Scholars, doctors, business persons, activists, monks, scientists and professors traveled from across the continent to attend the Economic Democracy Conference hosted by Madison College’s downtown campus.

Madison College was one of three venues for the four-day conference. Forty organizers from around the country brought dozens of speakers and presenters to explore economic democracy. Speakers covered topics regarding the necessity of transforming food and energy systems, and the media’s involvement in the manipulation of human consciousness.

The Occupy movement inspired the idea for the conference. Spokesperson Beth Wortzel shared her hope that the conference will lead to “defining pragmatic strategies and actions to move us forward.” They hope to channel their energy into implementing local tools for people to take economic power over their daily lives.

WORT Radio Operations Coordinator Norman Stockwell, and associate editor of the Capital Times and contributor to The Nation and The Progressive, John Nichols, led a workshop on transforming democracy by reforming the media. They believe large corporate interests have usurped much of media’s true purpose.

Nichols, Friday’s keynote speaker, recounted how in the beginning of America’s democracy, only about four percent of the population was allowed to vote.

He described the journey of slowly breaking down barriers to allow African Americans, women, Native Americans, Hispanics and young people the right to vote. He believes doing so provoked the 1913 creation of the Federal Reserve. The conferences concept of economic democracy calls for citizens to cast their vote with their spending, and also with the jobs they hold.

Keynote speaker Ellen Hodgson-Brown brought her expertise as a monetary reformer to the conference. Brown is an attorney and author of the book “The Web of Debt.”

She is currently the chairperson and president of the Public Banking Institute. Hodgson-Brown sees a solution for America’s financial distress in a public banking system. She cited the Bank of North Dakota as an example. It is the only state-owned bank in the nation that is full service, has an intense commitment to its customers, and is successful.

Keynote speaker David Cobb of Move to Amend yelled, “You’re all freaks,” to the attendees because they were at an economic conference on a beautiful Friday night. Peering out at his fellow Americans filling the orange seats of Madison Museum of Contemporary Art he declared, “Freaks thought they could end slavery.”

Organizers from across the nation put their personal time and effort into constructing this four-day convention to address the most pressing issues of modern times. Stephanie Rearick, of Dane County TimeBank and Build for the World, insisted that many experiments need to be initiated on a community level. She stressed the need to collectively mobilize people and steer their intentions toward liberating Americans from corporations.

Anyone wishing to learn more about economic democracy can visit the website http://www.ied.info/about.