TODAY: Direct Democracy, Constituent Power, and the Common(s)

[Yvonne Yen Liu]

This is TODAY!
 

1. Direct Democracy, Constituent Power, and the Common(s)

 
Date: Thursday, June 20th 2024
Time: 2:45 to 4:15 PM ET/1:45 to 3:15 PM CT/11:45 AM to 1:45 PM PT
RSVP at https://municipalism.org/direct-democracy-constituent-power-and-the-commons/
 
Our panel will explore how to build power from below. Central to the question of movement building is how we can organize ourselves democratically, without coercion and power-hoarding, and with the particularities of gender, race, ability, and other forms of domination in mind. We will explore many aspects of directly democratic governance, including collective decision making, equitable management of resources, and the emergent contradictions of building and sustaining radical democratic institutions. 
 
We will be presenting this panel at the Ostrom Workshop at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. We are making our panel available for people to attend virtually by livestream.
 
Panelists:

• ALISON CHOPEL, Universidad de Puerto Rico
• NDINDI KITONGA, Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid
• KERMIT O, abolitionist researcher and writer
• YVONNE YEN LIU, Solidarity Research Center

 
Paper abstracts:
 
Power Building from Below in Puerto Rico by ALISON CHOPEL
This paper explores relationships between what Michael Hardt refers to as the natural (ecological) and the artificial (social and economic) commons, through the lens of three specific power building projects in Post-María Puerto Rico. Post-María Puerto Rico has much to offer the world in terms of understanding possibilities for our future, in particular the varied possible ways in which commons are acknowledged as such and managed collectively or continued to be coopted through the illusion of private property ownership, as it is in the forefront of both climate and social vulnerability (given it has among the highest climate risk index and the highest economic inequalities in the Western hemisphere). A look at the journey of a collective of queer artists combatting displacement in the capital's arts district (La Futura es Rosario) shows how we must practice and improve management of natural commons to enable the immaterial production of artificial commons to happen in a way that is healthy, just and joyful. My colleague at the Graduate School of Planning in the University of Puerto Rico, Ariam Torres Cordero, has described a practice of Bomba Planning that demonstrates how we can bolster and invest in the immaterial knowledge, skills, roles and processes to make decisions together to manage commons and plan into the future. Lastly, the Resiliency Law Center’s theory of change posits that investing in the building of the artificial commons assets of collective, localised governance is arguably one of the best investments for conservation/ management of the natural commons as well, as local communities that depend on healthy ecosystems are their best stewards.
 
Direct Democracy, Building Power, and Counter-Narrative Education by NDINDI KITONGA
Is it possible to nurture a learning environment in which students can participate in democracy, built on the radical notion that young people should and can be free and that their full participation is vital not only in classrooms but in larger socio-political contexts? This paper will explore three educational spaces based in Los Angeles experimenting with notions of abolition and direct democracy outside of mainstream schooling institutions.   The programs include Colegio del Pueblo (Parent Ethnic Studies program), Escuelita Aztlan (Community Saturday School open to all ages from infant to abuelita), and Angeles Workshop School (cooperative micro-school). These programs predominately serve working-class Black and Brown folks interested in anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist politics. The paper will discuss the three models’ practices with: 1) developing learner agency and mode to transform oneself from a victim of hegemony, capitalism, and internalization of the -isms, to an empowered agent of change at all levels, 2) nurturing learners’ participation in ones’ community to build combat injustices and challenge institutional power, 3) building widespread democratic education networks to support learning and foster the type of praxis necessary to build alternative worlds free of capitalist exploitation, ecological degradation, and all other antagonisms to human flourishing.  
 
Building BLOCs for Autonomy and Self-Determination in Philadelphia by KERMIT O
Enclosure, the division of common land into private segments which forms the underlying logic of capitalism, also finds expression in our relationships to time, space, community, the body, knowledge, labor, and life itself. Abolition derives from both the Latin abolere, to destroy, and adolere, to grow. Abolition might therefore even be defined as the dissolution of enclosures, which creates or restores pathways for living. Commoning, the return to stewardship, sharing, and solidarity, is a key strategy in our approach to abolitionist horizons. While we must resist relations of domination at every turn, it is essential to prefigure the world we want. Building BLOCs — block level organizing committees — to dream, design, and democratically develop our immediate social and material realities is one tactic being explored in Philadelphia for modeling and practicing more liberatory relations, toward greater autonomy and self-determination. 
 
The Municipalist Moment in Los Angeles by YVONNE YEN LIU
Experiments in municipalism and the reclamation of the common(s) have been slow to develop in North America and yet one is emerging in Los Angeles. The city is inhospitable to the majority: growing numbers of unhoused residents are swept off the sidewalks to be incarcerated, while Black and Latine families are subjected to racial banishment and pushed to the periphery. The fragmentation of the built environment of the city is mirrored in the inability of social movements to come together. Divisions are made to weaken constituent power and to pit groups segregated by race and place to fight for meager resources. A network of social movement organizations, under the name of Los Angeles for All, is attempting to establish collective action plans, governance, and infrastructure to build power from below. The long-term vision is to replace the status quo with a directly democratic polity and solidarity economy. The presentation will explore how the common(s) and public goods can be managed in a transformed city and will reflect on how governance and institutions can transition to this municipalist model.

1. Building Power in Place: A Municipalist Organizing Toolkit

 
Date: Saturday, July 6th 2024
Time: 12:00 to 1:30 PM ET/11:00 AM to 12:30 PM CT/9:00 to 10:30 AM PT
RSVP at https://municipalism.org/building-power-in-place/
 
Join us July 6th for the release of “Building Power in Place: A Municipalist Organizing Toolkit.” This downloadable toolkit outlines organizing strategy for your local organizing context. Drawing upon curriculum from the Municipalism Learning Series and case studies from organizers’ own experiences, we have developed a comprehensive toolkit to support individualized movement building efforts.
 
“Building Power in Place: A Municipalist Organizing Toolkit” presents a snapshot of the praxis and theory of various place-based movements we describe as radical municipalist: a vision that our movements can destroy the hegemonic structures that rule over us and replace them with alternatives based on direct democracy and the solidarity economy. This toolkit provides tools and practices to share with fellow organizers, community members, and comrades. Our intended audience is people seeking cultivated space to think through questions around place-based organizing strategy. 
 
Maybe the term municipalism is new to you, maybe it is familiar. Regardless of your familiarity, we invite you to think deeply about the ways that you are already using many of these theories and practices in your movement work.
 
Municipalism Learning Series is a project of Solidarity Research Center, a nonprofit organization that builds solidarity economy ecosystems through data science, story-based strategy, and action research. Our goals are to introduce radical municipalism to a broad audience in North America, and to connect municipalist organizers across places. We offer public panels introducing the theory and practice of radical municipalism. And, we launched a 12-week cohort fellowship last year, which brought together municipalist practitioners to develop strategy plans to win power in their place. 
 
Sign up for our mailing list to be apprised of future panels. And, please support our efforts if you have the resources.
 
Municipalism Learning Series
+1 (323) 539-7654
in...@municipalism.org
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Yvonne Yen Liu (she/her)
Solidarity Research Center
yvo...@solidarityresearch.org
323 539 7654
213 762 2667

Schedule a meeting at calendly.com/yvonnegraphy