The 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta was this month.

Democracy Now! reported on the event and interviewed Peter Linebaugh on June 15th, the day of the anniversary. He is the author of The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberty and Subsistence for All.

As Linebaugh describes, what is so significant about this “Great Charter” is the recognition of certain civil rights when it was sealed in 1215. Because I advocate co-ops as a means of creating equity, this document is an intriguing part of history that not only established habeas corpus, but as pertains to cooperatives and a sharing economy, the document is a pivotal point in history to recognize and value the commons. At the time it was written, the commons were the forests of Britain and a source of valuable natural resources such as wood.  According to Linebaugh, laws allowed for hunting without capital punishment and established rights for women to use the resources of the commons.

Recognizing and protecting the commons is a very pertinent topic today whether we’re discussing the world wide web or the earth’s oceans. My belief is that co-ops offer a small way to address sharing that can impact commons such as these and many more.