[p2p-research] With whom can we work together: is it possible to ally progressives and conservatives around P2P themes and priorities?

[Michel Bauwens]

With whom can we work together: is it possible to ally progressives and
conservatives around P2P themes and priorities?

(to be published on april 3 on the blog)



In my contribution yesterday, I called for a grand alliance of the commons.
Today I would like to ask a second question: how broad can such alliance
potentially be? Can it include forces from both the left and the right?



The P2P Foundation itself is a pluralist network for research and advocacy
around peer to peer, and our discussions feature people from many diverse
political backgrounds. My own origins were in the political left, moved to
the center and then started to move back to that historical tradition,
though always strongly delineating itself from the socialist tradition and
presenting itself as a new formulation for the emerging post-industrial and
post-capitalist structures. But this is just me. On our p2p research list,
we have people calling themselves with a wide variety of epithets, both
moderate and more radical. We have American mutualists, conservative
distributists, even some people still using the concept of ‘neoliberal’ in
their identity. Yet we all manage to talk and learn from each other, sharing
our interest in peer to peer, as the free aggregation of individuals, and in
structures which promote this social logic to occur.

What we are doing here is I think, look for concrete commonalities, while
putting other differences ‘under brackets’ (if that is good English?), i.e.
we agree to disagree, and remain focused on common priorities.



But the P2P Foundation is a research and advocacy platform, not an
explicitely political grouping.

How far could such a logic of cooperation be extended when one enters more
specifically the political arena and the creation of social movements?

A few observations to help answer this question:

-          Is the left-right distinction, as expressed in capitalist and
industrial society, still significant in the contemporary era? If we define
the left position as in favour of more equitable distribution of
opportunities and the tools of well-being, then yes, but at the very least,
it will take on a wholly different content; at the very least left and right
will be redefined in the new context of peer production and netarchical
capitalism

-          Is the progressive-conservative distinction, still as relevant? I
think the situation here is already very different. Who can deny that many
features of human society need to be preserved, hence ‘conserved’, and thus,
the object of conservative ideals. But who can deny that in many other
aspects, ‘progress’ needs to be made to more equitable solutions? I would
also argue that most of humanity is not simply left or right, progressive or
conservative, but a different mix of each.

The latter remark opens the possibility of a new type of alliances with peer
to peer related forces that define themselves as ‘conservative’. For
example, the peer to peer approach in architecture proposed by Nikos
Salingaros  has supporters and detractors in every shade of the political
spectrum but as a p2p approach, should be in alignement with our work. What
of explicitely conservative forces like those of Philip Bond in the UK, or
distributist Catholicism? In my view the common orientation towards an
autonomous civil society, and for more ‘distribution’ in society (a
condition for the p2p dynamic), should make possible a possible alignment.
In the same way, entrepreneurial forces,  including netarchical capitalist
forces, which respect the social charters of the commons and the communities
they work with, are potential allies.

If my reading of history is correct, then social change and necessary phase
transitions only occur when there is a mutual realignement within the old
society, of both sections of the managerial class and of the producing
classes. In the sense of Gramsci, change can only occur when it is also
based on a broad cultural hegemony. The cultural hegemony of the old
socialist workers movement has disappeared, and the neoliberal cultural
hegemony is in the process of dying. We have a good chance to obtain a
realignment around the commons and social innovation that will be based on a
social contract between forces that are partly aligned, but also with partly
different priorities. As long as peer to peer communities and forces can
align themselves with social forces that respect the autonomy of the
commons, political cooperation can be forged, putting differences “between
brackets”. It is possi ble to struggle and construct the commons together,
while also struggling for the social contract that will exist within the
commons. The struggle for the commons aims at changing the very structure of
the current civilization and political economy, and potentially aligns
different social forces against the old order which destroys the biosphere
and impedes social innovation, while it lack of social justice endangers the
stability of the world system. This is the basis of a unity under a new
cultural hegemony. At the same time, the precise definition of the new order
is a function of the balance of power within the new attempted hegemony.



So the conclusion to the question is:

-          Yes, we can built alliances around commonalities in the
construction of a world centered around civil society, the commons, and peer
to peer dynamics

-          Yes, these alliances will unite forces that are also potentially
different in their priorities and differences

-          Taking the point of view of the autonomy of peer to peer
communities, this will necessarily mean a critical cooperation which aims to
protect the maximum autonomy of the commons

-- 
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

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