January 20, 2005

Principles of Revolutionary Organization in the Information Age

By DAVID CHEGE

   Global Resistance Network  

More and more often, the word “revolution” is being used to describe the extant of the change we wish to effect in world affairs.  Revolution demands mass organization; never before has such a powerful tool as digital communications existed in a time of social upheaval.  We must use it in a way that maximizes its potential - and ours.

To maximize our freedom as individuals, though constrained to act as a collective, we insist upon:

• Democratization
• Decentralization
• Autonomy

Democratization guarantees that the will of each is contained in the decisions of the whole.

Decentralization disperses power to prevent its abuse.

Autonomy preserves the sovereignty of the individual.

Decentralizing Democracy:

Representative democracy delegates power to a select few and is, therefore, less democratic than direct democracy by consensus.  Decentralizing democracy means dispersing the authority granted our representatives back to the autonomous local units from which it is originally derived.  Dispersing that authority demands that we also disperse the knowledge, the vision, and the initiative to govern back to the people.

Dispersing the knowledge is easy; it’s happening everyday.  What begins at a single source can be disseminated instantly through the vast interchange of digital communications.  On a thousand different websites, in a thousand different conversations, the dialogue is proceeding as we struggle to come to terms with who we are and what is transpiring around the world.  In this awakening, we arrive at the next step.

Dispersing the vision.  For a community to act as an autonomous unit and directly participate in our decentralized democracy it must be a microcosm of the whole, possessing independent faculties of research and deliberation on every issue which is pertinent to the greater body.  Otherwise, how can we hope to act in concert as equals instead of being led by an elite?  Direct democracy is dependant upon the flow of information and the flow of ideas moving not up and down a chain of command, but laterally across intertwined affinity groups.  The Internet represents the first forum capable of hosting such a global congress, communicating in real time - a circle as wide as the whole world where every voice can be heard and no central authority distorts the process.   If we are not to entrust policy and direction to an elite, the source must be us - our communities - coming together to create autonomous units of parallel authority.

Dispersing the initiative.  It lies with each of us.  As sovereign individuals, autonomous in our decisions, we must accept that we are nevertheless collectively responsible for the direction the world is taking.  We must bear in mind the perennial truth that power corrupts, and that transferring power from a corrupt authority to one more of our liking is not the solution.  Our progressive organizations must not aspire to accumulate power, but to disperse it.  Communication is the key.  It is what binds the local to the global, but only if we make that connection.  Decentralizing the initiative requires that we disperse the responsibility to govern from our authority figures down to the foundation upon which it rests: the global citizen, you and me.

Remember:

In a democracy, we are the government.

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David Chege is a musician and lives in New Jersey.  In addition to being a contributor to the Global Resistance Network, he is also an activist with Linus Bell and can be reached at linusmovement@hotmail.com.           

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