From Totnes with love
The ambition of this volume is the aspiration that motivates the whole Transition movement: nothing less than to remake industrial civilization from the bottom up and from the local level.
Act: Inspiration
Garbage is a terrible thing to waste: How to reach zero waste
It all started innocently enough. Following the Holidays and New Year of 2007 we emptied out all of our garbage and recycling to clean up for the New Year. Many months later (May 14) it was time to put out our first bag of garbage and it dawned on me that in over four months we had only created a single bag of garbage. I wondered where could we take it to if we really dug in? Well …
Our money our future – Money for the 99% by the 99%
In my experience more and more people have stopped believing that the democratic system we have can match the power of the financial oligarchy that spans the world. How can we have any form of democracy when such a tiny number of people are running the money system? Organising and participating in creating and running the financial system is essential if we want real democracy. So get out there and start banking!
Cool food ideas – November 17
-How the Farm-to-Table Movement Is Helping Grow the Economy
-Pioneer sows new seeds for African agriculture
-Cottage Food Laws on the Rise
Occupy – VOICES – Nov 17
– Lessons from Iceland: The People Can Have the Power
– Ex-banker turned Hindu monk urges Wall Street to meditate
– Former Philadelphia Police Captain Joins Occupy Protesters, Gets Arrested
– Occupy the Skies! Protesters Could Use Spy Drones
– A Career Occupation
– 5,000 books reportedly thrown out in Occupy Wall Street raid
– Chris Hedges: This Is What Revolution Looks Like
Occupy – what next? – Nov 17
– The end of OWS or the beginning of something else? (good article from Fortune)
– Adbusters, the OWS innovator, says movement should wind down and start up in spring
– Todd Gitlin: Liberty Park can be anywhere
– Occupy Wall Street: Time to become more overtly political? (CSM)
– As Occupy Camps Close, What’s Next For Movement? (NPR)
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Privatising public space (2)
In my earlier post a few days ago, I wrote about the background to the widespread privatisation of public space. In this second part I look at some of the activist and political responses.
Changing streets – Nov 16
-A farewell to pavements
-WikiLane – How citizens built their own bicycle network
-Local Economic Implications of Urban Bicycle Networks
After the eviction: What’s next for Occupy Wall Street?
It happens that just hours before, Adbusters magazine—which originally called for the occupation—promulgated “Tactical Briefing #18: Occupy the High Ground.” It suggested that perhaps the time has passed for the movement to be so focused on encampments, and that it might move on to bigger and better things instead. This is a notion that has come up repeatedly in my recent conversations with early organizers; after almost three months, they feel, the movement is starting to outgrow the occupation.
The introduction to ‘The Transition Companion’
This book seeks to answer the question: “What would it look like if the best responses to peak oil and climate change came not from committees and Acts of Parliament, but from you and me and the people around us?”
Occupy Wall Street and FDR’s four freedoms
The GA, and the break-out groups that meet in the Atrium at 60 Wall Street are blessed with the Quaker tools now refined by waves of protest movements: the Suffragettes, Satyagraha, Lunch Counter Sit-Ins, No-nukes Affinity Groups, and Battle in Seattle. What doesn’t work? Violence. Power Trips. Hierarchies. What works? Good facilitation, timekeeping, note-taking, hand-signs, open agenda, global café, conflict transformation, consensus. What came out of the conventions at the turn of the 18th to 19th Century was protection of slavery, disenfranchisement of women, ethnic cleansing of Native Americans and the preservation of an elite ruling class, especially the banksters. What will emerge from this process may also be flawed when seen in hindsight centuries hence, but it will be progressively less so.
“You can’t evict an idea whose time has come:” Read the post-eviction statement from OWS
Such a movement cannot be evicted. Some politicians may physically remove us from public spaces — our spaces — and, physically, they may succeed. But we are engaged in a battle over ideas. Our idea is that our political structures should serve us, the people — all of us, not just those who have amassed great wealth and power. We believe that is a highly popular idea, and that is why so many people have come so quickly to identify with Occupy Wall Street and the 99% movement. You cannot evict an idea whose time has come.
