Radical Citizens Network Idea Outline 1.o

We form this network of voluntarily interrelated people and organizations to radically transform this crazy world. What do we mean by “radical”? Part of being radical is not requiring the reduction of all interests to a single unity. Instead it is a commitment to making fruitful our differences as we struggle for deep seated, egalitarian, and people-centered change, fighting to replace helplessness and coping with freedom and its enacted dreams, strengthened by our knowledge of the interconnectedness of all struggles and the determination to support all those who struggle against injustice by means of freedom.

(So, ps, this has a little excessive detail but you need not accept everything, it just made it more interesting for yours truly! db)

How can I join the network?

Prospective members to the network must be invited (and vouched for) by two current network members. Once invited, you are asked to choose a delegate and network buddy and can choose to join the network, either as a radical resource or as a network member.

Radical resources do not pay dues and as such are welcome to participate in all network events, programming, and resources, but do not have access to other member’s contact information or decision-making rights regarding network planning and resource allocation.

Network members have access to the various databases, decision making rights regarding network planning and resource allocation, receive a free network discount card, and must pay monthly dues equal or greater to .5% of their monthly income (so if you make $1000/month you would pay $5/month, with a minimum dues of $3/month for those who have no income). Those who pay dues for certified network organizations may deduct the cost of such dues from their monthly network dues.  

What can I do?

You can…

n         Help grow the network or create a sub-network of radicals by contacting folks who share with you a profession, passion, or location (lawyers, or immigrant lawyers, or immigrant lawyers in MN for instance) within which you can

• Take leadership! Become a volunteer organizer for the network or sub-network
• Mentor a student or someone in your own sub-network (or just be a mentor)
• Be a network contact for your profession, serving as an official contact for those in need of advice, work, or action by those in your field of expertise
• Be a network moderator for your profession, moderating your professional network’s email-list 
• Host events in your neighborhood, home, or workplace for radical community members in your subgroup, or for the community as a whole
• Help people get jobs or internships in your sub-network, particularly to help organizing via the radical-network job hookup
• Grow the network or sub-network(s) to other Cities through your contacts

n Create spaces to build the radical community by creating or participating in…

• An EXCO class, learn more about EXCO at www.EXCOtc.org
• A caucus for a group with which you identify (by race, gender, sexuality, class, nationality, etc)
• A stress at work discussion circle to radicalize others
• A Shift circle for those transitioning between jobs or life-phases
• A story circle to grow memory within the radical community

n        Help create a culture of solidarity…

• Pay your dues and participate in deciding how they are spent   
• Organize your workplace
• Commit to donate or donate property to the Radical Land Trust (or Cooperative Housing/Property Association)
• Sponsor events and discussions
• Fly the flag of solidarity, committing to supporting those in need, or wear a solidarity bracelet to indicate that you are willing to talk with others members
• Take part in the Radical Time Bank
• Join the skillshare and self-education database to offer up your skills and to find others interested in learning together!
• Participate in the variety of other events, programming, etc, being offered through the network!
• List jobs in your workplace, particularly to help organizing via the radical-network job hookup
• Homestay a young activist, so that they can spend their time building the network of radical projects in your local area and benefit from your experience and keep you informed on recent goings on 
• Use Indymedia to post your announcements, issues, and stories, and put your upcoming events on their calendar

Related Institutions Needing to Be Created:

n         Radical Citizen’s Network Foundations 

n        Radical Land Trust(s) or Cooperative Housing Association or Network

n  Self-Education Network/Skillshare Database perhaps through…

n  Free Education Networks: EXCO, IWW Work Peoples’ College, etc (existing)

n        Sub-networks/sub-network organizers by profession, passion, and location

n         Stress at work circles to radicalize fellow workers

n         Groups by Identity (some such groups currently being formed)

n         Radical Homestay Network

n         Radical Job Hook-Up

n         Radical Time Bank

n         IndyMedia (existing)

n         Flag/Bracelet of Solidarity

n         Shift Circles for those going through life-phase transitions (a local model exists: SHIFT, primarily targeting professionals, run by U of M prof Jan Hivley)

n        Radical Church? (weekly, family friendly events at the same time/place each week…Sundays at the Bedlam! etc)

Radical Community Plan Draft 1.o

We are told that we have always lived in a world of haves and have-nots, a world where some people are powerful and others helpless, the few using their power to steal what is made possible by the work of the many.

Helplessness then is the core enemy of all people and it is only through becoming independent will be free, and only through freedom will we be able to live the lives we want to live and save the humanity of those who currently rule over us.

Why are we helpless? Because we have nothing to sell but our ability to work. Because we have nothing we are forced to accept the conditions we are given in the workplace and in the world. Because we must constantly scrape together our survival we have no time to figure out how we want to live and bring it about. And because we haven’t organized ourselves to be powerful we have nothing and are in no position to change our conditions.

It is time to say enough of this helplessness. It is time to attack it at the root, to build our own power, and to salt the earth in which it grows. And this can be done today, and it is our responsibility to take it on, for our ancestors and their blood, sweat, and tears, that brought us to this day, and for our grandchildren’s grandchildren, whose futures we must always keep in mind.

How do we eliminate helplessness?

• We attack work and the conditions that force us to work
• We build and live out the world we want to live in
• We grow the movement
• We transform the world

We do this by building assets, building community, building power. And we do this in the right way. If there is one thing we have learned from our bosses, our politicians, our cops, from all the corrupt faces of power, it is that people act in their own self-interest whoever they pretend to stand for. We must take this into account.

Our world then must do away with representation that allows people to speak their interest in the voice of the many, and the centralization that puts the rule of one over the interest of all. In our world all people will be involved in running things in a direct participatory way. In our world there will no be centralization of control, no single group to make uniform our dissenting goals.

No to representation! Only direct democracy is real democracy!

No to centralization! Only we can speak for ourselves!

Work can be attacked by replacing fear with freedom. We attack the current conditions of work by organizing workplaces, creating fair and democratic alternative workplaces through cooperatives and by building the infrastructure and support system to undermine our need to work all together by building community self-sufficiency and a culture of solidarity and mutual aid.

We can build the world we want to live in by replacing fear with freedom. We treat each other with respect and dignity, we talk in person, we intentionally build our relationships to each other, and we speak of each other and our different goals and ability with critical respect. But that is not all. We create our own spaces and cultural institutions, we find and work together with like minded people, we create a welcoming culture of solidarity, friendship, and joy

We grow the movement by replacing fear with freedom. We build relationships and collaborations with our natural and unlikely allies. We make better use of our existing infrastructure. We think seriously about winning, about creating real, non-compromised solutions to every problem, and we target strategic people and institutions accordingly.

We transform the world by making our freedom international, by linking together with and inspiring others all over the world.

Want more details? Keep reading! Also, consider the free online book Getting Free by James Herod, and joining the EXCO class by the same name this February, 2008.

Ideas for the Twin Cities’ Radical Community:

When we think about the pathetic state of affairs and the pathetic attempts to change them we must be confronted by the facts that helplessness is an enemy that can only be overcome by people themselves, and that we are not building a world based on free stuff, we are building a new world. As such, while it is crucial that we take advantage of charitable donations and the variety of other nonprofit mechanisms, at the heart of our plan must be the building of a new, just and sustainable economy, and new assets…new sources of life.

New economies:

• Cooperatives and cooperative conglomerates.
• A Radical Timebank where people can trade their labor equally to the benefit of all
• Property acquisition and sustainable use through a Radical Land Trust
• A mass-membership radical community foundation and bank

This foundation/bank would support in a variety of ways…

• Radical Citizens’ Network
• Strategic education through EXCO and a skillshare database
• Radical Land Trust
• Workplace organizing through the Industrial Workers of the World and other radical unionizing efforts
• Cooperative Conglomerate
• Repair cooperatives: Open Circuit, Sibley Bike, etc
• Radical spaces/radical neighborhood groups
• Collective purchasing operations
• National and international networking