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Ecosocialist Liberation Principles and Theoretical PraxisJason Edwards, Thursday, August 11, 2005 - 14:22 (Analyses) This document is intended as a concise theoretical supplement to the Peoples Global Action Manifesto as well as the International Libertarian Solidarity Declaration. The author hopes that it may help unify the Anarchist International (as yet a non-organization) with a wider Peoples Global Movement (for social and environmental justice). It suggests a structure for local organization of (anarcho)collective networks. Equality; justice, rational tolerance, free association, voluntary cooperation, egalitarian relationships, mutual respect and solidarity amongst men and women of all ethnicities, origins, hereditary roots and sexual orientations. Liberty; freedom from all forms of domination, hierarchy, social exploitation, oppression and tyranny, by means of popular education, self-organization, direct action, civil disobedience and creative resistance using revolutionary strategy to build dual power structures and liberatory alternative institutions committed to universal social justice and ecological harmony involved in local community struggles and tactical coordination for synchronized actions such as a general strike (worker, student and rental) , occupations of workplaces, institutions, land and residential buildings. Direct democracy; organised self-determination, cooperation and collective responsibility through participation in workplace councils and residential cooperative, neighbourhood or small-sized land-sharing committees with each person having inclusive, proportionate influence in horizontal policy-making and equal say in all decision-making affecting them. People should try to form or join directly democratic collectives (as local as possible) of 3-20 people ideally with a balance of male and female members. These collectives must be small enough to meet regularly, facilitate friendly discussion and debate, make consensus decisions when necessary or if desired, encourage group intimacy and harmony while avoiding the formation of competing elites that tend to dominate larger groups and loose enough to peacefully split in two when the group gets too big, remaining more or less open to newcomers. Local collectives could participate together in social and environmental activist networks in the local community and try to form horizontally organized neighbourhood assemblies that meet regularly. They could function as collective consumption groups (trading or buying in bulk directly from producers and consuming some things together) and also as work councils if all members share a workplace (especially agricultural ones). Individuals who do not work in sufficiently democratic worker cooperatives or are not already participating in a sufficiently anarcho-syndicalist union, should try to organize regular meetings of (potentially militant) workers and help mobilize or join a worker’s solidarity network that would include the unemployed, a revolutionary syndicalist union or another kind of anarchist organization. Communality; coordinated networks of local collectives, work councils, anarcho-syndicalist unions and neighbourhood assemblies establishing free communes or libertarian municipalities and townships through non-violent means or by voluntary armed defence of the social revolution (adhering to a regionally and historically coherent anarchist platform) during a general strike (‘communalism’ as defined through social ecology) which would have full autonomy and collective control of land, resources and means of production at the municipal or township level. Neighbourhood assemblies would include every adult citizen in proposing policies and voting in decisions that affect them including municipal legislation when and if absolutely necessary (perhaps decided by three-quarter majority votes) outlined in a revisable constitution, establishing fair and ecological standards of local production and consumption and electing a congress of delegates subject to immediate recall who would form various administration councils with regular rotation of posts and complete public transparency, responsible for making tentative decisions in matters affecting large numbers of people, including adjudication and administration of restorative (as opposed to punitive) justice by rational non-authoritative enforcement of legislation and processes for truth and reconciliation. Any bureaucratic aspects of this form of self-government must be reduced to the bare minimum, and should eventually dissolve completely. Municipal communes or village networks would gradually become loosely connected, ecologically integrated islands in regionally shared wild spaces, parkland or commons, where some may choose to live if they minimize their ecological footprints. Economic decentralization and self-sufficiency at the subsistence level could be accomplished by developing a communal economy with transparent administration of credit, collective provisioning, as well as autonomous barter and localised honor systems. Universal mutual aid; regional to global confederation of free communes with open borders subject only to environmental constraints and fully transparent and inclusive democratic social institutions with recallable delegates elected from the base with limited mandates for administrative matters that require regional to global levels of control such as a world health and disaster relief organisation, monitoring and protection of ‘Universal Human Rights’ revised to abolish private property and nation-state, encompass direct democracy and communal autonomy and demand universal access to clean water, adequate food and uncontaminated soil, suitable shelter, basic clothing, sanitation, medicine and health care, education, tools and machines, electricity (solar and wind power) and clean fuel technology, communications media networks, public transportation and means of mass production and recycling (ultimately eliminating all hazardous wastes and undesirable labour). The participatory confederal economy would use inclusive democratic organizational structures for autogestion (workers’ self-management) and participatory planning with control centered at the horizontal level. Cooperative work councils would negotiate as directly as possible with consumer groups through production and neighbourhood committees establishing socially and ecologically indicative values, insuring equal opportunity and access to all basic needs, creating balanced job complexes with equitable remuneration and abiding by local regulations for social justice and ecological protection. This type of large-scale solidarity economy beyond borders would function dynamically in a perpetual social revolution, adapting itself to differences amongst communes and regions without creating political tensions. The participatory economic model does not ignore, oversimplify or underestimate the destructive resilience and complexities of global corporate capitalism and is ideal for a dual power economy while capitalism remains dominant. By promoting equality, diversity, solidarity and efficient autogestion, it could help bring about a rational and ethical society with life based on affirming, nurturing and preserving humanity, diversity, and community. |
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