In Dissent magazine, Gar Alperovitz proposes and describes a political/policy strategy for radical change, which is based neither reform within the system (reformism), nor replacement of the system (revolution), but transformation within the system through the use of innovative institutional frameworks. Below, we excerpt the part of the essay explaining the strategy, with two examples…. Continue reading
Date archives "October 2011"
Details on the German Pirates
Excerpted from an interview, conducted by Hank Pellissier, of German Pirate Party leader (‘political director’), Marina Weisband: “HP: What do you think the Pirate victory indicates about the German voters’ mood? MW: I think that the German voters are tired of the political style of the established parties. Only 6% of Germans are fond of… Continue reading
The Science Code Manifesto
The Science Code Manifesto is a proposal that applies to the software used for scientific purposes one of the core principles of science itself: publication. The starting point of the Manifesto, written by Nick Barnes and quickly endorsed by hundreds of scientists, scholars and open science activists, is that software is an increasingly important part… Continue reading
How do we achieve a True Cost Economy?
Republished from Gil Friend: Reinvent economy of an entire planet. This planet. In one generation. To do this, we need The True Cost Economy: Ecologizing Capitalism. “This was the theme of the panel I shared with Jean Brittingham and Randy Hayes at SXSWeco last week, and of the thoughts I share here. But actually that’s… Continue reading
Growth through scarcity?
* Book: The Sixth Wave: How to succeed in a resource-limited world” – Bianca Nogrady and James Moody. Excerpted from James Moody: “For over 200 years, since the industrial revolution, we have seen economic growth strongly coupled with the consumption of more and more resources. The more we grew, the more we consumed. This model… Continue reading
Are the #OccupWallStreet Working Groups functioning optimally?
The functioning and critique of working groups, excerpted from Pham Binh: “OWS’s working groups deal with food, sanitation, medical, security, media, outreach to other activist groups, transparency, facilitating meetings, and meeting a variety of other needs of the hundreds-strong collective (last week they had a makeshift barbershop and gave people free haircuts). Many of the… Continue reading
P2P and #OccupyWallStreet: It’s not just technology, it’s the people
While the great egalitarian backlash against 30 years of neoliberalism has begun through #occupywallstreet, more especially as a response against the post-2008 capture of our democracies by financial speculators, a lot of the analysis invariably goes to the crucial role of social media, not only to inform people outside of the control of corporate media,… Continue reading
Direct democracy as proposed by the Greek ‘Syntagma’ movement
On July 24th, the thematic group of Direct Democracy in Syntagma Square was allocated, by the Popular Assembly of the Square, to compose a document on the “Principles and Theses of Direct Democracy.” This document was presented to the Popular Assembly of Syntagma Square, on September 3rd and is pending to be voted. ?he thematic group of… Continue reading
Policies for a Shareable City
Neal Gorenflo presents a very important 20-part project: “The Policies for a Shareable City series will cover 20 policy areas to inspire discussion among citizens and city leaders. Through a partnership with Shareable, Janelle Orsi and the Sustainable Economies Law Center team have taken up the thread started by Lawrence Grodeska at SHARE San Francisco…. Continue reading
Gar Alperovitz on Reforming the Corporation for a New Economy
I went to the University of Wisconsin during the Joe McCarthy era when they shot anything that moved politically. If you would have asked if any real change was possible in Wisconsin in the late 1950s I would have said no, but then the ’60s exploded. The Arab Spring and the feminism movement were also… Continue reading
A potpourri of #occupywallstreet videos
* Naomi Klein on the Context for OccupyWallStreet Video conversation with Thomas Hartmann * Jeffrey Sachs supports the movement: Very eloquent defense, strongly recommended, this is an impromptu interview on the streets: * Our One Demand Productive anger of Dylan Ratigan at the corruption of the U.S. democratic system, on mainstream TV: * I’m Not… Continue reading
The Declaration of Economic Democracy: 6 proposed demands for the #OccupyWallStreet Movement
Excerpted from Keith Harrington: “While you don’t need a spokesperson, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have “spokes-principles” — a core set of ideas or answers to the crises of the Wall-Street Empire that speak for you, that communicate who you are to a public that’s tuning in more and more every day. Without that set… Continue reading
Fukushima – citizen monitoring finds strong, Chernobyl-level, contamination in Tokyo
The reactor meltdown at Chernobyl was a major nuclear accident and some of the land and food in parts of Europe are still contaminated from its fallout, although a quarter of a century has passed since. Fukushima seems to be worse – orders of magnitude worse according to Dr. Helen Caldicott, who explains why in… Continue reading
Steve Keen on why only a debt jubilee can avert the next Great Depression
George Monbiot explains Steve Keen‘s very important views: “Bernanke, echoing claims by Milton Friedman, believed that the first Great Depression in the US was propelled by a fall in the supply of M0, which, he said, “reinforced … declines in the money multiplier.”(5) But, Keen shows, there is a weak association between M0 money supply… Continue reading
Dave Pollard on the long term prospects of the ‘metamovement’
Excerpted from Dave Pollard: “Where is this Metamovement going? When there are no cohesive goals, demands, or measures of success, can the Metamovement ‘succeed’? The real purpose of the Metamovement, at least in North America and perhaps Europe, is not to get the corrupt political and economic corporatist 1% to cede power, or to reform… Continue reading
Tim Rayner on the characteristics of #OccupyWallStreet as a swarm movement
OF COURSE Occupy Wall Street doesn’t have “demands.” Demonstrations and protests have demands. But although O.W.S. LOOKS like a protest and a demonstration (and occasionally turns into one), it is actually something more, something else: It is a passionate community of inquiry acting itself out as an archetypal improvisational street theater performance embodying, in one… Continue reading