Upcoming events:
- Can the Earth Survive Capitalism?: Reading and Discussion with Peter Barnes
- Movie Night – Gasland
- Movie Night – GrowthBusters: Hooked On Growth
Is it possible to transform capitalism so the economy can exist within ecological limits? In his new book, journalist & entrepreneur Peter Barnes proposes a model of the market in which “the earth isn’t devoured and the gap between rich and poor gets narrower rather than wider.” A co-founder of Working Assets/Credo (a company that provides ethical, sustainable solutions for mobile phone service and banking), Barnes will share his hands-on experience and the details of his latest project. Peter Barnes is author of Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons.
Can you light your water on fire?
May’s Transition Movie Night is on a Wednesday as we screen Gasland, a film uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination surrounding the practice of hydrolic fracturing, or “fracking.”
Hope you can join us for the movie followed by discussion. We will provide some popcorn again.
May’s Transition Movie Night is on a Wednesday as we screen GrowthBusters, a movie exploring society’s most fundamental beliefs about prosperity.
Hope you can join us for the movie followed by discussion. We will provide some popcorn again. RSVP by Email or on Facebook.
Past events:
- POTLUCK – Worker Cooperatives in JP and Beyond!
- Wealth Inequality: The Gilded Road to Ruin?
- Envisioning Our Future JP – POTLUCK
- The Economics of Happiness – Film Screening
- Education Not Deportation – The Student Immigrant Movement and the Struggle for Educational Equity
Co-ops 101 -What is a worker cooperative? What are the advantages and challenges of the cooperative model?
Come hear from those active in local worker cooperatives:
• Red Sun Press -a union and cooperative printer in Jamaica Plain
• Equal Exchange -a worker cooperative based in Massachusetts that sells coffee, tea, chocolate and other fair trade products
• Dorchester Food Community Co-Op – a new initiative to bring good jobs and healthy food to Dorchester through a hybrid worker-community owned cooperative
• Quilted – A worker owned web development company based in Boston and the Bay Area.
Discussion- What would it look like to develop worker cooperatives in our communities? What community issues could co-ops address?
2012 is the International Year of the Coop and the National Worker Cooperative Conference is coming to Boston this year. This workshop is part of a series of events leading up to the US Federation of Worker Cooperative’s National Conference.
Potluck – remember to bring your own plate and fork, there is a sink for washing.
Hope to see you on Wed night!
Chuck Collins, director of the Institute for Policy Studies Program on Inequality and the Common Good, and journalist Linda McQuaig explore the impact of the growing wealth gap, and suggest ways to reverse the increase in economic inequality. What role does the call for austerity play in reinforcing or overcoming economic inequality? Where do they see the political will to make the necessary policy changes? What can a single nation do to counteract the effects of global economic conditions?
Chuck will discuss his new book, 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It. Linda will discuss her new book, Billionaire’s Ball: Gluttony and Hubris in an Age of Epic Inequality. Both books will be available for sale at a signing after the program!
The next pot luck will be a group visualization of what our future will look like in a resilient Jamaica Plain, and the identification of what is already going on in our community that will move us in that direction.
What we will come away with from this is a comprehensive list for the resiliency measures project and a sense of where we are and what we have to do next. Expect lively discussion, bright ideas and energy for new working groups.
RSVP on Facebook or RSVP by Email
Thanks Jenny for hosting! 87 Paul Gore St #1 (just up the street from the Nate Smith House, on the left between Beecher St. and St Peter St. If driving, the street is one way, enter from Centre St at El Oriental de Cuba restaurant, if you can’t find a parking space turn right on Beecher and circle round). Space is tight, so RSVP soon.
For more information on the Resiliency Measures Project: http://jptransition.org/2012/
The 2011 report: http://jptransition.org/wp-
Economic globalization has led to a massive expansion in the scale and power of big business and banking. It has also worsened nearly every problem we face: fundamentalism and ethnic conflict; climate chaos and species extinction; financial instability and unemployment. There are personal costs too. For the majority of people on the planet life is becoming increasingly stressful. We have less time for friends and family and we face mounting pressures at work.
The Economics of Happiness describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions. On the one hand, government and big business continue to promote globalization and the consolidation of corporate power. At the same time, all around the world people are resisting those policies,a re-regulation of trade and finance—and, far from the old institutions of power, they’re starting to forge a very different future. Communities are coming together to re-build more human scale, ecological economies based on a new paradigm – an economics of localization.
We hear from a chorus of voices from six continents including Samdhong Rinpoche, the Prime Minister of Tibet’s government in exile, Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben, David Korten and Zac Goldsmith. They tell us that climate change and peak oil give us little choice: we need to localize, to bring the economy home. The good news is that as we move in this direction we will begin not only to heal the earth but also to restore our own sense of well-being. The Economics of Happiness restores our faith in humanity and challenges us to believe that it is possible to build a better world.
Along with the JP Forum, JP NET is sponsoring a “New Economy” film series on the last Thursday of every month. We watch films about building a new economy that works for everyone in harmony with the planet. Help us choose the movies! Vote here for the films you want to see.