July 2017 - P2P-Foundation - lists.ourproject.org

Fwd: Pew Research survey on the future of trustworthy information online
by Michel Bauwens 04 Jul '17

04 Jul '17

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: lrainie(a)pewinternet.org via surveymonkey.com < member(a)surveymonkeyuser.com> Date: Tue, Jul 4, 2017 at 12:11 AM Subject: Pew Research survey on the future of trustworthy information online To: michelsub2004(a)gmail.com The future of information ecosystems and reliable facts The Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center conduct surveys of important stakeholders like you to assess the likely future impacts of the Internet. We hope you'll take 10 minutes to share your thoughts in this new canvassing of experts about technology’s trajectory in the coming decade. Our overarching question asks you to weigh in on the likely future of information and misinformation online in the coming decade. * You will find a link to the survey in the blue box at the bottom of this email.* Each elaboration you provide will remain anonymous unless you put your name and professional identity at the start of it. This is a confidential survey, however we encourage you to take credit for your remarks as this lends credibility to the results and contributes to a more vibrant conversation. Please do not share this information widely, but if you know thought leaders who would contribute meaningful insights on these questions, please feel free to send them this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7QZ2YPT While we strongly suggest you answer the survey as soon as you receive this invitation, it will be open through this month. The Pew Research Center and Elon University will issue a report later in 2017. In addition, your answers, attributed or anonymous, will also be added to Imagining the Internet research site. If you have any questions, please contact one of us. Thank you! Lee Rainie, lrainie(a)pewInternet.org Director, Internet, Science and Technology Research Pew Research Center Janna Anderson, andersj(a)elon.edu Director, Imagining the Internet Center, Elon University Begin Survey <https://surveymonkey.com/tr/v1/te/akU_2BQc2vAhAsa_2B264x1g6_2FpF_2Fhy3Ehxbp…> Please do not forward this email as its survey link is unique to you. Unsubscribe <https://surveymonkey.com/tr/v1/te/akU_2BQc2vAhAsa_2B264x1g6_2FpF_2Fhy3Ehxbp…> from this list -- 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

1 0

Fwd: Commons, agriculture and seeds
by Michel Bauwens 04 Jul '17

04 Jul '17

stacco adds: We've been curating stories on this for the last few months. You can find them all here: https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/tag/open-source-seeds ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Mark Wynn <markwynn38(a)yahoo.com> Date: Mon, Jul 3, 2017 at 11:27 PM Subject: Commons, agriculture and seeds To: "commonswatch(a)lists.p2pfoundation.net" < commonswatch(a)lists.p2pfoundation.net> I thought this might be of interest to the group. Regards, Mark German Nonprofit Creates New Open Source License for Seeds <http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/41118-german-nonprofit-creates-new-open-…> German Nonprofit Creates New Open Source License for Seeds Dr. Johannes Kotschi discusses how the open source model was adapted for seeds, and why this initiative is so im... <http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/41118-german-nonprofit-creates-new-open-…> -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

1 0

Fwd: Bank of the commons, worldwide banking network for the commons
by Michel Bauwens 04 Jul '17

04 Jul '17

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Enric Duran Giralt <enric(a)enricduran.cat> Date: Tue, Jul 4, 2017 at 12:37 PM Subject: Bank of the commons, worldwide banking network for the commons To: commonswatch(a)lists.p2pfoundation.net Dear all, I want to introduce you to Bank of the Commons. Bank of the Commons is an open cooperative initiative to transform banking, payments and currencies, in order to support the economy used in cooperative and social movements both at a global and a local level. We are building another economy for more fair and equal societies Bank of the Commons adopts Faircoin as a strategic global social currency and blockchain technology upon which to base the development and adoption of decentralized financial structures for the Commons. This will be combined with official currencies since beginning and progressively with other alternative and social currencies at local and global level. Legally, it is based on the networking process of existing cooperative structures in different parts of the world, and on the creation of an European Cooperative Society in Italy, which will take care of the social capital invested in Bank of the Commons, providing it with an independent legal status. Since 7th of June 2017 onwards, Bank of the Commons has open its doors, to begin to offer banking services to our first members. Already different iniciatives and individuals has joined, as cofounders and this still is possible until 15 of july (and of course any time is possible to be normal member) More than 20 cofounders already joined, Bank of the commons participants, will assist at the ECA assembly in Madrid and would like to join the working group on the commons and currencies/finances, More details in the website, https://bankofthecommons.coop All the best Enric Cofounder Bank of the Commons https://www.bankofthecommons.coop -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

1 0

Fwd: [CommonGood] Fw: [aepf] London, whose city?
by Michel Bauwens 03 Jul '17

03 Jul '17

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Birgit Daiber <bir.dai(a)hotmail.com> Date: Mon, Jul 3, 2017 at 2:14 PM Subject: [CommonGood] Fw: [aepf] London, whose city? To: "commongood(a)listi.jpberlin.de" <commongood(a)listi.jpberlin.de> Dear Friends and colleagues, looking to the city of Barcelona inspires us - but looking to London shows the disastrous consequences of selling out of people's basic interests. Tina Ebro sent us this interesting article: Le Monde diplomatique - English edition <https://mondediplo.com/> mondediplo.com “This is a war against normal life.” So said CNN correspondent Clarissa Ward, describing the situation at this moment in Syria, as well as in other parts of the ... London, whose city? The fire that destroyed Grenfell Tower and killed so many who lived there made clear what many have felt for years: London has become a city for capital not people. It builds for financial transactions, not for homes. by Rowland Atkinson <https://mondediplo.com/2017/07/06london#partage> [image: JPEG - 113 kb] Jon Arnold · Getty Government ministers seen as responsible for unceasing cuts to public services gave uncomfortable street interviews after a massive fire rapidly engulfed Grenfell Tower, a public housing block in one of London’s most affluent districts. The disaster made clear the terrible results of ideological commitments to cut corners and costs in building safety regulations, including the installation of what may have been fire-conducting cladding. Besides the anger and trauma at the loss of life (some 80 dead), people are questioning the political and economic choices that forced low-cost safety choices. There is a strong sense that poor people matter less in a city run for the rich. Cutting funds to local authorities and public services, and red tape around health and safety regulations, combined with deep social inequalities to produce a catastrophe with major political repercussions. The tower was in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, a parliamentary constituency that changed in the general election, by just 20 votes, from Conservative to Labour for the first time, mostly due to concerns over housing. The borough ran budget surpluses and offered council tax rebates, while choosing to do public housing maintenance and safety on the cheap. London’s inequalities are most evident in the social geography of its inner western zones, where public estates offer vital affordable housing to those on no and low incomes among multi-million pound homes whose prices are inflated by offshore investment capital and wealthy buyers. The slow-motion social disaster of austerity created a burnt-out landmark as a visible symbol of the callous political choices of the past decade. People sensed that the poor mattered less and got a raw deal in social and physical protection; some began to feel that the disaster might even be part of a plan to rid the area of unsightly low-income housing and poor people. The disaster seemed the defining moment of a precarious government struggling to build an alliance to govern, as promises to posture aggressively at Brexit negotiations were being broken. The mood of London and its populace is changing. There is a sense of possibility that may generate more emphatic changes at future elections, with a now engaged youth vote and new respect for Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn. People are asking who London is for, and the answer isn’t capital. The Grenfell disaster has led to calls to invest in and reconstruct high-quality and affordable housing, and to recognise that declining public investment and the callous treatment of the urban poor are the problem, not public housing. Massive inequalities Most of London’s current and future high-rises aren’t public housing (1 <https://mondediplo.com/2017/07/06london#nb1>). More than 400 high-rise developments are now in progress or have received planning permission. Almost none of their homes will be affordable, and very few are public housing. In the stories now told of London’s massive inequalities and housing problems, the private towers signal the city’s social extremes and the inability of state or market to resolve social needs. These pads are intended for the global elite and look like a disposable environment that fits the need, in many cases, to rest money. The ‘community’ imagined by starchitects and estate agents on billboards and in brochures is a sales pitch to a floating class of the rich and investors. Whatever drugs the architects of the gold apartment block at Battersea Power Station were on, their inspiration was a pound sign, not the floating pig on Pink Floyd’s *Animals* album cover. Much of the development along the Thames is a parody of place and a mirage of communal life. These are dead spaces and dwellings, their lifelessness important for the realisation of maximum exchange value, rather than being valued for their residential use. The question of who benefits from such development is an ongoing irritant to managers and politicians. *Whatever drugs the architects of the gold apartment block at Battersea Power Station were on, their inspiration was a pound sign, not the floating pig on Pink Floyd’s Animals album cover* London’s position as a beacon for the global super-rich has not been good news for its wider population. When the good times rolled, they were marked by an aggressive expansion of gentrification, private tenant evictions, the demolition of dozens of public estates, welfare reforms and household displacement. The investment and destruction may be related; with Brexit deliberations, the potentially negative role of international investment has been glossed over by London’s elite. Social philosopher Erich Fromm might be a ghost guide to the new follies and ruins created by investors and developers; in later life he was exercised by our culture’s focus on things rather than people, on having rather than being. He thought our desire for lifeless things suggested a necrophiliac culture, fixated on the denial of death and pursuit of shiny objects. Is London’s inflated skyscape the result of an urban political economy harnessed to the death drive of capital, and the unchecked global accumulation strategies of the wealthy? Empty interiors In *The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness* (1973), Fromm identified necrophilia as an attraction to anything dead, a mechanical interest that evades social or human connectivity. This seems an apposite framing of the love for dead things of the world’s super-rich. Properties are snapped-up as signs of personal progress and status while remaining wholly or partially uninhabited. Marketing materials for many developments show empty interiors looking out over the city. Prospective buyers are able to project their presence as the city’s triumphant captains without having to witness community life or troublesome social difference. This might not matter if these lifeless spaces were not so corrosive to the social life of the city. Massive injections of international capital have encouraged the logic of building for the needs of the wealthy and international buyers. Such investment damages the legitimacy and vital role of public housing, which is framed as lavish public expenditure while higher bidders wait in the wings. The wider sociality of the city withers as parts of the urban body are starved of a vital supply of people and social circulation by absent owners and their investment vehicles. All this is overseen by a political system that believed a city’s standing was to be indexed by the presence of wealth, rather than its creation and wider distribution. [image: JPEG - 211.9 kb] Inferno: local residents in shock as flames rip through the 27-floor Grenfell Tower housing block in west London Daniel Leal-Olivas · AFP · Getty If you want to see this process of accumulation and emptiness, wander past One Hyde Park or the many empty mansions lining The Bishops Avenue north of Hampstead Heath. People are exercised about the cost and lack of housing in London because they witness competition for these resources juxtaposed with a landscape of empty shells that should be homes. A surprising percentage of private housing is rarely or never occupied, while many households on local authority waiting lists are exported outside their borough or outside the city; and a third of a million households remain on waiting lists for public housing in London. Walking along the Thames’s south side near Nine Elms, you can see many new towers, apparently suspended along the river’s corridor. Like dead mackerel, these developments shine, but also stink of corrupt planning agreements and a housing system out of sync with the needs of ordinary folk. The sense that there are outright winners and vulnerable losers raises big questions. If we bought the argument that the wider economy and population benefit from such investment, the new skyscape might be defended. Yet such arguments are threadbare. Those with economic and political power identify property and finance as the machine driving living standards and reputation. London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has moved in a slightly different direction, launching an enquiry into the number of unoccupied homes bought by offshore investors. A recent study examined utility records to locate homes with abnormally low electricity use, concluding that around 21,000 homes are empty long-term. Around 5% of homes in central and western London lie empty according to the government’s statistics agency (2 <https://mondediplo.com/2017/07/06london#nb2>). ‘Secrecy jurisdiction’ Non-partisan groups have also highlighted the criminal and anonymous purchase of thousands of homes. The head of the National Crime Agency has suggested that criminal money has driven up London property prices, and hundreds of millions of pounds of purchases are under criminal investigation as suspected proceeds of corruption, yet these figures only represent a fraction of the total (3 <https://mondediplo.com/2017/07/06london#nb3>). Transparency International has revealed that around 10% of properties in Kensington and Chelsea, the borough in which the Grenfell tragedy occurred, are owned through a ‘secrecy jurisdiction’, tied to £122bn of offshore money. Many cases are not pursued by resource-starved tax authorities. One of the worst injustices is that while essential workers and even those on respectable incomes struggle to access decent housing, London is building thousands of apartments for people who may never use them. How broken is a planning system that does not challenge the construction of blocks of hundreds of flats in which a studio costs over £600,000, while including a few affordable homes is said to threaten market viability? Evidence shows that developers and planning consultants work hard to circumvent their duty to offer affordable housing or cash contributions to the local authority. Criticism has been growing for years, but now there is intense and rising anger, even if effective resistance remains elusive. In 1951 the population of Greater London — its 32 constituent boroughs and the square mile of the City — was 8,164,416, making it a peak year for London (and many British cities). But by 1981 and the nascent Thatcher government, the population had fallen to 6,608,513 due to a changing economy and outward migration from most of Britain’s major cities to suburban areas. It is now hard to remember the time when Britain’s inner cities were places of economic stagnation, social decline and out-migration, and ‘inner city’ evoked a social imaginary marked by these features as much as any geographical place. [image: JPEG - 179.3 kb] How much? Launch of a global tour of the Battersea Power Station development exhibition at the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo Ken Ishii · Getty The most recent census, of 2011, shows London’s population at an all-time high of 8,173,900. Yet this apparent demographic health belies massive shifts in the structure of London’s economy and new casualties in housing markets. With changes in London’s economy as it moved towards becoming a node in the world financial economy came changes to many neighbourhoods previously thought untouchable by gentrification. Today London again faces an uncertain future. Economic pre-eminence in a global system of urban command centres is giving way to anxieties about the city’s future, including the possibility that financial institutions may move away. Trying to keep the goose that lays the golden eggs, even if it does little for London’s working class, is ever more the name of the game under Brexit. Such worries add vigour to capital’s grab for land and sky, with projections for the numbers of the super-rich in London set to grow significantly. Those criticising construction aimed solely at international investors are called out of touch with the realities of selling in a global market (4 <https://mondediplo.com/2017/07/06london#nb4>). Yet even the trade in premium real estate appears fragile in the context of Brexit and the possibility that key financial institutions may be lured to competitor cities as crisis talks continue, with sales at the top of the market dramatically reducing in volume. Despite this, concerns about social inequality and exclusion have been pushed aside by a government that is scrambling to attract buyers and institutions to keep the national books balanced. London’s patrician class recognised where the money is some time ago. What was once the establishment might now be better called ushers to capital and vendors of prized assets and products. The international rich come for financial services, generate construction and jobs for decorators and nannies, and are prepared to pay fees and taxes on property sales (or work hard to avoid them). Property professionals and financial wizards offer portentous assessments of how tariffs, taxes or regulatory moves would kill the flow of capital investment. This may be true now but it wasn’t just two years ago when selling £10m flats before they were built was possible. The systemic threats being revealed today will injure London’s poor and working classes even more given the inability of governments to extract more from the presence of the wealthy when times were good. If in the last decade we hung on to the Maserati exhaust pipes of the super-rich, our grip must tighten in the future. There will be less going spare. London’s Achilles heel The City’s strength is London’s Achilles heel. While the economic role of the City is well understood, its asymmetrical dominance in the structure of the urban economy presents risks. Any economic geographer will tell you that a key danger for any single-industry town is that it is more likely to die as its fortunes change because of competition from rivals. Where such change once devastated Glasgow, Sheffield, Birmingham and many others, London’s fate may be to lose core services to Dublin, Paris or Frankfurt. Analysts are now pondering how many bankers or institutions will leave after Brexit. The likely answer is thousands. Even if banks are not as mobile as the currencies and services they deal in, an orderly or partial evacuation over years remains a real possibility. In the good times before the Brexit vote (bear with me if you were on a waiting list, crammed two to a rented room or saving for a deposit to get on the housing ladder), we were told not to touch the market, in order to maintain a low-tax environment to enable overseas monies to benefit London. With the risks to London’s economy from Brexit, this is more emphatic, and London now has a large neon ‘for sale’ sign. Many prized assets are the property of foreign wealth funds or individuals (Harrods, The Shard, Harvey Nichols). Much of the commercial property on Sloane Street is owned by the Qatari sovereign wealth fund. These changes symbolise shifts in class and taste and reflect a move from gentry and landed wealth to an expanding cadre of those who have benefited from globalisation, the lucky control of state assets, or associations with international criminal activity. Their brashness and raw money power is only matched by the hatred felt by the last wealthy long-term residents of inner west London who didn’t realise that others in their class put up the first ‘for sale’ signs. It’s the money, stupid The most obvious answer to any question about London’s problems is money. Money is why our political interests turn a blind eye to offshore and criminal purchasing of real estate, no matter how shady its source. Money is the reason that public housing is being demolished in the name of ‘affordable’ housing. Money is why gentrification is a good thing and poor residents might be better sent elsewhere. Money lies at the heart of keeping taxes low and regulations slack. Money is the reason for the dead spaces along the Thames and beyond. The London shaped by this dominating rationale is a negative doughnut with wealth and high-rise housing its centre, falling away to suburbs marked by slow physical decay and the exported city poor. London’s claim to world standing is playing host to the most ultra-high net-worth individuals of any city globally — 4,750 — of whom 80 are billionaires (5 <https://mondediplo.com/2017/07/06london#nb5>). Such boasts are poor slogans for a city that has become a sorting machine for opportunity and fortune: the rich come in one door, the poor go out the other, necessary casualties of a city dominated by a prime real estate and finance economy. London’s dead homes result from demands for unfettered markets and ambitious urban remaking. Yet we need to recognise that for many others, London’s new architecture indicates a move in the right direction. The new director of Zaha Hadid architects, Patrick Schumacher, frankly disclosed values in some practices when he suggested paving over Hyde Park, removing public housing and letting the market dictate who lives where (6 <https://mondediplo.com/2017/07/06london#nb6>). He misjudged the views of the wider audience (London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, slammed the suggestions) but such ideas remain dominant among those whose bread is buttered by capital. Meanwhile, protecting municipal housing, alleviating real poverty in a rich city and wider regional inequalities, or caring for the elderly and disabled are seen as unfortunate problems for which there is no money due to the profligacy of a previous government. The prospects for challenging the overall direction of London and its politics could look dismal. Twenty years ago, there was a television sketch in which the Ritz, one of the grandest of London’s hotels, was sold to an oligarch. He told the staff there would be few changes, but he had a small request: to change the name to the Titz (7 <https://mondediplo.com/2017/07/06london#nb7>). Such possibilities have become thinkable. The culture shock and clash of capital with everyday life are features of a city barely serving its working population. Gross excess is now a mainstay of reality TV about the super-rich, their tastes and demands gawped at by millions, with the unnecessary as the mark of success. More, bigger, shinier, emptier. Rowland Atkinson Rowland Atkinson is chair in Inclusive Societies at the University of Sheffield and the author (with Sarah Blandy) of *Domestic Fortress: Fear and the New Home Front *(Manchester University Press, 2016) and co-editor of *Building Better Societies: Promoting Social Justice in a World Falling Apart* . _______________________________________________ CommonGood Mailingliste JPBerlin - Politischer Provider CommonGood(a)listi.jpberlin.de https://listi.jpberlin.de/mailman/listinfo/commongood -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

1 0

Fwd: another city congress discussing the commons
by Michel Bauwens 03 Jul '17

03 Jul '17

a request: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: George Pór <eeonmedium(a)gmail.com> Date: Wed, Jun 21, 2017 at 5:00 PM Subject: another city congress discussing the commons To: Vasilis Niaros <vasilis.niaros(a)gmail.com>, Michel Bauwens < michel(a)p2pfoundation.net> Do you guys know anybody who will go to this one: http://www.smartcityexpo.com/en/content ? (Barcelona, 14-16 Nov) In their Governance track, they will discuss, among others things: commons, cooperation platforms, e-democracy, e-government, open data, open government, open innovation, and transparency If somebody from the commons or p2p movements will go, I'd love to connect prior to the event... (Feel free to forward it to any list appropriate.) george -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

1 0

Fwd: Criminalising Standing Rock
by Michel Bauwens 03 Jul '17

03 Jul '17

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Frank Barat <russelltribunaluk(a)gmail.com> Date: Wed, Jun 21, 2017 at 6:23 PM Subject: Criminalising Standing Rock To: Frank Barat RToP <RussellTribunalUK(a)gmail.com> http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/06/ criminalising-standing-rock-environmental-activism-170619090436488.html Criminalising Standing Rock It is not the first time US government has used all means necessary to stifle activism and resistance.[image: Listen to this page using ReadSpeaker] <http://app-eu.readspeaker.com/cgi-bin/rsent?customerid=5707&lang=en_us&read…> - - - - - [image: A protester in a standoff with police during a protest of the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation [Stephanie Keith/Reuters]]A protester in a standoff with police during a protest of the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation [Stephanie Keith/Reuters] <http://www.aljazeera.com/profile/frank-barat.html>byFrank Barat <http://www.aljazeera.com/profile/frank-barat.html> Frank Barat is a human rights activist based in London, UK and is coordinator of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine. The recent revelations of the Intercept, exposing how the US government is treating environmental activism at Standing Rock <http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2016/10/north-dakota-native-ame…> as an "insurgency", should not come as a surprise. The Intercept's investigation reveals that security firm TigerSwan has been working closely with at least five states to target the protesters of the Standing Rock camp as "jihadists", aiming to destroy and delegitimise the whole movement and those standing in solidarity with it. But this is not the first time that governments and corporations have used any means necessary to keep the status quo in place. And it won't be the last. *A long history of criminalising activism* WATCH: US police arrest Dakota pipeline protesters (1:40) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGo0y4XeXCo> On March 8, 1971, a group of activists known as the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, stole a huge stash of files and passed them on to the media. The most significant element in the stolen materials was a file mentioning the word "COINTELPRO <https://vault.fbi.gov/cointel-pro>". This break-in exposed one of the most secretive programmes put together by the FBI <http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/organisations/fbi.html> at that time. Originally created in 1956 to "increase factionalism, cause disruptions and win defections" inside the Communist Party in the US, the COunterINTELligencePROgram slowly diverted most of its resources to target other groups and individuals that the FBI deemed subversive. These included the Black Panthers, the Civil Rights Movements, the feminist movement, the anti-war movement, the anti-colonialist movement, activists from the American Indian Movement and many others. The programme used methods such as infiltration, psychological warfare, illegal force and harassment to destroy, often from the inside, any form of resistance to the status quo. The assassination of Fred Hampton, one of the leaders of the Black Panther Party, on December 4, 1969, was part of a COINTELPRO operation. OPINION: North Dakota pipeline protest is a harbinger of many more <http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/11/dakota-pipeline-protest-ha…> While the covert programme officially ended in April 1971, recent history has shown that the FBI and other government agencies have never stopped using the tactics that formed the core of the programme. In fact, quite the opposite has happened and the methods used by governments, institutions and corporations to "pacify" the masses have become more and more sophisticated with time. A couple of years ago, journalist Will Potter exposed <http://blog.ted.com/will-potter-on-of-treating-environmentalists-like-terro…> the fact that environmental and animal rights activists were now considered as the number-one domestic threat in the US and are often prosecuted as criminals. He highlighted that this had happened thanks to the concerted lobby efforts by corporations that have promoted the notion of "eco-terrorism". History has proven that it takes time, a lot of patience and many sacrifices to achieve radical change, but that at the end of the day, the power is with the many, not with the few. But the US government is by far not the sole perpetrator of such crimes. Many other countries, often including western "democracies", are treating concerned citizens in the same manner. A telling example is the way the UK government and police infiltrated <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/mar/26/mark-kennedy-undercover…> the environmental movement to pre-empt environmental action and protests. Governments have upped their repressive game criminalising whole movements, like the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS <http://america.aljazeera.com/topics/topic/issue/bds-movement.html>) and solidarity with refugees' movements in Europe <http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/regions/europe.html>. Security forces have increased the brutality with which they put down protests, as has happened in France <http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/country/france.html>, where a police crackdown on peaceful demonstrations against labour law changes led to dozens of protesters being injured. And overall, there have been broad attempts to delegitimise any form of radical resistance to power across the world. These are all clear reminders to activists that challenging hegemony will come at a very high price. It is crucial to understand and treat these actions not as random acts but as part of a broader context of repression and pacification of civil society. There is a global pushback against activism or what some have called "shrinking space <https://www.tni.org/en/publication/on-shrinking-space>", and this process has taken different forms. The methods used can be pure repression (violence against human rights <http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/categories/human_rights.html> defenders, attacks on freedom of assembly, movement, speech ...) or include more subtle approaches, such as philanthropic protectionism and exclusion of organisations and charities from the banking system. *'We are not losing'* But everything is not as bleak as it sounds. The fact that governments have to resort to contractors and private companies to do their dirty and often illegal work needs to be understood for what it is. While they were able, even though secretly, to do this themselves a few decades ago, the actions of many, or sometimes of a few (whistleblowers, for example), have had an impact. OPINION: How media did and did not report on Standing Rock <http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/12/media-report-standing-rock…> Over the past few decades, activists, protesters and whistleblowers challenged the hegemonic vision of the world imposed on us by governments, institutions and the corporate media by putting forward the narratives of the "powerless". They told a different story and made sure that the world listened to what they were saying. Movements such as Occupy <http://america.aljazeera.com/topics/topic/issue/occupy.html>, the Indignados and Reclaim the Streets offered a taste of what is possible. And these very real and concrete actions made government programmes such as COINTELPRO nearly impossible. Even though it might sometimes look like we are, as the human civilisation, going backwards, faced with more racism, bigotry, chauvinism and hatred every day; and even though it often feels like victories are insignificant when compared with defeats and that the balance of power is very much on the side of states and corporations, we are certainly not losing and the fact that we have to face more repressive measures every day means that our enemies are scared and take us very seriously. History has proven that it takes time, a lot of patience and many sacrifices to achieve radical change, but that at the end of the day, the power is with the many, not with the few. *Frank Barat is coordinator of the War & Pacification programme at the Transnational Institute.* *The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.* *"Freedom is a constant struggle"* Out Now! Order here <http://www.haymarketbooks.org/pb/Freedom-Is-a-Constant-Struggle> Follow on Facebook here <https://www.facebook.com/angeladavisfreedom> -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

1 0

Fwd: How to Participate in ECA Madrid (October 25 to 27, partner of Transeuropa Festival Oct 25-29)
by Michel Bauwens 01 Jul '17

01 Jul '17

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Nicole LEONARD <nicole.leonard(a)sciencespo.fr> Date: Fri, Jun 30, 2017 at 9:18 PM Subject: How to Participate in ECA Madrid (October 25 to 27, partner of Transeuropa Festival Oct 25-29) To: commonswatch(a)lists.p2pfoundation.net Dear commoners of the European Commons Assembly, *The following information is very important for the event, please read through to the end!* In the same way we focused our activities during our meeting in Brussels last November on the European level, our work and our exchanges in Madrid will concentrate on the municipal/local level for activities and policies. In Madrid we hope to exchange with, share with, and learn from the commoners and initiatives of commoning in Madrid and other cities in Spain. Several ECA thematic workshops will be organized during the assembly between 25-27 October 2017 under the general topic of the urban commons. In order to anchor these workshops in the local reality and experiences, each one will be developed by its participants in collaboration with a local group carrying on initiatives and actions on the specific topic. Several urban commons themes have been identified so far: Public spaces/urbanism, Refugees and migrants, Participation of citizens to urban policies, Culture, Food, Housing, Health, Currencies and finances of the commons, Laws and legal mechanisms that prevent commons, and Technology for citizens. For logistical reasons, we may not be able to accommodate every theme proposed, but the Coordination team will review your input to decide the best way to structure the groups. Please, if you wish to join this Coordination Team for ECA Madrid and help in the ongoing planning, please write personally to Nicole Leonard (nicole.leonard(a)sciencespo.fr) **Expectations and next steps** In order to organize the working groups for each thematic workshop, we are introducing a Participation Form (link below) to gather information on urban commoners and their initiatives. *If you intend to participate in the Assembly in Madrid, please fill out this form by July 20. *This information will help the coordinators group together participants to the workshops around themes. It is a way to ensure meaningful collaboration for the ECA. For each working group, there will be: - Collaborative work beforehand to design the workshop itself (together with professional facilitation – not identified yet) - A coordinator identified to follow activities and feedback to the organizing team of the ECA in Madrid - Identification and contacting of corresponding local Spanish groups (an on-going process by participants and the organizers of the ECA in Madrid) - Participation to the workshop in Madrid (together with professional facilitation – not identified yet) - Production of final documentation – format to be determined (leaflet of policy proposals, cards of initiatives, video, etc.) that will allow sharing among the larger network of the ECA members, with policy makers and the general public about the experiences presented and discussed at the workshop and possible recommendations. This will be done with the support of a documentation team/professionals that will help us, provided we find the financing. The link to the form follows. Please feel free to share this email with individuals you think would be willing to participate. *Participate in ECA Madrid: https://goo.gl/forms/9vID21eSIojQsffk1 <https://goo.gl/forms/9vID21eSIojQsffk1> * Once the composition of the workshops is determined we will share the responses within the groups so that they can get in touch to discuss content and objectives before the meeting – respecting the summer break, of course :) We will have limited travel grants available. Please fill out the last section of the form if you are in need of such a grant so we can assess the needs. Thank you and we look forward to a great event! Coordination team for ECA Madrid -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

1 0

Fwd: [Fellowsmeeting-2017] Call for papers on counter-power
by Michel Bauwens 01 Jul '17

01 Jul '17

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Nick Buxton via Fellowsmeeting-2017 <fellowsmeeting-2017(a)lists.tni.org > Date: Thu, Jun 22, 2017 at 4:41 AM Subject: [Fellowsmeeting-2017] Call for papers on counter-power To: networkedlabour(a)lists.contrast.org, social-movements(a)lists.riseup.net Dear friends, I appreciate any help you can give in circulating this call and encouragement for people to apply. Last year's report featured the Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif and was illustrated beautifully by a collective of Mexican street artists. Check it out at https://www.tni.org/stateofpower2017 We hope to do something similar this year. If you have a proposal for some insightful analysis or an artistic project on the theme than please get in touch. Thanks for your support! Nick Call for Papers: State of Power 2018 The Transnational Institute (TNI) in the Netherlands is issuing an open call for essays/short papers and artistic collaborations for its forthcoming report on the issue of counter-power. TNI’s annual State of Power reports have, since their launch in 2012, become an important reference point for citizens, activists and academics concerned with understanding the nature of power in our globalised world in order to inform struggles for justice. With a mixture of compelling infographics and insightful essays, State of Power has examined dimensions of power (economic, political, social, cultural), exposed the key players who control power, and highlighted movements of counter-power seeking to transform our world. Last year’s State of Power was widely praised for its amazing provocative essays and brilliant art. This year's seventh edition will focus on counter-power. Counter-power As we mark in 2018 the 50th anniversary of the 1968 uprisings, the world is experiencing a new wave of protests and resistance by social movements. This visible rise of popular mobilisation has emerged in the context of major social and ecological upheaval and political and economic uncertainty. Today’s movements of counter-power must contend with the rise of dangerous demagogic leaders, using a language of hate and politics of fear, as well as the challenge of confronting the unprecedented concentration of power in the hands of transnational corporations and a small elite. Many movements are also going beyond resistance, seeking to build transformative practices, particularly at local level, that can reflect values of solidarity and cooperation, rather than competition and greed. But what is the nature of this counter-power? What is needed for it to work? What blocks effective counter-power? And how can it be best harnessed not just for resistance but also long-term transformation? Full call for papers can be seen here: https://www.tni.org/en/ article/call-for-papers-state-of-power-2018 -- ----------------------------------------------------- NICK BUXTON Futures Lab/Communications/Online Learning m: +1 530 902 3772 e: nick(a)tni.org twitter: @nickbuxton skype: nickbuxton w: www.tni.org ----------------------------------------------------- Read my latest book, The Secure and the Dispossessed (November 2015)www.climatesecurityagenda.org CONNECT WITH TNI - Sign up to TNI's e-newsletters: http://www.tni.org/subscribe - TNI on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TransnationalInstitute - TNI on twitter: https://twitter.com/TNInstitute _______________________________________________ Fellowsmeeting-2017 mailing list Fellowsmeeting-2017(a)lists.tni.org https://lists.tni.org/mailman/listinfo/fellowsmeeting-2017 -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

1 0

Fwd: [Global U] Fourth South South Forum on Sustainability 3-8 July 2017
by Michel Bauwens 01 Jul '17

01 Jul '17

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: LAU Kin Chi <laukc(a)ln.edu.hk> Date: Sat, Jul 1, 2017 at 11:12 AM Subject: [Global U] Fourth South South Forum on Sustainability 3-8 July 2017 To: "our.global.u(a)gmail.com" <our.global.u(a)gmail.com> Cc: LAU Kin Chi <laukc(a)ln.edu.hk> Dear Friends, The Fourth South South Forum on Sustainability will take place on July 3-6, with extended sessions on July 7-8, 2017. Please visit http://our-global-u.org/oguorg/en/the-fourth-south- south-forum-on-sustainability-4-6-july-2017-2/ to see the updated Programme, Reader, and Participant Profiles. After the Forum, we will edit all sessions and upload online to the Lingnan University and Global University websites. Attached is the finalized Programme. In order to enable those among you who cannot come in person to the Forum in Hong Kong but would like to watch or participate, we have set up live streaming on youtube, and a Skype chat room. Which means you can watch the Forum from your location. Please roll down for the way to join. Please inform your friends, colleagues and networks about the live streaming and chat room. The Forum is open to the global public. Please note that the Forum is listed under World Social Forum category 3 activities, which means the Forum is not organized by the WSF, but organized by active participants involved in the WSF process. Our special thanks to Pierre George who makes this proposal of live streaming, and assists with the technicalities. You can follow http://openfsm.net/projects/ asian-discussion-forum/lists/asian-discussion-forum- discussion/archive/2017/06/1498744610418/forum_view and http://openfsm.net/projects/espacios-oe/event2017-south- south-forum-sustainability/#program. *How to watch live streaming and join chat room:* Please go to YouTube to watch our live streaming of the conference at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMqZvSeasgg <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMqZvSeasgg> Global University for Sustainability Live Streaming <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMqZvSeasgg> www.youtube.com Global University for Sustainability is live streaming the Fourth South-South Forum on Sustainability at Lingnan University, Hong Kong, from July 4 to July 8... Alternatively, you can go to Global University for Sustainability, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClIP6qH6BInA9_nIsUAYcMw Under “Activities”, select “live streams”. <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClIP6qH6BInA9_nIsUAYcMw> Global University for Sustainability - YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClIP6qH6BInA9_nIsUAYcMw> www.youtube.com Wen Teijun : General Introduction to the Ten Cyclical Economic Crises of the PRC (1949-2016), March-May 2017, Hong Kong Organized and Produced by Global University ... We have a Skype chat room to receive online questions using text chat. You can join anytime at https://join.skype.com/pj15U9ayYnAK or https://join.skype.com/GSPoT1iVCIZB <https://join.skype.com/pj15U9ayYnAK> Join conversation <https://join.skype.com/pj15U9ayYnAK> join.skype.com If you want to join as a temporary guest, just click No or Cancel on the pop-up dialog, then click Join conversation, enter your name and click Join. To send a message, enter your text at the bottom of the screen and click the Send arrow. At end, just close the web page or click Leave conversation. Thank you, and with warm regards, Kin Chi on behalf of the team [image: Lingnan University Hong Kong] <http://www.ln.edu.hk> [image: Transformation For Life] <http://www.ln.edu.hk/transformation-for-life> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GlobalUFoundingMembers" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to GlobalUFoundingMembers+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/GlobalUFoundingMembers. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/ msgid/GlobalUFoundingMembers/SG2PR02MB13441F0CAC0D649B5E2D9 10DFFD00%40SG2PR02MB1344.apcprd02.prod.outlook.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/GlobalUFoundingMembers/SG2PR02MB13441F0CA…> . For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/

1 0

Fwd: Money for the People (GTN Discussion)
by Michel Bauwens 01 Jul '17

01 Jul '17

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Great Transition Network <gtnetwork(a)greattransition.org> Date: Sat, Jul 1, 2017 at 8:31 PM Subject: Money for the People (GTN Discussion) To: michelsub2004(a)gmail.com >From Paul Raskin <praskin(a)tellus.org> ------------------------------------------------------- Dear GTN, The old proverb—money is the root of all evil—may overstate the case, but money is, indeed, implicated in the iniquitous debt/growth spiral now degrading Earthland. Mary Mellor explains in her new GTI essay, “Money for the People,” that it needn’t be so. The modern money system is a social construct that evolved to spur capital accumulation, but lingers on in an era needing, instead, to throttle consumerism, debt, and the economic growth machine. Rather than creating money privately through bank lending, as the current system does, an alternative approach—public money—can undergird an economy oriented toward people and use value, not profit and exchange value. I think you’ll find Mary’s vision of a critical institutional pillar of a Great Transition economy illuminating, intriguing, and inspiring. Please read it at www.greattransition.org/publication/money-for-the-people, and let the comments and questions begin! How would public money work in practice? How would it interface with the market? How might its pursuit contribute to strategies for system change? Comments are welcome through JULY 31. Looking forward, Paul Raskin GTI Director HOW WE WORK Odd-numbered months are for internal GT Network discussions; even-numbered months are for public dissemination. You will receive all comments via email, and can review the entire thread online at www.greattransition.org/forum/gti-forum. The essay will be published alongside a “Roundtable,” comprised of selected comments from the GTN discussion and a response from the author. PS: Apologies for any difficulties getting to the website over the past couple days. It’s back up and running! ------------------------------------------------------- Hit reply to post a message Or see thread and reply online at http://greattransition.org/forum/gti-discussions/191- money-for-the-people/2362 Need help? Email jcohn(a)tellus.org -- 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

1 0