Fellow Commoners,
The reality is that I have as many questions about the commons as I do thoughts, maybe more.
By way of introduction, I am Indian, born in South Africa and a Canadian citizen. At once, North, South, East and West. Belonging to all, and wholly of none. My work is in the area of international water, working with the different aspects of what we call the water justice movement. This can mean working at the UN one week and in an indigenous community in the Andes the next.
I have been privileged to recently spend a wonderful weekend with others who are likewise considering the commons at the Commonweal retreat center at Point Reyes, California. This weekend has continued to trouble me. Many of my preconceptions were shattered. I went in an advocate for what I consider the natural commons, the immutable commons. In the end I was confused. How could a library be the commons, culture, art, Main Street? Well, what was clear to most of the others who have pondered this longer than I, and with greater capacity, is that the commons is much broader than my limited definition of water, air, soil, DNA etc.
This revelation has greatly increased the relevancy of the concept of the commons to my work.
I work a lot with what is called the anti-globalization movement and the anti-privatisation movement. While there is concern for water in itself, the greater struggle is: How to keep water in public hands? How do we create effective social control mechanisms? How do we apply democratic and participatory principles to ensure there are no violations of people’s right to water? In essence, the struggle was not really about water the eternal substance, it was about who controls the pipes and fittings to deliver and manage the water? This is a gross simplification.
The point is that now that I believe in a broader definition of the commons, the more I see all aspects of my work as being about defending the commons. In my opinion everything has its roots in the commons and was at one time part of the commons. Through artifice we have contrived to wall off certain areas for private exploitation.
We have privatized, commodified, commercialized and otherwise turned over to the market just about every aspect of our lives and societies. What is still left unclaimed passes for the commons, but soon it could very well only be the air we breathe and even this is being encroached upon. This may be a dramatic statement but think about it. What is not currently packaged for consumption. Art, sports, recreation, knowledge, social interaction, community… it has all in one form or another been appropriated.
Again, I am overstating the reality, but every day the overstatement becomes less dramatic. The seas are overfished, the air is polluted, the waters are toxic, the land is eroding, the forests are falling and the climate is distorting. Our children are programmed, our pets are designed, our food is modified, our music is marketed, our preferences are focus-tested, our views are polled. T he commons thrives on diversity, it is diversity of thought, action and will. This is all being eroded. Even our rebellion is being packaged and sold in the form of uniforms and accessories. The list goes on…
From patent law and intellectual property rights, to other property rights, in my opinion the heart of our challenge to reclaim the commons is about how we deal with the market and with its use of private property as the main building block of economies. This model will never restrain itself. This vicious new form of capitalism is virulent and cancerous. Our challenge is how to keep the notion of private ownership out of the key systems we need for life, both as a society and as a species. This includes the essential public services, energy, water, telecommunications and arguing from a Canadian viewpoint, universal public health care, to name a few. But we must also keep it out of our societal spaces, our art, our music, literature etc.
The answers on how to do this are more difficult. The ‘how’ is always more complicated than the ‘what’ but this cannot daunt us. If we do not reclaim the commons, millions will continue to die from not having access to essential medicine, safe water or clean air. The corporation as an instrument of facilitating private ownership cannot be allowed to be the arbiter, through the market, of who gets to live and who die. This is how I see the fight for the commons in my daily work and why I am so motivated to continue the struggle.