Introducing commons ideas at the Festival of Commoning

At the Festival of Commoning (Sep 13-14, in Stroud), our Stroud Commons group has a one-hour slot on the Saturday morning. I’m going to give an overview of commons ideas, and there will be representatives of the housing, land, energy and climbing groups to talk about what’s happening in their groups. Then there’ll be half an hour for questions.

Below is what I’m going to say. I’m giving a preview so that you can read it, then come along with a basic understanding, and maybe some questions. Come to the festival. Ask us questions. Meet us. Join us.

We’re commoners. Stroud Commons are working in partnership with several other organisations to build commons infrastructure in Stroud and elsewhere, based on new commons ideas that I’m going to give you a very brief overview of, and talk about how you can get involved. There are housing commons, land commons, climbing commons and energy commons groups, and a Commons Lab, doing research into commons models and producing educational materials. Plus we’re liaising with people around the UK and the world who want to do something similar in their communities.

Outcomes

It’s slow work. We’d like to speed it up. I want to talk with people who know we need a new system, and are trying to work out what that new system might be. I think that’s quite a lot of people these days – with a particularly high concentration in Stroud. If we can get a few more people to join us from this meeting, that would be great – either to build commons in Stroud, or to start something in other towns. And everyone can spread the word, send people to our website, and help where they can – maybe by becoming investors, users or even employees at some point.

Capitalism and Liberal democracy

I want to talk about why these commons ideas got my attention. I’ve believed for a long time that the combination of a capitalist economy and liberal ‘democratic’ politics produces bad outcomes (global warming, biodiversity loss, war, destruction of community, destruction of democracy etc.) and terrible leaders, just at the time we need excellent leadership. It’s disastrous.

I want to convince you that a commons system is a better system, and it’s achievable – a combination of new commons economy and commons governance ideas. I think a commons system will produce much better leaders in terms of integrity, compassion and intelligence than capitalism and liberal democracy.

But we can’t have real democracy without first controlling the economy, because power is economic. Money is power.

Other speakers at the festival will talk more about commons governance. I just want to give a very basic overview of the new commons economy ideas, which in my experience are what really made pennies drop for some people – the people who have shown up to build the commons in Stroud and elsewhere.

We can’t vote for a new system, and we can’t overthrow this one. The co-operative and mutual movements had a good go, but now the Co-op Bank is no longer a co-op (it’s owned by a hedge fund), Co-op Energy’s customers are now managed by Octopus, and most formerly mutual building societies are now owned by banks – because they don’t have strong enough asset locks, they have to go into debt to get infrastructure, they have to use the current finance system of banks, fiat money and interest, and they can’t federate together to form the basis of a new system. These new commons ideas solve all those problems, don’t require overthrowing of anything and don’t need the government to do anything (although if it does, great).

Commons

Commons are old institutions – there are still some land-based commons in existence that are over 1000 years old. But most were enclosed during feudalism and the beginning of capitalism.

There’s a famous essay from the 1960s called the Tragedy of the Commons, by Garrett Hardin, who claimed that commons fail because every local farmer (for example) will be incentivised to put just one more animal on the common land, so the land will be ruined from overgrazing.

But Elinor Ostrom pointed out that Hardin wasn’t describing a commons, but a free-for-all. Commons have members, and rules. Her book, Governing the Commons, lists 8 principles for running a successful commons – arrived at after studying many successful commons around the world, and for which she won a Nobel Prize. With these principles plus new commons ideas, we can rebuild the commons in all sectors of the economy.

The ideas

• Bring assets into the commons without debt: by issuing vouchers sold at a discount. Imagine a community energy group wanting to put up a wind turbine. At the moment, they’d need to go into debt or give away equity, which means the infrastructure will be in the hands of capitalists before long. Instead, they issue energy vouchers, denominated in kWh, not £ (which makes them inflation-proof). People will want them because they’re sold at a discount, and they provide a store of value – interest-free security for old age or sickness. This basic idea can work in every sector of the economy. More here.

Our partners, Island Power, came up with the voucher idea, which they snappily called ‘use-credit obligations’.

• Provide strong asset locks: to prevent appropriation of commons assets. Commons groups have members that are users / customers, investors and stewards (employees), but also a ‘custodian’ member class (commons safeguarders), who aren’t proactive – they just have a veto vote. They’re disinterested arbiters to make sure that the principles of the commons aren’t compromised – such as selling commons assets to capitalists.

• Reduce the need for money, banks and interest: by ‘credit clearing’. It’s something the banks do, to reduce the need for cash to pay debts. But we can do it too. Imagine A owes B £10; B owes C £10; C owes A £10. If everyone has all the information, it can just clear, without needing money to pay debts. For networks of trading small businesses, this can be done with algorithms, covering large areas. More here.

Our partners, Local Loop Merseyside, are building a credit clearing network for Liverpool, that can be replicated in other cities.

• Remove the need for money, banks and interest entirely: within those large areas, maps can be generated that show smaller clusters of businesses that trade with each other regularly. They can share a ‘mutual credit’ ledger in which all members get an account, set at zero. When they sell, their numbers go up, when they buy, they go down. There are limits to how far anyone can go into credit or debit. It’s just an accounting system, for who’s done what for whom – no money required, so nothing to extract from communities. More here.

• Federate to form the basis of a new, commons economy: all these commons projects can be connected together via the ‘Credit Commons Protocol’ – a ‘language’ that they can all speak that allows them to trade between each other – but in a federation, with no centre. Each local group retains full autonomy. Everything is interoperable – so people can pay their rent, energy bills etc. (and get paid) in mutual credit, for example. More here.

Join us

We have a core group, various sector groups, a website, Commons Lab, plus people wanting to do the same in other towns. We want you to join us. Come and talk to us, contact us through stroudcommons.org – tell us what you’re interested in and what you’re good at.

The views expressed in our blog are those of the author and not necessarily lowimpact.org’s