Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Listen, You Can Hear the Sound of Direct Democracy, or Orchestroles

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, July 16, 2012

Listen, You Can Hear the Sound of Direct Democracy, or Orchestroles

Click here to access article by Cindy Milstein from Occupy Wall Street.

The author provides a vivid description of the new spirit of resistance inspired by direct democracy and the self-organizing power of the ongoing Occupy movement in Montreal and Quebec.

LISTEN. That’s what direct democracy sounds like. A whole lot of listening, to each other, and what we need, desire, and feel good about doing. Maybe that goes a long way to explaining why neither tactics, strategies, or aspirations go stale. People here in Montreal, in building toward and moving forward with this student-social strike, have made use of and/or are creating deliberate spaces for listening, from assemblies to the wake-up calls of casseroles and now orchestroles.