WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE - news journal UPDATE - (en) France, UCL AL #352 - Ecology, Common Goods: Against Capitalism, Organize Differently (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Brought up to date by activists and researchers, the notion of common

goods is now mobilized in associative and political organizations for
the preservation of the environment. Cooperation and common management
of resources has declined as capitalism and its property rights have
become established. However, everywhere there have been protest
movements in favor of the preservation of common goods, that is to say,
resources essential to the entire population.
Faced with climate disasters, largely due to the capitalist mode of
organization of our society, one of the answers could well be found in
new social practices and a new approach to the resources essential to
humanity (water, land, air, etc.). In environmental movements, many
political or associative organizations push for the defense of common
goods or to denounce the monopolization of common goods. Talking about
"common goods" calls into question the notions of property (private and
public) which are the main models of resource management, but which
above all serve capital with the approval of neoliberal states.

Silvia Federici, an activist of Marxist tradition, reminds us that it is
the enclosure movement that must be considered as the starting point of
capitalist society. Capitalism works hand in hand with imperialism which
violently expels indigenous populations from their lands. Gradually,
everything or almost everything becomes dependent on the market governed
by the rules of Western capitalist countries since neoliberalism also
includes culture, knowledge, public spaces, etc.

The reappropriation of the notion of commons is an issue for many
activists of the 1990s who are partly part of the alter-globalization
movement. These collective movements demanding more democracy and
political autonomy can also take part in the class struggle by
denouncing destructive capitalism. At the same time, Elinor Ostrom's
work showed the relevance of common goods: the absence of rules issued
by national structures does not lead to chaos. On the contrary, a group
of people organized and open to everyone is capable of effectively
managing the proper functioning of a resource (its use, maintenance and
reproduction) without it being exhausted or destroyed. By getting
involved in its maintenance, the open community thus constituted will
take care of what it manages.

For an emancipatory management of resources
All over the world, initiatives are emerging to challenge capitalist
hegemony: in Italy to oppose the privatization of water, in Bolivia in
2009 where social movements forced the recognition of common property in
the Constitution, and in many other places. It is therefore not
surprising to find the defense of common goods in environmentalist
collectives since they promote the defense of resources essential to
humanity: good quality water accessible to everyone, fertile land to
feed the population and more broadly, a healthy and sustainable
environment for the preservation of nature and living beings. The
approach can be extended to everything around us, such as energy
production. Basically, it is a political project that motivates the
existence of the commons: that of proposing an alternative to
capitalism, that is to say, getting rid of it to create relations of
exchange and production resulting from cooperation, shared reflections
and choices defined collectively to maintain essential resources.

Elsa (UCL Grenoble)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Biens-communs-Contre-le-capitalisme-s-organiser-autrement
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