2. Preamble
Youth is a form of art; an art of being. We are hardly shaped by the past that we already
want to shape the future.
We are experiencing strange times in South Africa where we are the witness to absolute
material wealth and at the same time shocking poverty.
We have only heard the gory stories of our tumultuous past that we have been told about
miraculous peace, and still experience violence and corruption. We hardly remember what
Masters such as Ghandi said: “Poverty is the worst form of violence.” ... that we discover the
wisdom of such activists as Steve Biko who said:
All we know is that we have been brainwashed from childhood about the power of money,
the fun of shopping centres, the happiness of coca-cola and sweetness of sugar....
But we are all social media addicts where an overload of confusing information gives us no
choice, than to make up our own minds....except for those who don’t have such a luxury....
Frantically using our blackberries and blue tooth, we forget that communication is about
caring and belonging.
3. Our fathers and mothers may have been involved in the struggle for freedom, or not
involved at all, we realise that freedom was the end of a nightmare and the beginning of the
American ‘Dream’ to join the global race... the one where there are no blacks or whites
anymore, but a universal consumer, so that our worth is now measured by what we can or
cannot buy.
Our reach for freedom is still liberation but this time the liberation of our heart, spirit and
soul.
We are witnessing a global and local frustration in front of a system, where the ‘have’ are
fewer and the ‘have not’ are many more than expected... A system where individualism, ego,
power and competition are the favourite weapons of the merchants, traders and money
makers, using it as the ultimate device for the divide and rule principle.
UNI is about unity, Ubuntu, cohesion, cooperation, togetherness and more of those
philosophical ‘things’ which make us One... this One is led by the Youth.... this One is called
change because as Indie Arie said so simply: “Change is the only constant thing in life.”
Because of its consistency and universality, change must become our currency.
Introduction
The system was institutionalised at the end of World War II, designed by the few, for the
few...with the few. The winners, the ones who made the war their business and gathered at
Bretton Woods
In July 1944, at the opening session at Bretton Woods, Henry Morgenthau, then U.S. Secretary of the
Treasury and President of the Conference read a welcoming message from Roosevelt and gave his own
opening speech, which set the tone and spirit of the gathering. Morgenthau envisaged “the creation of
a dynamic world economy in which the peoples of every nation will be able to realize their
potentialities in peace and enjoy increasingly the fruits of material progress on an earth infinitely
blessed with natural riches.” He called on participants to embrace the “elementary economic axiom
… that prosperity has no fixed limits. It is not a finite substance to be diminished by division.”
Thus Morgenthau set forth one of several underlying assumptions of the economic paradigm that
guided the work of the architects of the Bretton Woods system. Many of these assumptions were
reasonably valid, but two of the most important were deeply flawed. The first erroneous assumption is
that economic growth and enhanced world trade would benefit everyone. The second is that
economic growth would not be constrained by the limits of the planet.
Extract: THE FAILURES OF BRETTON WOODS - David C. Korten - Key Note Address
1994 convention of US Environment Grant Makers Association - 50th Anniversary of Bretton Woods
conference 1944
Change is more important than ever... and change is our right and responsibility to occupy
the space, time and energy owned by the 1% shareholders who through the rule of property
and equity have become the anonymous landlords and capitallords of the world...
4. By being peace artisans and change activists we can reclaim our locality, our
communalities, and our values and become free again, though being sovereign.
The imminent ‘collapse of the system’ will leave no ‘prisoners’, and we as the Youth in UNI,
have to bring out our own definition of the future.... because as a result of the plundering
and looting of a few global ‘holding’ corporations, we have collectively built up a huge
debt.... as we decided to adopt credit as a mean to take more and more without a chance to
give it back.
We have created a deficit and this state of affairs institutionalised LACK and NEED as the
drivers of a thing called “economy”, basically measured by another thing call GDP.
Economy, though, is no longer a reliable and credible inspiration, because the ‘economy’ is in
the hands of multinationals which, like Goliath, have become ‘big brother’ of all kinds...
petro-chemicals, pharmaceuticals, banks, insurance, armaments etc.
We in UNI, refuse to become the mercenaries and servants of a system based on alienation
and colonisation, and with change as our currency, want to give birth to real life again...
We have to rebuild communities, local communities, where our family members, our friends
and neighbours are the foundation of our livelihoods.
Methodology
We adopt any methodology that works over the current system which doesn’t work for us....
these methodologies are successful all over but don’t need advertising, or marketing; they
work because people make them work. ... For the people, by the people, with the people...
One of those, a cooperative called Mondragon – meaning “my dragon” – has a basic
methodology:
5. UNI is but one of these cooperatives of thought and ideas where entrepreneurship is the
core activity while synergy is the central energy....
UNI Alliance Description
UNI is born from the natural gathering of young people, who have observed that the
forming of a structure is but its prime vulnerability.... So UNI is a platform which aims at
creating, designing, formulating, facilitating, engineering and managing access and success.
UNI is a direct response to the poor and pathetic so called “leadership” whether political,
economic and religious which have institutionalised the principle of ‘clientele’ or ‘followers’
who locate power in those who can speak and preach.
UNI is a ‘walk the talk’, “let’s do it” community based on the Ubuntu principles of caring
and sharing but also to propose and implement practical, but spiritually based solutions which
re-establish locality, proximity, solidarity and sovereignty in the ‘community’.
A community is defined by those who identify with it, as apposed to a ’market’ whose
purpose is to buy and sell, merchandise and commoditise everything.... The ‘system’ or
‘matrix’ counts on obedience and emotions such as fear, anger, anxiety, to perpetuate our
dependency and addiction to it....
UNI is a learning laboratory, testing ground and incubator where each one is welcome to
experience reality and consciousness, bring courage and creativity.
It is a ‘Youth Movement’ to shape everything we do around sustainability, the continuous
search for truth and the pre-eminence of universal values which defines our humanity.
UNI realises that we have neglected out home, the Planet, the only place we have; a being
called “Mother Earth” or “Gaia”, by our common ancestors and forefathers, and which
requires great care and repair.... The dangerous and real threat of climate change, global
warming and the systematic destruction of the natural world, have now brought us into a
desperate state of adaption to these new conditions.
Darwin, just like Einstein, is one of those ‘revolutionaries’ who are offering wisdom to our
gatherings where dialog will take place around the notion of circles where we discover the
nature of value and the value of nature. (Adam Smith – the Wealth of Nations)
UNI Circles
UNI Circles are inspired by the ancient practices and shaped around affinity for themes....
“You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the
World always work in circles, and everything tries to be round. The sky is round, and I have heard that
the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind in its greatest powers whirls. Birds make
their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
6. The Sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round.
Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they
were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power
moves. Our Teepees were round like the nest of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the
Nation’s hoop, a nest of many nests, where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children.”
Black Elk – Lakota Elder
UNI is naturally working in cooperation with the youth (NYDA) and SANACO (South
African National Apex Cooperation) and is registered as a cooperative.... but affiliated with
any other institutionalised entity working on the same principles.
UNI represents the youth in ‘My Planet My Choice’, a COP 17 legacy project which mainly
advocates agroecology as a means to sovereignty. Every Circle is built around the
responsibility to activate their members, the necessity to grow as well as produce organically
and cooperate towards good and balanced nutrition. Any Circle activity is exercised around
the New Work, New Culture principle of doing what we must do for the community, as long
as it contributes to the Commons and is done in full consciousness of sustainability.
UNI Allies
UNI will be registering allies at each gathering and each member stating the willingness to
dedicate a few hours of his/her time to UNI Circle of activities –
UNI is a youth alliance and will only be accepting members with less than 35 years of age.
Communication will be done through the internet and cellular phones.
UNI realises that it has to re-establish the fundamental relationship between the ‘Youth’ and
the ‘Elders’ and have to create the UNI Mentors Circles for the over 35 year old as well. This
relationship will be exercised through dialogue gatherings where UNI Circles are inviting
UNI Mentors to coach them around themes of their mutual choice....
UNI intents to create ‘food and art’ places where further gatherings will take place around
social issues, displays, shows and activities.
UNI intends to issue the ‘UNI-Pass’, a passport to give access to goods, activities and small
change....
