New Job Vacancy at Lowimpact.org

Part-time position: IT and social media – including proof-reading and writing [experience of publishing a bonus]

Can work remotely –  Skype meetings plus occasional meetings in London.

Firstly, you’ll be liaising with potential authors, proof reading, editing and preparing books via print-on-demand (POD), with Lightning Source, and working to produce all our publications as ebooks. The aim is to produce two new books per year. Secondly – blogging, writing content for the website, and most importantly, brainstorming.

Further details below and on the Lowimpact.org website: http://www.lowimpact.org/part-time-work-available-lowimpact-team/

Deadline for applications is 15th February 2015.

Background

I started Lowimpact.org (as LILI) in 2001, and if I could condense what I’ve learned since then into one sentence, it would be: ‘we’re headed for an enormous crash unless we change direction’. We’re damaging ecology, which keeps us alive – a crazy thing to do. Capitalism is primed to grow, because of fractional reserve banking, the stock market and compound interest, and that growth means more and more damage. There’s nothing that can be done to reform it to stop it growing – because if it stopped growing, it wouldn’t be capitalism any more, it would just be a market – which is fine. It’s got to go. Banks and corporations are capitalism’s heavies. They crush the small-scale, the mutual and the independent; they lock the majority into capitalism through mortgages, jobs, credit cards and advertising; and they buy the political system. They don’t want to have the conversation about replacing capitalism with something better, because it’s made them rich and powerful. (NB: This is nothing to do with individuals within the corporate system – it’s about the system itself).

So we have to take power from the corporate system. That’s not possible via the parliamentary route, because it’s been bought. It’s not possible through violent revolution either – Bakunin told Marx that power taken with violence will be kept with violence, and he was right. But Marx showed that ideas can change the world, even though his was not the right idea.

There are global networks and individuals doing great things – Transition, Permaculture, credit unions, local currencies, community-supported agriculture, housing co-ops, worker co-ops, Fair Trade, community-owned renewables, WWOOF, La Via Campesina, natural builders, growers, makers, writers, teachers. We’re totally in support of this movement, which could form the basis of a better society. To do that however, it will have to challenge corporate power – and that’s not happening. The corporate world doesn’t even know that most of it even exists, and its grip on the global economy gets tighter each year. Anything that is incremental, takes a long time and relies on the hard work of relatively few individuals suffers from two problems. Firstly, people burn out or give up, and there are not enough high-quality people to take over. Secondly, they can see it coming a mile off and crush it or buy it. Remember the Body Shop, Green & Black’s and Ben & Jerry’s? They were going to kick-start a whole different way of doing business. They now belong to L’Oreal, Cadbury’s and Unilever respectively. And capitalism just swallowed the Co-op Bank whole.

So, those initiatives are great for outlining what society could look like, but not enough to get us there. Something needs to happen that involves a lot more people, and (crucially) is quick – revolutionary, in other words. Russell Brand may be wrong about a lot of things, but he’s right about this – we need systemic change via some sort of (non-violent) revolution. It could emerge from the network of initiatives that are already happening, or it could be a new idea – like Marx’s (only better).

What we want to achieve

So we have an idea that we want to try to spread. It’s based on something we’re doing already, called ‘Philosophy Club’. A group of us have been doing it for nearly two years in London, and it’s fun. It’s not ‘anti’ anything, it has no ideology and it’s not hard work. It involves getting together in each other’s homes to eat, drink and talk philosophy – and party afterwards. What’s not to like?

The idea behind it is to create a network of people getting together in each other’s homes and talking about what we’re going to do – and eventually choosing representatives from face-to-face contact to go on to meetings covering wider areas, and begin to build a parallel system. I’m writing a book, someone else is building a website, and it’s set to launch at the end of this year or the beginning of next. If this particular idea doesn’t work, we can continue to meet in each other’s homes, and talk about what might be a better one.

What we want to achieve, ultimately, is a better system for choosing our leaders.

How we want to do it

Lowimpact.org now knows and is known by thousands of people, doing really good things individually and in networks all over the UK, and in other countries. You’re probably one of them. We’d like to reach more of those people, and form a larger network to help people change their lives, to help small businesses get more customers at the expense of the corporate sector, and to spread the ‘Philosophy Club’ idea.

Where you come in

So we’re offering paid work for someone who wants to help us to do that.

If you’re the right person, what’s written above will make sense – that’s the first and most important thing. We’re looking for someone who’s committed to change. You will have good technical knowledge – especially in IT and social media. You’ll also be a good writer, a compulsive proof-reader, and if you have experience of publishing, that would be a bonus – it’s not essential though, as we’ll train you. You can work remotely – we can have Skype meetings, although it would be good to meet up occasionally in London.

The job has two aspects. Firstly, publishing. You’ll be liaising with potential authors, proof reading, editing and preparing books via print-on-demand (POD), with Lightning Source, and working to produce all our publications as ebooks. The aim is to produce two new books per year. Secondly – blogging, writing content for the website, and most importantly, brainstorming about how best to do the things I mentioned above.

Another person could join us relatively soon, focusing on promotion.

How you get paid

You’ll have to be self-employed or have your own company, and you’ll invoice monthly. You’ll be paid £500 per month initially, and this represents one day’s work per week (i.e. around £30k pro rata). If it works well, it could soon start to rise to £1000 per month, which will represent 2 day’s work per week. After that, it depends on our income and your commitments, but it could continue to grow into a full-time job, and you could become a staff member if that’s preferable. The work will be completely flexible. You’ll organise your own activities, based on our discussions, and choose when you do them.

If you wanted to, you could top up your income by recruiting to the network. It works like this, and you could keep the subs you recruit for the first year. All money raised will only ever be used to achieve the aims outlined above. You could do this job even if you don’t get the job advertised here. Let us know if you’re interested.

What to do next

Contact us with 500 words or less on how you think we could best achieve the aims outlined above, and why you’re the best person to help do it. We’ll respond to everyone, and interview three people in London. Deadline for applications is Feb 15th.