[OSGeo-Discuss] About organizing a general strike

[Even Rouault]

Hi Luis,

I was genuinely interested in what people could have in mind with such a 
call. I realize that my motion (obviously second degree in its form) was 
way too much restricted with the developer and not inclusive enough.

So let me write down a sketch what I had in mind. Well something along 
those lines... I'm a poor communicator and activist

"""Here we undersigned X, Y, Z, etc members of the OSGeo community make 
the following statements:

- we recognize that economical and political forces in responsibility in 
countries of our finite planet are not making the decisive steps to stop 
the root causes of global warming and mitigate the unavoidable consequences

- we ask that citizens of countries of our planet to have their say 
through democratic expression on the appropriateness, scope and limits 
of the use of AI technologies

Both issues affect all inhabitants of this planet, and ourselves in 
particular.

To underline the seriousness of our concerns, we have decided to stop 
our activities for a period of one month, formely a strike, and invite 
any other person or group in other communities to act similarly

"""

So yes nothing directly about the business of software or against 
OSGeo... But in a world where your life is endangered, creating or using 
software is the least of your concern. Recent experience showed me that 
in a world were I would be exposed regularly to temperature >= 30 
degrees,  my productivity those days would be zero as this summer 
demonstrated. So after all, you could tell that it's about OSGeo making 
sure its members have access to liveable conditions to accomplish it 
mission (and I consider that buying a fan or air conditionning is just a 
band-aid, not a serious response to the issue).  The part about AI could 
enter in the mental health of its members. AI is an addictive drug, a 
true one.

To be fully transparent, my main needs in life are breathing, drinking 
water, eating, health care, dressing, housing.   Being able to write 
open source software would probably be ranked below 50th position. This 
is kind of a futile hobby, right? Yes I know I'm kind of provocative, 
but in the world we're heading too, not sure that computers will matter 
that much.

Even


Le 11/09/2026 à 18:00, Luí s Moreira de Sousa a écrit :
> Hi Even,
>
> strikes, and general strikes, were some of the first tools (many times effective) in what became knownw as the Class Struggle. A strike is an action taken by a percieved weak faction (union, workers association) facing a strong faction (employer, owner of means of production).
>
> Before devising motives, it would be important to identify against which faction the community would be striking. We contribute to projects and the Foundation itself, none of which fit the traditional understanding of owners of means of production.
>
> Regards.
>
> --
> Luís Moreira de Sousa

-- 
http://www.spatialys.com
My software is free, but my time generally not.
LLMs contribute to global warming and brain rot.
Let's guillotine them! "Ah ! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira !"