Steve Bailey gives us his rendition of “A Peaceful Solution” with some excellent added lyrics of his own. His mellow pacing well compliments his rich voice and guitar plus harmonica accompaniment.

Porch songs is the self-described genre Steve Bailey places his music in. He feels that his songs “fit pretty good on a porch, front porch or back porch doesn’t really matter” and I agree.

There is no better place to spread the message of peace than on porches; your porch, your neighbor’s porch or the porches that you are invited on during your travels. The peaceful revolution must start on the porches of the United States and not wait for an official announcement from the powers that be.

A good example of this is the World Social Forum‘s (WSF) annual meeting to offer an alternate vision concurrent with World Economic Forum (WEF). The WEF meets annually in Davos, Switzerland to bring together top business and political leaders as well as mostly neoliberal minded intellectuals, economists, journalists, and others.

WSF is “an opened space – plural, diverse, non-governmental and non-partisan – that stimulates decentralized debate, reflection, (and) proposals building. (It) experiences exchange and alliances among movements and organizations engaged in concrete actions towards….more solidarity, (and a) democratic and fair world.”

The WSF works to see its motto – “Another world is possible” – become manifest as an alternative to the predatory capitalism of the WEF on display at Davos, Switzerland.

Even with 100,000 attendees from 150 countries WSF’s Charter of Principles seems appropriate to any porch, “front porch or back porch doesn’t really matter.”

(1) WSF “is an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals,” free exchanges among participants, and formulations of collective action plans. Participants are civil society individuals, groups and organizations committed to a new society “directed towards fruitful relationships among Mankind and between it and the Earth.”

(2) WSF’s “Another World Is Possible” theme is a “permanent process of seeking and building alternatives.”

(3) WSF is “a world process.”

(4) WSF supports global justice, democracy, human rights, equality, the “sovereignty of peoples,” and opposes neoliberalism, predatory capitalism, complicit governments, and their destructive harm.

(5) WSF is a civil society meeting ground, not a body representing it.

(6) Forums are for participant exchanges, not to establish positions for WSF as a body or make it a “locus of power.”

(7) WSF facilitates and circulates ideas and decisions “without directing, hierarchizing, censuring or restricting them, but as deliberations” and decisions by Forum participants.

(8) WSF is decentralized, “plural, diversified, non-confessional, non-governmental and non-party” locally and internationally “to build another world.”

(9) WSF is committed to “pluralism (and) diversity.” Government officials who accept the Charter Principles are welcome to attend. More on that below.

(10) WSF opposes totalitarianism and reductionist economic views. It stands in solidarity with all humanity in peace and harmony for a better world.

(11) WSF is a Forum for debate, reflection and exchange of ideas on how to “resist and overcome” the domination of capital.

(12) WSF “encourages understanding and mutual recognition (among) participant organizations and movements, and places special value on (exchanges) among them.”

(13) WSF aims to “strengthen and create new national and international links (to) increase the capacity for non-violent social resistance (against) dehumani(zing) the world.”

(14) WSF aims to have a global agenda for “building a new world in solidarity.”

Steve Bailey and his porch songs seem perfectly in tune with the WSF Charter of Principles above. You can find more of his porch songs on YouTube, myspace and CDBABY.

* * * * Artist’s Statement * * * * *

I am just a simple song writer, I don’t know the solution to making this world a peaceful caring planet and I don’t have the answer to stopping the ridiculous damage to our environment, but, I do know we have to start sometime somewhere… one of the problems is that people don’t care—-

here is a true story, my wife and I are on our way to town and at the stop light at our corner we noticed this man throwing trash out while the light was red,  he was turning our way, so I stopped him and told him I noticed he had forgot something and that he should go back and pick it up since we already had his plate number, he gave me a nasty look and sped away.

well I thought this guy was surely smart enough to get this trash removed before we got back from town, nope still there, so we called the local cops and told the above story and gave the plate number, the cops gave us the third degree as if we were the ones breaking the law and after a long unpleasant experience on the phone I don’t believe anything was ever done….it was as if we were wasting there time and too much trouble——- so like I said people don’t care and even a small thing like actually arresting a litterbug would be a good place to start…..

thanks
Steve