real utopias

“SPREAD Sustainable Lifestyles 2050 is a European social platform project running from January 2011 to December 2012. Different societal stakeholders – from business, research, policy and civil society – have been invited to participate in the development of a vision for sustainable lifestyles in 2050. This process will result in a roadmap for strategic action that will identify opportunity spaces for policy, business, research and civil society to take action to enable more sustainable lifestyles across Europe.”

6. Subversive Festival Round-table: "The Role of the European Left" with Alexis Tsipras and Srećko Horvat (15. 5. '13.) Cinema Europa, Zagreb, Croatia

Two weeks after the court-martial proceeding of Bradley Manning began, an unauthorized audio recording of Manning's courtroom statement spread through social media despite extraordinary secrecy surrounding his trial. In it, Manning laid out why he chose to release the massive trove of documents. After admitting that he was the source of the largest leak of classified information in history, he spoke about the motivation behind his actions: "I believed that if the general public, especially the American public, had access to the information ... this could spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy in general." Attorney Michael Ratner said of Manning; "To lock him up for even a day is to lock up the conscience of our nation."

In a posting to localfoodsystems.org on Feb 04, 2010, Steve Bosserman introduced the idea of “Production Centered Local Economies”, and “People Centered Local Economies”. This article synthesizes Steve’s coining of those terms, and uses concepts developed by Sam Rose, Paul Hartzog and Richard C Adler of Forward Foundation to further explain the differences between these economies, from a business development perspective.

Japan could be on course to become the world’s largest market for solar energy, just two years after theFukushima power station melt down took virtually all of its nuclear fleet offline.

“Ever since there has been a capitalist world-economy, one essential mechanism of its successful functioning has been the runaway factory. After a period of significant accumulation of capital by so-called leading industries (usually about twenty-five years), the level of profit has gone down, both because of the undermining of the quasi-monopoly of the leading industry and because of the rise in labor costs due to syndical action of some sort.

“Greening through IT is well written, incredibly well researched, and most timely. There is no doubt now that the planet is in trouble, and that our present energy consumption levels, waste (both personal and industrial) and pollution levels are far too high to allow life to continue as we know it. How long it will take before catastrophic changes occur is a matter of speculation, some say 10 years some say 100! Whichever, these time spans are minuscule compared to the time it has taken earth, and all the various species (including humans) to evolve to the present. One of Tomlinson’s main arguments throughout this book is the inability of humans to understand long time spans. As he points out we are going to have to improve this faculty and implement long-term changes that consider future generations.

The public discontent in Taksim Square and across the nation are a reflection of maturing democratic discourse.

"...it's time to start thinking about our automated future in earnest, and to broaden the discussions on increased swarm redistribution such as that of a #basicincome. The history of mass technological unemployment isn't pretty—fascists in the '20s, Nazis in the '30s—and recent high levels of precariousness in Greece and Italy have already produced riots in the streets and larger followings for right-wing populist parties. And that's after only a few years of misery."

 The report found at least 5,000 people have been dying in Syria every month since last July, with 30,000 killed since November. More than 80% of those killed were men, but the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says it has also documented the deaths of more than 1,700 children under the age of 10.

How were these people killed? Not by chemical weapons, but by bullets, bombs, shrapnel or simple knives. Thousands have been slaughtered, many have had their throats cut. Children have been shot in front of their parents. Yet none of this was considered to be a “red line” for the ladies and gentlemen in Washington.