Dear Marty, apologies, I have read your two contributions today, 12 days late because of email overload, but found them very interesting,
I take it in as great info and experience on your part, but don't have a specific reaction to challenge your points, Michel On Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 7:20 AM, Marty Heyman <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear Michel, > > As you rightly point out, I am new to this P2P space with you all. I come > from a different vocabulary and point of starting perspective and some of > your language causes me to stumble and lurch a bit. > > I agree that we need to maximize the number of persons and teams working > on the material and immaterial “Resources” that would contribute to the > various “Commons” (plural) of interest. I also agree we have much work to > do to actualize the link between the voluntary (unpaid, uncorked) > contributions to various Bazaars and the production of the means of > sustenance (contributions to livelihood). My personal work and that in > which I am involved with GEO is pretty direct as we are VERY focused on > bringing help to communities in precarity or outright poverty. > > I don’t respond so well to the “self-reproduction of the commoners” point > as that is an educational and personal-transformational issue. You can > teach someone to fish and they can feed their family and neighbors. It is a > bigger problem to teach them to teach others to fish and to reach out for > others to teach (self-reproduction of the “communing urge” as it were). We > find this secondary step quite problematic even after we get buy-in on the > first step. > > As an Open Source Software company, we save discarded programmers of note > when we have the surplus cash-flow to make that possible. The number > discarded by the big sponsors, annually, as they stumble and bumble from > one “objective” to the next is much larger than we can afford to rectify. > We concentrate on a few leaders in a very specialized niche (several in the > past couple of years) and mourn for all those we know who we simply can’t > help. Your point is philosophically reasonable but often, it is all we can > do to place good people in wildly inappropriate positions for lack of > opportunities to provide for their “means of sustenance” any other way. > > As a member of GEO, I DO get to see many of the folks you point to and the > energy and commitment is always an inspiration. We are particularly focused > this past year or so on the Federation of co-operative ventures (commons’s > in the vocabulary I see in places in Europe) to get the solidarity economic > benefits of tighter value-flows, increased value velocities and the like. > Some of us are convinced that alternative currencies are a critical > foundation piece. Others are more focused on democratic solidarity > construction in “the community.” There’s a lot of room to make a difference. > > — > Marty Heyman > 510-290-6484 > > On Jul 27, 2015, at 3:17 AM, Michel Bauwens <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Michel Bauwens <[email protected]> > Date: Mon, Jul 27, 2015 at 2:12 PM > Subject: Re: Continuing to fill in the context > > > I'll share my perspective on this, which may not be that of the others > copied in, > > my first inclination today is that the focus needs to be on constructing > commons, immaterial and material, everywhere we can, and to create vehicles > so that this allows the creation of livelihoods and the self-reproduction > of the commoners. While the struggle between labor and capital remains a > reality as long as the current political economy dominates, I think > personally that all struggles that focus on bringing more labor into > subordinate working relations in view of redistribution, are no longer > operative, and that we must focus on counter-economic networks, with > decommodified cooperative labor co-constructing commons. This means, as > first suggested by Pat Conaty on this list, to create a in-between between > the commons and capital, i.e. to focus on cooperative accumulation. But > that cooperative accumulation can no longer be merely a coop that competes > on the capitalist marketplace, but a coop that co-produces commons, and > works with non-capitalist capital in a non-capitalist market. This means > concretely working on the creation of entrepreneurial coalitions that are > co-dependent and organized around the commons that they are co-creating. > > Concretely, at the territorial level, this looks like what Stephanie > Rearick is doing in Madison, > https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/100-women-who-are-co-creating-the-p2p-society-stephanie-rearick-of-the-mutual-aid-network/2015/07/18, > or what Marion Rousseaux is trying to do in Lille with Encommuns.org > https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/100-women-who-are-co-creating-the-p2p-society-marion-rousseaux-on-the-commons-in-lille-france/2015/07/25, > i.e. create interlocking value chains for the cooperative commonwealth, at > the local or the translocal level. > > At the more 'trans-national' level, this means a direct focus on the > creation of phyles, i.e. ethical, 'generative' business networks that > sustain a community and its commons. This means projects like > lasindias.net, enspiral, ethos, and others. (marty, you'll find > descriptions of all those in the p2pfoundation.net wiki, via the search > box on the top right) > > On Sun, Jul 26, 2015 at 11:08 PM, Marty Heyman <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Hi to the others on the list. >> >> My quibble, such as it is, is that Capital (Finance) pervades and largely >> controls … especially “the conversation.” A program to reverse its >> enclosures of the economic, political, and social spheres would appear to >> need a core of equally committed and motivated strategists with the >> resources to create a contrary “movement” to mobilize wealth, power, and >> public sentiment. Absent the “Davos” of anti-Capitalism (most importantly >> it’s “core team”), I don’t know how to unseat them and their “system.” >> >> We need to continue to educate me on the philosophical underpinnings of >> terms like “the common good”. Language that feels like it pits “the common >> good” against “the private good” most broadly seem overly broad. Certainly >> the “common good” is the aggregate of the “private good”(s) of some >> collection of persons (and institutions). The usage here seems to want to >> exclude the “private good” of Finance, Capital, and Corrupt Politics …but >> such distinctions are hard to draw accurately as the Commons (Co-operative) >> and Solidarity movements rely heavily on Capital from somewhere for seed >> money. >> >> Finally, not all the “Externalities” lead to desertification and useless >> waste. Vast bodies of code, design, and other technological artifacts are >> abandoned by Capital and Finance to our “Digital Commons”. I often think of >> Open Source Software as much a vast scrap-heap of discarded and abandoned >> code as I do a bazaar or innovation. There is too much redundant, >> self-gratifying “Innovation” and not enough refinement of the material >> already just sitting there waiting to be improved. I think, ultimately, we >> are seeing much the same with agricultural lands in climate zones >> considered non-optimal for industrial agriculture. Opportunities abound for >> self-directed, democratically governed initiatives and ventures IMHO. >> >> — >> Marty Heyman >> 510-290-6484 >> > > -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/
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