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Comment by Örsan Şenalp on April 3, 2013 at 14:21

GlobalSquare

towards, around, and beyond the World Social Forum

  http://www.global-square.net/

Comment by Örsan Şenalp on April 3, 2013 at 14:20

Rethinking labour in an age of networks and movements

   http://www.networkedlabour.net/

Comment by Örsan Şenalp on February 24, 2012 at 20:16

Dialogue between Bertram M. Niessen and Geert Lovink on precarious ...

Posted on February 24, 2012 

Posted: February 24, 2012 at 10:34 am

BMN: There is a struggle going on between different views of the ownership of the data produced and shared throughout the Web. While companies and governments are claiming for a stronger copyright control, individual users and on-line communities are reclaiming open-source oriented solutions that redefine many immaterial products as digital commons. You have different ideas about the solutions to face this critical situation, especially regarding the nature of commons. How do you frame the contemporary situation from this point of view? And what future scenarios do you forecast?

GL: I am not a copyright expert nor an active Creative Commons evangelist. As a radical pragmatist I use Creative Commons as often as possible. My take on this issue has been to question the uncritical use of terms such as ‘free’ and ‘open’. We should no longer listen to (free) software experts in this regard as they are still in demand in terms of employment, worldwide, and have turned out to be bad advisers when it comes to organizing sustainable sources of income for designers, artists, musicians, writers and others in the ‘content’ business. The question whether computer programmers have the freedom to change code has been too long in the centre of attention. If we care about the so-called precarious creative workers we should shift our attention away from the professions that are (still) able to organize their own income (such as programmers and academics) and start to theorize the new digital labor conditions of the global creative classes and come up with viable alternatives. Continue reading →

Comment by Örsan Şenalp on February 24, 2012 at 20:15

Tweetin’ ’bout a revolution: Red Pepper interviews with Paul Mason

Posted on February 24, 2012 

Newsnight’s Paul Mason, author of a new book on the revolts sweeping the world, speaks to Red Pepper

Hilary Wainwright (Red Pepper) You highlight the commonalities of the different revolts of 2011, but how do we understand the differences between revolts against authoritarian regimes and exhausted democracies? Is there a problem with this generality?

Paul Mason I’m looking for what’s common rather than making generalities. First of all, one revolt feeds off another, and you can’t underestimate the physical link: again and again, among people who were involved in March 26 in the UK, J14 in Israel, Wisconsin, you meet people who had been to Tahrir.

Spain isn’t Greece, and Tahrir and Tunis are very different. But there is the archetype of the educated youth whose life chances have been blighted by a combination of economic downturn and a regime they realise is unsustainable.

You can’t underestimate the extent to which those dictatorships had linked themselves to the economic programme of neoliberalism. Many say that the key moment in the Arab Spring was the loss of fear, and in the west it has been the loss of apathy, but the sources have been the same thing: people suddenly realising ‘change is necessary, change is possible’. The more I think about it, the more I trace it back to the collapse of the economic model – it just took a while.
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Comment by Örsan Şenalp on February 24, 2012 at 20:15

Occupy Heads into the Spring | Rebecca Solnit’s ZSpace Page

Posted on February 24, 2012 

By Rebecca Solnit

When you fall in love, it’s all about what you have in common, and you can hardly imagine that there are differences, let alone that you will quarrel over them, or weep about them, or be torn apart by them — or if all goes well, struggle, learn, and bond more strongly because of, rather than despite, them. The Occupy movement had its glorious honeymoon when old and young, liberal and radical, comfortable and desperate, homeless and tenured all found that what they had in common was so compelling the differences hardly seemed to matter.

Until they did.

Revolutions are always like this: at first all men are brothers and anything is possible, and then, if you’re lucky, the romance of that heady moment ripens into a relationship, instead of a breakup, an abusive marriage, or a murder-suicide. Occupy had its golden age, when those who never before imagined living side-by-side with homeless people found themselves in adjoining tents in public squares.

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Comment by Örsan Şenalp on February 24, 2012 at 20:14

Occupy + Commons: The Beginnings of a Beautiful Relationship | Davi...

Posted on February 24, 2012 

Monday, February 20, 2012

The Occupy movement is beginning to discover the commons, and the result could be a rich and productive collaboration.  This was the lesson that I took from a three-day conference, “Making Worlds:  A Forum on the Commons,” hosted by Occupy Wall Street in Brooklyn this past weekend. Rarely have I seen so many ordinary people from diverse backgrounds embrace the commons idea with such ease and enthusiasm.

There was a certain cosmic appropriateness that this gathering was held in a church meeting hall, the Church of the Ascension in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.  This is the kind of humble, out of the way setting that gave rise to the civil rights movement 50-60 years ago.  Church basements virtually require us to shed our pretensions and credentials, and to get real with each other.  As they say in the Occupy world, this was a “truth event” – an occasion meant to rip a hole in the fabric of mainstream culture and provoke some deep and honest reflection on the truth.

Can the commons paradigm take us to higher ground?  For the 100-plus people who showed up, the forum was an occasion to consider how the commons can open up new vistas in “alternative economies, open source, education, environment, technology, labor, politics, race, gender, sexuality and more.”  In typical Occupy style, the meetings were run in a fairly loose fashion; it was not always clear who was “running” the meeting because many people intervened at various times.

And yet things never got out of hand, and I cannot recall a meeting of this size that was richer, more provocative and constructive.  People really listened to each other.  People actively invited everyone to speak out, especially those who were more reticent.  Your professional credentials were a secondary matter.  And if someone got too agitated, people would use calming hand gestures to cool things down. The dialogue was an intelligent, passionate, highly sophisticated and practical dialogue of ordinary American citizens.  Refreshing!  Now if only such traits could somehow be engineered into our mainstream political culture and media!

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Comment by Örsan Şenalp on February 24, 2012 at 20:14

OCCUPY MAY 1ST GENERAL STRIKE!

Posted on February 24, 2012 

What is #M1GS?

In most European countries, May 1st is traditionally a ‘Workers’ day – a day of Labor Solidarity, and a public holiday. In Los Angeles, it’s a day to celebrate and march in support of im/migrant rights. In protest against the corruption of the worldwide marketplace, which has led to illegal foreclosures, mass unemployment, low wages, high taxes and a penalization of all those who do not own the ‘99%’ of the world’s resources, and in solidarity with the im/migrant movements of May 1st, OLA decided to declare May 1st, 2012 a People’s General Strike. Instead of calling upon unionized Labor to make a specific demand (illegal under Taft-Hartley), OLA is calling upon the people of Los Angeles and the United States of America to take this day away from school and the workplace, so that their absence makes their displeasure with this corrupt system be known.

 

On December 19th, 2011, Occupy Los Angeles General Assembly consented upon the following statement:

“Occupy LA supports in principle a General Strike on May 1, 2012, for migrant rights, jobs for all, a moratorium on foreclosures, and peace – and to recognize housing, education and health care as human rights, and calls for the building of a broad coalition to make that a reality.”

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Comment by Örsan Şenalp on February 20, 2012 at 12:28

Open Letter towards Occupy/Indignados Assemblies, Social Movements,...

Posted on February 20, 2012 

Inspired by the comrades from spain (valencia: http://unidxsporunacausacomun.blogspot.com/), London,US and elsewhere we have felt the need to prepare a positive open latter to work on, discuss, adopt, and declare towards labour.considering the general strike wave, planed global strikes, 1M, 12M, 15M, and other actions and gatherings like 24-26 February European Action Confernce, 29 February [European Trade Union Day of Action, Shutdown the Corporations Day in the US}, 31March European Action Against Capitalism, 28-29 March 2. Spring Conference etc. that would clarifies our support to working people, union members as well as our obvious different positions; with the hope that this would contribute overall widening of participation to these mobilisations and solidarity among various movements. That would be good to wok on the text until 29 February and relase to our networks! Above is the version released by GAIA - Networked Union for the Labour’s Others.  -

Dear fellow workers, comrades,

We are ordinary people. We are outraged, like you. We are called Indigrandos and/or Occupy Movement across the World, describing those who stand at the edge or outside of the disastrous global system.

We are sometimes highly educated, mostly working precariously, unemployed, homeless people who have risen up in 2011 globally; not only to defend the rights of people like us but also for all the others, the 99% who has worse or relatively better conditions than ourselves, as well as for the planet.

We do not claim to represent others, or even each other. We just choose to struggle not only for us but also for the others who can’t do that at the moment.

We have stood up against the bankers on Wall Street, wars lords in Egypt and Israel, environmental murderers in Monsanto, the business and state elite everywhere, for the good of all alive and not alive, all women and men, young and old, working or not working.

We have formed, distributed and self-organised egalitarian networks in order to lead this struggle and build credible alternatives to the failing system. Before it falls down on top of all of us.

We believe that a system excluding us also threatens the people with relatively secure jobs and contracts. Their job and income, their today and future. It also leaves millions of innocent children and elderly to die every second.

Some of you are a part of a union that should be protecting your rights and ‘representing you’ against those forces robbing all of us and destroying all of our futures.

We honestly believe that, because of the legal and professional constraints, professional union cadre can posses very limited power to lead a strong struggle. Especially without you, rank and file members being strongly self-organised in your workplaces, in your neighbourhoods and within your unions.

We do not adopt and agree with the ‘limited democratic’ structures be it local government, national parliament, UN, or even the union board to which you pass your voice, and so your power. These structures were designed by the elite thinkers like John Locke and Thomas Hobbes for the sake of the class leading this offensive towards us.

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Comment by Örsan Şenalp on February 9, 2012 at 20:09

FOSSApps: Free and Open Source Software Applications that are safe ...

Posted on January 13, 2012 

Free and open source online social networking softwares:

N-1: N-1 is an online social network software. It has been developed by Indignados from Spain and elsewhere collectively. N-1 combines many of the below tools in it. The name n-1 is related to the principle of equipotentiality that attribute potentially equal participation for all the nodes involve.

Other important free and open source online networks are Diaspora, Rise Up, Drupal.

Big Blue Button is an open source online software  built originally for higher and long distance education purpose. Yet it is a very usefull tool for unionists and …..

Mumble is a free telecommunication software that is used by Occupy movement, Spanish Indignados/15M activists. You can create voice-chat rooms for your scheduled work groups, meetings and conference calls.

Turtle is a free and open source anonymous peer-to-peer network project facilitating free speech and sharing information by combining encryption with peer-to-peer (P2P) technology. Like no other anonymous P2P software, it allows users to share files and otherwise communicate without fear of legal sanctions or censorship.

Webchat Free Node is a secure instant chat rooms for activists who are sharing and working on collective projects and actions. Create your chat rooms and invite your comrades.

Online collective document creation:

Titan Pad / RiseUp Pad / Priate Pad

WordPress is an open source website, blog creation software.

Other usefull FOSS tools:

Continue reading →

Comment by Örsan Şenalp on February 9, 2012 at 20:08

Organizing, P2P Networking, and Mapping of the Production Process b...

Posted on December 8, 2011 

The ‘Organizing’

”The Organising” method, originated in the US, has been achieving successes in the English speaking West and spread in the wider capitalist heartland after the collapse of class compromise or the tripartite corporatist model. The method is adoptable to local conditions as well as to unions internal politics and specificities. In this method, professional union organisers hired by union, contact to, build relationship with, and mobilize workers at the shop floor with the aim of attracting more members to the union. Than these activated members are to reach out other potential members and together with the professional organizers they win their co-workers hearts and minds, for the union. The model “is successful because it begins to realise that autonomy is a powerful mobiliser, and that by giving activists ownership over campaigns in their workplaces, you build confident and dynamic local structures that are able to respond fluidly to complex and shifting circumstances.” (Cyberunions)

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Posted in Exchange, Hybrids, Movements, Networks, Organisation, Organising, P2P, Participation, Training, unions |Leave a comment | Edit

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