Victory Over Want proposes a road map to a better world for everyone

The Italian government is contemplating a big public-investment infrastructure program. That is promising. The government of China is embarking on huge public programs of transport and infrastructure investment which should make their stability and growth less dependent on external trade, especially with the United States.

Those are encouraging developments but they are, alone, much too little and almost certainly much too late, to do the world economy or major national economies - except probably China - very much good.

On the academic side, William Greider has begun advocating public investment to rescue our economic fortunes; but he is still a lone voice in the wilderness.

A lone voice? Not entirely.

As early as the beginning of 2002 - 18 months ago - Victory Over Want was established to initiate a democratic process for international public investment to meet the short-term crisis of recession and the long-term crisis of chronic poverty.

If governments would not act - and they have since confirmed their incapacity to do anything useful - then action must be taken through the processes of direct democracy.

We, the people, must show governments the way.

The resources are there. The processes are there. All we need is the will to get together and work together on worldwide, Marshall Plan-like programs of carefully planned and implemented public investment and we can resolve the complex of crises confronting the world economy and the world society.

In this way, we will solve the economic crisis and, if we work together and build together, we can solve our political, strategic and, yes, our terrorist crises at the same time.

Multilateral public investment, managed well within a broad vision, is a practical and relatively simple way of working our way out of what is, at the moment, our near-despair. It will stimulate private investment. It will put the workless back into employment. It will revive the wholesale markets and the consumer markets. It will revive the stockmarkets too.

Everyone will benefit, the rich and poor alike. Every continent will benefit.

It will be globalisation of the best possible kind.