Forwarded by Albino Bordieri on behalf of the Economic Democracy Movement - Italy

On 20th and 21st May 2006 at Rimini, central Italy, the Second Italian Convention of the Italian Samaj (Economic Democracy Movement or MDE) took place with the goal to transform the movement into a political association.

Seventeen participants were present, which was sufficient to constitute the nucleus that can ferry the movement to the next phase of MDE's new status in Italy as a political association, which will allow it to participate in all political activities, including elections.

The MDE Constitution was thoroughly discussed and then approved. Most of the points where approved by unanimous vote.

As founding principles of the constitution, participants collectively approved a local, regional explanation of the Economic Democracy foundational principles of this brand new political party. These principles are as follows:

1) The right to live in a dignified economic condition:

- To guarantee to all the availability of the minimal necessities of life, comprising alimony, clothing, housing, health care and education.

- The right to work is a fundamental requirement for the guarantee of people's minimal necessities. The government must support those persons who are not in a position to work and maintain self-sufficiency. This is not only an individual right, but also a necessity for the all-round collective development of the community and society.

2) The right to continually improve our economic condition:

- To continuously increase the purchasing power of the people by redistributing the wealth.

- We must have the right and necessity to maximally utilize all local resources and to support the local production of essential amenities, in order to satisfy the consumption of the local population.

3) The right to control the means of production:

- Controlling the means of economic production means giving people the right to make all decisions regarding the local economy.

- MDE supports and promotes all methods of work that are, as much as possible, managed by systems based on coordinated cooperation. In these systems, every worker will also be the entrepreneur and the owner, and will hence have equal participation in decision-making, in the distribution of surplus funds, and in the risks.

4) The right to total economic sovereignty in our own regions:

- The right of control on all territorial resources and economic programs by the local people. Total sovereignty of all aspects of the economy and natural resources must be given to each community.

- Safeguards must be establish to protect communities from external speculative investors and other economic and financial interference.

Participants offered further ideas and proposals related to (i) strategies for rapid expansion of the Party and (ii) obstacles to be anticipated. These proposals have been recorded, and will be transcribed, synthesized and distributed in the near future.

After approving our four foundational Party principles and the Constitution, a temporary National Executive was unanimously elected to manage various aspects of the work. Their names are as follows:

President -------------- Albino Bordieri, Location: Treviso (northeast)
Secretary ------------- Daniele Cannistr, Location: Crema (northwest)
Finance Sec. --------- Giovanni Zollo, Location: Bari (southeast)
Publication Sec. ------ Massimo Capriuolo, Location: Barietta (southeast)
Social Service Sec. -- Dante Nicola Faraoni, Location: Treviso (northeast)

The final step during the Convention was for participants to sign a Corporate Charter that will be registered by the MDE President in the near future, as it becomes required for upcoming political activities.

Membership in the MDE was fixed at 20 Euro annually.

Additional internal regulations and guidelines have yet to be written, discussed and voted upon in the near future. However, participants were unitedly pleased with the number of concrete tasks accomplished at this Convention.

To determine the MDE Party Logo, a competition will be held and participants will vote for the best logo.

While additional, in-depth modifications are yet required in various aspects of development planning of the MDE, the two-day period did not allow sufficient time to touch on many aspects. We intend to continue the development of the Party using Email list serve or Forum, until our next physical meeting, which we anticipate will be in the near 3 or 4 months. We will also establish proper voting procedures that can be done on the Internet, which will enable our work to move with accelerated acceleration.

We will be providing additional information after discussing with other participants and collectively establishing further guidelines, in particular as regards the formation of MDE branches in all regions of Italy.

We hope you all will join us in this work to establish PROUT, to give relief to the suffering humanity.

The Proutists of Italy