<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">David Bollier</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:david@bollier.org">david@bollier.org</a>></span><br>Date: Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 3:55 AM<br>
Subject: Fwd: THE STRUGGLE FOR THE COMMONS<br>To: Silke Helfrich <<a href="mailto:Silke.Helfrich@gmx.de">Silke.Helfrich@gmx.de</a>>, Michel Bauwens <<a href="mailto:michelsub2004@gmail.com">michelsub2004@gmail.com</a>><br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><b><font color="#003366" face="Tahoma" size="5"><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Tahoma; color: rgb(0, 51, 102); font-weight: bold;" lang="EN-GB">THE
STRUGGLE FOR THE COMMONS<u></u><u></u></span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><i><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;" lang="EN-GB">by Jay
Walljasper, The Nation, 29 September 2011.<u></u><u></u></span></font></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 35.4pt;"><i><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;" lang="EN-GB">Jay Walljasper, a senior
fellow at On the Commons and editor of
OnTheCommons.org, is the author, most
recently, of </span></font></i><span lang="EN-GB">All That We Share: A Field
Guide to the Commons<i><span style="font-style: italic;"> (The New Press)</span></i>.</span><span lang="EN-US"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">The commons is an old value
that�s resurfacing as a fresh
approach to twenty-first-century crises such as
escalating economic inequality,
looming ecological disruption and worsening
social alienation.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">In essence, the commons
means everything that belongs to all of us, and
the many ways we work together to use these
assets to build a better society. This
encompasses fresh air and clean water, public
spaces and public services, the
Internet and the airwaves, our legal system,
scientific knowledge, biodiversity,
language, artistic traditions, fashion styles,
cuisines and much more. Taken
together, it represents a vast inheritance
bequeathed equally to every human --
and one that, if used wisely, will provide for
future generations.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">Tragically, this wealth is
being stolen in the name of economic
efficiency and global competitiveness. As the
disparity between the
world�s richest individuals and everyone else
grows, a massive takeover
of the commons is occurring. Through
privatization schemes, land grabs, excessive
copyright and patenting claims, no-new-taxes
policies, neocolonial
globalization and the gutting of government
services, we are losing what is
rightfully ours. These radical policies inflict
economic pain but also diminish
the natural world, our sense of community and
the ability to participate in
decisions affecting our future.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">Of course, this is nothing
new. It has been happening ever since feudal
lords in <u></u>Europe<u></u>
enclosed forests and grazing
lands (the original meaning of the word
�commons�), which helped
set the stage for the brutality of the
Industrial Revolution and colonial
invasions. The assault on the commons has
intensified over the past thirty
years, however, because of the rise of market
ideology as the overpowering
force in international politics.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">But all is not lost. We
still depend on and take advantage of the
commons every minute of the day, from the tap
water we use to brush our teeth
in the morning to the fairy tales we tell our
kids at bedtime. We have no
choice but to redouble efforts to save the
commons in its many forms, from
essential public services in our communities to
net neutrality to a spirit of
cooperation in our everyday lives. As awareness
of what belongs to all of us
grows among progressives, the commons is
gradually emerging as both a critique
and a strategy to challenge the dominance of
market-based values at every level
of our society.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">* * *<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">The work of the commons
points us toward a brighter future where the
out-of-control individualism of modern society
is balanced with a new
appreciation of what we can accomplish together
-- a welcome shift from
�me� to �we.� This can range from community
gardens and
budget-cut protests at the grassroots level to
open-source initiatives in
professional fields to economic justice and
environmental campaigns in the
political world. (Of course, most people doing
commons work don�t call it
that, and many may not be familiar with the term
at all; for them it�s
simply the �common good.�)<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">Although a new concept to
us, the commons stands as a central
organizing principle of indigenous societies,
peasant communities and many
advanced industrial nations. Social democracy,
as practiced in <u></u>Europe<u></u>
and other places, embodies a basic commons
principle -- that no one should be denied basic
needs like food, housing,
healthcare, daycare, education, transportation,
job training, paid vacation, a
comfortable old age and a measure of dignity in
their lives.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">Even American society has
been grounded in the commons idea since the
beginning. Nature�s gifts are �the common
property of the human
race,� declared Thomas Paine. <i><span style="font-style: italic;">The Land
Ordinance of 1785</span></i>, drafted by a
committee of the Continental
Congress that included Thomas Jefferson,
established a cooperative model for
settlement of the West (and removal of Indian
nations) by setting aside one
square-mile section of every township as common
property to be used to support
a public school.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">New Deal legislation,
crowned by the Social Security Act and the GI
Bill, drew upon a sense of the commons -- the
belief that we�re all in
this together -- to elevate millions of families
into the middle class. In many
cases, however, these benefits were denied to
African-Americans, Latinos and
American Indians, a situation Ira Katznelson
chronicles in his book <i><span style="font-style: italic;">When Affirmative
Action Was White</span></i>. Repairing
longstanding racial and economic injustice
remains one of the central themes of
commons activism today.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">Although rarely articulated
as a distinct philosophy, the ideals of the
commons provided inspiration for key
advancements throughout our history --
ranging from public health improvements and
civic reforms of the Progressive
era to the gains made for working families by
labor unions to the
accomplishments of social movements since the
1960s. All these success stories
refute frequent claims that individualism alone
accounts for <u></u><u></u>America<u></u><u></u>�s
progress.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">For progressives today, a
new focus on all that we share will provide a
boost in forging strategies and policies that
win the hearts of Americans. Until
the Great Recession hit in 2008, increasing
numbers bought into the market
mantra that you cannot depend on anything you
don�t own. Although this
made little sense to the majority of Americans
left behind by the economy,
especially those who never shared in the
prosperity, many middle-class people
came to accept that logic. Who cares that the
recreation center at the park is
padlocked, when you can buy into a private
health club?<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">Then, suddenly, all that we
share -- parks, libraries, transit, public
schools, a social safety net, a sense of
community cooperation -- has become
increasingly important. Yet, ironically, at a
time when demand for public and
civic services is rising, sharp reductions in
tax revenues and charitable
giving (along with politicians� refusal to raise
taxes) mean that these
services are being cut back or eliminated.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">More Americans understand
it�s crazy that library hours are being
slashed when increasing numbers of people can�t
afford Internet service,
magazine subscriptions or new books. It�s
ridiculous that transit fares
are rising and routes are being cut when it�s
harder than ever for some
people to afford cars or gas, and when it�s
clear that auto emissions are
affecting the world�s climate. It�s criminal
that programs helping
the poor, both in government and in civil
society, are struggling to find money
when so many more people now depend on them.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">In my new book, <i><span style="font-style: italic;">All That We Share:
A
Field Guide to the Commons</span></i>, I
call this situation �a tragedy
of the commons.� In fact, that�s the opposite of
how this phrase is
generally understood -- that the commons itself
is the tragedy, not its
destruction. This negative view dates to 1968,
when wildlife biologist Garrett
Hardin published a hugely influential essay,
�The Tragedy of the
Commons,� in which he speculated that collective
ownership of resources
was a major factor in environmental destruction.
Describing a hypothetical
common pasture, he argued that because no one
owns it outright, no one has an
incentive to take care of it. This means that
everyone will graze as many
cattle as possible there until the land turns
barren.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">Free-market advocates
seized on Hardin�s parable as proof that
any system other than rigid private property
leads to ruin. It took decades of
work by <u></u><u></u>Indiana<u></u> <u></u>University<u></u><u></u>
political scientist Elinor
Ostrom -- co-winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize for
Economics, the first woman so
honored -- to debunk the belief that the commons
inevitably leads to tragedy. Ostrom�s
fieldwork in <u></u>Kenya<u></u>,
<u></u>Switzerland<u></u>,
<u></u>Guatemala<u></u>,
<u></u>Nepal<u></u>,
<u></u>Turkey<u></u>
and <u></u><u></u>Los
Angeles<u></u><u></u> shows that
people in real communities
generally create rules and systems to protect
the resources they share. These
can be enforced by government regulation, local
customs or other means. Other
examples include the rules New England
lobstermen developed through the years
to prevent overfishing and the acequia
irrigation systems in arid New Mexico,
which have been successfully governed by
community groups as long as four
centuries.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">The tragedy of the commons,
in Hardin�s sense of the phrase, does
indeed exist, as seen in the collapse of global
fish stocks and continuing
greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
But Ostrom�s research shows
that the lack of commons management, not the
commons itself, is to blame.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">The recognition of Ostrom�s
work, along with a culture of online
sharing fostered by the Internet, is sparking
the emergence of a new movement
championing the commons -- as a precious
inheritance we must save and as a way
of looking at the world. It�s actually a
movement of movements, as
activists concerned about seemingly distinct
issues as indigenous rights, fair
access to the Internet, economic inequity, the
environment or the growing lack
of democratic participation realize what they
have in common. There�s
real potential for �more than the sum of the
parts� results here. The
surprising rise of Europe�s �pirate� parties
(which recently
won seats in <u></u><u></u>Berlin<u></u><u></u>�s
state legislature), sparked by opposition to
restrictive copyrights and patent
laws, points to the political possibilities of
the commons.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">The number of people who
identify as �commoners� is still
small; yet the commons movement already has a
global reach, with citizens from
thirty-four nations attending the first
International Conference on the
Commons, in <u></u>Berlin<u></u>
last November, including a
government minister and a former president of
the national assembly from <u></u><u></u>Ecuador<u></u><u></u>.
The
World Social Forum issued a call for �all
citizens of the world to deepen
the notion of the commons.� So far the ideals of
the commons seem to
appeal most to people in developing nations and
social democracies, where
individualism and the market mentality are not
so ingrained as in the <u></u><u></u>United States<u></u><u></u>.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><u></u>�<u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">But the financial implosion
of 2008 and its still-reverberating side
effects could be the catalyst for Americans to
rethink some of our assumptions
about what matters most in society. In the
immediate aftermath of the crash,
many sought comfort in the nostrums of the Tea
Party. But as it becomes clear
that high unemployment, economic uncertainty and
escalating wealth disparities
are here to stay under current policies, the
values of the commons will
resonate with more Americans. The emergence of
this progressive worldview could
help redefine the American Dream and our
political priorities.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
</div>
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