September 2019 - P2P-Foundation - lists.ourproject.org

Fw: Fw: Info
by Natalie Golovin 10 Mar '26

10 Mar '26

Mark: You and your compatriots on P2P view the world from revisionism. Go ahead and keep looking through your microscope-provided by your "teachers." Or take the time and read some very old documented evidence available at a library near you= but you may need to stay there awhile on microfiche. -----Original Message----- From: Mark Janssen Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2011 4:39 PM To: P2P Foundation mailing list Subject: Re: [P2P-F] Fw: Info On Sun, Oct 23, 2011 at 10:32 AM, Natalie Golovin <10natalie(a)cox.net> wrote: > The European Tribes treated the Natives no worse than they treated each > other. Whoa. You should really stop talking. You have NO idea what you're talking about. How about forced acculturation, not allowing them to speak their own language (which hold the record of their own history), confined them under threat of violent force into reservations, among other things. But, really, that's probably not even the worst of it -- the worst of it is that for reasons they couldn't ever understand is why you were doing all of these cruel things when they were willing to share it it all with you. Why, when they handed out their hand to be friends, you chopped it off. Remember, they're the ones who gave us Thanksgiving which is still "celebrated" in this nation today. Read the reports made of making first contact with the Native peoples here. You really should read up before propagating the attitudes of conquest. Sorry.... marcos _______________________________________________ P2P Foundation - Mailing list http://www.p2pfoundation.net https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation

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Fwd: A new economics
by Michel Bauwens 30 Sep '19

30 Sep '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Nick Hanauer <info(a)civicaction.com> Date: Fri, Sep 13, 2019, 3:29 PM Subject: A new economics To: Jeffrey Sterling <jeffreygsterling(a)gmail.com> Rich capitalists like me have never been richer. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ [image: Civic Action] Rich capitalists like me have never been richer. It’s not because we’re smarter or working harder. So why do .01%-ers like me consume an ever-increasing share of the economic pie? It comes down to one thing: the system is rigged for big corporations and plutocrats and against the average person. And at the heart of this rigged system is neoliberal economic policies. But our economy doesn’t have to work this way: We can and must form a new economics and design a new system. I recently gave a TED talk tearing down neoliberal economics and trickle-down policies – and offered up my new vision for a more cooperative, moralistic economics: *Watch my new TED talk to learn about why neoliberalism is sociopathic – and why we need to create a new economics of cooperation:* <http://go.civicaction.com/page/m/46025914/3748c8c3/3f534dd6/11ea042d/437957…> <http://go.civicaction.com/page/m/46025914/3748c8c3/3f534dd6/11ea042d/437957…> *Nick Hanauer speaks at TEDSummit: A Community Beyond Borders. July 21-25, 2019, Edinburgh, Scotland. Photo: Ryan Lash / TED* Over the last decade, the 1% have gotten $21 trillion richer while the bottom 50% have gotten $900 billion poorer. It’s not by accident – decades of backward economic theory have just gotten it wrong. We’ve been taught greed is good, inequality is essential, and that shareholders are the only thing that matter. But neoliberal ideas are just a protection racket for the rich – and it’s time we create a new economics – one that researchers and scientists are just starting to formulate. Neoliberal economic dogma has been shattered by policies this progressive community helped make a reality. We fought for a $15/hr minimum wage, fought to restore worker protections, and helped institute family leave – all of which trickle-downers said would tank the economy. Instead, the economy is thriving, unemployment has gone down – and we’re just getting started. *The thinking is simple: When restaurant owners are suddenly required to pay restaurant workers enough so that now even they can afford to eat in restaurants it doesn’t shrink the restaurant industry – it grows it. OBVIOUSLY.* Unlike the laws of physics, the laws of economics are a choice. Conservatives have sold their economic theories to us as if they were unchangeable natural law, but, in fact, those theories are social constructs based on pseudoscience. If we want new economics, all we have to do is choose to have it. Being rapacious does not make you a capitalist; it makes you a sociopath. Instead of a greed first, ask questions later approach – we need to invest in cooperation as a growth mechanism for our economy. When everyone does better, the economy does better. The laws of economics are a choice –and I hope you take a moment to watch my TED talk to find out what other ideas I have to formulate a new economy where everyone does better. But hey, don’t take it from me, I’m just a zillionaire spending my fortune the best way I know how: fighting for policies that will rebalance the economy in favor of the middle class. *Here’s that link to my TED talk again, I hope you’ll watch it.* <http://go.civicaction.com/page/m/46025914/3748c8c3/3f534dd6/11ea042d/437957…> Thank you so much for being such an important part of this team as we work to end neoliberal stooges rigging the system against the vast majority of people. [image: Hey, while you're here: At Civic Action we're trying to buck the status quo and expand the middle class through activism and education. We're not afraid of making a little trouble, but we can't do it without your help. Will you pitch in to support our efforts? We promise to put every penny toward ending the neoliberal stranglehold on our economic and political system. Pitch in now:] <http://go.civicaction.com/page/m/46025914/3748c8c3/3f534dd6/11ea042c/437957…> Paid for by Civic Action This email was sent to jeffreygsterling(a)gmail.com. ------------------------------ Want to get more involved? Follow us: <http://go.civicaction.com/page/m/46025914/3748c8c3/3f534dd6/11ea042f/437957…> <http://go.civicaction.com/page/m/46025914/3748c8c3/3f534dd6/11ea042e/437957…> If you'd no longer like to be a part of Civic Action, you can *click here <http://go.civicaction.com/page/m/46025914/3748c8c3/3f534dd6/11ea0429/437957…>* to unsubscribe from our emails. (But we hope you won't!) ------------------------------ -- 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: Closing the space between us | Full Circle 🌎 with the PGI
by Michel Bauwens 29 Sep '19

29 Sep '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Post Growth Institute <info(a)postgrowth.org> Date: Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 12:00 AM Subject: Closing the space between us | Full Circle 🌎 with the PGI To: Michel <michelsub2004(a)gmail.com> The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Discover the strength of our global interconnections and how to support like-minded organizations. [image: Post Growth Institute 'support' newsletter banner] <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…> Dear Michel, Across the planet, grassroots initiatives are building systems that *offer hopeful alternatives* to our extractive, growth-dependent economy. The power of these projects lies not only in their local influence but in global connections of *support, guidance, and encouragement*. Despite our varied focuses and approaches, #postgrowth provides an overarching concept to *challenge the dominant paradigm. *Setting aside our differences and united by a shared sense of *where our evolution needs to go,* we're starting to relax into supporting each other. For the Support edition of Full Circle, we introduce the *Post Growth Alliance, our cooperative social media service *that saves member organizations time and money while increasing their exposure. Find out how to *join the PGA family, learn about one of its members, *and meet one of our long-time volunteers – part of a community of activists dedicated to *helping us shift the worldview*. As we weave a rich tapestry, *closing the space between us enhances our strength*. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Thanks for your support, [image: graphic of networked globe] <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…> Post Growth Alliance Many nonprofits are at the cutting edge of sustainability activism and debate, but their work remains underexposed. The *Post Growth Alliance* <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…> (PGA) is a service that creates and amplifies engaging content for member organizations by drawing on the power of the network to share each others' posts across social media. *Find out more about the PGA* <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…> . PGA member profile: Promoting Economic Pluralism [image: screenshot of PGA post for PEP's Not the Nobel Prize] <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…> *Promoting Economic Pluralism* <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…> (PEP) seeks to co-create truly sustainable, resilient, and inclusive new economies thought strategic activities and projects that influence economic analysis, teaching, and thinking. PEP is also responsible for the 'Not the Nobel Prize', an initiative to celebrate thinkers and doers finding economic answers to the challenges of the 21st century. Find out more about *Promoting Economic Pluralism* <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…>, and vote for the seven finalists of 2019's *Not the Nobel Prize in Economics* <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…>. [image: Each and every subscriber helps to amplify PGA posts, which currently reach an average of 20,470 people.] <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…> Support the PGA There's an easy and effective way to support groups changing the world – and it doesn't cost a cent. *Subscribe to our mailing list* <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…> and receive exciting content, ready crafted and formatted to share on social media. <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…> [image: graphic showing rise in use of postgrowth hashtag on Twitter] <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…> The #postgrowth story is taking off on Twitter. In 2019 so far, #postgrowth has been tweeted 21,963 times. That's a *258% increase from 2018* and a 66,167% increase since 2009 when the hashtag was first used! *Meet PGI volunteer, Sarah Riebstein* A PhD candidate at Princeton University, Sarah researches universal basic income and the Alaska Permanent Fund’s resource dividend model. As an activist, she works with us on refining and spreading our vision of a not-for-profit economy <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…> – including a stint managing the PGA. Here she shares a little about what it's like to work with the PGI. [image: photo of PGI volunteer Sarah Reibstein] <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…> "We can bring our whole selves to the work we do at the PGI. There is a focus on highlighting the passions and strengths that each of us bring to the table, ensuring we're each contributing in ways that are most beneficial to the organization and ourselves. We also make space for sharing if circumstances in our lives might be negatively impacting us – something that I find is particularly missing in many other environments, where personal difficulties are often swept under the rug." *Meet the whole PGI team* <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…>. [image: PGI donate button] <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…> <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…> [image: Facebook] <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…> [image: Twitter] <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…> [image: Medium] <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…> [image: Website] <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…> Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af62ec&…> or unsubscribe from this list <https://postgrowth.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=dcc08996cc57fb1c3f5af6…> . -- 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: The Optics of the Commons: an invitation for reflection and transformation
by Michel Bauwens 28 Sep '19

28 Sep '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Georgia Nicolau <georgia.nicolau(a)gmail.com> Date: Sat, Sep 28, 2019 at 4:05 AM Subject: The Optics of the Commons: an invitation for reflection and transformation To: Michel Bauwens <michel(a)p2pfoundation.net> View this email in your browser <https://us16.campaign-archive.com/?e=&u=994c9bd0160ff1ce9f87c8361&id=adc511…> *"The commons is what gives meaning to our existence" Kum'tum Akroá-Gamella, from the Akroá-Gamella people, state of Maranhão, northeast of Brazil.* We believe that the commons, in its multiple perspectives, is an essential kaleidoscope concept for facing this historic moment of hopelessness, in Brazil and in the world. The Optics of the Commons series brings together sixteen short episodes featuring voices and ideas from young experts and activists. In the videos, they address different perspectives on living and making communities based on a diversity of studies, practices and experiences. Seen together, the approaches produce inspiring resonances. Taking inspiration from these words, the Procomum Institute <https://www.procomum.org/the-institute-procomum/?lang=en> invites everyone to reflect and question our ways of existing, living and building relationships. Watch and share! Let's talk about how together we can dream - and build- other possible futures. *All videos have english subtitles*. "I look at the commons from the perspective of the black people, who have always been separated from the State and capital” Bianca Santana, writer, journalist and researcher defines the Commons as the goods shared by certain communities, their experiences and resistances. Click here to watch the full video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a7emZKVF4w&list=PLz53SY9iZdF55YaAXY2S-kVlp…> The occupation of public spaces, conflicts and the construction of public policies that prioritize cities for people are themes and strategies raised by Marcio Black, cultural producer, political scientist and member of the Black System Collective, to interpret the Commons. Click here to watch the full video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fay4LtN9ksk&list=PLz53SY9iZdF55YaAXY2S-kVlp…> “The commons is what gives meaning to our existence,” shares Kum'tum Akroá-Gamella, a member of the Akroá-Gamella people, indigenous from Northeast of Brazil. For him, we are living a crisis that endangers the very existence of the planet because of practices that are part of a certain ideology of progress. Ancestral knowledge and a new way of seeing and understanding nature defines the commons for Kum'tum. Click here to watch the full video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgUDk-cELTM&list=PLz53SY9iZdF55YaAXY2S-kVlp…> It is through the exchange, encounter and strengthening of autonomous experiences of traditional communities and spaces of resistance throughout Brazil and Latin America that the Collective Etinerâncias believes that the commons moves and is present. Click here to watch the full video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEl1XEafyao> “The commons means a production focused on sharing and a permanent cycle of learning and distribution,” says João Brant, associate at the Procomum Institute and consultant in the areas of communication and cultural policies. Click here to watch the full video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqH6DvAKgF4&list=PLz53SY9iZdF55YaAXY2S-kVlp…> Abundance of water, soil and fresh air are common natural goods, but there are limitations placed by private property, for example. These reflections accompany and define the commons for Cinthia Mendonça, artist, researcher and director of Silo - Arte e Latitude Rural. Click here to watch the full video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX5cpQYzAEU&list=PLz53SY9iZdF55YaAXY2S-kVlp…> What struggles, conflicts and constructions fit the definition of commons? Does natural goods define it in its complexity? The value of the commons to Jean Tible, professor of political science at USP- University of São Paulo. Click here to watch the full video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPxrIKgkMog&list=PLz53SY9iZdF55YaAXY2S-kVlp…> "The commons has to do with practices, relationships, territories and has to do with people, collective subjects," says Tica Moreno, a member of SOF (Sempreviva Feminist Organization), Master in Humanities and Social Sciences at the Federal University of ABC and PhD in Sociology by USP. Click here to watch the full video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PsLmCCFn58&list=PLz53SY9iZdF55YaAXY2S-kVlp…> The commons, for those who come from the peripheries, is in the daily encounter and the plurality of actions. It surpasses the limits, the margins and defies the walls that prevent the construction of a more democratic and fair city. This is one of the commons perspectives for Mariana Belmont, journalist and member of the Imargem collective. Click here to watch the full video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDe7LvrVCxs&list=PLz53SY9iZdF55YaAXY2S-kVlp…> “You can't have the commons where there is inequality. You can't have the commons where there is oppression,” says Juliana Gonçalves, journalist and human rights activist. For her, it is from the micro to the macro, from the margins to the center that practices and knowledges that make up the commons are constructed and replicated. Click here to watch the full video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa1WeSs5ETc&list=PLz53SY9iZdF55YaAXY2S-kVlp…> What values do we exchange daily? How do they affect us? What connects us and what makes us divide spaces? How do we create cultures for the commons? Thiago Carrapatoso is a journalist and master of the Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS) at Bard College, and presents commons from other perspectives on the bodies, values and cultural impositions. Click here to watch the full video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7JyuLjdGv8&list=PLz53SY9iZdF55YaAXY2S-kVlp…> How is the commons presented in contemporary struggles? In resistances, existences - in the countryside and in the city. In cooperative relations and the confrontation with capitalism. Alana Moraes, an anthropologist and doctoral student at the Museu Nacional-UFRJ, presents perspectives that define and confront the commons. Click here to watch the full video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjyK3IyXCEc&list=PLz53SY9iZdF55YaAXY2S-kVlp…> “The commons is what endures, that is perpetuated for centuries. It is in the transversality between art, science, technology and ancestry”. Ricardo Brazileiro, computer scientist, master in Media, Interaction and Creative Systems for the Internet of Things, defends living in networks, occupying territories, spaces, free technologies and the sacred as opportunities for the commons. Click here to watch the full video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgDE-0OWM8k&list=PLz53SY9iZdF55YaAXY2S-kVlp…> Knowledge, culture and science belong to everyone and belong to no one at the same time. Henrique Parra, sociologist and activist, professor of social sciences at the Federal University of São Paulo, explains the set of distinct political principles, practices and meanings that define the commons. Click here to watch the full video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC-T-OvQ5CM&list=PLz53SY9iZdF55YaAXY2S-kVlp…> Constantly learning and unlearning, being with people and building with them, finding commonality in differences is what motivates Georgia Nicolau, director of the Procomum Institute. Click here to watch the full video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u6FNlCO2Xs&list=PLz53SY9iZdF55YaAXY2S-kVlp…> The commons is the place of the in between, it is the crossroads, the dialogue and the convergence. A political device of social transformation. Rodrigo Savazoni, from the Procomum Institute, sees the commons as construction, possibility and practice. Click here to watch the full video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS5_dTVh11c&list=PLz53SY9iZdF55YaAXY2S-kVlp…> [image: Facebook] <http://www.facebook.com/institutoprocomum> [image: Instagram] <http://instagram.com/procomum> [image: Website] <http://procomum.org> *Copyright © 2019 Instituto Procomum, All rights reserved.* You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. *Our mailing address is:* Instituto Procomum R. Sete de Setembro n 52 Santos, Sp 11013-350 Brazil Add us to your address book <https://procomum.us16.list-manage.com/vcard?u=994c9bd0160ff1ce9f87c8361&id=…> Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences <https://procomum.us16.list-manage.com/profile?u=994c9bd0160ff1ce9f87c8361&i…> or unsubscribe from this list <https://procomum.us16.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=994c9bd0160ff1ce9f87c83…>. [image: Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp] <http://www.mailchimp.com/monkey-rewards/?utm_source=freemium_newsletter&utm…> -- -- 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/

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Fwd: Introducing OpenStructures.family
by Michel Bauwens 27 Sep '19

27 Sep '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: OpenStructures <hello(a)openstructures.net> Date: Fri, Sep 27, 2019 at 12:00 PM Subject: Introducing OpenStructures.family To: <michelsub2004(a)gmail.com> After a long silence - we’re back and proudly present the new website !! ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-8h958ll2-gau> New: Website! <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-dbujaqp2-xdk> © OpenStructures Yes! We're clickable again. 🖤 After a long silence - we’re back and proudly present the new <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-ey20s0de-uo>website !! It comprises a database of Parts <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-ko0jr8qv-hsa> and Applications <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-m0ct50tz-ynr>, a News <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-r6sclrwz-zqt> page and soon also a Shop <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-tkm6kelu-1aql>. You can find previous as well as upcoming Projects <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-yrcbmp7a-5z7> on the history page – as well as a repository of Designers <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-63fbyu5e-egg> and of our Network <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-a4glyyme-epm>. Don’t forget to check back soon again, since more is going to be added over time. *New Address:We Are Fa-mi-ly!* <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-bgqyqmxy-9mr> © OpenStructures OpenStructures.net <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-gt5250ma-8ln> becomes OpenStructures.family <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-j0to90qv-u28> Based on a shared grid, everything is connected to everything within the OpenStructures system. We took these tangible links – between original and derivative parts, first and second editions, initial designs and reconfigurations – as the central feature of the new platform. Each object <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-o3cjearb-341>, event <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-r6rteoer-wwp> or designer <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-tok8m6wi-hsh> reveals various relations with other people, ‘family members’, ‘siblings’ or ‘ancestors’ at the bottom of each profile page <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-yz8hbvdi-he3>. Commission: JAM Hotel Lisbon © Laurens Thys Atelier Lionel Jadot has invited OpenStructures Studio to collaborate on a sustainable hotel project in Lisbon Atelier Lionel Jadot <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-44eq0mjm-53u> from Brussels has commissioned OS_Studio together with Dutch designer Rikkert Pauw <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-acc6fzra-e6s> to develop a typology of lamps and furniture for an ambitious and circular hotel redevelopment in Lisbon. During a workshop hosted by OpenStructures, we sketched how the design concept by Lionel Jadot could be complemented with local found footage by Rikkert Paul and OpenStructures compatible elements by OS_Studio <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-bsl4shpi-7km>. Publication: Future Kind <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-f2035qhu-9q1> © Thames & Hudson OpenStructures is featured in Futurekind: Design by and for the People OpenStructures is proud to be part of a compendium of sixty design projects enabled by new technologies that reveal how innovative, socially and environmentally conscious designs allow us to change the world for the better. The book was launched this summer in New York, in presence of its editor Dr Robert Phillips, Senior Tutor of Design Products + Futures at Royal College of Art in London and is available <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-kzvb18jr-3ep>here <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-nvfvgg2v-1128>. Workshop: Reclaim the suburbs © Oswald Devisch CAPA.CITY experimental autumn school 14 - 17 Oct. Turnhout (Be) OpenStructures is applied as a hands-on tool in an academic research project on retrofitting suburban areas by the architecture department of Hasselt University. >From 14 - 17 October, we will rethink suburbia by prototyping and building various proposals for retrofitting. All of this this will be supported by lectures on participatory design, collective learning and capacity building. The CAPA.CITY project is a collaboration between both academic and non-academic partners and carried out in 6 different residential subdivisions in Belgium, Denmark and France. More information here <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-r6rs5qc3-s28> Also New: Atelier & Archive <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-tsiauaya-7a5> © Laurens Thys We also have a new Atelier / Archive / Workshop Space As part of 80 projects, all of which have a focus on sustainability and social innovation, our second space in Brussels is hosting the physical archive of our digital parts library <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-x45xfg2e-14h1> on the See-U <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-48cthoo2-ewd> site. The Atelier is a place for people of various ages and skills (from school children to senior architects) and will be used for workshops and temporary residenties. Contact us <info(a)openstructures.net>, if you want to file trough the library of Parts or organise a workshop. Rue Fritz Toussaint straat 8, 1050 Brussels (open on appointment only) Collection: Design museum Ghent © OpenStructures Everything gets re-cycled ! Parallel with the launch of the new platform Design Museum Gent has acquired the previous and first OS website for its collection. Design Museum Gent <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-8dbmzohy-j36> reasons that the website is the digital manifestation of an early and valuable project of social, eco- and DIY-design and that design manifests itself more and more digitally and in the form of processes rather than in shapes only. While the collection represents the history of Belgian design, the website will be its first digital, intangible collection piece and will continue to tell the story of the first phase of the OpenStructures project. It will be presented later this year as part of the museum’s ‘Object Stories’ <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-djqotl46-xxa> exhibition series. Product: Pyloon shelving system © Atelier Ternier OS compatible shelving system by Atelier Ternier Atelier Ternier <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-gx34d4o2-138a>’s shelving system ‘Pyloon’ assembles without tools nor screws. Panels are pushed horizontally over aluminium tubes and held on distance by vertical plates and pegs. Together they obtain optimal stability. The tubes are at the same time feet, hinge and handle and are compatible with loads of other OpenStructures parts. The Pyloon family will be on display at the Contemporary Design Market in Brussels on 28-29 September and from October later this year at our Studio in Brussels. Soon available online here <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-krz7d3wn-5sn>. Acknowledgement: Thank You. © OpenStructures OpenStructures only exists due to the work and enthusiasm of You. Many thanks to all of you who kept encouraging and supporting us, who have been collaborating, reflecting, criticising, and enriching the system and its database with insight, enthusiasm and most of all: designs! It is thanks to you that this database <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-nrid7izr-es3> of open modular designs exists and continuously grows. Also a special thanks to the kind support of BeCircular <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-r6sd8y6b-y2c> by the Brussels Capital Region which allowed us to redevelop the platform. <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-v7t3xcky-n1m> GDPR You receive this mail since you’ve expressed interest in OpenStructures in the past. Since the GDPR rules have changed meanwhile, we would like to know if you are still interested in what we do? In case you no longer wish to receive our news, you can unsubscribe on the link below and we will delete your contact details. Unsubscribe here <http://p.smoton.com/f2rqqkw7-8c19xog7-ynetzjti-wk5> PROVOOSTSTRAAT 10 B - 1050 BRUSSELS INFO @OPENSTRUCTURES.NET <info(a)openstructures.net> -- 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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Very important historical essay on the relation between the market and the commons
by Michel Bauwens 27 Sep '19

27 Sep '19

Articulating an Empirically Grounded Model of the Relation Between Markets and Commons <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Articulating_an_Empirically_Grounded_Model_o…> <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Articulating_an_Empirically_Grounded_Model_o…> ** Article: Situating the sharing economy: between markets, commons and capital. By Adam Arvidsson. Chapter 2 of the Handbook of the Sharing Economy <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/index.php?title=Handbook_of_the_Sharing_Econ…>, Pages:10–26. Edited by Russell W. Belk, Giana M. Eckhardt and Fleura Bardhi. Elgar, September 2019* URL = https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788110549.00007 Abstract[edit <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/index.php?title=Articulating_an_Empirically_…> ] "This chapter uses historical sociology to articulate an empirically grounded model of the relation between markets, commons, sharing and exchange in the history of capitalism in the West. The author revisits historical debates on the role of the commons in the transition to capitalism in the European Middle Ages to suggest that the market and the commons have a history of long and complicated relations in the development of Western modernity. His intention is to build on the renewed attention to the longue durée of capitalism and modernity-greatly inspired by recent debates on the Anthropocene—to explore what new insights can be gained from shifting the focus away from the great transformation of the 19th century that often figures as a model for how social change might come about. The author concludes that, far from being a historical novelty, the present emergence of a commons based sharing economy is a recurrent feature that in the past has implied a potential for systemic transformation." PROBABLY SIMILAR TO ; Capitalism and the Commons <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Capitalism_and_the_Commons#mw-head> <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Capitalism_and_the_Commons#p-search> ** Article: Capitalism and the Commons. By Adam Arvidsson.Theory, Culture & Society, 2019* URL = https://www.academia.edu/40231280/CAPITALISM_AND_THE_COMMONS? Contents [hide <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Capitalism_and_the_Commons#> ] - 1 Abstract <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Capitalism_and_the_Commons#Abstract> - 2 Contents <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Capitalism_and_the_Commons#Contents> - 3 Excerpts <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Capitalism_and_the_Commons#Excerpts> - 3.1 Author's Summary <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Capitalism_and_the_Commons#Author.27s_Summary> - 4 More information <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Capitalism_and_the_Commons#More_information> Abstract[edit <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/index.php?title=Capitalism_and_the_Commons&a…> ] "This article investigates the potential role of the commons in the future transformation of digital capitalism by comparing it to the role of the commons in the transition to capitalism. In medieval and early modern Europe the commons supported gradual social and technological innovation as well as a new civil society organized around the combination of commons-based petty production and new ideals of freedom and equality. Today the new commons generated by the global real subsumption of ordinary life processes are supporting similar forms of commons-based petty production. After positioning the new petty producers within the framework of the crisis of digital capitalism, the article concludes by extrapolating a number of hypothetical scenarios for their role in its future transformation." Contents[edit <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/index.php?title=Capitalism_and_the_Commons&a…> ] "The paper divides in four sections. - After some background and a preliminary definition of key concepts (like ‘capitalism’ and ‘commons’), - I revisit the role of the commons in the development and crisis of European feudalism. - The following section seeks to untangle the complicated relation between modern capitalism and the commons, and identify the specific role of the commons in contemporary digital capitalism. - The fourth section suggests that the socialized nature of the digital commons is driving a revitalization of forms of commons- based petty production similar to those that contributed to undermining the feudal order in the 13th and 14th centuries, and draws up a number of hypothetical scenarios for the possible future transformation of digital capitalism that might result from this." Excerpts[edit <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/index.php?title=Capitalism_and_the_Commons&a…> ] See: 1. Medieval Commons <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Medieval_Commons> ; Medieval Commonism and the Ideologies of Ethical Markets‎ <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Medieval_Commonism_and_the_Ideologies_of_Eth…> 2. Markets and Commons <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Markets_and_Commons> 3. Anti-Markets <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Anti-Markets> ; Markets without Capitalism‎ <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Markets_without_Capitalism> 4. Crucial Roles of Petty Producers in the Transition to Capitalism <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Crucial_Roles_of_Petty_Producers_in_the_Tran…> Author's Summary[edit <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/index.php?title=Capitalism_and_the_Commons&a…> ] Adam Arvidsson: " What is the role of the commons in the future of digital capitalism? What scenarios do the growing economic and cultural significance of digital commons like Free an Open Source Software, Commons Based Peer Production and, lately, blockchain technologies entail? This essay suggest that as well as a significant source of resistance to capitalism, the digital commons also support new forms of market oriented ‘petty production’ (to use Marx’ term). In many ways, this is similar to the role that the commons - rural and urban - played in the crisis of feudalism in the European Late Middle Ages. Then as now, the commons were a powerful source of alternative lifestyles and social movements. They were also crucial to the development of a new market society that became a source of significant technological, institutional and cultural innovation, laying the foundation for a new capitalist mode of production. In the last section of the paper, I speculate on whether the digital commons can support a similar process of market-driven social transformation, and on how this might change the nature of digital capitalism in the decades to come. *I have chosen the experience of European feudalism in the 12th to 14th centuries as my main point of comparison*, rather than the ‘original accumulation’ of the long sixteenth century, and the Polanyian Great Transformation of the industrial revolution, which have been the most important historical references for contemporary scholarship on the anti-capitalist commons. This is not to suggest that we are in a new Middle Age, as Umberto Eco famously did in the 1970s (Eco, 1977), but rather to highlight the possible role of commons-based market actors in driving social change." More information[edit <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/index.php?title=Capitalism_and_the_Commons&a…> ] - Re-ordered bibliography based on Adam Arvidsson's references: Bibliography on System-to-System Transitions <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Bibliography_on_System-to-System_Transitions> -- 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: Future is Public | Democratic ownership of the economy conference (4-5 Dec Amsterdam) website opens for registration
by Michel Bauwens 27 Sep '19

27 Sep '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Satoko Kishimoto <satoko(a)tni.org> Date: Fri, Sep 27, 2019 at 1:40 PM Subject: Future is Public | Democratic ownership of the economy conference (4-5 Dec Amsterdam) website opens for registration To: <satoko(a)tni.org> Cc: Lavinia Steinfort <l.steinfort(a)tni.org> Dear friends, I hope this finds you well. I am reaching out to friends with whom I have been in touch when producing the book 'Reclaiming Public Services - how cities and citizens are turning back privatisation' (published by TNI and partners in 2017). We have also after publishing the book continued our research and advocacy work on de-privatisation. I am pleased to inform you about the upcoming international conference 'Future is public - Democratic ownership of the economy', held on 4th-5th December in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. https://futureispublic.org/ The conference is co-hosted by TNI and the city of Amsterdam in collaboration with international partners. I hope you find it interesting and I would like to welcome you to register. We plan to live-stream the conference too. We will during the conference release the result of an updated mapping study on the global remunicipalisation trend. Your feedback and questions are welcome. Best regards, Satoko Kishimoto -- Satoko Kishimoto Transnational Institute Amsterdamwww.tni.org e: satoko(a)tni.org m: +32 4 7448 6268 t: @satokokishimoto CONNECT WITH TNI - Sign up to TNI's e-newsletters: http://www.tni.org/subscribe - Support TNI: www.tni.org/support-tni - TNI on twitter: https://twitter.com/TNInstitute -- 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/

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Fwd: Our World-Transforming Ideas at The World Transformed
by Michel Bauwens 26 Sep '19

26 Sep '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: The Next System Project <nextsystem(a)democracycollaborative.org> Date: Tue, Sep 24, 2019 at 8:01 PM Subject: Our World-Transforming Ideas at The World Transformed To: <michel(a)p2pfoundation.net> Public pharma, inclusive ownership, green banks and more at London conference this weekend The latest from The Next System Project The Democracy Collaborative was a partner in The World Transformed conference, a four-day festival of politics, arts and music that took place this past weekend in Brighton, England to help build left power both inside and outside of government. Here are some of the big ideas we presented at the conference. *A Pharmaceutical Public Option for the UK* <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…> High prescription drug costs are a problem for the United Kingdom as they are in the United States. Our working paper, co-produced with the organizations Just Treatment and Global Justice Now, identifies how the key principles of public ownership can apply in the UK's pharmaceutical sector. It also sets out a vision of what democratic participation, engagement, and transparency would look like. Get the report... <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…> Meanwhile, in the United States the fight for a pharmaceutical public option escalates this week as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced her own plan for lowering drug prices. Next System Project director Dana Brown looks at the bill and concludes that democratically owned pharmaceutical operations are the most important missing element. Read more... <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…> *The Truth Behind Inclusive Ownership Funds* <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…> Recently, the Financial Times launched a full-scale assault on the idea of “inclusive ownership funds, <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…>” in which businesses would share ownership with worker-controlled trusts, that contained an analytic error so egregious 82 distinguished economists felt compelled to publicly correct it. With our friends at Common Wealth, we published an explanatory graphic of the ownership funds framework, especially as more and more of the business press is recognizing that this is an idea that will need to be reckoned with. See and share the graphic... <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…> *A Digital Cooperative Alternative to Online Giants* <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…> The top five firms in the world in terms of market capitalization—Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft—collectively have outsize power over the functioning of the global economy. Next System Project fellow Dan Hind argues in his latest report, copublished with Common Wealth, that reasserting the primacy of democracy over private power requires reckoning with these leading firms and with the digital sector more generally. He proposes a "public option" for the digital sphere in the UK, a British Digital Cooperative that would act as a space for egalitarian collaboration as well as rapid technological innovation. Get the report... <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…> Learn more about the basics of system change and catch up with past episodes of The Next System Podcast <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…> on our website, thenextsystem.org <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…>. DONATE <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…> [image: Share] <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…> Share <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…> [image: Tweet] <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…> Tweet <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…> [image: Forward] <http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285e71110&id=52a…> Forward <http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285e71110&id=52a…> [image: Follow us on Twitter] <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…> Follow us on Twitter <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…> [image: Like us on Facebook] <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…> Like us on Facebook <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…> [image: Visit our website] <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…> Visit our website <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…> *Copyright © 2019 Democracy Collaborative, All rights reserved.* You are receiving this email because you indicated you wanted to stay updated about The Next System Project. *Our mailing address is:* Democracy Collaborative 1200 18th Street NW Suite 1225 Washington, DC 20036 Add us to your address book <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/vcard?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285e71110…> Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285e711…> or unsubscribe from this list <https://thenextsystem.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=e51d2c7d40bc9992285…> -- 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/

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Fwd: “STEERING SOCIETIES FROM GDP’s 7 DEADLY SINS
by Michel Bauwens 26 Sep '19

26 Sep '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Hazel Henderson <hazel.henderson(a)ethicalmarkets.com> Date: Wed, Sep 25, 2019 at 1:37 AM Subject: RE: “STEERING SOCIETIES FROM GDP’s 7 DEADLY SINS To: Larae Long <larae.long(a)ethicalmarkets.com> *“STEERING SOCIETIES FROM GDP’s 7 DEADLY SINS * *TO SDGS AND THE GOLDEN RULE”* September 23, 2019 by Hazel Henderson©, author of “Mapping the Global Transition to the Solar Age: From Economism to Earth Systems Science (2014) As so many of us watch our representatives meeting at the United Nations (UN) this week, many of us, particularly in the USA, yearn to restore norms of behavior we learned as children from caring parents and teachers: the simple guidelines of the GOLDEN RULE: treat and respect each other as we wish to be treated. This GOLDEN RULE is also at the core of most of the world’s great religious and spiritual traditions. Yet in the rush to industrialize and grow as economics textbooks taught, by growing according to the money-based GDP and all its market statistics about maximizing “efficiency” of production, this omitted all the dis-economies, dis-services and dis-amenities to those in the rural, unpaid and voluntary service “Love Economies“, while ignoring the fundamental life-supporting services of Nature. Economists ruled the world with their pretensions to scientific exactitude, even lobbying the Nobel committee to set up the phony Bank of Sweden Prize in Memory of Alfred Nobel, now rejected by his descendants in today’s Nobel family. Yet the view of economic textbooks was wrong: equating human nature as fundamentally selfish, competitive and individualistic, with all loving, voluntary unpaid activities in the other half of these caring sectors all societies was designated as un-economic and ignored, while declaring that the world was dominated by scarcity, which drove people to anxiety, fear, competition and conflict. In other words, the GDP, economic growth model is based on the 7 Deadly Sins; greed, selfishness, hoarding resources, pride, envy, competition dishonesty and conflict! Yes, humans have these temptations and traits, but the glass is also half full of kindness, caring, respect for others and Nature and all we were taught as good behavior, as in the Golden Rule! The economists are wrong in believing we inhabit a fundamentally scarce world. We actually live it a world of abundance! Our planet Earth receives a daily shower of free photons from our Mother star, the Sun, which we are now learning from plants, how to harvest successfully in solar panels, wind generators, and the life-supporting technology of photosynthesis which plants invented to turn those free photons into carbohydrates --- providing humanity with our foods, fiber, wood and all the materials we need to live well and sustainably. When as creative caring individuals we also practice collaboration, sharing information, volunteering and focusing on our communities and the common good and the future of our children, we assure an abundant future for all in healthy soils for plants and trees and a life-giving biosphere. So, let’s incentivize our best behaviors and dismiss the economic advisors from our decision-making! Most economic models and incentives still reflect the 7 Deadly Sins of GDP-growth now revealed as malfunctioning source-code that crept onto the hard drives of our societies’ operating systems and now must be de-bugged, replacing GDP growth with the more systemic view of human development expressed in the SDGs! Let’s release ourselves from the dominance of money and the price system which holds back our global SDG model and the global green transition beyond fossilized industrialized production, since market prices are always history and a reflection of human ignorance and our financial markets have become global casinos. Steering by GDP and economists’ statistics is like flying over a country at 60,000 feet, with little idea of what is actually happening on the ground in what they call “flyover country“! Whenever creative new social and collective actions are proposed to clean up our environment and include everyone in our common future implementing the SDGs, always challenge any economist or politician who asks, “Where’s the money coming from?” This is a false model, or they are simple ignorant! Money is just one form of information we create in various currencies including cryptos, which are actually information-based social protocols resting on various electronic and social platforms and traded on forex exchanges, whose prices rise and fall based on network effects of how many people trust and use them. This is the 21st century Information Age and we all live in “Mediocracies and their Attention Economies” <http://www.ethicalmarkets.com/mediocracies-and-their-attention-economies/>, while we are learning the politics of money-creation. We can create our own local currencies and learn how central banks operate and how our money is printed and credit allocated to control peoples’ incentives and behavior! Data is not only the new “oil” but actually the rocket fuel driving our societies, feeding our computers, training them and our algorithms with human personal information (bias in-bias out is the new watchword!). We need new rules embodying the Golden Rule for our social media, which can no longer be allowed to be driven by money, greed and the 7 Deadly Sins! When we awake to these new realities, we have all the technological tools and can honor our social skills which created the SDGs guide to a sustainable, equitable and knowledge-richer common future for all. I discovered all this as an environmental and social activist and wrote about it in 1978 in “Creating Alternative Futures: The End of Economics“ <http://4a5qvh23tbek30e0mg42uq87.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/…>, an underground best-seller of that time and now a free download at www.ethicalmarkets.com, with all our other research in our Green Transition Scoreboard ® reports and TV series “Transforming Finance”. Let’s all choose to evolve toward the SDGs and the emerging Solar Age. -- 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: Farewell to the WSF? (GTN Discussions)
by Michel Bauwens 26 Sep '19

26 Sep '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Great Transition Network <gtnetwork(a)greattransition.org> Date: Thu, Sep 26, 2019 at 4:04 AM Subject: Farewell to the WSF? (GTN Discussions) To: <michelsub2004(a)gmail.com> >From Candido Grzybowski [candido(a)ibase.br] ---------------------------------------------------------- [EDITOR'S NOTE: The discussion will be ending one week from today -- WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2. I look forward to your comments! -- JC] I have been involved in the World Social Forum (WSF) process since the beginning of 2000, when representatives of eight Brazilian social organizations and movements—later called the Organizing Committee—met to launch the first in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in late January 2001. As the director of Ibase, created in the early 1980s by exiles returning to Brazil after being granted political amnesty, I represented the organization on the committee. My relation to the WSF has two phases: (a) deep engagement from 2000 to 2010 and (b) a critical position with gradual withdrawal after that. I draw from this experience in this contribution to the timely debate that the GTN provides and that Roberto Savio, a personal friend, provokes. [1] The WSF was conceived as an open space that would be a kind of battery recharger of active citizenship, now necessarily of planetary dimension because of the need to resolve contradictions of capitalism at a global scale. The WSF has undoubtedly made a fundamental contribution to the emergence of a worldwide citizen culture, and continues today propelled by civil society organizations, social movements, and networks from different parts of the world. In its early years, it helped build collective political intelligence about the problems, challenges, and possibilities of the struggles we waged, each in our own way across the Planet. It underscored our interdependence as we share the same world and the same challenge to make it another world. For our great diversity of identities and cultures, our plurality of views and perspectives, the WSF offered us an open space—a kind of factory for a new political culture—for us to recognize ourselves as humanity and part of the same and unique shared planetary system. The world's cultural, political, and economic context has changed greatly between 2001 and now. The multiple recent crises are expressions of the contradictions and limits to which globalized capitalism submits humanity and the sustainability of life on the planet. “Another possible world” remains an urgent need. However, as I have argued in the past, we need to think beyond the WSF, while still allowing the WSF to continue the inspiring task for which it was founded. WSF meetings nourished the dream and hope for many around the world and should continue to do so with the younger generations of today. *The WSF as inspiration and as limit* The most obvious contribution of the WSF was as a galvanizing force that opposed Davos and asserted that "another world is possible." It did this by appealing to the capacity for transformative action of the multiple and diverse collective subjects, organized into resisting entities, movements, networks, coalitions, and alliances to formulate concrete proposals and fight for their realization. This potential was latent, but the WSF brought it forth by inviting shared reflection on experiences and knowledge that develops in diverse practices, while opening possibilities to strengthen the power of one's own action in each context. The WSF created the foundations of a new political culture of transformation precisely by establishing horizontal planetary dialogue as an imperative, without antagonism, racism, or patriarchalism, dialogue within and between collective subjects, each recognizing each other as equal subjects. The WSF did not invent this new political culture, but it was a great propeller and inducer of it. Due to its open space for diversity and plurality—as defined in the Charter of Principles—the WSF has become a reference point for meetings and exchanges, without hierarchies or priorities. The encounters and debates it engendered, along with its political pluralitsm, made it a reference point for a new planetary political culture. It must be acknowledged that this now political culture was just emerging. We all brought our mental structures, values, and practices, with all their contradictions, starting with the simplest: we confuse diversity with each one doing what they wanted, making collaboration and synthesis difficult, when such collaboration and synthesis is the raison d'être of the WSF space. In fact, we were deluded about the size of the task ahead with our way of thinking and acting freighted by conceptual and political tendencies that undermined unity. Not least, despite the massive presence of feminist organizations and movements, tenacious machismo did not give women proper relevance in dialogues and exchanges. Also, while language and cultural diversity are heritages to preserve, we could not cope with the problem of translation, despite the information and communication technologies available to us. Despite these problems, a great legacy of the WSF was the rescue and appreciation of politics as the quintessential arena for building another world, and citizen action as the necessary transformational force. In a capitalist world increasingly dominated by large, increasingly privatized, increasingly commodified, more cynical and violent business public and politics, the WSF highlighted core ethical principles and values for thinking about nature, life, the economy, and power. In summary, I consider three WSF strengths as inspiration: 1) rekindling hope and and renewing a sense of history as human production, not metaphysical determination; 2) questioning the determinist assumptions and antagonisms typical of leftist culture; and 3) valuing the energy of the diversity of collective subjects. But here come the limits. The WSF's open space centered on its gatherings, a process of events limited to building consciousness and will for action, but not in fact acting for another world. It was just a step, a fundamental beginning, a door opening, a necessary but insufficient condition of forging the new. For transformative forces to emerge, in my view, we need to take a path beyond the WSF to new forms of collective action. The challenges were glimpsed and echoed at the WSF, but confronting them requires new political and cultural creativity. Therein lies the dilemma: as a space, the WSF has proven indispensable. But because of the Forum itself, I felt pushed to initiatives beyond it, to initiatives from the local to the global level, building the necessary articulations. *Elements for an agenda beyond WSF * Repoliticizing the relationship between the biosphere, power, culture, and the economy and acting from a planetary and cosmopolitan perspective is the starting point. As I pointed out above, the WSF has reframed politics and power, giving them centrality as opposed to market relations and the economy. In this sense, it pointed to the power of active citizenship. It did not elaborate and did not, as such, define the fighting agenda or agendas. The agendas of each individual movement, network, coalition, and alliance were debated and often updated at WSF events, but the responsibility for carrying them out rested with the one who adopts them and cannot be imposed on all Forum participants. The issue of the political agenda was the crucial point for each participant, as an expression of their rights and responsibilities as humans and citizens. It is in this sense that I thought and still think it is a duty of Forum participants to prioritize the political agenda before and after events. The “beyond the WSF” I refer to embodies this sense of intervention which takes inspiration from the WSF only as a moment of reflection and exchange. My priority was and is to move forward on action agendas, seeking partnerships and alliances that better address the different situations and contexts in which I live. Today, I think that the central issue for confronting capitalism is the search for alternatives to the “crisis of civilization” rooted in colonial, racist, patriarchal, Eurocentric, and imperialist rule over peoples and nature, and the industrial growth, productivism, and consumerism due to unbridled accumulation. Environmental destruction and social injustice are intrinsic conditions of capitalism, exacerbated today by globalization at the service of the great economic and financial conglomerates under the imperialist militarized guard. The fracturing of the social fabric and the breaking of the resilience of the biosphere and the common basis for life itself is reaching irreversibility. To make all life sustainable, it is essential to tackle injustice on its two sides, both social and environmental: eco-social injustice. It is no longer possible to limit oneself to changing social relations of production, heretofore the dominant ideal of the left. The ideal of industrial society— its productivism and limitless accumulation, the goods and services it provides, and the style of consumption and life it generates—is part of the eco-social injustice that we must confront. The idea of resistance to the commodification of everything, the commons and life itself, was always well-represented in the WSF. But this is only part of the story. The whole vision of human civilization and its relationship to nature needs to be reimagined, from local to world, reflecting the possibilities and limits of the biosphere and the cultural, scientific, and technical creativity of each people, in a spirit of interdependence and planetary solidarity, resilience, and sustainability. Accordingly, a key element of the new political culture and social transformation agenda is to decolonize and liberate our ways of thinking and acting. In the context of the “crisis of civilization,” we need to advance a deep shift in power and economic institutions. What condemns many to poverty, exclusion, and multiple forms of inequality and domination is not a lack of development, but development itself. Development constantly reinvents racism, patriarchalism, xenophobia, and intolerance of social and cultural diversity to dominate and exclude. Today, it is visible in the territorialization of racism, the fissures between city and countryside and between agribusiness and social forms of production, and the relations between peoples and nations. Old patriarchalism is renewed and naturalized by capitalism, which devalues, but benefits from, an economy of care, imposing a double workday on women. Publicizing and politicizing this agenda that emerges from women's struggles is a task of citizenship as a whole, from local to global. It is essential to think about the necessary process of cumulative disruptions. The question that arises is political and ethical at the same time as the legitimacy of the struggle for change challenges institutional legality and continuity. The institutional framework that confines us to nation-states proves to be a necessary but extremely limited arena for the struggle for "another possible world" or, as I prefer today, "another possible civilization." We are faced with the unavoidable need to oppose citizenship and peoples' sovereignty to national states and their monopoly in the world sphere of power. This implies taking on the existing legal framework that denies equal rights and destroy the natural foundations of life. This is fundamental: citizenship is not a gift of states, but a political condition of being part of humanity. Therefore, the agenda of rethinking and refounding the state necessarily arises as a political expression of the power that equal and diverse “citizenships” confer on it. One more essential element of the agenda: the new architecture of power. Interdependence between peoples and nations in today's globalized capitalism is undoubtedly a major problem created by the imperialist domination of developed countries, particularly the United States. But this interdependence carries a contradiction that offers a huge possibility for the future. The WSF itself, as a space for an emerging planetary citizenship, would not have been possible were it not for the diffuse awareness that we are part of the same humanity and share the same planet. Interdependence, however, cannot be theorized and practiced without a concrete location, where we have the essentials of our lives and relationships with others and make our exchanges with the biosphere. The burning questions become: How can we rethink this fundamental place, in terms of power, culture, and economy, from a planetary citizen perspective? And how can we rethink world power from a perspective of territorialized citizenship? *A possible way of acting beyond the WSF * Here I want to draw attention to the fundamental need to re-organize our forces in order to propel the citizen agenda of building another civilization. Again, the WSF serves as an inspiration, but it lacks the capacity to undertake the difficult and continuing task of organizing the collective subjects of citizenship, assessing political opportunities, and waging the struggle. It is only in acting that one does the action (it is by walking that one does the path), but the process begins by agreeing on a broad agenda. This already points beyond the WSF to the plurality of citizenship as a possible historical block for constituting and instituting planetary citizenship of another world. The tricky question is how to build coalitions of collective subjects with a maximum common denominator (to counteract the lowest common denominator of certain generic and empty statements) for the agenda and basis for political action. I speak here of inter-movement coalitions and active citizenship organizations. The relative success of existing thematic campaigns and networks of collective construction of strategic thinking, such as the GTN, is a point of departure. However, we need differentiated and coordinated actions of a militant citizenship contesting existing structures and powers in the most diverse situations. We lack, but need, effective intra-movements networks and organizations, linking the local with the world embracing strategic vision of the whole political task. This requires patient work of building what potentially will be the new collective political subjects, necessarily plural and diverse, with their own identities and proposals, from local to global, articulating themselves to have the power to transform the world. The crucial issue of action is the political and cultural construction of counter-hegemonies in concrete local societies and at various levels of political influence, up to world power structures. How can we do this without factionalism, as is the tradition of the left? The secret, it seems to me, lies in building open coalitions, which start by recognizing others as indispensable, and which depends on honoring and implementing their agenda. In this way, active consensus can be generated, which is fundamental in the struggle for a new hegemony. It is crucial to recognize that, for citizenship, the public space for debate and free circulation of ideas is always the priority. Communication and public campaigns are thus a priority arena for the necessary course of action. Cândido Grzybowski [1] For more reflections on this issue, see my text, presented at the 10-year Thematic World Social Forum event in Porto Alegre, entitled “Beyond the World Social Forum ( http://www.ipsnews.net/2010/01/beyond-the-world-social-forum/ ). This was also the moment when I was most deeply engaged in new initiatives, for example, the conference at Ibase on new paradigms in 2012, for which I wrote “Foundations for Biocivilization” ( http://www2.world-governance.org/article796.html ). ******************************************************************************************* >From Roberto Savio [utopia(a)robertosavio.info] ------------------------------ [Per Paul's email, reproduced below, we are kicking off this month's discussion with a response from longtime member of the WSF International Concil Roberto Savio. We look forward to your contributions. -- JC] Farewell to the World Social Forum? Roberto Savio Opening reflections for a GTN forum, 9/3/19 LOOKING BACK The first World Social Forum in 2001 ushered in the new century with a bold affirmation: “Another world is possible.” That gathering in Porto Alegre, Brazil, stood as an alternative and a challenge to the World Economic Forum, held at the same time an ocean away in the snowy Alps of Davos, Switzerland. A venue for power elites to set the course of world development, the WEF was then, and remains now, the symbol for global finance, unchecked capitalism, and the control of politics by multinational corporations. The WSF, by contrast, was created as an arena for the grassroots to gain a voice. The idea emerged from a 1999 visit to Paris by two Brazilian activists, Oded Grajew, who was working on corporate social responsibility, and Chico Whitaker, the executive secretary of the Commission of Justice and Peace, an initiative of the Brazilian Catholic Church. Incensed by the ubiquitous, uncritical news coverage of Davos, they met with Bernard Cassen, editor of Le Monde Diplomatique, who encouraged them to organize a counter-Davos in the Global South. With support from the government of Rio Grande do Sul, a committee of eight Brazilian organizations launched the first WSF. The expectation was that about 3,000 people attend (the same as Davos), but instead 20,000 activists from around the world came to Porto Alegre to organize and share their visions for six days. WSF annual meetings enjoyed great success, invariably drawing close to 100,000 participants (even as high as 150,000 in 2005). Eventually, the meetings moved out of Latin America, first to Mumbai in 2004, where 20,000 Dalits participated, then to Caracas, Nairobi, Dakar, Tunis, and Montreal. Along the way, two other streams—Regional Social Forums and Thematic Social Forums—were created to complement the annual central gathering, and local Forums were held in many countries. Cumulatively, the WSF has brought together millions of people willing to pay their travel and lodging costs to share their experiences and collective dreams for a better world. WSF’s Charter of Principles, drafted by the organizing committee of the first Forum and adopted at the event itself, reflected these dreams. The Charter presents a vision of deeply interconnected civil society groups collaborating to create new alternatives to neoliberal capitalism rooted in “human rights, the practices of real democracy, participatory democracy, peaceful relations, in equality and solidarity, among people, ethnicities, genders and peoples.” Yet, the “how” of realizing any vision was hamstrung from the start. The Charter’s first principle describes the WSF as an “open meeting place,” which, as interpreted by the Brazilian founders, precluded it from taking stances on pressing world crises. This resistance to collective political action relegated the WSF to a self-referential place of debate, rather than a body capable of taking real action in the international arena. It didn’t have to be this way. Indeed, the 2002 European Social Forum called for mass protest against the looming US invasion of Iraq, and the subsequent 2003 Forum played a major role in organizing the day of action the following month with 15 million protesters in the streets of 800 cities on all continents—the largest demonstration in history at the time. However, the WSF’s core organizers, who were not interested in this path, held sway, a phenomenon inextricable from the democratic deficit that has always dogged the Forum. Indeed, the WSF has never had a democratically elected leadership. After the first gathering, the Brazilian host committee convened a meeting in Sao Paolo to discuss how best to carry the WSF forward. They invited numerous international organizations, and on the second day of the meeting appointed us all as the International Council. Several important organizations, not interested in this meeting, were left off the council, and those who did attend were predominately from Europe and the Americas. In the ensuing years, efforts to change the composition created as many problems as they solved. Many organizations wanted to be represented on the Council, but due to vague criteria for evaluating their representativeness and strength, the Council soon became a long list of names (most inactive), with the roster of participants changing with every Council meeting. Despite repeated requests from participating organizations, the Brazilian founders have refused to revisit the Charter, defending it as an immutable text rather than a document of a particular historical moment. AT A CROSSROADS The future of the WSF remains uncertain. Out of a misguided fear of division, the Brazilian founders have thwarted efforts to allow the WSF to issue political declarations, establish spokespeople, and reevaluate the principle of horizontality, which eschews representative decision-making structures, as the basis for governance. Perhaps most significantly, they have resisted calls to transcend the WSF’s original mission as a venue for discussion and become a space for organizing. With WSF spokespeople forbidden, the media stopped coming, since they had no interlocutors. Even broad declarations that would not cause schism, like condemnation of wars or appeals for climate action, have been prohibited. As a result, the WSF has become akin to a personal growth retreat where participants come away with renewed individual strength, but without any impact on the world. Because of its inability to adapt, and thereby act, the WSF has lost an opportunity to influence how the public understands the crises the world faces, a vacuum that has been filled by the resurgent right-wing. In 2001, globalization’s critics emerged mainly on the left, pointing out how market-driven globalization runs roughshod over workers and the environment. Since then, as the WSF has floundered and social democratic parties have bought into the governing neoliberal consensus, the right has managed to capitalize on the broad and growing hostility to globalization, rooted especially in the feeling of being left behind experienced by working-class people. Prior to the US financial crisis of 2008 and the European sovereign bond crisis of 2009, the National Front in France was the only established right-wing party in the West. Since then, with a decade of economic chaos and brutal austerity, right-wing parties have blossomed everywhere. The unsettling rise of the anti-globalization right has scrambled many political assumptions and alliances. At the start of the WSF, our enemies were the international financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Now, these institutions support reducing income inequality and increasing public investment. The World Trade Organization, the infamous target of massive protests in 1999, was our enemy as well, for skewing the rules of global trade toward multinational corporations; now, US president Donald Trump is trying to dismantle it for having any rules at all. We criticized the European Commission for its free market commitment, and lack of social action: now we have to defend the idea of a United Europe against nationalism, xenophobia, and populism. These forces have upended and transformed global political dynamics. Those fighting globalization and multilateralism, using our diagnosis, are now the right-wing forces. LOOKING AHEAD Is there, then, a future for the World Social Forum? Logistically, the outlook is not good. Right-wing Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, an ally of authoritarian strongmen around the world, has announced that he will forbid any support for the Forum, putting its future at grave risk. Holding a forum of such size requires significant financial support, and a government at least willing to grant visas to participants from across the globe. The vibrant Brazilian civil society groups of 2001 are now struggling for survival. Indeed, right-wing governments around the world attack global civil society as a competitor or an enemy. In Italy, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has been pushing to eliminate the tax status of nonprofits. Like Salvini in Italy, Trump in the US, Viktor Orban in Hungary, Narendra Modi in India, and Shinzo Abe in Japan, among others, are unwilling to hear the voice of civil society. Their escalating assault on civil society might spell the formal end of the World Social Forum, although the WSF’s refusal to evolve with the times left the organization vulnerable to such assaults. If the World Social Forum does fade away as an actor on the global stage, we can take many valuable lessons from its history as we mount new initiatives for a “movement of movements.” First, we need to support civil society unity. Boaventura de Sousa Santos, the Portuguese anthropologist and a leading participant in the WSF, stresses the importance of “translation” between movement streams. Women’s organizations focus on patriarchy, indigenous organizations on colonial exploitation, human rights organizations on justice, and environmental organizations on sustainability. Building mutual understanding, trust, and a basis for collective work requires a process of translation and interpretation of different priorities, embedding them in a holistic framework. Any initiative to build transnational movement coordination must address this challenge. While it is easier to build a mass action against a common enemy, nurturing a common movement culture requires a process of sustained dialogue. The WSF was instrumental in creating awareness of the need for a holistic approach to fight, under the same rubric, climate change, unchecked finance, social injustice, and ecological degradation. Building on that experience with how the issues intersect is critical to a viable global movement. The WSF has made possible alliances among the social movements, which got their legitimacy by fighting the system, and the myriad NGOs, which got theirs from the agenda of the United Nations. This is certainly a significant historical contribution, enabling the next phase in the evolution of global civil society. Second, we need to balance movement horizontalism and organizational structure. For the vast majority of participants in cutting-edge progressive movements over the past half-century, the notion of a political party, or any such organization, has been linked to oppressive power, corruption, and lack of legitimacy. This suspicion of organization, reflected in the core ideology of the WSF, has contributed to its lack of action. This tendency to reject verticality out of fear of its association with oppression poses a major challenge to the formation of a global movement: those who would be, in principle, its largest constituency will question overarching organizational structures. Based on historical experience, they fear the generation of unhealthy structures of power, the corruption of ideals, and the lack of real participation. Nevertheless, coordination is essential for a diverse global movement to develop sufficient coherence. The task is to find legitimate forms of collective organization that balance the tension between the commitments to both unity and pluralism. Third, a global movement effort must navigate a new media landscape. The Internet has changed the character of political participation. Space has shrunk, and time has become fluid and compressed. Social media has become more important than conventional media. Indeed, it was essential, for example, to the election of Bolsonaro in Brazil and Salvini in Italy, as well as Brexit in the UK. US newspapers have a daily run of 62 million copies (ten million from quality papers like the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post), while Trump tweets to as many followers. Contemporary communications technology, while used to sow confusion and abuse by the right, must be central to transnational mobilization campaigns fostering awareness and solidarity. Political apathy among potential allies remains as great a challenge as the right-wing surge. This is not a new phenomenon. The triumphant pronouncements of the end of ideology and history three decades ago helped mute explicit debate on the long-term vision for society. Instead, the technocrats of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the US Treasury foisted the Washington Consensus on the rest of the world: financial deregulation, trade liberalization, privatization, and fiscal austerity. The benefits of globalization would lift all boats; curb nonproductive social costs; privatize health and more; and globalize trade, finance, and industry. Center-left parties across the West resigned themselves to this brave new world. “Third Way” leaders like British Prime Minister Tony Blair argued that since corporate globalization was inevitable, progressives could, at best, give it a human face. In the absence of a real alternative to the dominant paradigm, the left lost its constituency. The wreckage left behind by neoliberal governments has become the engine for the populist and xenophobic forces from across the globe. Looking ahead, to build a viable political formation for a Great Transition, we must find a banner under which people can rally. Climate action has increasingly served this function, with the youthfulness of the climate movement a reason for hope. The climate strike movement, led by Swedish student Greta Thunberg, has engaged tens of thousands of students worldwide and shown that the fight for a better world is on. These new young activists, many of whom have probably never heard of the WSF, do not pretend to come with a pre-made platform; they simply ask the system to listen to scientists. The lack of a full vision allows them to avoid many of the WSF’s problems, yet still underscore how the system has exhausted its viability in the face of spiraling crises. Millions of people across the globe are engaged at the grassroots level, hundreds of times more than related to the WSF. The great challenge is to connect with those working to change the present dire trends, making clear that we are not part of the same elite structures and, indeed, share the same enemy. The historic preconditions undergird the possibility of such a project, our visions of another world give it a direction, and the growing restlessness of countless ordinary people is a hopeful harbinger. Can we find the modes of communication and alliance to galvanize the global movement and propel it forward? I do not see much value in a coalition of organizations and militants who meet merely to discuss among themselves. Collective action is necessary for counterbalancing the decline of democracy, increasing civic participation, and keeping values and visions at the forefront. In the WSF, the debate about moving in this direction has been going for quite some time, but has repeatedly run up against the intransigence of the founders. It would be a mistake to lose the WSF’s impressive history and convening authority. But we need to recreate it in order to reflect the present barbarized. Will we be able to reform WSF, and if this is not possible, create an alternative? Citizens have become more aware of the need for change than they were when we first met in Porto Alegre many years ago. But they are also more divided, some taking the reactionary path of following authoritarian leaders, some the progressive path of social justice, participation, transparency, and cooperation. As the conventional system destabilizes and loses legitimacy, giving life to a revamped WSF—or creating a new platform—might be easier than the challenge of launching the process eighteen years ago. Still, realizing the next phase will take new leaders, wide participation, and recognition of the need for new structures. In these times, this is a tall order. ********************************************************************* Tuesday, September 3, 2019 >From Paul Raskin [praskin(a)tellus.org] ________________________________________ Dear GTN, Since 2001, the World Social Forum has served as civil society’s answer to the World Economic Forum, the annual powwow in Davos of the masters of the neoliberal universe. Over the years, the WSF has brought together hundreds of thousands of activists to meet, network, and reenergize commitments. It has stood as a tangible expression of the diffuse but vibrant “alter globalization” community, and a source of hope for the emergence of a systemic global movement. At the same time, the WSF has mirrored the movement’s immaturity. Most significantly, the disabling fragmentation within civil society has been reflected in the forest of separate tents that spring up at Forums, each devoted to specific issues and grievances, with little exploration of common visions, positions, and coordination mechanisms. More prosaically, the logistical chaos that has plagued Forums and frustrated attendees symbolizes the underdeveloped organizational capacity of the “movement of movements.” Now, as these deficits take their toll and the times change, the WSF seems to be losing momentum and relevance. So it’s timely to critically reflect on its achievements and whether the WSF, itself, needs a Great Transition. Our September GTN Discussion—FAREWELL TO THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM?—takes up the challenge. (Please organize your comments as responses to one or more of the following topics.) * Looking Back* What has been the historic significance of the WSF? In what ways has its strategy of providing a neutral gathering space advanced (or curtailed) the “movement of movements”? * At a Crossroads* Does the WSF retain its vitality as a beacon of “another world,” or is it losing momentum? Has its unbending commitment to radical pluralism sacrificed movement unity? * Looking Ahead* Should the WSF continue to operate as an open space? Seek to reinvent itself as a collective force for political action? Or should attention shift to fresh initiatives for building a coherent global movement? Roberto Savio, founder of Inter Press Service (IPS) and longtime member of the WSF International Council, opens the debate. His essay can be found here <https://greattransition.org/images/Savio-Farewell-WSF.pdf> . I look forward to your comments, whether brief or extended (but less than 1,200 words). The discussion will go through Wednesday, October 2, when Roberto will have an opportunity to respond. Per usual, we will then create a public GTI Forum that samples a range of perspectives raised in the internal GTN discussion. Over to you, Paul ---------------------------------------------------------- Hit reply to post a comment on the GT Network Read all comments (or reply) here <https://greattransition.org/gtn-discussions/farewell-to-the-wsf#3038> Note: Expect a delay between posting and receiving your comment 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

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