This Note will be about the Fourth Section of Article Six in my Model Constitution. For those who want to see the Model Constitution I propose as a whole you can go to the following link:
There are many differences between myself and some of the other people who have brought about radical change to their regimes and social orders. I also share similarities with many of them and some more than others. One thing that is different about my approach compared to George Washington, John Adams, Napoleon, Lenin, Hitler or almost anyone who has succeeded in such a venture in recent centuries is that I chose to write this Constitution long before any large movement to secure a regime change has materialized. All of those in this short list expressed some idea of how things ought to go in writing or speeches or both. But it was less of complete plan than this. That is obviously more likely to be a weakness on my part than it is a strength. The truth is that securing power is more essential than having a good plan of governance. Although both are important, it is obvious that history is made up of the stories of regimes that came to some level of power with any kind of foresight. There is very little known, remembered or necessary to know regarding well-laid plans that go astray or never become even partially realized. The more specific a plan is the more people disagree with it and so successful political actors have often stayed in the realm of glittering generalities for as long as possible. Once a broad coalition has put them in power even if they turn out to be the worst sorts of bumblers some of their agenda will be accomplished. THIS MODEL CONSTITUTION IS NOT THAT KIND OF REVOLUTIONARY AGENDA.
There remain huge policy areas left to be worked out in the new system or left unchanged. However, as regards the
Constitutional changes which are proposed this plan is as clear and specific as I am able to make it on most points. So it is with the role and function of the Guilds in the Direct Imperial Government. This is an essential part of the transformative aspect of this new Constitution. This institution is unique in the many roles it will play and unique also in its relationship with the varied political institutions in this society. The Guilds are not in the strictest sense part of the Democracy in the exclusive sense. There are two functional types of elements of democracy in this system and regime. Some democratic elements exclude royals and aristocrats and others are inclusive of all the people regardless of their being commoners, aristocrats are royals. It seems appropriate to me to illustrate this note with some specifics about how the guilds might function. The guilds are the vessels and instruments of making real change and protecting many legitimate interests in the social transformation that goes with this Constitutional transformation. So let’s hypothesize in specific terms about their role.
It will be useful to go back to the note before this and read about that special class of guilds which will have additional representation in the Lower Chamber of the Direct Imperial Government Legislature if this Model Constitution is adopted. The list of invited guilds will include some any given reader might expect and others they might not expect and there may be omissions of the expected. That quirkiness is part of what makes this a royalist monarchical regime as well as all else that it is. But let us look at some of the Guilds the regime would exercise pressure to form which would be expected to come in at the ordinary top first class level:
“ 2. These guilds would be such as Old Steel Mills Guild, Detroit Auto Guild or Texas-Oklahoma Cattle Guild. Each Guild would have a geographical limit in its charter which could be as large as the country but multi-state regions and state guilds would be easier to charter. There would be classes of Members. Top class Members of the guilds would have to live and work in the geographical area, own the principal means of production an employ people in making things or providing services.”
These first class guilds would have relations with other guilds but would consist of owners, executives and corporations. The Detroit Auto Guild would have ties to lower class guilds including, probably a Michigan Auto Workers Guild and a Southern States Auto Workers Guild, as well as others in the structure. The Texas-Oklahoma Cattle Guild would have a tie possibly to an Old Southwest Cowboy’s Guild, and Old Southwest Cutting Horse Guild among others. Besides their ties to the other new Guilds there would be ties to the aristocracy at this level. One of the proposed Peer-Electors of this regime is a person not certainly determined in a known family association who shall be titled “Duke King, Chief of the Texas and Oklahoma Ranchers”. It is impossible to imagine that this Texas-Oklahoma Cattle Guild could be fully successful if such a peer were not a member and somewhere in the leadership of this guild. Of course this does not mean that the King’s Ranch or that family has endorsed this proposal of constitutional transformation.
Continuing the discussion of ties to the aristocracy, there are forty (plus one) peer-electors who have permanent seats and many other privileges in the DIG Legislature and its associated agencies. Duke King has been mentioned as one but nobody can say who that would be with certainty. Just underneath the level of Peer Electors are The Ten who will be Aristocrats with special permanent seats in the Direct Imperial Government Legislature. One of these will be Viscount Ford of Detroit. Here I can say who this would be if the constitution changed soon. One cannot imagine the Detroit Auto Guild succeeding fully without him. Again this is not a person who has endorsed these radical changes in our government. Nor is he someone I know personally. Here however is his biography in brief.
Bill Ford, William Clay Ford, Jr. is the Executive Chairman of the company that bears his name and largely “put the world on wheels”. He is fulfilling an ancestral legacy as he proceeds into the 21st century. It has been notable in that in recent periods of economic and financial turbulence Chrysler had long ago been rescued by the government of the United States , then became part of German carmaker Daimler Corporation and then got more help recently. General Motors has emerged from its beleaguered past by destroying much of its infrastructure, going into bankruptcy and receiving a huge government bailout. Ford has paddled and navigated its own canoe in all this and has had many successes unique among the Big Three of American Automakers. “The ongoing success of Ford Motor Company is my life’s work,” Bill Ford has said . “We want to have an even bigger impact in our next 100 years than we did in our first 100.” Mr. Ford joined the Ford Board of Directors in 1988 and has been its chairman since January 1999. He serves as chairman of the board’s Finance Committee and as a member of the Environmental and Public Policy Committee. He also served as chief executive officer of the company from October 2001 to September 2006, when he was named executive chairman. As CEO, Mr. Ford took the company from a $5.5 billion loss in 2001 to three straight years of profitability. He has described his vision for the company as “I want us to be a company that makes a difference in people’s lives; one that delights its customers, rewards its shareholders and makes the world a better place. To do that we are focused on delivering desirable products, a competitive cost structure and a sustainable business model.” Mr. Ford joined Ford Motor Company in 1979 as a product planning analyst and later held a variety of positions in manufacturing, product development, sales, marketing and finance. He served on the company’s National Bargaining Team during the 1982 Ford-United Auto Workers labor talks, credited with starting an employee involvement movement that revolutionized the industry. Investing in himself in 1983, Ford undertook a 12-month course of study as an Alfred P. Sloan fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He came out of these studies and was elected chairman and managing director of Ford Switzerland in 1987. He has led influential committees and operations for Business Strategy for the Ford Automotive Group in 1990 and his team set guidelines and made recommendations for low-volume manufacturing plants in developing countries which have contributed to Ford’s independent survival. Ford became general manager of Climate Control Division in 1992, and was very successful. He established the company’s first wildlife habitat at a plant location and the first automotive plant in the world to use 25 percent post-consumer materials in all of its plastic parts which contributed to his reputation as someone who cared about the environment. This was increased by his winning in his division the President’s Commission on Environmental Quality Award for effectively making a green change by replacing a hazardous chemical in a production process with water. Between that assignment and his current post he held varied important executive posts at Ford.
Bill Ford is a real person, not a projection, caricature or mere crony spun off by this proposed revolution. There is a working forward of what already wants to break our as America’s own native leadership. He and I very possibly would not even get along well, that is not the point. This is different than a proposed fascist revolution in many ways including that the guilds are real guilds with autonomy and are more or less refereed by the Imperial House and Direct Imperial Government. It differs from a socialist revolution in that mostly private property rights are not truly affected by all the reshuffling as such. It differs from a libertarian revolution in that accountability, transparency and planning increase rather than decrease and the strength of the overall society is a principal goal.
The Guilds will increase accountability without stifling innovation and invention very much. When a bad corporation goes bankrupt the Guild will mostly be protected from liability but it will still be an interested and known public actor and figure with an interest in repairing the damage. Guilds will make America’s companies more efficient and competitive without resorting to piratical tactics. By increasing the interest shared in what is American about each business’s business. America is in crisis in far too many ways to list all the structural, fiscal, economic and monetary problems much less the others. I believe the guilds can put our society on a new track and renew the best of what we are doing. We can still do much to be truly great.
We need an American renewal in ways that are easy to measure and ways that are not. Our dreams are also in trouble. The Bible is not (except in a handful of places) really in the category of dreams, fiction and what could be if all were perfect. Far more often the Bible contains elements of history and biography as written in a particular time on the one hand. While on the other hand it includes advice for imperfect communities of imperfect people aspiring to a perfect communion and a plan of life progressing towards perfection. However, science fiction is about dreams and I have also written about it in the sites where I post these notes. I really enjoy the things that are being filmed and written today. I see a lot of good in them. However, I see that there is so little being done about using resources of our own solar system and of our seas in ways that we could if we perfected and enhanced existing technologies and had the heroic spirit easily created in fiction. Even our dream machine is failing to lead us forward.
When I think that we put men on the Moon more than forty years ago and exploded a nuclear device more than fifty years ago it makes me very aware that we have not followed the paths to a full a rapid development of the kind of resources in outer space which would make it possible for us to have a more slow and cautious pace in the full and rich development of ourselves. One great truth which Thomas Jefferson was very aware of and wrote about a good bit during his life was that America offered humanity a chance at a better path of development if it allowed people to slowly evolve from healthy agrarian communities. This kind of development need not oppose science and venture such a s founding universities (like Jefferson’s University of Virginia) nor need it oppose technology (just as the USA led demand and assisted in the growth of key technologies like rifles, railroads and telegraphs more than other countries of comparable importance because it had so many agrarian centers to link together over a large area). We really should have a thriving colony on the Moon by now just as we really should have many other things as a human species. Like many of the challenges involved in developing the United States we would find that the colony was pushing nuclear, communications, solar power, recycling and other vital technologies. However, working on these technologies without a great cause like the space colonies will not pay as well and therefore will harm far more people and other living things than necessary. We can define free market capitalism as we define and practice it these days as the fine art of kicking the can down the road. Many other economic systems have been worse. However, the fact that there are so many other worse alternatives does not mean that there are not also better ones left untried. In fact it does not mean that we do not face terrible consequences for not doing better than we are doing.
One can think of the billions of gallons of untreated sewerage that enter the water surrounding cities at the same time when many of these cities have people who need low-level jobs and a demand for the fodder that could be grown on marginal lands with slightly treated waters and their heavy organic waste loads. We are all drunk on and addicted to the kind of liquidity our economic doctrines, models and concepts. We can think of how little attention we have given to fixing our decaying dams and sewer lines in the United States and remember that we are still above average in regards to some of our infrastructure. Katrina in New Orleans and 9-11 in New York are both small tastes of the horrible feast being served to the world. Worldwide humanity is failing to make key improvements to its infrastructure as it make widespread increases in demand on both the infrastructure and the surrounding environment.
Family farms and foundations as well as all sorts of laws and programs which support varied forms of community striving to be viable in a complete way must be successful participants in the change we need. We must include the right kind of input from the groups which can reward respect for the slow and precious values capitalism ( and many other systems) can only destroy unless they are kept in check by other values. Those values must be supported by the institutions which are able to act within a structurally secure position within society.
Driven by an engine of idealism like the founding Imperial House (which may be less desperately progressive if blessed with future generations as planned) the Guilds can tend to the business of business and still foster a spirit of reaching for national and Imperial greatness which we are failing to achieve in so many ways nowadays. It is possible to hope, without knowing, that our greatest days may be before us. But first we must think things are bad enough to require major changes.
America must decide to survive. If it does so it must in some sense transform itself. What kind of transformation is that likely to be?
Identifying a crisis eventually becomes effortless if the crisis is severe enough. In terms of identifying the crisis the worthy trick is to identify it in time to take some kind of actions to avoid, mitigate or redeem its worst results and consequences. America is in a deep national and societal crisis. Not all of us are free to react in the same way to addressing this crisis. Suppose you or your friends believe that these Guilds and other institutions could make the way forward. One cannot start by applauding them because they do not exist. However, we can perhaps do what we can do. Suppose one is eager to do more than whatever one’s present actions are, what can be done?
To identify the real dimensions and parameters of our crisis goes beyond what can be achieved in a single note on this Model Constitution. I do a lot of listing in these and other kinds of blog and Facebook posts but there would be nothing but lists in these discussions if I even attempted to mention every major area of concern and cause for serious anxiety and action in our society. In the Model Constitution I have outlined through proposed Constitutional law where I think we need to really organize for a new start in very general terms. In this post I will try to outline what perhaps can be done prior to the revolutionary transformation taking hold in these United States of America. This is not inciting sedition but it is closer to it than I have come so far in this exercise.
First, if you follow my advice you will have to adopt a mental attitude quite distinct from the mental attitude on which most politics is presented, proclaimed and outlined these days. If one accepts the revolutionary changes outlined here as a goal and takes them seriously then one can still admit that it is unlikely that the goal will be achieved. Although it is not more likely in the distant future it is possible that it will happen but not occur until after a reasonable life expectancy has passed. So this means a distinct political approach recommends itself. Agitation and campaigning for candidates must both be relatively minor aspects of this effort to achieve political transformation.
One thing that can be done is to read this series of discussions on the Model Constitution and other related material
and then to discuss it with people selected as being the best people to help push these ideas and changes forward. Another thing that can help is to find ways to build value and grow one’s own dreams in such a way that they have value on their own but also can work to bring about a larger program and pattern of change. So let us talk about some principles of creating this movement if it is to become a movement.
First, after the reading described above try to set down a few notes and remarks somewhere to show you are committed to the project. Maybe take a friend out for coffee and explain that you are committing yourself to this project.
Second, do not diminish your participation in politics. Whether that means changing where and how you participate or merely finding ways to let those people know that you basically support there goals but have some more refinements and other profound changes that you would also like to see in our society. Be less pushy and assertive than those who can get more satisfaction out of quick short-term goals.
Third, work out the principle of autonomy linked to loyalty. That is trying to create your own resources that are really yours but which can also be restructured readily to support a movement for change and identify the causes discussed here particularly (along with country, family and religion) causes you would and are willing to support with resources that are wholly yours even if it costs you more than it is really worth to you personally.
Fourth, be invested in community and tie that to your social ideals. Don’t put the idea of revolutionary change above all the needs of your family, church congregation, soccer league, neighborhood watch and alumni association but try to tie all the commitments you make to these community-building things to a sense of the social transformation you would like to see.
Five, learn to supply critical support. Consider giving care boxes to local National Guard units and building a real relationship and still speak openly about changes you would like to see over time in the military culture of our country and society. Give money and write letters to candidates for office when you can and mention some of these ideals not as a condition to your modest donation but identifying where you would like to see things going over time.
Six, consider starting a discussion group. Consider getting together with some other people who are able to take small steps to help bring about these changes.
Seven, IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING LEFT CONTACT ME. You can contact me here whether on Facebook or my Word Press Blog or on media linked to my blog like Twitter. If you wish to support these ideals through me directly I am not incorporated but you could mail a check payable to Frank W. Summers III to:
Frank W. Summers III
PO Box 22
Perry, LA 70575
If you do that, write “Reconstitutionalize America” in the memo line. If you give me a return address I will try to let you know how I have spent it. This is not even really a recommendation but rather an option just in case it seems right for you. I make no representations in advance about how it will be used and it will not be tax-deductible. Now having gone through that exercise in the concept of self-directed action around a common constitutional goal, take a look at the proposed text below:
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Section Four: The Guilds, a Special Framework in the Direct Imperial Government and the Empire
Subsection One: The Nature and Function of the Guilds
Provision One: All the anti-trust laws and many other laws tantamount to anti-trust laws shall be repealed with this constitution being ratified. From now on no law may be made to prevent someone achieving an uncompetitive advantage in their business unless they are shown to have done one of the five following things:
1. To have committed mala in se crimes against Federal or Imperial laws in external or interjurisdictional commerce.
2. To have committed mala in se crimes against Jurisdictional laws in internal and localized commerce or in activities directly related to productive goals or tangible production.
3. To have targeted a particular competitor in a systematic way which distorts market values beyond the capacity of the transitional conflict period in a limited and public competition to amortize and when such activity functions in a way which is simultaneously tending to deprive the competitor completely of access to and drives them out of an identifiable industry or occupational field.
4. To have conspired to restrain trade in a manner which is substantially outside of the duly regulated and publicly recorded guild system of the Empire and Union.
5. To have been shown to have acted in a concerted and serious manner to block fair access to a particular competitor into the guild system or to a guild in which they have a demonstrable right.
Provision Two: The DIG will use Compact Zone lands to host some guilds but will also create small Districts by swapping out its Bureau of Land Management Lands with non state owners for one third of the area, incorporating private owners for one third of the areas and taking State owned lands for one third of the area. In some non State Jurisdictions and especially where they were not ever in a State this formula may be modified and the thirds are to be rough and not exact always. But these districts will hold Imperial House assets, parks, residences, agencies and most of all, in terms of location, they will house guildhalls. These guildhall hosting districts shall be spread widely across the Empire at the time of Founding and may add up to one percent of the Jurisdiction’s lands in which and from which they were located and taken.
Provision Three: Every Guild must have a guildhall on DIG lands and a seat in the DIG legislature’s lower chamber to be a recognized guild.
Provision Four: Guilds are located in the DIG Jurisdiction largely because they are broad engines of slow socio-cultural transformation. They invest in and shape the kind of society this will be. Jurisdictions may seek to modify and limit their influence but other than the DIG Jurisdiction they may not interfere with their operations in themselves. These internal operations include and are largely limited to the effecting of these activities:
1. Guilds would have an obligation to operate a work bank for family member of their own members as well as unemployed members. There would be a menu of things they would capitalize as their means increased.
2. The guilds must on reaching a capital floor offer Wedding and Funeral reception spaces contracting the actual services with existing businesses or allowing members to do the minimum on their own.
3. Health and dental clinics for members would be privileged assts in the Community Health Clinics and Imperial Wellness Agency.
4. Once they have the capital they must offer a well priced set of youth camps and vacation spots as well as college scholarships.
5. They shall have standing in law where there interest are represented by their members involvement in any legal matter and be provided Federal data for their substantial powers in collective bargaining and regulatory law representation.
6. Any time a member receives punitive, exemplary or other special damages from a court for guild related activity the guild will receive a tenth part of the award into its capital funds.
7. Guilds shall certify any trade or labor union in their field of operation whether or not the unions belong to other guilds. Unions could join guilds as they are created and remain on as certified Guild Council factions and guild agencies.
8. Each guild would have a charter spelling out familial rights and privileges and would be required to spend two percent of its budget each year on programs and projects geared to the benefit of the members’ family associations.
9. Each Guild would operate either an intern program or a day labor program depending on its class so that those wishing to get into the guild can be aware of how the guild works and how best to get into it. However, guilds will be entitled to exclude members for many reasons.
Subsection Two. Classes of Guilds
Provision One: First Class Guilds
1.First, the laws should be changed so that competition is structured and policed within a guild system. Every corporation and most capitalized unincorporated businesses over a certain size that is uniquely proposed as designated by the DIG Legislature and confirmed by the Congress of the United States would be penalized for failure to join at least one guild as required by new laws if it engages in meaningful and substantial inter-jurisdictional commerce. Each corporation operating in intrajurisdictional commerce or industrial action is required to transfer two percent of it s profits and one mil of its operating budget each year to be shared among the Guilds to which it belongs or with which it is covenanted . Guilds would be required to set aside a portion of their revenues for labor guilds that are associated with them dividing five percent of their own guild income directly with these guilds. These guilds would have a main guild hall and branches, would work to set and police standards of production, waste management, safety and other things.
2. These guilds would be such as Old Steel Mills Guild, Detroit Auto Guild or Texas-Oklahoma Cattle Guild. Each Guild would have a geographical limit in its charter which could be as large as the country but multi-state regions and state guilds would be easier to charter. There would be classes of Members. Top class Members of the guilds would have to live and work in the geographical area, own the principal means of production an employ people in making things or providing services certified by the guild. Second Class members would be fictional persons such as corporations and their majority shareholder officers who otherwise meet these standards. Then differing classes would follow.
3. All corporate members shall pay a fair rate as dictated in their rules and all individuals owning these corporations shall pay two percent or more of corporate profits to the Guild. All individual members shall pay two percent of their gross, gross income to the Guild.
Provision Two: Second Class Guilds
1. These guilds are made up of tradesmen and craftsmen, truckers and merchants who own their own principal tools and employ few people in producing their goods and services. These people shall receive half as much from the first class guilds with which they are associated as would the lower classes of guilds. These Guilds shall have more rights with regards to the government and legal collective bargaining than lower class Guilds.
2. All corporate members shall pay a fair rate as dictated in their rules and all individuals owning these corporations shall pay two percent or more of corporate profits to the Guild. All individual members shall pay two percent of their gross, gross income to the Guild.
Provision Three: Third Class Guilds
1.The third class guilds would have members who hold special licenses and own such tools as they can personally transport back and forth from their employer’s premises at the end of each shift or a week or so of shifts worked.
2.All corporate members shall pay a fair rate as dictated in their rules and all individuals owning these corporations shall pay two percent or more of corporate profits to the Guild. All individual members shall pay two percent of their gross, gross income to the Guild.
Provision Four: Fourth Class Guilds
1. These guilds would consist of laborers selling their more or less skilled work and using the capital of others. Each would be required to pay a patronage fee of one tenth its total income to at least one and no more than three Third Class Guilds which would help guide it and hire or promote some of its members.
2. All corporate members shall pay a fair rate as dictated in their rules and all individuals owning these corporations shall pay two percent or more of corporate profits to the Guild. All individual members shall pay one percent of their gross, gross income to the Guild.
Subsection Three: Special Privileges of the Guilds
Provision One: The federal government will distribute one percent of all revenue it collects among the capital trusts of the guilds each year. A third will be divided among the guilds according to a formula that does not take into account annual performance. E third will be divided by the fulfillment of the general standards for best guilds and each guild will receive a share according to a performance score. The last third will be in a relatively few awards presented at a banquet for winners of prizes based on great excellence.
Provision Two: No less than seventy percent of all Federal government vendors in each and every sense and category shall be Guild approved interests. The Federal Confreres along with others will also verify that at least a third of all DIG purchases each year or from within the Guild system.
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if you have the energy to discuss this with friends that would be great. But the basic point here in this Section Four ” The Guilds, a Special Framework in the Direct Imperial Government and the Empire” in Article Six “The Direct Imperial Government” is that for our system to work there must be broad relevance of the new royalist institutions and a connection among them all with an equal respect for a Direct Imperial Government which is necessary to that political life which we all share. The Direct Imperial Government is very complex and is not entirely subject to this Constitution this language tries to briefly mark out that connection in a complex way. This is more different from the current Second Union in a variety of the largest ways a constitutional scholar can conceive. But in the midst of such royalist and aristocratic changes one can still see our heritage of mixed government. Not all issues relate as directly to the departure from the recent obsession with the election of democratic representatives nor the long term commitment to republican style in our current union. The guilds are in some ways a system of broad democracy within a culture and political system which have really abandoned the tyranny of pure democratic thought. The Guild Charters are regulated by the DIG Code and have some Constitutional limits but not all Guild officers are elected in the same way and there is a complex variety of means for electing those who represent the large majority the special group of the Citizen-Subjects in Guild. The Guild has political rights and responsibilities but is not exactly a government entity. It is a regulated entity with political rights and privileges operating mostly in the interest of it’s members but with the ideals of the Imperial and Common Good as well. There will be some guilds where an aristocrat is likely to be very rare and where there tendencies toward a socialist view of life may be pronounced. There will be guilds that tend to libertarian ideas because of their constituency. There will also be guilds where it may be that almost all members either are or wish they were aristocratic or royal. This country is not now nor ever has been a democratic republic but rather is a mixed government Constitutional Union of mixed government republics. However, under this Model Constitution the society which has evolved into an Empire and Union uniting various functions to help achieve many goals already espoused by many elements of our society but facilitates these ideals more directly with the many new institutions under the Model Constitution, of which the Guild system is one of the most important. Others now attempt what the Guilds will do but the Guilds will act more fully than anyone who addresses these problems and goals under the Constitution currently in force. The Guild-related elements and functions of the Direct Imperial Government are delineated in such a way that one can see that although they are in subordination to the lead of a Monarchy and Aristocracy and balanced by the Democracy proper their functions are important and carefully preserved in a system which is broader than their limited but real importance in setting industry standards, replacing the antitrust system, organizing common interests, sharing resources and electing a significant number of votes for the production of legislation proper.
I have tagged a few FB friends and I will in some or all my notes. Any kind of political radicalism at any time is a risk for those associated with it and so I am keeping the tagging to a minimum and while a great deal of endorsement will be needed to effect these changes there is no indication that someone tagged in a note in this series is actually endorsing the note. As always I am willing to respond to posted comments, chat and private messages.
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