I am writing to raise questions about how each of us in the Z community, especially advocates of participatory vision, think our vision will actually come to fruitation. That is, what are the essential things we need to be doing to bring about a revolution, and what is zcomm.org's place in helping to build that movement.
ZCommunications is an incredible tool for revolutionaries. Z has given millions of progressives sharp analysis on thousands of issues of concern around the world. The recent website upgrade has enabled organizers to begin to network in ways previously impossible. It is certain that it will continue to expand in ways that will enable all of us to strengthen our own the ground work and provide regional, national, and international venues of communications to aid in being intentional about our growth and strategy.
Most recently I've seen people talk about making ZNet more participatory. While I sympathize with the desire to get involved in the Z community, I often find myself confused at some of the suggestions put forth. In particular, it seems that many people who I share similar values with, seem quite concerned with the day-to-day operations of Z. While this is reasonable to some degree, I find myself asking whether they are applying those same demands to their local communities. By this I mean that we are going to build a movement only by actually building a movement. If we think workers' and consumers' councils are worthy institutions that a future economy will be based on, then we should be primarily waging (non-refomist) reform struggles to build our power as well as construction new popular institutions outright. In short, most of our energies should be devoted to organizing: writing, talking to people, providing people with radicalizing experiences, providing ways for people to take action to raise the social costs for elites of policies we oppose, doing things which increases our numbers and the commitment of those involved, and so on.
So I'm interested in what others on Z think about this, what they are doing to build popular movements and institutions, and spread radical vision throughout society. How are people using Z to aid in this political work?
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