Archive for lifewithoutmoneybook.blogspot.com

Nilmini and Steve

Nilmini and Steve have been looking — and working — at creating alternatives that address our massive environmental and social challenges. I met them in October at a NSW Greens conference where I was talking on a Future Economy panel about a non-monetary future. They have just posted a summary of a discussion we had when they visited the town I live in, Castlemaine (Central Victoria, Australia) — known for its artistic and sustainability achievements. Change ... come she will.

The river to freedom

The Amazonian Kichwa people have rowed down the Seine to publicise the plight of their rain forests exploited by oil miners and logging companies. Watch this wonderful video on their lives and arguments which summarise the threats of capitalism to all peoples on Earth at present.

In this video at the Guardian newspaper site, an Elder says:
Money is not life for us. Life for us is what we have here. We have to keep passing on the knowledge we have learned here about the earth, from nature. Only in that way can we defend this place.


Experimentation in Greece

The experimentation in Greece for years now, especially since 2011, offers lessons for non-montary and non-market futures. An article in the Guardian earlier this year suggested that exchanges cutting out the middle merchants between producers and consumers — much like farmers' markets but centrally controlled — has been most successful:
Thousands of Greeks are benefiting from perhaps the simplest of the “solidarity economy” projects nationwide, a movement that links buyers directly to the people who produce their food, detergent and other essentials, undercutting supermarkets.
Most take orders before a monthly meeting when cash and goods are handed over. In a country with a notorious parallel market, even the government wins, because all transactions are recorded, said 38-year-old teacher Dimitris Tsilogiannis.
“We have had a great response from the public, all we do is totally legal and most importantly all sellers give receipts,” he said during an evening spent manning phones to answer queries and help buyers unable to use the internet. In the office with him were a soldier, an unemployed friend and an office worker, all of them volunteers.
Their local group has coordinated the sale of 1,500 tonnes of potatoes, olive oil, rice, flour, fruits, honey, cheese, pulses and other products at prices around a third to half of supermarket levels.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/17/solidarity-economy-greece-mixed-fortunes

Local Lives Global Matters

Raphael Souchier — on French and North American grassroots initiatives — in conversation with Anitra Nelson on community-based governance instead of money as the ruling principle of production and exchange, and George Ryan, lawyer, small farmer and LETS advocate — 11.15 am to 12.45 pm on Friday 16 October 2015 Local Lives Global Matters Conference, Castlemaine (Victoria, Australia)

Sharing money

It's only a step towards a world without money and the organisers aren't really anti-monetary but the Free Money Day is a way to raise consciousness about the roles of money in our society. It's coming up very soon, 15 September 2015 at a place near you or you can contribute. For more see:

http://www.freemoneyday.org/participate/

A word of caution, read our post for 1 September and link to view the video of the hilarious consequences of some of these kinds of actions.

On ecovillages, sustainability and money

Here's a quick read on ecovillages, part of a debate in The Conversation about their role in a more sustainable world — with a sting in the tail via a no money line: 'In defence of ecovillages: The Communities that can Teach the World to live Sustainably'   You might get a kick out of reading the comments too.

What money means

Take a look at this great little video experiment, which shows what money means to many people in capitalism: 'You've got to earn your way up, man!'


Green Materialism follows New Materialism?

Are anti-capitalists — such as Occupy activists — realising Marx's vision of 'social humanity' as in his Theses on Feuerbach, 1845?

It seems like the principles and strategies of anti-capitalists have the capacity to form a life without money — substituting direct democracy for the outdated operating principle of money in capitalism.

Those are the arguments in a recent paper.

Find a short version of the 'Green materialism' talk in the Green Agenda panel at the recent Historical Materialism Australasia 2015 conference (University of Sydney):
http://ppesydney.net/new-and-green-materialism/

The full talk is on Research Gate:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anitra_Nelson/publications

Twin Oaks and operating without money

See this great short utube video on the enduring Twin Oaks community in Virginia.

It was made when a co-editor of Life Without Money was staying there in 2012 so there is a segment on going beyond money.

More than that it is great seeing all the productive activities at Twin Oaks and Twin Oakers talking about their everyday activities for collective sufficiency and governance — a light to a new world:

https://vimeo.com/89076764

A Green Materialism/Agenda

Contributors to Life Without Money Terry Leahy, Anitra Nelson & Ariel Salleh will speak on allied topics at the Historical Materialism Australasia 2015: Reading Capital, Class & Gender Today Conference at the University of Sydney, NSW, Australia 17–18 July.

The Green Agenda Panel takes place at 9.30 am 17 July.

Convener of the Greens NSW and award winning journalist Hall Greenland will chair and offer rejoinders.

In a critique of Daniel Miller’s work on consumption, Terry Leahy emphasises Miller’s neglect of alienated labour, and the potential of a gift economy.

Anitra Nelson’s paper outlines an ecosocialist concept of ‘green materialism’ showing that anti-capitalist movements today correspond to Marx’s ‘new materialism’ as famously elaborated in his eleven Theses on Feuerbach (1845). Furthermore, the defining characteristics of anti-capitalist currents offer the bases for replacing money as the organising principle of our society.

Ariel Salleh argues for the holistic inclusion of ‘meta-industrial workers’ in her class theory for an Earth democracy.

The most you will have to pay for conference registration is $50 (unwaged $20).