Ippsstategyandvisionquestionsalbert


IPPS

IPPS Strategy & Vision Q&A

Members of The International Project for a Participatory Society (IPPS) were asked to respond to a short list of questions relating to a future participatory society and how to get there. Although broadly formulated, the questions are aimed at extrapolating IPPS member thoughts and experiences on matters of strategy and vision. Here is Michael Albert's responce:

(1) Could you please identify what you think are the core defining features and institutions of society that need to be changed i.e. economic, political, cultural, gender/sexual, ecological, etc.?

It depends somewhat on the society. In the U.S., where I live and work, we need to address all that you mention and probably more, too. More specifically, I think that we need to replace private ownership of productive assets, markets, corporate divisions of labor, inequitable remuneration, entirely representative one or two party democracy, the adjudication system, critical attributes of kinship and family relations – though I am very unclear about which ones, as compared to the sexist features of all of them, of course – and likewise the racist and otherwise community denigrating features of our culture.

(2) What are your goals for this change, do you seek to reform them, if so with what changes, broadly? Do you seek to fundamentally replace these institutions with some others? If so what do the replacement structures look like, what are their defining features, of course in brief?

There are many institutions and structures that will likely only be altered in part, but for those I mentioned, I think we need wholly new institutions. For the economy I favor participatory economics or parecon. I am happy advocating that. For politics, I like anarchist sentiments, in many respects, and the start that Stephen Shalom has made toward elaborating structures able to fulfill them, which he calls participatory politics or parpolity. I would say I advocate parpolity, his model, but it is more like advocating the on-going elaboration of what he has begun into a whole model from the partial vision it is now. I think feel that way as well about Justin Podur’s presentations on participatory culture, I would sort of like to call it intercommunalism, and Cynthia Peter’s presentations on participatory kinship, or maybe it ought to be called participatory feminism, though I think those two later cases are less developed so far.

(3) Who do you think the strategic actors are in achieving these goals i.e. political parties, workers, women, queers, immigrants, particular countries or regions, etc?

In general, it seems to me that the most reliable and likely advocates for thorough liberating change in any part of society will be the sectors that are most denied, oppressed, and repressed by that part of society as it now stands. So we are talking about precisely the groups you list. I see no point in trying to place one above another, however. The point is developing a political style, program, and organizations that can appeal to and empower all those constituencies at once and get cutting edge contributions in particular regarding its own focused area from each.

(4) What tactics do you see being centrally used in achieving these changes i.e. voting, direct action, media action, strikes, demonstrations, etc.?

Tactics are just that, tactics. They are chosen to fit a context, parts of which are very volatile and temporary. I can imagine all kinds of actions, methods, behaviors, demands, and whatnot that are applicable and effective sometimes, and not other times. But, yes, at the broad level that you are asking about, I think the list you give are all very relevant and applicable, often, as are certain others, as well. I think there also some commitments that I would call strategic that are deeper and less contextual. Here I would include essentially embodying the seeds of the future in our present efforts.

(5) How do other perspectives, which have different ideas about societal change, fit into your strategy and vision?

I think the kind of commitments I have are quite consistent with feminism, anti-racism, and anarchism – at least when those are held compatibly with broader social aims. I don’t feel close affinity with Marxist approaches, often – beyond sharing an opposition to capitalism – and while I might respect and even admire some Leninist efforts, for the most part I don’t, and I am convinced, in any case, that they cannot win the type society I desire, nor often even win useful changes regarding this one.

Mission Statement

The International Project for a Participatory Society (IPPS) is a group of people concerned with inspiring, facilitating, and supporting efforts to develop, share, and promote vision and strategy for attaining a new participatory society.

IPPS stands for a classless economy based on self-management and equality, for democratic and participatory politics, and for the elimination of patriarchy, racism, and all other hierarchies and oppressions.

IPPS seeks to elaborate a vision of a participatory society in order to demonstrate that there is an alternative to current race, gender, political, environmental, and other injustices.

Structure

Overarching policy decisions on editorial priorities, financial decisions, and new members will be made in annual meetings with all group members welcome to participate either live or online.

Voting in yearly policy meetings will be most often by majority vote with attention to a strong minority. Deviations will respect the concept of self management - decision making input in proportion as one is affected by issues at stake. Individual task forces will set up their own participatory decision-making process.

As a basic component of membership in IPPS, all members are encouraged to be involved in the creation of vision and strategy through participation in autonomous “editorial threesomes” (or other combinations, or singly) as people choose. By autonomous we mean as long as they apply the general principles and values of our mission statement.

-> by group members (where possible in aforementioned threesomes)

-> commissioned and solicited by threesomes

-> from unsolicited submissions that will be distributed somewhat equally among threesomes for approval
Other activities will be overseen by appropriate task forces constructed for the purposes at hand.

Initial Agenda

At Woods Hole Massachusetts, on June 6, 2006, we designated the June 2006 Z Sessions on Vision and Strategy gathering as the founding and first policy meeting of the International Project for a Participatory Society. At this June meeting we decided our mission statement, name, project definition, basic principles/values, a date for the next policy meeting--in Atlanta at the U.S. Social Forum from June 27-July1 (possible online hookup for those who can’t be there)--and to present a Participatory Society program (building on the Life After Capitalism experience) at the Atlanta events.

We decided to focus on the following in the next six months:

-> Creating a web site for public communications, etc.
Responsibility: Evan Henshaw Plath, Michael Albert, Justin Podur

-> Creating content for the IPPS website
Responsibility: All members organized into editorial threesomes or other combinations, as well as operating singly. Those who presented vision/strategy papers at ZSVS could improve on it; others who didn’t make presentations could do so; still others could cover new areas of concern such as law, education, environment, etc.

Some threesomes created at the June meeting:

Law: Brecher, Sitrin, Ceric
South Asian: Kolhatkar, Podur, Mahajan
Education: Grubacic, LeJeune, Baillargeon
Kinship/ParSociety: Sargent, Ponniah, Peters

-> Creating a blog system for members (public) dialog and debate
Responsibility: Justin Podur, Brian Dominick

-> Researching experiments in visionary institutional building
Responsibility: Sonali Kolhatkar, Jamie LeJeune, Tamara Vukov, Tom Wetzel, Marie Trigona, Milan Rai, Marina Sitrin,
Irina Ceric, Andrej Grubaci, Chris Spannos, Normand Baillargeon

-> Creating an internal newsletter
Responsibility: Marie Trigona, Andy Dunn, Lydia Sargent

-> Develop tools to aid experiments in creating participatory society institutions
Responsibility: Andrej Grubacic, Chris Spannos, Sean Gonzalves, Evan Henshaw Plath, Jamie LeJeune, Chantal Santerre

-> Develop program for the Atlanta Social Forum
Responsibility: Kendra Fehrer, Jamie LeJeune, Thomas Ponniah, Lydia Sargent, Michael Albert

-> Creating a speakers bureau for members
Responsibility: Cynthia Peters, Steve Shalom, Chris Spannos, Sean Gonzalves

-> Assisting members with publishing their work
Responsibility: Ezequiel Adamovsky, Sonali Kolhatkar, Jeremy Brecher

-> Establish means for dealing with internal disputes, conflicts, errors, etc.
Responsibility: Irina Ceric, Justin Podur, Milan Rai, Mark Evans, Kendra Fehrer

Who We Are

Ezequiel
Adamovsky
 - Argentina

Michael Albert - U.S.

Bridgit
Anderson
- Great Britain

Jessica
Azulay
  - U.S.

Normand Baillargeon -
Canada

Elaine
Bernard
- U.S.

Peter Bohmer - U.S.
Patrick Bond - South
Africa

Jeremy Brecher  -
U.S.

Dennis Brutus - South Africa

Irina Ceric - Serbia/Canada

Daniel Chavez - Netherlands

Noam Chomsky -
U.S.

Carol Delgado - Venezuela

Brian
Dominick
  - U.S.

Mark Evans - England

Kendra Fehrer - U.S.

Susan George - France
Jonah Gindin - Canada
Sean Gonsalves -
U.S.

Andrej Grubacic -
Serbia/U.S.

Serge Halimi - France
Elizabeth Hartman- U.S.

John Hepburn - Australia

Pervez Hoodhboy -
Pakistan

Robert Jensen - U.S.Ria Julien - Trinidad/U.S.

Naomi Klein - Canada

Sonali Kolhatkar - India/U.S.

Jamie LeJeune - U.S.

Rahul Mahajan  - U.S.

Mandisi Majavu -
South Africa

Felipe Pérez Martí - Venezuela

Pablo Ortellado - Brazil

Ilan Pappe - Israel

Cynthia Peters  -
U.S.

John Pilger - Great Britain

Evan Henshaw Plath - U.S.
Justin
Podur
 - India/Canada

Thomas Ponniah - U.S.
Vijay Prashad - U.S.

Milan Rai - Britain

Carola Reintjes - Spain

Manuel Rozental - Colombia

Chantel Santerre - Canada
Lydia
Sargent - U.S.

Steve Shalom  -
U.S.

Devinder Sharma -
India
Vandana Shiva - India

Marina Sitrin  - U.S.

Chris Spannos - Canada

Marie Trigona -
Argentina

Tamara Vukov - Canada

Harsha Walia - India/Canada

Hilary Wainwright - Great
Britain

Tom Wetzel - U.S.

Greg Wilpert - Venezuela

Tim Wise - U.S.

America Vera Zavala - Sweden

Howard Zinn - U.S.

 




Info, Networking, Research

Key aspects of IPPS activities are generating and disseminating
information that bears on vision and strategy - whether it is new ideas, criitical
accounts, historical reviews, surveys of projects, etc. - and creating contacts and
lasting ties among people around the world concerned with such matters.

All members participate in such work in diverse ways including writing, speaking,
hosting events and other members, working with organizations, etc. Reports, analyses,
vision, strategy, etc. appear in essay form on this site. Discussions occur via our
blog system. Outreach occurs via speaking engagements, publishing, this web site,
face to face organizing, etc.

As we are first forming, there isn't much to report at the moment...more later...

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