Gorillas related joke on twitter
Artikel
12. Juni 2021
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von Subliminal_Guy

Gorillas of all nations … unite!

It was 3pm sharp when Kağan Sümer appeared as the only visible participant in the „all-hands meeting“ on Zoom on Friday June 11th. The CEO and co-founder of Gorillas Technologies – the fastest startup ever in Germany to reach unicorn status – called the meeting to troubleshoot the recent developments in his company.
Following the allegedly sudden layoff of the delivery rider Santiago on June 9 dozens of rider have blocked two warehouses of the delivery startup that emphasizes the speed of delivery – 10 minutes – as its unique selling proposition. After a blockade at one warehouse in Charlottenstrasse the protest continued at another hub in Torstraße 205 in Berlin-Mitte. Management was eventually forced to shut down operations for the day. The picket line continued the next day and caught the attention of local newspapers and regional television.

Kağan Sümer had to react and did it like only a startup CEO can handle such a situation: by calling an all-hands meeting where only he gets to speak.
While already streaming live he repeatedly asked someone off-screen if enough participants are online already.

„We’ll start when we reach 500 participants. Or shall we wait until 800?“

Sümer did everything to appear informal if not shirtsleeved (i mean literally). Apparently searching for the right words he told the audience on the „all-hands staff meeting“, that just one year ago he spent most of his days doing deliveries on his own bike: Riding longer and harder than everyone else.
What he didn’t bother to mention was that the company raised more than 330 million in two funding rounds between December 2020 and March 2021 and is currently valued 1 billion US-Dollar. A huge market-value for a bunch of friends that decided to change the perception of delivery riders in the gig economy.
At least that was the self-decription that Sümer evoked in his speech. The layoff of Santiago was based on substantial reasons and is not up for debate. What is – according to Sümer – up to debate instead is if everyone is keeping a positive attitude and focusing on the issue at hand: Riding.

„It has to be about riding and not about politics.“

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Book Cover Hegemony How-To
Artikel
15. April 2021
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von Subliminal_Guy

Hegemony How-To – Chapter 3

On March 9th we had the third meeting of our Hegemony How-To reading group and talked about the third chapter of the book. Here’s a recap of its contents.

+++ Chapter 3 Summary +++

In the third chapter of Hegemony How-To Jonathan Matthew Smucker (JMS) introduces us to his concept of the „Life of the oppositional group“. He carefully introduces his critique with two stories in which he stressed the importance of pursuing and developing a group identity:

Carol Hanisch, author of the essay “The Personal is Political” strongly rejected the dismission of women’s caucuses and discussion circles as “therapeutic”.

„The phrase the personal is political was originally intended to mean that the oppression you experience as an individual is patterned“

It was crucial for many oppressed group to identify their individual struggles as collective struggles and JMS makes clear that he recognizes this as an issue of great importance.

He emphasizes this by also telling the story of Jose Vasquez, an ex-military, who first had to learn that his personal and isolated traumas are indeed a widespread phenomena and political matters. There’s no clear line for Vasquez to separate the therapeutic and the political aspects of his organizing.

The takeway that JMS has is that we should recognize political group as an opportunity to find a “sense of belonging” and a “space for healing”, but we shouldn’t stop there.
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Protester with Guy Fawkes mask
Artikel
9. März 2021
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von Subliminal_Guy

Warum digitale Selbstverteidigung?

Ein Thema, das bei DiEM25 stets nachlässig behandelt wurde ist das Thema Cybersicherheit, digitale Selbstverteidigung, oder wie es bei DiEM25 hieß: Technologische Souveränität. Die Bewegung kommunizierte in unverschlüsselten WhatsApp und Telegram-Gruppen, mit unverschlüsselten eMails, in der Videokonferenz-Software Zoom, in Google Docs und Facebook-Gruppen. Die Kritiker dieser Praxis waren natürlich weiße, akademisch vorgebildete und computer-affine Nerds, die alle mit ihrem ständigen Gemecker nervten. Da sich auch die Nerds nicht auf einen Goldstandard einigen konnten pendelte sich Telegram als Quasi-Standard ein, obwohl der Gruppenchat nicht einmal eine Verschlüsselungsoption bot.

Wenn wir unsere Bedenken ansprachen, bekamen wir oft zur Antwort, dass unsere Konversationen ja in der Regel unbedenklich und für Geheimdienste uninteressant seien. Oder dass die Bewegung erstmal wachsen müsse und dann habe man Geld für sichere, eigene Alternativen. Die Bitte nach einem Umzug auf ein verschlüsseltes und dezentral gespeichertes Pad, in die DiEM25-eigene Cloud oder in den sicheren Signal-Messenger stieß regelmäßig auf Grundsatzdebatten und Widerstand. Ich bin jedoch der Auffassung, dass sich progressive Bewegungen einen solchen Luxus nicht leisten können. Der Aufbau und die Nutzung von verschlüsselten, sicheren und dezentralen Alternativen ist aus folgenden Gründen notwendig:

1. Was sind wichtige Informationen?

Es mag stimmen, dass in unseren Konversationen selten geheime oder gar illegale Dinge besprochen wurden. Aber wer mag verbindlich definieren was sensible Information ist und was nicht? Für einige Mitglieder – z.B. Beschäftigte des öffentlichen Dienstes oder Ausländer*innen mit unklarem Aufenthaltsstatus – ist die Schwelle sicherlich eine andere als für den/die gebürtigen Deutschen mit wohlhabenden Eltern der/die in einem alternativen Wohnprojekt lebt. Wenn die Chatverläufe wirklich ausgewertet werden sollten – der Fantasie sind nach den Skandalen um Edward Snowden und Cambridge Analytica wenig Grenzen gesetzt – dann dürfte es für den politischen Gegner auch interessant sein, welche internen Konflikte es in der Bewegung gibt, wo die organisatorischen Schwächen sind, wer die dominanten Mitglieder sind und welche Taktiken präferiert werden. Spätestens wenn eine Bezugsgruppe in die Aktionsphase geht, entstehen strategisch wichtige Informationen, die viele Mitglieder in Gefahr bringen können. Besser, wenn dann der Umgang mit sicheren digitalen Tools schon in Fleisch und Blut übergegangen ist.
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Protester with Guy Fawkes mask
Artikel
5. März 2021
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von Subliminal_Guy

Why Digital Self-Defense?

One topic that was always neglected at DiEM25 is cyber security, digital self-defense, or as it was called at DiEM25: Technological Sovereignty. The movement communicated in unencrypted WhatsApp and Telegram groups, with unencrypted emails, in the video conferencing software Zoom, in Google Docs and Facebook groups. The critics of those bad practices were, of course, white, educated and computer-savvy nerds who annoyed everyone with their constant criticism. Since even the nerds couldn’t agree on a gold standard, Telegram settled in as a quasi-standard, even though group chat doesn’t offer an option for encryption.

When we raised our concerns, we often got the answer that our conversations were usually harmless and uninteresting for secret services and the like. Or that the movement would have to grow first and then we would have money for secure alternatives of our own. Requests to move to an encrypted and decentralised pad, to DiEM25’s own cloud or to the secure Signal messenger were regularly met with debates on basic principals and heavy reluctance. I nonetheless strongly believe that progressive movements cannot afford such a luxury. Building and using encrypted, secure and decentralised/federated alternatives is essential for the following reasons:

1. What counts as “important” information?

It might be true that clandestine or even illegal things were rarely discussed in our conversations. But who can define what is sensitive information and what is not? For some members – e.g. public sector employees or foreigners with unclear residence status – the threshold is certainly different than for the native German with wealthy parents living in an alternative housing project. If chat histories are really being analysed (by whomsoever there are few limits to the imagination after the Edward Snowden and Cambridge Analytica scandals) then it would also be interesting for the political opponent to find out which internal conflicts hold sway over the movement, where the organisational weaknesses are, who the dominant members are and which tactics are preferred. Eventually the moment will arrive when an affinity group enters the action phase. Strategically important information emerges that can put many members in danger. The use of secure digital tools should be ubiquitous by then.
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Book Cover Hegemony How-To
Artikel
3. Februar 2021
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von Subliminal_Guy

Hegemony How-To – Chapter 2

On February 1st we had the second meeting of our Hegemony How-To reading group and talked about the second chapter of the book. Comparisons with our experiences @DiEM25 came up in the discussion inevitably, as at least five participants were formerly (or still are) aligned with DiEM25. We decided to embrace this tendency as it fleshed-out the debate with some RL experience. (Note to myself: We have to be careful to not alienated future newcomers, tho.)

+++ Chapter 2 Summary +++

In the beginning I did my best to give a brief overview about the contents of the short but insightful 2nd chapter „The 99%: The symbol and the agent“.

In this chapter Jonathan Matthew Smucker (JMS) elaborates on his affiliations with the Occupy Wall Street Movement (OWS) that he decided to use as a key study to guide his readers through this book. In his own words:

„Occupy succeeded in introducing a popularly resonant populist narrative about economic inequality and a rigged political system. How it did so is instructive and foreshadows key concepts that I will keep building upon in later chapters.“

When he first heard about the movement in September 2011 he couldn’t help to be a bit sceptical about the similarities of the OWS tactics (occupying a public space) with the events that took place during Arab Spring and Tahrir in the preceding years. It stroke him as a „lack of appreciation for context“. Soon enough JMS was proven wrong by the success of the events in New York and joined the movement.
[Weiterlesen]

Book Cover Hegemony How-To
Artikel
8. Januar 2021
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von Subliminal_Guy

Hegemony How-To – Chapter 1

On January 7th we had the first meeting of our Hegemony How-To reading group. In the last years many of us have stumbled upon this book during our political work, partly as members of DiEM25. Few of us are associated with DiEM25 anymore, but all of us want to learn how to improve our organising skills and understand what went wrong with political organising in the past.

+++ Chapter 1 Summary +++

We began the session with a brief summary of the first chapter „Political Orphans“. In this chapter Jonathan Matthew Smucker (referred to as JMS in the following passages) gives us a brief introduction of himself, his socialization as an organizer and political active person. Far from being a ‚red diaper baby‘ – as he puts it – he left home with 17 years to hitchhike ‚from Pennsylvania up into New England, and then across the Midwest‘. There in the American wilderness he had some kind of a religious epiphany that helped him to connect his christian beliefs with the social justice issues he encountered during his travels. After his return he held his first speech at Lancaster Mennonite High School as a mini-worship service talking about exploitation, sweatshops, union-busting and other issues. Other than he expected a lot of students and teachers were able to connect to his speech and it caused a lot of debates.
[Weiterlesen]

Desktop with a bunch of devices
Artikel
16. Dezember 2020
2 Kommentare
von Subliminal_Guy

Platform capitalism: How Big Tech monopolies are messing up the global economy

In her early memoir Abolish Silicon Valley, Wendy Liu recounts her experience as a Startup CTO working 60-80 hours per week. In retrospect she rationalises her behaviour as an attempt to escape the “nameless dread of imprisonment” in a nine-to-five job.

Despite the fact that she and her colleagues earned practically no money, the prospect of an acqui-hire (neologism of “acquisition” and “hiring”) for a couple of million US$ kept them running beyond reason. Celebrities like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk had already proved that it is possible to join the Billionaire class starting with a garage business.

What Liu describes here — the desire to be extraordinarily rewarded for hard work, coupled with contempt for people who don’t try hard enough — is a structural problem in ‘Big Tech’.

‘Big Tech’ and its brand of platform capitalism can only be vaguely described as a business model that includes IT, data and/or the Internet — paired with the promise of a more flexible, smarter, disruptive and intelligent production. Behind the curtain, as a closer analysis shows, lurks a profitability crisis of global capitalism, which only has gained momentum after the 2008 financial crisis. The “techlash” — as the hypothetical backlash of omnipotent tech companies, such as Google or Facebook, was originally coined — went viral for the first time as a result of the Snowden revelations in 2013.

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Foodora Fahrer in Gasse
Artikel
11. September 2020
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von Subliminal_Guy

Plattform-Genossenschaften – Ein Arbeitsplatzmodell für das 21. Jahrhundert?

Die Welt der Fahrradkuriere ist ein seltsames Ökosystem, das aus vielen verschiedenen Spezies besteht. Als der Lieferdienst Deliveroo im August 2019 Berlin verließ, gründete eine Gruppe von Fahrradkurieren ihre eigene Kooperative: Kolyma2

Stefano Lombardo – der Gründer von Kolyma2 – arbeitete seit mehr als vier Jahren für den Lieferdienst Deliveroo. Bereits während seiner Zeit dort plante Stefano eine eigene Kooperative zu gründen. Nachdem Deliveroo Berlin verlassen hatte, sah er seine Zeit gekommen. Er gründete die das Lieferkollektiv Kolyma2– mit einer Oldschool-Webseite und einem Telegram-Kanal.

So liebenswert dieser Lo-Fi-Ansatz auch war, Technologie scheint eine entscheidende Rolle in der Welt der Online-Lieferdienste zu spielen. Der Umfang der Kommunikation zwischen Kunden und Fahrer um eine Lieferung abzuschliessen ist enorm. In der Folge musste Kolyma2 schon im November 2019 den Betrieb wieder einstellen. Abgesehen von der Technologie gab es allerdings noch andere Probleme. Es war einfach zu viel Arbeit auf den Schultern von zu wenigen Menschen.

Dies war aber nicht das Ende von Kolyma2. Im Januar 2020 kehrten sie zurück, ausgestattet mit einer besseren Infrastruktur. Geholfen hat ihnen dabei der französische Software-Entwickler Alexandre Segura, auch bekannt unter dem Namen Mex, und die Plattform Coopcycle. Zusammen mit dem Covid-19-Shutdown, der das Lieferdienst-Business ordentlich ankurbelt, boomte das Geschäft im Frühjahr 2020.

[Weiterlesen]

Nader in Deutschland
Artikel
10. Februar 2020
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von Subliminal_Guy

Nur ein ganz normales Wochenende? R.I.P. Nader ❤️❤️❤️

Am vergangenen Samstag ist einem Freund meiner Schwester etwas Schreckliches passiert. Es wird nicht in den überregionalen Medien auftauchen, es wird keinen Social-Media-Shitstorm auslösen und keine Hasskommentare nach sich ziehen. Denn es ist ein individuelles Schicksal, das Schicksal eines einzelnen Menschen, der Eltern, Verwandte, Freund*innen und Kolleg*innen hatte, die ihn liebten, mochten und schätzen.
Es ist aber auch ein Schicksal, dass sich über zwei Kontinente erstreckte und von Flucht und Migration handelt.

Der 21jährige Nader ist am 8.2.2020 um 21:34 bei einer Messerstecherei tödlich verletzt worden. Er verstarb am folgenden Morgen gegen 8 Uhr im Krankenhaus an den Folgen seiner Verletzungen. Der mutmaßliche Täter befindet sich in Haft.
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Artikel
4. Oktober 2019
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von Subliminal_Guy

Miami Punk – Juan S. Guse

Miami PunkMiami Punk by Juan S. Guse
Meine Wertung: 5 von 5 Sternen

Eine wilde Mischung aus David Foster Wallace‘ „Infinite Jest“, Neal Stephensons „Snow Crash“ und Roberto Bolaños „2666“. In der holografischen Erzählung, die verschiedene experimentelle Textformen nutzt, geht es um Verlust, Jugend, Perspektivlosigkeit, Spiritualismus, Games, Eskapismus und der Suche nach dem Sinn des Lebens. Wer nicht neurotisch nach einer Identifikationsfigur (die es durchaus gibt) oder einem Plot (der eher im Hintergrund wirkt) oder einer stringenten Dramaturgie (sie ist sehr komplex) sucht, der wird an diesem Buch, das für den deutschen Sprachraum durchaus singulär ist, seine Freude haben. Ich hätte lieber 4,5 Sterne gegeben, habe aber aus Sympathie für den Autoren auf 5 aufgerundet.