Re: [ox-en] keimform.de: Reopening the Commons: Reversing the Enclosure
- From: Diego Saravia <diego.saravia gmail.com>
- Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:18:02 -0300
2009/8/13 Christian Siefkes <christian siefkes.net>:
URL:
http://www.keimform.de/2009/08/04/reopening-the-commons-reversing-the-enclosure/
Nowadays, almost everybody is forced to sell their labor power in order to
only if you do not have enough capital
Yet, historically the situation that (almost) everybody has to sell their
labor power is rather new--it only emerged with capitalism.
before that people have (or can use) lands, or forest, people always
need some kind of capital
if you have capital you can live on rents or work with your capital
~Wage labor
<WP> and capitalism depend on each other: Without capitalist companies,
there would be nobody (by and large) to sell your labor power *to,*
not only companies, owners, lords, kings, etc
so wage
labor could only be an occasional phenomenon (as it was before capitalism).
we always have other kinds of resource distribution and work
organization as slavery
And without wage workers, capital accumulation would be impossible, since
their surplus labor is the source of profit (and of its derived forms,
interest and rent).
we have capital acummulation a long time before capitalism
That wage workers are *forced* to sell their labor power (due to a lack of
alternatives) is just one side of the coin. The other side is that they are
*allowed* to do so--in contrast to slaves, who cannot sell their labor
power since they themselves have already been sold by others.
there ar not diferences between slavery and wage or other forms of
social structure in the essencial facts
some people have the ownership of capital, others work
if you hace capital you can work for yourself or get people to work for you.
the change with capitalism was the way to apply force to sustain
capital ownership
ownership is a human right now, state protect your rights to have
production means (or capital)
before that you must defend yourself, with your army, probably
becoming yourself the state.
we created institutions that make transparent and ease the ownership
of production means, state, land registry, police forces, bank money,
etc
you dont see violence, as you can see in slavery
but force relationships exist, that was the contribution of marx,
explain that capitalism is part of the same domination and hierarchy
that make us part of the living creatures
The latter option would require a reversal of the historical process of the
"enclosure of the commons": a **reopening, recreation, and restoration of
the commons.** And indeed we can see many traces of such recreations and
reopenings already taking place, as new commons are created (free software,
Wikipedia etc.) and struggles for old, or former commons (land, water etc.)
are increasing.
these are quite different process
material goods are scarce, there are not enough land for all people
you have two options: ownership or state control of material goods,
that was the political fight after
industrial revolution
knowledge goods are not scarse, at least if you do not have copyright.
you can free them.
that is the fight after informational revolution.
On the practical side, this means that we should do everything we can to
support the reopening and recreation of the commons, whether by
contributing to ~open manufacturing
not enough steel, wood, gas, land, etc
it could be done with knowledge, but not with material goods.
--
Diego Saravia
Diego.Saravia gmail.com
NO FUNCIONA->dsa unsa.edu.ar
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