[P2P-F] Unions for Immaterial Production?

Sat Feb 26 05:04:39 CET 2011

Dear Orsan,

the key question for me here is the following: can we find mechanisms of
peer property that do not recommodify our practices, but leave the p2p
practices intact?

i.e. a simple profit sharing scheme by facebook/youtube etc.. would
essentially recommidify the social exchange, as people would start
behaving/producing as profit maximisers themselves?

so are there mechanisms which can at the same time keep the value within
those that produce it, while preserving the social advances of free
collaborative labour?

Michel

On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 6:13 AM, <orsan at tie-netherlands.nl> wrote:

> Your thought Richard evokes some others in my mind. Like orgainising
> facebook users and programmers at the same time, as well as youtube,
> twitter, google workers and users.
> Since users are peer producers, they are immaterial free labour for these
> compaines. In principle can claim the product of their labour back,
> ownership of facebook, youtube, google and twitter.
> Does anyone know if there is already a union in these companies?
> and some people would join in for such an experiment?
>
>
>
> Quoting Richard Schulte <richard at flywheelcollective.com>:
>
>  Patrick,
>>
>> As a member of a unionized worker co-op who deals exclusively with
>> software in the free & open source realm, I have not encountered many
>> issues with the impact of unionization on projects we are involved in.
>>
>> If anything, unionization in the open source realm could be helpful.
>> Say, if the workers of Sun Microsystems were unionized, could they not
>> have resisted the buy-out by Oracle through a strike?
>>
>> You make a good  point though - that developers in the greater
>> community could act as 'scabs' in these situations.  The thing is - as
>> long as they aren't being paid by the company that the workers are
>> striking against, then there is no issue, and they are not scabs.  If
>> anything, they could be seen as acting in solidarity with the striking
>> programmers by ensuring that their software is still stable once they
>> get back on the clock.  Or they could assist them by forking the
>> project and continuing development outside of the control of the
>> company (like the document foundation did). The free and open source
>> community is built around mutual aid, trust and solidarity (for the
>> most part).
>>
>> The reason I make such a big point of union organization in the open
>> source software and hardware communities is that when starting new
>> ventures that are worker-owned, that these folks can build economies of
>> scale around collective benefits, group purchasing, training & shared
>> services.  Having a union that is greater than your own shop is
>> important when filing grievances and having a wider reach of agency and
>> community.  When these institutions are worker-owned, and part of an
>> appropriate economic ecosystem, the balance of power tends to shift
>> away from moneyed interest and towards federation.  This means that
>> there will generally be less likelihood of strikes and work stoppage.
>>
>> Just a thought.
>>
>> Richard
>>
>> On 02/25/2011 12:39 PM, Patrick Anderson wrote:
>>
>>> The effectiveness of collective bargaining has always been threatened
>>> by independent peers who are willing to accept lower wages and endure
>>> poor working conditions.
>>>
>>> For traditional manufacturing jobs, these 'alternate' workers can
>>> usually be kept from accessing the Means of Production by forming a
>>> physical barrier around the worksite or through various threats that
>>> can be carried out because it is easy to monitor who is actually
>>> entering the establishment.
>>>
>>> Yet these valuable techniques of intimidation and coercion so vital to
>>> protecting Worker Rights are unlikely to be applicable in the realm of
>>> "immaterial production".
>>>
>>> When it comes to something like Free Software, how can we, the
>>> International Programmers of the World, unionize effectively to *stop*
>>> independent programmers from creating the solutions that consumers
>>> need?
>>>
>>> This is a catastrophic issue, as many of these independents are
>>> willing to work not just for a low Wage, but for Free!  They often fix
>>> bugs and add features without any pay at all!
>>>
>>> How can workers in the 'immaterial' sphere possibly "make a living"
>>> with such anarchy and disrespect for organized labor, and with no
>>> ability to stop that production?
>>>
>>
>
>

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