Plunder of the commons : a manifesto for sharing public wealth

**"One of the most important books I've read in years" —Brian Eno** In an era of intensifying privatisation, we're rapidly losing sight of the idea that there are things that can be shared communally without being owned by anybody, things that stand outside of the market system - for example rivers, forests, and other natural resources. Many of them have already been sold off to private interests, and most of the rest are being pursued. This incendiary book exposes this process and explores its corrosive effect on society and resource maintenance. We are losing the commons. Austerity and neoliberal policies have depleted our shared wealth; our national utilities have been sold off to foreign conglomerates, social housing is almost non-existent, our parks are cordoned off for private events and our national art galleries are sponsored by banks and oil companies. This plunder deprives us all of our common rights, recognized as far back as the __Magna Carta__ and the __Charter of the Forest__ of 1217, to share fairly and equitably in our public wealth. Guy Standing leads us through a new appraisal of the commons, stemming from the medieval concept of common land reserved in ancient law from marauding barons, to his modern reappraisal of the resources we all hold in common - a brilliant new synthesis that crystallises quite how much public wealth has been redirected to the 1% in recent decades through the state-approved exploitation of everything from our land to our state housing, health and benefit systems, to our justice system, schools, newspapers and even the air we breathe. __Plunder of the Commons__ proposes a charter for a new form of commoning, of remembering, guarding and sharing that which belongs to us all, to slash inequality and soothe our current political instability. "Brilliant, insightful, terse, apposite, daring, and transformative. A must read to understand both the past and the future" — Danny Dorling, author of __All That Is Solid__ "Guy Standing brings great historical knowledge, political insight, and passion to documenting the market enclosures of our common wealth: the great unacknowledged scourge of our time. __Plunder of the Commons__ is both a troubling exposé and a practical-minded call to reclaim the commons for ourselves and posterity. Sitting politicians will ignore this stirring book at their peril. Incoming reformers will learn how we might transform our predatory system of economics and the complicit political culture." — David Bollier, Director of the Reinventing the Commons Program at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics and author of __Free, Fair and Alive: The Insurgent Power of the Commons__ "This clear and radical exposition is a call for the defence of the commons, and one of the most important books I've read in years." — Brian Eno "In this majestic work, Guy Standing not only chronicles the historic plundering of our common wealth. More importantly, he shows how we can reclaim that wealth to address our most urgent contemporary problems: economic insecurity and ecological destruction. This is history, analysis and vision, all at their very best." — Peter Barnes, author of __Capitalism 3.0__ "Standing not only wants to remind us how much common land in Britain has been enclosed by the wealthy few. His vision of the commons is extremely capacious...his provocation could hardly be timelier -- Duncan Kelly" ― __Financial Times__ **Guy Standing** co-founded the Basic Income Earth Network and now serves as its honorary co-President. He has held professorships at the University of Bath and at SOAS, was programme director at the International Labour Organisation and has advised the UN, World Bank and governments around the world on labour and social policy. He is the author of the bestselling __The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class__ (2011), __Basic Income: And How We Can Make it Happen__ (2017) and is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. Table of Contents Cover Title Page About the Author Preface 1: The Charter of the Forest The Charter in history: from 1217 to 1971 Enclosure, camping and other riots The Charter uncelebrated 2: The Commons, Commoners and Commoning Commons, commoning and commoners The right to subsistence Social income How commons are created and preserved How the commons are lost Neo-liberalism and austerity The Lauderdale Paradox How the commons are saved Social memory The Hartwick Rule Equality in the commons The precariat: modern commoners A Commons Charter 3: The Natural Commons Land and ‘property rights’ Forests under attack The threat to national parks The ‘right to roam’ Village and town greens under pressure Public parks in decline POPS: privatization of public spaces The massacre of urban trees The ‘colonization’ of water Seashores endangered The air, sky and wind The commons underground: colonization in prospect The Natural Capital Committee The tragedy of the global commons Where do we stand? The Charter: the natural commons 4: The Social Commons Home, homes and homelessness Student accommodation: from commons to commerce The National Health Service: privatization drip by drip Care for the elderly: commercializing common life Playgrounds The mail Transport services Labour market services: from help to coercion The guilds as commons ‘Corporate commons’ The allotment: a metaphor for the commons Concluding reflections 5: The Civil Commons Tottenham rough justice vs. white-collar leniency The arms of the law Privatized policing Probationary services Private prisons Punishing the vulnerable Spare bedrooms: how they are lost Undocumenting migrants POPS and private justice The erosion of civil commons in jobs Policy by algorithm 6: The Cultural Commons Public architecture Public libraries Museums and art galleries Public theatre: venues for empathy The mass media: the neo-liberal drift and vanities of plutocrats Public art in diminished space The austerity hit 7: The Knowledge Commons Information commons Intellectual commons The educational commons 8: A Commons Fund for Common Dividends Common dividends: a route to basic income Epilogue Appendix: The Charter of the Commons Preamble Natural Commons Social Commons Civil Commons Cultural Commons Knowledge Commons Commons Fund and Common Dividends Notes Preface Chapter 1: The Charter of the Forest Chapter 2: The Commons, Commoners and Commoning Chapter 3: The Natural Commons Chapter 4: The Social Commons Chapter 5: The Civil Commons Chapter 6: The Cultural Commons Chapter 7: The Knowledge Commons Chapter 8: A Commons Fund for Common Dividends Index Copyright