The commons transition

Presentation by Stacco Troncoso, P2P Foundation

We know what the old story is: capitalism, neoliberalism, etc.

There should be a new story, but we don't know exactly what it is or what name it has.

Within the mainstream, be it the Vatican or the Amazon bookstores, there is

Value being created by civil society: e.g. of the unplanned occupation of the squares 15-M

The P2P/Commons Movement

2 billion people sustain themselves from commons

Types of commons

• Natural resources
• Culture
• Digital commons
• etc.

P2P means peer-to-peer, person-to-person

It is a high productive mode of production - it is fast and it works. For example Wikipedia managed to put the Encyclopaedia Britannica out of business in 6 years

Commons are communities, resources, where P2P dynamics (as relational dynamics) take place - they are interdependent

Growth as an outcome of capitalism

We commodify nature and turn nature into problems

Cognitive capitalism creates monopolies on information.

Patent systems are a scarcity creation mechanism that helps to create a monetary value on products.

Natural resources are scarce; but knowledge is abundant

Cognitive capitalism makes knowledge scarce to be able to make profit out of it (therefore approaching knowledge from the scarcity situation of natural resources)

What happens to all the jobs that are lost in the Encycl. Britannica? They build up different modes of production!

Facebook is P2P in the front - massive generation of value through P2P relationships, but the exchange value goes all to the shareholders (not for those involved in the generation of value)

Sharing economy: it's a great story, but, how much do I have in common with the person that is profiting from my sharing, e.g. in airbnb? It's a Silicon Valley libertarian model, it generates taxes. They are taking the vocabulary, the imaginary of sharing, and giving it back to you, profiting from it.

Why not create a municipal bnb? The exchange value would go back to the municipality and eventually to the people, that generate a use value.

If we are mutualizing resources by putting them to private companies, then we are further increasing its scarcity (since they will manage it in a way to generate value)

Bitcoins present a more decentralized system. However, it is designed on the libertarian mindset. We created a new technology, a new type of money, but it ends up being more unequal (estimations that bitcoin finders have 50% of the money in circulation).

The interest use of the blockchain technology in bitcoins is that it creates a trustless system - you don't need to see the face of the person you are negotiating with, to be able to trust it.

For-profit-P2P: value created should go back to the value creators.

Does individual profit make you happier, or community profit instead?

Locally-based, for-benefit, decentralized P2P: transition initiatives, occupied squares, ... They are not profit oriented - the objective is to generate value to the community (e.g. health, food, ...)

However, Transition groups use e.g. Facebook to organize their P2P relations...

We need ownership of platforms into coops.

The systems for p2p are there, but are very fragile: for-profit p2p companies are absorbing them.

Design globally, produce locally: e.g. of open source ecology and the modular tractor. Design commons, for knowledge which is abundant. Production through microfacture at the local level.

It provides a circular economy, both in knowledge (commons-based) and the regeneration (use of local resources, small scale)

Coops: try to not get attached to the market; make it multistakeholder; ...

P2P lowers the cost of production and transaction: if you have a profit-based business its great (and accelerates growth). Therefore, P2P systems are only revolutionary when not driven by shareholder profit.

P2P economics and P2P politics are interdependent!

A commons transition

A series of ideas and policy proposals that reflect the needs and create the capacities for local realities. Scaling up of P2P dynamics in all life spheres.

If you make a policy for this town, everyone on this town will need to have a say.

It provides a way our of capitalist relationships, but also of bureacratic top-down administration.

"Podemos" has simplified the message that has been created by the civil society.

Because we don't control the media, we cannot see the potential, the value of what we have.

>> CommonsTransition.org working with Ecuador, Greece (Syriza), ... downloadable book available