August 2011 - P2P-Foundation - lists.ourproject.org

Fwd: More on the Libyan Revolution: Lessons and False Lessons
by Michel Bauwens 31 Aug '11

31 Aug '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Tikkun/NSP (NETWORK OF SPIRITUAL PROGRESSIVES) < info(a)spiritualprogressives.org> Date: Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 7:49 AM Subject: More on the Libyan Revolution: Lessons and False Lessons To: Michelsub2004(a)gmail.com <http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=lOyhI8GGGItB46TpaCTj…> *Lessons and False Lessons From Libya* Tuesday 30 August 2011 by: Stephen Zunes, Truthout | News Analysis Rebels celebrate outside Col. Moammar Qaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli, Libya, August 29, 2011. Residents returning to their homes have found that many have been heavily damaged by gunfire after they were used as fighting positions during the rebellion. (Photo: Tyler Hicks/The New York Times) IF YOU PREFER TO READ THIS ON-LINE, please go to http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/stephen-zunes-on-lessons-from-the-libyan-revo…<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=ii8XMuoAPsLOvdzzSplL…> The downfall of Muammar Qaddafi's regime is very good news, particularly for the people of Libya. However, it is critically important that the world not learn the wrong lessons from the dictator's overthrow. It is certainly true that NATO played a critical role in disrupting the heavy weapons capability of the repressive Libyan regime and blocking its fuel and ammunition supplies through massive airstrikes and providing armaments and logistical support for the rebels. However, both the militaristic triumphalism of the pro-intervention hawks and the more cynical conspiracy mongering of some on the left ignore that this was indeed a popular revolution, which may have been able to succeed without NATO, particularly if the opposition had not focused primarily on the military strategy. Engaging in an armed struggle against the heavily armed despot essentially took on Qaddafi where he was strongest rather than taking greater advantage of where he was weakest - his lack of popular support. There has been little attention paid to the fact that the reason the anti-Qaddafi rebels were able to unexpectedly march into Tripoli last weekend with so little resistance appears to have been a result of a massive and largely unarmed, civil insurrection which had erupted in neighborhoods throughout the city. Indeed, much of the city had already been liberated by the time the rebel columns entered and began mopping up the remaining pockets of pro-regime forces. As Juan Cole noted in an August 22 interview on Democracy Now!, "the city had already overthrown the regime" by the time the rebels arrived. The University of Michigan professor observed how, "Beginning Saturday night, working-class districts rose up, in the hundreds of thousands and just threw off the regime." Similarly, Khaled Darwish's August 24 article in The New York Times describes how unarmed Tripolitanians rushed into the streets prior to the rebels entering the capital, blocked suspected snipers from apartment rooftops and sang and chanted over loudspeakers to mobilize the population against Qaddafi's regime Though NATO helped direct the final pincer movement of the rebels as they approached the Libyan capital and continued to bomb government targets, Qaddafi's final collapse appears to have more closely resembled that of Hosni Mubarak and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali than that of Saddam Hussein. It should also be noted that the initial uprising against Qaddafi in February was overwhelmingly nonviolent. In less than a week, this unarmed insurrection had resulted in pro-democracy forces taking over most of the cities in the eastern part of the country, a number of key cities in the west and even some neighborhoods in Tripoli. It was also during this period when most of the resignations of cabinet members and other important aides of Qaddafi, Libyan ambassadors in foreign capitals and top military officers took place. Thousands of soldiers defected or refused to fire on crowds, despite threats of execution. It was only when the rebellion took a more violent turn, however, that the revolution's progress was dramatically reversed and Qaddafi gave his infamous February 22 speech threatening massacres in rebel strongholds, which in turn, led to the United States and its NATO allies to enter the war. Indeed, it was only a week or so before Qaddafi's collapse that the armed rebels had succeeded in recapturing most of the territory that had originally been liberated by their unarmed counterparts six months earlier. It can certainly be argued that, once the revolutionaries shifted to armed struggle, NATO air support proved critical in severely weakening Qaddafi's ability to counterattack and that Western arms and advisers were important in enabling rebel forces to make crucial gains in the northwestern part of the country prior to the final assault on Tripoli. At the same time, there is little question that foreign intervention in a country with a history of brutal foreign conquest, domination and subversion was successfully manipulated by Qaddafi to rally far more support to his side in his final months than would have been the case had he been faced with a largely nonviolent indigenous, civil insurrection. It isn't certain that the destruction of his military capabilities by the NATO strikes was more significant than the ways in which such Western intervention in the civil war enabled the besieged dictator to shore up what had been rapidly deteriorating support in Tripoli and other areas under government control. I could achieve an outcome I desired in an interpersonal dispute by punching someone in the nose, but that doesn't mean that it, therefore, proved that my action was the only way to accomplish my goal. It's no secret that overbearing military force can eventually wear down an autocratic militarized regime, but - as the ouster of oppressive regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, the Philippines, Poland, Chile, Serbia, and scores of other countries through mass nonviolent action in recent years has indicated - there are ways of undermining a regime's pillars of support to the extent that it collapses under its own weight. Ultimately, a despot's power comes not from the armed forces under his command, but the willingness of a people to recognize his authority and obey his orders. This is not to say that the largely nonviolent struggle launched in February would have achieved a quick and easy victory had they not turned to armed struggle with foreign support. The weakness of Libyan civil society, combined with the movement's questionable tactical decision to engage primarily in demonstrations rather than diversifying their methods of civil resistance, made them particularly vulnerable to the brutality of Qaddafi's foreign mercenaries and other forces. In addition, unlike the well-coordinated nonviolent anti-Mubarak campaign in Egypt, the Libyan opposition's campaign was largely spontaneous. However, insisting that the Libyan opposition "tried nonviolence and it didn't work" because peaceful protesters were killed and it did not succeed in toppling the regime after a few days of public demonstrations makes little sense, particularly since the armed struggle took more than six months. And it does not mean there were no other alternatives but to launch a civil war. The estimated 13,000 additional deaths since the launching of the armed struggle and the widespread destruction of key segments of the country's infrastructure are not the only problems related to resorting to military means to oust Qaddafi. One problem with an armed overthrow of a dictator, as opposed to a largely nonviolent overthrow of a dictator, is that you have lots of armed individuals who are now convinced that power comes from guns. The martial values and the strict military hierarchy inherent in armed struggle can become accepted as the norm, particularly if the military leaders of the rebellion become the political leaders of the nation, as is usually the case. Indeed, history has shown that countries in which dictatorships are overthrown by force of arms are far more likely to suffer from instability and/or slide into another dictatorship. By contrast, dictatorships overthrown in largely nonviolent insurrections almost always evolve into democracies within a few years. Despite the large-scale NATO intervention in support of the anti-Qaddafi uprising, this has been a widely supported popular revolution from a broad cross section of society. Qaddafi's brutal and arbitrary 42-year rule had alienated the overwhelming majority of the Libyan people and his overthrow is understandably a cause of celebration throughout the country. Though the breadth of the opposition makes a democratic transition more likely than in some violent overthrows of other dictatorships, the risk that an undemocratic faction may force its way into power is still a real possibility. And given that the United States, France and Britain have proved themselves quite willing to continue supporting dictatorships elsewhere in the Arab world, there is no guarantee that the NATO powers would find such a scenario objectionable as long as a new dictatorship was seen as friendly to the West. Another problem with the way Qaddafi was overthrown is the way in which NATO so blatantly went beyond the mandate provided by the United Nations Security Council to simply protect the civilian population through the establishment of a no-fly zone. Instead, NATO became an active participant in a civil war, providing arms, intelligence, advisers and conducting over 7,500 air and missile strikes against military and government facilities. Such abuse of the UN system will create even more skepticism regarding the implementation of the responsibility to protect should there really be an incipient genocide somewhere where foreign intervention may indeed be the only realistic option. Furthermore, while it is certainly possible that Qaddafi would have continued to refuse to step down in any case, the NATO intervention emboldened the rebels to refuse offers by the regime for a provisional cease-fire and direct negotiations, thereby eliminating even the possibility of ending the bloodshed months earlier. Indeed, there is good reason to question whether NATO's role in Qaddafi's removal was motivated by humanitarian concerns in the first place. For example, NATO intervention was initiated during the height of the savage repression of the nonviolent pro-democracy struggle in the Western-backed kingdom of Bahrain, yet US and British support for that autocratic Arab monarchy has continued as the hope for bringing freedom to that island nation was brutally crushed. And given the overwhelming bipartisan support in the United States for Israeli military campaigns in 2006 and 2008-09 which, while only lasting a few weeks, succeeded in slaughtering more than 1,500 Lebanese and Palestinian civilians, Washington's humanitarian claims for the Libyan intervention ring particularly hollow. It's true that some of the leftist critiques of the NATO campaign were rather specious. For example, this was not simply a war for oil. Qaddafi had long ago opened his oil fields to the West, with Occidental, BP and ENI among the biggest beneficiaries. Relations between Big Oil and the Libyan regime were doing just fine and the NATO-backed war was highly disruptive to their interests. Similarly, Libya under Qaddafi was hardly a progressive alternative to the right-wing Arab rulers favored by the West. Despite some impressive socialist initiatives early in Qaddafi's reign, which led Libya to impressive gains in health care, education, housing, and other needs, the past two decades had witnessed increased corruption, regional and tribal favoritism, capricious investment policies, an increasingly predatory bureaucracy and a degree of poverty and inadequate infrastructure inexcusable for a country of such vast potential wealth. However, given the strong role of NATO in the uprising and the close ties developed with the military leaders of the revolution, it would be naïve to assume that the United States and other countries in the coalition won't try to assert their influence in the direction of post-Qaddafi Libya. One of the problems of armed revolutionary struggle compared to unarmed revolutionary struggle is the dependence upon foreign supporters, which can then be leveraged after victory. Given the debt and ongoing dependency some of the rebel leaders have developed with NATO countries in recent months, it would similarly be naïve to think that some of them wouldn't be willing to let this happen. In summary, while Qaddafi's ouster is cause for celebration, it is critical that it not be interpreted as a vindication of Western military interventionism. Not only will the military side of the victory likely leave a problematic legacy, we should not deny agency to the many thousands of Libyans across regions, tribes and ideologies, who ultimately made victory possible through their refusal to continue their cooperation with an oppressive and illegitimate regime. It is ultimately a victory of the Libyan people. And they alone should determine their country's future. Stephen Zunes is a contributing editor to Tikkun Magazine and professor of political science at University of San Francisco. ------------------------------ web: www.spiritualprogressives.org<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=KHWLOJqBqKBGdjeveGY5…> email: info(a)spiritualprogressives.org Click here to unsubscribe<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=9z6REwaAIASAZCbMhrjL…> ------------------------------ Copyright © 2010 Network of Spiritual Progressives®. 2342 Shattuck Avenue, #1200 Berkeley, CA 94704 510-644-1200 Fax 510-644-1255 [image: empowered by Salsa] <http://www.salsalabs.com/?email> ** -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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diy credentialling guide
by Michel Bauwens 31 Aug '11

31 Aug '11

Dear Franco, thanks for looking into this and presenting it to our blog audience! a wiki entry in [[Category:Education]] would also be very useful! Michel -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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new community infrastructure proposed at W3C
by Michel Bauwens 31 Aug '11

31 Aug '11

VIA Dante: From: elf Pavlik <perpetual-tripper(a)wwelves.org > To: discuss <discuss(a)lists.demonetize.it> Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2011 11:44:47 +0200 Subject: Re: [Demonetize] Next-generation sharing/distribution networks Hi David, Everyone, Just few days ago I've proposed a new Community Group on recently launched W3C platform. I called it 'Community I/O' and in short description I write: "Group focusing on applying current information technologies to create foundation of infrastructure for organizing flow of resources and support with services within human community. All peers (individuals or projects) can state their needs (input) and offers (output). Using Semantic Web, Federated Social Web and other related technologies people can develop various approaches of connecting those needs and offers. Including variants with and without use of currencies." You can find it here: http://www.w3.org/community/groups/proposed/ and still needs 3 more supporters to get created as group. I would like to use it as common ground for people working on various projects related to sharing to develop common standards and keep in mind interoperability. I also like distributed networking and would like to take advantage of Semantic Web and Federated Social Web technologies. I will send another invitation here once group gets created and I can put more information in it. If yo ucan think of projects interested in participating please add them for now to this etherpad: http://typewith.me/community-io-peers later I will move it to the wiki of this group! Thanks! =) ~ elf Pavlik ~ -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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reviving suburbia for sustainability
by Michel Bauwens 31 Aug '11

31 Aug '11

fyi, bk by david wann: http://www.amazon.com/Superbia-Ways-Create-Sustainable-Neighborhoods/dp/086… -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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social media undermines mobilization, study
by Michel Bauwens 31 Aug '11

31 Aug '11

Dear Tomas, could you introduce this issue / research to our readers?, see http://p2pfoundation.net/Media_Disruption_Exacerbates_Revolutionary_Unrest Nicolas, can you update our research directory ? Michel -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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the indian movement
by Michel Bauwens 31 Aug '11

31 Aug '11

Dear Gure, see https://www.facebook.com/notes/kamayani-bali-mahabal/a-great-opportunity-a-… I'm sending this to you as our roving expert in emerging social movements; the above analysis is right on and I'm hoping you can do something with it ... either republish it on our blog (or excerpt), or as part of a storify ... this is a bit more time-sensitive ... Michel -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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double book review on community garden movement in U.S. and UK
by Michel Bauwens 31 Aug '11

31 Aug '11

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revisiting Fukushima (tokyo 1,000 x chernobyl exposure)
by Michel Bauwens 31 Aug '11

31 Aug '11

http://blog.imva.info/medicine/officially-declared-nuclear-nightmare Dear Sepp, the above has a number of dramatic figures, for example Tokyo radiation levels reaching 1,000 times the Chernobyl exposure, I wonder if you do an update on the serious reporting you have found on this topic, and perhaps mention a few p2p projects such as citizen measurement and such, you'll find some in my own P2P-Japan tag in delicious, Thanks for looking into this, Michel -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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becoming a templar of the earth ...
by Michel Bauwens 31 Aug '11

31 Aug '11

Dear Vinay, I was a 'templar' once, in my youth as a searcher for esoteric truths ... so, I appreciate your proposal .. Chris, can you republish this in our blog? many thanks, see: http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/templars-of-earth-2831 -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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just transition as union-driven proposal
by Michel Bauwens 31 Aug '11

31 Aug '11

Dear Orsan, COuld you introduce the history of just transition proposals, documented here in this article, with references at the bottom of the article, Really need extra material in the short term, thanks for stepping in if you can. see http://www.unitedprofessionals.org/2008/07/12/universalizing-transition-rig… One sign that a universal income benefit is on the horizon is the recent call from United Professionals for “Transition Rights<http://www.unitedprofessionals.org/blog/tag/transition-rights/>” which parallels labor unions’ “Just Transition Fund” [1]. According to the UP article, Transition Rights are about “freedom to explore what [job] you want to do next, without financial devastation.” The principle of the “Just Transition Fund” is to ensure that workers who lose their jobs due to environmental policies are not forced to commit “economic suicide.” [2] A Guaranteed Livable Income would universalize ‘Transition Fund’ principles to extend them to all people–especially those excluded from formal work [3]. Hand wringing about where the money would come from for a guaranteed income (since money <http://www.livableincome.org/money.htm> is a human invention), or worrying “what if people won’t work,” are only worn-out excuses (going all the way back to Malthus <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthus>!) that allow billions of people to live with the lethal pendulum of income insecurity dangling daily over their heads – depleting their health and needlessly shortening their lives. [4] So … It should be simple and obvious for humanity to choose between the pathetic (because it is avoidable) nightmare of forcing everyone, including children, to compete for jobs and income, or the achievable goal of universal income security. [5] References: [1] Just Transition Fund UK Trades Union Congress sponsored document “Green and Fair Future” documents the history of Just Transition and calls for a JTF in order to make sure that “all the conditions exist for a genuinely just transition to a low carbon economy” http://www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-14922-f0.cfm Canadian Labour Congress 2008 convention: “In creating the legislative framework for investments and expenditures to deal with climate change, the Federal government should establish Just Transition Funds.” http://www.labourcouncil.ca/CLCgreen.pdf [2] Tony Mazzocchi: “Workers Must Be Compensated Fully If Jobs Are Lost for Environmental Reasons — We Call This ‘A Just Transition’”, 2000, http://www.kclabor.org/mazzgreen.htm Mazzocchi who coined the term “Just Transition” was called the “Rachel Carson of the American workplace” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Mazzocchi -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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