In Common

The upheavals of the crisis have opened up a vast, long-ignored, neglected territory which, in these times of dispossession and loss, has a wonderful quality: it belongs to everyone. This is the immense domain of what is held in common and shared which, without belonging to anyone, is the birthright and responsibility of each and every one of us. The rapacity of the market society has often led us to forget that trusting others and working together are the true foundations of collective life, and that behind each individual impulse lies the unstoppable energy of the whole community. Nature, dreams, education, democratic ideals, cities, music … are all part of the material and immaterial heritage of every single person. Those spaces which are not governed by the standards of market values but by the measure of what is good for the whole community, fostering a new culture of solidarity and the collective capacity to preserve, create and manage common wealth, must be vigorously defended.