Re: Disassociation from Michel Bauwens
Things are shifting, tectonic plates are sliding, sides are being chosen: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/12/far-right-open-source-technology-censorship Left and right (derived from the seating arrangements of two elitist factions centuries ago) have lost meaning and a fundamental struggle is perhaps emerging, the endgame it may be: “There are two sides: the agents of waste and the lovers of the wild. Either for life or against it. And each of us has to choose.” (Jay Griffiths, Wild, 2008: 9) On 12/03/2021 17:25, Dmytri Kleiner wrote: > > As some of you may already know, the P2P community has a major issue > with P2P Foundation founder Michel Bauwens who has, in my view, turned > the foundations Facebook groups and other forums into potential > recruitment vectors for the "alt-right" and has created an environment > where many people feel unwelcome and unsafe, including women, people of > colour, and LGBT+ people. > > As I have been involved with the P2P Foundation, Michel himself, and > other parts of the P2P community for almost two decades, I have joined > other colleagues who are alarmed by this right-wing pivot in signing > this statement of dissociation. > > https://p2p-left.gitlab.io/statement/ > https://p2p-left.gitlab.io/statement/appendix/ > > Please feel free to reach out to me if you have anything you want to > talk about with regard to this unfortunate situation. > > --- > > LETTER OF DISASSOCIATION > > > > In recent years the P2P Foundation has become the dominion of a single > man: its founder Michel Bauwens. Despite its stated commitment to the > “commons”, under Bauwens’ direction the P2P Foundation has increasingly > come to represent an understanding of the commons as a place of white > privilege and punitive male fragility. > > Over the last few years, despite concern from long-standing members and > close associates, Bauwens has transformed the P2P Facebook and P2P > Foundation Wiki pages into what many of us perceive to be a pulpit for > reactionary and conservative politics. This is done to the extent that > members who identify as and with women, people of colour and the LGBT > community have felt unheard, demeaned, disparaged and unsafe. > > Bauwens’ posts and curation in the P2P Foundation’s Facebook group have > increasingly promoted anti-left, anti-feminist, anti-justice > “Intellectual Dark Web” and even alt-right videos and talk pieces.* This > has been extended to include offshoots like the P2P Research Clusters > and P2P Politics and Policy groups. Right-wing tropes are commonly found > in the posts Bauwens curated in recent years, including: the claim that > anti-racists and feminists promote “reverse racism” and “misandry”, that > Black Lives Matter is a “neo racialist” movement seeking societal > domination, that white privilege theory oppresses whites because of > innate characteristics, that the transgender rights movement is > “anti-woman”, and that social justice movements seek “inverse status > hierarchies” or “reverse hierarchies of domination” in which white males > are permanently at the bottom. > > To many, Bauwens’ posts and curation regurgitate, in various different > forms, the general reactionary trope that “those people don’t just want > to be equal, they want to be superior.” Members of the community have > repeatedly expressed dismay at this content which promotes many of the > same dangerous tropes about “SJWs”, “cancel culture”, “snowflakes” and > being “woke” that emerged from post-2014 GamerGate and Channer culture.* > As the screenshots of his activity in the Appendix demonstrate, this is > neither infrequent nor done in the spirit of advancing discussion of P2P > ideas. In fact his constant focus on fighting “identity politics” is > pursued to the near total exclusion of advancing the commons. > > Bauwens claims the promotion of this content as “open curation” and > “promoting discussion”. We believe such rationale is entirely > disingenuous. The relevant articles and videos he posts are only from > the alt right and “Intellectual Dark Web”, and are published without any > critical contextualizing. On the contrary, while people are free to say > hateful things like “trans women are men”, anyone who challenges the alt > right material he presents or defends intersectional analysis, is > denounced for apparent “racialism” and banned from the group. The > curation is not “open”, but very much closed. > > From our consistent observations over several years, we are concerned > that Bauwens has turned the P2P Foundation’s Facebook groups and > discourse on P2P into a reactionary and racist echo chamber. Perhaps > most alarmingly, he recently announced that he would surrender > leadership of the Facebook groups only to a leadership group that > embraced the same —explicitly “anti-woke”— ideology, whose tenets are > now being added to the P2P Foundation Wiki pages as guiding dogma. > > As a result, P2P Foundation’s Facebook
Disassociation from Michel Bauwens
As some of you may already know, the P2P community has a major issue with P2P Foundation founder Michel Bauwens who has, in my view, turned the foundations Facebook groups and other forums into potential recruitment vectors for the "alt-right" and has created an environment where many people feel unwelcome and unsafe, including women, people of colour, and LGBT+ people. As I have been involved with the P2P Foundation, Michel himself, and other parts of the P2P community for almost two decades, I have joined other colleagues who are alarmed by this right-wing pivot in signing this statement of dissociation. https://p2p-left.gitlab.io/statement/ https://p2p-left.gitlab.io/statement/appendix/ Please feel free to reach out to me if you have anything you want to talk about with regard to this unfortunate situation. --- LETTER OF DISASSOCIATION In recent years the P2P Foundation has become the dominion of a single man: its founder Michel Bauwens. Despite its stated commitment to the “commons”, under Bauwens’ direction the P2P Foundation has increasingly come to represent an understanding of the commons as a place of white privilege and punitive male fragility. Over the last few years, despite concern from long-standing members and close associates, Bauwens has transformed the P2P Facebook and P2P Foundation Wiki pages into what many of us perceive to be a pulpit for reactionary and conservative politics. This is done to the extent that members who identify as and with women, people of colour and the LGBT community have felt unheard, demeaned, disparaged and unsafe. Bauwens’ posts and curation in the P2P Foundation’s Facebook group have increasingly promoted anti-left, anti-feminist, anti-justice “Intellectual Dark Web” and even alt-right videos and talk pieces.* This has been extended to include offshoots like the P2P Research Clusters and P2P Politics and Policy groups. Right-wing tropes are commonly found in the posts Bauwens curated in recent years, including: the claim that anti-racists and feminists promote “reverse racism” and “misandry”, that Black Lives Matter is a “neo racialist” movement seeking societal domination, that white privilege theory oppresses whites because of innate characteristics, that the transgender rights movement is “anti-woman”, and that social justice movements seek “inverse status hierarchies” or “reverse hierarchies of domination” in which white males are permanently at the bottom. To many, Bauwens’ posts and curation regurgitate, in various different forms, the general reactionary trope that “those people don’t just want to be equal, they want to be superior.” Members of the community have repeatedly expressed dismay at this content which promotes many of the same dangerous tropes about “SJWs”, “cancel culture”, “snowflakes” and being “woke” that emerged from post-2014 GamerGate and Channer culture.* As the screenshots of his activity in the Appendix demonstrate, this is neither infrequent nor done in the spirit of advancing discussion of P2P ideas. In fact his constant focus on fighting “identity politics” is pursued to the near total exclusion of advancing the commons. Bauwens claims the promotion of this content as “open curation” and “promoting discussion”. We believe such rationale is entirely disingenuous. The relevant articles and videos he posts are only from the alt right and “Intellectual Dark Web”, and are published without any critical contextualizing. On the contrary, while people are free to say hateful things like “trans women are men”, anyone who challenges the alt right material he presents or defends intersectional analysis, is denounced for apparent “racialism” and banned from the group. The curation is not “open”, but very much closed. From our consistent observations over several years, we are concerned that Bauwens has turned the P2P Foundation’s Facebook groups and discourse on P2P into a reactionary and racist echo chamber. Perhaps most alarmingly, he recently announced that he would surrender leadership of the Facebook groups only to a leadership group that embraced the same —explicitly “anti-woke”— ideology, whose tenets are now being added to the P2P Foundation Wiki pages as guiding dogma. As a result, P2P Foundation’s Facebook groups now exhibit characteristics and promote ideas that look towards right wing, reactionary views. We are concerned that this could potentially serve as a radicalization group, drawing people into far right recruitment. We are compelled to take this action and produce a public letter now out of concern for the people who come to the P2P Foundation with a sincere interest in alternative production and distribution models and find themselves embroiled in what some have characterized as Michel Bauwens’ personal culture war. Furthermore, we are extremely worried that interested and passionate people may also be subjected to alt-right talking
