1. “as precarity becomes generalised, it ceases to be a weapon against us, and becomes a new form of commonality, new ground of struggle.”

This is interesting; but precarity is also becoming commoditised. With financialisation, risk itself is becoming a commodity that can be traded on financial markets. A good example is weather futures: an energy company buys a derivative linked to the temperature in its area, for example, if the winter is “too warm”, meaning it doesn’t sell enough power, it recoups its lost profits by the gain on these derivatives. This already happens in the US. Sociologist Ulrich Beck writes of a utopian future in which individuals and families hedge their risks — against flooding, losing their job or whatever — in the same way. He imagines a “complete set” of such financial markets: before embarking on the 6 years training (or whatever) it takes to become a doctor, say, you buy the financial products that hedge against the possibility that their won’t be sufficient demand for doctors once you’ve completed (“invested in”) that training.

2. The fair prices campaign is a great idea. It not only has the potential to link the various crises, but also to link existing struggles and to raise old questions. For example, it could connect with “middle class” campaigns on food miles and local food. It raises the question of how we use land, which then leads to the question of how we live and the commodity form. It could connect with struggles in the South, around food subsidies and against neoliberalism. One the aspects of SAPs in the South was removal of food subsidies and price controls; but remember in the UK we used to have free milk and subsidised dinners in school. So perhaps fair prices could be linked to Jamie’s school dinners. And it could be linked to farmers’ struggles, because despite rising food prices most of the world’s farmers are poor.