J

Critique and Proposed Amendments to the Hawkins-Nelson Draft

by members of the Northern Vermont Greens

Dear Left Greens: As Left Greens, it is our challenge to advocate a new politics. We do not view politics in the narrow sense of parliamentarianism and we must create a program that clearly distinguishes us from the old national politics of party-building. To this end, the Hawkins-Nelson draft is an excellent beginning, and it is a great improvement upon the earlier draft proposed through the Left Green Notes. Still, we of the Northern Vermont Greens nd that it has a confusing structure and many inconsistencies which are primarily carry overs from the rst draft. In what follows, we present a friendly critique of the Hawkins-Nelson proposal as a program that occasionally blurs our new politics with old party politics. And to clarify this critique, we offer an outline of how we think the program should be restructured and rened. The Left Green's unique approach to politics is dened and defended through our Principles of Unity. We should continually remind ourselves of what has brought us together. Our uniqueness, particularly within the Left, lies in our focus on building a decentralized yet confederated movement based upon an ecological-utopian sensibility. In delineating these differences from other political groups, we maintain both a moral as well as a strategic strength. With every step we take, we must self-consciously ensure that we do not slip into "business as usual," blurring our political identity with the old politics of party building, social democratic reform or single-issue lobbying. In keeping with our Principles of Unity, we believe our Left Green Program must be oriented around the following coordinates that distinguish our politics from others: Unity in Diversity Our program must reect our bottom-up strategy and principle. It should explore and guide a decentralized yet coordinated struggle from below, revolving around our Principles of Unity. The program can help provide a short-, medium-, and long-term vision of how change can occur. But we need to balance our Left Green Program with a healthy respect for the diversity of municipalities - from Manhattan to Main Street - as well as people and issues. The detailed programmatic work must evolve organically from the grassroots up. In other words, a continental program should facilitate a program based on shared Principles of Unity while encouraging local afnity and political groups to think through their particular stands on issues affecting their municipalities via more detailed position papers and Utopian city plans/platforms.

Independent Politics Our program shouldn't get locked into expressing itself in terms of institutions that we reject and for which we are not responsible. We must not make any demands of the state or marketplace through state or national reforms; we must remain independent of it. Neither should we react to neo-conservativism. We need to respond within the context of our politics and our communities, not within the agenda of the nation-state and its parties, and not by choosing the lesser of two evils. Building Municipalist Counter-Institutions This is the way our Principles of Unity concretely propose for us to get from "here to there" and our Left Green program must clearly spell this out for all to understand. From our democratized and radicalized municipalities, we work outward toward confederal structures in order to address the social and ecological problems we face today. We should not blur this oppositional strategy; we should instead accentuate our grassroots, reconstructive politics and strive in all our actions to increase the fundamental political antagonism between the municipality and the state and market. Participatory We must not try to build a party but instead attempt to clearly bring people into a radical and self-conscious political movement. We do not want to simply convince people we are right and worthy of their support. We don't merely want support or to count up votes. We want to educate and inform people about our ecologicai-utopian political vision. We want people to self-consciously choose to participate in a radicalized democracy and to make this new politics their own. In short, we want a self-activating, participatory movement. Clear and Comprehensive Our program must mirror our philosophy of movement-building and our longer-term vision for change. Instead of viewing change issue-by-issue, our program should look comprehensively at an overall vision for how radical, democratic change can happen. Its very structure must reect our political philosophy. And. for others that do not know our politics, the program must serve to clearly reveal our uniqueness.

All these principles are developed within the Hawkins-Nelson draft but sometimes they loose their centrality and clarity. Additionally, there are many points from the older draft that appear to be without reason, or are contraditions within the new document. While it is a great improvement upon the rst draft, we specically nd the new draft inadequate for the following reasons: First, we nd it structurally confusing. (a) It begins with analysis, as we also think it should, but then has scattered sections of analysis throughout the rest of the document, especially within the economic section. It should group the analysis all together at the beginning of the program. (b) It articially divides principles from the maximal program. This only leads to an unnecessary bulkiness. (c) It does not include the building of a Left Green movement in the minimal program. The goal of building a Left, however, is something we cannot take for granted. The methods for building our movement must be critically examined and included in our short-term/minimal program. (d) It articially separates political, economic, and policy changes. This makes the whole document choppy and inorganic. A coherent and holistic process of transformation cannot be presented in this way. Instead, we should group these sections together under the single headings of long-term Utopian program, short-term program and medium-term program. And further, the false separation between politics, economics and policies leads, especially within the Hawkins-Nelson proposal, to an economistic bias where the draft covers social and ecological concerns only at its end.

Most social and ecological crises require institutional-structural changes and not just policy changes. Integrating our political and economic programs with our policy programs of change will allow us to fully elaborate our proposed municipalist solutions to racism, sexism, heterosexism, ecological destruction, and other "social and ecological policy" issues. We have to clearly show how the building of municipalist counter-institutions is the best response to the specic types of violence that different groups face. And further, while we as Left Greens may focus on issues such as ecological destruction, captialist growth and local democracy, we have to show other radicals - ones that organize local crisis institutions to respond to battering, for instance - that they could be contributing to a larger movement for fundamental radical change and not just to specialized band-aid measures. We need a program that draws these radicals into active participation in the larger movement of radicalized, confederated counter-institutions of direct democracy. Second, the proposed program occasionally slips into the vagaries of a social democratic, national perspective instead of remaining consistently focused on a municipalist perspective. There are many examples of this, from a nuancing of word choice to more explicit program suggestions. (a) For example, page 18 of the document lists several immediate economic measures. Few are described from a municipal-grassroots perspective. Most make no sense from the perspective of our new politics. What does a guaranteed annual income or a $10/hour minimal wage or a 30-hour work week mean from our perspective? Very little. These are short-term goals for a nation-state party program, not immediate demands of our new politics. What We really want is to remove people's dependence upon the market, and to increasingly produce and distribute products and services outside of the market through municipal institutions. We don't want to make dependence on the market and wage-slavery more bearable. (b) So, too, most of the section on "International Reconstruction through Peace Conversion" is just as incomprehensible from the perspective of our new politics. What does it mean from a municipalist perspective to dismantle the secret national security state apparatus or to cut the pentagon budget by 95% or to cancel Third World and East European debt? is this in our power to do so? No! We want to establish counter-institutions to these. We want to destroy them not by reforming them but by removing our dependence upon them - through digging underneath them, and uprooting their basis of support and action in our own municipal communities and neighborhoods. We don't want to "call upon the US government" to do this but to call upon ordinary people on the municipal and confederal level. (c) There is also a general tone underlying the document that offers overly-specic demands rather than concrete coordinates from which to orient a municipal and confederal movement. The overall tone of the draft slips here and there into that of a national party offering plank after plank to win as much support as possible from a voting but passive constituency. We don't want rallying points in our program. We want a program that will. identify a general unity of movement while encouraging a diversity of application in the many different towns and cities of this continent. Third, the draft does not adequately recognize the variety and multitude of community-based institutions that already exist in many municipalities. Food coops, producer collectives, shelters, community gardens and the like can be radicalized, confederated, and woven into a municipalist governance. They can be brought into a municipalist counter-power movement. We should be fostering these grassroots institutions as a diverse and important base which will support the increased power of community assemblies. In addition, we cannot overlook the importance of day-to-day empowerment and participation in a social infrastructure that pregures a new politics and a new society. As written, we therefore think that the Hawkins-Nelson draft program requires serious reworking. While it has given us a springboard from which to clarify the type of

program we want, ultimately, it doesn't emphasize and clarify our new politics either for ourselves or for others. To rewrite it will take substantial reorganizing, rewording, removal of certain sections and the addition of several other sections (see attached outline). We thus propose that (1) a detailed outline be passed at this conference, (2) a committee be delegated to write the actual document after the conference, (3) that we distribute the new draft to all individuals and groups during the rest of the year to critique and to use in our communities, and (4) that we ratify it during our next continental conference. We feel ratifying a program at our next conference will allow us ample time to consider the program in detail. It will strategically provide us with a campaign throughout the upcoming year to build toward the next conference, encouraging peripheral Left Greens and new members to join and participate more fully. We must carefully outline and rene our program. To further aid this process, we present an outline below that we nd best claries our Principles of Unity and our Left Green politics.

Digger Fair Paul Fleckenstein Cindy Milstein July 1, 1991 Burlington, Vermont

Proposed Outline of Left Green Program

I. Analysis Current Circumstances The City and the Community Reform versus Social Revolution II. Long-term Program: a vision of an ecological society Libertarian Municipalism Municipalized Welfare Economy Voluntary Association Liberating Values III. Short-term Program Left Green Movement Movement Toward Municipal Counter-power IV. Medium-term Program Municipal Power Confederal Power

I. Analysis
Current Circumstances The Hawkins-Nelson document provides a very good draft to start with here especially if we condense all the analysis scattered through that draft into this beginning section. However, an analysis of racism and male supremacy should be integrated into this. The Citv and the Community An important section of analysis is missing in the Hawkins-Nelson draft. This is an analysis of society and nature from the perspective of the municipality and community. This is critical in order to articulate our new politics. For example, this section could review such issues as urbanization, gentrication, the city's role in advanced capitalism, rationalized planning, federal cut-backs on funding to cities and municipal based institutions, and other examples of the growing tension between municipalites and the state and market. Reform versus Social Revolution The Hawkins-Nelson draft presents good material on this, but it misses one important point that will again clarify our new politics. While-the "path of least resistance" is good because it stresses the importance of not xating on one particular group, it does not stress the need to focus on the general interest of a humanity in harmony with nature. This general interest is consolidated in the notion of citizenship within a community or municipality. As Hawkins himself explains in Regeneration 1, "It is not the working class, but the municipality still surviving despite the massive growth of the state that is the potential time-bomb that could explode and shake state capitalism beyond recuperation."

II. Long-term Program: a vision of an ecological society

We should not hesitate to provide people with concrete images to think over - people need these to begin to imagine a world without institutional oppression, like capitalism and the nation-state. As ecological radicals, we must constantly bring our arguments back to a Utopian image and standard of a humanity balanced with nature. We must spark people's imagination, and help free them to consider the incredible potentials of eco-technologies, of a world free from want and scarcity, of human solidarity, and of individual creativity. So what follows are examples that will spark the imagination about what is possible rather than strict institutions that all communitie must develop. Libertarian Municipalism legislature -community popular assemblies -all policy decisions made at this level administration -compulsory rotation of all public ofcials with delegated power -election and sortition/lot -neighborhood executive council -delegated commissions and neighborhood cooperatives limited worker's democracy -delegated confederal councils to coordinate community policies participatory indicative (non-imperative) planning -bioregional integration judiciary -independence of judiciary branch -jury by peers chosen by sortition/lot -appeal to assembly or to confederal councils -civil liberties and human rights Municipalized Welfare Economy common ownership of means of life -principle of substantive equality and irreducible minimum production for use -from each according to their ability -voluntary labor -labor saving and comprehensible eco-technologies allow for artisan creativity and frequent rotation of work distribution -to each according to their need -need, or welfare, dened morally; politically and locally determined -e.g., free distribution of and access to: housing, food, health care, education, security, transportation, energy, sanitation, parks, public art, etc. Vo l u n t a r y A s s o c i a t i o n -social realm of voluntary, particular and experimental associations -desire (vs. need) freed from direct municipal denition and control e.g., family and civil society of love, play, hobbies, art, and development of expertise -open municipal workshops to allow individuals and groups produce what they desire

Liberating Values -ecological sensibility and wisdom -redened and enhanced ethnicity -- diversied and decentralized -balance of values of reproduction with values of production balance of cooperation and mutual aid with ambition and creativity balance of community with individual -respect for difference and diversity

III. Short-term Program

There is no Left to speak of within the boundaries of this continent today. Most people cannot imagine what the world would be like free from capitalism, nation-states or other forms of oppression; the majority feels no presence of a movement that would challenge them to envision such a world. Instead, the word "Left" elicits images of terrorists, fanatics and social mists. Therefore, one immediate and primary task of ours is to wage a tireless educational campaign both through word and example. First, we have to reclaim the ideals and potentials of the Left and, within it, we have to present our own ecological perspective. We have to dene an ecological Left for the public again and again as a coherent and principled movement that is dedicated to replacing capitalism, nation-states and all hierarchy by a creative, enlightened and participatory society that is infused with an ecological sensibility. We must seek to become an active presence in our communities and in political debates generally. We have to reclaim our rightful place in politics as that of Utopians, idealists and humanists that refuse to be "realistic" or to compromise with the market or state, as liberals, social democrats and single-issue campaigns inevitably do. This is an immediate goal of building a Left Green Movement. Therefore, to be adequate for us, our program must offer concrete strategies to this end. In addition, in order to establish our new politics in each of our communities and municipalities, we must begin radicalizing and creating local institutions themselves. Strategically, we must realize that municipal institutions and local cooperatives are most open to radicalization since they are already peripheral to the presently immovable institutions of capitalism and the nation-state. And principally speaking, local institutions are best to concentrate on since our movement is fundamentally grassroots and participatory. In this programmatic framework, we can then outline and become involved in self-empowering municipal solutions to immediate crises such as: battering, rape, incest, homelessness, street violence, intolerance, drugs, mis-education, lack of child care, non-holistic and elitist health care, restrictions on reproductive freedom, a de-cultured entertainment industry, meaningless work, gentrication, capitalist growth and ecological degradation and contamination. Creating and radicalizing this municipalist movement must be a clearly described immediate goal of Left Greens. It will sow the seeds for a future direct struggle against capitalism, the nation-state and all other hierarchies. But to be effective, this trans-class municipal movement must be kept from parochialism, bureaucratic lethargy and single-issue myopia. Against this weakness, the Left Green program can play a crucial role in tying together these different local struggles into a powerfully unied movement to create an emerging counter-power to the market and state. Left Green Movement 1. Building a Left Green Movement Again, this should not be taken for granted but must be explained for others who want to get involved yet don't know how. -political/afnity groups -- This is particularly important to stress. In the

past, much of our organizing has been around direct action campaigns to mobilize people, such as the Wall Street Action. We consequently have not paid enough attention to the building of local groups that will continue beyond specic issues, -public forums -municipal election campaigns -issue and referenda campaigns - focus on growth, democracy and ecological issues. While other issues may be more pressing, we should focus on these issues as long as we have to set such priorities. They best reveal our ecological, democratic and anti-capitalist politics, -direct action -Utopian and ecological city plans and position papers -confederal network of groups -Left Green Network principles of unity -Left Green Network program -conferences -periodicals

2, New Enlightenment
Another uniqueness of our politics is our appreciation of theory and our recognition that no institutional reconstruction can occur without a parallel enlightenment of our sensibilities and reasoning. We do not believe in an inevitable downfall of capitalism that will be replaced by communism. We believe that only by the citizenry's participation in change and by a general heightening of consciousness will reconstruction be possible. And, as social ecologists, we turn to the study and appreciation of nature to specically encourage this general enlightenment and interest. We do this not through academia, but through creating our own study groups, public forums and radical schools. Movement Toward Municipal Counter-Power 1. Municipal regulation of market and corporations This is far different from organizing around state and national regulation. Local regulation reform are reforms that move toward direct challenge to capitalist and state power; they should be organized around the explicit context of moving beyond short-term reforms. -rent control -municipal progressive tax -luxury growth moratorium -zoning and planning ordinances that curb destructive development -home rule -community control over education policy affirmative action -equal pay -anti-discrimination -free speech 2. Political Democratization and Radicalization This is the challenge to decentralize large urban areas, and to create and increasingly strengthen neighborhood popular assemblies. -creation of new commissions and citizen bodies environmental commission transportation commission women's council -neighborhood assembly election of commissions and councils -neighborhood assembly mandate and recall of public ofcials -rotation and limited termsof elected ofcials -radicalization of city council and commissions

3. Communitv-based Institutions: Progressive Decomodication and Municipal Control of Social Infrastructure Locally controlled institutions should be brought into the counter-power framework. They can come to institutionally cooperate and confederate with each other, gradually developing toward a municipal economic and social infrastructure. Where appropriate, they should be made accountable to citizen bodies to transform private coops into municipal coops and to extend the power of neighborhood assemblies and city councils. -producer and consumer cooperatives -neighborhood gardens and farmer markets -recycling centers -credit unions -public access media -alternative currencies for informal economy -health clinics -schools and literacy campaigns -public transport -day care -land trusts -cafe and artist collectives . -cultural centers -etc. 4. Communitv-based Crisis Institutions These crisis organizations would cooperate with each other at all levels. They should challenge municipalities to support them and increasingly look for aid on this level rather than on national and private funding; and, in general, they should challenge their communities to be responsible for the violence that occurs in their community. Where appropriate (such as in radicalized communities), they should seek to be accountable to neighborhood assemblies and city councils to further strengthen both. -shelters for battered women -rape crisis centers -homeless shelters -food shelves -women's health/reproductive centers -drug clinics 5. Related Goals -democratization of colleges and universities -democratization, radicalization and expansion of labor unions -formation and support of issue and interest groups that transcend the municipal sphere, e.g., AIDS research

IV. Medium-term Program

Once the Left Greens establish an active presence in communities and municipal movements, then the struggle for power can formally begin: On the municipal level, we must seek, for example, to get local Left Greens elected to municipal councils around the continent. We will strive to expand peripheral municipal institutions that have become radicalized, and we must begin to advance a municipalized economy further into the center of our communities. Citizens will then achieve an increasing independence from the market for their daily goods and services; and they will increasingly turn to their local popular assemblies to seek change there rather than depending on nationstate demagogues to solve problems for them.

On the regional and continental level, this municipalist movement will be strong enough to actively exert pressure on the market. By consolidating in confederacies, it can pressure businesses and corporations to municipalize and to meet the true needs of people as they dene them. In addition, this confederated movement can provide needed aid to other communities that will suffer from capital ight, imperialism and conservative reaction, and that will need outside help. Gradually in some communities, and more quickly in others, this community- and municipal-based restructuring will increasingly become a counter-power to the market and state. And, in turn, it will become increasingly realistic to conceive of, as well as act in, a world free from institutional oppression. This sketch of the path from "here to there" is, of course, imperfect. In some places, it might be easier to confederate radical cooperative before they become integral to their different communities. Or in other municipalities, it might be best to depend more on an electoral campaign rst, before developing a rooted movement on which to base the campaign. The place of the Left Green Program is not to determine a rigid path for all locals to follow. It must seek instead to provide examples and coordinates for each local group to actively translate and ll out according to the peculiarities and potentials of their circumstances. But while encouraging this diversity in our movement, we must clearly present a workable vision of how we believe we can get from a "here to there." Municipal Power Eventually, this municipal movement will be able to escalate beyond peripheral institutions that exist side by side with corporate and state institutions. It will then extend into the center of people's lives and into popular institutions generally, and will increasingly crowd out the market and state. We will move from reforms at the local level to reconstructive, community controlled, institutional alternatives. -from rent control and shelters to municipal housing -from farmers markets and food shelves to freely-distributed food through community food warehouses, organic agriculture and municipal farms -from credit unions to municipal banks from progressive taxation to public collectives and to expropriation without compensation -from environmental ordinances to municipally initiated projects of ecological reconstruction, e.g., eco-technologies, ecologically integrated planning and ecological public transportation -from energy efcient ordinances to public power and renewable energy -from neighborhood watches to citizens militia Confederal Power Very important in responding to the counter-offensives of the state and market will be popular confederal planning which will continue the process of delinking from the capitalist world market and nation-states. -boycotts of corporations -tax strikes against nation-state -coordination of citizens militias and nonviolent social defence -bioregional restoration of ecology -indicative planning in terms of the distribution of scarce goods -aid to needy municipalities that require: immediate products eco-technologies and infrastructural development protection of minority persecution from reactionary majority protection of municipality from state -world confederation of municipalities

10

Maximal Program:
Libertarian Municipalism: participatory democracy informal: community centers (ie cafe agora) to discuss city and world affairs legislature: neighborhood popular assemblies administration: neighborhood executive council choosen by lot delegated commissions and neighborhood cooperatives delegated confederal councils to coordinate neighborhood policies judiciary: jury by peers choosen by lot appeal to assembly or to confederal councils Municipalized Welfare Economy: principle of substantive equality and irreducible minimum production: from each according to their ability all adults daily participating in community through a part-time neighborhood job labor saving and comprehensible eco-technologies will allow for artisan creativity and frequent rotation of work distribution: to each according to their need need, or welfare, dened morally; politically and locally determined e.g. free distribution of and access to: housing, food, health care, education, security, transportation, energy, sanitation, parks, museums, etc. Voluntary Economy: social realm of voluntary, particular and experimental associations desire (vs. need) freed from direct municipal denition and control e.g. family, and civil society of love, play, hobbies, art and development of expertise To this end, all our actions are based upon the following strategic principles: -seek for change from below not above -hollow out market and state institutions -create a municipalist counter-power to the state and market -accentuate conict between municipalities and the state and market -strive for a coherence of means with ends Changes from above such as nation-state legislation or Fortune 500 corportate decisions will uctuate between reaction and progress, but these changes should not be our direct concern as they are for democrats, social democrats, and single-issue pressure groups. Most other groups, regardless of their ends or their rhetoric, focus on change from above. Our uniqueness lies in our focus on truly decentralized and confederated change as well as on education. We should not blurr this identity, for example, through running in gubernatorial campaigns, in advocating certain nationalist legislation, or in shifting from one direct action campaign to another. Nor should we blurr the antagonism between municipal and national power. We should instead accentuate our identity and this fundamental political antagonism. A comprehensive program is thought of today as one that can nail as many planks as possible onto a single platform. This is the strategy of republican, democratic and social democratic programs; they opportunistically try to please everyone. Instead, we should seek to create a comprehensive program through offering a coherent politics. Our politics are that of participatory democracy, and every action we engage in must reect this. In accentuating our difference and vision, we will maintain both a moral as well as strategic strength. For several years now, we've slowly developed and rened this municipalist program in practice. What is outlined here is nothing other that what we've advocated in scattered campaigns and leaets. It has come time now to articulate this politics -- condently, clearly, self-consciously and coherently.

Minimal Program:
No power; only moral-utopian highground New Enlightenment that nurtures an ecological-utopian sensibility study groups and public forums (vs. anti-intellectualism) journals and books and community arts (vs. entertainment industry) radical municipal schools and cafe culture (vs. private academia) Principled Left: radicalize the democracy afnity groups - organized and meeting regularly (vs. action-faction politics) municipal election campaigns (vs. nation-state party building) Utopian plans of one's city and other position papers network of afnity groups conferences and periodicals non-violent municipal disobedience (vs. single-issue or nationalistic direct actions) to reveal most essential contradictions analysis of issues without attempting to offer solutions within present context especially planning-development and ecological issues (vs. single-issuism) municipalization of radical cooperatives (vs. privatism or particularism) through neighborhood funding through neighborhood delegation to coops board of directors e.g. shelters for battered women, rape crisis hot lines radical health and drug clinics homeless shelters day care centers food coops radicalization of city council, commissions and departments i.e. police, school, energy, transportation, planning and zoning radicalization of agenda and ideas radicalization of process - substantive equality: afrmitive action, equal pay, respect and participation confederation with radical municipalities e.g. Native American and Third World municipalities Municipal Movement : democratize the republic increasing reliance on informal (ie outside of the market) economy decentralization and ^diversication of ethnicity (vs. nationalism) creation of neighborhood assemblies that increasingly extend their powers through: -neighborhood delegation of major commissioners -creation of new commissions and neighborhood-funded work to oversee ecological relations to municipalize day care to municipalize health clinics (vs. nationalized healthcare) to administer land trusts and municipalized housing (vs. commodied housing) to municipalize banking and fund municipal projects to increase use of farmers market and food shelves (vs. supermarkets) home rule and other confederal campaigns

Transitional Program:
Real contest of power - revolutionary counter-power Continual education, radicalization, democratization and decommodication Majoritarian revolution, no insurrection