[P2P-F] 12 things you need to know about protests in Wisconsin, USA + Unions and P2P alternatives

Thu Feb 24 18:39:21 CET 2011

On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 8:09 AM,  <adavans at aol.com> wrote:
> I'm going to have something (hopefully profound) to say about parallel
> matters in Wisconsin in about an hour or two.  I'm going to try to make my
> best pitch and see to what degree we can help move a rather big agenda along
> in the state of Wisconsin, and possibly other states.  It involves something
> that the Democrats, Republicans, Unions, the Tea Party all claim they care
> about:investment.  It also involves an really big opening for Chris Cook's
> concept of Open Capital.
>
> I'm hoping we can launch 72 hours of sustained effort at communicating what
> (for now) I'm calling 'Big Sticks, Big Deals and Olive Branches.'  ok that's
> vague...but i like it.
>
> Regards
> Alan
>
>

The effort in WI, MI, Ohio, and Indiana is working in Michigan, as the
governor of Michigan is already publicly stating he'll negotiate with
Unions. ( Although, Republicans were still able to quietly get through
legislation that allows MI state government to take over schools and
towns with very loose rules.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-23/michigan-house-approves-emergency-manager-rules.html
)

>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>
> To: P2P Foundation mailing list <p2p-foundation at lists.ourproject.org>;
> orsan at tie-netherlands.nl; Walton Pantland <waltonp at gmail.com>
> Cc: Richard Adler <richardcadler at gmail.com>; Mark Dilley
> <markwdilley at gmail.com>; Paul B. Hartzog <paulbhartzog at gmail.com>; Matt
> Cooperrider <matt.cooperrider at collabforge.com>; Richard Schulte
> <richard at flywheelcollective.com>
> Sent: Thu, Feb 24, 2011 12:28 am
> Subject: Re: [P2P-F] 12 things you need to know about protests in Wisconsin,
> USA + Unions and P2P alternatives
>
> Dear Sam,
>
> copying two more union-p2p friends on this dialogue,
>
> Michel
>
> On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 10:35 AM, Samuel Rose <samuel.rose at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks Mark,
>>
>> This a long-term perspective/investment. Based on an ideas first
>> articulated to me by Richard Schulte of Flywheel Tech Collective, who
>> is copied on this email, the idea is to work with Unions to start
>> building worker-owned cooperatives of various types, especially based
>> around production and design of open source technologies/software.
>> Mark, I copied you because I know that you've been in dialogue with
>> Unions right here in Michigan for years. I wondered if you might know
>> of some Union folks here in Michigan that might be candidates for this
>> type of thing?
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 10:26 PM, Mark Dilley <markwdilley at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > Sam  - thank you for sending this out what seems so many days ago - I
>> > have been following this pretty keenly and am curious about the title of
>> > your email "+ Unions and P2P alternatives"
>> >
>> > open ears from anyone here.
>> >
>> > Best, Mark
>> >
>> >
>> > On 19Feb2011, at 5:19 PM, Samuel Rose wrote:
>> >
>> >> "What's happening in Wisconsin is not complicated. At the beginning of
>> >> this year, the state was on course to end 2011 with a budget surplus
>> >> of $120 million. As Ezra Klein explained, newly elected GOP Governor
>> >> Scott Walker then " signed two business tax breaks and a conservative
>> >> health-care policy experiment that lowers overall tax revenues (among
>> >> other things). The new legislation was not offset, and it turned a
>> >> surplus into a deficit."
>> >>
>> >> Walker then used the deficit he'd created as the justification for
>> >> assaulting his state's public employees. He used a law cooked up by a
>> >> right-wing advocacy group called the American Legislative Exchange
>> >> Council (ALEC). ALEC likes to fly beneath the radar, but I described
>> >> the organization in a 2005 article as "the connective tissue that
>> >> links state legislators with right-wing think tanks, leading anti-tax
>> >> activists and corporate money." Similar laws are on the table in Ohio
>> >> and Indiana.
>> >>
>> >> Walker's bill would strip public employees of the right to bargain
>> >> collectively for anything but higher pay (and would cap the amount of
>> >> wage hikes they might end up gaining in negotiations). His intentions
>> >> are clear -- before assuming office, Walker threatened to decertify
>> >> the state's employees' unions (until he discovered that the governor
>> >> doesn't have that power)."
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/479560/12_things_you_need_to_know_about_the_uprising_in_wisconsin/
>> >> _______
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Aso worth reading:
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> http://prop-press.typepad.com/blog/2011/02/report-from-day-five-first-chance-to-reflect.html
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> ________________________________________________________________________
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> I think the time is here to start talking with people about
>> >>
>> >> http://p2pfoundation.net/The_Political_Principles_of_Peer-to-Peer_Advocacy
>> >> here, in the Industrial Midwest (which includes WI)
>> >>
>> >> One simple way to route around party politics is to give people a
>> >> direct p2p way to actively reflect existing poltics as we saw in
>> >> iceland with http://skuggathing.is/portal based on
>> >> https://github.com/rbjarnason/open-active-democracy
>> >>
>> >> Another parallel approach is to start applying collective decision
>> >> making and pooling of resources directly to problems people are
>> >> addressing. In addition, creating cooperatives, supporting alternative
>> >> currencies when appropriate.
>> >>
>> >> Unions in all of these states have resources, including pension funds,
>> >> that they could invest directly in worker-owned cooperative companies,
>> >> as has been discussed by Richard Schulte of flywheeltechcollective in
>> >> the past. Some of them have expressed interest in doing this. These
>> >> kinds of changes for entities like unions are long term changes and
>> >> investments, and will take time. However, I think every year that goes
>> >> by makes more and more on the left receptive to p2p alternatives.
>> >>
>> >> If people are interested in working on P2P political advocacy and
>> >> approaches in 2011-2012, let's talk here and continue to build towards
>> >> thing people can really use in places like Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan,
>> >> Eastern Europe, South America, etc
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> --
>> >> Sam Rose
>> >> Future Forward Institute and Forward Foundation
>> >> Tel:+1(517) 639-1552
>> >> Cel: +1-(517)-974-6451
>> >> skype: samuelrose
>> >> email: samuel.rose at gmail.com
>> >> http://forwardfound.org
>> >> http://futureforwardinstitute.org
>> >> http://hollymeadcapital.com
>> >> http://p2pfoundation.net
>> >> http://socialmediaclassroom.com
>> >>
>> >> "The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human
>> >> ambition." - Carl Sagan
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> --
>> Sam Rose
>> Future Forward Institute and Forward Foundation
>> Tel:+1(517) 639-1552
>> Cel: +1-(517)-974-6451
>> skype: samuelrose
>> email: samuel.rose at gmail.com
>> http://forwardfound.org
>> http://futureforwardinstitute.org
>> http://hollymeadcapital.com
>> http://p2pfoundation.net
>> http://socialmediaclassroom.com
>>
>> "The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human
>> ambition." - Carl Sagan
>>
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-- 
--
Sam Rose
Future Forward Institute and Forward Foundation
Tel:+1(517) 639-1552
Cel: +1-(517)-974-6451
skype: samuelrose
email: samuel.rose at gmail.com
http://forwardfound.org
http://futureforwardinstitute.org
http://hollymeadcapital.com
http://p2pfoundation.net
http://socialmediaclassroom.com

"The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human
ambition." - Carl Sagan