Direct democracy
and classless society
(The long March of Humanity to the social equality and Humanism)
By Kostas Lampos PhD
(Summary)
Humanity
is once again at a crucial crossroads, at the point where capitalist barbarism
confronts social equality.
The other choice represents the working
humanity's long-standing, historical struggles in a bid to materialize its own
Utopia. Those struggles, complemented with contemporary capabilities, needs and
desires, will be gradually leading towards Societal Equality, Direct Democracy,
Classless Society and Ecumenical Humanist Civilization.
The
first choice, as described above, was the subject of my previous book, "Americanism
and Globalization. The Economy of Fear and Decline", by Papazisis
Publications, 2009. The latter choice is the subject of this book, which
aspires to demystify the concept of Utopia, to reconnect the missing links of
societal evolution and re-assemble the shattered image which society has
regarding its future, by bringing back to life our society's vision of a better
world.
To
this end we needed to take things from the very beginning and re-assess the
course of humanity, observing its main historical landmarks, not from the point
of view of the occasional winners/rulers, who got eventually defeated. Rather,
we brought into perspective those who, despite being occasionally defeated,
carried on with their struggle for a society of equal and free people, a
society without winners and losers, a society without masters and servants.
Our
journey started at the foundations, at the infancy, the start of humanity, from
the egalitarian societies of innocent wilderness, which have been
historically classified as 'primitive communism' and bequeathed to us
the concept of social equality. Then we reached the dawn of Athenian Democracy,
which passed on to humanity the concept of the Public State,
also known as Direct Democracy. We made a brief stop at Plato's 'Ideal State'
and Aristotle's “The best Polis”.
We
continued our journey with “Aristonicus Politeia”, which materialized Iambulus'
Utopia, our next stops being the 'Early Christian Communes', the 'Civitate
Dei' (City of God) and the 'Sun State'.
We then carried on with the 'Thessaloniki
Commune', “England's
Popular Revolution” and made a new stop at Thomas More's 'Utopia'.
A
fresh start led us to the Russian 'Agrarian Commune' of Mir and the 'Commune
of Andros'. From there, we moved on to the
'Cooperative’s Ideal in Theory and Practice' with a brief pause at Mondragon.
We carried on with Israel's
captive 'Kibbutz', the Baja California
commune and the Morelos communes of Mexico.
Our
journey was long but exciting, so we carried on with the 'Socialist
Programme', which led us to the 'Paris
Commune', the 'Russian Revolution of 1905' and the 'October
Revolution of 1917'.
We
then attempted to sum up the projects of 'Direct Democracy and Socialism'
making stops at the 'Council Democracy in Germany',
the 'Council Democracy of Italy'
and the 'Kronstadt Commune'. We highlighted the counter arguments, the
post seismic shocks of the 'Dictatorship of the Proletariat' which
emerged as 'actually existing socialism' but left us its true identity, i.e.
the one of an actually existing state capitalism.
Following
that, we moved on to the East, observing the 'Chinese communes' and
their agrarian communism. We returned to the West and the attempts to 'Self-management»,
starting from the 'Summerhill Example', then the 'Spanish Revolution
for Self-Management', then stopping at the Greek Communalism and the
Popular Power/Popular Justice of the EAM. We also discussed the 'Marinaleda
Direct Democracy' and made a brief stop at the 'French May' before
reaching an end at the great self-management experiment that currently takes
place in Latin America.
During
the course of our journey, we also stopped by to check out the science of 'Networks'
and made a reference to 'Alternative Social Networks' like the
following: 'Networks of Exchange' of goods and services without monetary
transactions, 'Time Banks' and 'Energy Banks'. Before the end of our
journey, we accepted an invitation to participate in a discussion held by a
circle of 600 young people from France and Germany, on the topic of 'Moneyless
Society', from which we emerged stronger, ready to counter an attempt to forge
our own realist Utopia, carried out using the Swiss Direct democracy
myth, as well as the so-called 'Zeitgeist Movement/Venus Project. We
finished our journey after a quick stop at the romantic, as well as visionary, 'Olbia City
of Roses'.
Summing
up the experiences from our fascinating journey, we reached the three following
conclusions:
·
First,
since the dawn of humanity, there has always been a struggle for Common
Ownership and Equality, for Equality and Justice, for Direct Democracy and
Freedom, for Collaboration and Freedom, for Man's liberation from every form of
rule.
·
Second,
the working humanity has been systematically obstructed by the exploitative
socio-political systems which established their rule using violence in the form
of ideologies, institutions, various types of obscurantism, class state and
weapons. Humanity always managed, under all circumstances, to end all those
parasitic formations and patiently create the conditions for its own liberation
from successive ruling-exploitative systems. Reaching the 21st century,
humanity is up against the capitalist barbarism.
·
Third,
humanity gradually realizes, as proved by our journey, that its choices are not
limited to a dilemma between neoliberal capitalism and state capitalism, like
the kind of pseudo-socialism proposed by adherents of the 3rd or 4rth
International. On the contrary, humanity is forced to adopt a continuous
struggle as its contemporary choice. To this end, the forces of Working
society, Science and Culture will need to break free from the ruling class'
hegemony on an intellectual, spiritual, political and organizational level and
put forward their own contemporary Project for the future of Humanity. This
project will be developing alongside the radical demise of capitalism, due to
the establishment, on the part of society-humanity, of a Socio-economic system
based on Humanism: this system will feature common ownership and Direct
Democracy with a view to creating a Classless Society and an Ecumenical Humanist
Culture.
During
the course of its long and painful journey, humanity has often faced such
dilemmas. It has always managed, when the right time came, to get rid of all
things rotten and corrupt, thus paving the way for the best possible future.
The 21st century science and technology offers the potential. This, along with
the modern working society' experience and liberating historical conscience,
can bring about an anti-capitalist - humanist revolution which will turn the
page of history and broaden the outlook of human civilization.
The
very recent 'Movement of the Indignants', which made the demand 'Direct
Democracy Now and Everywhere' part of the global agenda, is just a landmark
that sets a new course and renews the working humanity's struggle for social
liberation. I would argue that this movement confirmed, at the crucial moment
of the collapse of the neoliberalist ideology, the historical course of Direct
Democracy in its quest for social equality and Classless Society. It responded
to all those who interpret history from the 'neoliberal bourgeois democracy'
point of view or utilize the doctrines of social democracy and state
capitalism.
The
dominant ideology of winners-rulers who write, rewrite and forge history, has
always been hostile -and still is- to this unstoppable, constant and long
standing humanist revolution. This makes any attempt to properly record history
quite difficult. For it's part, the working humanity has always managed -mainly
due to the brave individual and collective efforts of certain people, which
have been labelled 'mavericks', 'marginal', or even 'anarchists'- to rescue
important information regarding what had happened. The modern technology of
Internet allows this information to transcend the boundaries of libraries and
archives, by making it social, bringing it back to life and feeding a fertile
debate that sheds more light on Humanity's Yesterday and Tomorrow. This, the
Light of Knowledge, helps us see how capitalist barbarism is not 'the fate of
humanity'. On the contrary, societies evolve and humanity constantly changes,
always finding ways to break free from the obscurantist myths. Hence, a better
world is today both feasible and necessary.
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