Re: <nettime> The Left Needs a New Strategy

[Dmytri Kleiner <dk@telekommunisten.net>]

On 2021-01-16 20:01, Vincent Gaulin wrote:

> This kind of pro-institutionalism parses out
> the difference between a "good state" and a "bad state" in a way that
> anarcho-politics' anti-statism, overvaluing of protest, and wholesale
> scepticism of hierarchy never will.

And yet remains dialogically rooted in the communities themselves, 
without making those institutions into a "third party," or seeking to 
transfer leadership into the institutions rather than with the people 
themselves. I don't recall if McAlevey directly cites Freire, but the 
similarity of their approach is striking.

I think the recent success of MAS in Boliva is instructive here. MAS, 
from what I understand, is not the movement, but rather it is referred 
to as "the instrument" of the movement. Even short of a Coup like the 
one against Morales, participation in bourgeois democracy is inherently 
opportunist, so there is always a risk of the political representatives 
becoming unmoored from the people and identifying with their new found 
peers in the political class instead.

If leadership is vested in the "instruments," like the political 
representatives in bourgeois parliaments, rather than in the movements, 
the movements can be cut of at the head. When the leadership remains 
with the organic leaders in the movement it stays resilient, and can 
move to retake or replace the instrument when setback occurs.


> Maybe it's best to define a pro-institutionalist
> strategy as thus, the extent to which any institutional form is deemed
> "democratic" aka legitimate, follows the extent (and breadth) to which
> peer review carries throughout the whole process of leadership
> appointment, agenda setting, and resource allocation.

Yes, and ultimately held to account by what is delivered.

Best,


--
Dmytri Kleiner
@dmytri
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