The grand alliance for politics in 21st century

Excellent article from Michel Bauwens, however this is about struggle, for the forest, for the net, against enclosure...non violent battle has to be waged...Viva Aidesep, they fought and won and are totally ignored by the left, greens and FOSS community....if it works it isn't on the agenda, one might say! Viva Aidesep. Commons is one thing getting to a common world is going to involve some strategic thinking and focussed effort.


The grand alliance for the commons: the task of 21 cy. politics


Michel Bauwens
2nd April 2010

In my writings on P2P Theory, I have a rather simple, but I believe true, formula to describe the crisis of the global system of neoliberal capitalism.

Namely,

- i.e. based on a false belief that nature is infinitely abundant as a resource to be used by humanity, without regard for the finitude of our planet, the necessary cycles of renewal in nature, etc… Nature is an object to be depleted, and for waste to be dumped in. This is what I call ‘pseudo-abundance’

- i.e. based on the false belief, disproved again and again by studies, that the exchange of knowledge regarding innovation, culture and science have to be restricted artificially, in an exaggerated manner that protects monopolies and their rent-based income. This is what I call artificial scarcity.

Hence a sustainable civilization or political economy needs to reverse both polarities. It needs to recognize the limits of the natural world and respect its cycles of regeneration, and it needs to relax its artificial scarcities to that knowledge and innovation can flow more freely to the whole of humanity. In fact, we cannot really solve the first problem, without tackling the second.

However, we could imagine solutions to the above, that would take place without regard for the welfare of humanity itself, i.e. that would not include the equally important requirement for social justice. Hence the need for a third leg for our stool.

We can translate these three tasks, reversing pseudo-abundance and artificial scarcity in the context of social justice, by looking at existing and emerging social movements.

The environmental movement, and all those other forces which are starting the integrate the demands for sustainability of our physical production, are the necessary allies for the protection of our biosphere.

The social justice movement is represented by the many social forces defending the interests of workers and farmers and for socially just structures, on the local, national, and global levels.

The peer to peer moment in history brings one more emerging social movement in this potential grand alliance: the movement for the free flow of knowledge, culture and innovation. This is the contribution of the free culture movement, of the open access movement, of computer hackers, and many other actors tackling artificial scarcity.

Each of these moments has its own related but complementary vision of a world centered around the commons and civil society. For the environmental movement, the earth and its resources are a commons whose sustainability has to be protected; the social justice movements wants to make sure that the fruits of the physical commons are distributed in a fair manner so that no part of humanity is excluded from the basic demands of well-being; and the free culture movements protects the digital commons of education, knowledge, science and innovation.

This is what the grand alliance of the commons is about: recognizing the joint interest of these grand social movements in the resilience, sustainability and thrivability of natural and human commons.
The creation of this grand alliance is the task of 21st century politics.

Shut it!

On Friday, March 26, 2010, two hundred Indigenous Landowners and concerned
citizens stood up in protest against the Chinese-owned Ramu nickel mine in
Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. The peaceful protest was deemed illegal by
police and halted.

The event took place in front of a packed courthouse, where the Chinese
Metallurigcal Construction Company

More here

Elect Adrian Ramsay as Green MP for Norwich South

Just had this, no excuses, get on the doorstep and campaign.

Evidence on the doorstep in Norwich South is showing we can win and increasingly close between Adrian Ramsay and New Labour MP, Charles Clarke, who brought us student top-up fees, wants more privatisation of council housing, education and the NHS; helped bring in ID cards and was part of the Iraq war cabinet.

We do not have time to wait to elect Adrian in a few years' time - we must win now - and we urgently need support on the ground with door knocking and leafleting. If you are willing to give just one day of your time every 5 years to help the Green Party win an MP seat, now is the time to visit! Contact chris.williams@greenparty.org.uk or call 01603 611 909 to offer to help. Accommodation can be provided."

Chagos Marine Reserve 'justified by lies'

I thought the idea that conservation meant excluding people had finally been buried by Elinor Ostrom's Nobel Prize win. So I am sad to hear that the Chagos Islands have been made a conservation reserve by the British government.

The Chagos people were physically removed from their islands to make way for a US base. The US gave the UK government £11 million towards Polaris nuclear weapons in the 1960s for getting rid of local people

They have fought a long battle to return from exile, the reserve looks like preventing them from going home.

Ostrom has shown that local people are best at conservation, after all if they mess up their environment, they will be in serious trouble.

I am sure preventing fishing by industrial outfits etc is good....but local people need sustainable local activity which might involve eating fish, may be a bit of local fishing is 'allowed'. 'Allowed' even if the case, says it all, the British government stole an Island, kicked off its people and still decides what they should be 'allowed' to do.

What right has the British government have to make decisions about other parts of the planet? In my view none. Sadly due to the waste and inefficiency of our economy, based on taking resources and using them as quickly as possible, climate change looks like sinking the Chagos beneath the sea.

Very sad to see conservation from the top down being supported by so many environmentalists.

Chagos Support group here

Letter to Greenpeace here

Chicka Dixon, indigenous and trade unionist gets state funeral

Aboriginal activist Charles “Chicka” Dixon’s state funeral today featured traditional Aboriginal body paint, the black power salute (made famous at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games) and a coffin draped in the Aboriginal flag and covered with messages from those left behind.

Mr Dixon’s legacy was evident in the sea of tears on the Sydney town hall steps today. This man waged a war against injustice and his hand-print will be forever stamped on Australian history through his involvement the campaign for the yes vote for citizenship for indigenous Australians in the 1967 referendum, the 1972 Aboriginal Tent Embassy and the establishment of the Aboriginal Legal Service.


Its ironic that Chicka Dixon who described 'all politicians as bastards' and was labelled a terrorist gets a state funeral in New South Wales.

Sad that he was killed by pollution, the point is that workers bare the brunt of environmental damage.

Obviously a great man and loss to the movement.

Australia continues to have many fine people who fight for the indigenous, for socialism and ecology.

I really would recommend Green Left Weekly and LINKS, as two amazing publications from Australia.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Native Peoples Reject Market Mechanisms

CLIMATE CHANGE: Native Peoples Reject Market Mechanisms
By Daniel Zueras

SAN JOSÉ, Apr 1, 2010 (IPS) - Solutions to global warming based on the logic of the market are a threat to the rights and way of life of indigenous peoples, the Latin American Indigenous Forum on Climate Change concluded this week in Costa Rica.

Proposals from governments and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), such as the Clean Development Mechanism and the UN-REDD Programme (United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries), "are new forms of economic geopolitics" that endanger indigenous rights enshrined in treaties, says the final declaration of the forum, which ended Wednesday.

These proposals allow states and transnational corporations to promote dams, agrofuels, oil exploration, tree plantations and monoculture crops, that cause expropriation and destruction of indigenous peoples' territories and the criminalisation, prosecution and even murder of native people, the document says.

The Forum, which opened Monday, included the Indigenous Council of Central America (CICA), the Meso-American Indigenous Council (CIMA), the International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests, the Coordinating Body for the Indigenous Organisations of the Amazon Basin (COICA), the Indigenous Women's Biodiversity Network (IWBN), the South American region of the Continental Network of Indigenous Women (ECMIA), the Intercultural Indigenous University (UII) and the International Indigenous Women's Forum (IIWF).

Indigenous people and their organisations are putting forward holistic solutions that respect the rights of human beings and of Mother Earth, and that are not limited to Western scientific knowledge but include traditional wisdom, indigenous practices and innovations that have contributed to efforts to preserve ecosystems and biodiversity, the Forum declaration says.

There are some 400 different native groups in Latin America, totalling about 45 million people.

More here

Canadian company drills Ecuador

I would cut out the middle person and support the indigenous in Ecuador, Correa has not been a consistent friend of tierra madre. Any way just had this


Dear friends,

The Canandian oil company Ivanhoe Energy obtained a concession from the Ecuadorian government for an oil exploitation project in Block 20, which lies in the UNESCO Sumaco Biosphere Reserve, in the Ecuadorian province of Napo. It is projected that the project will extract between 4.5 and 7 million barrels of petroleum from 30 or more wells. The project has not been sufficiently studied and we worry that it will have major social and environmental impacts.

See our petition to help communities defend their rights:

http://www.rainforest-rescue.org/

Help us spread this message as far as possible by sending it to your social networks, friends, and family. Many thanks and a sincere salutation,

Guadalupe Rodríguez
Rainforest Rescue

Email: guadalupe@regenwald.org
Tel.: +49 (0)30- 51736879
Berlin, Germany

http://www.rainforest-rescue.org
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