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[ox-en] Re: Oekonux and politics



Hi ThomasB and lists!

Yesterday Thomas Berker wrote:
So far it seems to me that Stefan's reflections on the relation to "the
remaining world" are guided by the fear to be identified as part of 'the
left' and thus becoming part of the traditional left's demise.

This is indeed one point. Another important point is the isolation the
traditional left is in regarding society and yet another is the closed
mind set this traditional left is not only associated with but IMHO
actually has.

However, I believe there is a misconception of what social fora all over
the world are about. Especially in Germany their deliberate pluralism was
attacked for its "trans-left" character by keepers of the holy marxist
truth.

This might be the case. Their topics are very traditional, however.
<disclaimer> This does *not* mean these topics are uninteresting. They
are just not Oekonux topics. Oekonux does not cover the whole world
and IMHO it would be a mistake to even try that (at least for the
foreseeable future - which may be different tomorrow ;-) ). Oekonux
has a topic and IMHO it should stick to that. </disclaimer>

Sure, within this pluralism you will find a lot traditionalist
left-wing politics and politicians. But, if I am not wrong, Oekonux has
attracted many of those as well - without taking too much harm.

Indeed Oekonux attracts some people from the traditional left - as
well as it attracts people from many other areas of human activity.
Actually IMHO these are the people from the traditional left who kept
some openness. There are some instances where these leftists get into
trouble with their older peer group if the get openly Oekonuxish too
much.

This attractivity is one of the strengths of Oekonux. If any area
dominates the shape of Oekonux clearly this strength vanishes quickly
- though the left shape I consider more dangerous than many others.
Fortunately Oekonux has far enough own substance which makes it
possible to be independent and this way keeps its strength.

But then there is a political point, too: I still think - and that is of
course a very old discussion within the project - that there are at least
two possible futures for Free Software and its principles: Being adapted
and modernising capitalism without really changing anything - or
destabilising existing power structures. There is potential for both.

I said something similar yesterday.

Possible futures are always also about politics because they are disputed
and shaped by fights and decisions. And in the domain of politics, looking
for allies is useful for small projects like Oekonux.

Hmm... One of the good things in Oekonux is that even such discussions
bring new insights - at least for me. Actually I think I had some
roots for this in my head for quite some time now, but Graham's third
possibility put it to the point: Coalitions of organizations might be
simply outdated. Coalitions of organizations are a typical construct
of mass societies. Free Software in many respects transcends mass
societies.

Why not favour this network approach where simply each individual
decides who to coalize with and who to avoid? To me this does sound
much more like Free Software than "Newsflash: Today Apache and Debian
announced a coalition".

Clearly, social fora
and other 'new social movements' are as oekonuxish as it gets in today's
political landscape.

Well, I'm writing this in next to every mail in this thread but it is
simply not the case that there are no contacts. I for one would hope
that we have even more contacts like the ones listed on the on-tour
page to all thinkable players on the political and other landscapes.

Lately on the occasion of the software patent decisions in the EU
parliament there has been even visible political activism on the side
of Oekonux by joining the closed web sites. I think this is a topic
where Oekonux can and should show an activist face. Furthermode the
link page lists a few initiatives with their banners who are active in
questions around software patents, copyright, and TCPA.

Maybe it is really time for a fork? Oekonux remaining more theory-based and
eager to remain politically independent (which is of course also politics),
while another project gathers some people who are interested in Free
Software and its principles as political project.

Hmm... A fork means to have the same goal but in two seperated
projects which has been one project at some point in time. I don't
know yet how your suggestions really looks like but I guess it is more
like a spin-off. Actually there is already one spin-off from Oekonux I
know off:

	http://linux.bildungsbande.de/index.htm

[linux.educationgang]

Of course it is among the links on the link page. May be this project
could need some fuel?

Could you describe further how such a spin-off could look like? What
does "interested in Free Software and its principles as political
project" mean what Oekonux is not? I never denied Oekonux is a
political project.

At least I would have been more inclined to come the long way from Norway
to Austria knowing that I will not only attend a 'more internal' (as Stefan
writes) Oekonux meeting.

Ok, I see I used a really misleading wording here. Actually the
conferences so far could easily labeled as "more external". Internal /
external are bad descriptions here.

Until now the Oekonux conferences invited external people so they tell
about their thinking and practice because during the preparation of
the conference we considered their thinking and practice as important
for the Oekonux discussion so it is interesting to learn from them.
(This is exactly the ground where contributors to the social fora may
contribute something to the Oekonux conference.) The Calls for Papers
(now: Calls for Contributions) were written in a way which attracted a
lot of interesting speakers and a number of speakers we actively asked
to give a presentation on the Oekonux conference.

Of course there have been presentations by old Oekonux fellows. I for
one found these good opportunities to present some new thoughts to a
relatively specialized audience so I could start on a high level. I
don't know another place on this planet where such an audience exists.

This time the conference should get a part where people from the
Oekonux project present the project so people not knowing much of
Oekonux but attending the conference have an easier start. May be we
can do this in a way where people new to Oekonux, old Oekonux fellows
and invited speakers amalgamate to an even more fruitful discussion
than before.

Actually I can't think of any other layout for a sense making Oekonux
conference. For instance just a bunch of presentations about Oekonux
would simply make no sense to me. Who should be addressed by this?


						Mit Freien Grüßen

						Stefan

_______________________
http://www.oekonux.org/



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