So long as the leading holders of economic power believe that there is no satisfactory alternative to the present destructive roller-coaster of cut-throat competition they will continue to seek new money to keep themselves among the front runners in the economic power game. Their control of the media will make them formidable opponents of any Green Party policy to restrict money creation. Those desiring new money might be able to look outside the United Kingdom if what they need is not available here. If necessary they could move their investments to where they have freedom of action. The NEED for new money must be curtailed and more co-operative trade patterns would seem to be indicated to achieve this end. Restrictions on money creation by the banks could quite possibly be one way to achieve this end..

This means that our aim of restricting monetary growth must be accompanied by some or all of the following measures:

1. Campaign for a self-limiting GLOBAL currency. One promising idea is Bernard Lietaer's proposal for the Terra, - a monetary unit based on a basket of commodities, (but I would suggest changing the name. A friend who had not seen the word written heard �terra� as a different word with a very unpleasant meaning). Pricing the products in the basket could be a problem but if prices were linked to production time this would give us a time-based currency and as time is a non-expanding phenomenon this would set us on the right lines.

2. If money supply can be linked to local needs this will help to avoid the problems of insensitive centralised bureaucratic control so we can expect the promotion of local currencies and links between them to be an integral part of Green Party monetary policy.Local currencies generally have hours in one form or another as their basic unit and this again prevents them from expanding uncontrollably. I read in Positive News (Autumn 2001) that Common Exchanges between local currencies are now being set up. Contacts: Peter van Morsel, tel. 01647 221670, e-mail [email protected] and Mike Atkinson, Somerset County Council, tel. 01823 355455).

At the moment local schemes are limited by their dependence on mutual trust within small groups and by the fact that large producers and distributors are not normally involved. If more people saw the value of involvement this could change but significant growth would depend on bringing in banking skills to deal with the sort of problems that can arise when mutual trust breaks down. Locally controlled banks would seem to be indicated here.

3. This brings me to what should perhaps be the most important plank of Green Party monetary policy, and that is to persuade the world that there IS an alternative which is far more attractive than the present roller-coaster of unlimited, increasingly destructive competition. Now that there are no longer new markets to develop, now that conservation of resources is becoming increasingly urgent, co-operative patterns of trade are the only sensible way forward and could lead to more desirable patterns of life-styles with less stress and less individual effort.

We know that more and more �successful� people now suffer from stress while the levels of debt piling up in all levels of society are becoming unmanageable. The policies of large organisations assume the inevitability of competition but most individuals within those organisations, suffering from long hours, job insecurity, accumulating debts and general stress, would probably welcome a saner alternative with open arms if only they thought it would work.

Uncontrolled competition is a win-lose game, each player trying to get as much as possible from the others while giving as little as possible in return. I suspect that human nature requires the retention of a certain amount of competition to encourage everyone to give of their best but in our main economic relationships there is now an urgent need to substitute a win-win game in the form of CO-OPERATIVE ECONOMIC STRUCTURES, so the Green Party aim should be to investigate existing co-operatives, discover any limitations which prevent their more rapid growth and how these can be overcome, and then start a massive publicity campaign aimed at getting everyone on the co-operative bandwagon.

The Mondragon co-operatives in Spain seemed to have worked out a very satisfactory system complete with their own banks so I was puzzled to learn that members found their shares in the enterprises were losing value over time. (Has this promising scheme now been abandoned? Has anyone up-to-date information?)