Category Archives: governance

Jeremy Popkin: “Vive la révolution!”

Posted on January 20, 2020 by

“Must radical political change generate uncontainable violence?  The French Revolution is both a cautionary and inspiring tale.”

Posted in defeat, gender, governance, Nota Bene, revolution, rights, terror, tragic politics, violence

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Jennifer Gonzalez Covarrubias: “A Mexican indigenous town’s environmental revolt”

Posted on January 10, 2020 by

“The indigenous town of Cheran is practically an independent enclave tucked into the lawless mountains of western Mexico.  Its residents have their own system of government based on community assemblies.”

Posted in autonomy, freedom, governance, Nota Bene, power, revolt

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William Dalrymple: Review of “The Buried” by Peter Hessler – Life, death and revolution in Egypt

Posted on December 22, 2019 by

‘In this scheme, the fall of Mubarak, the chaos of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the restoration of authoritarian rule under Sisi also follow rhythms familiar to Egyptian history. Hessler sees a mirror in the story of the pharoah Akhenaten – a failed revolutionary whose attempt to introduce monotheism was crushed in “what was possibly the first military coup in human history” by his general Horemheb, and whose tyranny was consolidated by Horemheb’s successor Ramesses II.’

Posted in Blog, governance, power, revolution, tragic politics, tyranny

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Alex Kostantopoulos: “The Law of the Zapatista: A Presentation about the Laws Passed by EZLN”

Posted on December 18, 2019 by

“In the autonomous municipalities of Zapatistas, laws that are passed from the Council of Governance are not enforced by police or a judicial system but through a way that treats offenders as members of the community.  Justice is delivered by the authorities of the Zapatistas. They resolve issues among the members of the community and also between Zapatistas and non-Zapatistas.”

Posted in autonomy, governance, justice, law, Nota Bene, rights

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Bernard E. Harcourt: “The Counterrevolution: How Our Government Went to War Against Its Own Citizens”

Posted on December 10, 2019 by

“The Counterrevolution is a penetrating and disturbing account of the rise of counterinsurgency, first as a military strategy but increasingly as a way of ruling ordinary Americans. Harcourt shows how counterinsurgency’s principles–bulk intelligence collection, ruthless targeting of minorities, pacifying propaganda–have taken hold domestically despite the absence of any radical uprising. This counterrevolution against phantom enemies, he argues, is the tyranny of our age.”

Posted in Blog, governance, revolution, tyranny

J. Daniel Elam: Hong Kong: “When We Burn You Will Burn With Us”

Posted on December 1, 2019 by

‘Like Hong Kong itself, the current protests are a harbinger for the rest of the world. Old revolutions promised egalitarianism on the basis of a shared world to win. A revolution for our times promises very little, except perhaps an egalitarianism based on a shared world in which there is nothing left to lose. “When we burn you will burn with us,” graffiti at the University of Hong Kong says. Is that a threat or a resignation? It’s both: for the future, there is nothing left at all.’

Posted in autonomy, governance, Nota Bene, revolt

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Yavor Tarinski interviewed on “Direct democracy and the passion for political participation”

Posted on November 19, 2019 by

‘If we want create a radically democratic and ecological society, we will have to abandon all bureaucratic and exploitative means. It is not enough to consume ethically or vote for the lesser evil. We have to build democratic and resilient communities capable of confederating with each other so as to tackle large-scale issues. As Castoriadis has said, “an autonomous society cannot be instaurated except through the autonomous activity of the collectivity.” This might sound too general or abstract, but the direct democracy of which we are speaking represents such a paradigm shift, that must surpass both globalization and localism and can lead towards genuine social emancipation.’

Posted in anarchism, autonomy, Castoriadis, democracy, founding, freedom, governance, Nota Bene, the Left

Jeffery R. Webber & Forrest Hylton interviewed on the Coup in Bolivia

Posted on November 17, 2019 by

“In a regional perspective, we might situate the Bolivian coup more or less mid-way between the “hard” military coup in Honduras in 2009, and the “soft” parliamentary coups against Fernando Lugo in Paraguay in 2012 and Dilma Rousseff in Brazil in 2016, with a crucial difference—in Bolivia, the far right co-opted and hijacked mass centrist protest by urban middle classes that preceded the coup, pushing it in a violent direction.”

Posted in democracy, emergency, governance, hubris, Nota Bene, resistance, rights

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“Chronicle of an insurrection: Lebanon”

Posted on November 14, 2019 by

“Since October 17, Lebanon has experienced countrywide demonstrations that have toppled the prime minister and transformed Lebanese society. These demonstrations are part of a global wave of uprisings including Ecuador, Chile, Honduras, Haiti, Sudan, Iraq, Hong Kong, and Catalunya, in which the exploited and oppressed are challenging the legitimacy of their rulers.”

Posted in gender, governance, In The News, power, revolt, rights, violence

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Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan: “A Worldwide Revolution is Underway”

Posted on November 2, 2019 by

“Puerto Rico. Hong Kong. Ecuador. Haiti. Lebanon. Iraq. And now, Chile. People are rising up around the world against austerity and corruption, defying police forces unleashed to suppress them.”

Posted in governance, justice, Nota Bene, power, revolt