Democracy Is Direct

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Re: Democracy Is Direct

Postby American Dream » Thu Oct 19, 2017 1:13 pm

"What is needed most today is the gradual dismantling of authority within people themselves, in their mode of psychic activity, in the general, daily practice of life in society. Dismantling authority in the organizational apparatus is important. Dismantling it in the theory and tactics of class struggle is more important. But most important of all is dismantling authority in the human soul, because without that it is impossible to abolish authority in either organization or tactics and theory"

Otto Rühle, 1925
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Re: Democracy Is Direct

Postby American Dream » Mon Dec 04, 2017 9:50 am

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INSURRECTION STARTS AT HOME: KEVIN VAN METER ON EVERYDAY RESISTANCE [VIDEO]
DECEMBER 4, 2017

All revolutions start as the basic refusal of an oppressed person to follow along with the rules of their own subservience. The autonomous Marxist tradition breaks from many understanding of economics and history to say that it is what it calls “Working Class Self-Activity” that brings about crisis. In 2007-8 we saw an economic collapse not just because of the nefarious actors on Wall Street, but because an entire working class decided to refuse to go along with the destruction of real wages and living standards. Through de-industrialization, attacks on labor unions, and the depletion of the social safety net through neoliberalism, the actual wealth of the collective working class was set ablaze. Debt soared, and workers began to, en masse, take out loans they couldn’t pay back, buy houses they couldn’t afford, and run up credit cards they didn’t care to pay off. They refused to play by the rules of the system that was forcing them into economic and social retreat.

That principle has echoed through history. The crisis of the Civil War came after decades of increasing slave revolts. The similar principle can be seen in peasant revolts across the world, the story of the labor movement and its insurgent actors, and the student uprisings starting in the 1960s.

Kevin Van Meter dives deep into this phenomenon, which he calls “everyday resistance.” This is the kind of resistance that happens no matter if someone is attuned to revolutionary class politics or not. It is the kind of resistance that comes as an act of survival. Stealing from work. Clocking in your friend who is late. Creating mutual aid networks to care for kids. Fighting back against abusive husbands. These are all acts of resistance, and they are, as Van Meter asserts, the foundation of all radical and revolutionary politics.

The question here is how to mobilize this everyday resistance into a fully formed mass movement, and how antifascism and the resistance to Trumpism can build on the instinct towards survival.

THE BELOW TALK WAS GIVEN AT POWELL’S BOOKS IN PORTLAND, OREGON.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFMDdlJMMjM



https://antifascistnews.net/2017/12/04/ ... nce-video/
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Re: Democracy Is Direct

Postby American Dream » Wed Dec 13, 2017 1:52 pm

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Re: Democracy Is Direct

Postby American Dream » Wed Jan 31, 2018 1:19 pm

No to war, No to dictators and States, No to corporations, No to religions, No to nationalism!

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Dear Anarchist Comrades wherever you are,

We, anarchists stress that we are against war, against military attacks
and militias. We are strongly against killing civilians and launching
attacks against villages, towns and cities killing innocent people
discriminating and destroying their places.

We believe neither any states nor any groups have the right to attack
anybody else on the grounds of religion, nationality, land disputes and
others. We believe whatever the justification is for attacking and
launching wars are simply against freedom and humanity.

Our attitude and position against the current war that the State of
Turkey has launched on Afrin, the rest of Rojava and its citizens is not
because we are Kurdish or Kurdish-speaking. We are against all wars as
a matter of principle in all corners of the world.

We stand up firm by our anarchism principles against whoever launches
this kind of war. We have the same attitude and same position even if
Kurds launch war to invade the freedom, cultures and society of any
ethnics or groups. Our stand against the State of Turkey in launching
the war against Rojava is from this position no more and no less. We are
against war, against the State, against any kind of superiority, class
division and against the capitalist system.

In view of the above we reject any kind of war whether launched by the
State of Turkey against Rojava or another State against some nation or
group elsewhere in the world.

We believe that we should be against war and denounce it, we should
campaign in any way against glorifying war and war mango. It is our sole
duty to encourage and persuade people to stand up against war. It is our
duty to make people more aware that war only brings more profit and
interest for the corporations especially the military fields. In the
meantime it brings us more poverty, more misery, more displacement,
losing our beloved ones, soaring prices, homelessness, unemployment,
destroying our places & our climate as well as dividing us all.

We also denounce all TV channels and the social media in the region that
since the aggressive attacks have started, they have tried to deny the
rights of people in Afrin and Rojava and do not recognise their
legitimate defence. They are deceiving people and trying to mobilise
them in support of the State of Turkey under different reasons and
bringing them falls justification.

No to State and nationalism
No to Authority
No to Religion’s power
No to Parliamentary System
No to Militia’s power
No to Political Party and Capitalism
Yes to self-organising and self-administration


Kurdish-speaking anarchist forum (KAF)
22/01/2018

------------------------------------------------------
http://www.anarkistan.com

http://www.facebook.com/sekoy.anarkistan

https://twitter.com/anarkistan

anarkistan@riseup.net
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Re: Democracy Is Direct

Postby Karmamatterz » Wed Jan 31, 2018 1:32 pm

When the dream of anarchy has been achieved what will those messy creatures called humans do?

When there is no fresh water, no meat, no fuel for heat and disease is rampant how well will anarchy serve this dream? Perhaps the rainbow in the sky will fill the bellies of the hungry.

And now a few quotes from our sponsor on this topic:


“The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies

“Which is better--to have laws and agree, or to hunt and kill?”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies

“Maybe," he said hesitantly, "maybe there is a beast." [...] "What I mean is, maybe it's only us.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies

“His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
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Re: Democracy Is Direct

Postby American Dream » Wed Jan 31, 2018 1:57 pm

When you look at those who have no real understanding of what Marxism actually encompasses but love to bandy about glib and ignorant opinions, it should be no surprise that the same holds true for Anarchism.
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Re: Democracy Is Direct

Postby dada » Thu Feb 01, 2018 3:12 am

I'm not an anarchist. Too many rules. To each his own, I guess.

You know,...

"1) If humans are by nature depraved, then:

a) They need authorities to keep their depravity in check

or

b) any human authorities are bound to be depraved, therefore people are better off governing themselves

2) If humans are by nature good, then:

a) human authorities are good and can be trusted to rule

or

b) being naturally good, humans do not need rulers

When I encounter a case where opposite premises yield the same conclusion or the same premise yields opposite conclusions, I am reminded once again that philosophizing is elephant shit."

- Bob Shea

I find it difficult to argue with his logic.
Both his words and manner of speech seemed at first totally unfamiliar to me, and yet somehow they stirred memories - as an actor might be stirred by the forgotten lines of some role he had played far away and long ago.
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Re: Democracy Is Direct

Postby American Dream » Thu Feb 01, 2018 5:40 am

I'm not big on "Human Nature" arguments that I commonly see, as based in pop Evolutionary Psychology/Sociobiology and whatnot though I'd certainly agree that people have great capacity for the fucked up as well as the beautiful. I do think though that any decent movement or society I would want to be a part of must strike that delicate balance which supports organization and participatory process but also autonomy.

Cornelius Castoriadis, Maurice Brinton, Silvia Federici, Selma James, Russell Maroon Shoatz, Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, these are to me the tip of the iceberg...
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Re: Democracy Is Direct

Postby American Dream » Thu Feb 01, 2018 7:48 am

Also this, from the Black Rose Anarchist Federation:

BELOW AND BEYOND TRUMP: POWER AND COUNTER-POWER IN 2017


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SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: POWER FROM BELOW
Social movements are similarly fractured and most seem to be moving toward some type of retrenchment strategy in response to Trump. We see retrenchment as taking the form of scaling back organizing efforts, while channeling grassroots energy into the 2018 and 2020 elections to undermine and oust Trump. Increasingly important is the separation between popular resentment/action and the institutional left. While these forces appear to be recalibrating, we should not underestimate their ability to capture and domesticate popular discontent.

Trump’s election and the growing visibility of the far-right have led to a tremendous growth of popular engagement with progressive causes and activity, dwarfing any equivalent gains on the Right. However, the institutional left has failed to build on deepening public outrage, offering little beyond symbolic demonstrations, “get out the vote” efforts and militant reformism. Whether its labor, Black Lives Matter (BLM), immigrant, environmental, queer, or feminist struggles, the established leaders of many institutional left organizations have called for or anticipate a period of retrenchment.

Since the militancy of the Baltimore rebellion, the Movement for Black Lives has put together a “united front” behind a shared platform of demands that range from reparations to community control. The organizations behind the M4BL Platform represent a broad cross-section of black-led progressive non-profits, a reflection of BLM being increasingly tied to the institutional left orbit, yet it’s unclear how the platform is being advanced or if the collective strength of the organizations behind it are being mobilized in any meaningful way. Few seem to be engaged in the kinds of on-the-ground direct action rebellions that initially catalyzed and electrified the struggle against anti-black state violence, despite the endless string of black murders by police, while the Movement for Black Lives Platform points in the direction of a more electoral or legislative strategy.

For the labor movement, union leadership appear to be pursuing two strategies. One group, led by conservative building trades unions, favors “playing ball” with Trump in an effort to promote nationalist and protectionist manufacturing as a way to create jobs. The other, implemented by unions like SEIU, have preemptively laid off staff and shrunk their campaign operations as they prepare for the worst under the new administration. Two pending labor cases, Yohn v. CTA and Janus v. AFSCME, will likely make automatic dues payment illegal for public sector unions, which represent the bulk of unionized workers, and many in the labor movement see this a death blow. There are perhaps some signs of militancy, such as calls by some SEIU workers to participate in May 1st “general strikes” against the Trump agenda. But little materialized from these calls and this shows that militants have their work cut out for them.

In the face of a union movement on the wane and out of a desire to create a revolutionary pole within the broader labor movement, workers have joined the IWW in increasing numbers since the economic crisis of 2008. In addition to its modest growth, the IWW’s recent activity among service workers, prison labor, and anti-fascist organizing points toward the kind of labor movement that is needed in this moment.

The feminist “movement” is currently experiencing a contradiction in its activism and practice, in which a feminist and anti-patriarchal discourse has become more widespread among the population, yet its self-proclaimed political leadership remains closely aligned with the Democratic Party. The “Women’s March” in January 2017 was historic and inspiring with an estimated 1% of the population participating. The March 8th “Women’s Strike” held more promise as an international call with a progressive set of demands, yet it had a smaller turnout than the Women’s March. Unfortunately this orientation will likely fail to protect their number one policy agenda, defending Planned Parenthood and elements of the ACA (Obamacare). These marches highlight two developments: First, a confirmation in the bond between mainstream feminist organizations and the Democratic Party; and secondly, a growing divide between reformist feminism and an increasingly militant anti-patriarchal movement. These marches have opened a broader dialogue around feminism and the possibility for building a feminist/anti-patriarchal movement aligned with the interests of working class women, trans, and queers, as well as inserting a feminist politic within current social movements. However, there is a need for coordinated and organized discussions to propose a plan of action on a local and national scale.

The indigenous and environmental movements have experienced a dramatic growth in activity, centered on militant defense of the land in confrontations with the oil and coal industries. Key on-the-ground campaigns to block pipelines and coal trains, such as the Kinder-Morgan Canadian pipeline, are moving forward. The struggle at Standing Rock, which followed on the heels of Idle No More, galvanized widespread attention and solidarity actions in urban areas. Standing Rock brought together a multi-generational and multi-ethnic indigenous movement whose struggle for land and autonomy has motivated a new generation of indigenous youth into militant political activism.

In the wake of Trump’s election, much of the immigrant rights movement is on the defensive, yet the nakedness of the anti-immigrant agenda coming from the White House, most notably in the form of a renewed round of ICE raids, has begun to politicize a new generation of undocumented youth. We have seen more public expressions of xenophobia targeting immigrants of color. The purpose of this offensive by the state is to intimidate undocumented workers, one of the most exploited and precarious sectors within the working class. The increase in state policing has motivated some immigrants to leave the US, thus reducing the pool of farmworkers, forcing the Trump administration to increase the issue of H-2A (Temporary Agricultural Workers) visas. In addition, the escalation in militarizing the US border is not meant to end immigration, but to traumatize undocumented workers in order to further exploit their labor power.

We see two trends dominating the coming period: the use of militant reformism and electoral efforts in the name of social democracy. While Trump is in office, major segments of the institutional and radical Left (as with Socialist Alternative and their uncritical support for Bernie Sanders) are going to advocate and channel activists into electoral campaigns. While more moderate advocates of electoral struggles continue to fight within the Democratic Party for more progressive candidates, others are clamoring for the elusive independent party of the left. Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), whose membership has surpassed 30K, are explicitly calling for this “inside-outside” strategy, attempting to push the Democrats from within while building the base for a future third party. Given that the left is experiencing rapid growth, a move towards electoralism is a further shift towards reformism. Instead, we propose an offensive program of building popular power — a distinct form of power exercised through combative, self-managed social movements independent of the institutional left — that can win meaningful reforms while laying the groundwork for pushing beyond them.

One other element needs to be noted here – the ominous presence of the far-right. In response to BLM, diminishing returns on the “wages of whiteness,” economic uncertainty, and the perceived threat to US hegemony posed by immigrants/refugees and Islam, a vocal minority of xenophobic, white nationalist, and proto-fascist forces have become increasingly mobilized — emboldened by Trump’s presence in the oval office. While the strength of the far-right seems to be geographically uneven, the increasing use of violence by the far right, particularly by lone-wolf actors who kill in the name of the movement, is having a chilling effect for many. Through the alt-right and other forces, what was once largely an internet phenomenon is now entering the public arena, with varying degrees of success.

In response to the alt-right and other fascist forces, Antifa has grown in prominence as a countervailing force, sparking renewed debates on the left over black bloc tactics. While dramatic street confrontations are necessary at times, they can also lead to a fetishization of militant tactics and lend to a dynamic of one marginal wing of the right fighting with another marginal wing of the left. Nonetheless, fascist forces should not be permitted to take root.

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STRATEGIC PRINCIPLES MOVING FORWARD
Given this picture we argue that several strategic orientations are key in the current moment for the larger left and organized political forces:

Build independent social movements from below: Popular anger is at an all-time high, but there is very little movement being generated. The institutional left is not interested in building power outside of tightly controlled channels. We need to build autonomous social movement power (autogestión) independent of the institutional left in our workplaces, schools and communities. To this end, we need to adopt strategies in specific sectors as guideposts for social movement activity. In the same way that socialist organizations argue for the need to build an independent political party, we should make our argument for building independent social movements.

Push Offensive Campaigns: A surefire strategy to let the Trump agenda win is to fall onto a defensive footing merely trying to prevent the many attacks on social programs, unions and scapegoated populations. An orientation of permanent retrenchment and defense is a failed strategy that the most conservative elements of the left have been pushing for decades. Instead, moving struggle forward with offensive demands could turn the tables and put major segments of power on the defensive, prevent the worst of many of the cuts, and dramatically change the political climate.

Advance an explicitly libertarian socialist practice and program: The cumulative weight of the 2008 economic crisis, Occupy, BLM, and the Bernie Sanders campaign, has laid the groundwork for the growing appeal of radical politics in general and socialism in particular. Growing discontent over the two party system and “politics as usual” has created space to sharpen and deepen our criticisms of electoral strategies and the state. Overt forms of state violence and repression against black and brown communities has expanded critiques of the police, the prison industrial complex, and ICE, opening space for advancing a broader anti-state, anti-racist and internationalist revolutionary practice. In the face of cascading capitalist crisis and the failed history of state socialism, there is a wide demand and audience for an alternative vision and a coherent path forward.


More at: http://blackrosefed.org/below-and-beyond-trump/
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Re: Democracy Is Direct

Postby dada » Thu Feb 01, 2018 2:45 pm

American Dream » Thu Feb 01, 2018 4:40 am wrote:any decent movement or society I would want to be a part of must strike that delicate balance which supports organization and participatory process but also autonomy.


As I see it, 'society' and a 'movement' are labels signifying a group of autonomous individuals. And, to the extent that individuals are autonomous, is the extent that a group can truly be called a society or movement. By my definition, no society can really be said to 'support' autonomy.

Not only that; organization and participatory process are not real, objective things to be supported, they're dialectical processes.

And what is the 'autonomous individual,' anyway? Autonomy is by definition 'freedom from external control or influence.' But where does the external end and the internal begin?

So the whole question to me becomes a matter of language. I try to stay out of it. "Words can carry any burden we wish. All that's required is agreement, and a tradition upon which to build," as the god emperor says.
Both his words and manner of speech seemed at first totally unfamiliar to me, and yet somehow they stirred memories - as an actor might be stirred by the forgotten lines of some role he had played far away and long ago.
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Re: Democracy Is Direct

Postby American Dream » Tue Feb 06, 2018 6:37 pm

I appreciate your perspective, dada, though I don't identify as an individualist or egoist per se, can't even claim to full understand the theory behind those labels though I think I "get it" on a gut level. I believe that people can and should work together without the excesses of party lines, central committees and all the excess baggage they bring along. I'm for parsing a careful balance around all relevant concerns.
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Re: Democracy Is Direct

Postby American Dream » Wed Feb 14, 2018 8:07 am

A New Luddite Rebellion

We do not revolt because we might fail. People might get shot or imprisoned, vulnerable people might suffer more than they already do, police oppression might increase, and all that effort could be wasted forever. And though these fears have always been good fears, our reliance on technology for re-assurances of certainty has amplified our inaction.

This is not a controversial statement: if many of us can barely try a new restaurant without relying on smartphones to take away the very minimal risk of an awful meal, why would we expect ourselves to face actual, real risk?


A manifesto from Rhyd Wildermuth


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https://godsandradicals.org/2018/02/14/ ... rebellion/
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Re: Democracy Is Direct

Postby American Dream » Mon Mar 26, 2018 8:19 am

Struggles against Patriarchy, White Supremacy, Capital and the State should be all together:


Revolutionary Feminism In an Age of Misogynist Reaction


https://vimeo.com/261565601


Revolutionary Feminism In an Age of Misogynist Reaction
By submedia.tv - March 26, 201828

Sub.Media.Tv’s monthly documentary series Trouble returns to take on the system of patriarchy and how it affects all of our lives, and how people have resisted it throughout history.

Today, decades of hard-fought victories in the struggle for female emancipation are under threat from waves of resurgent misogyny. From attacks on abortion and reproductive justice, to the revival and spread of religious fundamentalism and authoritarian nationalism… patriarchy is on the march. Meanwhile, as the corporate media celebrates the #TimesUp movement initiated by rich women in Hollywood, femicide, sexual exploitation and rape continue to tear more marginalized communities apart.

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Systems of male domination lie at the very roots of capitalism and state power. During periods of political crisis and counter-revolution, women, and all those who eschew their socially-assigned gender roles, are often the first to be targeted for repression and increased violence. In part, this is because of the important position that women have always occupied, as the beating hearts of communities of resistance. But this repression is also intended as a token gesture to working-class men that are upset by their declining social and economic status, and who rather than focus their rage at their true enemies – the rich and powerful – have historically and consistently opted to clutch ever tighter to their positions of relative power and control over their would-be female comrades.

In this month’s edition of Trouble, sub.Media takes a look at patriarchy as an enduring system of social, economic and political control, and shares stories from some of the front-line struggles being waged by women around the world – from Indigenous communities fighting against the colonial dispossession of their lands, to the challenges faced by migrants forced from their homes by economic inequality, climate change, and war.



https://itsgoingdown.org/trouble-11-des ... omination/
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Re: Democracy Is Direct

Postby American Dream » Mon Apr 02, 2018 7:17 am

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Grisly news keeps coming in from Russia about the activities of the Russian Federal Security Service—the FSB, which is descended from the KGB. In account after account, anarchists and anti-fascists describe how the FSB kidnapped them, planted weapons in their cars, and used torture to force them to sign false confessions admitting to participating in an obviously invented terror network.

Why should we care about the Russian torture cases, specifically? At first, it may strike people in the US and Western Europe as yet another abstract tragedy, just one more call for international solidarity with unfortunates in a faraway land. But the stakes here are much more significant. What is taking place in Russia is a nightmare scenario that could recur closer and closer to us if we don’t take it seriously.

For decades now, the security agencies of many different countries have repeatedly attempted to fabricate national and international “terrorist conspiracies” in order to frame anarchists. To date, all of these efforts have been embarrassing failures. Now, the Russian secret police have introduced an innovation: by kidnapping anarchists without warning, planting weapons in their cars, and torturing them until they agree to sign forged “confessions,” they hope to finally make charges of participating in a “terrorism network” stick. If they succeed, we can expect to see other police agencies across the world emulate their tactics.

In the following analysis, we will review the history of this model of repression, explore the details of the Russian torture cases, and outline how we can respond. The Appendix lists the details of the arrests and torture in chronological order and provides corroborating evidence of the reports herein.


CrimethInc: Why the torture cases in Russia matter
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