Putting Power In Its Place: Create Community Control!

edited by Judith Plant and Christopher Plant, part of The New Catalyst Bioregional Series, New Society Publishers, Philadelphia, PA, Gabriola Island, BC, Canada.

For those who may be increasingly convinced that small is beautiful - democratic, accountable, manageable, visible, friendly, caring, responsible and cooperative; and big is bad - undemocratic, irresponsible, destructive, power over, uncontrollable Putting Power in Its Place: Create Community Control is an excellent book which I highly recommend.

Putting Power in Its Place: Create Community Control is a collection of essays written by people drawing from their own experience and wisdom learnt in creating and living alternatives rather than relying on distant, academic theory. As the title suggests, the emphasis of the book is on creating meaningful, local, community control: responsible, knowledgeable and caring for our local and (bio)regional environment, and in effect, taking power away from huge, uncaring, destructive centralised systems.Using the table of contents and the summary the editors put at the start of each essay, you can either read the book from cover to cover or follow your whims and interests.

If you are interested, you can look at this book in Connect's Reference Library, Flamingo House, 22 Dornoch Terrace, West End, Ph (07) 3844 9472, or you can buy this book through Red Books, 305a Brunswick St. Fortitude Valley, Ph (07) 3216 0747.

Her are two extracts from Putting Power in Its Place: Create Community Control.

Tom Driftwood

Seven Decentralist Strategies

1. Achieve consensus on common principles: A minimum basic agreement is required among decentralists of all stripes on philosophy and strategy. Observe the "Three Key Principles": the search for truth, the freedom to live in light of one's truth, and nonviolent conflict resolution over different versions of the truth.

The political goals should be: the creation of institutions based on womens' values and needs as well as mens'; the freedom to create autonomous communities (which may network and confederate regionally to resolve common problems and conflicts) even if it means seceding from or breaking up current nation states; consensus-oriented democracy within these communities and within the regional networks and confederations they form; the institution of nonviolent conflict resolution, sanctions and defence; and the abolition of nation states. Strategy should be radical, emphasising withdrawal of consent from the nation state through civil disobedience and non-cooperation and the right to secession - not taking power. Strategies should be nonviolent, to allow maximum participation by everyone, to prevent macho males from dominating, and to gain the sympathy of the masses while preventing an orgy of governmental violence against resisters.

2. Emphasise consciousness and process: Radical and permanent change will only come from a raising of individual consciousness and an improvement in our processes of relating with one another. These are basic to restructuring our political institutions. We must learn to act from higher consciousness (tolerance, acceptance, cooperation, love) and not lower consciousness (judgementalness, fear, dominance, anger, competitiveness). Men and women must free themselves from old sex stereotypes to become their fullest selves. Group processes should be open and honest, equalitarian, consensus-seeking and freely utilise mediation and conflict resolution techniques. Abusive and violent individuals must be dealt with firmly and swiftly.

3. Educate towards critical mass: Repeat the message in every possible context in order to build a critical mass of awareness and activism that will lead eventually to a totally decentralist political culture. Educational efforts will include both standard forums like publications, study groups, lectures, the arts, and third party campaigns and education through action as described below.

4. Organise locally/build community: This is most consistent with the decentralist goal, easiest and cheapest to organise, and allows us to start creating our alternatives immediately. We must work towards restructuring local governments to make them more participatory, more-consensus oriented, more accountable and more nonviolent. We must instil a sense of place and love of community as replacements for nationalism and patriotism.

5. Create alternative institutions: These would include: alternative communications networks of publications, telephone trees, computer networks, film and video distribution, legitimate and pirate radio and television broadcasting; alternative trade networks of businesses, individuals and organisations using trade exchanges or alternate currencies; voluntary alternatives to necessary services that have been co-opted by nation states; "shadow" or "parallel" community governments and confederations; new alternative communities.

6. Prepare for nonviolent resistance/secession: Learn and practise nonviolent organising and action by working with peace, environmental, tax-resistance and social justice groups actually practising it, meanwhile teaching them about decentralist alternatives. Organise own actions around issues of local importance. Begin coordinated campaigns of community secession from the nation state. While these will initially be merely symbolic, they will be educational and inspirational. Since we will remain nonviolent, any government violence against us can only win public sympathy.

7. Recognise alternate scenarios and be opportunistic: How fast decentralists move from the constructive program to resistance and secession depends on how skilfully we promote our ideas and on objective circumstances. While "gradual/reformist" scenarios are possible, more likely are "crisis" scenarios in which escalating economic, political and military crises radicalise people and open them to decentralist alternatives. And it is always possible we'll have a "post catastrophe" scenario of de facto decentralisation through ecological and economic collapse and world war. We should not be shy about seizing opportunities to promote our alternatives.

In summary: There's a lot to do and not much time to do it. So let's get going!!

Carol Moore

Draft Of A Constitutional Declaration Of Local Sovereignty

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for citizens of a nation state to separate their nation from the state that threatens to destroy it, and to break the bonds of allegiance to a government allegedly of their own making but actually foreign to their vital interests and security, both solidarity and conscience require that they explore the necessity of their action.

We hold these truths to be self evident: that Life - and Freedom, Her other self - are the supreme good; that only laws that defend Life and Freedom demand our unquestioning obedience; that our sweet, uncomplaining Earth is, to the utmost of our knowledge, the Mother of all Life; and that in our time the very fabric of this wondrous adventure of Life, or Nature, is being torn asunder, so that there is great and increasing cause to fear the extinction of all consciousness by the end of this century.

Cancer stalks the Earth. Its name is profit, its nature poison. In the name of profit our lakes and rivers die. Our oceans are dying. Our freshwater aquifers are exhausted or contaminated. For the sake of profit our food, water and air are poisoned. Dwindling populations of fish gasp in our polluted streams. Birds fall from the air. The tribes of Life gutter and go out. Our children are poisoned in the womb or blasted in the cradle and precede their parents to the grave

World-wide the plague is gaining momentum. In the face of a menace unprecedented in human history, where is our government - those we have charged in our Constitution with the protection of our life, liberty and wellbeing? Incredibly, they are arrayed with the legions of profit against us. All efforts to defend ourselves within the bounds prescribed by our democratic traditions are countered by the overwhelming force of government in league with profit. Legislation is passed by profit not people, to protect not people but profit. Such legislation is forced and enforced on us, devouring life, health and liberty

The history of the present government of the United States is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations all having as their direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over a free and sovereign people. In [name of community], these are some of the crimes perpetrated against us by this government and its true beneficiaries: [list of grievances specific to the community or group making this declaration]

Inasmuch as "to secure these rights governments are instituted among Men [sic], deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, 'any government destructive of life, health, liberty and property is clearly at war with its people - both directly through its agencies, and indirectly by legitimising and protecting an economic system that permits, encourages, in many ways indeed necessitates, devastation of our Home

We who have borne for decades the assaults of the imperial corporate government of the United States, who have endured its grievous and manifold violations of our Constitution, can no longer sustain the pretence of a representative republic deriving its just powers from our consent. From a government that betrays us to the genocidal, ecocidal, suicidal greed of the profiteers - and is, indeed, chief among them - our allegiance is irrevocably withdrawn.

We, therefore, citizens of [community] do hereby dissolve all bonds of allegiance and obedience to the evil empire destroying us and all our relations and the Planet itself. We declare all nominal legislation not pursuant to our Constitution to be null and void and of no force - colour of law merely and no law at all. And we claim the inalienable right to be masters in our own home and to exist - insofar as we are able - as a separate enclave of sanity amid the murderous sociopathology of capitalism.

Within the boundaries of [community], the laws that govern our lives shall henceforth be made constitutionally by a majority of the inhabitants thereof or by our duly elected representatives. Within these boundaries no higher authority shall be acknowledged.

Out of fear, mistaking the traditional trappings of democracy for the substance, we have blindly, foolishly trusted what we supposed was our constitutional government long after it had proved itself to be no such thing. No more. Henceforth, under the Constitution of the United States of America, we shall have trust only in ourselves and each other to defend our rights as free people, to defend our lives and the Life of the Earth

How this declaration will work out in practice and be given form in the coming days and months we have no way or knowing. But the principle of local self determination is not negotiable. In the support of which, We the People of [community] pledge to each other, to our Mother Earth, to our posterity, all that we have - all that we are.

Tom Reveille