[p2p-research] 21st Century Socialism: Eleven Talking Points

[Michel Bauwens]

I may have posted this before?

but anyway, it's relevant between possible linkages between socialist
movements and p2p:

Magnus Marsdal on Socialist Individualism

Socialist Individualism <http://p2pfoundation.net/Socialist_Individualism>.
Essay by Magnus Marsdal.

URL = http://www.autodidactproject.org/other/marxind2.html

"socialism is defined as the democratic management of society’s vital
resources (“the economy‿). Under Stalinism, undeniably the economy was
subject to explicitly political governance, but no-one would ever label that
political economy “democratic‿. It belongs at the far end of our axis, with
meagre individual liberties. Now, notice how the nearest challenger of the
Evil Empire in this respect is unrestrained capitalism! Market liberalism
weakens the position of the working individual on the labour market as far
as it can, and does pretty much the same with the political bodies of
democracy. Under the welfare state there are substantial “socialist inroads‿
in the capitalist system. This partial protection from “the tyranny of the
rich‿ strengthens the position of the individual.

When the historical advancement of democracy is seen like this, the current
position of “the new movements‿—arguing that “another world is possible‿ and
at the same time fiercely defending the existing welfare state
arrangements—becomes less paradoxical. Neoliberalism is perceived as
reactionary. The foes of the welfare state are truly “winding the clock
backwards‿. Therefore we fight to defend what already exists. But there is
something to fight for beyond the instable truce of the so-called mixed
economy of Keynesian times. Therefore, we also fight for what does not yet
exist."


Bruno Theret, on the tradition of 'civil socialism'

The peer to peer movement differs from the traditional socialist movement in
that it does not rely on the state, but on autonomous developments within
civil society. Such a movement was prefigured by what Bruno Theret calls the
tradition of civil socialism. Very interesting French-language essay.

The essay by Bruno Theret is at
http://fr.pekea-fr.org/?p=11&c=2-3-Theret.html

Theret also refers to three historical traditions necessary to develop these
ideas further: 1) the pre-marxist socialism of Pierre Leroux, very strong in
the revolutions of 1848; 2) the federal or guild socialism of Karl Polanly,
author of the landmark book The Great Transformation; 3) the contemporary
neo-communautarian theory of Michael Walzer.


On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 5:00 AM, Kevin Carson <
free.market.anticapitalist at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 5/3/09, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi Sam,
> >
> > I face similar difficulties,
> >
> > socialism can mean many many different things, but it is essentially a 19
> cy social ideology that has been deeply discredited by 20th century failings
> ...
> >
> > this is one of the reasons that I use the peer to peer narrative and
> steer away from any language in that tradition
> >
>
> I think the recovered understanding of "socialism" as it existed in
> the early 19th century, subsequently buried by a late 19th century
> shift in meaning that became dominant in the 20th, is quite relevant
> to the p2p movement.
>
> It seems to me that both the state capitalists and the state
> socialists have an interest in suppressing this recovered meaning,
> because it's in their shared interest to pretend that our only
> alternatives are a world run by Gosplan and a world owned by
> Halliburton.  It amounts to a cartel in which they can divide up their
> market shares between people who see
> Gosplan or Halliburton, respectively, as more threatening than the
> alternative.
>
> --
> Kevin Carson
> Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
> Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
> http://mutualist.blogspot.com
> Studies in Mutualist Political Economy
> http://www.mutualist.org/id47.html
> Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
> http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html
>
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>



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