The return of the commons. A proposal

The crisis of global capitalism, which appeared in all its depth with the defaults on subprime loans in the USA, has accentuated the crisis of politics and that of political parties as the privileged subjects of politics. The demand that political parties make room for movements as the new subjects for alternative is more and more frequent in the West. What movements are we talking about? This is difficult to answer given the differences existing among countries, in general and specifically North and South, the most important being the rule of the law, the concept of democracy and the role of political parties. The rule of the law existing in the North is a Western ideology to justifies the foe of the West over the world. What is needed for an alternative is a strategic vision and a comparative knowledge of different systems, which is not available at the present. The case of Italy I make below can to some extent represent Western European countries, although I am aware of the limits deriving from the Western culture within which is proposal is formulated.

In today’s Italy many subjects are a legitimate part of the movements: all the workers in factories in crisis, including those of the Fiat factory in Pomigliano d’Arco (36 percent of the factory total) who recently voted against the referendum by which Sergio Marchionne, Fiat CEO, asked the factory workers to give up the rights granted by law and by contract as a condition for producing the Panda model there instead of Poland; the young unemployed; groups of citizens fighting against urban environmental destruction; all organisations and associations that experiment new ways of producing and living. Other subjects are comprised of some local governments, a part of the trade unions, some trade and cultural organisations, the entrepreneurs running out of steam, and groups competing on the market in ways different from that of plunder. Subjects such as these exist everywhere in the North under forms specific to each country, but all try to open a new public space.

The cultural context within which the movements for the alternative can work is that given by the limits of Nature and natural resources. To follow this perspective, it is necessary to realize an ecological conversion of markets and productions, i.e. to “territorialise” markets and productions starting from the most sensible such as the automobile – in Italy as well as in all industrial countries. The automobile as it is now has no future both because of pollution and because it doesn’t serve the purpose of mobility. Another sector of the economy and society needing quick conversion is that of energy, with must opt for renewable sources the technology for which exists, but not the political will. Another priority is industrial agriculture, which has to make space for peasant small-scale agriculture, using traditional techniques free of agrochemicals. The forth priority is the maintenance of the territory; the fifth, the use and reuse of metals and other minerals both because some of them are scarce – or have become scarce due to over-exploitation – and because metal and mineral extraction is a wound to the Earth. Other priorities are water, public services and so on.

The list is long. What needs to be stressed here is that the conversion to sustainable resource use I am talking about is not that planned by the Western State, centralized and bureaucratic. It is instead that carried out by movements and communities at the local level: at the scale of single factories, of farm, in the districts of a town, in the town. The planning we need is that which results from thousand of initiatives, not from the State monopoly.

Although the overall damage caused by financial capitalism goes beyond the individual advantages that the system once granted (at least to a part of the world population), the critique of the system hasn’t so far produced any alternative. This is due mainly to strong resistance by the prevailing ruling class who takes advantage of its position and is able to lie and make it appear as if its lies were true. Another reason – the decisive one – is the absence of a leaderships with strategic vision, capable of mobilizing the people. However the situation may change, since the common goods appropriated by the ruling classes are primary goods, indispensable to satisfy the needs of the population impoverished by the crisis and unemployed, that part of the population which is most exposed to the “iron” laws of the capitalist market.

In this context, the strategic questions to face are many, and all as heavy as stones:

First, it should be agreed that Keynesian politics is outdated and that the present crisis cannot be dealt with by raising demand and public expenditure as President Roosevelt did in 1929 to solve the Great Crisis. The present crisis is caused by speculative finance, environmental disruption and bad politics, which in 1929 were not as profound as they are today. Neither did the same level of market globalisation exists, nor the same level of privatisation of nature nor the same level of commodification of life in all its aspects.

Second, it would be necessary to agree that the State-Market dichotomy has become inadequate, that the subjects of change are several and that there isn’t any more a single historical subject for an alternative system– neither the proletariat, nor the working class, nor the enlightened bourgeoisie, and even less the multitude.

Third, in the process of change and territorialisation, local communities or movements have a central role to play. This is a point to be debated so as to avoid the charge that the return to the commons is a return to the past.

Fourth, the word progress is also out. Too often it has been used to justify the greatest injustices of the last century, starting with the war. Another word that is out is development, but progress is even more hard to die, even in the scholar’s discourse.

Fifth, it should be recognized that politics is discredited and that this can only be overcome through local communities self-government to decide over local resources and local questions related to their territory. This change is necessary but not simple: history doesn’t help. However never in history the movement has been global, and this can make the difference.

The “return” of the commons, as I have called my proposal, goes beyond the reclamation of the commons. It is a proposal to be considered according to the above strategic perspective. It requires us to consider the environmental movements both as instances that represent the needs of the people living in actual ecosystems and as a world movement imposing political change and new forms of direct democracy.

Today the movements of the North are at a strong disadvantage since only governments – state or local – have title to decide, and this limits the democratic participation of citizens over matters that directly concern them. The present setup, according to which common goods are part of the public trust is no guarantee against their erosion and privatisation. This is also because corruption of public power and bad politics are always lurking in the background.

I end by posing two last questions: First, my proposal needs to be problematized so as to compensate for natural, historical and geopolitical difference among places, since communities – as people –are not necessarily good hearted and just. Second: the return of the commons will not be a real alternative to capitalism, unless the new communities are united among themselves and open to the world or, better still, cosmopolitan.

Paper presented to the 13th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC) “Sustaining Commons: Sustaining our Future”, Jan 10-14 2011, Hyderabad, India