[WSMDiscuss] [REDlistserve] From Rebellion To Revolution (Kali Akuno) ... and webinar by Kali TODAY (16 June)!

Tue Jun 16 07:12:44 CEST 2020

And Kali will speak today on a webinar organised by Global Tapestry of 
Alternatives and the Global Dialogue for Systemic Change, at 1.30 pm 
GMT/UTC, see below and attached (Jai could you kindly send on the other 
lists your mail was marked to, thanks).

Details and registration (not mandatory, but preferred!): 
https://www.globaltapestryofalternatives.org/webinars:05
Zoom: https://lu-se.zoom.us/j/66842796959

ashish

LATEST! Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary (thepluriverse.org)
and www.globaltapestryofalternatives.org

Ashish Kothari
Kalpavriksh
Apt 5 Shree Datta Krupa
908 Deccan Gymkhana
Pune 411004, India
Tel: 91-20-25654239; 91-20-25675450
http://kalpavriksh.org
www.vikalpsangam.org
www.radicalecologicaldemocracy.org
www.iccaconsortium.org
www.acknowlej.org
http://ashishkothari51.blogspot.in/
Twitter: @chikikothari

On 15/06/20 10:59 pm, Jai Sen wrote:
>
> Monday, June 15, 2020
>
> *Viruses in movement…, The US in movement…, Resistance in movement…, 
> Movements in movement…, Power in movement…*
>
> [The US is aflame, its people are afire…
>
> The Floyd rebellion is changing the world before our very eyes. What 
> type of change and to what degree it will shift the balance of forces 
> between rulers and ruled, haves and the have-nots remains to be seen. 
> What is clear is that there is an active and open political contest to 
> shape the outcome. …
>
> ….
>
> Cooperation Jackson <https://cooperationjackson.org/> and the People’s 
> Strike <https://peoplesstrike.org/> coalition we’ve been working to 
> build with various organizations and allies are working to advance a 
> program of this character to interject left counter-narratives into 
> the mass movement. ….. What we have been proposing, and will offer in 
> this process, is that we organize and build towards the execution of a 
> general strike. The beginning of a general strike under current 
> conditions starts with People’s Assemblies in the streets debating and 
> voting on having a general strike. This is how a largely street 
> protest movement can blossom into an instrument of dual power that 
> could radically transform society.
>
> *From Rebellion To Revolution***
>
> Kali Akuno, in Viewpoint Magazine 
> <https://www.viewpointmag.com/2020/06/11/from-rebellion-to-revolution/>
>
> June 14, 2020 | Strategize! <https://popularresistance.org/strategize/>
>
> https://popularresistance.org/from-rebellion-to-revolution/
>
> /Kali Akuno <https://www.viewpointmag.com/author/kali-akuno/> is the 
> cofounder and executive director of Cooperation Jackson, and coeditor 
> of /Jackson Rising : The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black 
> Self-Determination in Jackson, MS [in the US]
>
>
> The Floyd rebellion is changing the world before our very eyes. What 
> type of change and to what degree it will shift the balance of forces 
> between rulers and ruled, haves and the have-nots remains to be seen. 
> What is clear is that there is an active and open political contest to 
> shape the outcome. For the moment, the right wing and the Republicans 
> have been relatively sidelined in this debate. The real contest as it 
> stands is between the liberals and Democrats on the one hand and the 
> radical mass that has taken the streets all over the country and the 
> world, which is increasingly examining and advancing critical left 
> demands emerging from anarchist, communist, revolutionary nationalist, 
> and socialist analytical and organizing traditions, such as police and 
> prison abolition, economic democracy, and decolonization. This debate 
> is being played out in the streets, in mainstream media, and through 
> social media.
>
> Following trends in all of these venues, it appears that the liberals 
> and Democrats have gained some significant ground in the narrative 
> war, the war of position, on several points. One critical point is 
> making distinctions between “good protestors” and “bad protestors”. 
> The dominance of this narrative will have consequences, negative 
> consequences. Some of these negative consequences include: (1) 
> narrowing the focus of the rebellion, (2) reasserting the myths of 
> “democratic” reform and capitalist correction that only reinforce the 
> perpetuation of the system, and (3) limiting the scope of the 
> revolutionary possibilities and potentialities of the current rebellion.
>
> The net effect of the positional gains of the liberals is that the 
> rebellion is showing some clear signs of being defused, such as the 
> serious policing of the movement on the streets that is occurring in 
> many places. This is starting to isolate the left in many critical 
> ways and put it and its proposals on the defensive. This is best 
> expressed in the hardcore efforts to water down the abolitionist 
> demand of “defunding” and “abolishing” the police, to which we will 
> return shortly. The aim of the liberals and the Democratic party is to 
> redirect this mass movement towards electoral politics, particularly 
> the 2020 elections, and a limited set of cosmetic corrections and reforms.
>
> Where the liberals and Democrats appear to have made the most 
> significant advance is narrowing the scope of the rebellion in the 
> mainstream media. If you believe them, this is fundamentally just 
> about reforming the police and the articulation of an obscure 
> iteration of the “Black Lives Matter” demand framework. This downplays 
> the clear calls to eradicate white supremacy, capitalism, 
> heteropatriarchy, and settler-colonialism that have been on clear 
> display. Without addressing this it is hard to make sense of the 
> removal of all the statues and symbols edifying settler-colonialism 
> and enslavement, or the targeted acts of redistribution that have 
> occurred, and the forced dismantling of the institutions of 
> repression, exploitation, and gentrification. Their reasoning should 
> be obvious. The liberals and Democrats do not support revolution. They 
> have no interest in dismantling the systems of oppression that confine 
> humanity. Their interest is doing what is necessary to preserve the 
> existing capitalist system. To this end, they are willing to bend a 
> few things, as long as it doesn’t fundamentally break or alter the 
> social relations that shape society, particularly who owns and 
> controls the means of production. The distorted “Black Lives Matter” 
> framework they are pushing is about trying to shore up their electoral 
> base for the 2020 elections, particularly amongst Blacks and Latinos, 
> who they have to rely upon to have any chance of winning. Thus they 
> can support police reform, while condemning the effort to dismantle 
> the institution and its social function as absurd.
>
> On the demand of “defunding the police” or “abolishing the police,” it 
> must be noted that this question is being raised in the absence of a 
> revolution — which the current moment is not, not yet anyway. Most of 
> the responses are being cast in this light as well: “What will happen 
> to communities without police?” This question assumes that capitalist 
> relations of production and social reproduction  will continue to 
> exist — i.e., the same ole shit. Neither capital nor the state have 
> been dismantled or destroyed, and few are proposing this possibility 
> (i.e. revolution) or preparing for it in the present moment. If the 
> fundamental social relations don’t change, then this reform could only 
> serve as a temporary appeasement measure, which the operatives of the 
> state would quickly attack and undermine. They would turn it into a 
> fiasco to create a negative example to dissuade folks from thinking 
> that an alternative is possible. In any case, anything the ruling 
> class giveth, it can take away.
>
> And if you don’t think that this is the case, there are several 
> historic and ongoing examples of how the capitalist and imperialist 
> system has successfully twisted limited efforts to break out of the 
> system and turned them into propaganda tools through various means of 
> strangulation and negation to create the impression that there is no 
> alternative. This is how they use the examples of Haiti, Cuba, and now 
> Venezuela, Chiapas, Rojava, etc., as whipping posts.
>
> To be clear, I think the demand for abolition should be raised to 
> heighten the contradictions. But, it must be accompanied by the call 
> for revolution, and the organizing effort to dismantle the entire 
> system. Short of accomplishing that, the empire will strike back. Of 
> that there is no doubt.
>
> Again, the consequences of this narrowness should not be downplayed. 
> State agencies all over the country are waiting for the rebellion to 
> subside so they can hunt down thousands of young partisans and put 
> them in jail in the name of justice and restoring law and order. This 
> history should be instructive. Following the Los Angeles rebellion of 
> 1992, the Los Angeles police and sheriff departments hunted down and 
> arrested over 15,000 people who were captured on footage breaking the 
> so-called “rules.” So, if they succeed, it will be the effective 
> negation of the rebellion.
>
> We on the left — anarchists, communists, indigenous sovereigntists, 
> revolutionary nationalists, and socialists — /have to/ resist the 
> elevation of the liberal and Democratic party narratives and 
> positions. We have to assert a counter-narrative in all arenas — one 
> that aims towards transforming the Floyd rebellion into something 
> potentially transformative. This must include upholding autonomous 
> action (with principle), the diversity of tactics, the sanctity of 
> life over property and profits, and the building and execution of 
> instruments of dual power to transform social relations and the 
> balance of forces. And let it be known that should we fail, the left 
> will be the first victims of the targeted execution of the state’s 
> hammer, which is here and will advance whether we like it or not.
>
> Despite the challenges we are confronting in this contest of power, 
> the alternative of revolution yet remains. A pathway to revolution 
> does currently exist. In my view it rests with the advance of a 
> strategy anchored by the further politicization of the mutual aid, 
> food sovereignty, cooperative economics, community production, 
> self-defense, people’s assemblies, and general strike motions that 
> already existed and that emerged in embryonic form in the midst of the 
> pandemic. This could be harnessed through democratic efforts to 
> federate these initiatives on a mass level to lay the foundations of 
> dual power.
>
> Cooperation Jackson <https://cooperationjackson.org/> and the People’s 
> Strike <https://peoplesstrike.org/> coalition we’ve been working to 
> build with various organizations and allies are working to advance a 
> program of this character to interject left counter-narratives into 
> the mass movement. One of the central things we are proposing as our 
> next contribution to the movement is the call for mass People’s 
> Assemblies. Building on experiences from the Occupy movement, 
> Assemblies have started spontaneously developing in New York city, 
> Oakland, Portland, and Seattle. These are groundbreaking developments. 
> But, we need more. The People’s Strike is calling for Assemblies to be 
> held everywhere, and in particular calling for a first strike national 
> day of action on July 1st. What we have been proposing, and will offer 
> in this process, is that we organize and build towards the execution 
> of a general strike. The beginning of a general strike under current 
> conditions starts with People’s Assemblies in the streets debating and 
> voting on having a general strike. This is how a largely street 
> protest movement can blossom into an instrument of dual power that 
> could radically transform society.
>
> Unite and Fight, Build the General Strike!
>
>
> Kali Akuno <https://www.viewpointmag.com/author/kali-akuno/> is the 
> cofounder and executive director of Cooperation Jackson, and coeditor 
> of Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black 
> Self-Determination in Jackson, MS.
>
>
> ____________________________
>
> Jai Sen
>
> Independent researcher, editor; Senior Fellow at the School of 
> International Development and Globalisation Studies at the University 
> of Ottawa
>
> jai.sen at cacim.net <mailto:jai.sen at cacim.net>
>
> Now based in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325) and in Ottawa, 
> Canada,on unceded and unsurrendered Anishinaabe territory(+1-613-282 2900)
>
> CURRENT / RECENT publications:
>
> Jai Sen, ed, 2018a –*/The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking 
> Our Dance/*. Ebook and hard copy available atPM Press 
> <http://www.pmpress.org/>
>
> Jai Sen, ed, 2018b –*/The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes 
> Us Move ?/*(Indian edition). New Delhi : AuthorsUpfront, in 
> collaboration with OpenWord andPM Press.Hard copy available 
> atMOM1AmazonIN 
> <https://www.amazon.in/dp/9387280101/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1522884070&sr=8-2&keywords=movements+of+movements+jai+sen>,MOM1Flipkart 
> <https://www.flipkart.com/the-movements-of-movements/p/itmf3zg7h79ecpgj?pid=9789387280106&lid=LSTBOK9789387280106NBA1CH&marketplace=FLIPKART&srno=s_1_1&otracker=search&fm=SEARCH&iid=ff35b702-e6a8-4423-b014-16c84f6f0092.9789387280106.SEARCH&ppt=Search%20Page>, 
> andMOM1AUpFront <http://www.authorsupfront.com/movements.htm>
>
> Jai Sen, ed, 2017 –*/The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes 
> Us Move ?/*.New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA :PM Press.Ebook and 
> hard copy available atPM Press <http://www.pmpress.org/>//
>
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