Bluestockings Popular Education Project Presents:

New Strategies for People’s Power in the 21st Century

A Two-Day Seminar

When: December 3rd & 4th from 3-7pm

Where: Meeting Place TBA (near Bluestockings)

Registration: Required $50 in advance @ Bluestockings (scholarships available) space
limited

Contact: events@bluestockings.com

No other issue has divided anti-capitalist and Left-wing movements more, than the issue of power. Communists, Syndicalists, Social-Democrats, Anarchists and Autonomists alike have given different answers to, and even fought for life or death over questions on whether a radical movement should aim to take power, to leave it alone, or to dissolve it. For more than 150 years, the issue of power has been seminal in the development of strategies for radical movements.

As we now we find ourselves beginning the 21st century with capitalism stronger than ever, it is clear that none of these strategies have been successful. The Communists taking of state-power lead to tyrannical dictatorships, the Anarchists and Autonomists refusal of power lead to impotency and irrelevance, and the Social-Democrats working with state-power lead to the long march away from socialist principles. What is needed today are new answers to the question of power, based on the lessons of the past and the challenges of the future.

Together with guests from the Scandinavian organization Democratic Alternative, we will discuss the political strategies of Communalism – founded on transforming and democratizing municipal government and creating a confederal dual-power – as a means of creating a new popular movement. We will look at the horrizontalist Assembleas movements in Argentina and at new theoretical concepts of “anti-power” and “the power of the margins.”Presentations will include:

•The municipality as the locus of power – A challenge for radical organizations •Refusing power: problems of autonomist theories of power

•Evaluating the concept of “anti power” as conceived by the autonomous movements in Argentina. •New global movements, prefigurative politics, and the “power of the margins”

Presenters:

Eirik Eiglad and Sveinung Legard are founding members of the Scandinavian communalist organization, Democratic Alternative. With a political agenda of direct democracy, confederalism, and libertarian socialism, Democratic Alternative is trying to influence the new movements in Northern Europe and communities in Sweden and Norway.

Marina Sitrin is an anti-authoritarian activist, writer, teacher and dreamer. Over the past 17 years Marina has been engaged in various efforts to create a new society, working with groups such as the Direct Action Network and the People's Law Collective. Marina is the author of an oral history in Spanish and English on the autonomous social movements in Argentina titled “Horizontalidad: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina.”

Andrej Grubacic is a historian and a social critic, working with "Planetary Alternatives Network", "Z Communications" and "Peoples Global Action". His affinity towards anarchism stems from his experiences as a member of the Belgrade Libertarian Group. In recent years, he has been active in a post-Yugoslav coalition of anti-authoritarian collectives called "DSM!" He has authored books and numerous articles, and now studies at SUNY Binghamton.

Readings (Incomplete list -- to be emailed out prior to class):

•John Holloway, “Change the World Without Taking Power” selected chapters

•Murray Bookchin, Third Revolution Vol. 4 – Conclusion

•Eirik Eiglad, “Libertarian Municipalism and the Radical Program” www.communalism.org.

•Selected interviews in “Horizontalidad”

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