The Promise in Work and Community
Principles guide our daily choices in the workplace and in the community. As progressives, we can make choices that reflect our progressive beliefs: developing our potential, standing up for democracy, and respecting everyone's value.
Develop your Potential
Make the most of all your skills and abilities. Even when it seems the company expects nothing but robotic service, work hard to make the work itself interesting and rewarding. Develop your technique, find ways to do the job better, share your ideas with co-workers and supervisors. Nobody listens? Don't let it stop you. All persons have a right to the freedom and opportunity to fulfill their human potential. If you do it long enough, then despite all the hassles and indignities of the workplace, you'll feel good about the work you do. And you'll start to notice the moments when co-workers and even supervisors do listen.
Stand Up for Co-Workers, For Yourself, For Democracy
Most workplaces in America are not democracies. Personnel at almost all levels—managers, professionals, support staff, white-collar and blue-collar—can be subjected, by those they report to, to restriction of free speech, invasion of privacy, straitjacketing of individual initiative, and other abuses of power. Don't let it happen in silence. And don't join in! Stand up for your co-workers and yourself by asking questions, offering ideas, and insisting on open channels of communication. Be smart and politic about doing it, but do it. Freedom and opportunity can be fulfilled only in organizations where there is a true democracy of shared authority, mutual accountability, and respect for individual initiative among all members.
Talk with Everyone, Respect Everyone
We talk with everyone and respect everyone, because we believe that all persons are created equal and are endowed with an enduring, equal inherent worth, independent of the variations of given potential and acquired skills. And we recognize that a free exchange of information and ideas is necessary to promote fulfillment of our human potential. Free exchange of information and ideas also is necessary for the vitality of the community itself.
Find out how you can make a difference in governing.