Comments on: Four ways Labour could be by the many, not just for the many

By: Guy Dauncey

Guy Dauncey — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 19:29:00 +0000

I admire the intention, but the demographics of organizing such Neighbourhood Assemblies have me scratching my head.

Even if 1,000 people show up for an Assembly (creating massive problems for democratic debate within the assembly, with very few people having a chance to be heard), in a typical community of 100,000 people that would leave 99,000 people not attending. If such Assemblies are granted power, as you propose, then the same battle for influence and control would take place.

This is why we have democratically elected municipal councils. Another approach to make democracy feel real and alive, which is so needed, is to reform the way municipal elections happen.

Maybe we need strict campaign finance rules, direct elections for the position of Mayor, as we do here in Canada, participatory budgeting, preferential voting for candidates, and regular public forums (similar to the Assembly idea) but without jurisdictional powers?

If the Assemblies were given jurisdictional powers, we would have two parallel systems of democracy – local councils and Neighbourhood Assemblies, both of which would be subject to political and partisan pressures.

By: David Kirby

David Kirby — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 15:12:00 +0000

For a society run by the many, not the few, we need institutions based on solidarity, on mutual aid, and lifelong education and care for all, by all. This means deconstructing their ‘ownership’ – they need not be taken away from shareholders, from private capitalists, from corporations or from the state, but effective control, that is, ‘ownership’ in a fuller sense, has to pass to all those who work to provide the service or the product, with accountability to users collectively and individually. If we can really value power – actions that determine others’ actions – that arises from solidarity, that is nurture, care, and education, then the power that derives from violence, such as property ownership that gives the right to exploit and expropriate, patriarchy, and militarism has to be no longer the structuring principle of what we do. The values inherent to the kind of work we engage in in the domestic world (which no economic system can do without, though it barely acknowledges its dependence) have to expand their field of application to all work and all our activities.