[PeDAGoG] [REDlistserve] A new article on the RED website - "The path to a just and sustainable society"

Fri Oct 1 03:46:04 CEST 2021

Thanks so much to Mofwoofoo for sharing this.

Not only an excellent model of autonomous governance - but highlights the role of patriarchal attitudes behind our political crises.

It would be great if this list could grow a conversation to deepen understandings about this.
At the moment feminist questions tend to be ‘objectified’ and organised separately in seminars and such.

Ariel

Ariel Salleh writer/activist Sydney
Founding Member
Global Univ. for Sustainability, HK
Visiting Professor
Nelson Mandela University, SA
Email:       arielsalleh7 at gmail.com 
Website:         www.arielsalleh.info   

On 30 Sep 2021, at 7:06 am, Mofwoofoo <mofwoofoo at gmail.com> wrote:

I am writing as a long time radical anarchist activist "on the ground". I am not a scholar, but I have read a lot over 55 years. While I view the article worthwhile, it is nothing new at all. Anarchist literature and scholarship goes back to the 1860's when these same ideas were expressed. Anarchists have seen through the problem of hierarchies in gov't. and in general. I have submitted the 7 minute animation that I made in 2020 which explains a lot about organizing in a horizontal fashion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wywMhg604W8&t=5s. And how it might be the only way to eliminate once and for all corruption in governments.

Citizen participation a la transition towns initiatives, localization, collectivism, decentralization, deconsummerism, self-reliance, economies that promote the good of the whole, cooperation, respect for the environment, etc. are ideas whirling around throughout the internet and the world. And as I am sure it is clear to everyone in this group, that the current system of capitalism is the perfect recipe for suiciding the human race.

Meanwhile, as capitalism is collapsing or is being collapsed, there seems to be a rush to assert authoritarianism as soon as possible. And clearly the vaccine mandate and the pcr tests are ways to do this. But since the vaccine mandates will not go away no matter how hard the pushback is, they seem to have plan b ready to go: world-wide food shortages which would result in world-wide food riots and chaos, which will justify martial law and state of emergency declarations, which at least in the USA would empower FEMA to overstep the Constitution and do whatever they want due to the executive orders that give them total power. 

To avoid this from happening, people need to check on where their area's food sources are coming from and if they will be available or not. And in this way, using google or duck, duck, go one can ascertain what really is happening and what is going to happen in these regards. And if food shortages are indeed imminent, alert the citizenry to prepare by storing up on rice, beans, lentils, grains, tins, and storing food in preserves and salt for perhaps 6 months and setting up programs for those who don't have a few hundred dollars to spend to be able to be prepared as well.

Finally, I am the founder of a mostly latino, artist, eco-community in Ecuador (chambalabamba.org, under construction) since 2012, and believe me, this is not the solution for the world. It takes years to get it going, most communities fail for lack of funds or cohesion, it is not for everybody, and it is a false hope for those who believe that this is the way, imho.

On Wed, Sep 29, 2021 at 2:15 PM Hari DK <hari.coding at gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,

Regarding the original article by Ted Trainer...

I'd love to live in one of those eco-communes with the happy backyard chickens and 2 days of work.. :)

always more questions :P

-would the process of creating communes scale quickly enough (via good examples and prefiguration) to mitigate the climate crisis? or is that a secondary objective?

-if the communes don't scale fast enough to avert the climate crisis, then wouldn't we necessarily need to solve within the system of consumer capitalism (through climate-tech innovation, initiatives like CDP etc). 

-is this a model only for the rich countries? what's happening in the poor ones?

-I'm very interested in how the devolution of consumer capitalist value chains might occur to the local business models.

Best,

On Wed, 29 Sept 2021 at 22:55, David Barkin <dpbarkin at gmail.com> wrote:
Some time ago I argued on this RED Listserve that there are hundreds of communities already involved in constructing their own societies on the margins of the capitalist states of which they are a part.  (I enclose a published version of that contribution for those who dont recall our shorter piece, so nicely mentored by Dev) These groups are forming alliances and networks on a global scale (I.e., consider the example of the Territories of Life consortium whose participating members occupy as much as one-quarter of the planet's land area; or the efforts of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives, whose origins are in India, but now extend widely across the globe). Most of these groups are explicitly confronting inherited challenges, such as women's participation and significance in governance and socio-cultural definition, as well as the need to reshape their food and production systems while caring for their natural environments, while assuming control of their territories. 

Here in Mexico, of course, is the iconic example of the Zapatistas, whose ranks now number perhaps one-half million people from several different ethnic groups of Mayan origin.  Their present foray into Europe to explore the paths to constructing international solidarity is a notable complement to the work that they are doing within Mexico with their allies in the National Indigeous Congress, with its 25 million members. Other sizable groups with less international visibility include the Tosepan Cooperative founded in 1977 and with almost 200,000 members at present. Resistance struggles against capitalist mega projects are also mobilizing uncounted numbers of communities who are now realizing the importance of moving beyond protest to forge their own models of societies  moving forward.

Abrazos and Saludos from Mexico ---

On Wed, Sep 29, 2021 at 10:46 AM mp <mp at aktivix.org> wrote:

...the state we're in..

On 29/09/2021 16:22, Hari DK wrote:

> -Also, as hinted in some of the comments by others - how is this future
> achieved? is it an organic emergent? or is it top down? capitalism in its
> original form is arguably an organic emergent of human settlement (farming
> societies stored seeds for the next harvest. of course I am not talking
> about degenerate, technologically amplified capitalism we might find
> ourselves trapped in.)

In a sense I guess everything is arguably emergent - but I'd prefer to
look at the world differently here:

And say: It was always imposed, always an elite construction from the
top down and little has changed in basic terms the last 6000 years:
still turning on grains/ploughing, slaves, taxation, debt and
extraction. See for instance James Scott's

https://read.dukeupress.edu/common-knowledge/article-abstract/27/1/111/168419/Against-the-Grain-A-Deep-History-of-the-Earliest

In that light "Capitalism" is simply a reimposition, a re-application of
same old tested and tried model of civilisation -- which collapses on
average after 250 years when the soil is depleted - see David Montgomery:

The original study: "Dirt: The Erosion of
Civilizations"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/587916.Dirt

Or the more interesting, constructive, later response (with a summary of
Dirt):

"Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life" /
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36236132-growing-a-revolution

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-- 
David Barkin
Mexico

-- 
Hari Dilip Kumar

The Sustainability Problemsolver | Initiative for Climate Action
LinkedIn | Skype haridk.skype

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