“Historically, U.S. trade unions have not been supportive of the worker-consumer cooperative model for employment. But that, too, is changing. The United Steelworkers Union has entered into an agreement with Mondragón to assess the feasibility of union-sponsored cooperatives. To date, this exploration has yielded positive results with the formation of several worker-consumer cooperatives facilitated by… Continue reading
We continue the conversation on Universal Basic Income, this time with Demand the Future co-author Nick Srnicek. For more P2P-perspectives on Srnicek’s work, accelerationism and Demand the Future, please follow this link. Originally published in the From Alpha to Omega podcast. Episode Description After an unplanned hiatus, the show is back with a bang. This week I… Continue reading
By Monica Vasile: In the Vrancea Mountains of Romania, the Eastern Carpathians, people in dozens of villages have used community-based institutions known as obștea to manage forest commons since the sixteenth century.1 The original sense of the word, coming from Slavonic, is “togetherness,” and it underlines the participatory essence of the institution. The traditions of… Continue reading
This very recent interview features a dialogue between Michel Bauwens and Vicent Lassalle. Originally published at What.Happens.Now. Lassalle describes the context, for this and other interviews in same series as follows: “What.happens.now? is a combination of the questions “What is happening now?” and “What happens next?”, and is for this reason the name of the 9-month-long… Continue reading
It’s an open secret that political parties and “democratic” governments around the world have become entrenched insider clubs, dedicated to protecting powerful elites and neutralizing popular demands for system change. How refreshing to learn about Ahora Madrid and other local political parties in Spain! Could they be a new archetype for the reinvention of politics… Continue reading
Swarm Redistribution uses transaction-pathways to redistribute wealth, extracts tax on each transaction, and shares it with a swarm of nodes whose branching schemes are connected to the transaction being taxed. This live experiment of Resilience, with Swarm Redistribution built-in to the RES currency, is hosted on a smart-contract on Ethereum. Ethereum, a blockchain computer and… Continue reading
In Parag Khanna’s book on global supply chains, Connectography, the author identifies one threat to the global supply chain paradigm, the maker movement. He sees the potential for local production to shrink supply chains. This is good news for the environment and for ethical supply chains. Jose Ramos’ pitch on Cosmo-localization provides an environmentally sustainable… Continue reading
A guest contribution from Dougald Hine: This piece was written for Re:Development, a book brought together by the artist Jessie Brennan following a year-long residency at the Green Backyard in Peterborough. The invitation to contribute gave me a chance to write up some thoughts that had grown out of conversations with Anna Björkman about the… Continue reading
The following Q/A was instigated by a survey conducted by the EU Intergroup of Common goods and Public Services. Dealing with the Circular Economy, Michel Bauwens answered on behalf of the P2P Foundation by highlighting the necessity of an Open Source ethos to any regenerative undertaking. What is the circular economy going to change in your field… Continue reading
Text sourced from the film’s website: Tanzania Organic Agriculture Movement (TOAM) has launched a powerful documentary film, Uhuru wa Mbegu za Wakulima (Seeds of Freedom Tanzania). Uhuru wa Mbegu za Wakulima captures the testimonies of farmers whose customary rights to save, share and exchange seeds, are threatened by seed laws designed to replace traditional varieties with… Continue reading
‘Tipping Points’ was the title of the Institute for Political Ecology’s 2016 Green Academy, which brought together academics, politicians, activists and experts from a range of fields to discuss the commons, degrowth, and climate justice and examine how these intersect. During the event, several speakers came together to discuss the commons as a reflection of… Continue reading
Industry 4.0 There is a lot of buzz around “Industry 4.0,” “The Fourth Industrial Revolution,” and “smart factories.” Much of it is great, so, before we get started, please take less than 5 minutes to watch this excellent video from Bosch. Even if you don’t watch the video, I will briefly note the points in… Continue reading
The American state of Arizona is home to 22 Indian tribes, who now occupy a fraction of their traditional homelands. At various points in history these indigenous peoples by told by the United States government, “yes, of course this is your land, but . . .” Governments still use this statement today. This year the… Continue reading