Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Counter-power as common power: beyond horizontalism

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, June 9, 2014

Counter-power as common power: beyond horizontalism

Click here to access article by "Not An Alternative", a collective based in Brooklyn NY, posted on Reflections on a Revolution.

Although I've only had time to read half of the article (before my noon deadline), it looks to be an exceptional critique of the Occupy Movement's creation of general assemblies in which movement organizers attempted to introduce a direct form of democracy. Following the critique is a 19:04m video in which Not An Alternative presented a report on the Media, Communication, Outreach panel at the Global Uprisings Conference in Amsterdam, (November 2013)