Peer2Politics

Nervous chatter in many different languages filled the hallways outside Hearing Room A in downtown Denver last week, where the Public Utilities Commission heard testimony to decide whether incumbents like Metro Taxi will have to face a bold new player in the Denver metro transportation marketplace.

In this interview, Neal Gorenflo (founder, Shareable), Michel Bauwens (founder, P2P Foundation), and John Restakis (author, Humanizing the Economy) speak with Enric Duran. Duran is a Catalan anti-capitalist activist, best known for his act of “financial civil disobedience” announced on September 17, 2008, in which he took out half a million Euros in bank loans and distributed the funds to anti-capitalist movements. As it was never his intention to pay these debts, but instead to stir debate about the unfair legal advantages afforded to the powerful financial elite, he was soon labeled “Robin Banks,” and faced with a lengthy prison sentence. The resulting legal actions and his subsequent seclusion have left him living virtually underground, although he maintains selective contact and has stated that he may return, contingent on a variety of factors. Despite his precarious legal status, his work continues undiminished in the Catalan Integral Cooperative (CIC), which describes itself as a “transitional initiative for social transformation from below, through self-management, self-organization, and networking.” Here is Enric Duran talking about his work and life.

Given persistent, pressing economic crises, the Obama administration should open an Office of Economic Innovation to consider systemic changes, and involve Marxists and heterodox economists to help visibilize possible solutions growing up alongside capitalism.

Can food be used as a way to bring strangers together, if only for a meal or two, and create the beginnings of a new type of community? Penny Travlou, a cultural geographer and ethnographer at the University of Edinburgh, decided to find out. In an interview posted on “Social Innovation Europe,” an EU website, she talks about her experience in co-organizing “pop-up dinners” that bring together immigrants with local Greeks in Athens. The idea is to use meal preparation and eating together as a way to break down cultural barriers and support migrant integration in Greece. 

Emotional health issues impact 1 in 5 people in the United States and cost adults some $193.2 billion in lost earnings per year -- but mental health care and support remain stigmatized and beyond reach for many of us. It’s worth considering -- what would a solidarity economy approach to mental health look like? Can we use the commons to create access to wellness?