[Campaignforrealdemocracy] Volunteers and working without money

[Sally Wood]

> Hello again,
> 
> In response to Mark¹s email below, I have always liked the idea of volunteers
> who live in their work place.
> 
> These volunteers pay no rent and they have access to any food grown or funds
> raised by the building in which they are living to support themselves and each
> other with the basic essentials. These people might be teachers / trainers /
> gardeners / cooks / café staff, basically anyone who adds a service to the
> building.
> 
> They are not expected to work a full week, enabling them to provide additional
> services elsewhere during the week to make further income for themselves.
> 
> I am wondering whether there is a way I could link in my work with the East
> London vteam to profile a radical alternative volunteering opportunity for
> 16-25s that gives back to the volunteer in a non-monetary way. If anyone has
> any ideas, take a look at www.vinspired.com to find out more about v and get
> back to me.
> 
> Best wishes
> Sally
> 
> 
> --- On Tue, 4/8/09, Mark Barrett <marknbarrett at googlemail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> From: Mark Barrett <marknbarrett at googlemail.com>
>> Subject: [allgendergroup] Democracy & Full Employment
>> To: project2012 at googlegroups.com, civilisation at lists.riseup.net,
>> campaignforrealdemocracy at lists.aktivix.org, allgendergroup at lists.riseup.net
>> Date: Tuesday, 4 August, 2009, 10:32 AM
>> 
>> Hi everyone 
>>  
>> As it's been reported in the press this week that a quarter of the UK budget
>> is now being spent on benefits, could we please have some list discussions
>> about how this money might be harnessed to create a really democratic
>> society, or to use the phrase previously embraced, greater local sovereignty
>> (LS)?
>>  
>> I've sent this message to the three lists above as I've found them to be the
>> most fruitful in terms of discussions on the topic of building a just
>> society. If anyone has any other lists they can recommend for this end, pls
>> let me know. On this subject please can people hit reply to all so that all
>> three lists can take part in any debate that ensues?
>>  
>> Benefits & Productivity
>>  
>> For me this is the next stage of productivity in the industrial economy, the
>> pursuit of a really democratic culture with full employment, freely chosen.
>> So I had this idea that people could do a few hours work each week - what one
>> colleague has dubbed a 'mini-job' - in return for payments. Say, an hour for
>> every £10-15 they receive. Key thing is that this work should be chosen BY
>> the recipient, in collaboration with a local community of their choice, so
>> that the work allows the individual to do what they would rea;y like to do
>> rather than have the state force something on them as is the case with
>> neo-liberal workfare programmes now being experimented with.. Obviously these
>> kinds of decisions would need different, decentralised benefits
>> 'purse-string' structures - essentially a breakdown of the currently unwieldy
>> and wasteful nationalised benefits programme into a really democratic, ie
>> each local community owned, public service. Of course there will be lots of
>> questions about how this will work in practice, which is why I am posting
>> about it now, but for me the huge benefit (sic) in this is that it will allow
>> state expenditure to be directed towards the development of locally based
>> creativity, community fabric building, green jobs, real democracy, individual
>> and collective entrepreneurialship, and a re-embrace of the dignity of work.
>> It will also allow people to wean themselves off benefits as they develop new
>> skills, improved CVs, greater self assertion and confidence, not to mention
>> the huge health benefits in terms of tackling isolation, depression, social
>> breakdown at the root. It will get people off their backsides but not Tebbit
>> "On Yer Bike" style, rather Rumi "Let the beauty that we love be what we
>> do"..
>>  
>> The way I see it, alongside the present economy, communities should be able
>> to compete with one another for labour, by simply embracing a cultural
>> stance. A mixed economy, two parallel economies inteplaying with one another
>> rather than this monoculture of labour everywhere competing for capital, or
>> else the indignity of the dole.
>>  
>> Here's the story about 186 billion benefits.
>> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/5962510/Unsustainable-soc
>> ial-security-spending-equal-to-a-quarter-of-goverments-budget.html
>>  
>> Thoughts anyone?
>>  
>> Love 
>> Mark
>>  
>> 
> 
> 
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