Can someone please explain the term 'truly Israeli' price which Paola Manduca introduced, and has been repeated by Tord? Thanks Anna

On 19 Sep 2015, at 16:52, Tord Björk <[email protected]> wrote:

I am concerned about several of Orsans contributions on the list recently and especially some of the follow up comments.

Firstly there is a lack of understanding how concepts come about seeing them as introduced from outside from some far away place which we cannot influence. This focus upon some other influencing us is at the same time putting out of the picture actual power relations inside the movement and how these power relations are shaped by social and other relations in daily life. It becomes more important to tell the world all the acronyms and institutions we know about the mass produced concepts imposed upon us to show off how important we are knowing all these foreign actors and thinkers - WEF, Bilderberg, Trilateral commission, Roundtable of European Industrialists, ICC (International Chamber of Commerce), WBCSD (World Business Council for Sustainable development) to name a few.

Some of these concepts are clearly there to destroy the understanding of popular movements as independent historical actors like NGO. But this concept was not developed by some business interests , it was instead shaped in the UN system as a negation of the only real actors, the states equally being nations. It was no conspiracy as such but a result of the situational context after WWII when movements were weak and states strong. Later market actors have become stronger and the concept is even more useful to split up the understanding of politik as a singular reducing it to the liberal understanding that is no such thing a society, only contracts between individuals and thus no such thing as politik, only politics in plural were NGOs can compete on markets for funding or attention in different regard if they split up the struggle in useful forms or content. To try to avoid specific concepts due to claiming the correct defintion of the word can sometimes be contraproductive, int he 1980s NGOs served in many Latin SAmerican countries the only form of organization that could resist and undermine the dictatorships and thus it was useful at the time.

Social entrepreneur and the growing popularity of focusing upon what EU calls social economy is of course to b questioned. But it is not only imposed from above. In my small town in Southern Sweden it was used by the people high school movement, a more than 150 year institution built by popular movements to democratize society and seen in the light of the cooperative movement with the same back ground. Cooperatives are still seen as crucial for social change eg direct cooperation between farmers and consumers etc. At the same time cooperatives has been questioned from the very first time they appeared, at least of they were not fully independent, see Marx criticism of the Gotha program. In Sweden it has been regularly a way to divert movement from questioning the whole way the society os organized and giving them a role as evolutionary "prefigurative" movement builders in a powerless corner of society, certainly not imposed upon the movement from some Business think tank but from inside the movement itself as way to move forward when mass mobilization is lacking support.

It may be true that today the speed and amount of new concept we have to relate to can be seen as troublesome, but only if we start to focus more upon what all these think tank says and less on what democratic social movements carry forward. There is today less of to some degree independent popular movement able to build their own political culture as mass media and project funding destroys understanding of society as a whole. Yet the kind of concepts Orsan criticises are temporary nad lack profound support in most cases, to try to learn them all is a struggle in vain.

The idea to understand what politics is about instead of looking for the origin of concepts is to "follow the money". This simplistic way ends sometimes up in the kind of misleading argument that we can understand what WEF and social entreprenuerhip is about by knowing that WEF has been funded by something called a "truly Israeli" price. We are then told that here we have to find out more.

The way the book Challening empires, the htiherto most seminal book on WSF, was quite strongly structured in a way were the most severe criticism against WSF was from some parts of the left arguing that were the money comes from tells what WSF is about. Ford Foundation was a main example. This kind of reasoning is limited. It may hold more important value than the criticism against WEF, like when Marx claimed cooperatives had to be independent to be of any use for the working class and not state funded. But in terms of WSF it was a simplistic argument that carried very little weight as no alternatives were shown that could be seen as without problems.

So I think one should be aware of that the way movements use the concepts are important and make people aware of possible differences and conflicts rather than believing that what is important is to find out which outside forces has been supporting which concepts. The left did this for many years concerning the concept environment seeing it as imposed from outside to divert the revolutionary struggle from the important social issues. Partly this was probably true and yet so extremely misleading and a way to marginalize the left rather then confronting capitalism wherever needed.

Tord Björk

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On Sat, Sep 19, 2015 at 11:11 AM, Paola Manduca <[email protected]> wrote: there is a say in my country..follow the money...

the capital for establishing the WEF is from a "truly Israeli" price. liberal or illiberal is not the point

who decides and what is proposed and where the info goes are the points. On these one would like to know better

stay well

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On Sat, Sep 19, 2015 at 11:05 AM, Orsan <[email protected]> wrote:

My point is, while I heard about the term 'social entrepreneurship' first time in my life towards the end of 2000s, after the crisis; the dr. strangelove, founding father of the top level elitist gathering of Davos, against which WSF is launched, has been building his family foundation to dedicate efforts to spread the word of 'social entrepreneurship' from mountain summit to down. Schwab Foundation is a satellite completing non-profit, social enterprise, had introduced the concept to the mortals like you an me.

The publication of Empire, by Negri and the other guy, in 1999, emergence of micro credit networks, the spread of the idea of radical democratic entrepreneurship becomes a hype in parallel to WSF. Then formation of ideas around p2p, commons production, so on, surrounded by this concept which has been propagated from the most top and linked through the grassroots by the work of funded agencies, NGOs under the term that is becoming hype after 2008 crisis.

One can not avoid to see how the global agendas are set, the concepts are spread, clash and get connected around the middle classes that are losing ground, and most talented of those form start-ups, entrepreneur communities, like co-working spaces so on so forth, and the rest are pushed to real desperation.

Orsan

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On 19 sep. 2015, at 08:22, Anna Harris <[email protected]> wrote:

Orsan,

What are you trying to say with this bio of Schwab?

Anna

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On 19 Sep 2015, at 00:33, Orsan <[email protected]> wrote:

Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman

Professor Klaus Schwab is the Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, an independent, impartial, not-for-profit Foundation committed to improving the state of the world. Since its inception in 1971, the Forum has become the world’s foremost multistakeholder organization and has been a driver for reconciliation efforts in different parts of the world, as well as the catalyst of numerous public-private partnerships and international initiatives. See the history page for more information.

In 1998, Klaus Schwab and his wife Hilde created the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, which seeks to identify, recognize and disseminate initiatives in social entrepreneurship that have significantly improved people’s lives and have the potential to be replicated on a global scale. The Foundation supports a network of 200 social entrepreneurs around the world.

In 2004, Klaus Schwab established, with the financial contribution he received as part of the Dan David Prize, a new foundation: the Forum of Young Global Leaders (targeted at leaders below 40 years of age); and, in 2011, he created the Global Shapers Community (targeted at potential leaders between the ages of 20 and 30). The purpose of these two foundations is to integrate young people as a strong voice for the future into global decision-making processes and to stimulate young people to engage in concrete projects that address social problems.

Under the leadership of Klaus Schwab, the World Economic Forum also established communities providing the best expertise and knowledge for problem-solving. Among those communities is the Network of Global Agenda Councils, comprising more than 1,500 of the most knowledgeable and relevant experts related to over 80 global, regional and industry challenges.

The activities of the World Economic Forum comprise meetings that are exclusively organized for its different communities and initiatives in line with its mission of improving the state of the world. In the same context, it also conducts research and produces reports.

The Forum employs more than 500 people, with its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and additional offices in New York, Beijing and Tokyo.

Professor Klaus Schwab holds two doctoral degrees, one in mechanical engineering and one in economics and social sciences. He spent a year at Harvard University and went on to be the youngest professor at the University of Geneva. He has received numerous international and national honours.

Klaus and Hilde Schwab were married in 1971. He has always followed, outside his work in the above foundations, a broad range of academic, cultural and public service interests. He enjoys sports and is a regular participant of the Engadin Cross-country Ski Marathon. The Schwabs have two children and two grandchildren.

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-- Paola Manduca, Prof. Genetics Genoa, Italy

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