dear chris, can you publish the text below on our blog? many thanks, from berkeley, Michel ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dmytri Kleiner/ Friends. <[email protected]> Date: Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 9:43 PM Subject: The Revolutionary Role of a Transnational Counterparty To: "Dmytri Kleiner/ Friends. Subscriber" <[email protected]> (Mailing list information, including unsubscription instructions, is located at the end of this message.) __ In explaining the Initiative to form an International Debtors' Party I have discussed the issues of why "Debtors" and why a "Party", now I would like to introduce some ideas as to how the Debtors' Party will be different from other parties, by proposing the idea of a "Transnational Counter-party." A Transnational Counterparty is a transformative political organisation, that works towards the goals of a world with no classes and therefore no state. It is Transnational, because, within itself, it recognizes no borders, and it is a Counter-party, because it's goal is not to transform society from top down by seizing the power of the State, but to fight for the social conditions required by existing and emerging community-initiated, bottom-up, forms of transformation. To engage in the political theatre and struggle against the plutocratic interests from the old society that would crush any new social developments that would challenge there privilege. To be a transformative structure requires divergent outwardly and inwardly characteristics. Being part of a transformation, such a structure is a creature of the current society, it's outwardly appearance and interfaces must be structured according the laws and practices of the existing society in order for it to function. Within itself it is an incubator for a new society and thereby the relations contained within itself must reflect those it want to achieve. It must be the revolution it seeks. It's external characteristics must be the characteristics it seeks in the society it strives to achieve. Venture Communism is such a transformative model, externally a joint-stock corporation, internally fostering commons-based production, Copyleft and Copy-far-left are also such transformative models, externally claiming property rights, while internally creating an information commons. Antithetical extrinsic and intrinsic characteristics are essential features of any transformative structure. Above all, the extrinsic structure must ensure that the regressive relations of the outside must not penetrate and corrupt those of the inside, the extrinsic characteristics must create a bastion that allows its intrinsic properties to develop and thrive. A Transnational Counterparty is such a transformative model, externally a network of regionally-bound Political Parties that contest elections for representation within hierarchical, authoritarian Governments, but internally operating as a radically participatory, non-hierarchical collective that operates without borders. The network of Political Parties it founds and co-ordinates must be legally recognized as eligible to participate in government, and thus, these local Parties are objects of specific Government jurisdiction. A Transnational Counterparty, however, must operate such local entities as extrinsic interfaces to local governments which are closely bound to it's own, fluid and participatory international internal democracy, and likewise it's elected candidates must not become holders of individual power, must must excercise power on behalf of the democratically established census of the global membership, contractually bound to do so, and to forfeit their position if they fail to do so. The ultimate power in the Transnational Counterparty must be held by the membership itself, and never either it's internal executive officials, nor it's candidates and representatives in local governments. All agents of the Transnational Counterparty must be held accountable to the global membership. The Transnational Counterparty can not ever be a ruling party, though it may have electoral success in places, the plutocratic parties will always hold more power. This is not a rule or principle of that the party needs to observe, this is a simple biproduct of the fact that it represents the new society, the emerging autonomous, collective communities striving to create a new ways of living. The plutocratic parties represent the powerful economic forces of the current society, and thus will always have more power so-long as the current society is not yet transformed. Once the social power of the communities represented by the Transnational Counterparty overcome the power of the plutocrats, this means that such a newtork of autonomous, independent and inter-dependant communities will be larger in it's social and economic base than that of the old society. Society will have already been transforme. classes will no longer exist, and without them nations will vanish. There will no longer be any ruling class or ruling party, the State will have withered away and the Transnational Counterparty will have dissolved into the fabric of the new society. By the time a Transnational Counterparty has the power to seize the State, their will no longer be any State to sieze. A nation is a body of people kept together for the purposes of rivalry and war with other similar bodies, and when competition shall have given place to combination, the function of the nation will be gone." -- William Morris http://dmytri.info/we-need-to-work-with-the-consciousness-we-fin http://dmytri.info/the-existence-of-demands-proves-the-existence -- The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following list: Dmytri Kleiner/ Friends. using the following email: [email protected] You may unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL: http://freshsent.info/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/u/friends/michelsub2004/gmail.co... If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. 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