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

Re: [P2P-F] Paganism and p2p
by Michel Bauwens 29 Sep '11

29 Sep '11

thanks Mark, I will see if I can find anything on the connection of neopaganism with p2p dynamics, Michel On Fri, Sep 30, 2011 at 2:13 AM, Mark Petz <ravenwyn(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Moro Michel > > I put some links, but I am reluctant to write more at the moment as I think > others can add more and may want to. INstead I think it woudl be good to > encourage: > > http://whisperingwood.homestead.com/Listing.html > > AND > > http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=&c=twv&id=3019 > http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usfl&c=cases&id=2590 > http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usor&c=basics&id=10141 > > have a lot of wisdom in them that maybe appropriate. I think that if you > wrote to these authors or even the witch vox site they'd probably send a > fuller answer. In short I think that the peer 2 peer way of working is very > normal for sharing and transmitting knowledge in these belief systems. I do > think that one person you may have heard of is StarHawk and she would be a > good person to include in the p2p pages and possibly can write something > too: > > http://www.starhawk.org/ > > Anyway that is it from me for now. I may return at some time in the future > to add more - but really it should be a community effort and there is a big > group out there with the links I put here and on the page it shoudl be > possible to really explore this subject. > > Ciaokka > > markus > -- 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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Re: [P2P-F] Germany has Hidden Debt??
by ideasinc＠ee.net 29 Sep '11

29 Sep '11

Dante, the website you provided the link to seems to be signed onto the gold standard concept which makes it probably libertarian in nature. It also is conflating fiat currencies as all fiat currencies, and does not identify privately issued currency versus sovereignty based issuance of currency. The US currency system is currently privately controlled. In a floating value currency exchange process, yes, currencies will both gain and lose value. That was also the case under a gold standard due to the private speculation and hoarding of gold Given that the US Federal Reserve is essentially a trade association of private banking interests, it operates as a wealth extraction mechanism. If most of the wealth is extracted their owners will have most of the marbles and the game will be over. Goldman Sachs is the epitome of the process. The privatization of the currency and central banking system was supposed to provide greater stability. In fact much of the prior bank panics were caused by the Wall Street banks. Apparently it was the TARP program which sucked up the toxic assets. TALF looks instead to have been used as a sort of quantitative easing process. On the inflation of fiat currencies again having a low level of inflation built into the currency controls is also in their interests as a trade association, much like compound interest. William Black's articles and videos are particularly helpful in understanding what is going on behind the Oz curtain. He is exceptionally clear spoken, imo. On "collapse" looking at the effect of quantitative easing in Japan, it looks like our future, except that as a nation they have a much higher savings rate. Notably Japan and Germany have used used the devaluing of their currencies as a way to inflate asymmetric trade with the US. This usually expressed in terms a "weak" Yen and a "strong" dollar. China is using their foreign exchange reserve for different purposes, largely to buy up assets in the US and elsewhere as a way to pre-empt the collapse of the US and Euro economies. The situation with the "bad debt" in Germany is also a product of making commissions off of "ninja" loans, but at a country level. The EMU was for any real analysis designed to fail from the beginning because relative to moving toward fair and balanced trade it is not in the interests of short or long term gains by the major banks for that to happen on a short to medium range basis. Wray does a good job of explaining this in this recent article: http://www.economonitor.com/lrwray/2011/09/29/euro-toast-anyone-the-meltdow… Tadit On Thu, 29 Sep 2011 06:17:42 -0400, Dante-Gabryell Monson <dante.monson(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Thanks, in relation to TALF, > the Fed directly giving loans in exchange for co-lateral, > what happens if ( they manage to make ) the economy collapse ? > > All this co-lateral "owned" by the FED ? > > How big is TALF currently ? > > Fed already seems to take in 80 percent of Treasury securities... > > http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/ponzi-scheme-the-federal-reserv… > > Note : Geithner, before being at the Treasury, was at the central bank of > New York : > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Geithner > > On Thu, Sep 29, 2011 at 12:15 AM, <ideasinc(a)ee.net> wrote: > >> Dante, I believe that the TALF program is how the US Fed. Reserve >> "bought"/exchanged so called toxic assets from their private trade >> association members in exchange for digital money, also known as digital >> money issues and in another context as qual >> >> >> >> On Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:07:41 -0400, Dante-Gabryell Monson >> >> <dante.monson(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> >> Thanks Tadit ! >>> >>> On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 1:15 PM, <ideasinc(a)ee.net> wrote: >>> >>> Just one of the issues that has been averted discussion in the EMU >>>> meltdown >>>> is the patently bad debt being held by German and French banks was the >>>> result of the same dynamic as occurred fir the US. What Geithner is >>>> now >>>> advocating for the EMU is a bail-out of those banks, it is not about >>>> the >>>> resuscitation of the EMU economies. It has almost always been framed a >>>> problem created by the PIIIGS countries, though the whole concept of >>>> the >>>> EMU/EU as it was perpetrated was predicted by informed people to >>>> implode. >>>> This is what world government in service to the plutocrats looks like, >>>> think >>>> Bilderberg. Subverting the nominal socialist and pro-labor governments >>>> was >>>> part of the take down. "Quantitative easing" both in Japan and more >>>> recently >>>> elsewhere has never been about supporting the productive parts of >>>> those >>>> economies. This is how economic illiteracy is exploited. Tadit >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> On Wed, 28 Sep 2011 06:31:41 -0400, Dante-Gabryell Monson < >>>> dante.monson(a)gmail.com> wrote: >>>> >>>> Would be interesting to compare such figures with other aging >>>> "developed" >>>> >>>>> countries ? >>>>> Possibly similar kinds of figures can be found ? >>>>> >>>>> /// >>>>> >>>>> Perhaps a major question is "who owns the debt" ? >>>>> >>>>> /// >>>>> >>>>> In the case of Japan, debt is at 227 percent in 2010, but is almost >>>>> entirely >>>>> Japanese owned. >>>>> >>>>> /// >>>>> >>>>> As for External Debt , some countries like Germany or Japan have >>>>> export >>>>> surpluses to compensate it ? >>>>> >>>>> http://www.indexmundi.com/****germany/debt_external.html<http://www.indexmundi.com/**germany/debt_external.html> >>>>> <htt**p://www.indexmundi.com/**germany/debt_external.html<http://www.indexmundi.com/germany/debt_external.html> >>>>> > >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> /// >>>>> >>>>> What I am interested in, is Central Banks buying over debt, with >>>>> money >>>>> they >>>>> create out of thin air, increasing the monetary mass, but eventually >>>>> leading >>>>> to debasing the currency. >>>>> >>>>> When looking at who owns US debt, it is not as much the Chinese or >>>>> the >>>>> Japanese, as the Private Central Bank / "The Fed" ? >>>>> >>>>> ( I remember a chart, where one could see that one of the big US debt >>>>> buyers >>>>> is the federal reserve... - but I can not find that reference right >>>>> now >>>>> ) >>>>> >>>>> here is another link : >>>>> >>>>> http://**theeconomiccollapsebl**og.com/**archives/ponzi-**scheme-the-**<http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/**archives/ponzi-scheme-the-**> >>>>> federal-reserve-bought-****approximately-80-percent-of-u-**** >>>>> s-treasury-securities-issued-****in-2009<http://** >>>>> theeconomiccollapseblog.com/**archives/ponzi-scheme-the-** >>>>> federal-reserve-bought-**approximately-80-percent-of-u-** >>>>> s-treasury-securities-issued-**in-2009<http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/ponzi-scheme-the-federal-reserv…> >>>>> > >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> as for other US debt owners >>>>> >>>>> http://www.guardian.co.uk/****news/datablog/2011/jul/15/us-****<http://www.guardian.co.uk/**news/datablog/2011/jul/15/us-**> >>>>> debt-how-big-who-owns<http://**www.guardian.co.uk/news/** >>>>> datablog/2011/jul/15/us-debt-**how-big-who-owns<http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jul/15/us-debt-how-big-who-owns> >>>>> > >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> In the case of the US dollar, freeloading on the dollar being a world >>>>> reserve currency ? >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> /// >>>>> >>>>> http://www.2point6billion.com/****news/2010/03/04/china-debt-**96-**<http://www.2point6billion.com/**news/2010/03/04/china-debt-96-**> >>>>> percent-of-gdp-by-2011-4261.****html<http://www.** >>>>> 2point6billion.com/news/2010/**03/04/china-debt-96-percent-** >>>>> of-gdp-by-2011-4261.html<http://www.2point6billion.com/news/2010/03/04/china-debt-96-percent-of-gdp-…> >>>>> > >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> The United States’ debt to GDP ratio is 94 percent, the United >>>>> Kingdom >>>>> is >>>>> at 380 percent, Japan at 227 percent, Greece at 115 percent and >>>>> Spain at >>>>> 70 >>>>> percent. >>>>> >>>>> // >>>>> >>>>> http://www.**currentusanationa**ldebt.com/**National-Debt-of-** >>>>> Japan.html<http://currentusanationaldebt.com/**National-Debt-of-Japan.html> >>>>> <http://www.**currentusanationaldebt.com/**National-Debt-of-Japan.html<http://www.currentusanationaldebt.com/National-Debt-of-Japan.html> >>>>> > >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Japan carries a huge debt load, but it is different than what other >>>>> countries carry. The key issue is not the debt itself, but who owns >>>>> it. >>>>> In >>>>> this case, the Japanese debt is owned almost entirely by the citizens >>>>> and >>>>> companies of the country. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 11:18 AM, robert searle <dharao4(a)yahoo.co.uk> >>>>> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> I think the following maybe of interest. >>>>>> >>>>>> *Germany Has 5 Trillion Euros of Hidden Debt, Handelsblatt Says< >>>>>> http://www.bloomberg.com/****news/2011-09-23/germany-has-5-****<http://www.bloomberg.com/**news/2011-09-23/germany-has-5-**> >>>>>> trillion-euros-of-hidden-debt-****handelsblatt-says.html<http:** >>>>>> //www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-**09-23/germany-has-5-trillion-** >>>>>> euros-of-hidden-debt-**handelsblatt-says.html<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-23/germany-has-5-trillion-euros-of-hi…> >>>>>> > >>>>>> >>>>>> > >>>>>> >>>>>> * >>>>>> www.bloomberg.com >>>>>> Germany’s public debt is much higher than officially shown, >>>>>> Handelsblatt >>>>>> reported, citing calculations by Bernd Raffelhueschen, an economics >>>>>> professor at Freiburg University. >>>>>> >>>>>> ______________________________****_________________ >>>>>> P2P Foundation - Mailing list >>>>>> http://www.p2pfoundation.net >>>>>> https://lists.ourproject.org/****cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-** >>>>>> **foundation<https://lists.ourproject.org/**cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-**foundation> >>>>>> <https://lists.**ourproject.org/cgi-bin/**mailman/listinfo/p2p-** >>>>>> foundation<https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation> >>>>>> > >>>>>>

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diaspora share
by Michel Bauwens 29 Sep '11

29 Sep '11

http://groups.google.com/group/diaspora-dev/browse_thread/thread/cbc9497ac6… hi sepp, 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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Fwd: [open-government] World's First Rating of Right to Information
by Dante-Gabryell Monson 29 Sep '11

29 Sep '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Helen Darbishire <helen(a)access-info.org> Date: 2011/9/29 Subject: [open-government] World's First Rating of Right to Information To: euopendata(a)lists.okfn.org, open-government(a)lists.okfn.org **[image: access info logo]****[image: centrelawdemocracylogo]** **** **** **** **** * Press Release* For immediate release**** *World’s First Rating of Right to Information: 89 Countries Ranked*** *www.rti-rating.org***** *28 September 2011, Madrid/Halifax* - On International Right to Know Day, two leading human rights organisations, Access Info Europe (Spain) and the Centre for Law and Democracy (Canada), are launching the first detailed analysis of the legal framework for the right to information (RTI) in 89 countries around the world. The RTI Rating <http://www.rti-rating.org> is based on 61 Indicators drawn from a wide range of international standards on the right to information, feedback from an international Advisory Council of renowned experts on the right to information and comparative study of numerous right to information and related laws from around the world. The findings of the RTI Rating show that there is a significant variety in the quality of the legal framework, with scores out of a maximum possible 150 ranging from 37 (Germany) to 135 (Serbia). Some of the key results:**** » More recent laws protect the right to know more strongly; of the 20 countries with scores above 100, 11 adopted their RTI laws since 2005, and 7 since 2000 – these laws tend to have much stronger oversight, enforcement and promotion.**** » Of the 20 countries with scores above 100, 7 are in East and Central Europe, 5 in Asia, 4 in the Americas, 3 in Africa and only one is in Western Europe; **** » Europe overall accounts for 15 of the bottom 20, primarily the older European laws which are more limited in scope and have weaker appeals mechanisms; **** *“Effective protection of human rights like the right to information requires a sound legal basis,” *said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of the Centre for Law and Democracy.* “This rating tool enables us to pinpoint areas of weakness in the legal framework for RTI, and to direct future advocacy at resolving these.” * The RTI Rating shows not only a country’s overall score, but also but also its strengths and weaknesses in relation to seven main categories: Right of Access, Scope; Requesting Procedures; Exceptions and Refusals; Appeals; Sanctions and Protections; and Promotional Measures. The score for the legal framework did not always accord with overall levels of transparency in a country in practice. Some national experts who reviewed the AIE and CLD country assessments noted that is sometimes a gap between the quality of the law and the practice. In some northern European countries, the older legal frameworks do not fully reflect the culture of transparency in practice, whereas in countries like Azerbaijan, Nepal and Ethiopia, strong laws on paper do not necessarily reflect a fully open society; the strong laws in El Salvador and Liberia were adopted too recently to assess the practice. *“Testing of levels of transparency in practice is essential to have a full picture,”* commented Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access Info Europe. *“Adopting a law is only a first step to transparency; without accurate measures of access to information in practice, governments can participate in ‘transparency washing’ and claim greater respect for this fundamental human right than is in fact the case.”***** *Note for editors***** **· **More information about the tools used in preparing the RTI Rating, the Advisory Committee and the detailed ratings for each country can be found at: www.rti-rating.org.**** **· **Access Info Europe and the Centre for Law and Democracy remain open to comments and corrections to the RTI Rating. We know that only through expert feedback will we perfect this analysis. The following countries have not yet had national reviewers and comments from experts knowing about those countries would be particularly welcome: Antigua and Barbuda, Austria, Bangladesh, Cook Islands, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea-Conakry, Iceland, Korea (South), Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and Turkey.**** *For further information please contact:*** *Helen Darbishire*, Access Info Europe www.access-info.org Email: helen(a)access-info.org | +34 667 685 319**** *Michael Karanicolas*, Centre for Law and Democracy www.law-democracy.org Email: michael(a)law-democracy.org | +1 902 448 5290**** _______________________________________________ open-government mailing list open-government(a)lists.okfn.org http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-government

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Calculating the real value to society of different professions
by Dante-Gabryell Monson 29 Sep '11

29 Sep '11

*http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/bit-rich* ( Free download<http://www.neweconomics.org/sites/neweconomics.org/files/A_Bit_Rich.pdf> ) *Excerpts of introduction :* * * *Why a minimum wage is not enough…* *…and why an upper limit is required* * * *From surplus value to social value :* *- City bankers destroy £ 7 of social value for every pound they generate.* * * *- Top advertising executives destroy £11 of value for every pound they generate.* * * *- T**ax accountants destroy £47 of value for every pound they generate* * * *- For every £1 they are paid, childcare workers generate between £7 and £9.50 worth of benefits to society* * * *//* * * The myths of pay and value : *Myth 10: Pay always rewards underlying profitability* Empirical studies have demonstrated that *pay arrangements are geared towards serving the financial interests of managers, not shareholders.* * * *Myth 7: If we tax the rich, they will take their money and run* They depend on a multitude of factors – cultural familiarity, environment, proximity to friends and family, and quality of public services. *Myth 3: Pay differentials don’t matter, so long as we eradicate poverty* Of course poverty matters. But increasingly it is not absolute levels of poverty alone but the differences between people that contribute to social problems * * *Myth 4: We need to pay high salaries to attract and retain talent in the UK * Our case studies show that high salaries don’t necessarily reflect talent. *Myth 8: The rich contribute more to society* The rich pay proportionately less tax than the poor, and many of our tax streams such as council tax and VAT are highly regressive. The rich even give less in relative terms to charity than the poor. *Myth 9: Some jobs are more satisfying, so they require less pay* Fishing is the most dangerous job in Britain, with roofers and scaffolders also high up on the danger list, and waste recycling collectors are at number 18. Yet in none of these industries are rank-and-file workers highly paid. *//* *Conclusions* This report is not about targeting any individuals in the highly paid jobs it scrutinises. Neither is it simply suggesting that people in low paid jobs should be paid more. The point we are making is a more complex one – that there should be a relationship between what we are paid and the value our work generates for society. We need to overcome deep structural issues to act on the implications of this report. // Get the publication [image: A Bit Rich] Free download<http://www.neweconomics.org/sites/neweconomics.org/files/A_Bit_Rich.pdf> ( 922KB ) £5 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *//* * * Note: thanks to Erminio for the link * *

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the "Cliff Notes" version MMT
by ideasinc＠ee.net 29 Sep '11

29 Sep '11

Michel, this a very good condensed presentation of MMT and essentially makes my covering the same ground redundant. I could expand on various sub-topics or respond to FAQs however. There seen to be certain small errors, such in practice typically taxes are used as the basis of the extinguishing of public debts. Such debt can also be converted into reserve bonds. It would probably be useful to define "financial hardship for the private sector" for instance. The text might be broken into smaller chunks, and it is in a pdf format. I could perhaps ask someone at UMKC to review the sections and allow me to edit the whole body of practice into "chewable" sections. Tadit http://pragcap.com/resources/understanding-modern-monetary-system

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Fw: VIDEO: Moving together.
by robert searle 29 Sep '11

29 Sep '11

----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Bill McKibben - 350.org <organizers(a)350.org> To: robert searle <dharao4(a)yahoo.co.uk> Sent: Wednesday, 28 September 2011, 23:39 Subject: VIDEO: Moving together. Hey friends -- We’re still exhilarated from the past weekend of Moving Planet events -- a truly amazing show of global solidarity, committment, and creativity. We wanted you to have the first glimpse of the video showing what it all looked like: Watch the Moving Planet Video: www.350.org/moving-together People sent in thousands of photos and hundreds of videos from around the world -- and we wish we could have used them all in the video. Images are how we turn local action into global inspiration -- inspiration that can help the whole world move together. Your pictures are also a crucial way to bring the pressure of this movement to bear on the political process. Next week, members of the 350 team will be in Panama using Moving Planet photos at global climate negotations. Our 350 crew will be delivering photo packets to delegates from around the world, and setting up massive photo displays to help breathe new life and determination into a forum that desperately needs it. So if you haven't yet, click here to share your photos, and click here to share your videos -- and we’ll put them to work. We’ll be in touch, of course, about what happens next -- movements need to keep moving, and now that we’ve got the earth in motion we can’t let it slow down. We've got big plans in the works: in the USA, we'll be ramping up the pressure to stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. On the global level, we'll be shining a spotlight on Africa in the lead up to the UN climate meeting in Durban coming up this November. And in communities around the world, we'll be rolling out powerful climate leadership workshops, grassroots education programs, and hard-hitting local campaigns that will help us build local power from the bottom up. But this week is a time simply to appreciate what’s been accomplished, and we hope this video does the trick. We want to say thank you one more time. Watching it all unfold, we felt like the world was truly coming together. We couldn’t be more grateful to be building this movement with all of you. Onwards, Bill McKibben for the whole 350.org team P.S. This video deserves to be spread far and wide -- take a minute to spread it on Facebook and Twitter with just a couple of clicks. ________________________________ 350.org is building a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis. Our online campaigns, grassroots organizing, and mass public actions are led from the bottom up by thousands of volunteer organizers in over 188 countries. You can join 350.org on Facebook by becoming a fan of our page at facebook.com/350org and follow us on twitter by visiting twitter.com/350. To join our list (maybe a friend forwarded you this e-mail) visit www.350.org/signup. To support our work, donate securely online at 350.org/donate. What is 350? 350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Scientists measure carbon dioxide in "parts per million" (ppm), so 350ppm is the number humanity needs to get below as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change. To get there, we need a different kind of PPM–a "people powered movement" that is made of people like you in every corner of the planet. -- You can unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time.

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Grammeen America!
by robert searle 29 Sep '11

29 Sep '11

The following link maybe of interest. http://www.economist.com/node/21530164

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Fwd: come and make MAKERPLATZ 30.09. & 01.10.
by Michel Bauwens 28 Sep '11

28 Sep '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jay Cousins <thatcousinsboy(a)gmail.com> Date: Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 7:59 PM Subject: Fwd: come and make MAKERPLATZ 30.09. & 01.10. To: Jay Cousins <thatcousinsboy(a)googlemail.com> Hi, please find details of our action this weekend. It is a crowd created event. Facilitated rather than managed in one month. Please share with your networks, and if you're in Berlin come along. All the best J ############################################################# Makerplatz is a hub of Making, Doing and Action. It is a place where you can come and learn how to make things, events, a good stuff happen. Where ideas, knowledge, skills in form of workshops, discussions and performances around making, crafting, gardening, street art, sewing, hacking are shared. You can participate in the activities of others, or create your own. Makerplatz is the communication and celebration of of Making, Collaboration and Co-Production to unite, highlight, and catalyze Berlin's Maker Community. We do this by identifying opportunities and sharing them, looking at each others objectives and how we can help one another. Makerplatz is where Moritzplatz was, on the 30th September and 1st October you can meet with it’s citizens and join them. www.makerplatz.net > MAKERPLATZ IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT Makerplatz ist der Ort, an dem du deine eigenen Talente und Fähigkeiten mit anderen teilen, ausbauen und gemeinsam weiterentwickeln kannst. Hier werden Ideen geboren, Bestehendes modifiziert, neue Denkansätze ausprobiert und nach Möglichkeit auch gleich zu tragfähigen Konzepten, Experimenten, Modellen, Prototypen oder Geschäftsplänen entwickelt - und zwar ganz unabhängig davon, wie abwegig sie zunächst erscheinen mögen. MakerPlatz entwickelt sich zum freien Raum für die Berliner Macher-Community aus Gestaltern, Designern, engagierten Gärtnern, Textilkünstlern, Street Artists, Darstellern aller Genres, experimentellen Handwerkern und Elektronikexperten und ist immer offen für Vielfältiges und Neues. Fachübergreifend, neugierig, ergebnisoffen, leidenschaftlich schaffen wir als unabhängige Denker, Macher und Visionäre im gegenseitigen Austausch neue Lebens- und Arbeitsperspektiven. Den Makerplatz findest du dort wo einst der Moritzplatz war, am 30. September und 1. Oktober wollen wir das mit dir zusammen feiern. www.makerplatz.net ############################################################## [image: makerplatz_mail.jpg] > -- 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 Revolution Begins at Home (Arun Gupta)
by ideasinc＠ee.net 28 Sep '11

28 Sep '11

I've been going down to the Wall Street protest nearly every day.Not only is it growing, it is amazing to see how the protesters have managed to create a non-commodified radical democratic space in the heart of global capital. There is genuine potential in this occupation for revitalizing radical left movements and perhaps even achieving a historical victory. But it will take a concerted effort from every single one of us. Please take a few minutes to read this -- it's short! More important, please forward this to all your contacts asking them to join in and likewise pass along the call. Best, Arun The Revolution Begins at Home By Arun Gupta What is occurring on Wall Street right now is truly remarkable. For over 10 days, in the sanctum of the great cathedral of global capitalism, the dispossessed have liberated territory from the financial overlords and their police army. They have created a unique opportunity to shift the tides of history in the tradition of other great peaceful occupations from the sit-down strikes of the 1930s to the lunch-counter sit-ins of the 1960s to the democratic uprisings across the Arab world and Europe today. While the Wall Street occupation is growing, it needs an all-out commitment from everyone who cheered the Egyptians in Tahrir Square, said "We are all Wisconsin," and stood in solidarity with the Greeks and Spaniards. This is a movement for anyone who lacks a job, housing or healthcare, or thinks they have no future. Our system is broken at every level. More than 25 million Americans are unemployed. More than 50 million live without health insurance. And perhaps 100 million Americans are mired in poverty, using realistic measures. Yet the fat cats continue to get tax breaks and reap billions while politicians compete to turn the austerity screws on all of us. At some point the number of people occupying Wall Street -- whether that's five thousand, ten thousand or fifty thousand -- will force the powers that be to offer concessions. No one can say how many people it will take or even how things will change exactly, but there is a real potential for bypassing a corrupt political process and to begin realizing a society based on human needs not hedge fund profits. After all, who would have imagined a year ago that Tunisians and Egyptians would oust their dictators? At Liberty Park, the nerve center of the occupation, more than a thousand people gather every day to debate, discuss and organize what to do about our failed system that has allowed the 400 richest Americans at the top to amass more wealth than the 180 million Americans at the bottom. It's astonishing that this self-organized festival of democracy has sprouted on the turf of the masters of the universe, the men who play the tune that both political parties and the media dance to. The New York Police Department, which has deployed hundreds of officers at a time to surround and intimidate protesters, is capable of arresting everyone and clearing Liberty Plaza in minutes. But they haven't, which is also astonishing. That's because assaulting peaceful crowds in a public square demanding real democracy -- economic and not just political -- would remind the world of the brittle autocrats who brutalized their people demanding justice before they were swept away by the Arab Spring. And the state violence has already backfired. After police attacked a Saturday afternoon march that started from Liberty Plaza the crowds only got bigger and media interest grew. The Wall Street occupation has already succeeded in revealing the bankruptcy of the dominant powers -- the economic, the political, media and security forces. They have nothing positive to offer humanity, not that they ever did for the Global South, but now their quest for endless profits means deepening the misery with a thousand austerity cuts. Even their solutions are cruel jokes. They tell us that the "Buffett Rule" would spread the pain by asking the penthouse set to sacrifice a tin of caviar, which is what the proposed tax increase would amount to. Meanwhile, the rest of us will have to sacrifice healthcare, food, education, housing, jobs and perhaps our lives to sate the ferocious appetite of capital. That's why more and more people are joining the Wall Street occupation. They can tell you about their homes being foreclosed upon, months of grinding unemployment or minimum-wage dead-end jobs, staggering student debt loads, or trying to live without decent healthcare. It's a whole generation of Americans with no prospects, but who are told to believe in a system that can only offer them Dancing With The Stars and pepper spray to the face. Yet against every description of a generation derided as narcissistic, apathetic and hopeless they are staking a claim to a better future for all of us. That's why we all need to join in. Not just by liking it on Facebook, signing a petition at change.org or retweeting protest photos, but by going down to the occupation itself. There is great potential here. Sure, it's a far cry from Tahrir Square or even Wisconsin. But there is the nucleus of a revolt that could shake America's power structure as much as the Arab world has been upended. Instead of one to two thousand people a day joining in the occupation there needs to be tens of thousands of people protesting the fat cats driving Bentleys and drinking thousand-dollar bottles of champagne with money they looted from the financial crisis and then from the bailouts while Americans literally die on the streets. To be fair, the scene in Liberty Plaza seems messy and chaotic. But it's also a laboratory of possibility, and that's the beauty of democracy. As opposed to our monoculture world, where political life is flipping a lever every four years, social life is being a consumer and economic life is being a timid cog, the Wall Street occupation is creating a polyculture of ideas, expression and art. Yet while many people support the occupation, they hesitate to fully join in and are quick to offer criticism. It's clear that the biggest obstacles to building a powerful movement are not the police or capital -- it's our own cynicism and despair. Perhaps their views were colored by the New York Times article deriding protesters for wishing to "pantomime progressivism" and "Gunning for Wall Street with faulty aim." Many of the criticisms boil down to "a lack of clear messaging." But what's wrong with that? A fully formed movement is not going to spring from the ground. It has to be created. And who can say what exactly needs to be done? We are not talking about ousting a dictator; though some say we want to oust the dictatorship of capital. There are plenty of sophisticated ideas out there: end corporate personhood; institute a "Tobin Tax" on stock purchases and currency trading; nationalize banks; socialize medicine; fully fund government jobs and genuine Keynesian stimulus; lift restrictions on labor organizing; allow cities to turn foreclosed homes into public housing; build a green energy infrastructure. But how can we get broad agreement on any of these? If the protesters came into the square with a pre-determined set of demands it would have only limited their potential. They would have either been dismissed as pie in the sky -- such as socialized medicine or nationalize banks -- or if they went for weak demands such as the Buffett Rule their efforts would immediately be absorbed by a failed political system, thus undermining the movement. That's why the building of the movement has to go hand in hand with common struggle, debate and radical democracy. It's how we will create genuine solutions that have legitimacy. And that is what is occurring down at Wall Street. Now, there are endless objections one can make. But if we focus on the possibilities, and shed our despair, our hesitancy and our cynicism, and collectively come to Wall Street with critical thinking, ideas and solidarity we can change the world. How many times in your life do you get a chance to watch history unfold, to actively participate in building a better society, to come together with thousands of people where genuine democracy is the reality and not a fantasy? For too long our minds have been chained by fear, by division, by impotence. The one thing the elite fear most is a great awakening. That day is here. Together we can seize it. -------------------------------------------- Arun Gupta is the editor of The Indypendent.

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