Comment 26656

By LL (registered) - website | Posted September 20, 2008 at 14:02:38

I agree 100% - right down to opposing federal gun control. People can organize themselves collectively and directly democratically. For historical evidence (in modern times), check out the Paris Commune of 1871, the Russian Revolution of 1917 (before the Bolsheviks took power), the Spanish Revolution of 1936, and the Zapatistas today. But all of these examples of ground-up self-management have taken place when communities embraced the left-wing values of solidarity and mutual aid. If market fundamentalism prevails, you're looking at corporate security that's accountable to no one. You're looking at poor communities organizing gangs to "get theirs" rather than poor communities organizing neighbourhood assemblies and unions for social justice.

So, if communities can self-organize democratically to provide security, why can't they do so to organize production, distribution, urban planning, alternative energy, and whatever else? They can, of course. Which brings me back to the original topic of the thread. The left needs to organize from the bottom up.

In th meantime, progressives' biggest advantage would be weak federal and provincial governments, and strong and participatory local governments. The "green tech" advances that the author talks about have mostly occurred in countries with proportional representation and chronic minority parliaments. The elite knows how to control parliament, especially majority ones. They've done so for..., well, since there's been a thing called parliament. And that includes the Liberal Party, who are corporate stooges.

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