The New Socialism

I've benn meaning to blog this for ages. It is essentially making a connection between the bottom up, 'creative commons', copyleft ethos of the 'hacker plus' communities and more global political movements. The full title says a bit more: The New Socialism: Global Collectivist Society Is Coming Online And I judge that the best summary quote is this: "When masses of people who own the means of production work toward a common goal and share their products in common, when they contribute labor without wages and enjoy the fruits free of charge, it's not unreasonable to call that socialism."
In the bad old days when Maggie Thatcher's blue rinsed minions were squandering north sea oil and making short-trem profits for the state by selling back to the ideologically primed sections of British society what we all once collectively owned (some might call that stealing), the main alternative was a version of state-monopolistic capitalism which some sections of the Labour party and people like the SWP embraced. The other alternative of co-operatives was mainly propounded by the Liberals and the Co-operative party (who bizarrely, imo, make common cause with the Labour party which consistently ignores opportunities to encourage co-operatives): namely co-operatives. The article referenced here is essentially talking about informal, 'liquid' co-operatives. Of such is the Kingdom of heaven ...