- P2P-Foundation - lists.ourproject.org

new affiliates for p2p lab and solidarity franchising proposals
by Michel Bauwens 11 Jan '19

11 Jan '19

dear friends, some of you will appreciate that the P2P Foundation is a heterarchical network, i.e. a collaboration of autonomous streams of activity, and accompagnying independent institutions, that coordinate their work and aims around 3 shared strategic objectives (ethical livelihoods, sustainable production, commons-based policy transitions) and a agreement around constitutive values ('about the p2p foundation' page). So we have a research activity stream, represented by a physical p2p lab, a greek NGO to handle administration, and a 'affiliate network' In total, we have 13 paid people in the p2p foundation, 10 of whom are researchers, at least according to my count <g>; also we are of have hired an extra 6 people for 4 years, to do cosmo-local research. The P2P Lab is now also extending its reach and capacity for action research, through an 'Affiliate Network', where we were just joined by the amazing Laura Martelloni of the LAMA cooperative, with whom we collaborated in the past. P2P Lab’s affiliates are (in alphabetical order): Primavera De Filippi Lucas Lemos Laura Martelloni Vasilis Ntouros Elena Pagani Kelly Pavlaki The P2P Lab also announces the creation of a solidarity franchising initiative, to create a network of labs. "We will gladly collaborate with communities or individuals who want to build a P2P Lab in their city inspired by the idea of solidarity franchising." Vasilis Niaros knows more: http://www.p2plab.gr/en/members -- 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: MEDIA RELEASE: Cape Town drought made 3 times more likely by climate change, scientists report - 11 January 2019
by Michel Bauwens 11 Jan '19

11 Jan '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Ryan Fortune <ryan.fortune(a)uct.ac.za> Date: Fri, Jan 11, 2019 at 11:42 AM Subject: MEDIA RELEASE: Cape Town drought made 3 times more likely by climate change, scientists report - 11 January 2019 To: Ryan Fortune <ryan.fortune(a)uct.ac.za> <https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/about/> <http://acdi.uct.ac.za/> *MEDIA RELEASE* *Cape Town drought made 3 times more likely by climate change, scientists report* *Cape Town, 11 January 2019* – Man-made climate change and its effect on rainfall made the drought in South Africa’s Western Cape province over the past few years about three times more likely, according to the latest study by a group of international climate scientists. Working under the auspices of World Weather Attribution (WWA) <https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/>, the scientists report that all the climate models used in their study show the likelihood of droughts like the current one going back to 2015, although still very rare, will increase with further warming. The team looked at data for the Western Cape region which contains the dams and reservoirs providing water for Cape Town and surrounding farmland. The main factor behind the drought and the consequent water shortage was below-average rainfall rather than surface evaporation caused by high atmospheric temperatures. “This drought is still a rare event in the current climate, but our results suggest the risk is changing and that it’s important to improve resilience to drought,” said Piotr Wolski <http://www.csag.uct.ac.za/author/pwolski/>, a researcher at the University of Cape Town, co-author of the study. “People’s taps did not run dry and the feared ‘Day Zero’ emergency has been narrowly averted for the moment, due to public’s adherence to water restrictions and at the cost of switching off supplies for irrigation. But this was clearly not a sustainable solution.” Friederike Otto <https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/people/fotto.html>, lead-author of the study and acting director at the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University, adds: “These results and the generally increased likelihood of drought is in line with our general understanding of what climate change means for semi-arid regions like Southern Africa; preparing for more of the same would be wise.” Studies cited by the WWA group say the Western Cape drought was the worst almost since the beginning of the 20th century. The dams that supply Cape Town are entirely dependent on rainfall, making the system vulnerable to climatic variability and change, although it’s designed to cope with droughts that might occur once every 50 years on average. Overall, the current crisis was found to be a 1-in-150-year event for the Western Cape Region, but – the team believe – more acute local variations particularly affecting the dams’ actual catchment areas could make this at least a 1-in-300 year event for the municipal water supply. Last year some 33,000 seasonal farm-labourers lost work because of the drought. "Cape Town’s drought teaches us that climate change is not a thing of a distant future: it's happening already and impacts us today," says Professor Mark New <http://www.acdi.uct.ac.za/acdi/core-team/professor-mark-new>, director of the African Climate & Development Initiative <http://www.acdi.uct.ac.za> (ACDI) at the University of Cape Town. "We are running out of time to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and more importantly, we can no longer postpone taking precautionary and adaptive actions." *Read the full paper **here* <http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aae9f9/meta>*.* *Find the technical summary **here* <https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/analyses/the-role-of-climate-change…> *.* - *Ends – * *FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO BOOK INTERVIEWS: * Ryan Fortune Strategic Communications Manager African Climate & Development Initiative (ACDI) +27 (0)21-650-3434 +27 (0)72-202-5629 ryan.fortune(a)uct.ac.za About the African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) <http://www.acdi.uct.ac.za/acdi/about-us> *The African Climate & Development Initiative (ACDI) is the University of Cape Town’s collective response to the challenge of climate change in the context of sustainable development in Africa. *ACDI is an inter- and transdisciplinary research and training Institute that brings together academics across UCT and beyond, NGOs, business, civil society and government to co-produce and test new insights, evidence and innovations that will help to solve Africa's climate and development challenges. About World Weather Attribution (WWA) <https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/about/> World Weather Attribution (WWA) is an international effort to analyse and communicate the possible influence of climate change on extreme weather events, such as storms, extreme rainfall, heatwaves, cold spells, and droughts. Recognising society’s interest in reducing the human, economic, and environmental costs of weather-related disasters, WWA delivers timely and scientifically reliable information on how extreme weather may be affected by climate change. WWA was initiated in late 2014 after the scientific community concluded that the emerging science of extreme event attribution could be operationalised. Disclaimer - University of Cape Town This email is subject to UCT policies and email disclaimer published on our website at http://www.uct.ac.za/main/email-disclaimer or obtainable from +27 21 650 9111. If this email is not related to the business of UCT, it is sent by the sender in an individual capacity. Please report security incidents or abuse via https://csirt.uct.ac.za/page/report-an-incident.php. -- 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: We're looking for a new PhD student
by Michel Bauwens 10 Jan '19

10 Jan '19

Call for a PhD student The Ragnar Nurkse School of Innovation and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology Estonia, is offering doctoral position for ERC Starting Grant “COSMOLOCALISM – Design Global, Manufacture Local” led by Prof. Vasilis Kostakis. http://www.cosmolocalism.eu/call-for-a-phd-student/ ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Vasilis Kostakis <kostakis.b(a)gmail.com> Date: Tue, Jan 8, 2019 at 5:00 PM Subject: We're looking for a new PhD student To: Michel Bauwens <michel(a)p2pfoundation.net> Michel, you may share the following call for applications: http://www.cosmolocalism.eu/call-for-a-phd-student/ -- Vasilis Kostakis Professor of P2P Governance, TalTech Faculty Associate, Harvard University Founder, P2P Lab -- 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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Michel Bauwens Introducing Peer Production for the World Commons Week of the IASC
by Michel Bauwens 09 Jan '19

09 Jan '19

dear friends, trying to generate some extra views to this valuable collection of commons presentations by the IASC, thanks for diffusing if you can. It's a seminar type overview of our approach and the evolution of the commons from a historical perspective. Michel Bauwens Introducing Peer Production for the World Commons Week of the IASC <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Michel_Bauwens_Introducing_Peer_Production_f…> <https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Michel_Bauwens_Introducing_Peer_Production_f…> Video via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjz4SFcrAt0&t=55s Introduction and overview of (commons-based) peer production. Includes a historical overview of the evolution of the commons throughout history. 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: Public Declaration about Just and Sustainable Manufacturing in Australia
by Michel Bauwens 09 Jan '19

09 Jan '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Joanne McNeill <J.Mcneill(a)westernsydney.edu.au> Date: Wed, Jan 9, 2019 at 5:05 AM Subject: Public Declaration about Just and Sustainable Manufacturing in Australia To: michelsub2004(a)gmail.com <michelsub2004(a)gmail.com> Hi Michel We thought you may be interested to see the attached Public Declaration that outlines a vision for just and sustainable manufacturing in Australia, signed by industry leaders who are participating in our Australian Research Council Discovery Project ( https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/ics/research/projects#manufacturing) Before Christmas, on behalf of the signatories, we sent this declaration to a broad range of politicians in the Federal and NSW governments in an attempt to inform policy deliberations in the lead up to the 2019 Federal and NSW State elections. As you are no doubt aware, business is being asked to take a lead in meeting the targets set by the Sustainable Development Goals (see the recent report www.pwc.com/sdgreportingchallenge) Our research has identified that the manufacturers who are signatories to this Public Declaration have much to showcase about how the Sustainable Development Goals *Decent Work and Economic Growth* (Goal 8), and *Responsible Consumption and Production* (Goal 12) can be met. Their stories are largely unknown. We have also sent the Declaration to a range of stakeholders here in Australia, with the following included: *In the coming months we will be preparing a policy and industry focused report and so are currently seeking input to inform its broad positioning. We would be very interested to hear of any events, publications or other channels you may be able to suggest - through which we could help to raise the profile of the work of this group of manufacturers and to promote discussion of the research findings. * With best regards Jo (for the research team) ----- *Joanne McNeill * PhD (Political & Social Thought) | MA (Comms) | Churchill Fellow (2008) Research Projects Manager | Senior Research Associate Institute for Culture & Society | Western Sydney University J.McNeill(a)westernsydney.edu.au | +61 402 200 816 <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joanne_Mcneill4/contributions> https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joanne_Mcneill4 www.linkedin.com/in/joannemcneill/ @JoanneMcNeill <http://twitter.com/JoanneMcNeill> -- 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: FoP RoP - the landscape of the heart-mind in activist practice
by Michel Bauwens 07 Jan '19

07 Jan '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: mike hales <michaelhales(a)mac.com> Date: Sat, Jan 5, 2019 at 6:21 PM Subject: FoP RoP - the landscape of the heart-mind in activist practice To: mh home <michaelhales(a)mac.com> Dear all, happy new year / Here’s a link to a blog post which introduces a recently added section of my FoP RoP website, addressing the landscape of the heart-mind (‘emotional commons’) in organic intellectual, libertarian-socialist, cultural-materialist, P2P-commons, activist practice . . 05 | Walker takes up his place in the scheme of things <https://www.foprop.org/blog-1/walker-living-the-activist-life> > This section includes a piece from 2018 on sectarianism and activism in ’the Lower Left’ > <https://www.foprop.org/lower-left> The piece also serves to outline the framework of the whole FoP RoP project (FoP RoP = Forces of production, relations of production). > The (under-developed) heart of the project is a ‘pattern language’ for P2P-commoning. The vocabulary of patterns is yet to be installed (there’s an outline list of working titles, derived from Bollier & Helfrich). But there’s quite a bit of work on the architecture that’s appropriate to this kind of experiential, maker-activist framing. This includes thoughts on diverse approachs to platforming in a pluriverse of political-cultural formations > <https://www.foprop.org/platforms-in-a-pluriverse> > And the interweaving - in a commons-of-commons - of commons of material provision and dependency (including money and software code), commons of labour-power (including stories and sciences) and emotional commons. > > A major strand is work on making 'a living economy', being carried out within/by a book collective gathered during 2018, in honour of economist Robin Murray. Not a lot in the FoP RoP website at present, but more to come over coming months, as work on the book gets into gear. For example, stuff around literacy of ‘the heart-mind’ will be developed as a contribution in a stream of work on ‘formacion’ for venturing in the living economy. And there’ll be stuff on solidarity economy/coops/P2P-commons/OpenApps as activist formations in ’the new economy'. > > There’s also a chunk on the 70s-80s radical science movement > < https://www.foprop.org/blog-1/p2pcommons-the-historical-third-movement-of-r… > > within a section on historical formations of ‘radical professional’ activism in the baby-boomer generation. History matters? Sometimes, wheels shouldn’t be reinvented; and sometimes they shouldn’t be re-used! All these are linked from the above blog piece. I would be delighted to know what you make of FoP RoP as a project - spun up just 6 months ago. There’s a Forum section in the website, as yet undeveloped. If you’d like to pitch in some comments please let me know, and we can ‘christen’ the forum? Or you could become a contributor to the blog? Alternatively, for some recipients, we can pick this up in Loomio or social.coop mastodon. Looking forward to what will hatch in the new year / mike -- 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: Team Human Book Launch Party and Talk
by Michel Bauwens 07 Jan '19

07 Jan '19

Rushkoff has a new book: https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Team_Human ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: <douglas(a)rushkoff.com> Date: Sun, Jan 6, 2019 at 7:07 PM Subject: Team Human Book Launch Party and Talk To: <rushkoff(a)simplelists.com> I'm doing a book launch event at Civic Hall in New York City on Wednesday January 23. It's completely free, but space is limited so you have to rsvp. Free books, food, conversation, and fun. I'll be doing a short talk, then a discussion with Medium editor Siobhan O'Connor. Then signing, drinking, and finding the others. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/team-human-book-launch-event-with-douglas-rush… This event is the only one of its kind, and it will fill up quickly. I'll be sending out news of the rest of the tour next week. You can find out my upcoming dates on the home page of http://rushkoff.com Meanwhile, for those of you who like this list for the articles I select for sharing, here's a fun one on Russian Cosmism and how it informs today's religion of technology: There is a Silicon Valley religion, and it’s one that doesn’t particularly care for people — at least not in our present form. Technologists may pretend to be led by a utilitarian, computational logic devoid of superstition, but make no mistake: There is a prophetic belief system embedded in the technologies and business plans coming out of Google, Uber, Facebook, and Amazon, among others. It is a techno-utopian and deeply anti-human sensibility, born out of a little-known confluence of American and Soviet New Age philosophers, scientists, and spiritualists who met up in the 1980s hoping to prevent nuclear war — but who ended up hatching a worldview that’s arguably as dangerous to the human future as any atom bomb. I tell the story in my new book, Team Human, because it’s one I have yet to see documented anywhere else. I pieced it together through interviews with some of the people involved in the Esalen “track two diplomacy” program. The idea was to forge new lines of communication between the Cold War powers by bringing some of the USSR’s leading scientists and spiritualists to the Esalen Institute to mix with their counterparts in the United States. Maybe we all have common goals? They set up a series of events at Esalen’s Big Sur campus, where everyone could hear about each other’s work and dreams at meetings during the day and hot tub sessions into the night. That’s how some of the folks from Stanford Research Institute and Silicon Valley, who would one day be responsible for funding and building our biggest technology firms, met up with Russia’s “cosmists.” They were espousing a form of science fiction gnosticism that grew out of the Russian Orthodox tradition’s emphasis on immortality. The cosmists were a big hit, and their promise of life extension technologies quickly overtook geopolitics as the primary goal of the conferences. Self-actualization through technology meant leaving the body behind — but this was okay since, in keeping with the gnostic tradition, the body was the source of human sin and corruption. The cosmists talked about reassembling human beings, atom by atom, after death, moving one’s consciousness into a robot and colonizing space. The cosmists pulled it all together for the fledgling American transhumanists: They believed human beings could not only transcend the limits of our mortal shell but also manifest physically through new machines. With a compellingly optimistic have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too gusto, the cosmists told America’s LSD-taking spiritualists that technology could give them a way to beat death. Self-actualization through technology meant leaving the body behind — but this was okay since, in keeping with the gnostic tradition, the body was the source of human sin and corruption. The stuff robots and computers could reproduce was the best stuff about us, anyway. The idea that lit up the turned-on technoculture was that technology would be our evolutionary partner and successor — that humans are essentially computational, and computers could do computation better. Any ideas that could be construed to support this contention were embraced. And so Stanford professor René Girard — whose work had much broader concerns — was appreciated almost solely for his assertion that human beings are not original or creative but purely imitative creatures. And, even more thrilling to future tech titans like Peter Thiel, that the apocalypse was indeed coming, but it was the humans’ own damn fault. No less popular to this day are the “captology” classes of Stanford’s B.J. Fogg, who teaches how to design interfaces that manipulate human behavior as surely as a slot machine can. According to the department’s website, “The purpose of the Persuasive Technology Lab is to create insight into how computing products—from websites to mobile phone software—can be designed to change people’s beliefs and behaviors.” Toward what? Toward whatever behaviors technologies can induce — and away from those it can’t. As a result, we have Facebook using algorithms to program people’s emotions and actions. We have Uber using machine learning to replace people’s employment. We have Google developing artificial intelligence to replace human consciousness. And we have Amazon extracting the life’s blood of the human marketplace to deliver returns to the abstracted economy of stocks and derivatives. The anti-human agenda of technologists might not be so bad — or might never be fully realized — if it didn’t dovetail so neatly with the anti-human agenda of corporate capitalism. Each enables the other, reinforcing an abstract, growth-based scheme of infinite expansion — utterly incompatible with human life or the sustainability of our ecosystem. They both depend on a transcendent climax where the chrysalis of matter is left behind and humanity is reborn as pure consciousness or pure capital. We are not being beaten by machines, but by a league of tech billionaires who have been taught to believe that human beings are the problem and technology is the solution. We must become aware of their agenda and fight it if we are going to survive. -- My new book, Team Human <https://www.amazon.com/Team-Human-Douglas-Rushkoff/dp/039365169X> is available for pre-order! Douglas Rushkoff http://rushkoff.com Founder, Laboratory of Digital Humanism and Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics, CUNY/Queens Team Human <http://teamhuman.fm> - the podcast! Sign up for RushkoffMail <http://www.simplelists.com/subscribe/rushkoff> to get updates and newest writing ---- This is RushkoffList, a monthlyish update and advance look at work in progress. Feel free to forward to your friends as long as you include this footer. To subscribe, use this link: http://www.simplelists.com/subscribe/rushkoff To unsubscribe: http://www.simplelists.com/confirm.php?u=grdK4Lvi7veNxafT2DxZrw1oAyoTFsEc -- 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: A World Political Party: The Time Has Come (GTN Discussion)
by Michel Bauwens 05 Jan '19

05 Jan '19

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Great Transition Network <gtnetwork(a)greattransition.org> Date: Fri, Jan 4, 2019 at 10:49 PM Subject: A World Political Party: The Time Has Come (GTN Discussion) To: <michelsub2004(a)gmail.com> >From Ronaldo Munck <ronnie.munck(a)dcu.ie> ------------------------------------------------------- It is great to see Heikki articulating the case for a World Political Party. As Paul says, if we disagree or have another option for an adequate vehicle for global transformation, we should offer it up. While there is not space to do that here, I will make a few points. What we are offered or suggested is a new global political party, defined as “an open ethico-political association in pursuit of a broad program of societal reorganization on a global scale. A WPP offers the most promise for fostering political coherence in civil society.” What is suggested as a precursor is the Varoufakis-inspired European civil society movement DiEM25 which “intends to have a draft constitution prepared by 2025 that, if adopted, would replace all existing European treaties. Beyond this process, the movement strives to overcome austerity and harmful competition in Europe with concrete policy proposals, including the dedication of 500 billion euros per year to green investment and industrial conversion.” What is immediately apparent to me is the mismatch between the enormity of the tasks set and the relative lack of visibility of the vehicle proposed to meet the challenges. You cannot just ignore the current political party set-up, the state alliances, and the forces contesting them and just wish a WPP into existence. Is it to be ‘beyond left and right’? The Third Way also said that. Is to be transnational? Take a group of European intellectuals, add Assange and Chomsky, and off we go? To call this utopian thinking does not even begin to describe the analytical and political problems emerging. There seems little strategic notion of any sort to describe or think how we get from the here to where we want to go. For me, one of the underlying conceptual problems in this call is the reliance on the notion of global civil society, which I (and others) have critiqued at length elsewhere ( www.researchgate.net/publication/225521084_Global_Civil_Society_Royal_Road_… ). Global civil society (GCS) in contemporary guise (See, for example, John Keane's Democracy and Civil Society or Mary Kaldor's Global Civil Society: An Answer to War) is based on universalist moral norms and values. This normative vision owes much to the work of Habermas, in particular the importance of communicative dialogue to fulfill the promise of the European Enlightenment. Thus, GCS is an ideal or virtual space, quite distinct from the actually existing civil societies around the world. This normative space is characterized by non-instrumental dialogue and ethical principles. It eschews all that smacks of self-interest and, of course, the merest hint that force might play a role in progressive social change and democratization. Reflecting its origins in Eastern European oppositional discourse pre-1989, this view of GCS is deeply imbued with the notion of “anti-politics,” the rejection of all state-oriented or party or mass politics in favour of an ethical, moral, and individualistic conception of the good politics. I have no problem with that, but it is not a global perspective. It cannot be the basis for a World Political Party because it does not reflect the politics of the global South in any way. Think of the rise of Bolsonaro in Brazil now and what it will mean for progressive forces (civil society if you will) there. The struggle against this will be built by the trade unions, peasant movements, and community organisations and by those seeking to rebuild the Workers Party to make it fit for purpose again. So, I am not against Heikki’s project -- how could anyone? -- but I would just like to point out that it does not travel well in the parts of the world where struggle is raw. Ronaldo Munck *************************************************** Thursday, January 3, 2019 >From Paul Raskin <praskin(a)tellus.org> ----- Dear GTN, Our 2018 forums have spotlighted key movement streams (with more in the queue for 2019). We have generated a remarkable compendium of essays and commentary that stands as a unique resource for understanding the vitality and diversity of progressive forces now at play. Significantly, the series affirms the fundamental GT premise that different oppositional paths can lead to a shared conviction: we must urgently act collectively for global transformation.* Yet, the nagging sense persists that the current array of movements remains too fragmented and weak for the task of systemic change. The political culture still lacks an overarching global organizing framework for nurturing synergy, mobilizing the discontented, and spreading new social visions – not to mention serving ultimately as an instrument for attaining public power. What might such a framework look like? The question brings me to our January discussion. Heikki Patomäki offers an answer in his new essay, “A World Political Party: The Time Has Come.” Heikki envisions a World Political Party (WPP) as a transnational association dedicated to democratic principles and processes that, under an umbrella of shared principles and aims, spawns a vast network of semiautonomous nodes at all levels. While noting the high hurdles to establishing a WPP, Heikki points to the deepening world crisis that compels the attempt and makes success plausible; indeed, he believes an important precursor has already been launched. What do you think? Please read the essay at www.greattransition.org/publication/world-political-party, and let us know. Does the idea of a WPP resonate? How would you modify Heikki’s conception? To those of you pursuing other approaches to fostering movement coherence, this would be a terrific time to tell us about them. Since we’re starting late, the discussion will go through Monday, February 4. Over to you, Paul * See the framing paper that kicked off this series at www.greattransition.org/publication/how-do-we-get-there. ------------------------------------------------------- Hit reply to post a comment on the GT Network Read all comments (or reply) at https://greattransition.org/forum/gti-discussions/209-a-world-political-par… 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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+ Cosmolocalization Scrip ? Re:
by Michel Bauwens 28 Dec '18

28 Dec '18

> This seems pretty much what MMT economists are describing, coupled with > localization (michael schulman) currencies, > what I don't see is the 'cosmo' part, feasible, but politically without much traction for the moment, Michel > > > Message: 2 > Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2018 10:17:13 +0100 > From: Dante-Gabryell Monson <dante.monson(a)gmail.com> > To: p2p-foundation <p2p-foundation(a)lists.ourproject.org> > Subject: [P2P-F] + Cosmolocalization Scrip ? Re: What happens when a > state doesn't control its own monetary creation ? > Message-ID: > < > CAGaoiphwvZcNJHYtmC1isWJaby6vzktVUcwdpEQ7LGsSfm1Ang(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Places / real economies like Greece ( although Estonia would also be an > interesting place as its government already invested in blockchain database > solutions ) > > could imho benefit from a state guaranteed Cosmolocalization Scrip > > https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrip > > For example, a government could decide to issue Scrip ( the state of > California did issue IOU's, a few years back, that could be used to pay > taxes ) > > and decide to spend it into existence in sectors of the local economy it > could even decide to define and update ( using scrip in the form of a token > / smart contract ), > > ideally to generate access to currency in parts of the economy that are > under served in currency, and especially to enable services and production > that can reduce dependency on imports and/or bootstrap sectors that could > also lead to exports. > > It could also track usage of the scrip through analytics enabled by its > tokens on its blockchain ( or holochain ? ) , understanding the effects and > usage of the scrip. ( potentially anonymized ? ) > > This would fit perfectly within a Cosmolocalization narrative. > > Such a Scrip could also function so as to reduce paper work ( online > accounts, digital payments ) and be adapted, not to replace Euros, but as a > complementary currency. For example, imported goods might only have a > percentage of the price of the good related to local services in cosmo > scrip. > > The government(s) could also generate demand for the scrip by accepting it > as a medium of tax payment. Although to avoid it replacing all euro tax > income, the government(s - including regional or local ) could for example > accept only a certain percentage of a persons or company's scrip as tax > payment. Similarly to a dual complementary currency mode used for other > goods. > > It could experiment at first with anything that is locally produced, and > also start by allocating an addition to the current euro salary of > government workers, in scrip. > > If successful, it could also enable loans in scrip, by local businesses > that can use it to develop local production ( and ultimately reduce the > need for imports ), > > and it can also strategically enable clusters of interdependent businesses > that can benefit from each others services, > > and can also ultimately facilitate online markets and a c3 ( commercial > credit circuit ) > > > https://tradingeconomics.com/greece/balance-of-trade > > https://tradingeconomics.com/greece/current-account > > > > On Fri, Dec 28, 2018, 07:53 Dante-Gabryell Monson <dante(a)ecobytes.net > wrote: > > > Just brainstormed this on fb : > > As long as there are foreign currency reserves ( usually trade surplus vs > the currency ), the state could spend as much as it needs into creation, > and as long as this spending meets development it doesn't necessarily mean > inflation. > > Hyperinflation happens so as to reduce the capacity of each to buy imported > goods, in a situation of severe trade disbalance and a scarcity of foreign > reserves. Deflation in the case of not having control on your own currency > and monetary supply drying out. > > Currently, limitations imposed on european states are meant to avoid > inflation, and/or debasement, or rather, they are meant to enable private > sector such privilege in creating markets and hence directing society in > the direction it sees fit, rather than the state. > > Although limitations on spending doesn't necessarily benefit the real > economy, nor quality of life through access to currency in certain lower > social classes. > > What currently happens, is that we depend, in the Euro Zone, exclusively on > a monetary monopoly controlled by private financial networks of > corporations. > > ... > > An additional aspect being credit peak, which works in the context of debt > that has to be repaid. > > Since the 70 ies, banks imposed on states not to create their own money > into existence, and instead leave such monopoly to private banks, bringing > us in a "state of submission" to private finance for access to currency. > > Taxation, initially, could serve to control monetary mass. It was not > needed to fund the state. > > But in the current context, states are obliged to borrow from financial > institutions, and hence politicians are pressured to make sure they can > continue paying interest on the debt. > > To oversimplify : not only is this theft ( transfer of property ), but it > is depriving a large part of the population of the currency it needs to > generate services between each other and hence increase each other's > quality of life ! >

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+ Cosmolocalization Scrip ? Re: What happens when a state doesn't control its own monetary creation ?
by Dante-Gabryell Monson 28 Dec '18

28 Dec '18

Places / real economies like Greece ( although Estonia would also be an interesting place as its government already invested in blockchain database solutions ) could imho benefit from a state guaranteed Cosmolocalization Scrip https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrip For example, a government could decide to issue Scrip ( the state of California did issue IOU's, a few years back, that could be used to pay taxes ) and decide to spend it into existence in sectors of the local economy it could even decide to define and update ( using scripp in the form of a token / smart contract ), ideally to generate access to currency in parts of the economy that are under served in currency, and especially to enable services and production that can reduce dependency on imports and/or bootstrap sectors that could also lead to exports. It could also track usage of the scrip through analytics enabled by its tokens on its blockchain ( or holochain ? ) , understanding the effects and usage of the scrip. ( potentially anonymized ? ) This would fit perfectly within a Cosmolocalization narrative. Such a Scrip could also function so as to reduce paper work ( online accounts, digital payments ) and be adapted, not to replace Euros, but as a complementary currency. For example, imported goods might only have a percentage of the price of the good related to local services in cosmo scrip. The government(s) could also generate demand for the scrip by accepting it as a medium of tax payment. Although to avoid it replacing all euro tax income, the government(s - including regional or local ) could for example accept only a certain percentage of a persons or company's scrip as tax payment. Similarly to a dual complementary currency mode used for other goods. It could experiment at first with anything that is locally produced, and also start by allocating an addition to the current euro salary of government workers, in scrip. If successful, it could also enable loans in scrip, by local businesses that can use it to develop local production ( and ultimately reduce the need for imports ), and it can also strategically enable clusters of interdependent businesses that can benefit from each others services, and can also ultimately facilitate online markets and a c3 ( commercial credit circuit ) https://tradingeconomics.com/greece/balance-of-trade https://tradingeconomics.com/greece/current-account On Fri, Dec 28, 2018, 07:53 Dante-Gabryell Monson <dante(a)ecobytes.net wrote: > > Just brainstormed this on fb : > > As long as there are foreign currency reserves ( usually trade surplus vs > the currency ), the state could spend as much as it needs into creation, > and as long as this spending meets development it doesn't necessarily mean > inflation. > > Hyperinflation happens so as to reduce the capacity of each to buy > imported goods, in a situation of severe trade disbalance and a scarcity of > foreign reserves. Deflation in the case of not having control on your own > currency and monetary supply drying out. > > Currently, limitations imposed on european states are meant to avoid > inflation, and/or debasement, or rather, they are meant to enable private > sector such privilege in creating markets and hence directing society in > the direction it sees fit, rather than the state. > > Although limitations on spending doesn't necessarily benefit the real > economy, nor quality of life through access to currency in certain lower > social classes. > > What currently happens, is that we depend, in the Euro Zone, exclusively > on a monetary monopoly controlled by private financial networks of > corporations. > > ... > > An additional aspect being credit peak, which works in the context of debt > that has to be repaid. > > Since the 70 ies, banks imposed on states not to create their own money > into existence, and instead leave such monopoly to private banks, bringing > us in a "state of submission" to private finance for access to currency. > > Taxation, initially, could serve to control monetary mass. It was not > needed to fund the state. > > But in the current context, states are obliged to borrow from financial > institutions, and hence politicians are pressured to make sure they can > continue paying interest on the debt. > > To oversimplify : not only is this theft ( transfer of property ), but it > is depriving a large part of the population of the currency it needs to > generate services between each other and hence increase each other's > quality of life ! >

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