[van-announce] Tragedy of the Market: From Crisis to Commons - Register Now

[maryann at resist.ca]

Register now by going to:  http://commons2012.wordpress.com/registration/

Tragedy of the Market: from Crisis to Commons

January 6th, 2012 - 7 pm
SFU Harbour Centre:  515 West Hastings St., Vancouver
Coast Salish Territories

January 7th-8th, 2012
Bonsor Recreational Complex
6550 Bonsor Avenue, Burnaby
Coast Salish Territories
Map: http://g.co/maps/phzgm

Panel presenters: Nefertiti Altán, Dave Bleakney, George Caffentzis,
Ian Caplette, Glen Coulthard, Silvia Federici, Arthur Manuel, Claudia
Medina, Farah M Shroff, Harsha Walia and Cease Wyss.

Bios and complete list of participants available here:
http://commons2012.wordpress.com/program-2/presenters-participants/

A crisis in capitalism is stalking the world. Ecological plunder, famines,
displacement off the land and greed increasingly mark the battle lines
between the rich and everyone else. Enforced homelessness, social service
cuts, and environmental disasters are daily occurrences. But today we also
see people in every corner of the world are rising up against these
injustices, and we are inspired by this “indignant” moment. But we want to
understand what lies beyond our collective “no!” to a future foreclosed by
dispossession, debt and ecocide.

Communities around the globe have common cause, fighting for of safe food
and housing, decent health, clean air and undeveloped spaces in nature.
But these “commons” have either been captured by the market or are at
risk. The commons refers to relationships based on shared resources,
collective management, networks of mutual aid, respect and dignity. Taking
back the commons means reclaiming community control over the parts of our
lives that have been colonized by governments, markets, and corporations.

Can we recognize, reclaim and create alternative social realities that the
elite tell us cannot possibly exist? A gathering is being organized to
help us answer those questions. This gathering will cover the themes of
land, food, water, health, education, media, decolonization, migration &
the history of the commons. Stay tuned for more details.

CEOs are dreaming of owning everything on the planet – what are we
dreaming of?

Join Us! REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN - Visit the website
Contact us via email: commons2012 at resist.ca
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/commons2012
Website: http://commons2012.wordpress.com/

Market Fundamentalism: Responding to 500 Years of Economic Crisis - The
global financial crisis may be five centuries old, but the latest
financial debacle and the subsequent rounds of austerity are indicative of
a deep systemic crisis. What does today’s spreading economic crisis mean
for communities that have been in struggle long before 2008? How are
communities and movements around the world responding? What does the
nature of this response mean for the kind of world that will emerge?   >>
Presenters: Dave Bleakney, Arthur Manuel and Harsha Walia.

A Global Tradition: History of the Commons - Rediscovering and reclaiming
historical and existing commons practices is vital to a project of
re-claiming the commons. What can we learn from commoning practices of the
past?  What commons continue to exist today that can inspire our
movements?  The panel will help us to think about how traditions of mutual
aid, autonomy, cooperation and resistance to violence are connected to a
global history of the commons.   >> Presenters: Glen Coulthard, Silvia
Federici and Farah M Shroff.

Radical Squares: Reflections on the Global Indignant Moment - The
spreading scope of systemic crisis (economic, ecological, social) has been
met with an intensifying circulation of struggles around the world. How
can we analyze the public eruption of recent struggles beginning in the
Middle East and spreading across the globe? What does this moment mean?
What are people indignant about? Is this a moment of both cultural
transformation as well political upheaval?   >> Presenters: Nefertiti
Altán, George Caffentzis and Ian Caplette.

Plunder of the Planet: the Ecological Crisis -Land and watersheds
everywhere are being exploited by industry and market forces, routinely
making them unusable for the communities who have long depended on them
for their basic needs. What are the decision-making models that support
this exploitation? And what kinds of alternative models exist or must we
develop to prevent the plunder?   >> Presenters: Claudia Medina, Cease
Wyss and Steve Collis.

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSIONS & WORKSHOPS
Beyond “Public” Ownership & Services - People around the world continue to
mount inspiring campaigns to demand that state governments provide secure
housing, income for the unemployed and community resources like health and
water services. By losing the means to provide for themselves communities
are forced to rely government programs. But how can we move beyond making
demands to develop self-rule and independence? Can communities meet their
own basic needs?

Autonomous Labour Organizing - Organized labour is in crisis. The number
of workers protected by union contracts are dwindling fast and unions seem
to be unable to effectively respond to the increasingly precarious
conditions of work in a profit-based economy. Should we organize outside
as well as inside traditional union structures, drawing on the global
tradition of worker direct action, migrant worker organizing and worker
collectives? What models of organizing will help us move beyond bargaining
for wages and labour conditions while continuing to support those
struggles?

Food Sovereignty & Healthy Communities - People are becoming increasingly
dependent on food and health delivery models that are commodified and
industrialized. Health is vital to any practical politics of the commons.
How does food and health activism link common struggles that are often
understood to be separate? How can we re-imagine providing our collective
food and health needs in a manner that frees us from institutions that are
entwined with the food and health industries?

Indigenous Self Determination & Solidarity - Indigenous peoples have been
at the forefront of the struggle for self-determination in the face of
ever-intensifying efforts to commodify and exploit the land. What forms of
solidarity offer the most useful support for decolonization struggles? How
can solidarity with indigenous communities extend beyond mutual opposition
to extractive industries in order prioritize support for indigenous
self-determination?

Defending Neighbourhoods - In this workshop, we’ll hear about
neighbourhoods – past and present – that have successfully fought
gentrification, oppression and displacement. Neighbourhoods are more than
just places people live and work, they can be seen as vital collective
spaces in which social bonds are built over generations. How do actions
taken to defend neighbourhoods contribute to people’s ability to reclaim
local power?

Collective Creativity & Writing -  Hosted by the Press Release Collective

Sex-Gender Liberation - From Vancouver’s downtown eastside to Tahrir
Square, struggles for sexual emancipation and gender liberation have
innumerable expressions around the world today. Yet from Afghanistan to
Alberta’s tar sands we find governments and corporations attempting to
harness this political energy to legitimize the concentration profit and
power. In what ways does violence and subjection of people based on sexual
orientation and gender result from the dominant political and social
systems? How does it exist in our collectives spaces? How does sex-gender
liberation connect with broader movements for self-determination and
survival?

Barriers to Collective Spaces - This will be a facilitated workshop-style
session oriented to sharing strategies for building collective spaces that
are both sustainable and accountable. Some of the challenges of building
such democratic spaces were heightened during the “occupy” movements, but
they are central to any collective organizing effort. What would safer and
more inclusive collective spaces look like, and how can we create them
together? How do we ensure safety in mass movements and their spaces of
social action?

Our Safety & Their Policing - An intensification of policing and
militarization has come to define the prevailing definition of safety and
security. Yet a string of recent events – from the Vancouver missing and
murdered women’s inquiry, to the mass arrests at the G20 in Toronto and
on-going incidents of police violence – highlights the extent to which
policing is geared towards the protection of property and privilege.
Marginalized communities often need protection from the police themselves.
What kinds of strategies are communities coming up with to ensure both our
own safety and that of the commons?

The Media Commons - Today, media and communication projects are erupting
in every corner of the world as communities attempt to circumvent top-down
control of the circulation of news and ideas. The digital revolution gives
rise to new possibilities for global connections even while it raises the
possibility of new regimes of exclusion and exploitation. What is the role
of communication and media in the struggle to reclaim the global commons?
How can these tools be developed so they are collective and accountable?

Defending Land, Water & Future Generations - Whether it is coltan mining
in the Congo or gold and gas exploration in BC, much of the wealth being
extracted to feed today’s growth dependent economy is directly linked to
ecological devastation.  Supporting indigenous sovereignty and ecological
governance are integral to the struggle against increasingly destructive
resource extraction practices supported by the dominant political system.
What are our responsibilities to the land, the water and the generations
of people who will follow us?  What decision-making models can best help
communities protect ecosystems?

Displacement & Migration in Our Communities - Corporations and governments
displace people to gain control of land, water and resources. In turn,
displaced populations are routinely treated as commodities to be bought
and sold on a global market for exploitable labour.  How do those who
migrate, within and outside of national borders, seek just and dignified
lives? What is the relationship and responsibility of migrants to the
self-determining communities in places where they arrive?

Reclaiming Knowledge - Corporations are increasingly setting their sights
on the control of knowledge. Plants, seeds, cures, traditional medicine,
digital code, language, ideas and knowledge about the natural and social
world accumulated over generations are being pulled into the logic of
marketization. But a close look at this history of theft over the last
five centuries reveals that it has been met with fierce resistance at
every stage. What is happening to the knowledge commons in an economic
system built upon steady growth? What kinds of struggles are taking place
today to resist the new efforts to commodify knowledge?

Creating Spaces for Our Movements - Any project for the commons needs
space in which to flourish and connect with other commons projects. Yet we
find free and accessible spaces are increasingly difficult to create,
especially in places where gentrification has become the dominant model of
uneven and highly exclusionary economic growth. What role do community
spaces play in supporting social movements? How can we make those spaces
both ethical and sustainable?