A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

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media have become real experts in ‘manufacturing consent’. 37 It should be no surprise that even short after the obvious debacles in Afghanistan en Iraq the elite has succeeded almost without problem to convince public opinion for a new military adventure. If that is true for going to war it’s also true for the discussion on the common good of humanity. The manufacturing of taste and identity Normally one should expect that an economy produces what consumers need or desire. But capitalism has inverted this order. The production is orientated on the maximisation of profit of producers and not on the needs of consumers. That encourages the production of superfluous goods and inexpensive commodities of low quality that are frequently replaced. The result is the tyranny of fashion cycles, a throwaway culture and the piling up of waste. 38 But it goes very much beyond the moulding of taste. The very identity of man is affected by this inversion. Like God in the bible Capital created a New Man and a New Woman in his own image. A Man or Women in which the mode of having prevails over the mode of being. The identity of the New Man is being sought through products. 39 In order to fabricate the New Man and Woman a veritable industry of seduction has been set up: marketing and advertising. This catering of our subliminal and irrational desires can be considered as the Air Force of capitalism. One has to realize that the total marketing expenses even exceeds the military spending worldwide. 40 37 Herman E. & Chomsky N., Manufacturing Consent. The Political Economy of the Mass Media, New York, 1988. 38 Dawson M., The consumer trap: big business marketing in American life, Illinois 2003, p. 132v; Foster J., Clark B. & York R., The Ecological Rift. Capitalism’s War on the Earth, New York 2010, p. 394; Dierckxsens W., op. cit., p. 29. 39 Fromm E., To Have or To Be?, London 1976; Hedges C., ‘The Collapse of Globalization’, March 27, 2011, http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_collapse_of_globalization_20110328/. 40 Exact and recent dates are hard to find. UNDP calculated that global advertising expenditure in 1998 was more than 3% of world GDP. Today that would mean about $1.8000 bn. UDNP, Human Development Report 1998, New York 1998, p. 63. And that’s just about advertising. Dawson puts that the US on its own expends about $2.000 bn. Dawson M., op. cit., p. 1, footnote 1. 114
Grip on the climate The subsumption of nature by capital has a huge and dangerous impact on climate. It becomes more and more evident that stopping the global warming can not be achieved within the capitalist logic. So one will have to choose: saving the climate or saving capitalism. It seems now that the capitalist elite has opted for the latter. The Economist, probably the most influential review of the world and mouthpiece of the capitalist elite, is outspoken: ‘Global action is not going to stop climate change. The fight to limit global warming to easily tolerated levels is thus over.’ We must no try to halt global warming, ‘the world needs to look harder at how to live with it’. The sea level will rise possibly with one metre, maybe two. We have to accept this and prepare us by building dikes, move tens of million people to higher places, tune health care to tropical diseases, etc. Bad luck for the people in the South: they will be hit most but lack the means ‘to adopt’. Never mind, climate change gives new opportunities to the business class. Construction enterprises that will build dikes and also assurance companies will see their business soar. Trade of emission right is another promising source of profit. And of course in the sector of green technology and energy there are golden opportunities. 41 So far The Economist. EU Commissioner for Climate Connie Hedegaard is on the same wavelength. In the recent past she talked about ‘the moral responsibility’ or about ‘the survival of humanity’. That’s no longer her priority, now it’s business that counts. On the occasion of the Climate Summit in Cancun she said: ‘those in the end who improve energy efficiency and improve innovation will save money’. And those who did not, she warned, risked being overtaken by Chinese competitors. 42 Greg Barker, the UK climate change minister, said that the deal in Cancún would ‘send a strong signal of confidence to business investing billions in the new global green economy’. According to Financial Times businesses welcomed the outcome of the talks… 43 41 ‘Facing the consequences’, The Economist, November 27, 2010, p. 79-82. 42 Financial Times, December 1, 2010, p. 4. 43 Financial Times, December 13, 2010, p. 4. 115
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A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMM
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Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Brussels
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The Commons, the Public and the Lef
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INTRODUCTION There are various sour
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The economic and cultural aspects a
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South and in the North. The struggl
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intend, in this document, to develo
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However, the financial bubble creat
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The second aspect is structural. Ov
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The precise years when the oil, gas
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in Asia, Africa and Latin America -
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exhaust the natural wealth of the e
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minor and temporary nature. In cont
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ary ones. Let us recapitulate them:
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uate each new initiative to create
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eality, sometimes in a very brutal
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Even if it affirms that nature is t
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with the cultures that have an anal
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ture, which is in fact more efficie
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international parliaments, represen
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positive connotation. In Bhutan, un
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Reorganizing collective life throug
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eality we do have a bottom-up civil
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gional institutions, like the Banco
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culturalistic view of spirituality,
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struggling for better relations wit
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medium-term economic policy based o
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can also do so through their repres
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As Marx put it, the process of labo
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and dramatically to endanger the ex
Page 62 and 63: Considering the above it is logical
Page 64 and 65: as the social, environmental and cu
Page 66 and 67: damaged by environmental degradatio
Page 68 and 69: system of the biosphere which makes
Page 70 and 71: cause in principle there is not eno
Page 72 and 73: specific solutions that should be a
Page 74 and 75: Dispossession and transfer of the p
Page 76 and 77: or the Interamerican Development Ba
Page 78 and 79: lion dollars to Africa and 1,680 mi
Page 80 and 81: Hence the FDI and the debt are mech
Page 82 and 83: The struggle for the Common Good of
Page 84 and 85: First part: The reference to Marx A
Page 86 and 87: icism of the neoclassical economist
Page 88 and 89: Fictitious capital is above all for
Page 90 and 91: and interest rates in markets that
Page 92 and 93: the owners of capital can only dela
Page 94 and 95: half the world’s military expendi
Page 96 and 97: ency. This enables the United State
Page 98 and 99: too). Besides, three-quarters of th
Page 100 and 101: securities; and - a crucial measure
Page 102 and 103: B. Keynes 1. Let’s be clear: the
Page 104 and 105: marginal effectiveness of capital i
Page 106 and 107: so deep and so difficult to resolve
Page 108 and 109: Inequality and the balance of power
Page 110 and 111: formed the capitalist market entire
Page 114 and 115: Hierarchy of society 44 Capitalism
Page 116 and 117: The Chinese Revolution also subordi
Page 118 and 119: Substantive equality and the end of
Page 120 and 121: had a lot of construction faults, b
Page 122 and 123: the contrary. At the one hand the a
Page 124 and 125: Life Expectancy worst best best wor
Page 126 and 127: So ‘another growth’ or even a
Page 128 and 129: International Level A new, just eco
Page 130: MAKING THE COMMON GOOD OF HUMANITY
Page 134 and 135: law stated, he said, “that men, b
Page 136 and 137: population which was then forced by
Page 138 and 139: death and then beheaded under the r
Page 140 and 141: employment, against lack of access
Page 142 and 143: Therefore be it resolved that Artic
Page 144 and 145: on this mind, and built reality in
Page 146 and 147: (Harvey, 2003; Zeller, 2004). The e
Page 148 and 149: threatening the existence of a larg
Page 150 and 151: But in the public search for answer
Page 152 and 153: Fig. 3: Solidarity-based associatio
Page 154 and 155: and cultural life is lived on the b
Page 156 and 157: THE COMMONS, THE PUBLIC AND THE LEF
Page 158 and 159: then seeing in this merely the sust
Page 160 and 161: ON COMMON GOOD, MONEY AND CREDIT 11
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This discussion, however, falls sho
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during the current crisis. Authors
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This gradual alienation of sociabil
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COMMUNITARY SOVEREIGNTY VERSUS MONE
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growingly insufficient and uncertai
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cumulation feasible, which is the c
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the involved massive transformation
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larly, globalization and financiali
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mulation from a viable mode of regu
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In the following, I would like to a
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etween strict rejection and the att
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strongly fluctuating, and the expre
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society work together, changes in s
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classical redistribution policies.
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COMMONS: SOCIAL JUSTICE BY SHARING
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2 Multiplicity The one same basket
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is nowadays making certain resource
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and managed as collective property.
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everything - not our bodies, for ex
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“sell” them as if they were the
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nous and Peasant Coordinator) of Gu
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presupposes a harmonious relationsh
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nature and human beings.It is the h
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2. The functions of the concept in
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We have observed, in the positions
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nature and affirmed the symbiosis b
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eignty, participatory planning, etc
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As can be seen, we have two concept
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nous society” (Floresmilo Simbañ
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cultural apparatus of their traditi
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uct, fair redistribution of wealth
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parallel discourse for very differe
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WHAT MODERNITY? WHAT INTERCULTURALI
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an entirely different basis of inte
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consumption will convert us into
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Given these supposed problems, the
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possible future of indigenous cultu
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logical, esoteric and simply ethnic
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the different cultures. And when th
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is the spearhead that capitalism us
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clearly) and there are subtitles in
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Interculturality or interculturaliz
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wealth without limits, has come to
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ical companies, etc.) and to the
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then the same governments are takin
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The European experience of the Welf
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All these themes respond to the imm
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the right of participation in decis
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Good of Humanity is an extremely va
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vived five hundred years of extermi
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USING DEMOCRACY AND GIVING IT ANOTH
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President, reopened the dialogue, r
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processes, on the submission of agr
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practices of Good Living, and throu
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inclusion is being proposed in this
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trary it activates reciprocity: the
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So it is fundamental that this prop
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ways and not necessarily passed on
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The food crisis, traditional medici
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the mangrove resources, thousands o
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and poverty - which applies to many
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4 Indigenous Peoples of the America
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where I would also like to locate m
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In the 1970s, in the early days of
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and acquire meaning. 149 While the
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ops some programmatic lines for wha
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Minga is a mutual practice which si
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to the lack of social relationships
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In the immediate world political co
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the very basis of our increased abi
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ham’s pioneering work on science
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Science however was not just produc
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that again lie the possibilities of
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Such an alternative vision was firs
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Hind Swaraj, he clearly expressed h
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The term ‘people’s science’ s
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Well Being and Happiness The New Ec
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moditized”. That was because of t
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As for the second subject, monocult
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About the alternatives “Reviewing
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egard, commoditization of the basic
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7 Asia - Europe Peoples’ Forum RE
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Asian activists reject the ceaseles
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Network beginnings The Network for
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to have a broad strategy to achieve
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the current neoliberal policies on
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ations as commodities that can just
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8 Today´s World and the Winding SE
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tory (with a capital letter because
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would not be necessary to break the
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It is now a challenge for Cuba to g
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come irreversible. Europe, which wa
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say, but its materialization covers
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scientific superseding of the deifi
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seems to me to be of the utmost imm
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Chapter IV CONCLUSIONS AND TRANSITI
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aggravated the economic disaster. T
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have the time for a gradual evoluti
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sovereignty over natural resources,
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over time, but unsustainable in the
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It is in function of these realitie
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Bhabha, Homi (2002): El lugar de la
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De Souza Santos, Boaventura (2010b)
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Global Footprint Network (2004): Hu
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Kovel, Joel and Löwy, Michael (200
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Paoli, Antonio (2003): Educación,
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Saxe-Fernández, John and Delgado R
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The Authors HASSAN ABOU-BAKR (Egypt
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VINOD RAINA (India) is a theoretica
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