Guerrilla :: Hella Delicious Food for Health, Roots, Peace and Community

guerrilla

Guerrilla Money

November 1st, 2011 | Currency, D.I.Y., currency, debt, economy, exchange, guerrilla, LETS, money, open-money, Vancouver

This guest blog is from Vancouver's own open-money champion, Jordan Bober, who just recently did a detailed and thoughtful presentation: Community Money For Community Food last week, which I sadly missed, fortunately we have the internet so this presentation is available. For anyone who is interested in getting involved, Michael Linton, the founder of LETSystems, Open Money and Community Way - and probably the man who understands money (conventional and alternative) better than anyone else in the world - will be speaking at Occupy Vancouver on Wednesday, Nov. 2nd at 3pm, followed by an Open Money teach-in. More info here. I can't make it tomorrow, but I hope to be there on the 3rd. So I have a request and please talk about my idea for an art project so kids can get involved in creating a currency. You’ve guerrilla gardened, you’ve guerrilla knit. The time has come for Guerrilla Money! A great awakening is happening here. Thanks to the Occupy movement, more people than ever are thinking and talking about monetary and banking reform. However, most people are still thinking about money in old ways, calling for top-down reforms to come from the government, the banks, or the Bank of Canada. I would like to propose that monetary reform begins in the mind, and then in communities. Money is first and foremost a symbol, and just like any other symbol it is a cultural invention and a social-psychological phenomenon. The symbols that we use now, and the way in which they are used, are not the only ones that are possible. Many other symbols, many other types of money with many other characteristics and purposes have been used throughout human history. Today we have a money that, although it can be created by banks out of thin air, is treated first and foremost as a thing. Not only that, it is treated as a thing that is scarce – which it is for you and I, because its creation is monopolised by the banks. When money is a thing that is scarce, getting money becomes a zero-sum game; if I have it, you don’t. Some people have it in excess, and can easily get even more simply by lending their money out at interest. Others, including whole communities, can be left with not enough of it, and the function of money – to act as a medium of exchange between people – breaks down. In their desperation to obtain money, people and communities become import-export centres trading off what is truly valuable – time, meaningful work, the environment, social capital – in exchange for pieces of paper or numbers in a bank account. We hope to get rich, and impoverish ourselves in the process. It need not be this way. Conventional money is a game that most players are getting sick of playing. By opening our minds, a new kind of money - and a new kind of game – is within reach. Introducing Open Money. Open Money says: Money is not a thing. Money is information, a unit of measure for keeping track of the economic relationships among a group of people. As information, money need not be scarce. Just as we always have a sufficient number of inches to measure anything we like, we can always have a sufficient amount of money to measure and keep track of our transactions. Because money need neither be a thing nor something that is scarce, it need not be monopolised by anyone. Any community, any group of people that understands the essential informational role of money can create its own accounting system and its own money. There can be as many different monies for as many different purposes as there are internet discussion groups. Money should do more ‘round and ‘round our communities, and less in-and-out. Most communities these days are like leaky buckets, continually struggling to maintain cashflow by selling their resources elsewhere while buying mostly from elsewhere to meet its needs. This leaves communities vulnerable to external shocks. Community currencies, meanwhile, build resilience by encouraging the employment of local resources to meet local needs. It is the kind of money that, once spent, is already on its way back. Open Money provides an opportunity for us as communities to Occupy Money. Let us undermine Wall Street’s grotesque power by understanding and then reclaiming the very thing that underpins that power – money. Call it “guerrilla money”, taking back our economy one community at a time. Let us plant money in the commons, in the boulevards, alleyways and vacant lots of society that our economy currently neglects, and see what takes root there. Something may even flourish there, and who knows, it may even be enough to feed us in the uncertain days ahead. We will be meeting Nov 2nd at Village Occupy Vancouver: I am please to announce that Michael Linton, the founder of LETSystems, Open Money and Community Way - and probably the man who understands money (conventional and alternative) better than anyone else in the world - will be speaking at Occupy Vancouver on Wednesday, Nov. 2nd at 3pm, followed by an Open Money teach-in. I encourage you to check it out if you would like to have everything you ever thought you knew about money completely shattered, to be replaced by a new and much more empowering understanding. For more information about Open Money, and to connect with others in this emerging movement, please visit www.openmoney.org, or email Jordan@villagevancouver.ca. Image of Bart is from http://batr.org

This guest blog is from Vancouver’s own open-money champion, Jordan Bober, who just recently did a detailed and thoughtful presentation: Community Money For Community Food last week, which I sadly missed, fortunately we have the internet so this presentation is available. For anyone who is interested in getting involved, Michael Linton, the founder of LETSystems, Open Money and Community Way – and probably the man who understands money (conventional and alternative) better than anyone else in the world – will be speaking at Occupy Vancouver on Wednesday, Nov. 2nd at 3pm, followed by an Open Money teach-in. More info here. I can’t make it tomorrow, but I hope to be there on the 3rd. So I have a request and please talk about my idea for an art project so kids can get involved in creating a currency.

Make Your Own Seed Bombs!

May 22nd, 2011

It's that time of year to seed bomb the city! I found this basic recipe for seed balls on Heavy Petal, last year and it works great: 5 parts dry red clay* 3 parts dry organic compost 1 part seed** 1 – 2 parts water We used a 16oz. plastic cup as a measure, which made enough for approx ...

The Law of Freedom in a Platform

April 21st, 2010

I have been reading up on the diggers and levellers lately what with all of this land-grabbing that is going on around the world. Living in an apartment I always have my eye on any bit of land that looks fertile or even just neglected. Gerrard Winstanley was one of the original land-redistribution a ...

History & Resources – On Guerrilla Gardening

April 17th, 2010

The 17th of April is the International Day of Peasant Struggle. On April 17 1997, after three months of protest for the defence of Mother Earth and for the cultivation of the coca leaf in Bolivia, seven indigenous peasants, including a child and its mother, were massacred. Today is the day, around ...

Mowed – Greenway Guerrilla Garden

August 26th, 2009

On the evening of August 20th 2009, I took my 20 minute walk, laden with water for my garden. It was the night of the black moon but I was happy loping down the hill the my little bit of greenspace. When I arrived and realized the garden had been mowed to the ground I was in such a state of shock, I ...

Guerrilla Garden Slideshow I

July 28th, 2009

The revenge of the Bean Bandits and Pirate Tomatoes is upon us! I finally found a good spot on one of the Greenways of Vancouver BC. No one was using it, it got good sun and was just by a sky-train and rail-road tracks so it seemed a perfect spot. There is a lot more space available in this area, ...

Preparing for War with the Bankocracy

July 3rd, 2009

Published in Far West Almanac July, 2009. Follow-up to the article: For Generation X Eyes Only. Any political, economic, theological, or philosophical system that in practice rewards production over life is illegitimate because, tautologically enough, it does not value the lives of its citizens o ...

Thoughts on Guerrilla Gardening

April 18th, 2009

There are as many ways to guerrilla garden as there are stars in the sky, and that is the best thing about it. The best way to do it is your way and to just get started. Many people love to make seed bombs and drop them as a group, other people love sneaking privately about the city -- planting plot ...

HD 209 - Interview With Michael Schmidt

Virtual Tour - Eating in Kalaw

MOB 106 - Pregnancy Tea

HD 208 - Occupy Big Food

Twitter Feed

guerrilla

Guerrilla Money

Make Your Own Seed Bombs!

The Law of Freedom in a Platform

History & Resources – On Guerrilla Gardening

Mowed – Greenway Guerrilla Garden

Guerrilla Garden Slideshow I

Preparing for War with the Bankocracy

Thoughts on Guerrilla Gardening

Twitter Feed

home > guerrilla

guerrilla