Alex Foti: A To-Do List

Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2008
From: Alex Foti
Subject: <nettime> a to-do list
To: nettime-l@kein.org

dear sisters and brothers,

call it the big slump, the great recession, the new depression: a major capitalist crisis is among us, and nettime saw it ahead of imf and goldman economists.

last week’s debate seemed to focus on two possible ways to go about the new historical situation:

i) let’s finally secede from the mad and corrupt world of capitalism and build the new society from scratch, a place were solidarity and sharing are in and inequality and exploitation (of women, peoples, nature) are out; let’s call it the steampunk solution.

ii) the great recession is a once-in-a-century opportunity to build radical political and social organizations/federations/coalitions that can impose redistribution (and thus economic sustainability) and push for the redesign of basic social structures toward ecological compatibility; let’s call it the commonist solution.