Solidarity Economics
Comment: Solidarity Economics must sort out the basis of their solidarity.. that basis more than the economic activity should be at the foundation of mobilisation, Unfortuantely most "alternative models" are designed in such a way that they are totally preoccupied with the project at the expense of the purpose
Fascists Are Trying to Co-Opt Mutual Aid Organizing in East Palestine, Ohio https://truthout.org/articles/fascists-are-trying-to-co-opt-mutual-aid-organizing-in-east-palestine-ohio/ By Candice Bernd , TRUTHOUT
PublishedMarch 6, 2023
Neofascist groups are attempting to stoke racial resentment to exploit the disaster for their own gain.
Extracts: East Liverpool resident and RVO Director Amanda Kiger tells Truthout that her organization and partners are leading by example and pushing back directly against corporate capture with community engagement and organizing...public meeting was organized as a community-based alternative to what Kiger calls recent “fake town halls” by attorneys and bureaucrats giving the residents “word-soup tornados,” referring to public hearings attended by state and local officials but that representatives of Norfolk Southern dodged...Kiger says RVO is currently in negotiations over its federal lawsuit with Heritage Thermal, which is seeking to settle over the incinerator’s burning of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), known as “forever chemicals.” RVO, Kiger says, is strategizing with attorneys at Fair Shake Legal Services about potentially filing an emergency injunction that would halt any incineration of toxic waste from the crash site at Heritage Thermal’s facility in East Liverpool.
..Far right groups are using a deliberate far right strategy of exploiting unfolding crises to appeal to residents and survivors on the basis of race and presenting fascist organizing and propaganda as legitimate solutions. The strategy has the potential to broaden the groups’ appeal in a political environment in which former President Trump, Senator Vance and Fox News continue to employ a racialized euphemism that frames the residents of East Palestine as a “forgotten” people, citing residents’ whiteness as the reason for the state’s failure and corporate capture.
Capitalism is making way for the age of free Jeremy Rifkin https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/31/capitalism-age-of-free-internet-of-things-economic-shift An increasingly streamlined and savvy capitalist system will continue to operate at the edges of the new economy, finding sufficient vulnerabilities to exploit, primarily as an aggregator of network services and solutions, allowing it to flourish as a powerful niche player. But it will no longer reign. Hundreds of millions of people are already transferring bits and pieces of their lives from capitalist markets to the emerging global collaborative commons, operating on a ubiquitous internet-of-things platform. The great economic paradigm shift has begun.
From an amazon summary of the Zero Marginal Cost Society.. " The plummeting of marginal costs is spawning a hybrid economy―part capitalist market and part Collaborative Commons―with far reaching implications for society, according to Rifkin. Hundreds of millions of people are already transferring parts of their economic lives to the global Collaborative Commons. Prosumers are plugging into the fledgling IoT and making and sharing their own information, entertainment, green energy, and 3D-printed products at near zero marginal cost. They are also sharing cars, homes, clothes and other items via social media sites, rentals, redistribution clubs, and cooperatives at low or near zero marginal cost. Students are enrolling in free massive open online courses (MOOCs) that operate at near zero marginal cost. Social entrepreneurs are even bypassing the banking establishment and using crowdfunding to finance startup businesses as well as creating alternative currencies in the fledgling sharing economy. In this new world, social capital is as important as financial capital, access trumps ownership, sustainability supersedes consumerism, cooperation ousts competition, and "exchange value" in the capitalist marketplace is increasingly replaced by "sharable value" on the Collaborative Commons
Comment: JD: But so long as we keep bolstering the Big Data, and centralized server industry.. the hybrid will be in dominated by the Besoz, musks, and gates of the world.. They support "adanigiri", because that is how the hard infrastructure will support soft infrastructure. So it is not enough to reduce "marginal costs" in our Alternatives Marketing, and solidarity Economics, it is more important to re-structure the Algorithms that promote centralized and big data computing..
the idea is to put together a coop of disillusioned techies, and coders who can work on such projects. The idea is most of our organisations do spend money on their data and information systems.. if this can be moved to this or similar coops, it can help finance the movement towards alternative/Solidarity based IT programming...
Ashimda : But frame it in way that it should be able to reinforce the ethical idea that Shape the boundaries of solidarity economics and the transactions with capitalist economy
Breaking the Cycle of Unsustainable Food Systems, Hunger and Debt http://www.ipes-food.org/pages/debtfoodcrisis the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems 's special report urges decision-makers to act on comprehensive debt relief and food system transformation, before it’s too late.
Although food prices have receded from 2022’s record highs, public finances in low-income countries are being buffeted by sky-high import costs for food, fertilizers, and energy, and rapidly-rising interest rates. 60% of low-income countries and 30% of middle-income countries are now considered at high risk of, or already in, debt distress; while some 21 countries are nearing catastrophic levels of both debt distress and food insecurity.
Our unsustainable food systems are a major driver of the debt crisis. Import dependencies, extractive financial flows, boom-bust commodity cycles, and climate-vulnerable food systems are combining to destabilize the finances of the world's poorest countries.
The expert panel calls for urgent action to:
Provide debt relief and development finance on a scale for COVID-19 recovery, climate action, resilient food systems, and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Repair historical food system injustices and return resources to the Global South.
Democratize financial and food systems governance to put the interests of the world’s poorest countries and marginalized populations first. Download full report in PDF http://www.ipes-food.org/_img/upload/files/DebtFoodCrisis.pdf
Comment in Whatsapp: since India still has a large sustainable agriculture farming community, we have the opportunity to connect this to the solidarity economy.