Telecomix an ad-hoc disorganization of Internauts who support free communication for everyone, regardless of political affiliation. Comprised of programmers, punks, politicians, pirates, and others, Telecomix believes in person-to-person communication – the original p2p. Great presentation by Peter Fein on Telecomix a global movement helping to preserve the freedom in information flows during popular insurrections: Some… Continue reading
Emerging ‘new economy’ networks in the U.S.
Excerpted from Gar Alperovitz in Yes magazine: (original with many links) “Along with the rapid expansion of small and medium-size businesses committed to building the new economy has come a sense of community and shared mission. Staff, managers and owners at many of these companies are finding more opportunities to share ideas and pool resources… Continue reading
Open design comes of age (3), third of a series by Massimo Menichinelli
Massimo Menichinelli (original source): In two previous posts (here and here), I started explaining that Open Design is now getting out of the underground, since many important design companies, institutions and other actors are now actively working on it. This does not mean that all the problems that we must solve in order to have… Continue reading
The Mesh Potato Village Telco communications revolution in Africa
A really well-done animation showing the potential of autonomous meshworks:
Case study of a community economy: The Alliance to Develop Power in western Massachusetts:
Via (originally from The Nation): Reproduced from Sally Kohn: “From the vantage point of national politics, it would appear that the greedy, inequality-dependent version of capitalism, which just two years ago was teetering at the brink of extinction, has managed to survive, even tightening its grip on our so-called democracy. After all, the most striking… Continue reading
Protecting Freedoms Online: La Quadrature’s Proposals
La Quadrature du Net – For immediate release Permanent link: http://www.laquadrature.net/en/protecting-freedoms-online-la-quadra… Protecting Freedoms Online: La Quadrature’s Proposals *** Paris, June 23 2011 — La Quadrature du Net releases a set of proposals to guarantee freedom of communication on the Internet and allow the network to remain a tool for democracy, culture and socio-economic innovation. The citizen… Continue reading
A revival of the cooperative economy in the U.S. and in the UK
Excerpted from Gar Alperovitz in Yes magazine: (original has many links) At the cutting edge of experimentation are the growing number of egalitarian, and often green, worker-owned cooperatives. Hundreds of “social enterprises” that use profits for environmental, social or community-serving goals are also expanding rapidly. In many communities urban agricultural efforts have made common cause… Continue reading
A Tea Party for the left: the American Dream movement
Van Jones and friends are launching a new political effort dubbed “The American Dream Movement.”, which aims to create a bottom-up coalition for progressives in the U.S. I think the time is right and this may actually go somewhere. Some details from the Washington Post, via Rachel Weiner: “There is some reason to believe that… Continue reading
The (anti-) politics of thrivability in Reykjavík, Iceland
“The human spirit has been crushed by small-minded people playing politics. We have no agenda and are just fully engaged in trying to do our best. We have no party members and no idea about spin or political punchlines. When we don’t know something, we admit ignorance.” The New Significance has a great report on… Continue reading
Slavoj Zizek on the Arabian Revolution
Via Always interesting to listen to, watch this video featuring Zizek
Chemical attack by Greek police at Syntagma Square: the end of social democracy
From a Greek correspondent: It is important to explain to European people what has really happened in Athens at 29 June. It was an organized terroristic attack of the Greek police against the Athenian population. A real chemical war. It is the tactics they will use later in Ireland, Portugal, Spain etc… Help us to… Continue reading
Open design comes of age (2), second of a series by Massimo Menichinelli
Massimo Menichinelli (original source here): In a previous post, I started explaining that Open Design is now getting out of the underground, since many important design companies, institutions and sci-fi writers are now actively working on it. This does not mean that all the problems that we must solve in order to have a real… Continue reading
Common Healing: Kevin Hansen announces new Commons documentary
Kevin Hansen: “Common Healing is the introduction to the commons documentary we are producing. This draft effort is a step towards describing the vision of a ‘third way’ beyond government and business, where people can directly organize around commons they share.” Watch the trailer here: Common Healing – trailer v2 from Kevin Hansen on Vimeo…. Continue reading
From an Economics of Power and Greed to an Economics of Compassion and the Common Good
* Book: Economics Unmasked: From power and greed to compassion and the common good. By Philip B. Smith & Manfred Max Neef, Green Books, 2011 Excerpted from a review by Nic Marks, founder of the Centre for Well-being, via Ethical Markets TV: “This is a radical book – in fact it is a book to… Continue reading
The revolt against financial predation in Greece is a historic turning point in the awakening of European peoples
“First they went for the Irish, and we did nothing; then they went for the Greeks, and we did nothing; then they went for the Spanish, and we did nothing; then they went for the Portuguese, and we did nothing; then they went for the Belgians and we did nothing … this is how Europe… Continue reading
Kevin Carson on Bitcoin and the Phyles: dystopia or utopia?
Kevin Carson‘s take on Bitcoin, as reproduced from The Bitcoin Sun : “Neal Stephenson’s “The Diamond Age” was set some years after encrypted currencies and e-commerce removed most economic transactions into darknets beyond the government’s capability of monitoring and regulating, and thus caused tax bases around the world to implode. This was followed, in short… Continue reading