The Democracy Collaborative is a left-of-center organization that advocates for the transition of the United States economic system from a free-market economy to government-controlled socialism. It supports government ownership and control of industries like health care, utilities, and transportation, and the group proposes the creation of a “welfare state” that guarantees a minimum income level for all Americans. Democracy Collaborative is opposed to zero carbon nuclear energy. ^{1 2}

The Democracy Collaborative calls for a new system based upon sexual, gender, and racial justice and the elimination of “mass incarceration.” ³

Democracy Collaborative was credited with having worked with self-described socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) economic plan for his 2020 Presidential campaign. ⁴

Background

The Democracy Collaborative was founded in 2004 and advocates left-wing positions focusing on a dramatic expansion of government control of business and private life. These practices include the seizure of private business and formation of government-run institutions⁵ controlled and owned by a diverse demographic workforce. ⁶ One of its many goals is to “repurpose” the conventional energy, aerospace, and defense industries towards “alternative production” in line with left-wing social policy goals. ⁷ It further cites traditional economics as the cause of African Americans remaining poor and disconnected from success in recovering cities like Pittsburgh. ⁸

The Democracy Collaborative supports replacing private ownership of business with ostensibly “worker-owned” cooperatives that would allow employees or labor unions to control the company and to elect the members of the board. ⁹

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

In May of 2021, Democracy Collaborative was one of 715 groups and businesses listed as a co-signer on a letter to the leadership of the U.S. House and Senate that referred to nuclear energy as a “dirty” form of energy production and a “significant” source of pollution. The letter asked federal lawmakers to reduce carbon emissions by creating a “renewable electricity standard” that promoted production of weather dependent power sources such as wind turbines and solar panels, but did not promote low carbon natural gas and zero carbon nuclear energy. ¹⁰

Nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions, and as of 2021 accounted for 19 percent of American electricity production—the largest source of zero carbon electricity in the United States. ¹¹ An October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 percent of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy output. ¹²

Ted Howard

Ted Howard is a longtime socialist advocate who is the president and co-founder of Democracy Collaborative. ¹³

Socialist Views

Ted Howard is a left-leaning environmentalist and socialism proponent who has complained that people are more able to conceptualize the end of the world than the end of capitalism. ¹⁴ Howard has criticized progressive-liberal Democrats like President Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama as equally complicit with conservative Republicans President Ronald Reagan and President George W. Bush in supporting the capitalist system. He sees traditional progressive-liberal policies as failed and insufficient in achieving the necessary aims of redistribution of wealth and calls for “an all-out attack on racism, racist leadership, and the so-called alt-right,” which also include current Republican leadership. ¹⁵

Associations with Jeremy Rifkin

Ted Howard is connected in several ventures with Jeremy Rifkin. Howard and Rifkin co-founded the Foundation on Economic Trends which primarily focuses on combatting climate change and protecting the environment against modern technologies. ¹⁶ They also co-authored three books focusing on environmentalism concerns. ¹⁷

Rifkin is a highly influential economic advisor to global government leaders. Critics have labeled Rifkin an apocalypse abuser for his environmentalist doomsday claims. Rifkin authored a book called the New Green Deal calling for people to stop using fossil fuels in order to save the planet. ¹⁸ He has been described as a far-left environmental activist opposing capitalism and technology. ¹⁹

Other People

Gar Alperovitz is a co-founder of Democracy Collaborative. ²⁰ Alperovitz is an octogenarian that has sought socialist economic transformation for decades. ²¹ He authored the book America Beyond Capitalism and is a professor of political economy at the University of Maryland. ²²

John Duda is the director of communications and has written in favor of changing ownership of businesses from shareholders to employees. He espouses the idea that a tiny minority of rich people are the ones who benefit the most from the current capitalist system as they own stocks. Duda recommends a change where employees own the corporations. ²³

Peter Gowan is a fellow of Democracy Collaborative who advocates for the expansion of government by nationalizing a wide array of industries including rail transportation, utilities, health care, banking, child care, and education. Gowan claims that there should be a guaranteed minimum income that also provides for families, the elderly, and the disabled. ²⁴

Michael Hudson²⁵ is on the board for Democracy Collaborative and a professor of economics at the University of Missouri–Kansas City and at the School of Marxist Studies, Peking University. ²⁶

Hudson has proposed that the government create nationalized banks that would serve customers from post offices. He believes that the government should supplant large banks like Citibank and Chase for local banking needs. Hudson attests that costs for services like water, sewer, electricity, education and cable television should be eliminated from the marketplace and provided by the government. He has further argued for replacement of private property with government-provided housing. ²⁷

Affiliates

The Democracy Collaborative’s Healthcare Anchor Network affiliate seeks to reorient certain businesses spending towards the communities of which they reside. ²⁸ The Healthcare Anchor Network focuses on shifting the healthcare industry’s procurements of over $50 billion per year to local companies. It believes that a variety of services like laundry, catering, and construction can be purchased locally, which would foster community stability. Kaiser Permanente is a member of the Healthcare Anchor Network. ²⁹

Created to address what it describes as the current systemic challenges from the United States capitalist tradition, the Next System Project cites climate change, racial injustice, and economic inequalities as critical reasons to revamp the economic system for one in which a radically different govenrment-run solution will dominate. Leadership of the Next System Project includes socialists like Gar Alperovitz, John Duda and Michael Hudson. ³⁰

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2. Letter from Center for Biological Diversity et. al. to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Joe Manchin, and Rep. Frank Pallone. “RE: CONGRESS SHOULD ENACT A FEDERAL RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY STANDARD AND REJECT GAS AND FALSE SOLUTIONS.” May 12, 2021. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/energy-justice/pdfs/2021-5-12_600-Group-Letter-for-RES.pdf?_gl=1*1c9h3t8*_gcl_au*MTc3NjM3MTM1Mi4xNjg5OTU1MzAz
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