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Fwd: YEar one of the Global Commons Movement
by Michel Bauwens 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

Dear Sam, I hope you can help me with this, see http://commonsblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/the-commons-year-one-of-the-glo… the following article contains two essential tables, which I would like to add to http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:Commmons, subsection Visualization it concerns the table, *Codex Justinianus <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Juris_Civilis>revisted and 2) **The logic of the market versus the logic of the commons Dear Chris, I would also like to excerpt that article in a blog article, starting from the following paragraph, and including the two tables, can you help for the blog, and please postdate to Feb 7 or after ? (the title of table 2 could be the title of the article) this is the starting paragraph: "*Today, the commons are often excluded from policy discussions and commoners are often disempowered. This tendency is enforced by the dominant political thinking, which is used to *thinking in dichotomies*. Here the market, there the state, here the private, there the public, here the teacher, there the pupil, here competition, there cooperation, here the good thing, there the bad thing. As a consequence, we tend to look for Either-Or-Solutions, which leads to consider Market and State as the only two serious realms of action. The commons are usually left behind and ignored. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Silke Helfrich <Silke.Helfrich(a)gmx.de> Date: Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 10:52 PM Subject: YEar one of the Global Commons Movement To: Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004(a)gmail.com> Hi Michel, you may want to spread this: especially the second table... http://commonsblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/the-commons-year-one-of-the-glo… very best Silke -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Re: [P2P-F] Democratic technology and unintended consequences
by Michel Bauwens 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

great comment, thanks Chris! On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 1:38 PM, Chris Pinchen <chrispinchen(a)mac.com> wrote: > [image: star]O'Reilly Radar - Insight, analysis, and research about > emerging technologies. > 1 de febrero de 2011 18:00 > by Joshua-Michéle Ross > Democratic technology and unintended consequences<http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/oreilly/radar/atom/%7E3/bpfD6RBpfrE/egypt-…> > > I was struck by this photo<http://www.opposableplanets.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Egypt_NY_Times.j…>that appeared Sunday in the New York Times. It shows a crowd of Egyptian > protesters listening to a military announcement. Try to count the number of > people in the crowd who *do not* have a mobile device recording the > action. > > Expanding people's ability to communicate — from printing press to > telegraph to telephone to text messaging — is always a revolutionary act. > Communications technologies do not create the conditions for civic action > (the unrest in Egypt is due to longstanding political repression), but they > can accelerate the entire process by: > > 1. Dramatically expanding the number of people directly involved in > gathering, distributing and consuming information. > > 2. Allowing a positive feedback loop to develop where people see the > effect of their actions in real-time, which simultaneously reinforces > commitment and recruits more members into the cause. > > > We tend to think of these technologies as inherently democratic. But the > rub in all of this is that *while these technologies democratize > communications, they tend to monopolize surveillance and control*. > > So while more of us are capable of holding an open, peer-to-peer > discussion, we are doing so with the consent and under the watchful (or > subpoena-able) eye of just a handful of corporations or governments. And > when citizen calls-to-action conflict with government calls for quiet, the > government holds more of the cards. Vodafone has shut down<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/28/egypt_vodafone_shuts/>cell phone communications in Egypt, the Egyptian government has effectively shut > down<http://www.fastcompany.com/1721856/how-egypt-turned-off-the-internet>Internet communications, and there are now calls > for Ham radio operators <http://pastebin.com/fHHBqZ7Q> to lend assistance > as Egypt is being pushed back down the communications ladder. > > In the "rich world" our experience of technology is often Utopian and our > forecasts of negative consequences are framed only through our experience of > current circumstance; we simply can't imagine what it is like to live in a > repressive government or believe that we will ever live under one. But the > seemingly benign governments in which we reside are an historical > contingency. If the past provides any lesson it is that governments will wax > and wane in their concern for civil liberties and human rights. Yet our > digital profile (purchase history, political and personal associations etc.) > will remain. Through our participation in these technologies we are donating > our data to a vast, indelible reservoir whose future utility is unknown to > us. > > I am actually optimistic about the future of the Internet as a medium to > promote civil liberty, free expression, better government and corporate > citizenship (if one can credibly use such a phrase). However, I don't think > it happens on its own. The Internet needs an architecture (legal and > physical) to achieve such ends. Paradoxically I believe it requires some > form of regulation to maintain its dynamic, emergent and decentralized > properties so that any government or corporation has a limited ability to > act in a crisis to shut things down. > > Is access to communications a fundamental human right? If so, should a > corporation have the ability to abrogate that right at the request of a host > government? As we watch the battle between the Egyptian government's > attempts to throttle information flow (including how corporations defy or > collaborate with these attempts) and the people's struggle to maintain > access to communications, we are seeing the contours of a struggle that will > exemplify the next decades of political and policy changes as we try to > define the increasingly critical relationship between technology and civil > liberties. > <http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Eff/oreilly/radar/atom?a=bpfD6RBpfrE:6aab4PVY…> > <http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Eff/oreilly/radar/atom?a=bpfD6RBpfrE:6aab4PVY…> > <http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Eff/oreilly/radar/atom?a=bpfD6RBpfrE:6aab4PVY…> > <http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Eff/oreilly/radar/atom?a=bpfD6RBpfrE:6aab4PVY…> > > Gov 2.0 control democracy egypt technology > > > sent from my mobile device > > > -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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Social Media and Social Revolutions: what is their relationship
by Michel Bauwens 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

fyi, an editorial that appeared today in the p2p blog: http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/social-media-and-social-revolutions-what-is-t… <http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/if-your-government-shuts-down-the-internet-sh…> Social Media and Social Revolutions: what is their relationship?<http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/social-media-and-social-revolutions-what-is-t…> [image: photo of Michel Bauwens] Michel Bauwens 2nd February 2011 Every time we are witnessing a massive mobilization of social movements, a social uprising or even a true social revolution, we can be sure to witness a new round of debate between those that insist on the crucial role of social media, sometimes even calling it a Twitter Revolution, and those dismissing this and even warning for the dangerous role of trusting or highlighting their use. Here is my own contribution to this debate. First of all, I’d like to distinguish between two meanings of the concept of Revolution. The deep meaning of Revolution is one of phase transition from one social system to another, and it is important here to distinguish the long course of history, and its sometimes explosive accelerations, when a long term quantitative development becomes a qualitative leap. I have not the slightest doubt that the invention of peer to peer communication, i.e. the internet, the web and its social media derivatives, by allowing direct, cheap and ubiquitous communication between peers, is a true and deep social revolution, as important as the invention of writing and of print once were. Literally, as with writing and print, the change in communication infrastructures, the new socialization and balance of power it permits, changes every field of social activity, not just gradually, but eventually leading to a new social system working on different premises. But it is important to realize that such deep phase transitions take time, generally speaking more than one generation, though we do expect that one of the effects of p2p technology is undoubtedly an acceleration of historical processes. Having said this, we are not saying that technology is the only factor, but it is a major and important factor, with very deep social effects. Once print was invented, the monopoly of truth of the feudal system and the Catholic Church was broken, this is undeniable. Nevertheless, technological affordances are part of an integrated set of change factors. We are also not saying that new technology has only emancipatory and liberating effects. It has some, and they are very important for social forces seeking freedom, justice and equality, but technology is always a tool of struggle and contention, and will be used by opposing social forces, each seeking to use it to their advantage. But what is certain, is that a new communication infrastructure changes the balance of forces, and has democratising effects. If the privileged want to remain dominant, they have to seek new ways, advance a new social contract. Today, we can except that peer to peer communications, and their new forms of horizontal socialization, and the new tools it offers to citizens to organize around common value, will also have a deep seated influence on social structures, BUT, this will take time. At the P2P Foundation, we expect first a reformulation of capitalism, but we also expect, in about a generation, a fundamental phase transition towards a new form of society. Now we come to the second meaning of Revolution, as a specific political revolution or uprising leading to a change in regime. Here also, peer to peer media (a much broader category than social media), have an important enabling effect, but we must distinguish different temporalities. First of all, there is again a deep temporality, favouring horizontal socialization and the creation of a new type of affinity communities based on shared values. This socialization prepares for a stronger civil society, which gradually undermines the control of authoritarian regimes whose control is based on the use of previous forms of mass media. Yes, we do believe that in the longer term, even as authoritarian governments learn to control and use the internet to their advantage, that it does give more advantage to civil society forces, who learn to extend their own autonomy and spheres of freedom. It is this longer process which prepares the way for the open source insurgencies that we are now witnessing in Egypt and Tunisia. Based on that longer process of socialization, which happened in the preceding years, this allows at certain moment a rapid and massive mobilization of the people, who become conscious of their power and unity, and indeed, gives them the confidence to confront authoritarian regimes. But at the same time, these open source insurgencies are based on common and general demands, and they can dissolve as soon as either the goal is attained, or the battle is lost, then reverting again to the longer term socialization processes we have just described. Needless to say, don’t confuse p2p media with corporate social media (though the latter play a very important role due to their popularity), and of course, these same media can be used for identification of dissent and repressive measures, especially if the movements are defeated. Intelligent use of such media is a sine qua non, and as we have seen in Egypt, even as people learn to creatively communicate even without it, once the will to change has been established. But as we said, open source insurgencies can dissolve just as quickly once the common goal, usually general enough to unite everybody, like with the slogan, ‘the dictator must leave’, is achieved. At this point it is important that groups have used social media on a longer term basis, to establish themselves as real communities that can play a social and political role. This does not necessary have to be a traditional political organization as we have known from the previous era, but can be a movement like the April 6 Movement, who has recognized leaders that had organized themselves before. In other words, no serious social movement who wants to effect deep change, can merely rely on the quick mobilization power of social media, but needs longer term policies of socialization and of achieving consensus around common goals and values. It needs a staying power that social media alone cannot provide. Recent events around Wikileaks, Tunisia and the total shutdown in Egypt have also given us a valuable lesson into the reliability of corporate social media, and the internet, susceptible to government and corporate control around choke points. This means that at all times, serious activist will be ready not just to apply alternative digital media, but also non-digital media. But in no way am I making an appeal to abandon social media, or the public internet, indeed, this is where the people and the users are, and no social change effort can be successful, if is isolates itself from the mass of the people. Smart social change agents will have a combination of confidential media for their own longer term internal organization, and the judicious and careful use of social media to reach larger audiences. To come back to the debates we mentioned at the beginning. Yes, peer to peer and social media are deep agents of social change, and essential organizational tools, but they must be part of an integrated strategy, that uses both long term socialization and its short term power of massive and rapid social mobilization. But even if we loose a battle, the deeper social change, will continue unabated, though nobody can predict the exact balance of power, the capacity of social control, and the new social contract that will prevail. But one thing is sure, society, and its ruling classes, cannot stay the same in the context of emerging p2p media, and the larger social forces, that can benefit from further emancipation and democratisation, can also not ignore the great potential for autonomy and self-organization, and the possibilities to use these media to create a more free, just and equal society. Let’s not forget, the rulers had their own internets at least one decade before us, and didn’t need a expanded public internet. That we now have access to it, even under imperfect conditions and under their control, is a profound game changer, it represents a unique opportunity and a unique tool that we cannot dismiss and leave to our enemies. No social struggle is conceivable today, without the right usage of p2p media. Just as the Reformation crucially relied on books, and the Labour Movement crucially relied on print and newspaper, so must we also rely on peer to peer communication infrastructures as a really crucial component of any strategy for social change. -- 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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ANNOUNCING Tahoe, the Least-Authority File System, v1.8.2
by Zooko O'Whielacronx 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

ANNOUNCING Tahoe, the Least-Authority File System, v1.8.2 The Tahoe-LAFS team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of version 1.8.2 of Tahoe-LAFS, an extremely reliable distributed storage system. Get it here: http://tahoe-lafs.org/source/tahoe/trunk/docs/quickstart.html Tahoe-LAFS is the first distributed storage system to offer "provider-independent security" — meaning that not even the operators of your storage servers can read or alter your data without your consent. Here is the one-page explanation of its unique security and fault-tolerance properties: http://tahoe-lafs.org/source/tahoe/trunk/docs/about.html The previous stable release of Tahoe-LAFS was v1.8.1, which was released October 28, 2010 [1]. v1.8.2 is a stable bugfix release, adding compatibility with the recently-released Twisted-10.2, and correcting a number of minor issues. See the NEWS file [2] for details. WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? With Tahoe-LAFS, you distribute your filesystem across multiple servers, and even if some of the servers fail or are taken over by an attacker, the entire filesystem continues to work correctly, and continues to preserve your privacy and security. You can easily share specific files and directories with other people. In addition to the core storage system itself, volunteers have built other projects on top of Tahoe-LAFS and have integrated Tahoe-LAFS with existing systems, including Windows, JavaScript, iPhone, Android, Hadoop, Flume, Django, Puppet, bzr, mercurial, perforce, duplicity, TiddlyWiki, and more. See the Related Projects page on the wiki [3]. We believe that strong cryptography, Free and Open Source Software, erasure coding, and principled engineering practices make Tahoe-LAFS safer than RAID, removable drive, tape, on-line backup or cloud storage. This software is developed under test-driven development, and there are no known bugs or security flaws which would compromise confidentiality or data integrity under recommended use. (For all important issues that we are currently aware of please see the known_issues.rst file [4].) COMPATIBILITY This release is compatible with the version 1 series of Tahoe-LAFS. Clients from this release can write files and directories in the format used by clients of all versions back to v1.0 (which was released March 25, 2008). Clients from this release can read files and directories produced by clients of all versions since v1.0. Servers from this release can serve clients of all versions back to v1.0 and clients from this release can use servers of all versions back to v1.0. This is the thirteenth release in the version 1 series. This series of Tahoe-LAFS will be actively supported and maintained for the forseeable future, and future versions of Tahoe-LAFS will retain the ability to read and write files compatible with this series. LICENCE You may use this package under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or, at your option, any later version. See the file "COPYING.GPL" [5] for the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2. You may use this package under the Transitive Grace Period Public Licence, version 1 or, at your option, any later version. (The Transitive Grace Period Public Licence has requirements similar to the GPL except that it allows you to delay for up to twelve months after you redistribute a derived work before releasing the source code of your derived work.) See the file "COPYING.TGPPL.html" [6] for the terms of the Transitive Grace Period Public Licence, version 1. (You may choose to use this package under the terms of either licence, at your option.) INSTALLATION Tahoe-LAFS works on Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, Cygwin, Solaris, *BSD, and probably most other systems. Start with "docs/quickstart.html" [7]. HACKING AND COMMUNITY Please join us on the mailing list [8]. Patches are gratefully accepted -- the RoadMap page [9] shows the next improvements that we plan to make and CREDITS [10] lists the names of people who've contributed to the project. The Dev page [11] contains resources for hackers. SPONSORSHIP Tahoe-LAFS was originally developed by Allmydata, Inc., a provider of commercial backup services. After discontinuing funding of Tahoe-LAFS R&D in early 2009, they continued to provide servers, bandwidth, small personal gifts as tokens of appreciation, and bug reports. Google, Inc. sponsored Tahoe-LAFS development as part of the Google Summer of Code 2010. They awarded four sponsorships to students from around the world to hack on Tahoe-LAFS that summer. Thank you to Allmydata and Google for their generous and public-spirited support. HACK TAHOE-LAFS! If you can find a security flaw in Tahoe-LAFS which is serious enough that we feel compelled to warn our users and issue a fix, then we will award you with a customized t-shirts with your exploit printed on it and add you to the "Hack Tahoe-LAFS Hall Of Fame" [12]. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This is the seventh release of Tahoe-LAFS to be created solely as a labor of love by volunteers. Thank you very much to the team of "hackers in the public interest" who make Tahoe-LAFS possible. Brian Warner on behalf of the Tahoe-LAFS team January 30, 2011 San Francisco, California, USA [1] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/browser/relnotes.txt?rev=4865 [2] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/browser/NEWS?rev=5000 [3] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/wiki/RelatedProjects [4] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/browser/docs/known_issues.rst [5] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/browser/COPYING.GPL [6] http://tahoe-lafs.org/source/tahoe/trunk/COPYING.TGPPL.html [7] http://tahoe-lafs.org/source/tahoe/trunk/docs/quickstart.html [8] http://tahoe-lafs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tahoe-dev [9] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/roadmap [10] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/browser/CREDITS?rev=5000 [11] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/wiki/Dev [12] http://tahoe-lafs.org/hacktahoelafs/

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ways to achieve community wireless broadband, report
by Michel Bauwens 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

hi sepp, thanks for checking this out: http://mediapolicy.newamerica.net/publications/policy/from_the_digital_divi… -- 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: February Issue of OSBR Available
by Michel Bauwens 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Chris McPhee <chris.mcphee(a)osbr.ca> Date: Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 1:23 AM Subject: February Issue of OSBR Available To: Chris McPhee <chris.mcphee(a)osbr.ca> Dear Readers, The editorial theme for the February 2011 issue of the OSBR is Recent Research and it is now available at osbr.ca. In this issue, we have the following articles: Carlo Daffara, head of research at Conecta, describes the factors to consider when selecting a license to suit both business objectives and licensing constraints. Monique Bardawil from Carleton University's Technology Innovation Management program outlines her recent research to identify key players in the mashup ecosystem, where businesses must develop appropriate strategies based on an accurate understanding of the structure of the ecosytem and the role of its key players. Amanda Shiga, CMS Practice Lead at non~linear creations, presents her research into the competitive actions taken by API providers in the mashup ecosystem. Islam Balbaa, Technical Business Analyst at Kinaxis, describes his recent research into the fit between software-as-a-service products and the requirements of particular business units. Chulaka Ailapperuma, Senthilkumar Mukunda, and Shruti Satsangi from Carleton University's Technology Innovation Management program illustrate how social network analysis can be used to study online communities, including free/libre open source software developer teams. The editorial theme for the upcoming March issue is Co-creation. We have invited authors from the Research Forum to Understand Business in Knowledge Society to contribute to this special issue. The Guest Editors will be Stoyan Tanev from the University of Southern Denmark and Marko Seppä from the University of Jyväskylä. For subsequent issues, we welcome general submissions on the topic of open source business or the growth of early-stage technology companies. Please contact me (chris.mcphee(a)osbr.ca) if you are interested in submitting an article. Kind regards, Chris McPhee Editor, Open Source Business Resource http://www.osbr.ca If you no longer wish to receive email notifications from the OSBR, please send your request by email and I will unsubscribe you. ________________________________________________________________________ Open Source Business Resource http://www.osbr.ca/ojs/index.php/osbr -- 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: [Dakar] Copy South workshop at WSF Dakar on 8 Feb
by Michel Bauwens 01 Feb '11

01 Feb '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Frédéric Sultan <fredericsultan(a)gmail.com> Date: 2011/2/1 Subject: [Dakar] Copy South workshop at WSF Dakar on 8 Feb To: Dakar <dakar(a)bienscommuns.org> Cc: Chris Armstrong <c.g.armstrong(a)gmail.com> Hello, Please, find below information about copyright issues workshop organised by The Copy South Research Group at the World Social Forum (WSF) in Dakar next week and supported by people of ACA2K Senegal team. Thanks to Chris Armstrong and Hervé Le Crosnier for the information. Best Fred ..................... > > Workshop of copyright issues at the World Social Forum (Dakar, Senegal) > > Tuesday, 8 February 16h00 to 19h00 > > > A workshop to examine the negative effects of copyright on the peoples > of Africa, including Senegal, and how these restrictive laws prevent the > sharing of knowledge and culture. We will look at how copyright impacts > negatively on libraries, schools and students, musicians and other > cultural workers. > > > Interpretation in French, English and Wolof > > > Sponsoring organisation: The Copy South Research Group www.copysouth.org > <http://www.copysouth.org/> > > > Alan Story > contact(a)copysouth.org <mailto:[email protected]%C2%A0> > _______________________________________________ Dakar mailing list Dakar(a)bienscommuns.org http://bienscommuns.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dakar -- 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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preprogramming mass movements
by Michel Bauwens 01 Feb '11

01 Feb '11

Hi Tiberius, I wonder if you could republish this in our p2p foundation blog as well? James in cc can give you access, Michel see https://sites.google.com/site/multitude2008/Home/politics/towards-leaderles… -- 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 intitiative for independent internet
by Michel Bauwens 01 Feb '11

01 Feb '11

Sepp: can you report on this, they seem to be able to do great work, and fast, an exemplary wiki: http://werebuild.eu/wiki/Main_Page -- 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: News Advisory: Liberal & Progressive Jews Support the Egyptian Uprising
by Michel Bauwens 01 Feb '11

01 Feb '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Rabbi Michael Lerner <rabbilerner(a)tikkun.org> Date: Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 7:30 AM Subject: News Advisory: Liberal & Progressive Jews Support the Egyptian Uprising To: Michelsub2004(a)gmail.com Tikkun<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=6roJ3gVoHyMewyIyCJhN…> to heal, repair and transform the world *A note from Rabbi Michael Lerner** * Join or Donate Now!<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=SbmAWyZ2nN4xY7%2B%2B…> News Advisory: Release Feb. 1, 2011 For interviews: call Mike Godbe at 510 644 1200 or mike(a)Tikkun.org *Why Jews Around the World are Praying for the Victory of the Egyptian Uprising * * <http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=u8QOfsnthllLDAmMeGeQ…> * * * * *Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun Magazine and chair of The Tikkun Community, affirmed today (Feb. 1, 2011) that there is a growing upsurge of support for the Egyptian Uprising in the Jewish community. Rabbi Lerner issued the following statement: Ever since the victory over the dictator of Tunisia and the subsequent uprising in Egypt, my email has been flooded with messages from Jews around the world hoping and praying for the victory of the Egyptian people over their cruel Mubarak regime. Though a small segment of Jews have responded to right-wing voices from Israel that lament the change and fear that a democratic government would bring to power fundamentalist extremists who wish to destroy Israel and who would abrogate the hard-earned treaty that has kept the peace between Egypt and Israel for the last 30 years, the majority of Jews are more excited and hopeful than worried. Of course, the worriers have a point. Israel has allied itself with repressive regimes in Egypt and used that alliance to ensure that the borders with Gaza would remain closed while Israel attempted to economically deprive the Hamas regime there by denying needed food supplies and equipment to rebuild after Israel’s devastating attack in December 2008 and January 2009. If the Egyptian people take over, they are far more likely to side with Hamas than with the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Yet it is impossible for Jews to forget our heritage as victims of another Egyptian tyrant—the Pharoah whose reliance on brute force was overthrown when the Israelite slaves managed to escape from Egypt some 3,000 years ago. That story of freedom retold each year at our Passover “Seder” celebration, and read in synagogues in the past month, has often predisposed the majority of Jews to side with those struggling for freedom around the world. To watch hundreds of thousands of Egyptians able to throw off the chains of oppression and the legacy of a totalitarian regime that consistently jailed, tortured or murdered its opponents so overtly that most people were cowed into silence, is to remember that the spark of God continues to flourish no matter how long oppressive regimes manage to keep themselves in power, and that ultimately the yearning for freedom and democracy cannot be totally stamped out no matter how cruel and sophisticated the elites of wealth, power and military might appear to be. Many Jews have warned Israel that it is a mistake to ally with these kinds of regimes, just as we’ve warned the US to learn the lesson from its failed alliance with the Shah of Iran. We’ve urged Israel to free the Palestinian people by ending the Occupation of the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza. Israel’s long-term security will not be secured through military or economic domination, but only by acting in a generous and caring way toward the Palestinian people first, and then toward all of its Arab neighbors. Similarly, America’s homeland security will best be achieved through a strategy of generosity and caring, manifested through a new Global Marshall Plan such as has been introduced into the House of Representatives by Congressman Keith Ellison. In normal times, when the forces of repression seem to be winning, this kind of thinking is dismissed as “utopian” by the “realists” who shape public political discourse. But when events like the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt occur, for a moment the politicians and media are stunned enough to allow a different kind of thinking to emerge, the kind of thinking that acknowledged that underneath all the “business as usual” behavior of the world’s peoples, the yearning for a world based on solidarity, caring for each other, freedom, self-determination, justice, non-violence and yes, even love and generosity, remains a potent and unquenchable thirst that may be temporarily repressed but never fully extinguished. It is this recognition that leads many Jews to join with the rest of the world’s peoples in celebrating the uprising, in praying that it does not become manipulated by the old regime into paths that too quickly divert the hopes for a brand new kind of order into politics and economics as usual, or into extremist attempts to switch the anger from domestic elites who have been the source of Egyptian oppression onto Jews or Israel which have not been responsible for the suffering of the Egyptian people. Such extremists could easily be marginalized were Israel to take definitive action to accept the peace terms offered by the Palestinians in 2007-8 and known to the world through the release of relevant documents by Al-Jazeera, and were the US in conjunction with Israel to announce a Global Marshall Plan with first location being the Middle East. Such a plan has been developed in some detail by the Network of Spiritual Progressives. We hope that Egyptians will hear the news that they have strong support from many in the Jewish world. Rabbi Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun www.tikkun.org , chair of the interfaith Network of Spiritual Progressives, and rabbi of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in Berkeley, California. He can be reached at RabbiLerner(a)Tikkun.org To read details of the Global Marshall Plan, go to www.spiritualprogressives.org/GMP ------------------------------ web: www.tikkun.org<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=%2BMn%2Fk84Utecv9vHp…> email: info(a)spiritualprogressives.org Click here to stop receiving future emails<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=SmAlCGa2KZZMJP8Vynm8…> ------------------------------ Copyright © 2010 Tikkun® / Network of Spiritual Progressives®. 2342 Shattuck Avenue, #1200 Berkeley, CA 94704 510-644-1200 Fax 510-644-1255 [image: empowered by Salsa] <http://www.salsalabs.com/?email> -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

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