What is the relationship of the autonomy of the oppressed to the collective of the commune? In Occupy, which groups should be autonomous, and which should not? What is the relationship of race, class, gender, age, etc., before and after the revolution? After the overthrow of the state and seizing the means of production, how do we overcome institutionalized racism that has been organized into the fabric of the means of production and the means of life? What is the relationship of organizations and groups like CNT, Libcom, News & Letters, IWW, and Solfed – born from theory – to spontaneous uprisings, organizations and groups like Occupy Wall Street? What would a Feminist “transition period” from Patriarchy to total freedom look like? These are the kinds of questions we ask you to ponder for the first issue of People Not Profit. This is an open call, and we welcome everything from art, news, music., film, theory, debate, etc.
Call for Entries
G8/NATO, Chicago, May 2012
After so many counter-revolutions have arisen from within the revolution, it is clear that additional, multi-linear revolutions must also emerge within the revolution, as new passions and new forces rise up to smash all forms of oppression created by the division of mental and manual labor in society (one class who makes decisions, and another who must follow them). It is also clear that we cannot leave to chance the question of “What Happens After the Revolution?” We also cannot avoid fighting against all forms of oppression, as we can only get beyond capitalism if we overthrow it in its totality. We need a theory of revolution that unites these struggles before and after “the revolution.”
We ask you to imagine a libertarian socialist transition period, which mediates social relations between capitalism and a truly anarchist society. What would it be like? It must be grounded in a democratic revolution of the workers at the point of production – in the workspace, and using ever-changing and evolving forms of consensus and participatory democracy, but this alone is not enough to prevent state-capitalism from re-emerging as it did in the Russian Revolution. How do we create such a total revolution against capitalism, that the counter-revolution that emerges from within the revolution does not take hold, leading us back to the dictatorship of the law of Profit?
This spontaneously emerging worker democracy at the point of production, whose form changes in every historical moment and place, creates the basic form through which all other forms of oppression can be worked out. Only the spontaneous uprising of the people, in their fight for self-determination, both before and after the revolution, can prevent the revolution from degenerating into another form of state-capitalist repression, or some kind of pre-capitalist feudalism.
What is the role of the party, organization and philosophy/ers, who reject the “vanguard party to lead” and how can continue to play a role in exploring the new possibilities in thought and action these uprising create and how they show the path to a classless society? What is the role of revolutionaries who are willing to give up their class privilege and submit to the consensus of the communes? What is the relationship of the theory and the party to the self-determination of the masses and these spontaneous organizations and uprisings?
We also ask you to imagine the struggle ahead, “the day after the revolution,” and how far society will still have to go before it can truly be called a spontaneously self-organized society, re-organized through consensual and autonomous revolution, where the means of oppression have been destroyed and the means of society have internalized the method of revolutionary change so that the self-determination of each individual adds to the self-determination of all, and society encourages the individual potentialities of every individual.
Autonomy and the Global 99%
A new uprising around the word, from Egypt to Spain to South Africa to Wall Street, is experimenting in new forms of democratic organization, and attempting to put theory into practice. The Movement spreading across the world questioning the validity of capitalism also questions our own theory and practice. People Not Profit sees this as a challenge to revolutionaries as well – to work within the new forms of resistance – consensus decision-making – to achieve a new theoretical consensus that can move us forward. We trust in the process of the collective mind to create something greater than any individual.
But in the process of consensus, the voices of the oppressed can be stifled, as well as those of the Third Worlds. In this movement against the corporations and for radical political democracy, we cannot overlook economic and social democracy as well. We must represent the needs of the Third World and fight for the rights and autonomy of Women, Workers, Blacks/People of Color, Youth, and LGBT. Who are the global 99%? How can we here in the US represent the needs and self-determination of the 99%, when 80% live outside the US and still work for $1/day? How do we create organizations and a theory of revolution that protects the Autonomy of the Oppressed?
Send us your Essays, News, Scene Reports, Poetry, Plays, Dreams, Theories, Comments, Debate, etc.
Send submissions to: submit2012@peoplenotprofit.net
Deadline April 10th, 2012
We encourage all Anti-Imperialist, Anti-Vanguardists – including Anarcho-Socialists, libertarian Marxists, and Libertarian Socialists – to work together with those Workers, Women, Black/POC, Youth, Indigenous Peoples, and all oppressed around the world who continue fighting globalization in non-sectarian ways – to reach a new theoretical consensus that can help guide radical activity. People Not Profit hopes to be a space for the self-determination of the idea of freedom, radical praxis, and debate that arise from a libertarian socialist vision of the transition period and the role of revolutionaries who reject vanguardism.