Comment 33121

By LL (registered) - website | Posted August 31, 2009 at 20:14:20

Hear hear grassroots. "Movement of the people." Parties and elections are not democracy. Anyone who has been violated by the state while assembling peacefully knows this. By the time we get to the voting booth to "participate" in "our democracy" for roughly 30 seconds every five years, there have already been several layers of decision making that only the rich and the insiders have been part of.

In a real democracy, decision making would take place in popular assemblies where everyone could take part. Instead of professional "representatives" for higher level coordination, you would have "delegates" from the assemblies. Instead of a big salary, they would recieve a stipend. In addition to term limits, they would be subject to immediate recall. They would have severely limited power themselves and merely deliver the votes and concerns of the assembly.

For example, the Paris Commune...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Commu...

...or the more recent example in Buenos Aires:

http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp...

Real democracy is always direct and federated. From ancient Athens when they kicked out the oligarchs out and started the first "democracy", to the town halls of revolutionary New England, to the various revolutions in France --- even the Soviet councils of 1905 and 1917 before the Bolsheviks took over.

Hey, we also need democracy in the workplace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers%...

Democracy is Good :) I just haven't experienced much of it in my life :(

LL believes that the problems of the city reflect deeper social contradictions

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