By Marco Teruggi for Tele Sur – The problem of the Venezuelan right is to have proposed an objective without the correlation of necessary forces. Although in reality the decision was not Venezuelan, but a U.S. decision, where the strategic and operational level of the current actions resides. I see no correlation because, to be brief, a government can’t be ousted without either the weight of the popular classes or the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, FANB. And today, close to ninety days since the beginning this cycle, they still do not have any of those two variables. It does not mean that they have abandoned their policy towards these two dimensions. In the case of the working classes, already convinced that they can not add to their political call to remove the government, the opposition has decided to hit them even harder with economic suffocation. Scenes from the recent burning of a food store, where 60 tons of goods were decimated, exemplify their actions. They seek to sharpen the material conditions that open the doors to the looting that they organize with their own gangs. Regarding the FANB, they have opted for several movements at a time. One has been the systematic armed attack, both on the main base of Caracas (La Carlota), and on barracks and battalions in different parts of the country.
From October 18-20 in Detroit, Michigan several hundred activists, organizers, theorists, farmers, culture creators, builders, inventors and entrepreneurs will meet to exchange ideas and experiences. A vendors and exhibitors area will feature new machines and new ways to use them. It will also include displays on global communication and community based production of food, energy, housing, transportation, education, recreation, art and durable goods. Featured presenters, facilitators and dialogue leaders include, but are not limited to, Frithjof Bergmann, Blair Evans, Emmanuel Pratt, Rebecca Solnit, Gar Alperovitz, Grace Lee Boggs, Kathi Weeks, Tawana “Honeycomb” Petty, Mischa Schaub, Frank Joyce, Kim Sherrobi, Michael Hardt, Judith Snow, Adrienne Marie Brown and Halima Cassells.
Richard Swift’s book, SOS: Alternatives to Capitalism, is a much needed antidote to the myriad of political clap trap that spouts from our daily newspapers and much of our “left” journalism which suggests that capitalism can be reformed and regulated in such a way that an ecological and economic disaster can be avoided. Right of the bat, Swift speaks of “species suicide” in reference to what we are doing to the planet, which sets a tone of urgency that is carried throughout the book. Swift says that we need alternatives to capitalism that go beyond economic change and points out that “When our best natures are not suppressed, we can be loving, funny, carefree, courageous, thoughtful and capable of wondrous acts of generosity.” The implication clearly is that under capitalism such traits as greed, selfishness, individualism and meanness are promoted. Capitalism thrives on them. The former, not the latter, traits, must drive alternatives to capitalism. Swift leads us on an exploration of our pre-capitalist roots pointing to the historical reality of different ways of living without falling into the idealistic trait of simply glorifies the past. Following Polanyi he points to an earlier time when the economy was embedded in, and thus in service to, the society. This is in contrast to the present day era of advanced capitalism where society is embedded in and thus in service to, the economy. “Advocates of an alternative to wasteful capitalism,” says Swift, “have their roots in past human experience.”
Join us Tuesday (May 27, 2014) for an unprecedented one day gathering that will convene leading experts from the Left and Right (such as Jim Hightower, Judson Phillips, Medea Benjamin, Bruce Fein, Ron Unz and more) to find common ground on many of the key issues of our time. Admission is free and a complimentary light breakfast and lunch will be served! Issues to be discussed at the event are: -Civil liberties -The minimum wage -The commercialization of childhood -Corporate welfare -The imperial perpetuation of America’s wars -Trade -The unpunished crimes and misdeeds of Wall Street
A small Oklahoma city claims it does — and local officials did it themselves. A decade ago, cities jumped on the free municipal wireless bandwagon, but free was not a very good business plan, and most projects went dark when cities or vendors pulled the plug. Today free wireless is most commonly offered by public libraries and businesses wanting to attract customers, and only a few localities still offer citywide coverage. But as mobile devices proliferate and the thirst for connectivity grows, free municipal wireless may be poised for a comeback. One of the United States’ most successful muni Wi-Fi examples is located in a small city in northern Oklahoma — not necessarily what many picture as a cutting-edge, highly connected tech hub. But Ponca City is. Home to 25,000 residents, Ponca City is 90 miles equidistant from Wichita, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. It has a world-class wireless network providing free Wi-Fi across its 25 square miles, an unusual attraction these days for a city “90 miles from anywhere.”
Interestingly, Deleuze tied these two observations together with the chains of debt, which he considered to be the “universal condition” of capitalist control. In his widely-cited Postscript of 1992, he wrote that “man is no longer man confined, but man in debt.” I was reminded of these prescient words when I attended the fascinating MoneyLab conference in Amsterdam last weekend. The central aim of the groundbreaking interdisciplinary gathering was to explore “experiments with revenue models, payment systems and currencies against the backdrop of ongoing global economic decline.” With panel discussions on “the monetization of everything”, “dismantling global finance”, “beyond Bitcoin”, “a critique of crowdfunding” and “designing alternatives”, the organizers of the conference set the tone right: in a world dominated by finance, a thoroughly indebted world in which money has effectively assumed the function of a universal signifier under which all aspects of social and natural life are rapidly becoming subsumed, we desperately need to start exploring radical alternatives to the capitalist money-form — not because alternative currencies are somehow a panacea, but because the state and the banks clearly aren’t going to do it for us.
I have had moments where I would give anything to have a “normal job”, with someone to tell me what to do, when to do it and to praise me for it. I have found myself valuing what I did in my paid work higher than the time I spent on AltGen, because the rest of society valued that more, too. There seems to be an inherent value in work, but not on the impact that work has on society. Can you relate to the experience of a friend posting on Facebook, “I’ve got a job” and getting fifty likes before someone actually asks what the job is? Is there not a difference in thecontribution to society of a teacher and a chemical weapon engineer, between a charity worker and an advertiser? If we are to feel worthwhile as we create a new economy we need to begin to value all the different ways we contribute to the wellbeing of society and move beyond the narrow confines of work and money.
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