Berlin Commons Conference/Workshops/MergedWorkshop

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Self organised workshop

(merging of 3 workshops : mother earth i 11 + Dakar i 9 + the new green deal i 3)

  • Political agenda, 2 meetings :
    • World social forum in Dakar 20/2011
    • Rio + 20, 05/2012

Initiators: Nicola Bullar and Ani Naidoo, Camilla Moreno and Pat Mooney, Valérie Peugeot…


Resisting to the new green deal (Camilla, Pat)

The concept of Green economy is pushed by the corporations, and beside some positive aspects, we need to be at distance with this approach as it is linked to intensive patenting and is in contradiction with sustainable development.

Exploitation of biomass is becoming more and more intensive with the shortage of oil, Brazil being one of the most active countries, looking for oil far into deep sees at a very expansive price and creating fuel with biomass.

This industry if environmental services are a commodification of carbon as well as biodiversity.

The market of biomass is estimated at half trillion $. “Only” 23,2% of the biomass is commodfied, but the industry is fighting to get the other 76,8% on the market. Who will be the “biomasters” ?

This strategy addresses global climate change only through carbon market mechanisms and geo-engineering.

The UN has a fast track agenda : define what a green economy is and design the governance for biodiversity and ecosystem services (IPBES). In the ‘90s the danger for the commons were the TRIPS ; nowadays we have to face the “carbon rights”.

The mother earth (Anil)

One objective of the discussion: try to find the possible intersection, bridges between the Mothe Earth Approach and the Commons.

The pacha mama is related to the indigenous cosmology. According to which, human rights are not only individual rights but also nature rights as well as common goods. We need to balance the human rights with responsibilities, and create a balancing mechanism in terms of justice, people rights, as a counter point of property rights.

After Copenhagen, there is a shift in mentalities, an opportunity to spread new messages.

Groups and debate :
We need to construct a democratic space where ecologists and commoners can express and coordinate themselves.
We have to combine rights of mother earth and rights of livelihood (access to land, clean air…)
We need to prepare an paradigm shift and include it in the international agenda, offer a new narative
Right of mother earth should to appear as a defensive idea, but it is essential. The risk is to consider the eartha s an object.
We need resilient communities
How to deal strategically with the political limitations and differences inside the commons movement (including the natural/digital schism), considering that the mainstream academic stance on commons is mostly against the idea of global commons (even though we might not agree with this)? And that as such, this mainstream might not be very compatible with the idea of Pachamama? And, also in a strategical sense, what might be the political effectiveness of the idea of Pachamama to help obtain convergences between different movements, and to achieve positive political proposals?
Mother earth and the Commons are 2 concepts wich work hand in hand
As we move into the United nations, what are the possible allies ? Buthan, Ecuador, Bolivia…


Dakar – February 2011 (Valérie)

We need to relate the Commons movement with other civic and social movements.
There will be 2 opportunities for the commoners to interact with international and local movements in Dakar
The World Forum on Science and Democracy (second edition, first one in Belem 2009) on February the 4th and 5th: objective is twofold : questioning the funtionning of the scientific institutions and funding (science and technology political orientation, means of production of knowledge, independence fo scientists…) and promoting alternatives considering Science as a common (open archives, open educational resources, open scientific publication, open data…)
The World Social Forum itself (7th to 11) : other initiatives are prepared in relation with the Commons ; we need to identify them and interact with them (explanation of the process of agglutination). We might have 1 or 2 initiatives where we could continue the Berlin discussion enlarging it to different actors.