, only while remaining in good standing in regard to the
statutes of Citizen Stewardship Equity Enterprise Self-Governance and Solvency,
as well as in regard to its co-promulgation and co-administration of the Annual
Operating Plans and Budgets of its Providee Citizen Stewardship Equity
Producers' Cooperatives, in accord with the statutes governing Citizen
Externality Equity Rights, and Citizen Allocational Equity Rights, per its
Charter. Otherwise, its Stewardship Qualification Certification, and its Social
Property allocation, shall be revoked by the Office of the Custodian of Social
Property.

Sub-Section 5.m [Citizen Externality Equity Constraint of Citizen Stewardship
Equity Powers] Each member of the First House of the co-management committee
of each local operating unit of each Citizen Stewardship Equity Cooperative,
as a democratically self-governing Enterprise, shall be nominated by, elected by,
and potentially recallable by, the Citizen-Stewards who are the collective
self-employees of that local operating unit, on a one self-employee, one vote
basis. The Second House of each such local operating co-management committee
shall be its Citizen Externality Equity Rights-based, publicly-elected Board
of Public Directors. If a Citizen Stewardship Equity Cooperative Enterprise
consists of only a single local operating unit, its employee-elected Board of Directors
shall constitute the First House of its co-management committee, and its
publicly-elected Citizen Externality Equity Board of Public Directors shall constitute
the Second House thereof.

Sub-Section 5.n [Tribunals for Social Productivity Advancement] Each Citizen
Stewardship Equity Cooperative Enterprise, or any class thereof, shall be
empowered to petition the Office of the Custodian of Social Property for an
update of the Office Standard Design of Production Plant and Equipment for one
or more product/service categories. Congress shall provide, by statute, for a
system of courts, the Tribunals for Social Productivity Advancement. The
specific function of these Tribunals shall be to adjudicate cases wherein
petitions to said Office for update of one or more Standard Designs, for one or
more standard product/service categories, are in dispute among Citizen
Stewardship Equity Cooperative Enterprises, or wherein one or more Standard
Design update decisions are in dispute between the Office of the Custodian of
Social Property and more than one Stewardship Equity Cooperative Enterprise.

Sub-Section 5.o [Stewardship Enterprise Insolvency] The insolvency of a Citizen
Stewardship Equity Cooperative Enterprise shall require the dissolution of that
Enterprise, and, therefore, in likelihood, the temporary unemployment of its
former Citizen Steward Members, and, as a result thereof, draws upon their
Citizen Birthright Equity Social Trust Funds for unemployment insurance payments
during their periods of unemployment. In the event of such Insolvency, the
Social Property held in Stewardship by that Cooperative Enterprise shall be
returned to the custody of the Office of the Custodian of Social Property. The
civil liability of an Insolvent Citizen Stewardship Cooperative Enterprise to
its creditors shall be limited to the value of the totality of its collectively
owned, non-Social-Property assets, and shall not include any of the Personal
Property assets, or any of the Social Trust Fund assets, of its former Citizen
Steward Members.

Sub-Section 5.p [Political Contributions by Citizen Stewardship Equity
Enterprises] Each Citizen Stewardship Equity Cooperative Enterprise may
contribute to political candidates, and/or to political causes, but only out of
funds deducted from the net profits of that Enterprise, and only by at least a
three-quarters majority favorable vote of its entire electoral base of Citizen
Stewards.

Sub-Section 5.q [Countervailing Citizen Rights] Citizens are empowered, by
constitutional right, granted hereby, to organize and enact, using their own
resources, Boycotts of the products and/or of the services offered for sale by
one or more Citizen Stewardship Equity Cooperative Enterprises that said
Citizens believe to have intervened in the Legislative, and/or Judicial, and/or
Executive, and/or Economic-Democratic processes of the United States of America
as a whole, or in that of any Region, State, County, or Municipality thereof, in
a manner or manners that they, in their own individual and/or collective
judgment, deem to be inimical to the General Welfare.

Section 6. [Constitution of the Tribunals Established under this Amendment] The
Citizen Equity Rights Tribunals established under this Amendment -- the
Tribunals for Stockholder Equity, the Tribunals for Externality Equity, the
Tribunals for Birthright Equity, the Tribunals for Stewardship and Allocational
Equity, the Tribunals for Social Productivity Advancement, and the Appellate
Court for Generalized Equity – shall be governed by the following provisions, as
elaborated by Congress, and the Executive, in statute and regulation.

Sub-Section 6.a [General Function of Said Tribunals] The general function of
each court shall be to hear law suits brought by one or more Citizens/other
constitutional entities, alleging violation of the Citizen Equity Rights of its
jurisdiction.

Sub-Section 6.b [Actionable Parties] Parties against whom complaints of
violation of Citizen Equity Rights can be brought, in the Tribunal of
Jurisdiction for each such Right, shall include Congress, and one, or more, of
the following: The President, or agency of, the Federal Executive Branch, State
Government, County Government, Municipal Government, Joint Stock Enterprise
Board of Directors, Citizen Stewardship Equity Cooperative Enterprise Board of
Directors, House of a local co-management committee of a Stewardship Equity
Cooperative or Joint Stock Enterprise, Public Director, Association Director,
and/or individual Citizen.

Sub-Section 6.c [Standing] Any one or more Citizens shall have standing to bring
legal action(s) before any of these courts.

Sub-Section 6.d [Jurisdictions of Tribunals] The jurisdiction of each Tribunal
established by this Amendment shall be restricted to the upholding of the
specific Citizen Equity Right or Rights chartered herein to its protection,
adjudicating actions brought before it alleging violation of that Right, or of
those Rights, by any one or more of the Actionable Parties stipulated herein.
Legal actions alleging the violation of a Citizen Equity Right must originate in
the Tribunal of Jurisdiction for the Right or Rights whose violation is alleged,
and not in any other, or general, Federal, State, or Municipal court, civil or
criminal, of law or of equity, and may, after adjudication in its Tribunal of
Jurisdiction, be appealed solely to the Appellate Court for Generalized Equity.

Sub-Section 6.e [Rights of Appeal to/from the Appellate Court for Generalized
Equity] Legal actions originated and decided in a Tribunal of Jurisdiction for a
given Citizen Equity Right may be appealed, by the losing, or partially losing,
Party or Parties of that action, to the Appellate Court for Generalized Equity,
if the grounds of appeal set forth in statute by Congress are met by said appeal
per the Citizen Jury of said Appellate Court. Any appeal from any ruling of the
Appellate Court for Generalized Equity shall be solely to the Supreme Court of
the United States.

Sub-Section 6.f [Modes of Redress Provided via Tribunal Citizen Jury Award to
Prevailing Plaintiffs] Injunctive relief, payments of value in compensation for
civil damages, and sanctions against criminal conduct (fines and/or
imprisonment) in cases for which the specific convicted violations of Citizen
Equity Rights have been placed under criminal penalty by Congress, in statute,
shall be available for imposition by Citizen Juries of the Tribunals for Citizen
Equity Rights, and/or by he Appellate Court for Generalized Equity.

Sub-Section 6.g [Functions of Justices] Each individual circuit court for
Citizen Equity Rights, and the Appellate Court for Generalized Equity, shall be
convened by a single advisory justice. Justices shall serve as moderators of the
court proceedings, and in an impartial advisory and expert consultative capacity
regarding relevant laws and regulations history, precedent, and procedure, to
plaintiffs, to defendants, and to Citizen Juries, in the proceedings brought
before them, and shall have authority to require compliance, in the court room,
with legal procedure and judicial order, on the part of the Parties to the legal
action, and/or on that of their representatives.

Sub-Section 6.h [Constitution and Functions of Citizen Juries] Citizen Juries
shall serve in a deciding capacity with regard to the legal actions brought
before them. Citizen Juries shall decide the legal actions brought before them
by majority vote. Citizen Juries shall consist of an odd number of Jurors, to
help minimize the frequency of Jury deadlock.

Sub-Section 6.i [Selection of Citizen Jurors Pools] All able-bodied adult
Citizens shall make themselves available to serve, on a standard salary basis,
and on a one month per year basis, in Citizen Jury Pools from which the Citizen
Jurors of the Citizen Equity Rights Tribunals, and of the Appellate Court for
Generalized Equity, shall be selected, by random lot.

Sub-Section 6.j [Allocation of Costs of Adjudication] The losing party in any
legal action brought before a Citizen Equity Rights Tribunal or before the
Appellate Court for Generalized Equity -- or all parties to any such action, in
proportion set by its Citizen Jury, in the event of a mixed decision -- shall
pay the costs of that action, per general court costs schedules set by the
justices.

Sub-Section 6.k [Term Limits, Justices] Justices shall serve four year terms,
with a limit of three consecutive terms.

Sub-Section 6.l [Recall of Justices] Each justice of a Citizen Equity Rights
Tribunal, and of the Appellate Court for Generalized Equity, as established by
this Amendment, shall be subject to special elections for Recall/Replacement, by
petition of 1% or greater of the Federal Electorate, and replaced if a majority
of that Electorate voting so votes, by the Replacement Candidate receiving the
largest plurality of votes.

Section 7. [Fourth Branch of Government: Countervailing Power Intent] The new
institutions established hereby -- the Tribunals for Stockholder Equity, the
Boards of Public Directors, the Associations of Public Directors, the Tribunals
for Externality Equity, the Commission for Birthright Equity, the Social Trust
Funds Administration, the Tribunals for Birthright Equity, the competing and
democratically self-governing Citizen Stewardship Equity Cooperative
Enterprises, the Office of the Custodian of Social Property, the Tribunals for
Stewardship and Allocational Equity, the Tribunals for Social Productivity
Advancement, and the Appellate Court for Generalized Equity -- shall together
constitute the Economic-Democratic Fourth Branch of social self-governance of
the United States of America, under the Constitution of the United States of
America. This Fourth Branch is hereby established explicitly with the intention
to benefit each Citizen, regardless of the scale of that Citizen's Personal
Property ownership, including, especially, by countervailing against the lethal
corruption of the democratic processes of the Legislative, Executive, and
Judicial Branches, by the otherwise unchecked power of ownership-concentrated,
oligopolized or monopolized private economic wealth, to which the initially more
competitive private-capital based economy inexorably gives rise.

FINI
























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