We need pathways to sustainable, equitable and just societies

The idea of mixing capitalism and socialism in a “fluffy” path is proposed as a solution to the shortcomings of both systems. This notion is especially popular among well-meaning liberals who point to European social democracies as examples of successful mixed economies. However, any deeper examination reveals contradictions and challenges inherent in attempting to merge…

A European Future

Changing the European Union (#EU) to be more competent and progressive on social and tech issues requires concerted effort and engagement from all the stakeholders, including activists, citizens, civil society organizations (#NGO), policymakers, and Eurocrats. I outline some #fluffy strategies for driving change within the EU: Overall, changing the EU to be more competent and…

Who is the change and challenge we need?

#Deathcult dilemma, over the past 40 years, #mainstreaming society has been driven by a choice between the “nice” and “nasty” facets of a #deathcult, with fear often pushing people towards the latter. This has led to catastrophic consequences, over the next ten years millions of deaths and billions of people displaced. With our society’s focus…

NGI Zero open source funding talks about the @sovtechfund

NGI Zero open source funding The @sovtechfund is offering grants to people who contribute to a sustainable open source ecosystem. Grants go up to €300,000 per application and cover three main topics: 1. Improve FOSS Developer Tooling 2. Securing FOSS Software Production 3. FOSS Infrastructure Documentation With this program, the Sovereign Tech Fund seeks to…

A short film about the bigone #XR event

Title: The Spiky Fluffy Debate: Reflections on the Extinction Rebellion Event Opening shot of London streets bustling with cars and people. Narrator: In 2019, the Extinction Rebellion movement took the world by storm with its call for urgent action on climate change. Thousands of people took to the streets, demanding that governments take concrete steps…

A look at the recent history of radical grassroots activism

#ClimateCamp was a radical grassroots direct action movement to directly challenge #climatechaos and raise awareness about climate change and advocate for solutions to mitigate its effects. The movement was made up of a loosely organized network of activists who used a diversity of tactics to achieve their goals. Climate Camps were established in many countries.…

Q&A on outreaching the fluffy/spiky debate to the fluffys

You’re bringing in the idea of “fluffy” and “spiky”. And you think both have merit. Have been working with bridging this often hostile divide for more than 30 years in hundreds of campaigns on the ground and online. The best outcome you can hope for is “diversity of tactics/strategy” You’re also drawing attention to the…

As with most metaphors (and real life) the definition is not exact

* Fluffy – asking/pressuring for change though the system * Spiky – fucking shit up to enact change and directly and sometime ethically using “violence” to property – not to people. * Beyond spiky the is WAR where direct harm to people happens – that’s outside the metaphor. It’s interesting to take a few moments…