In the context of the @DigitalCoup and #AuthoritarianTech, can we find an answer in #DemocraticTech? Something that goes beyond mere free/libre open source software, and combines #cooperativism and #commoning. Communities who govern their shared resources, and commit to shared responsibility.

I wrote an article about it, tracing the intellectual origins of the term "democratic technology", connecting to various intersectional critiques of the currently dominant model of surveillance capitalism from feminist, ecosocial perspectives.

Here's the article: https://freeknowledge.eu/democratic-technology-building-alternatives-to-techno-auhtoritarianism

Ciclo de Cinema Cooperativista "Empire Me - Der Staat bin ich!"

Rizoma, sexta-feira, 20 de fevereiro às 18:00 GMT

PT:

É já no próximo dia 20 de fevereiro que estreamos o Ciclo de Cinema Cooperativista da Rizoma. Todas as terceiras sextas-feiras do mês, passamos um filme sobre cooperativismo.
 
Nesta primeira sessão teremos a visualização do filme "Empire Me - Der Staat bin ich!" de Paul Poet. Um documentário onde o leva os espectadores a uma viagem global ao estilo "road movie" para explorar a ascensão de micronações e ecovilas, onde indivíduos diversos contornam as restrições de um mundo globalizado para estabelecer os seus próprios territórios e sistemas sociais autogovernados.
Ao documentar esses "contramundos", o filme revela que o escape moderno tem menos que ver com esconder-se e mais com a gestão política complexa de novas sociedades, desafiando, em última análise, o público a reivindicar o seu poder e criar as suas próprias realidades.
 
Juntam-se a nós?

🎟️ Entrada livre
 
------------------------------------------------------------

EN:
 
Next Friday, the 20th, we will premiere the Rizoma Cooperative Film Series. Every third Friday of the month, we will screen a film about cooperativism.
 
In this session we will be showing the film "Empire Me - Der Staat bin ich!" by Paul Poet. In his documentary the filmmaker takes viewers on a global "road movie" journey to explore the rise of micronations and eco-villages, where diverse individuals bypass the constraints of a globalized world to establish their own self-governing territories and social systems. By documenting these "counter worlds," the film reveals that modern escapism is less about hiding and more about the complex, political management of new societies, ultimately challenging the audience to reclaim their power and create their own realities.
 
Will you join us?

🎟️ Admission is free

https://eventos.coletivos.org/event/ciclo-de-cinema-cooperativista-empire-me-der-staat-bin-ich

"These essays reveal some important facts:

- The cooperative sector in Kerala would not have flourished without a long history of social reform that created the social basis for cooperation. When news about the Soviet Union trickled into Kerala, people involved in the social reform and anti-caste movements expressed their curiosity about its attempts to reconstruct social and economic relations. This curiosity led to studies about the cooperative movement in the Soviet Union, which were then presented in social reform and anti-caste movements’ public meetings.
- The cooperative sector developed due to the vitality of the class struggle in Kerala, where organised peasants and workers pushed the social reform movement to combine the struggles against caste, landlordism, and colonialism. It was in these struggles that the peasant movement – mainly in northern Kerala – took the initiative to start peasant cooperatives to help the most impoverished amongst them. The emergence of these cooperatives weakened the grip of landlords, who could no longer lend money at usurious rates to the indebted peasantry or continue to be their main provider of consumer goods. Instead, they watched as the peasant cooperatives lifted the confidence of the masses. The success of cooperatives led to their duplication in other parts of the region, building on the organisational habits of mass movements.
- The first communist ministry that came to power in Kerala (1957–1959) received mass support from the mass social reform movement and was bolstered both by the class struggle of previous decades and by the success of the cooperative movement. In turn, the communist government used a part of Kerala’s social wealth to finance the growth of more cooperatives across the state..."

https://thetricontinental.org/study-kerala-cooperatives/

#India #Kerala #Cooperativism #Socialism #Cooperatives #Communism

Yesterday I watched #TheTake , a documentary by #NaomiKlein and #AviLewis about the cooperative movement in Argentina, released in 2004.

In the beginning of the 21st century, workers across #Argentina took over control over factories, and began to run them by themselves.

Many of these cooperatives still exist.

This documentary can be a source of hope. We need it.

@unions @Cooperatives

#Cooperatives #Cooperativism #Workers #Unions

https://tube.todon.eu/w/fSVXkj5Srrbv6amgtfSy2k

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Take_(2004_film)

Anyone at the Workers Governing Technologies workshop/conference on the Fedi?? I bet some of y'all are here. This is such an amazing gathering!!

#WorkersGoverningTechnologies #Cooperativism #CreativeLabourCriticalFutures #Labour #SolidarityEconomy #Unionism