Enric Duran – P2P Foundation

From the Institutional Way to the Integral Revolution

Enric Duran — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 09:30:00 +0000

The current international political context allows us to clearly see the serious limits to the possibilities of social change through institutional routes.

On the one hand, the new left-wing political experiences in Latin America have had scarce impact on actual political life in the countries where they have had a chance to govern. There is a particularly great difficulty in sustaining long-term processes, given the dependenceof these parties on electoral processes where corporate lobbies and private media have all the well known strategies with everything but fairness. Instead, these processes are used to topple governments. Look no further than what happened in Brazil a few weeks ago.

On the other hand the trajectory of the Greek government last year, is a masterpiece if you would like to learn that being in government is not the same as being in the power. This case is discussed in more detail in the following article: https://fair.coop/neither-in-nor-out-towards-a-socio-economic-community-of-european-peoples/

Meanwhile, within the spanish state, election after election has served little to move a step further. This demonstrates that clear majorities in the streets and on social networking platforms are not useful for creating parliamentary majorities.

When the 15M movement began occupying Spanish squares in 2011, it took just 30 days to turn the political imaginary of several generations completely upside-down. The expected political continuation of this however, has not even been able to create a social-democratic policy programme, in more than two years.

In Spain, during the first year of the so-called cities of change, we have seen that the discourse and mood have improved significantly. Despite this however, where key decisions are concerned, depending on the capitalist system and on state heirarchies has not even made it possible to create humanitarian measures against increased evictions or welcoming refugees. Let’s stop talking about structural measures.

In exchange for these phyrric reforms, an entire generation of experienced and well known activists left the streets and have been immersed in an institutional dynamic which seriously limits their capacity to disobediently break away from established practices.

This reality is therefore very far removed from Murray Bookchin’s libertarian municipalism. When gaining municipal power, Bookchin proposed dissolving it and calling for a popular assembly. The 15M’s so-called heirs are instead sacrificing their compromise of disobedience in order to constrain themselves within bureocracies and heirarchies within government institutions. It is a very tied up system.

Large scale disobedience movements have not developed their profound capacity for action after leaving the 15M behind. A good example of what it is possible to do has been the impact of the PAH squats and occupations in the spanish state.

Here are two strategic questions I’d like to leave hanging.

Firstly, what is more feasible: to get more than 50% of the population voting for parties that question the established order through their un-actioned programme? Or that the 5% of people who question this order can organise autonomously and disobediently, showing in practice how this world we carry inside might look?

Secondly, how do we gain real power to change things? Is it by trying to reform the economy from governments that don’t even have the banking or money creating powers that the lisbon treaty bestowed on the ECB? or is it by trying to create a different economy, with new banking and monetary sovereignties?

Adding other perspectives, we can analyse how basic processes in different parts of the world, based on a gradual grassroots construction of democratic autonomy. Zapatistas in Chiapas, and the Kurds of Rojava and Bakur are examples of ongoing solid and strong development, despite state forces using fierce violence against them year after year.

It is important to note that the most radical and inspiring social change processes share a common grassroot element in being created outside the margins of the state. In Europe, millions of anti-capitalists prefer to bang their heads repeatedly against the state parliamentary system, without getting what they want, and losing a huge part of their concerns and values along the way. Instead of prioritising the creation and support of self-organised initiatives who are using real strength to transition from below to another society.

If this century began, at a planetary level, with movements of resistance against the systems of neoliberal globalisation, continued with the social forums that showed that another world is possible, and today in the second decade of the 21st century, we are in the era where we construct these other worlds.

Even in Europe, these self run initiatives, opposed to existing states, have not only triumphed, despite a huge parliamentary hierarchy in the latest years, but we also continue advancing and finding new challenges to focus on.

The catalan integral cooperative for example, is a consolidated reality after 6 years, more than 700 projects and many thousands of participants. Other integral cooperatives and similar projects have been extending especially to various regions in the south of Europe. Movements like community supported agriculture, worker run fabricas recuperadas, and the experiences of community economy which create practices in which the exchange and the gift are more dominant than market forces.

These prefigurative realities, although incipient, are strengthened through online networking and making local contacts between projects mainstream.

There are thousands of social currencies used in practice, consumer groups, self-managed social centers, free and autonomous schools,refugee or paperless people’s solidarity groups, that defy the capitalist model and the dominant role of state law; It is a fertile ground for the extension of a movement that breaks away from the establishment, and is disobedient towards States, in order to build a new collective sovereignty based on self-determination and self-organization of communities of free human beings.

FairCoop was created to enhance the spaces of international collaboration (or to be more precise, inter autonomous and intercommunal). It is a global and multi-local ecosystem that contributes to the process of building another economy for another society. It sharesprinciples of integral revolution, such as the assembly run nature, open participation, the non-recognition of states as legitimate subjects and therefore integral disobedience to that can empower the construction of other forms of cohabitation and self-government.

Faircoop recovers the principles of integral revolution as processes of radical transformation at the margins of the current system, across all aspects of life, and builds a coherent ecosystem of projects, resources and tools. It has the objective of facilitating the process of integral revolution in any part of the world, i.e processes where self organisation and democratic autonomy can be built at a local, regional and global scale.

Among these tools, Faircoin is a p2p based social currency that seeks to fund these self-managed processes, and to connect initiatives from alternative economies (from solidary economies to the communal economy), reinforcing the work that movements are actually doing that usually at the local level, They are using and promoting social currencies. In addition Faircoin intends to update the technologies used in these alternative monetary systems, to make them stronger and more resilient from hypothetical institutional attacks. (If you want to read more in detail about it, read the annex on Faircoin 2)

It is time to make Galeano’s conjecture real: “Many small people, in small places, doing small things, can change the world”

and apply it to some larger things, such as generating tools for the articulation of all those little things and apply methodologies that have proven successful to respect the diversity of all participants as the democratic confederalism that being an old form of political organization in places like the Iberian peninsula, now the Kurds are popularizing.

After so many efforts dedicated to the institutional way, what if we give a very big push to the path of self-management?

You know what? Answering yes to this question will go much farther than a vote. It means saying you want to make your life an example of the world you carry inside, ie mixing theory with practice. To answer yes to this question, is to enter a dimension in which we no longer depend on whether they are more than we are in order to succeed; whether we are thousands or if we become millions, we will rely on ourselves and how far we are willing to go to make our dreams reality. Do you dare?

Faircoin 2 Annex

In this postscript, we would like to go into more technical detail without creating a barrier to accessing the main parts of this article. The invention of the blockchain and its implications for money systems and contracts, is rapidly leading us to a scenario in which the centralization of states, judicial courts and central banks is no longer the only means to generate an autonomous economic, political and legal system.

The blockchain allows us to account for economic operations in a way that is difficult to corrupt and manipulate. This is possible due to a combination of encryption and decentralization across hundreds of computers that share the system’s data.

Even so, the new technological capitalism spares no effort in investing in everything related to the blockchain, integrating it rapidly into astrategy to renew banks and companies’ organizational systems. They are turning most of the blockchain related initiatives into an advance fleet for this new networked capitalism that so pleases the anarcho–capitalists in silicon valley.

For this state-of-the-art capitalism it does not seem important that in the case of bitcoin, energy consumption and industrial mining racehave skyrocketed, because it is in the interest of investors (and it apparently does not matter that this is not to the benefit of the planet) orthat distributing these new coins gives more benefits to those with more …

But at Faircoop and in other self organised or autonomous initiatives, we care a lot about these things. For the blockchain and its associated technologies to really be tools for the common good, FairCoop is working on Faircoin 2. This second version features a cooperative and distributed blockchain whose intent is to adapt this technology to the values of social movements, such as furthering the commons, or solidary, collaborative and communal economies.

As Faircoin can’t rely on money invested by economic elites it prioritises the commons rather than private gain. We need those close to the 99% to understand the importance of these developments for social change, and that we all participate collaboratively in making them possible. This is why the Faircoin 2 crowdfunding campaign will be active until the 7th of July.

Faircoin is bringing these innovations to the world as a commons. If you’d like to collaborate in helping them succeed whilst they are maintained by people with cooperative and solidary values, like yours, you can now join in and get your first Faircoins in the process.

For more information on our campaign: https://coopfunding.net/en/campaigns/faircoin-2-crowdinvestment/

This post is also available in: Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Greek

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Support the Refugee Crowdfunding Campaign Using FairCoin

Enric Duran — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 09:49:20 +0000

Introduction

Global governments, and especially the European Union, have shown their worst side with the events of recent times. Economic Rescue is being exchanged for popular sovereignty. Neoliberal control, wage and pension cuts, tax increases, layoffs and all kinds of privatization.

And governments, rather than give in to demands for democracy from citizens, use brutality to end their resistance. These are policies that sacrifice the interests of the majority to benefit the interests of a tiny minority.

Together with the sovereign and austerity crisis, we cannot forget the refugee crisis.

Almost 3,000 people have lost their lives so far this year trying to reach safety in Europe. EU leaders cannot ignore this or turn their backs on its tragic consequences. After months of prevarication they still have not established a coordinated emergency response and have failed to fundamentally overhaul the failing asylum system. Now is the time for self-organized civil society to use direct action, and to directly support those in need. There is an urgent need for the provision of adequate and humane conditions for those arriving and to really help them to organize their lives for the long term in the new host countries.

A new Faircoin fund for refugees.

This fund will focus on helping autonomous and self-managed projects involving refugees and solving their need to retain full control over the decisions made in their lives. For example new settlements, and the creation of productive and holistic initiatives with which they can fulfill their material and immaterial needs on a daily basis, while offering something useful to the society in which they find themselves.

Cooperative working initiatives can also be included, giving the newcomers an opportunity to become self-employed, beyond the control of states over their right to work. And of course grassroots solidarity movements who work on an open and participative basis can apply for their costs to be covered.

This proposal is also intended for those who have undergone forced displacement for economic and environmental reasons, and includes stateless people who are in the difficult situation of having no rights because of the behavior of their countries of origin or third countries that don’t recognize them as citizens.

The goal of this proposal is to get at least 500,000 Faircoins (the minimum amount to create a fund in FairCoop) towards the needs of refugees today in the world.

For this campaign you can pay with any currency, and the money received will be converted to Faircoin in order to be added to the fund.

Also you can yourself buy Faircoin (for example FairCoop offers https://getfaircoin.net)and so make your contribution in Faircoin.

The Euros received though this crowdfunding campaign will be held by the local FairCoop nodes to be used as liquidity to allow Faircoins to be changed into Euros by the projects that will use this Faircoin fund.

We can also count on the support of the autonomous initiative of the Troika Fiscal Disobedience Consultancy which will support this crowdfunding with its incomes. (http://www.disobedience.eu). If you can use their services, this is another way to contribute!

Why Faircoin?

The current banking and eurosystem are directly responsible for the refugee crisis.

Greece has shown that the European Central Bank is not independent and apolitical; indeed it is at the service of the bankers and their political agents, and is ready to kill democracy at the push of a button.

The treaties of the European Union feed the rise of the extreme right and have become a means to override democratic control over the production and distribution of wealth throughout Europe.

Thus, in the situation where their human rights are not being respected, the people who find themselves without full legal status in other countries – according the rules set down by member states – do not have the right to create bank accounts and also do not have the right to work in European countries.

We need to build a new social and political framework, which does not obey laws which are really economic warfare in disguise; but rather on a conciousness which sees everyone as equal in the world. That’s why we need to act now and can no longer wait for a top-down solution which is never going to come.

We need to build another economy for another world. The global open cooperative, Faircoop, has designed Faircoin as a tool in the hands of social justice movements to allow us to become independent of the old banking system.

In making Faircoin a powerful economic tool for funding and exchanging products and services, we are creating this fairer economy right now. And we are doing so with a decentralized economic framework that does not allow the government to freeze the funds of the participants.

By suppporting this campaign you are simultaneously supporting actions in solidarity with the refugees, and are endorsing the vision behind Faircoop towards building another economy.

To understand how Faircoin works please read this guide:

https://fair.coop/the-faircoop-practical-guide-to-what-is-and-how-to-use-faircoin/

How the refugee fund will be managed:

Design by @tereseta

To make it happen a global FairCoop decision-making process will be created . An assembly of global FairCoop activists and local participants will be set up to administer and distribute the funds.

Local nodes involved in supporting the regional initiatives will be able to request funds. This means that local self-organized groups are needed, in order to be in contact with the projects presented for funding, and to make sure that the funds go where they are supposed to go.

Eligible collectives or organisations will be invited to request funds for their self-managed projects.

To join the participative structure that will manage that funds, come to http s ://fair.coop/fairnetwork and see how to contact the local node where you live, how to create a new one if needed, and how to participate in the Refugee Fund global assemblies.

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Neither In Nor Out – Towards a socio-economic community of European peoples

Enric Duran — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 12:27:07 +0000

One of the pillars of the dominating troika system in the European Union is the threat that, for any country that leaves the euro system, they will find their substitute currency devalued, thus affecting the savings of the middle classes in those counties. Those middle classes typically being the ones who sway the vote in elections and therefore decide which political parties which are going to govern.

As we have seen in Greece it is very difficult to open up the debate, with any possibility of it becoming generally accepted, if you start from the proposal of leaving the euro. Experience, as the component lacking in the debate, makes it difficult to avoid the triumph of arguments based on fear. No country has ever left the euro, and therefore it is still not possible to demonstrate with facts that it would not prejudice the quality of life for the middle and lower classes. Clearly, there are countries within the European Union who decided at the time not to enter the euro, but none has take the inverse decision, once inside.

This brings me to another key point. In a society which has become used to the everyday advantages of the euro; that is, the realization of economic exchange within the greater part of Europe without the need to change currency, which always carries some cost to the consumer; it is difficult to open up the discussion over whether we would be better off with another currency if that currency is not also as European as the euro.

In this context, I feel that right from the start, there is a problem with the way we look at the issue. This problem is the result of two combined elements. One is the tendency we have in rational Western thinking of only looking at the options in terms of duality. To be in the euro or not to be in the euro. Shall I depend on the ECB, or not…? The other element is a general lack of knowledge in most of the population and also amongst politicians, journalists and many economists, regarding monetary questions and questions relating to credit. This is a significant obstacle for the economics that could bring about a possible currency that could break free from this duality.

So, as far as the matter goes, I would like to contribute to the spread of this pending imaginative idea; to voice the possibility that there might exist a Plan C. This would be an option with the understanding that you can build a monetary system which allows peoples to generate a sovereign economy, and which would not be on condition that they separate from the euro either.

In reality, what is there holding us back from setting up a communal monetary system in the whole of Europe; one that could help build an economy centred around people? Maybe we are suffering from some mental block or other, but it is not real.
The infrastructure, the technology and the knowledge necessary in order to set up a new monetary system in the heart of Europe, are not only accessible to the various states, but are also currently in the hands of a multitude of protagonists in our civilian society.

The fact is that nothing is preventing the people, in the European countries that have the euro, from also using another common currency. And some are, in fact, using one – the Bitcoin – an example which demonstrates that it is feasible right now.

I acknowledge that the Bitcoin is not the best monetary tool for building a just and humanitarian economic system, but it does help make the road less tiring, and shows that other international currencies are not only possible, but are a reality. Some of us are learning to smooth this road with the addition of the Faircoin, and even though it might not be enough, it is helping us to understand how to make the technology behind it work in favour of social change.

You could argue that the likelyhood of gaining direct political activity for the entire population is extremely limited, if a new currency’s strength cannot depend on backing by the state. However, the purpose of this article is not the debate between state and self-government, and we can suppose that it might be desirable for a state to adopt it. So far so good, and if state adoption is still not a possibility, it is better to begin its development without state support than to be stuck with only the dualism of Euro – Drachma?
It is quite probable that, if there were a European monetary system common throughout Europe which did not depend on any state and that competed with the euro, that Greece would adopt it. At least the Greece of Spring this year would have. The Varoufakis Greece, to be more precise.

It is not unthinkable either, that in the context of Catalunya’s progress towards independence, that it might be important to have a sovereign monetary tool of this type in order to counteract the blackmailer temptations of the troika institutions, with the ECB at their head. And looking further ahead, in the future it would most likely be the only option in order to gain full sovereignty. To overcome the limited debate over whether to be in or out of the euro and the European Union, whilst generating the real possibility of reclaiming the common social rights of the inhabitants of Europe. No actual power could stop it happening.

So, it is not either out or in – quite the contrary.

For it to work, we would need to design a European (or global!) monetary system, with the same seriousness, rigour and practical use as the euro, but at the same time improving on the euro’s main defects. For example, this new currency could understand credit as a common good that ought to be guaranteed without interest, and instead of being created only by the banks, this money could be created in a decentralised way, linked to the productive activity of, and trust in local institutions and bodies belonging to the civilian society. A new currency, which in its functional DNA, would not allow supra-statal powers to take control of local economies.

If we could do it together, it would only be a matter of time before some state, or state project, would want to use it and then adopt it, even though they might need to find a judicial process in order to do it without competing with the euro or its official status, thus preventing the troika from throwing them out.

We can bring it about if we gather together the wide range of anti-austerity forces which already exist in the European Union. A bountiful and diverse aliance in which many might participate – from movements of the humanitarian economy to town councils. An aliance which might incorporate anticapitalist political movements, through to an entire local production network that survives despite to the corporate power.

Once we have recovered monetary sovereignty, with that by our side, nothing could stop us from travelling the road towards a socio-economic European community of the towns of Europe. A community that puts the co-operation and solidarity between human beings at the centre of our society and our lives.

Yannis Varoufakis and other radical European politicians on the left, are also suggesting something along these lines. Even though they have stated that democratisizing the euro is their first priority, they also recognize that they cannot exert enough pressure over the institutions of the EU, and therefore must stand by their independence and at the same time have the strength to rely on other currencies within the European ambit. For them, this is Plan B, but for others it could be Plan C – but call it what you like, the important thing is that from a very diverse range of ambits we aim to build this new monetary infrastructure for Europe, and now is the time to do it.

Originally published in Fair.coop.

This post is also available in: Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Greek

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The P2PF/CIC strategic plan will be presented in AureaSocial on Tuesday, May 5th

Enric Duran — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 10:19:34 +0000

This spring brings a new collaboration between the P2P Foundation (P2PF) and the Catalan Integral Cooperative (CIC), working together on a Commons Transition Plan which follows the agenda developed by the common work group formed by both teams in 2014.

To start off and to raise awareness about the project, a public presentation will take place in AureaSocial on Tuesday, May 5th at 6:00PM. In this presentation, we plan to openly discuss our understanding of this collaborative process, and to share interesting concepts such as Peer Production and the Commons Transition Plan itself, as offered by the P2P Foundation.

Michel Bauwens

Several P2P Foundation members, including Michel Bauwens, Stacco Troncoso, Ann Marie Utratel and Kevin Flanagan, will be in Catalonia from the 30th of April to the 13th of May to observe and study the CIC’s practical and political strategies. The team is eager to hold interviews and meet different CIC members and projects, get to know the various work groups, commissions and spaces, and take part in any encounters than could benefit both inititiatives.

If you would like to collaborate by helping to manage the agenda, we encourage you to contact Joel at [email protected].

This first convergence will focus on finding common ground between the two collectives as a first step towards a long term Commons Transition Plan, which will be further defined as our collaboration proceeds (and as long as both parties agree to continue).

You can find more information about Commons Transition on this website.

We hope that you’ll take part in the presentation and scheduled meetings. As soon as the agenda is confirmed, we will provide updated information.

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‘Fairstarts’: A Network of Incubators for a Collaborative Economy and P2P Production

Enric Duran — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 12:02:31 +0000

Start FairStarts! A project that aims to create a network of incubators to help develop transnational, open and cooperative projects in the collaborative P2P economy.

This strategic initiative will benefit both new and existing FairCoop projects, enabling locally-based self-governing projects to link in to mutual aid and solidarity support from a global network.

We are focusing on those social enterprises which are geared towards producing open commons. FairStarts will help them by providing resources such as technological and legal advice, funding, contacts and strategic partners, networking, and physical resources.

The FairStarts nodes are conceived of as cooperative spaces of teaching and learning where collectives come to learn about the P2P commons, open cooperativism and ethical hacking. They will be dynamic hubs designed to “incubate” and synergise diverse initiatives through mutual support networks, both locally, and – via digital channels – remotely. In essence a networked development agency for Commons enterprise.

If FairCoop aims to build “a new world economic system based on cooperation, ethics, solidarity and justice in our economic relations,” FairStarts will be one of the main tools for an integral and democratic development, directly linked to the first expected initiatives of the monetary system (Faircoin and FairCredit) and the FairMarket exchange.

+++ To follow the latest news and developments, we recommend visiting this thread in the forum of our Network

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Return with Freedom and Occupy Banking

Enric Duran — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 20:00:14 +0000

Statement #OccupyBanking #ReturnWithFreedom Enric Duran from Radi.ms on Vimeo.

We want to finance the team that is already working on the launch of the #OccupyBanking campaign with the intention of placing at the center of public debate the total lack of democracy of the European Central Bank (ECB) and large private banks who control the monetary system, and especially the creation of money. A perverse system based on debt with these institutions – who have never been voted in democratically – hijacking our sovereignty. The #OccupyBanking campaign also wants to be the spearhead for creating the conditions that allow the #ReturnWithFreedom of the activist Enric Duran.

The current crisis / fraud perpetrated by the financial and banking system in recent years has uncovered one of the problems that have long been highlighted by many activist groups: from the anti-globalization demonstrations in Seattle up until today, the effects of globalized capitalism have been exposed around the world: based on growth through pillage (pollution and destruction) and overexploitation of resources, and the use of debt as a way to subjugate people to pseudo-feudalist economic powers, a model – in view of the evidence of recent years – that has been shown to be extremely harmful to the needs and welfare of humanity and to all living beings.

In this context, in 2008 Enric Duran made public an act of conscious condemnation of this system that involved the expropriation of 492,000 euros from thirty nine financial institutions in order to:

Finance diverse social and cooperative projects already in existence (more info)
Print and disseminate three publications about the origins of the financial crisis, the main partiesresponsible, and providing alternatives to the system imposed by capitalism and nation states, giving voice to the movements formed with the intention of transforming competitiveness into cooperation, promoting the common good rather than individual benefit, and seeding initiatives based on Degrowthand the Good Living.
And especially to highlight and condemn the way money is created based on debt.

Prior to the trial to which Enric was summoned in February 2013, the Provincial Court rejected each and every one of the twenty witnesses that the defence had presented to illustrate that the accusations against the banking system – and especially how money is created – are a significant concern for society and fully justifiedthe actions which had been taken. With such a violation of any procedural guarantee, which certainly was intended to negate Enric’s whole argument and simply send him to jail for common crimes, completely silencingthe claims made and proven for years about all the damage that the banking system has done to the lives of the majority of the population of Europe and inded the whole world. This, together with the known connivance of the judiciary and executive together with the banks’ representatives, caused Enric Duran to reject thelegitimacy of the official trial and decide to go into hiding, where work continues today in various projects related to Integral Revolution.

After the call #ReturnWithFreedom, Enric has formed a team of seven fully trusted and willing people with whom to cooperate in person, and this team can move wherever necessary to achieve its objectives.

It is time to act and we need your support!

We’re going to start #OcuppyBanking, a global campaign to expose both the European Central Bank and the banking system and at the same time strengthen the effectiveness of the original action that Enric made, and thus to generate a great movement of support that makes possible his #ReturnWithFreedom. We want to plan his way to come out of hiding,meanwhile denouncing internationally the framework of the European banking system, which is condemning us to the loss of popular sovereignty and the accumulation of wealth by a privileged minority who are plundering the resources of peoples through the privatization of public services, handing theirmanagement to private entities linked to the political and financial powers.

Behind these perverse mechanisms underly a system of creating money out of nothing based on loans contracted; simply trusting that the person signing the contract will be able to give back the money in some way, and if unable to do so, is going to be sanctioned economically or politically. And what is worse, banks –private entities that defend their own interests – are the only ones with the privilege of creating money, whichmeans they have the political control of who will receive funding and how, in the same way that the ECB – even though no one has given them a popular mandate – are ordering policies affecting all the peoples of Europe.

Like the publication ‘Crisis’, published in 2008, several initiatives have exposed these issues in recent years and some have achieved some successes, such as getting the debate about the creation of money to the British Parliament this autumn. Now with #OccupyBanking we are working hard to link these initiatives and to make itpossible to occupy the space in consciousness and public debate they deserve throughout Europe.

So this funding campaign aims to cover the costs of travel to different countriesand the accommodation of Enric Duran‘s team of seven people. We need to ensure at least the economic sustainability of the working group until September 2015, when we rethink the strategy, i.e. seven months with an average monthly expenditure of 2,400 euros, representing a total of 16,800 euros for the maintenance of all equipment.

You can support us financially for the success of this plan with the amount that you feel within your means (any input is welcome); and even if you can not contribute financially right now, we also invite you to cooperate with the dissemination of materials and / or this funding campaign, also you can be part of local support groups that are being put into operation.

“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning“.

Henry Ford (founder of the Ford Motor Company and the father of the modern assembly lines used in mass production).

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#ReturnToFreedom: A call to unite and build support networks online and on-the-ground.

Enric Duran — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 13:00:18 +0000

After 2 years living underground, the time has finally come for me to prepare my journey back to freedom. The journey won’t be easy, and will require a lot of work building widespread support. This is why I’m making this appeal, to create teams for the ongoing collaborative effort required to make this happen.

A few opening remarks, before getting into the details:

My legal and personal background

I’ve spent roughly 2 years living underground after failing to appear at a criminal trial on February 12^th2013. The prosecuting attorney and 16 banking institutions sought an 8-year prison sentence against me for the acts of bank-related civil disobedience I carried out between 2005-2008. An arrest warrant has been in effect since then, but hasn’t been enforced since the authorities have never found me.

Before the trial began, the provincial court dismissed each and every one of the 30 witnesses my defense had intended to present in order to prove that the negative impact of the banking system, especially regarding money creation, was (and is…) such a significant factor in our society that it justified my actions.

What they really wanted to do at the hearing was silence my arguments and put me in jail for common crimes, completely ignoring the counter-claims we made proving the long-term damage that the banking system has caused in the lives of the majority of the population of Europe and the rest of the world.

This, plus the proven complicity between the judicial and executive branches and the banking powers, gave me good reason to turn my back on the official judicial process. I began to seek alternative ways to finding justice. With the situation as it stands, I think it’s easy to understand why I chose not to cooperate with their farce.

About 1 year ago, the court suspended the case, pending my apprehension. More than 1 year ago, an independent mediation group began working on a restorative justice procedure. Unfortunately, this has gone nowhere, due to the unwillingness of most of the involved banks to build a dialogue.

Now, all we have left is dissemination, mobilization and social pressure.

An image of the welcome party 21-05-2009 after two months in jail

Current social and political context

Many things have changed since those events; put in the context of the historical rate of acceleration we’re living through, there have been even greater changes in just the last two years.

People are unmasking the corrupt powers that, until recently, seemed to believe they could do whatever they pleased.

The political class now fears the people; it hasn’t been this way for decades.

Reports about repression and the impunity of the police and courts are all over the covers of newspapers and magazines (thank you #ciutatmorta).

To put it bluntly, this isn’t just a time of change, this is a whole new era.

The banking system, along with other powers, has been discredited for years now. Extortion by the central banks has been met with reactions by citizens and new political actors. There is more support every day, as shown by SYRIZA’s winning the election in Greece.

However, the very root of banking’s privilege – the unjust system of money creation – persists. This hasn’t had much impact on public opinion, although some significant cracks are appearing in the status quo (the discussion that took place in British Parliament a few months ago is one example).

Now is the time to multiply these cracks and transform the monetary system once and for all, so it responds to the needs of the ordinary people instead of the minority’s lust for power. History has shown that it’s possible.

For these reasons, I want link my freedom campaign with the question, “how is money created?”. Putting this question at the center of public debate would be in line with the intention behind the initial action, which was meant to expose this question.

In-person group to prepare my return and to activate FairCoop

The most concrete and important part of this call is extending the invitation to proactive and motivated people who are available to travel for some period of time. I want to form a team of 6 or 7 people, exceptionally confident and available for in-person cooperation directly with me. We will change locations whenever it’s necessary in order to achieve our goals: #returntofreedom and #faircoop

After two years, and faced with the significance of the challenge, I feel that in order to launch a campaign with an adequate sense of assurance, we must form a nucleus where we can steadily build strength against all odds and contingencies that may arise.

Only from this pivotal position can we take the necessary steps together and make this happen!

This group will also manage the dynamic extension and future projects of FairCoop, the global cooperative. This challenge requires a highly pro-active ability to handle the upcoming goals and projects.

Remember the goal: to enable the transition to a new world, reducing economic and social inequalities among human beings as much as possible, and simultaneously contributing to a new global wealth accessible to all humanity in the form of the commons. Find out more here: http://fair.coop

While we actively denounce the current political and banking systems, we’re also constructing a new economic model based on cooperation, decentralization and everyone’s inherent right to have his or her basic needs covered. All of this centers the objectives of our economic activities on human beings and the planet.

If you’re a motivated, pro-active, courageous person interested in social justice, respect for human rights and the implementation of new, post-capitalist economies (among other forms of activism), and you find yourself free and available in this moment, without any job responsibilities…you’re invited!

WHAT WE OFFER:

The possibility of living and working in an environment of collective activism (good vibes, mutual support, love for the revolution), based on the integral revolution, commons transition, and the construction of a new economic and social system with the human being at its core.
Your expenses for lodging, travel, food, etc., will be covered based on your active participation.
The opportunity for making extensive connections with other networks and activist collectives, through which you can share, grow, and learn so much.

To qualify for participation in this group, you must first do the following:

Send a short letter explaining your motivation to: [email protected]
Fill out this form (to be attached here via link)

Once this is received, and if in-person cooperation is possible, we will share encryption keys (and if necessary, tutorials) to enable secure communication. If it applies, we may ask for more details and references to establish the necessary trust for participation.

Our top priority in forming our team is to find people with the appropriate skills and experience for the work we must do together. We value specific knowledge and experience, as follows:

Website edition and administration
Communication in digital media, social networks, etc.
Proficiency in written English and good writing/editing skills
Creating social movement networks on a transnational level
Graphic design for digital media
Project expediting / organizational abilities
Proficiency in multiple (spoken) languages
Programming ability in languages such as PHP, Python and C++

As you can see, we need to assemble a team with diverse skills, covering as much of the above as possible.

Travel will be within Europe only; we might go back and forth between spaces where we can collaborate, but only as long as doing so helps achieve the group’s goals and ensures consistent participation.

You can join this working team beginning February 10^th, but we will also consider bringing additional people in a little later, if necessary.

Call to create local support groups

For the better part of our colleagues who won’t be able to participate in-person, we invite you to create your own local support groups in your area, autonomously. The group you create can help spread and develop the support initiatives proposed and announced by the in-person support groups.

If you intend to create a group or would like to participate, send an email to [email protected] and we’ll see how we can get started collaborating.

More information at: http://www.enricduran.cat/en
Enric Duran – January 28th, 2015

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