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November 09, 2007
Anarchy & Participatory Society
By Chris Spannos
[This commentary is based on a talk given for the opening panel of the
2007 Renewing the Anarchist Tradition conference, Nov. 2-4.]
"It is often said that anarchists live in a world of dreams to come and
do not see the things which happen today. We see them only too well and
in their true colors, and that is what makes us carry the hatchet into
the forests of prejudices that beset us."
-- Peter Kropotkin, Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Ideal
"Anyone who studies the economic and political development of the
present social system will easily recognize that [anarchist] objectives
do not spring from the Utopian ideas of a few imaginative innovators,
but that they are the logical outcome of a thorough examination of the
present day social maladjustments, which with every new phase of the
existing social conditions manifest themselves more plainly and more
unwholesomely."
-- Rudolf Rocker, anarcho-syndicalism
The title of this panel is "Real Utopia: Paths to a Participatory
Society," and is inspired by a book I am editing for AK Press (April,
2008). However, a conference like RAT presents challenges for how to
approach the topic of vision for a participatory society. What's my
angle here? I am surrounded by people who already agree that capitalism,
private property, hierarchical divisions of labor, and the institutional
roles of buyer and seller in markets are vile and despotic. I am among
others who have no illusions about centrally planned economies and who
are fully aware of the corrupting institutional roles of central
planners and managers, or what I and others call the coordinator class.
I am in a room with others who would agree that racism and ***ism is
bad, and that environmental sustainability is good. In other words I am
among some of the greatest allies I could hope for.
However, within the anarchist tradition there has been a mixed response
to vision -- it has been both rejected and embraced. So, I am also among
critics. The task I have at this conference is to side with those within
the tradition who embrace vision. Many arguments can be made against
vision, although the one most relevant to anarchists is that vision is a
form of authoritarianism. These anarchists argue that vision is
vangaurdist, or that vision has intrinsic qualities that automatically
trump people's creative pursuits and imagination. It's not that I don't
agree with many of the worries that those who oppose vision hold. I too
want as many people as possible to help shape our vision, and I too
oppose a small elite having dispro****tionate say over the realization of
a future society. I just don't believe our worries about vangaurdism or
authoritarianism have anything to do with conceptualizing vision.
Reasoning that says vision is authoritarian overlooks that people will
not join our struggle if we cannot answer the hard question of where we
want to go. Offering vision is not the same as being vanguardist. Nor
does vision have intrinsic qualities that trump peoples' imagination.
Vision is used to guide us and inspire us. Ideas should be proposed,
shared, discussed, and debated for movement vitality. Calling visionary
thinking authoritarian is reactionary and curbs evaluation of past,
present, and future alternatives to the racism, ***ism, and classism
that we struggle to transcend. In short, it thwarts our efforts today
and limits our chances for successful societal transformation in the
future.
Anarchism & Participatory Society
"'Anarchy may be a perfect form of social life; but we have no desire to
take a leap in the dark. Therefore, tell us how your society will be
organized.' Then follows a long list of questions'According to what
method will children be taught? . . . How will production and
distribution be organized? . . . Will all the inhabitants of Siberia
winter at Nice?' And so on, without end, as though we could prophesy all
the knowledge and experience of future time, or could, in the name of
Anarchy, prescribe for the coming man what time he should go to bed, and
on what days he should cut his nails. How will children be educated? We
do not know. What then? The parents, teachers and all who are interested
in the rising generation, will meet, discuss, agree and differ, and then
divide according to their various opinions, putting into practice the
methods which they respectively hold to be the best. That method which,
when tried, produces the best results will triumph in the end. And so
for all the problems that may arise."
-- Errico Malatesta, Anarchy
Traditionally, anarchism's concern has been with power relations,
exploitation, and oppression by economy, god, and state. Anarchism,
pared down to its most basic form, addresses power differentials in all
spheres of life. An anarchist society should seek emancipatory values,
institutions, and outcomes eliminating the totality of oppressions that
afflict us today. This is precisely the goal of a participatory society
-- to produce liberation in all spheres of life. This vision of a
participatory society is firmly within the anarchist tradition.
The broad values of such a society should be based on solidarity,
self-management, equity, and diversity. Solidarity means that we care
about and express compassion for one another. Equity means that people
are remunerated for effort and sacrifice. Self-management is
decision-making in pro****tion to the degree one is affected. Diversity
means that we want divers living arrangements to choose from.
The thumbnail sketch of a participatory society I propose is based on
the above values of solidarity, self-management, diversity, and equity,
among others. It embodies several defining features and institutions for
all spheres of life such as kin****p, culture, the polity, and economy.
Some of these visions are based on preliminary sketches. Others, like
the Participatory Economic model, are further developed, with whole
books written about the model, as well as many debates and exchanges,
all easy to find. There are even a number of activist organizations and
institutions which are self-conscious experiments in the parecon model.
However, none of the visions presented here are absolute and all require
further development.
Participatory Economics
An economy is where production, consumption, and allocation of the
material means of life occur. A participatory economy is comprised of
socially owned rather than private or state owned productive assets;
nested worker and consumer council's and balanced job complexes rather
than cor****ate hierarchies; remuneration for effort and sacrifice rather
than for property, power, or output; decentralized participatory
planning rather than markets or central planning; and self-management
rather than class rule.
The balanced job complex is a redefinition of our concept of work. Jobs
are organized so that everyone has an equal set of both empowering and
un-empowering tasks. Jobs are balanced within each work place and across
work places. Balancing jobs within work places is done to prevent the
organization and assignment of tasks from preparing some workers better
than others to participate in decision-making at the workplace, or what
would be the result of our standard work place cor****ate division of
labor. Balancing work across work places is equally necessary so that
disempowering and menial work places are not ruled by empowering ones.
The outcome of the participatory balanced job complex is that everyone
has an equal share of both desirable and undesirable tasks, with
comparable empowerment and quality of life cir***stances for all.
Balanced job complexes are necessary for the functioning of a classless
society.
Another key element is remunerative justice, or pay for effort and
sacrifice. This method of pay insures that unequal outcomes are not
produced and reproduced, due to owner****p of the means of production,
bargaining power, output, genetic endowment, talent, skill, better
tools, more productive coworkers, environment, inheritance, or luck. Of
all these factors people control only their effort. So, effort and
sacrifice is the remunerative norm in parecon, tempered by need as
appropriate in cases of illness, catastrophe, incapacity, etc.
Participants are organized into federations of workers' and consumers'
councils who negotiate allocation through "decentralized participatory
planning." Workers in worker councils propose what they want to produce,
how much they want to produce, the inputs needed and the human effects
of their production choices. Consumers propose what they want to
consume, how much they want to consume and the human effects of their
consumption choices. "Iteration Facilitation Boards" (IFB) generate
"indicative prices," using both quantitative and qualitative
information, which is used by workers and consumers to update their
proposals for further rounds of iterations. The IFB whittles proposals
down to a workable plan within five to seven iterative rounds. A plan is
chosen and implemented for the coming year.
A participatory plan is a feasible and desirable choice distributing the
burdens and benefits of social labor fairly. It involves participants
decision making inputs in pro****tion to the degree they are affected.
Human and natural resources are used efficiently providing a variety of
outcomes.
ParPolity
The political sphere is where adjudication, legislation, and lawmaking
occur. The vision of ParPolity proposed by Stephen Shalom is a model of
direct democracy designed to compliment participatory economics. This is
also a council system where everyone participates in a council small
enough for face-to-face decision-making and real deliberation. The idea
being that councils are not so small they exclude decision-making by
those affected, but also not so large they inhibit people from having
their perspective considered.
Decisions that affect only, or overwhelming, that council will be made
by that council, keeping decision-making to the lowest level council as
possible.
The more people affected by a decision, the higher level of council will
be needed to decide, and therefore the more coordination between higher
level councils will be needed. If decisions affect more than one of
these higher level councils, they would in turn send delegates to a
third-level council, etc.
Kin****p
The Kin****p Sphere is where child rearing, nurturing future generations,
socializing, and care-giving occur. Key institutions are the family,
with parental and child rearing roles, where gender and ***uality, and
other relations form for boys and girls, men and women, fathers and
mothers, adults, children, and the elderly. New kin****p institutions
would have divers familial, socialization, and care-giving arrangements.
However, just as the new society should have a balanced division of
labor in the economy, so should there be a balanced division of labor in
the home. This doesn't necessarily mean there will be balanced job
complexes in the home, nor material remuneration for domestic work. The
balanced job complex in a classless society lifts the heavy material
burden in the economic sphere. However, socialization and care-giving
both within and outside the home need to be balanced too. Inside the
home a balanced division of labor is needed where parental partners
share in the childrearing and socialization process. Outside the home
socialization of care-giving i.e. daycares, and caring for the elderly,
would be needed. Addressing the domestic and societal division of labor
within the kin****p sphere is necessary to remove gendered divisions of
labor and care-giving in daily life.
Race/Community Vision
The Community Sphere is where identity, religion, and spirituality occur
with race, ethnicity, places of wor****p, and beliefs about life, death,
and celebration. A new community sphere would facilitate interaction
among and within each other creating a rich diversity of cultures and
communities. A participatory society would allow individuals to choose
the religions, cultures, and communities they themselves identify most
with, in a self-managed way. Again, parecon would eliminate competition
for material resources within and between communities. However, while
these material inequities are absent in a participatory society,
cultural and identity differences are not. Here, the parpolity is able
to do a lot of heavy lifting, facilitating minority protection and
representation in media, education, and political institutions, while
also negotiating relations between smaller and larger groups.
Conclusion
"Every human being who is not devoid of feeling and common sense is
inclined to Anarchism. Everyone who suffers from wrong and injustice,
from the evil, corruption, and filth of our present day life, is
instinctively sympathetic to Anarchy. Everyone whose heart is not dead
to kindness, compassion, and fellow-sympathy must be interested in
furthering it. Everyone who has to endure poverty and misery, tyranny
and oppression should welcome the coming of Anarchy. Every liberty-and
justice-loving man and woman should help realize it."
-- Alexander Berkman, What is Communist Anarchism?
Again, none of the above visions are absolute and most require further
development. In addition to transforming societies defining spheres we
also want to revolutionize everyday life, which means we need to
additionally consider how science, technology, education, s****ts, media,
cities, and civil engineering would exist within a participatory
society. The future participatory society is an anarchist society. In
closing, I would like to ask you, "which side of the vision question are
you on?" and "why?" In answering, I hope you will consider joining the
effort to realize the new society.
Thank you.
Chris Spannos is staff with Z.
--
Dan Clore
My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_:
http://tinyurl.com/3akhhr
Lord We˙rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://www.geocities.com/clorebeast/
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Strange pleasures are known to him who flaunts the
immarcescible purple of poetry before the color-blind.
-- Clark Ashton Smith, "Epigrams and Apothegms"
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