Peer to peer theory is an attempt to re-construct, starting from current conditions, a theory of human emancipation. And with current conditions we mean the internet-enabled emergence of the peer to peer relational dynamic in distributed networks, and its associated processes of peer production, peer governance, and peer property. As Marx did for the emerging industrial-capitalist mode, so we aim to do it for the informational-postcapitalist mode. This is not to say that we have the capacity to do so as an individual, but certainly it’s the ideal I’m working on.

P2P Theory aims to be post-ideological, and I freely use concepts from different traditions, from left and right, as long as I think these concepts are operative to explain/understand these new processes. I also think that P2P Theory has the potential to be of interest to forces of the left, traditionally interested in equality, and the forces of liberalism, traditionally interested in freedom, as the P2P mode is an instantation of the ‘free assocation of equipotential individuals’, and thus combines both. It may even appeal to true conservatives. Because the force that most undermines traditional forms of livelyhood is corporate capitalism, and P2P Theory aims for a postcapitalist society where people could truly choose their livelyhood.

P2P Theory does not advocate abolishing neither the market nor the state, because we think that a majority of the people would want a market, and a state that serves their needs.

At the same time, I cannot deny that I’m culturally on the left. This is so for historical reasons: my parents were both orphaned working class people, who slowly had the work their way up, and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind, that, outside the institutions of the welfare state, the result of long struggles by the workers, I could have gone on to study and make a career in business. So even though I became a serial entrepreneur, and learned to accept society ‘as it is’, I retained this sensibility. Then, in my forties, after experiences the intense corruption at work in a large corporation, and the continued destruction of the biosphere, I decided that I had to go back to the ideals of my youth, tempered by life’s experience. Thus, the P2P Foundation was born: it is just my stake in the ground saying: here’s the kind of world I would want, would you care to join me as we explore these new venues.

In the course of my investigations then, I have encountered many libertarian sources. Many of those I abhorr, as I consider them to be corporate hacks, always favouring the freedom of the strong to exploit the weak; but some other sources, usually of a left-libertarian bent like Mutualist.org, I find congenial to my own values.

Here’s an interesting quote, from Roderick Long:

“Ever since libertarians and leftists went their separate ways back in the 19th century, libertarians have specialized in understanding governmental forms and mechanisms of oppression, and the benefits of competitive, for-profit forms of voluntary association; while leftists have specialized in understanding non-governmental forms and mechanisms of oppression, and the benefits of cooperative, not-for-profit forms of voluntary association.”

P2P Theory is of course opposed to both forms of coercion; it seeks to establish markets that are not beholden to a regime of endless accumulation, with a state working at the behest of the big corporations. But unlike libertarianism, I see the state not as an exclusive instrument of those corporations, but as a result of the historical compromises of social struggles; not seeing any chance to ‘abolish the state’, I would rather have it work for the mass of the people, and be an instrument for it. One of the ways to insure it is by broadening the participation within the state apparatus and governance structures (i.e. multistakeholdership forms of governance). P2P Theory as such is not opposed to voluntary association in view of profit making. But its core interest is voluntary association for non-profit aims, in particular of the non-reciprocal kind, as in peer production, because it believes that so far, this is the highest and most efficient form of human production to have emerged. But it cannot exist ‘alone’, so peer production has to find an accomodation with the other modes of production, even though we expect it to become dominant eventually.

So that are points of convergence as well as divergence with the left libertarian sensibility. The important point is to look, not at the differences, but at the commonalities, and I believe they are many.

One more final quote, from Brad Spangler, who sees the libertarian movement moving towards the left:

“Genuine libertarianism is very much left wing. It’s revolutionary. The long and tragic alliance of libertarians with the right against the spectre of state socialism is coming to a close, as it served no purpose after the fall of the Soviet Union and so-called “conservatives” have subsequently taken to letting their true big-government-on-steroids colors fly…. [I]n the period since the demise of the Soviet Union, both the radicals and moderates among the left have been subconsciously seeking a new radical creed to orient themselves upon to replace Marxism…. I believe that radical libertarians … will be most effective when they overcome any lingering right wing cultural contamination of their libertarian views and embrace their inherent radicalism — which is most at home on the left. For as the radicals go, so do the moderates grudgingly follow in small steps…. It’s time for libertarians to stop fighting the left and take up the challenge of leading the left.”

So here is my hypothesis: there might be less chance of a convergence of left-libertarian ideals with those of the ‘industrial era left’, but what about the ‘peer to peer left’? It seems that there are interesting areas of convergence there, and perhaps left-libertarians should explore it more?

To paraphrase Roderick Long:

Historically, the left libertarianisms have focused on voluntary relationships for profit making, against the oppression of the state; the new peer to peer left focuses on voluntary associations for non-profit production, is both against oppression by capitalism and the state, but is open to peer-informed voluntary markets and similarly peer-informed forms of the state and governance.Â