In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s shocking election victory, a shattered Democratic Party and dazed progressives agree on at least one thing: Democrats must replace Republicans in Congress as quickly as possible. As usual, however, the quest to recapture power is focused on tactical concerns and political optics, and not on the need for the deeper conversation that the 2016 election should have provoked us to have: How can we overcome the structural pathologies of our rigged economy and toxic political culture, and galvanize new movements capable of building functional alternatives?

Since at least the 1980s, Democrats have accepted, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, the free-market “progress” narrative—the idea that constant economic growth with minimal government involvement is the only reliable way to advance freedom and improve well-being. Dependent on contributions from Wall Street, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and Big Pharma, the Democratic Party remains incapable of recognizing our current political economy as fundamentally extractive and predatory. The party’s commitment to serious change is halfhearted, at best.

While the mainstream resistance to Trump is angry, spirited, and widespread, its implicit agenda, at least on economic matters, is more to restore a bygone liberal normalcy than to forge a new vision for the future. The impressive grassroots resistance to Trump may prove to be an ambiguous gift. While inspiring fierce mobilizations, the politicization of ordinary people, and unity among an otherwise fractious left, it has thus far failed to produce a much-needed paradigm shift in progressive thought.

This search for a new paradigm is crucial as the world grapples with some profound existential questions: Is continued economic growth compatible with efforts to address the urgent dangers of climate change? If not, what does this mean for restructuring capitalism and reorienting our lives? How can we reap the benefits of digital technologies and artificial intelligence without exacerbating unemployment, inequality, and social marginalization? And how shall we deal with the threats posed by global capital and right-wing nationalism to liberal democracy itself?

In the face of such daunting questions, most progressive political conversations still revolve around the detritus churned up by the latest news cycle. Even the most outraged opponents of the Trump administration seem to presume that the existing structures of government, law, and policy are up to the job of delivering much-needed answers. But they aren’t, they haven’t, and they won’t.

Instead of trying to reassemble the broken pieces of the old order, progressives would be better off developing a new vision more suited to our times. There are already a number of projects that dare to imagine what a fairer, eco-friendly, post-growth economy might look like. But these valuable inquiries often remain confined within progressive and intellectual circles. Perhaps more to the point, they are too often treated as thought experiments for someone else to implement. “Action causes more trouble than thought,” the artist Jenny Holzer has noted. What is needed now are bold projects that attempt to demonstrate, rather than merely conceptualize, effective solutions.

The challenges before us are not modest. But it’s now clear that the answers won’t come from Washington. Policy leadership and support at the federal level could certainly help, but bureaucracies are risk-averse, the Democratic Party has little to offer, and the president, needless to say, is clueless. It falls to the rest of us, then, to figure out a way to move forward.

The energy for serious, durable change will originate, as always, on the periphery, far from the guarded sanctums of official power and respectable opinion. Resources may be scarce at the local level, but the potential for innovation is enormous: Here one finds fewer big institutional reputations at stake, a greater openness to risk-taking, and an abundance of grassroots imagination and enthusiasm.

For the rest of this article, go to https://www.thenation.com/article/to-find-alternatives-to-capitalism-think-small

Photo by quimby

The post There Are Plenty of Alternatives appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Open Map is an open source foundation for a variety of cartographic purposes.  Yet a variety of new organizations are developing projects that document commons based resources.  One such project is TransforMap.

Extracted from: https://discourse.transformap.co/t/transformap-a-short-introduction/289

There are Plenty of Alternatives. TransforMap makes them visible.

It will give everybody the opportunity to map all the initiatives, communities, projects, worker-owned, self-managed, democratically organised companies and other institutions dedicated to meeting people’s needs, serving the common good and/or contributing to a sustainable way of life.

TransforMap will/can show all the places, spaces and networks that work on fostering cooperation and deepening human relationships through (co-)producing, exchanging, contributing, gifting and sharing, for a free, fair and sustainable world.

TransforMap invites all existing mapping initiatives to cooperate and co-create maps based on an open pool of data, a common taxonomy, free software and standardised APIs4. It will be/is published under an Open Data License.

Our world is transforming. There are old and new alternatives all over the planet. TransforMap will show you how to get there.

Extracted from: https://wiki.transformaps.net/wiki/Main_Page

Background about TransforMap:

TransforMap works towards an online-platform for you to visualize the myriads of alternatives to the dominant economic thinking on a single mapping system. It will give everybody the opportunity to map all the initiatives, communities, projects, worker-owned, self-managed, democratically organised companies and other institutions dedicated to meeting people’s needs, serving the common good and/or contributing to a sustainable way of life.

On this mediawiki you are able to view and edit the following TransforMap components in its early beginning. It is called TransformapS to stress the fact that there are many many maps that are showing the transformation. There are three components on this wiki:

• Collection of Points of Interest (POIs) (overview of last edits) – this is where you can add an initiative or an event relevant to TransforMap
• The Atlas – A Collection of Mapping Resources – here you can add existing maps and other mapping resources that are relevant for TransforMap
• Transformap Taxonomy – this is a place to work on TransforMap’s categories of initiatives

Extracted from: https://discourse.transformap.co/t/how-to-get-involved/231

You like the idea of TransforMap? You want to get involved?
Here are a few ways you can choose to contribute! Find the right place and task for you to become part of TranforMap! Add your questions and suggestions. Help us to integrate more people. W E L C O M E!

• You have a database of initiatives:
  • Open your data and get in touch [add contact]: let’s discuss what kind of license will enable both maximum collaboration and the preservation of your interests
  • Why not testing TransforMap’s Taxonomy version 1.0?
• You have programming skills or are an organization with such skills at hand? Contribute with programming, pool your technical resources with the TransforMap community. Visithttps://trello.com/b/adHSEyXl/engineering5 to know what needs to be done on the software side (we’re working on making this more comprehensive, bear with us).
• You are well connected to the local alternatives of your city/region: why not running a local test mapping using TransforMap’s Taxonomy version 1.0. Check out the tools available here!
• You’ve got some other skills to volunteer? Support with any other means and get in touch via our globalmailing list [email protected]

Photo by Anonymous Profile…

Photo by Aline Barreta

The post Project Of The Day: TransforMap appeared first on P2P Foundation.

“A new economy is coming into play. No longer wielded as a weapon to legitimise austerity, this is an economy where the community and the environment, not the corporate shareholder, benefits. Beneath its ruthless, business-as-usual veneer, Britain hosts a colourful array of grassroots enterprises. Some of these are sparked into action by artists or dynamic working groups, many are crowdfunded, and all of them foster more friendly relations between people.”

One of the co-founders of the Grassroots Britain directory, Charlotte Du Cann, explains the five criteria common to these initiatives:

1. Community ownership

These businesses are owned and supported by the community in which they are situated. Examples range from a cinema in Bristol to urban orchards in Dundee to a national network of CSA (community supported agriculture) farms and vegetable box schemes.

Hundreds of community energy projects, from solar-panelled tower blocks and energy gardens in London to a pioneer tidal scheme in the Shetlands, put renewable power into local hands. Even local newspapers, such as the Bristol Cable or Scotland’s online Common Space, are now owned by their readership.

2. Cooperatives

Community supported businesses use a cooperative model, where workers and members own and run the enterprise, such as the popular Handmade Bakery in Slaithwaite, west Yorkshire, and the Boundary brewery in Belfast. Manchester Veg People is a co-op of organic growers who grow and harvest to order for 40 buyers, including restaurants and the University of Manchester.

Many of these businesses also function as social hubs. Loaf in Birmingham runs a cookery school that teaches people how to make bread, alongside foraging and earth oven building. The Project Cafe in Glasgow hosts political discussions, a poetry bookshop and live music events. The Moss Cider Project in Manchester brings local communities together to collect apples to make local cider.

3. Repair and share

The sharing economy enables produce, items and services to be given or exchanged. Events such as potato days, seed swaps and give-and-take days are now held across the UK. Maker spaces allow people to share equipment, knowledge and skills. The Walter’s Tools library in Cumbria loans out a heritage collection of billhooks and scythes; modern share shops have shelves of useful stuff you only need occasionally, as do your neighbours. As the Library of Things in West Norwood points out, an electric drill is used on average only 13 minutes in its lifetime.

Repair cafes invite amateur and professional repairers to teach people how to restore broken or damaged things. The Restart Project in London hosts parties that help people fix broken electronic goods from toasters to iPads.

4. Alternative currencies and credit

One of the clearest demonstrations of a more resilient democratic monetary system is a local currency that is endorsed by local traders and, in the case of the Bristol pound, can be used on buses or to pay council tax. Several exist in Britain, including the newly launched Exeter pound. Schemes such as local time banks and online platform Echo trade skills and resources rather than money.

These alternative currencies are closely aligned to the sharing economy. As writer John Thackara points out in his new book, How to Thrive in the Next Economy, the sharing economy is based on social reciprocity and networks, and does not need to “grow at all costs” in the same way as an economy dependent on abundant cheap energy.

5. Making use of waste

A growing awareness of the wasteful nature of the industrial food system has led to a string of innovative recycling enterprises, from transforming waste wood into fuel to using coffee grounds to grow oyster mushrooms. It has also inspired pay-as-you-feel cafes that turn out-of-date produce from local shops into economic and delicious meals. Examples of these include Transition Cafe in Fishguard and the Real Junk Food cafes in Leeds, Manchester and Brighton.

The post The five criteria of alternative grassroots economics appeared first on P2P Foundation.