hi alex, very happy to engage, and I fully understand the legitimacy of your strategic choices, though your vision of a successful new new deal is also a sign of optimism in itself .... I agree we have to fight for it
this is a very good overiview of the other polarity, I think at the p2p foundation, we are somewhere in between, even as we are very liberally cited in this overview of commons-based relocalization: https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Networked_Cities_as_Resilient_Platforms_for_Post-Capitalist_Transition#Excerpt On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 10:34 AM, Alex Foti <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear Michel, Dear Friends, > > a trillion thanks for this thoughtful and appreciative review. i look > forward to co-developing a veritable post-capitalist strategy by embodying > the commons-based approach and i find your criticism of an excessive > capitalist realism justified (lost a few nights' sleep about it, but i am > very fearful of cryptofascist reaction, and think we can force liberal > capitalism into a social compromise - which you're right would make funding > and reclaiming the commons a central feature of society - and also i guess > i wanted to avoid excessive utopianism given that current historical > reality is so dystopian). again thanks for taking the time to read and > engage with the book's arguments. > > best milanese ciaos, > > lx > > On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 9:25 AM, Michel Bauwens <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> see also link here at https://wiki.p2pfoundation. >> net/General_Theory_of_the_Precariat#Evaluation >> >> "This book is essential reading for all commoners that want to think >> through the right strategy for social change. It squarely places itself >> from the point of few of the new social groups (or class in formation, as >> Foti would have it) that have grown under the conditions of neoliberalism >> and its decline, or in other words under the emergence of cognitive >> capitalism or 'informationalism'. This key group are the various >> constituent parts of the precariat, all the people who can no longer work >> with dependable classic labor contracts and the steady income and >> protection deriving from it. >> >> This book should be read through its end, i.e. chapter five, because its >> first four chapters on the precariat are only set in a more complex >> geopolitical context in that last chapter. To be honest, I was quite >> reactive at times during the reading of the first four chapters, because >> two very important structural elements were missing in his analysis. First >> is the commons itself, the other side of the antagonistic struggles of the >> precariat; and second is the ecological crisis, the very material >> conditions under which this struggle must occur today. Foti indeed calls >> for economic and monetary growth, and sounds like an unabashed >> neo-Keynesian but only in the last chapter stresses that this growth should >> be thermodynamically sound (i.e. he calls for monetary growth, but not >> growth in material services). Foti also almost completely ignores the role >> of the commons and 'commonalism' in the first four chapters, only >> acknowledging in a few parts of chapter 5, that it is a vital constituent >> part of the precarious condition. If you don't read chapter 5, you could be >> mistaken for seeing Foti's analysis as an exercise in re-imagining the >> class dynamics and compromises of the New Deal and post-WWII european >> welfare states, and has simply replaced working class with precariat, >> working class parties with social populism, and the New Deal with a social >> compact for green capitalism. >> >> So, the fact that this is a remarkably thought out book about >> contemporary strategy for social change, should be tempered by a few >> paradoxes that the author has not completely resolved. >> >> Indeed at the heart of the book lies also an enduring paradox: Foti calls >> for the most radical forms of conflict, and identifies with the more >> radical cultural minorities, acknowledging their anticapitalist and >> anarchist ethos, yet calls for mere reformism as a focus and outcome. This >> is therefore not a book about transforming our societies to post-capitalist >> logics, this is a book about a new reformism. This is a book against >> neoliberalism, not against capitalism. At times, it is plain 'capitalist >> realism', as Foti explicitly acknowledges he sees no dynamic value creation >> outside of capitalism. For Foti, it is clear, if sufficient conflict and >> precariat self-organisation can occur, then a new regulation of capitalism >> can occur. He justifies this by a detailed analysis of the different >> regulatory modes of capitalism (smith-ism, fordism, jobs-ism) and how they >> relate to the kondratieff economic cycles, drawing on the insights of >> Carlota Perez and others. Foti distinguishes crises of demand, where there >> is too much accumulation of capital, and not enough distribution. These >> crises he says, are essentially reformist crises, as people mobilize to >> restore balance in the redistribution, but not against the system per se. >> The crisis of the 30's and the crisis after 2008, are such crises, he in my >> view convincingly shows. Other crises are caused by a failing supply, due >> to over-regulation of capital and falling profit rates, such as the crisis >> of the 70s, and these crises, which are inflationary, are revolutionary. >> This distinction between crises of accumulation and crises of regulation, >> is in my opinion very insightful, and true. This recognition may of course >> be troubling, but if true, we have to take serious stock of it. We are >> simply not in revolutionary times, right now, but rather in a struggle >> between national populism and social populism. From this analysis, Foti >> then argues that the first priority is for the precariat to re-regulate for >> a distribution of wealth, much like the old working class achieved after >> WWII. >> >> But even if we acknowledge this conjuncture, I would argue that Foti >> insufficiently balances his outlook between reforming capitalism and >> constructing post-capitalism, beween antagonistic conflict and positive >> construction of the new. He argues that without income, there can be no >> such construction. This is very likely true, so we need to rebalance >> redistribution, in a way that income growth can lead to immaterial growth >> that is compatible with the ecological limits of our planet, and use these >> surpluses to transform societal structures. Foti calls for social (or 'eco' >> populist movements and coalitions as the political means to that end, >> pointing to Podemos and En Comu, and perhaps Sanders and Corbyn, as such >> forces, supported by to be created Precariat Syndicates. He also puts >> forward the thesis that the enemy is national populism, an alliance between >> retrograde fossil fuel capitalism and the salariat, with on the other side >> a possible alliance of green capitalism (a real effort not a marketing >> ploy) with the precariat, with the former fighting for top-down coalition >> and the second for bottom-up regulation. This division of the working class >> is in my view way too stark, and perhaps even defeatist. I would very >> strongly argue to seek alliances and develop policies that can give hope to >> the salariat. The thrust of our work for the Commons Transition aims at >> precisely that. (elsewhere in the book, Foti does call for an alliance with >> progressive middle classes, but if these are not the workers with jobs, >> where are these then ?) >> >> Now Foti correctly critiques in my view, people like Mason and Rifkin for >> failing to problematize the post-capitalist transition, they make it seem >> like an inexorable process if not affirming that we are already >> post-capitalist, as some others do, but in my view then in his turn he >> fails to pay proper attention to it. What if the re-regulation of >> capitalism doesn't work for example ? Then at some point, say in about 30 >> years, as Kondratieff cycles would indicate, we would still face a crisis >> of over-regulation, and a more revolutionary moment. For Foti, we have to >> take it on faith that green capitalism will be a successful new regulatory >> mode of capitalism. What if it turns out to be a unworkable compromise and >> that more drastic action is needed. But Foti has no faith in alternatives >> to capitalism, which means that the only alternatives would then be >> eco-fascism as a new feudalism with only consumption for the rich, lifeboat >> eco-hacking, a situation akin to that of medieval communes, or dictatorial >> eco-maoism, say Cuba on a global scale. >> >> Contra this 'capitalist realism', our contention at the P2P Foundation is >> that post-capitalism is both necessary and possible, even if we recognize >> that today is a possible reformist moment in that evolution/transformation. >> In that context, the construction of seed forms, the recognition of other >> forms of value creation (which can be monetized!), of other forms of >> self-organization is absolutely a vital side of the coin in the dialectic >> of construction and conflict. Foti seems to forget that the traditional >> working class did not simply 'fight', but constructed cooperatives (both >> consumer coosp and producer coops), unions, parties, mutualities and many >> fraternal/sororal organizations. The very generalization of the welfare >> system was an extension by means of the state, of the solidarity mechanism >> of the working class, which had taken decades to develop. Also vitally, the >> identity itself of the working class was not just as a part of capitalism, >> but as a movement for another type of society, whether that was expressed >> through socialism, social-democracy, anarchism, and other variants. When >> that hope was lost terminally, that was also the end of the strength and >> identify of working class movements. There can be no offensive social >> strategy without a strong social imaginary, and mere reformist designs >> won’t do. So commonalism is not just something that we do when we come home >> from work, or tired from our conflictual organizing against an enemy from >> whom we want mere redistribution. On the contrary, it is vital part of the >> class formation and identity, this is why we stress our identity not just >> as precariat, which is a negative formulation that characterizes us as the >> weaker victims of the capitalist class, but as commoners, the multitude of >> co-constructors of viable futures that correspond to contemporary >> emancipatory desires. We cannot just trust green capitalism, we vitally >> need to build thermodynamically sound and mutualized provisioning systems >> as commons even if we have to compromise with capitalism. Post-capitalism >> should not be essentialized as something occuring 'after the revolution', >> but as an ongoing process, dynamically inter-linked with political >> self-organizing and conflict. Foti in this book, is only really good at >> conflict. Even if we look at conflict, I would argue that the strength of >> the reformist compromise after WWII was very much linked to the fear of the >> however flawed alternative that existed, and that the forms of compromise >> were the result of decades of invention of new forms. >> >> If we take that view, then I believe the contradiction in Foti's book can >> be resolved. Indeed in that case we do not have to ask the radical >> precariat to give up it's values for a reformist compromise, but to >> productively combine radically transformative post-capitalist practice. >> >> There is another issue with Foti's book. He very much stresses the >> superdiversity of the precariat, and the key role of gender and >> race/migration unity in their struggles. He also mentions en passant the >> need for a potential eurasian alignment between Europe and China , now that >> the Atlantic unity has been broken by Trump. But , at the same time, this >> is really a very eurocentric book, calling for a new compromise in Europe >> and 'advanced western states'. Obviously, since in the Global South it is >> the salariat and proletariat which is growing, there is a theoretical >> difficulty here. But what if a thermo-dynamically sound economy would >> require a cosmo-localization of our global economy, as we contend at the >> P2P Foundation, combining global sharing of knowledge with substantial >> relocalization of physical production (as even big bank reports now >> recognize) ? Only if we recognize this, can we actually have a new global >> view of solidarity, as both elements benefit workers, salaried and >> precarious, in the whole world. >> >> So, in conclusion, I find Foti's book to be an excellent first half of a >> book, which would have been much better and sound, if it had more >> extensively struggled with the commons equation of the precariat. The >> commons is not something we do 'afterwards' , after a successful New Green >> Deal, it is is something that is as ongoing and vital. Theoretically, in a >> few paragraphs at the end of the book, Foti seems to recognize it, but it >> is not integrated in his strategic vision, or only marginally. >> >> Readers who miss this aspect, could look at the ten years of research and >> analysis we have conducted on that other half of the equation, at the P2P >> Foundation. We may have the other weakness though, and in fact we purposely >> have focused not on the conflict part, which is the natural inclination of >> the left and needs no help, but in pointing out how any self-organization, >> and construction of the commons, which inevitable comes with conflict, is >> just an essential part of the programmatic alternatives of the precariat. >> Not just as proposals of electoral parties and syndicates, but as >> expressions of actual practice. Our orientation is to try to achieve a >> greater understanding by emancipatory forces, of both the salariat, the >> precariat, and progressive entrepreneurial groups, of the importance of >> integrating the commons as a programmatic element in their struggles, and >> their proposals. We will probably stick to this bias towards the >> constructive side of the equation, tempered by a full awareness that this >> is by itself insuffient, and requires the kind of understanding of >> struggle, and its attendant strategies, as provided by Foti. >> >> In conclusion, Foti's enduring quality is to have worked out >> systematically, what the conflict part of the equation entails, and that is >> a very important achievement. Bearing in mind what we think is missing in >> this book, there is much to be learned, and I believe the different >> perspectives and different weaknesses in the approaches of people like Foti >> and the P2P Foundation (and other) commons-centric approaches, there is >> room for a lot of convergence and mutual enrichment." >> >> -- >> 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/ >> > > -- 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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