My Co-operative Principles

April 13, 2021 | 456 Words

Mulling over my base principles in contemplating a tech-oriented cooperative way of working, I’m influenced by The ICA’s Principles, Noah’s Personal Tech Ethics and its sources in the IWOC and Design Justice, and Autonomic’s Principles.

1. Democratic egalitarian member control.
   Small flat organizations (and Sociocracy-inspired circles, hierarchy when delegated from and accountable to below) where folks have direct control of their own labor and the policies they operate within; Consensus Without Argued Objection supporting shared commitment to sustainable and principled decisions.

2. Diverse inclusive relationship to humanity, centering and accountable to impacted communities.
   Can I try to tackle privilege in a paragraph? I’m more likely than not surrounded by white men, and I resonate with James Baldwin and Resmaa Menakem asking us to confront our privilege rather than trying to pull in black and brown labor to assuage our sense of isolation and guilt (we’ll let you know when you seem safe for us). Stepping back, offering mutual aid, and being accountable for the impacts of my decisions.

3. Sustainable economics and ecology, opposition to exploitation.
   The categories of exploitative relationships I currently participate in is frighteningly large. From funding, employers, consumers, incarceration and all varieties of police and border state policies, fossil fuels, colonization, animal and ecological tragedy … almost without thought to the violence we accept. Where can my personal and organizational choices shift this burden away to sustain coexistence?

4. Open commons, for the common good of people.
   I’ve always been proud of my peripheral attachment to the open source community, for the promise of de-fettered increase in access to technology and freedom to tinker, but in recent years this has been complicated to a stronger but muddier position about commons and ethics, not sure I can put it better than Noah’s “oppose the current paradigm of Open Source that is designed for benefits to redound to large corporations, and take great issue with the largely value-neutral ideology of Free (Libre) Software.”

5. Transparent education and information, facilitating understanding.
   I think it’s worth specfically calling out the value of education, of sharing knowledge transparently, and listening to facilitate growing the human capacity around us. This is the positively stated aspect of Open Source, beyond source code, that I want to continue to believe in.

6. Privacy and decentralization for autonomy & independence.
   Inspired by ICA principle 4, restated by Noah, and finding a renewed excitement for rejecting advertising-driven technology in the Fediverse, I specifically want technology I create to center personal safety and collective autonomy, and to recognize that participation in a freely public commons is only safe to the extent of one’s privilege.