COMMONS MAGAZINE
My wife grew up in what Western experts, not without condescension, call a “developing” country. The social life of her village revolved largely around a tree. People gathered there in the evening to visit, tell stories, or just pass the time. Some of my wife’s warmest childhood memories are of playing hide-and-seek late into the evening while adults chatted under the tree.
I wanted to write you with an update on what just happened recently on Capitol Hill.
First and foremost: the oil industry’s Senators did not manage to pass legislation in late March that would force President Obama to build Keystone XL.
Events of the past several years have altered some deeply rooted assumptions about economics and politics. The market-based worldview – a rosy vision of deregulation, privatization, free trade, limited government and few public services — has been discredited. Who can seriously talk about a “free market” and “freedom to choose” when taxpayers were forced to pay trillions of dollars to prop up right-wingers’ ideological fantasy?
Food Justice advocates have always argued that trade agreements need to respect and promote human rights, not drive a process of globalization that privileges commercial interests and tramples on public interests. In my new paper on land grabs from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, that position is affirmed.
In the beginning, the commons was everywhere. Humans roamed through it, hunting and gathering to meet their needs. Like other species, we had territories but these were communal to the tribe, not private to the person.
Agriculture arose about ten thousand years ago and along with it came permanent settlements and private property. Rulers granted ownership of land to loyal families. Often, military leaders distributed conquered land to their soldiers.
During the Progressive Era that ended with World War I, there was a popular economic imperative to make land common property, especially with regard to urbanized land. This meant not that land should be nationalized or occupied communally. Instead the concept was similar to the one applied when an estate is left in common to its inheritors, which often leads to them renting out the property and splitting the proceeds equally among themselves.
As part of On the Commons’ efforts to strengthen commons connections and reinvigorate public life in communities, I was invited to Winona, Minnesota—a city of 27,000 on the Mississippi River 135 miles south of Minneapolis. During a two-day residency sponsored by Winona State University, I met with the newly elected mayor, a city council member, the director of parks and recreation, business owners, citizen leaders and university students, and faculty and staff. I also spoke to four classes, participated in media interviews, and gave a public talk.
On Saturday February 9th, poets from the JoyFace Poetry and Arts Collective gathered in a Minneapolis storefront to write poems for Valentine’s Day, to have fun, and to celebrate love.
Acequias: A centuries old cooperative irrigation system in New Mexico Hispanic communities. Acequias refer both to the irrigation ditches and the community of farmers organized around them.
Agricultural land trust: A legal mechanism that enables private or cooperative organizations to conserve and manage farmland, acknowledging that while the land may be privately held, it is nonetheless a commons upon which future generations depend.
The projects profiled below represent a wide array of individuals and organizations working to build community and create a better future for all. With a focus on co-creation and developing a sense of belonging within communities on the local level, these initiatives showcase the commitment and creativity required for establishing a commons-based society.
The Oregon Commons, a volunteer-driven nonprofit organization, inspires appreciation, stewardship and advocacy for the Oregon commons—“the gifts of nature and civilization shared across generations.”
It’s a simple fact of medicine that our good health depends on the good health of others. You cannot seal yourself away from germs, contamination or other disease vectors.
Infection defies all attempts at enclosure. Borders between nations and divisions between economic classes are meaningless in the face of disease. No amount of money or privatization can assure your safety. We are all connected to each other through the viruses and bacteria we exchange.
For the post office the end game is on. This year the Post Office will close half its processing centers. By late spring a first class letter will take 1-3 days longer to arrive at its destination. By the end of this summer Saturday delivery is scheduled to end. Over the next year the Post Office plans to close over 3000 local post offices while slashing some 220,000 of the its 650,000 employees.
How did we come to this place? In retrospect, it is easy to distinguish three discrete stages in the 221-year life of the Post Office.
While many people don’t know what the word commons means exactly, most understand at an intuitive level what the commons is.
The Idle No More movement is part of a larger Indigenous movement that has been in the making for several years now. Indigenous activists all over Canada have been monitoring the political and legal scene at both the federal and provincial levels to make a concerted effort to help inform First Nation community members and leaders about potential threats. We noted a clear assimilation agenda that emerged within Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government.
This Valentine’s Day On The Commons (OTC) and JoyFace Poetry and Arts Collective are partnering to help you create the most fun and unusual gift you’ve ever given: a custom poem co-created by you and the poet-members of JoyFace.
All you have to do is answer a few simple questions, and voila! The JoyFace poets will write a special poem for your valentine.
Join us on this creative adventure, and:
The biggest problem in many communities—especially low-income ones— is caused by perception more than reality. A part of town gets the reputation for being “bad”, “tough”, or “declining”, which is constantly reinforced in the media and local gossip. A negative incident happening there is widely reported as more evidence of “social breakdown”, whereas the same thing occurring in another community would be thought of as “an unfortunate event” and quickly forgotten.
Libertarians, the Tea Party and other so-called conservatives devoted to slashing all government spending not related to the military, prisons, the drug war and highways have an easy answer when asked what happens to people whose lives and livelihoods depend on public programs. They point to volunteerism—the tradition of people taking care of each other, which has sustained human civilization for millennia.
We are no longer accepting orders for custom Valentine’s Day poems. If you missed out, check back next year!
This Valentine’s Day On The Commons (OTC) and JoyFace Poetry and Arts Collective are partnering to help you create the most fun and unusual gift you’ve ever given: a custom poem co-created by you and the poet-members of JoyFace.
All you have to do is answer a few simple questions, and voila! The JoyFace poets will write a special poem for your valentine.
Aaron Swartz’s death is a sobering story about the collision of free culture activism with vindicative prosecutorial powers. It’s also about an amazing tech wizard and the personal costs of his idealism. Here’s hoping that Swartz’s tragic suicide at age 26 prompts some serious reflection about the grotesque penalties for a victimless computer crime and the unchecked power of federal prosecutors to intimidate defendants. Perhaps MIT, too, should reflect deeply on its core mission as an academic institution – to help share more knowledge, not fence it off.