Now with the invasion of Ukraine many throw their reactionary rage at Putin. But the important question is… How is it possible that one or few people have the power over the lives of others without their consent? Few people that control, influence, play with and decide over the lives of other people. Where few enforce their worldview and interests upon the many. Putin is not the real enemy. The real enemy is our system of thinking and organizing ourselves. Illogical, unjust and immoral allocation of power. It is those systems that allow such to happen in the first place. We are giving away the power over our lives.
People from early age are undignified and seen as unable to decide what’s best for them. By parents, by the school system, by society. Which is continued into your work-life. You are expected to take orders from owners, so called gods that think they know everything and are ready to do anything to enforce their worldview and interests upon all of us. So a majority of insecure people that don’t believe in their own worth give their power away to those who exude what they lack… confidence and charisma. And whatever that strongman does, they will follow. As if confidence would make you a wise person. Cause we are taught to not think for ourselves. We are taught that we are too stupid. Just let those “smart”-asses rule over you and everything will be fine.
And the west thinks that they are so much better while in reality a lot in our societies is built upon the same principles. Hierarchical systems of un-consented power-heads in form of politicians and corporations that enforce their worldview and interests upon us. Same principles generate similar results. Cause how many lives do our systems kill? Slowly but surely. It’s an unnoticed ongoing war that kills. Take Blackrock — a corporation that owns more assets than any other country besides US and China. Many corporations are responsible for financing lots of destruction… environment, climate change, inequality that makes it hard for people to get by in life, financial crises, unsafe labour, human rights violations, influence on politics, connections to conflicts and wars and so on. These corporations are owned and directed by few but the impacts are on all of us to take.
And we are rooting for one party over the other as if the system at the end will give a fuck about us. Inherently flawed and corrupted system of states produce hardships for people. States are controlled by few but the impacts are on all of us to take. They play their own games. Disconnected from reality and real people. In their own bubbles of how they think the world should function. Only if they can get in power and enforce it, then everything will be good, they think. And so we are at wars with each other.
Constructive dialogue and cooperation isn’t there to be found. We forget to connect with each other, to have empathy for each other, we forget to ask about each others needs. Cause the system is designed this way. Desigend to teach us to compete, blame, exploit, win, conquer… do everything to get ahead. But no one has the right to get what they want at the cost of other lives.
Every human being can feel pain and suffering. Every human being has their abilities, skills and knowledge. Every human being, regardless of age, gender or other markers, should then have joint ownership and influence in every social formation that the person participates in and is affected by.
Social formations include any group, platform, system, organization, school, class, course, family, community, company, society and the world in which a person participates and is affected by.
Here’s an example… How is it possible that Google, Youtube, Facebook and Amazon… corporations and platforms that have massive influence over the world, platforms that are co-created by billiions but are owned and controlled by few? Shouldn’t it belong to the whole community that is working on, participating in and is affected by these platforms?
One person, one party or any small group of people cannot represent the needs of all the people. It is impossible. Decentralised power is better suited to meet the needs of all. Distributed power based on the degree to which you are affected by the question. Distributed power based on your knowledge and abilities. Such circles based on know-how and skills combined with interdisciplinary circles can be the basis of governance of communities. Communities that in turn connect to other adjacent communities to form cooperation starting from the grassroots and up until a global union.
Cause we need to break free from all forms of oppressive and destructive systems. We need to build our own. Take inspiration from Mondragon. It all started when people desired to help themselves out of a desperate post-war situation. They pooled together their resources and started developing enterprises that would fulfill their needs. Democratic ownership of the enterprises allowed everyone to develop prosperous lives with dignity and autonomy. Investing profits sustainably, back into communities and nature. Today Mondragon is a federation of more than 100 cooperatives with democratic co-ownership and democratic management of enterprises. They share the profits, which allows everyone a life with dignity. They have a social system independent of the state, they have their own university and much more.
There are many other associations, communities and socieites built on cooperative principles. There is Cooperation Jackson, Zapatistas, Rojava, Argentinian Cooperative Movement. There is decentralisation movement. There is Italian Cooperative Consortiums and Cooperative Ecosystem in Emilia Romagna. There is Catalan Integral Cooperative. And so many more…
At least 12% of people on earth is a cooperator i.e. memeber in any of 3 million cooperatives on earth. Cooperatives provide jobs or work opportunities to 10% of the employed population. There are 280 million cooperative workers across the world. It would be the fourth largest country by population. And the three hundred largest cooperatives or mutuals generate around 2 Trillion USD in turnover per year while providing the services and infrastructure society needs to thrive. https://www.ica.coop/en/cooperatives/facts-and-figures
Imagine if all cooperative enterprises, associations, communities and socieites across the world brought together their power into unions. Those unions would have the power to resist current destructive powers and develop a new thriving world where we tackle our challenges and advance forward independently of state systems and capitalism. Wars and opression will diminish when the power and ownership over our existence is spread logically and intelligently!
Support the development of such a new and thriving world in Ukraine and across the world! In Ukraine there is an alliance of forces supporting cooperation called Operation Solidarity. Based on mutual aid and grassroots initiatives to defend and develop healthy communities based on practices of collaborative decision-making and co-ownership of our shared existence. You can contribute by sharing information, by community-building, by cultivating alliances, by making events at your cities or by supporting efforts materially.
