The Commons Reading Group will begin our second phase of readings in April 2008, this time focused on primitive accumulation. The cross-cutting historical, economic, social, and metaphorical concepts of commons/enclosures left us with many questions about how to think about resistance to privatization and commodification. A crucial aspect of this answer seems to lie in the ways in which societies are pulled into the market society, in order to understand what it may mean to pull out.

This is the first official campaign for Property Taskforce: www.abandonmentissues.ca

Last night we had our campaign launch and the room was overflowing with over 150 people, including local city councilor Gord Perks. Allan Lissner displayed 3 diptych photos on housing themes, St. Christopher House brought maps of socio-economic neighbourhood change, and we had a slide-show running of around 50 images of abandonded buildings. We also displayed our own map, with pins stuck in reflecting the location of abandonded buildings in town.

Call for Participation
Part of A Potential Toronto

Mondays, 8-10pm, Oct. 1 to Dec. 3, 2007
Location TBC

Free, but spots are limited. Copies of readings provided.

Facilitated by Shiri Pasternak

Property regimes have been making the news lately in spades. it seems like every time one nation transitions away from nationalized or collectivized resource management, another is waiting in the wings to take its place. The contrast between incredibly short life spans of national property regimes to long-held traditional collective and familial property regimes also refers us back to the social nature of property relations. Shifting ownership entitlements mean shifting social values.

That was the message sent via “text mob” that guided protesters forward at the Republican National Convention street march in 2004, relieving them of the panic that no doubt would have ensued when the plumes of smoke rising up ahead were observed. Text mobs also helped shut down San Francisco for 12 hours when the war in Iraq broke out in 2003 and the initiation of the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine was signaled by the sound of student cell phones ringing.

The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) recently handed down a decision to deny the residents of West Queen West Triangle in Toronto the right to plan for the growth and sustainability of the artist community based there.

Active 18 formed to oppose condos proposed for the site that did not take into consideration the surrounding neighbourhood, need for green space, or the historical and living importance of a heritage building on the site that houses about 80 artists and businesses. Active 18 were "YIMBY"s who are not afraid of development in their community, understanding the need for density to combat urban sprawl and smog from commuter traffic.

I've posted a surprisingly sparse selection of commentary on gender/sexuality and property. Silvia Federici wrote a book called "Caliban and the Witch" that unpacks in great detail the interwoven stories of the rise of capitalism and the suppression of woman, especially "wtiches" - woman who knew to live off the earth fast enclosing around them.

In Wendy Brown's brilliant book, "States of injury," she reserves her harshest criticisms against the left for abandoning the call for "freedom" in their struggles. Cowed by the anti-statism of the right proclaiming an ethnocentric and jingoistic "free" society, the left turned on the concept, emptying it of power and action.

I was at Sundance last week and the best of anything I saw while I was there was a panel discussion about Web 2.0. This being Sundance, a lot of big-up people were speaking on the panel, sponsored by "New Frontier" - the edgy, techy, interesting arm of the Festival.

Karen Swisher was moderating the panel and she was fantastic - very droll but well-equipped with a hyperactive bullshit-detector. She's a journalist with the Wall Street Journal and her take on Web 2.0 seemed to be: why are corporations such idiots, and why haven't they embraced this? As she put it: "If someone's going to eat your lunch, it might as well be you."