[p2p-research] Fwd: A proposal seeking your Endorsement
Ryan Lanham
rlanham1963 at gmail.com
Tue Feb 2 17:28:31 CET 2010
Michel,
You should sign it as an individual. You need not be a delegate from the
Foundation. Even if you were, you are certainly entitled to your own
views.
I, for example, can represent myself by not signing it. Frankly, I'm
sympathetic to 70% of it--especially the parts that have nothing whatsoever
to do with socialism. Like the other -isms, I am disappointed always by the
unwillingness to go against real issues of their own system... e.g. where is
freedom of movement or freedom of expression in this declaration?
Gathering to re-acclaim old messages seems a bit futile, but all parties and
associations do it. That's what institutions do. I do agree with your
point that P2P is effectively non-institutional...one other reason why I
continue to argue it is impossible to subsume P2P under capitalism or
socialism.
Ryan
On 2/2/10, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> worth reading, the founding document is below,
>
> though I could easily endorse most of their principles, and I trust a lot
> of the people that signed it,
>
> I feel that signing it would undercut the pluralism of the p2p foundation,
> and also, I think that the direct connotation with socialism is probably
> counterproductive. In addition, it's close association with the Chavez
> sponsorship conjures up the image of earlier international's subservience to
> powers that be ...
>
> Comments very welcome,
>
> Michel
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: michael albert <sysop at zmag.org>
> Date: Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 10:25 PM
> Subject: A proposal seeking your Endorsement
> To:
>
>
> Hello,
> *
>
> Two months ago, President Chavez of Venezuela announced intentions to host
> a gathering to found a New International this April. If events proceed as
> announced, there will be a gathering in Caracas in roughly ten weeks
> implementing whatever plans emerge.
>
> It seems desirable that voices from outside Venezuela be heard as well, and
> that discussions occur widely before the April gathering convenes.
>
> The following are the initial endorsers, thus far, of the Proposal seeking
> that end presented below:
>
> *
>
> Ezequiel Adamovsky
> Michael Albert
> Daniel Chavez
> Noam Chomsky
> Jill Soffiyah Elijah
> Ann Ferguson
> Pervez Hoodbhoy
> Mandisi Majavu
> Boris Kagarlitsky
> Cynthia Peters
> John Pilger
> Justin Podur
> Nikos Raptis
> Lydia Sargent
> Stephen Shalom
> Vandana Shiva
> Chris Spannos
> Marie Trigona
> Fernando Vegas
> Greg Wilpert
>
>
> *
> We are sending this message to various writers and activists including the
> Reimagining Society Participants and former invitees, hoping to gather some
> additional initial endorsers for the proposal. Once that succeeds, building
> on the full list of initial endorsers - which will then hopefully include
> you - we will seek far more support online. The web site for the project
> will become public, after further refinements allow online endorsements, but
> you can see it in early draft here:
>
> http://ruby.zcommunications.org/newinternational.htm
>
> So, would you be willing to become an initial signer of the proposal that
> appears below and on the page linked above?
>
> To endorse, please so indicate in your reply, and we will add your name. If
> you would like to suggest changes in the text, we will incorporate
> everything we can without violating the faith of the original endorsers.
>
> *
> *
> Finally, on first reading the proposal many people have had three
> questions. Perhaps quick answers will help your deliberations:
>
> 1. What has a new International got to do with the WSF?
>
> *
>
> A new International and the WSF would be mutually supportive, though
> independent. Indeed, some would say inspiring such an International was one
> key potential of the WSF, even as the WSF itself would remain an open venue
> of discussion.
>
> *
>
> 2. What is the relation between the proposal and the Caracas gathering in
> April and what should I do it I have doubts about the April gathering, but I
> like the points raised in this proposal?
>
> *
> *
>
> This proposal hopes to inspire discussion by activists all over the world,
> and perhaps contribute to the final choices in April and thereafter. While
> some may be happy about an International forming this April and others may
> be upset about it, either way, rather than be silent about features to
> include shouldn't those concerned try to help inspire desirable results?
>
> *
> *
>
> 4. Why would endorsing this proposal affect outcomes?
>
> *
>
> The proposal will be delivered directly to people trying to form and likely
> to participate in a new International and both those planning the April
> meeting and those likely to belong to the emerging International are highly
> likely to eagerly welcome participation and seriously engage with the
> associated and evolving ideas.
>
>
> If dozens much less hundreds of activists endorse a range of positions,
> those positions will play an important role in the discussion of policies
> and practices. A person can therefore endorse this proposal knowing that
> doing so will have impact far greater than the time vested in appending
> one's name.
>
>
> *
> So please, if you want to endorse, let us know as soon as possible so we
> can move forward. If you don't want to endorse, to help us understand where
> our assessments are wrong, can you please let us know why?
>
>
>
> Here, then, is the proposal we hope you will endorse...
>
>
>
> Proposal for A Participatory Socialist International
>
> We, the undersigned, endorse the idea of a new International and urge
> that its definition include assessing, refining, and implementing as many of
> the following points as the International’s participants decide mutually
> agreeable:
>
> 1. A new International should be centrally strategically concerned (at
> least) with:
>
> - economic production, consumption, and allocation, including class
> relations
> - kinship nurturance, socialization, house keeping, and procreation,
> including gender, sexuality, and age
> - cultural community relations including race, nationality, and
> religion
> - politics including relations of law and legislation
> - international relations including matters of mutual aid, exchange,
> self determination, and immigration
> - ecology including relations with the natural environment and other
> species
>
> And that the new International should address these concerns without
> elevating any one focus above the rest, since (a) all will critically affect
> the character of a new world, (b) unaddressed each could subvert efforts to
> reach a new world, and (c) the constituencies most affected by each would be
> intensely alienated if their prime concerns were relegated to secondary
> importance.
>
>
> 2. Our vision for a Participatory Socialist future should (at least)
> include that:
>
> - economic production, consumption, and allocation be classless - which
> includes equitable access for all to quality education, health care, food,
> water, sanitation, housing, meaningful and dignified work, and the
> instruments and conditions for personal fulfillment
> - gender/kinship, sexual, and family relations not privilege by age,
> sexual preference, or gender any one group above others in any realm of life
> - which includes ending all forms of oppression of women and sexual
> minorities while providing day care, recreation, health care, overcoming the
> sexual division of labor, etc.
> - culture and community relations among races, ethnic groups,
> religions, and other cultural communities protect the rights and identity of
> each community consistent with equally respecting those of all other
> communities - which includes an end to racist, ethnocentric, and otherwise
> bigoted structures while simultaneously securing the prosperity and rights
> of indigenous people
> - political decision making, adjudication of disputes, and
> implementation of shared programs deliver “people’s power” in ways that do
> not elevate any one sector or constituency above others - which includes
> participation and justice for all
> - international trade, communication, and other interactions attain
> peace and justice while dismantling all vestiges of colonialism and
> imperialism - which includes canceling the debt of nations of the global
> south and reconstructing international norms and relations to move toward an
> equitable and just community of equally endowed nations
> - ecological choices not only be sustainable, but care for the
> environment in accord with our highest aspirations for ourselves and our
> world - which includes climate justice and energy innovation
>
>
> 3. The guiding values and principles informing internal strategic and
> programmatic deliberations of an International highlight at least the
> following values which includes implementing whatever structural steps prove
> essential to organizationally embody the values as well as possible in the
> present:
>
> - solidarity, to help align worldwide movements and projects into
> mutual aid and collective benefit
> - diversity, to spur creative innovation, respect dissent, and
> recognize that minority views thought to be crazy today can lead to what is
> brilliant tomorrow
> - equity, to seek wealth and income fairness
> - peace with justice, to realize international fairness and fulfillment
> - ecological sustainability and wisdom, to seek human survival and
> interconnection
> - “democracy” or perhaps even a more inspiring conception of “people’s
> power,” “participatory democracy,” or “self management,” to foster
> participation and equitable influence for all
>
>
> 4. That a new International be the greatest sum of all its parts, including
> rejecting confining itself to a single line to capture all views in one
> narrow pattern. To achieve this the new International should:
>
> - include and celebrate “currents” to serve as vehicles for contending
> views, help ward off sectarianism, and aid constant growth
> - establish that currents should respect the intentions of other
> currents, assume that differences over policy are about substance and not
> motive, and pursue substantive debate as a serious part of the whole project
> - afford each current means to openly engage with all other currents to
> try to advance new insights bearing on policy and program.
> - guarantee that as long as any particular current accepts the basic
> tenets of the International and operates in accord with its norms and
> methods, its minority positions would be given space not only to argue, but,
> if they don’t prevail, to continue developing their views to establish their
> merit or discover their inadequacies
>
>
> 5. Members of the new International would be political parties, movements,
> organizations, or even projects, where:
>
> - members, employees, staff, etc., of each new International member
> organization would in turn gain membership in the International
> - individuals who want to be members of the International but have no
> member group that they belong too, would have to join one
> - every member group would have its own agenda for its separate
> operations which would be inviolable
> - at the same time, each member group would be strongly urged to make
> its own operations consistent with the norms, practices, and agendas of the
> International,establishing solidarity but also autonomy
> - member groups would have a wide range of sizes - but since the
> International’s decisions would not bind groups other than regarding the
> collective International agenda, a good way to arrive at decisions might be
> serious discussion and exploration, followed by polls of the whole
> International membership to see peoples’ leanings, followed by refinements
> of proposals to seek greater support and to allow dissidents to make their
> case, culminating in final votes of the membership
>
>
> 6. Programmatically, of course what a new International chooses to do will
> be contextual and a product of its members desires, but, for example:
>
> - a new International might call for international events and days of
> dissent, for support campaigns for existing struggles by member
> organizations, and for support of member organizations against repression,
> as well as undertake widespread debates and campaigns to advance related
> understanding and mutual knowledge...
> - more ambitiously, an International might also undertake, for example,
> a massive international focus on immigration, on ending a war or
> intervention, on shortening the work week worldwide, and/or on averting
> climatic catastrophe, among other possibilities. It might prepare materials,
> undertake education, pursue actions, carry out boycotts, support local
> endeavors, etc.
> - general program would be up to member organizations to decide how to
> relate to, yet there would be considerable collective momentum for each
> member organization to participate and contribute as best it could in
> collective campaigns and projects since clearly one reason to have an
> International is to help organizations, movements, and projects worldwide
> escape single-issue loneliness by becoming part of a larger process
> encompassing diverse focuses and united by agreements to implement various
> shared endeavors.
>
> *
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhurakij_Pundit_University - Think
> thank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
>
> P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
>
> Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
> http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org
>
> Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens;
> http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
--
Ryan Lanham
rlanham1963 at gmail.com
Facebook: Ryan_Lanham
P.O. Box 633
Grand Cayman, KY1-1303
Cayman Islands
(345) 916-1712
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