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Anarcho-ecological Principles, Vision and Strategy

Jason Edwards, Friday, September 9, 2005 - 11:59

Jay

Humanity; our essential awakened dignity, creativity and compassion.
Diversity; natural evolution, social revolution and living manifestation of cultural wisdom.
Community; collective independence, interdependence and social-ecological awareness of individuals living in harmony with each other and the natural world.

Equality; rational tolerance, free education, free association, voluntary cooperation, egalitarian relationships, mutual respect, justice and solidarity amongst men and women of all ethnicities, origins, hereditary roots and sexual orientations.

Liberty; freedom from all forms of domination, hierarchy, economic classes, social exploitation, oppression and tyranny, by means of integral education, self-organization, direct action, civil disobedience and creative resistance; building dual power structures and alternative institutions committed to universal justice and ecological harmony, involved in local community struggles using tactical coordination for effective synchronized action. We can organize ourselves and help motivate others (to prepare for) for general strike (worker, student and rental) along with occupations of industrial workplaces and social institutions, unused land and vacant residential buildings.

Direct Democracy; collective self-determination and participative group organization, responsibility and cooperation in workplace councils / committees and local residential or land-sharing cooperatives / collectives, with each person having proportionate influence in policy-making and equal power in all decision-making affecting them. Collectives can make efforts to exchange services or barter with other collectives or cooperatives, consume equitably and as directly as possible from local or unionized producers (or through certified ‘Fair Trade’). Residential or local collectives could also function as work councils if all members share a workplace. Collectives could consist of 3 to 20 people but should probably stay between 5 and 15; small enough to facilitate friendly discussion, debate and consensus, while avoiding the formation of competing elites that tend to dominate larger groups. They could form independent collectives if the group gets too big, remaining more or less open to newcomers. Until political and economic power can be based at this level, people can form various social networks, worker solidarity organizations that should include the unemployed, as well as residential and worker cooperatives (within certain capitalist parliamentarian systems). Local collectives can try to organize inclusive neighbourhood block or village assemblies, of up to maybe 200 people, that would need to function horizontally and meet regularly for various community matters.

Communality; coordinated networks of local collectives and inclusive neighbourhood assemblies, workplace councils and (syndicalist) trade-union committees establishing autonomous municipal/township communes with collective (directly democratic) control of land, resources and means of production. This may necessitate strictly voluntary and democratically coordinated defence of the social revolution, during a period of political upheaval, to bring about ‘communalism’ achieved through ‘social ecology’. Neighbourhood assemblies must include every adult citizen in proposing policies and voting in decisions that affect them. Citizens can elect a congress of delegates (subject to recall) to form various administration councils (with regular rotation of posts and complete transparency), responsible for certain types of decision-making and tentative policy-making in matters that effect large numbers of people. This would probably consist of working out municipal legislation (perhaps to be decided by three-quarter majority votes through acceptable forms of referenda), establishing fair and ecological methods and standards of local production, consumption and juridical policy, clearly defined in a communal constitution with all details voted on and revised when and if necessary, as well as administrating adjudication processes and restorative (non-punitive) justice, through rational (non-authoritarian) enforcement of legislation and processes for truth and reconciliation. All bureaucratic aspects of communal self-government should be reduced to the barest minimum, hopefully (eventually) dissolving completely. Municipal or township communes could gradually become loosely connected, ecologically integrated village networks, in regionally shared wild spaces and parkland commons. Economic decentralization and self-sufficiency at the basic sustainable subsistence level can be achieved by developing a communal economy through communitary provisioning, localised service exchange, barter and honor systems. Most material wants can also be produced locally, sustainably and with local natural resources.

Universal Mutual Aid; regional to global confederation of free communes with open borders subject only to environmental constraints. Fully transparent and inclusive democratic social institutions with recallable delegates, elected from the base, with limited mandates for administration in matters requiring regional to global levels of organisation, such as a health and disaster relief, monitoring and protection of an 'Earth Charter' that negates private property (distinguished from personal, family and collective possessions) and nation state (distinguished from place of origin and roots), encompasses direct democracy, communality and universal access to clean water, uncontaminated soil, sufficient food, adequate shelter, clothing, sanitation, medicine, health care, integral ('free') education, basic tools and machines, solar and wind generated electricity, communications networks, public transportation, as well as collective access to clean fuel technology, means of mass production and recycling (ultimately eliminating all hazardous wastes and undesirable labour). This is theoretically possible if all people, willing and able, were to participate, voluntarily, in a coordinated cooperative effort, for roughly 1000 hours per year - including work council meetings and delegated and/or mandated organizational work. The confederal (solidarity) economy would use directly democratic organizational structures for autogestion (workers’ self-management) and participatory planning based at the horizontal level (using communication technology to network digital information). Workplace councils and syndical trade union production committees would stipulate with consumer collectives through neighbourhood, municipal and regional administrative committees, establishing socially and ecologically indicative values for exchange while insuring universal access to all basic needs. Every worker would have balanced job complexes with equitable remuneration and all industries would have to abide by local, regional and global regulations for social justice and ecological protection of the environment. This type of large-scale solidarity economy beyond borders could function dynamically in perpetual social revolution, adapting itself to differences amongst communes and regions without creating political tensions. The 'participatory economy' model does not ignore, oversimplify or underestimate the destructive resilience and complexities of global capitalism (corporate fascism). It is ideal for building a dual power economy while capitalism remains dominant. By promoting equality, diversity, solidarity and efficient autogestion, 'participatory economics' 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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