Dmytri Kleiner on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 23:11:47 +0200 (CEST) |
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Re: <nettime> The Revolutionary Role of a Transnational Counterparty |
Thanks Brian, I certainly agree that there would be a lot of commonality with these movements. However, I think the opportunity here is bigger than, we need to have a Mass movement, which the radicalism of OWS, etc, as much as I love it, and identify with it, could never have. We need to reach the average person, and allow them to have organized representation without taking radical action themselves, as their class condition does not allow for it, they have kids, studies, jobs, etc, and are struggling against debts, and mainly insecure about their own historical or political knowledge, and uncomfortable taking radical stances that may alienate their social peers. A movement like OWS can certainly be in solidarity with the masses, but the feeling is unlikely to be reciprocated, and the movement is unlikely to actually attract the "99%." The total number if people involved in OWS will never outnumber the 1% they protest against. This is not in anyway a criticism of OWS and similar movements, this is just the reality. Focusing on a simple message that people are in debt, not because of any moral failure on their part, but because of inadequacies in the way education, healthcare, child care and housing is provisioned in our society is not efficient nor fair can be a bridge from a very common, even conservative (in the social sense) consciousness to a very radical conclusion. The Debtors' Party should definitely be in solidarity with OWS and other radical movements, but it should not, imo, overly identify, or be seen as "The party of OWS," not that I wouldn't be proud to be part of such a party, but it's simply not a large enough community to be viable, we need to aim bigger. Over 50% of the population of the planet has a negative net worth. In terms of party discipline, my vision is something like liquid democracy internally, strict discipling externally. External interfaces like local parties and elected posts would be instruments, strongly bound to respect the consensus of the internal democracy, which must be global and extremely non-hierarchical and participatory. If you would like to get involved with the party, please let me know. As for wether it's an artwork or a real party, that's a topic to explore over a beer. Perhaps next time you're in Berlin. I've collected all the texts that I've written about this initiative here: http://dmytri.info/collected-texts-related-to-the-debtors-party Thanks for your comments! Best, -- Dmyri Kleiner Venture Communist # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org