Everyone is talking about Donald Trump. I can’t bring myself to do it. As we choose our apocalypse from among the presidential candidates, I’m starting to think that the best hope this election season may come from state-level initiatives, which in turn could open doors for the rest of the United States. This week, I… Continue reading
Date archives "December 2015"
Essay of the Day: Bitcoin Mining and its Energy Footprint
the power currently used for Bitcoin mining is comparable to Ireland’s electricity consumption * Article: Bitcoin Mining and its Energy Footprint. By Karl J. O’Dwyer† and David Malone. ISSC 2014 / CIICT 2014, Limerick, June 26–27 From the Abstract: “Bitcoin is a digital cryptocurrency that has generated considerable public interest, including both booms in value… Continue reading
Is Paul Mason’s PostCapitalism a version of ‘networked socialism’ ?
Excerpted from a review by Donald Gillies in real-world economics review, issue no. 73: “The central thesis of the book is that because of new technologies (the internet and associated developments), capitalism is in decline and is likely to be replaced within a few decades by an entirely new socio-economic system – PostCapitalism. As Paul… Continue reading
The new role of Non-State Sovereign Entrepreneurs and Non-Territorial Sovereign Organizations
A discussion by Jurgen Brauer and Robert Haywood: “Two key insights are, first, that non-state sovereign entrepreneurs (NSEs) already have formed non-territorial sovereign organizations (NSOs) – sometimes in embryonic or hybrid form that share authority with state sovereigns – and, second, that NSOs are neither just non-governmental organizations (NGOs) nor sovereign states. Instead, like states,… Continue reading
Spanish General Elections: Beyond the Ballot Box
Continuing our ongoing coverage of the imminent Spanish elections, here’s an interesting video debate juxtaposing the slow vs fast track to social change evidenced in the Spanish political arena. From the indignados and 15M to housing struggles and municipalismo, Spain has been at the forefront of some of the most creative and effective social movements… Continue reading
Video: a proof of concept for a open source circular economy
“POC21 was an international innovation community, that started as an innovation camp. The camp brought together 100+ makers, designers, engineers, scientists and geeks. In late summer 2015, we joined forces in a stunning French castle to prototype a fossil free, zero waste society. Our ultimate goal was to overcome the destructive consumer culture and make… Continue reading
Ride-hailing apps a unique opportunity for cooperatives
Excerpted from Michal Rozworski: “Few technologies have as much potential for easy cooperative management as those of the currenly mislabelled sharing economy. These tools are not to blame. In fact, internet-based technologies are an opportunity for worker management. As Mike Konczal wrote in The Nation a year ago: “Given that the workers already own all… Continue reading
GNU social and cities
The SocialCapital plugin is a key piece for the promotion of GNU social as an operating system for cities. Overcoming the limitation of seeing GNU social as a mere alternative to centralized services like Facebook or Twitter was the most important contribution of the first GNU social camp. With this limitation overcome, GNU social becomes… Continue reading
With love and global solidarity: Sí se puede!!
With only a couple of days to go before Spain’s decisive general elections, we share this note from author and 15-M activist Luis Moreno-Caballud To our English speaking friends: I have the feeling that -as usual- very little good information is running around in English about what really is happening in Spain (please, correct me… Continue reading
In Australia: Dignified work in green manufacturing through worked-owned enterprises
Watch this video introduction by the Earthworker Cooperative, made at the occasion of the opening of the first factory, and see the explanation of their crowdfunding campaign below: Liz McCarthy explains: To find out more and support the project: chuffed.org/project/givetanks This holiday season, reduce financial stress for low-income earners, support green jobs in worker-owned Australian… Continue reading
Right to Privacy and Encryption
The risks for citizens’ fundamental rights of privacy and freedom of expression caused by abusive practices involving surveillance of private companies and/or governments are currently being debated in the European Union and internationally. As citizens, we are entitled to protect ourselves from this kind of practices. Our personal data and our communications are part of… Continue reading
Deficiencies of State-centric Global Governance and the Necessary Rebalancing of Global Governance
A discussion by Jurgen Brauer and Robert Haywood: “For at least two reasons, this global governance framework no longer suffices to address certain problems effectively, efficiently, and reliably. First, mutually recognized sovereign rights increasingly clash with the often atrocious lack of exercise of sovereign responsibilities within, between, and among states. For example, the ability to… Continue reading
Support the Mutual Aid Network’s Crowdfunding Campaign
Help our friends at the Mutual Aid Network (MAN) build local, resilient, peer to peer economic networks through their crowdfunding campaign. We are The MAN: Mutual Aid Networks What would it look like if everyone were doing the work they loved; what they felt called to do? What if everyone had the opportunity to build… Continue reading
Can They? A review of Pablo Iglesias’ “Politics in a Time of Crisis”
Continuing our coverage of this Sunday’s Spanish elections, Dan Hancox reviews Pablo Iglesias’ Politics in a Time of Crisis: Podemos and the Future of a Democratic Europe. Originally published in the London Review of Books, the article is more interesting for Hancox’s overview of the Spain’s political landscape than the book review per se. ‘I… Continue reading
Book of the Day: Self, Power, and Intimacy in Amazonia
What would individualism and collectivity look like outside the logic of equivalence, i.e. comparing individuals based on external criteria, which was introduced in western modernity ? This book looks at the working of individuality and collectivity amongst Amazonian natives. * Book: Under a Watchful Eye: Self, Power, and Intimacy in Amazonia By Harry Walker. University… Continue reading
Hackcamp Reclaim the Commons: the outcomes
Felipe G Gil shares a series of links from this year’s ZEMOS98 festival’s own hackcamp. This was originally published in Zemos98’s blog. During the past (and last ever, sigh) ZEMOS98 Festival we organized an international activity called “Hackcamp ‘Reclaim the Commons“. Many people from different countries took part in and we have been editing and… Continue reading