Fwd: TNI Webinar May 20 - Public is back: Proposals for a democratic just economy
Jai Sen
Saturday, May 16, 2020
Viruses in movement…, Democracy in movement…, Portals in movement…
[Here is the announcement for the next in this great series of webinars that are trying to come to grips with the key issues at this world-historical juncture - and most crucially, for what we can collectively do, and how. I for one am hoping that the session will also address the question of *how to make the proposals that the speakers put forward, come to life; and of *how to address the question of power – and the window of opportunity that we might still have (because I assume we all agree that the portal that the corona virus has given us is not going to be open and available forever ?) :
TNI Webinar Series, May 20, 4 pm CET :
Public is back : Proposals for a democratic just economy
TNI, co-sponsored by Alternative Information & Development Centre (AIDC), Focus on the Global South, and Public Services International (PSI)
JS
fwd
Begin forwarded message:From: "Transnational Institute" <ne...@tnimail.org>Subject: Webinar 20 May - Public is back: Proposals for a democratic just economyDate: May 15, 2020 at 7:56:39 AM EDTTo: "Jai" <jai...@cacim.net>Reply-To: ne...@tnimail.org
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
|
____________________________
Jai Sen
Independent researcher, editor; Senior Fellow at the School of International Development and Globalisation Studies at the University of Ottawa
Now based in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325) and in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded and unsurrendered Anishinaabe territory (+1-613-282 2900)
CURRENT / RECENT publications :
Jai Sen, ed, 2018a – The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our Dance. Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press
Jai Sen, ed, 2018b – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ? (Indian edition). New Delhi : AuthorsUpfront, in collaboration with OpenWord and PM Press. Hard copy available at MOM1AmazonIN, MOM1Flipkart, and MOM1AUpFront
Jai Sen, ed, 2017 – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ?. New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press. Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press
SUBSCRIBE TO World Social Movement Discuss, an open, unmoderated, and self-organising forum on social and political movement at any level (local, national, regional, and global). To subscribe, simply send an empty email to wsm-discus...@lists.openspaceforum.net
Jai Sen
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Something urgent
There’s something I’d like to add to what I said yesterday, covering this post. Something that is perhaps even quite urgent, and of the present moment.
This is in relation to my comment :
“I for one am hoping that the session will also address the question of *how to make the proposals that the speakers put forward, come to life; and of *how to address the question of power – and the window of opportunity that we might still have (because I assume we all agree that the portal that the corona virus has given us is not going to be open and available forever ?).”
In short, I had a very interesting discussion this last week with Tord Björk (who has been with Friends of the Earth Sweden for a long time now, and is also associated with other formations including La Via Campesina, and is now very active with peace and justice issues in Europe), who said something very thought-provoking. After mulling over this for a bit, I think that the announcement of this webinar is a good moment to share this with you : That Tord believes that when thinking about the current context and what to do, we need to recognise that we are – meaning humanity is - presently in what I think he termed a ‘biologic’ moment (signalling, as I understood, a focus on the virus and the epidemic, on how to address and overcome these, but also, I sensed from what he said, impelled and guided by a fear of the what-is-still-unknown, and therefore a very special and pregnant moment, full of possibilities). But that is only the first phase, and which will likely be brief (unless there are further waves, I suppose). And that this will, perhaps quite soon, be overtaken by our – humanity - moving into a more ‘economistic’ phase, where the focus – driven also by the power of capital and of complicit states (and especially by those facing elections, perhaps), as we all as by many ‘normal’ people – will shift into ‘how best to get things into some shape’. For some, even many, this will of course be back to the so-called ‘normal’; but even for others, who might be thinking of changes, this phase will still be far more ‘technical’ in nature than we are now…
And where, as I read what Tord said (and much more briefly than this), once we move into that phase – and once we are coaxed and persuaded to move into that phase, with soothing paeans of how ‘everything is now okay’, or of ‘how everything is going to be okay’ – we will have lost the moment that we presently have. Or in other words, we will lose the portal that Arundhati and others have helped us see – and sense - the pandemic as. For once it becomes an economistic game, we will be in a different field entirely, with very different rules and very different possibilities - and most importantly, where people will be in a very different mindset.
Please of course comment on what I have said here, Tord, and on how I have presented here what was a simple but crucial idea that you put into my mind (and that infected me ! :-) ).
To also be fair to myself though, I have had in mind what might be called ‘parallel’ thoughts to what I think Tord said, and for quite some time now. I’ve been trying to raise the content of what I have quoted above here and there - in chat comments and questions during webinars, and in off list communication with the organisers of the TNI webinars and also with the organisers of some of the other similar initiatives. But so far – till I spoke with Tord – I guess I was thinking more of not wanting to lose the wood for the trees; in other words, not losing sight of the larger picture, and of the question of ‘what is to be done ?’, and of the urgent necessity of strategic and purposeful intervention, and of using each such webinar to sharpen our strategic thoughts, and not just of broadening and deepening our understanding. Which is what I’m getting worried these webinars are morphing into; a comfort space, of good analysis and thinking, from all over the world, but within the limits of thinking out what is going on; and a little too much about nuts and bolts. And not so much what we need to do (and what people are already doing), and how to do it; and as I say above, crucially also how to deal with power. Both power-over and power-to.
I appreciate that thinking out things is important, and even essential, but we also need to address the question of action itself. When it launched the series, TNI phrased this as ‘Building an internationalist response’. We could all phrase this in different ways, but I think the essential idea was there. But I now think that the idea that Tord has infected me with – and I hope I now have you, by sharing this with you here ! – changes the picture. To use Naomi’s phrase, this thought changes everything. And I think we have to sit up and think about this. And do something. Do many things, but with this in mind. Starting with this webinar. This opportunity may not come again for a long, long time.
With all due respect, and in solidarity, and with hope,
Jai
--
To reply to the author of this message, select "reply"; to reply to the whole list, select "reply to all".
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Radical Ecological Democracy" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to radical_ecological_d...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/radical_ecological_democracy/9DA7AA23-F48E-4B51-A95A-2931525E5633%40cacim.net.