left-reminders:

Enclosure is the process whereby commonly-utilized resources are privatized to enrich individual property owners (rather than the whole community). Capitalism got its start by enclosing land commons throughout the world, and to this day it is a structural trait of the system to enclose any and all uncommodified goods. Healthcare, education, media, art, internet access, parks, workplaces — even though communities utilize these resources, private autocrats make the decisions and accumulate the profits. Partisans of capitalism would have you believe that enclosure benefits a vast multitude of property owners, but in reality it’s more likely that a wealthy minority will control the majority of the viable resources in any given society.

The socialist antithesis is a democratic commons, where people collectively manage the resources they need to live well and democratically participate in the decisions that impact them. Life would be about enriching the whole population, all and each, rather than about the accumulation of wealth for a select few.

There’s a reason why Robin Hood was always able to justify his “theft” of wealth from the rich: the wealth was stolen to begin with, part and parcel to a great social evil committed by class tyrants who plunder the common human inheritance. With capitalist crises on the rise and climate catastrophe threatening the future of human society and global ecosystems, Robin Hood stories are needed now more than ever.