Despite the sometimes old left language, this is an interesting look at a transition from capitalism to the “Commons“. We badly need more of these overviews and “manifestos” of this kind of alternative to our current fossil-fueled path to destruction in order to create the political climate that will be needed for its implementation.
http://climateandcapitalism.com/2017/09/12/should-the-left-build-an-alternative-energy-commons/
by Patricia S. Mann, climateandcapitalism.com
September 12, 2017
The introduction below is my synthesis from her text.
Bob Thomson
The microproduction and sharing of renewable energy should become the foundational dynamic of a global struggle for a post-capitalist commons, a sustainable energy-based post-capitalist commons … creating a renewable energy grid capable of fueling sustainable agriculture, transportation, manufacturing, all off-of-any-capitalist grid.
The potentially transformative feature of the microproduction of renewable energy is that it is born, de novo, through the actions of an individual or group of individuals installing, for example, a solar panel, harnessing energy directly from the sun, outside of the capitalist system of markets and commercial enclosure. An individual who installs a solar panel, harnessing solar energy for her own use, or for the use of others with whom she may choose to share it, has contributed to a new energy commons.
A Left sustainability movement promoting the microproduction of renewable energy, as well as peer-to-peer energy sharing [and production & distribution] networks [supported by a partner, not capitalist, state] would address both daily needs for energy, as well as desires to participate in a global movement to save our dying planet.
A postcapitalist transition will also necessarily involve a reduction in wasteful forms of production and consumption, military weaponry [and selfie toasters] for example, and any struggle for a just and sustainable society must at the same time address a need for more [“development”] in the global South.
[Indeed the gross global inequality engendered by capitalism, not to mention drought, storms, resource wars, and cultural imperialism and their resultant refugee crises, both internal and international, makes the creation of local self reliances in a peer-to-peer framework of international cooperation, reciprocity and solidarity all the more essential to rebalance and generate the creativity needed to surpass this capitalist disaster. Fortunately P2P open source and fair use technology and production as well as Commons accounting experiences, already employ millions and make such networks more than a utopian pipe dream.]
See also
Commons Transition and P2P: A Primer
https://www.tni.org/en/publication/commons-transition-and-p2p
The dawn of commons politics
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/the-dawn-of-commons-politics/
Peer-to-peer production and the partner state
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/peer-to-peer-production-and-the-partner-state/
degrowthcanada.wordpress.com 