39 lines
2.1 KiB
Plaintext
39 lines
2.1 KiB
Plaintext
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THE GREEN MOVEMENT DOESN'T NEED A POLITICAL PARTY
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The Green movement was originally a loose coalition or network of six main
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constituencies: radical ecologists, peace activists, feminists, social
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justice activists, decentralists, and participatory democrats. The basic
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socioeconomic and political principles of these six groups are essentially
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anarchist -- that is, they imply opposition to hierarchy, bureaucracy,
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patriarchy, authoritarianism, and the State. Hence they also imply
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opposition to the electoral political system, which is thoroughly
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hierarchical, bureaucratic, patriarchal-authoritarian, and statist.
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Green political activity at the national or state level merely ratifies
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the statist electoral system. There may be something to be said for
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limited participation by Greens in local elections, since as Bakunin
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recognized, local politics is often permeable to influence by ordinary
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citizens (though in a huge city like (e.g.) Los Angeles, this is probably
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not true).
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The State -- along with the corporate industrial system it serves -- is
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the root cause of the ecological crisis and also of the main problems
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addressed by feminist, social-justice, and peace activists (e.g.
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discrimination, wealth disparity, militarism, etc.) These problems will
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never be solved until the State and capitalism are dismantled and replaced
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by a decentralized federation of worker-controlled enterprises which are
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responsive to local participatory-democratic community assemblies in which
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Green principles of social and ecological responsibility prevail.
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Creating this new society from the ground up is the goal that Greens
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should be working toward, through local grassroots organizing, by forming
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affinity groups, communes, neighborhood action committees, community
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assemblies, worker-controlled business, etc., and by engaging in many
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other forms of both "negative" (disruptive) and "positive" (constructive)
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direct action. We should not pursue the misguided statist goal of
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electing candidates to state and national legislatures, which is a waste
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of time because it coopts and diverts our energies from more radical and
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effective forms of activism.
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