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The Values of Freedom to Care

Using the Charter of Public Accountability

If you accept the Charter of Public Accountability then you should use every opportunity to promote it and use it whenever those in authority are falling short in their public accountability.

However, the Charter should be used on precisely the same foundations that it itself creates.

It should not be used as an instrument of anger, blame, division, ideology, force, spite, or to gain anything other than improved human understanding and human solidarity.

When an authority falls short one should take the following steps:

• Get the facts right
• Where appropriate, ask the authority for an explanation and justification
• Consider the explanation, if it is provided
• Evaluate the explanation fairly and send your evaluation together with this Charter to that authority
• Inform the authority if and why you do not accept the explanation, or parts of it, and that you intend to engage in passive resistance to draw public attention to their lack of accountability
• Provide constructive ideas, information and alternatives.

Endeavour to keep a sense of balance and proportion by:

• Not acting out the victim and/or playing the 'blame game'
• Not applying standards to others that you are not prepared to apply to yourself
• Not indulging in them/us  victory/defeat attitudes
• Not making unncessary demands and harbouring unreasonable expectations
• Understanding that there is no human progress in indulging in behaviour that is essentially no different from that which one is complaining about e.g. trying to bully the bully.

Consider the appropriateness and consequences of taking any other steps of passive and non-violent resistance such as:

• Creating alternatives
• Showing the way by modest example
• Withdrawal of labour
• Withholding of support
• Peaceful blockades
• Peaceful boycotts
• Non-compliance with selected rules, instructions etc.
• Disseminating clear and truthful information as far and wide as possible about the failure of accountability. This will include any explanations provide by the organisation, your reasoned evaluation of that explanation, as well as what alternative behaviour looks like.

We should always be mindful of our own behaviour.

Aggression, division, hatred, pride, dogmatism of any kind - verbal, emotional, physical - are counter-productive and not fruitful responses to organisational aggression, division, hatred and pride.

Our human weaknesses can only be addressed by patiently giving our moral strengths a chance.

Freedom to Care's values have a lot more to do with letting go of our own unhelpful attitudes, prejudices, divisions and assumptions than it does about imposing some idea of right and wrong on others.

If you do not agree with FtC's values, do not understand them, or cannot see how one can or should put them into practice, then please contact us freedomtocare@aol.com, and perhaps we can learn from each other.

GH 2000, updated 2004