interesting from orsan senalp: As it is clear from her bio, she turned the excluded workers' precarity into a capital, by monetising the vulnerability, branding a company as a union, and precarious people into 'independant workers'. This represent a good example of how one can hack a 'union form' turn it into a private insurance company. This is of course a reinvention of the western business unionism form and adopting it to the re-workerized middle classes. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Örsan Şenalp <[email protected]> Date: Wed, Aug 27, 2014 at 5:28 PM Subject: [Networkedlabour] Capturing human labour in its entirety or modularly before embedding it into automated systems vs. real global emancipation To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]
"Rapacious financialisation risks turning everything we are and have into a productive asset. And the foremost asset is our personal data, mined by digitalised technology." Says Evgeny Morozov in his recent What you whistle in the shower - How much for your data? [From Le Monde Diplomatique English Edition, August 2014]: http://cryptome.org/2014/08/morosov-how-much-your-data.htm ... Freelancers Union in the US has been a form of response, initiated by a new generation unionist Horowitz, who describes herself on the website of the 'union' (https://www.freelancersunion.org/): "As the founder and Executive Director of Freelancers Union – and CEO of the social-purpose Freelancers Insurance Company (FIC) – Sara has been helping workers solve their problems for nearly two decades. A MacArthur Foundation "Genius" fellow, Sara has long been a leading voice for the emerging economy, early on recognising the vital role independent workers would play in our networked, interconnected world. Today, 42 million Americans are "independent workers" – about one-third of the entire workforce. With a membership of more than 244k nationwide, Freelancers Union is building a new form of unionism through creative, cooperative, market-based solutions to pressing social problems. Sara was named one of the Top 30 Social Entrepreneurs by Forbes in 2011, a Top 25 Most Promising Social Entrepreneur by Businessweek in 2011, one of Crain's New York's "25 People to Watch" in 2010, and one of 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow at the 2002 World Economic Forum." As it is clear from her bio, she turned the excluded workers' precarity into a capital, by monetising the vulnerability, branding a company as a union, and precarious people into 'independant workers'. This represent a good example of how one can hack a 'union form' turn it into a private insurance company. This is of course a reinvention of the western business unionism form and adopting it to the re-workerized middle classes. This example says a lot in relation to the counter argument posed against the aggressive total data capture by monopolies like Google, and Facebook [and other NSA-PRISM collaborators] -mentioned by Morozov in his article- where it is proposed to 'monetization of the personal data' by giving the copyrights of personal data to individuals themselves, of course together with the 'right to sell it to the market'. What we see in this picture is clashing core arguments of the future capitalism. On the one side a 'perfect capitalism' propagated by NSA partners like Google, Facebook, Californian Singularity ideology,... but on the other hand we see emerging new constellations new start up aligning around Industrial Internet and Smart Cities concepts, by corporations like Cisco, IBM, Microsoft and Apple, the first generation knowledge capital fractions. I think Vasilis Kostakis' and Michel's co-authored book Network Society and Future Scenarios for a Collaborative Economy provides very insightful perspective to understand structural and agency dynamics: http://p2pfoundation.net/Network_Society_and_Future_Scenarios_for_a_Collabor... On the other hand, in response to Horowitz's kind of business unionism 2.0, we see emerging European, or German model being developed by Joel Dellroy here: http://freelancersmovement.org/ and here with a European level crouwdfunded campaign: http://freelancers-europe.org/ Thinking in relation or comparing these two to the example in other thread, opened up by Peter's posting of Gaza action in Oakland, where we see new occupy type unionism which is about organising unorganisable: those who are the 'labour's others' as Peter called them, who can not afford to be 'independant worker' at all and going through much deeper existential crisis while thinking this is their individual inabilities. Forming horizontal self-organised communities through self-expression and representation, exchange and articulation, mobilisation and collective action is shared in the last and European freelancers movement idea. Although the latter new unionism (gunion, 99picket lines, or occupy-15m related networked/direct unionism) are radically different from both examples of freelancer unions mentioned above in politics, my argument that they can and have to collaborate in a modular way in order to harmonise or interconnect struggles at various global-working-class-fractions (see Strauna: http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/4/2/0/9/p... ). This is again how I see this modular collective work can be delivered in practise, overcoming cultural, political, ideological dividing lines, by p2p collaborating based on mutual recognition and more importantly based exchanges of concrete needs, configured according to that specific collaboration: http://www.slideshare.net/orsans/gnunion-version-beta-10 I think capital in all its forms are in favour of total socialisation of labour, by capturing value in any possible way and accumulating. There is of course inter-class fight about how and who to do that, which seems like delaying our faith. What rises as the only option for human kind to stop this maniacal going is 'to unite'. And we all know this that it can only work if it is allows spontanity, simultanuity, include egalitarian and respectful manners, and democratic and mature processes. This is the ideal form in my mind, trying to grow into, which can give a practical picture of what I am trying to say: a map of relationships: http://graphcommons.com/system/images/2106/original/graph.png?1406131146 actors and items for collaboration: On platform building and networking for working people and tech-labour unionists, labour organisers, and community projects with Says-us [as an online plartform that put workless workers, activists, alternative solidarity economy communities in touch.], with Freelancers Movement in Europe - and may be US? to develope a platform for self-empowerment of freelancers On organising, with Organizing Campaigns and independant unions [janitors, helath care, education, logistics...]>> to integrate self-empowerment tools for safe self-organising alongside the global production networks and value chains (via mapping by workers manuel or online with software like Debate Gpraph, GraphCommons, Deepha Mehta, open chain mapping) with NetzwerkIT, Sensorica, TIE network, IWW On Tech developemnt with FSF (John Sullivan) + Cyberunions (Stephan, Walton), Mayfirst/People Link On research, analysis, knowledge commons, open strategy... support, with P2P foundation, Transform, TNI, Waag Society, Institute of Network Cultures, IIRE, Triple C... On cooperatives with Catalan Integral Cooperative, Calafou,... On naming and shaming: LabourLeaks, Associated WhistleBlowers Press, Wikileaks On mass labour campaigning and labour media network: USI, LabourTech, LabourSTart, CapulTV, Global Revolution, I-Witness Project / infrastructure development and concept hacking communities: HackLabs, HackBases, HackSpaces, MakerSpaces, FabLabs, Ecowillages, Squatters, Cyprto Parties, co-working spaces, co-housing spaces. Political spaces for articulation: Interface, DeGrwoth, Chaos Computer Congress / Camp, World Social Forum, AlterSummit, Joint Social Conference, Co-Workers gathering,.. ...work in progress.. Orsan _______________________________________________ NetworkedLabour mailing list [email protected] http://lists.contrast.org/mailman/listinfo/networkedlabour -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan 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/