We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Liberating Ourselves: In Defense of Leaderless Revolutions

Click here to access article by Peter Gelderloos from CounterPunch.

The author argues that revolutions are a process, not a single event; that we should not be misled by those who support "authoritarian" revolutions which are a dead-end. In support of his argument, he provides this great quote:
“A revolutionary process is a process by which structures of power are created by a broad mass of people that allow them to eventually transform every aspect of their society — from the structure and role of the State and the organization of the economy to inter-personal relations — all with a view to eliminating all forms of oppression.”
This dedicated anarchist even takes issue with any form of a state which he views as inherently evil. It seems to me that there are semantic issues here. Surely a society organized around power structures designed with bottom-up power controls can leave the "state" as a necessary, but merely a coordinating body that serves the people.