Basic Income vs. Job Guarantee

August 25, 2016 9 Comments Stacco Troncoso read

Josh Davis, writing for Grassroots Economic Organizing, shares his alternative to UBI: I was fortunate enough to get to attend the 2016 Worker Cooperative National Conference held in Austin, TX at the end of July. A few issues came up over the course of the weekend that piqued my interest, largely because I hadn’t heard… Continue reading →

Cognitive Capitalism Culture & Ideas P2P Cultures and Politics P2P Development P2P Labor P2P Public Policy

Universal Basic Income Is a Neoliberal Plot To Make You Poorer

August 25, 2016 2 Comments Dmytri Kleiner read

Basic Income is often promoted as an idea that will solve inequality and make people less dependent on capitalist employment. However, it will instead aggravate inequality and reduce social programs that benefit the majority of people. At its Winnipeg 2016 Biennial Convention, the Canadian Liberal Party passed a resolution in support of “Basic Income.” The… Continue reading →

Blockchain Commons Economy and Business Featured Podcast P2P Money Podcasts

Rachel O’Dwyer on Bitcoin, Blockchain and the Digital Commons

August 24, 2016 No Comment Vasilis Niaros read

They look at the historical origins of the commons, the role of money in human society, the problems with bitcoin and the creation of blockchain governance systems. You can download the podcast at this link. This podcast was originally published here. Show Notes 0:00 – 0:40 – Introduction 0:40 – 9:00 – The history of… Continue reading →

Commons Commons Transition Culture & Ideas Open Coops & Sustainable Livelihoods P2P Cultures and Politics P2P Movements P2PF Articles

P2P Foundation: Concentrated Knowledge for All

August 24, 2016 No Comment Vasilis Niaros read

In the context of the recent award of the Golden Nica to the P2P Foundation, Ann Marie Utratel (communications steward) and Stacco Troncoso (strategic direction steward) talk at the Ars Electronica Blog about their understanding of P2P and its advantages: “Who has access to knowledge and information online? Who controls this exchange and who can… Continue reading →

Commons Transition Cooperatives Culture & Ideas Ethical Economy Open Coops & Sustainable Livelihoods P2P Collaboration P2P Theory The Communard Manifesto

Communard Manifesto 7: From adding to multiplying

August 24, 2016 No Comment Las Indias read

“To reconquer work”—for and with one’s own inner circle—is a path that will surely interest many people who propose a rebirth in the midst of the crisis, perhaps without knowing that what they are doing, with their community and its affections, would ensure the rebirth of an entire world. The time has come to carry… Continue reading →

Featured Project Open Coops & Sustainable Livelihoods

Project Of The Day: Freedom Coop

August 23, 2016 No Comment Nathan Slater read

Last week, the British media featured a story about a member of the royalty avoiding tax. While this practice is nothing new and is certainly not limited to royalty, the legal structure permitting the tax avoidance was roundly criticized. The criticism highlighted the fact that the inheritance tax avoided would have funded the Nation Health… Continue reading →

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CIC’s economic ecosystem: Community exchange networks and local currencies in Catalonia

August 23, 2016 No Comment George Dafermos read

A characteristic of healthy social movements is that they create the “structures” and the “tools” that are most appropriate to their needs and goals. The economic model of the Cooperativa Integral Catalana (CIC), which aspires to “bring together all the basic elements of an economy such as production, consumption, funding and a local currency” (“What’s… Continue reading →

Council of the European Union Calls for Open Access to Scientific Research by 2020

August 23, 2016 No Comment Shareable read

Cross-posted from Shareable and written by Cat Johnson: The argument that publicly-funded research should be made available to the public recently received a shot on the arm when the Competitiveness Council of the European Union reinforced its commitment to making all scientific articles and data openly accessible and reusable by 2020. As Creative Commons reports,… Continue reading →

UK copyright extension on designed objects is ‘direct assault’ on 3D printing

August 22, 2016 No Comment Vasilis Niaros read

An article on copyright by Glyn Moody, originally posted on Ars Technica UK: “A recent extension of UK copyright for industrially manufactured artistic works represents ‘a direct assault on the 3D printing revolution,’ says Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge. The UK government last month extended copyright for designs from 25 years to the life of… Continue reading →

Commons Commons Transition Cooperatives Culture & Ideas Ethical Economy Open Coops & Sustainable Livelihoods P2P Collaboration P2P Theory Peer Property The Communard Manifesto

Communard Manifesto 6: Conquer work, reconquer life

August 22, 2016 No Comment Las Indias read

The constant increase in productive scales over nearly two centuries, and with them, in the division of labor and of knowledge, has produced an erosion of the relationship between people and the concrete work they do. For more and more people, it became harder to understand what their work meant and contributed to their loved… Continue reading →

Building the Open Source Circular Economy Cognitive Capitalism Collective Intelligence Culture & Ideas Economy and Business P2P Development P2P Labor

Capital doesn’t automate, it entangles

August 22, 2016 No Comment Dmytri Kleiner read

During Nick Dyer-Witheford’s presentation at #PlatPol11 the issue of Capital replacing Labour in production entered the conversation and persisted throughout the informal discussions. Would Capitalism automate itself out of existence? Probably not. As Nick noted, it’s not the unskilled, menial jobs Capitalism automates, but usually the skilled ones. Rather than a future characterized by gleaming fully automated robot factories… Continue reading →

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Re-experience OuiShare Fest 2016

August 21, 2016 No Comment Shareable read

Written by Khushboo Balwani and cross-posted from Shareable: Even though it is almost impossible to transmit the atmosphere of an event after it has happened, here are some ways you can re-live moments from OuiShare Fest Paris and get in-depth insights into the discussions that took place. WATCH ALL SESSIONS LIVE ON OUISHARE TV: You… Continue reading →

Commons Transition Culture & Ideas Open Models P2P Collaboration P2P Cultures and Politics Politics

Vote If You Must… Then Do What Really Matters

August 21, 2016 No Comment Kevin Carson read

The heat of a presidential election campaign is a good time to reflect on the old Howard Zinn quote about voting: “Would I support one candidate against another? Yes, for two minutes—the amount of time it takes to pull the lever down in the voting booth.” But what really matters, for building a genuinely just… Continue reading →

Culture & Ideas P2P Cultures and Politics

Channelling anger and depoliticizing happiness

August 20, 2016 No Comment Connected Action for the Commons read

On June 1 2016, protests all over Croatia gathered more than 50,000 citizens in support of the curricular reform. Even though school education in Croatia is an intimidating system that does not encourage its users to become informed, the amount of children, young people, high school students and undergraduates that flooded the streets of Zagreb… Continue reading →

Activism Collective Intelligence Commons Transition Culture & Ideas P2P Cultures and Politics P2P Ecology P2P Subjectivity Sharing

Of Horseshoe Crabs and Empathy

August 20, 2016 No Comment Charles Eisenstein read

No doubt it is true that climate change exacerbates all kinds of environmental problems, but the rush to name a unitary cause to a complex problem should give us pause. The pattern is familiar. Do you think the “fight against climate change,” which starts by identifying an enemy, CO2, will bring better results than the… Continue reading →

Commons Transition Cooperatives Culture & Ideas Ethical Economy Open Coops & Sustainable Livelihoods P2P Collaboration P2P Theory The Communard Manifesto

Communard Manifesto 5: Building abundance here and now

August 19, 2016 No Comment Las Indias read

Abundance has to do with production, not with consumption Abundance is an economic concept in the setting of production, not consumption. Abundance exists when an extra unit can be produced without that meaning a perceptible increase in costs. For economists, it can be reduced to a formula: “zero marginal cost.” In an ideal competitive market,… Continue reading →