#FearlessCities Notes: International Municipalism
Notes from the closing plenary of the Fearless Cities conference, June 11th. See introduction post here.
Xavier Domenech
Executive Board of Barcelona en Comú, MP for En Comú Podem, Coordinator of Catalunya en Comú
Amazing to be here with 180 cities, 50 countries exploring municipalism. Yesterday I was in a small village with municipalist mayor. The future democracy exists as long as cities can fraternally coordinate between themselves. Catalunya has always been the home of trade unions and fight for radical democracy. This republic wasn’t born with general elections, but with local village organising. They threw out monarchy and dictatorship and inaugurated a new time. Municipalism has always been a source of change. In the 15M we were thrown out of the plazas by the government. ‘If Barcelona is not afraid, Madrid is not afraid’. The fraternity between cities produces hope. Still the right wing government is in power, but everything has changed. Radical mayors and representatives, representing the dignity of the people. Our politics are clean and fair. We want redistribution. We’re prefiguring the future. We will welcome refugees. Producing change local, national, international scale. The 15M eruption of dignity has a 2019 horizon, if we work fraternally, welcoming more people in our boat, we’ll bring all cities, villages, towns in Spain. A new fraternal republicanism. We ask you to overload the squares, the streets, go out and speak out because our fundamental base are the cities with events like this. We are constructing present and future. Be overwhelming. Here and internationally. Two messages from the popular parties: “associationism or death” (we are together or we are nothing), “build + learn and you’ll be free, associate yourselves and you’ll be strong, love each other and you will be happy.”
Kali Akuno
Cooperation Jackson, Mississippi
Focus on history. There is a clear guide from history, positive and negative. Straight path to liberation. Critical to learn from our mistakes as to recognise our successes. In Jackson we talk about the “Syriza trap” — thinking that our leftist forces can manage the contradictions of capitalism. Thinking we can transform capitalism without transforming society. Where has that ever happened? We need to transform society from the bottom up in a participatory way. Everywhere in history, great change comes from the bottom up. Time and again, especially in the past 50 years. Welfare state is almost destroyed in most countries. US never had it, EU it is in demise. State captured by neoliberal order. Imposed externally by IMF or internally by political division and takeover.
Direct contact with your neighbour. Find out their interests, hopes, desires, fears, then organise for what you want, and to not be subject to those fears. You will have to confront racism, sexism, xenophobia: you can overcome that at the local level and create a practice to open your neighbourhood to new people.
We’re still part of a switch that’s been underway since 1994. New forms of organising to overcome leftist mistakes of the past. New ways of practicing democracy, firstly from the Zapatista experiment. Then EU, Latin America, then to a certain extent in North America, trying, failing, trying again to lift people up from the bottom, broad democratic practices to transform society from below. How do we use elections like in Jackson, not to just control the govt, but to open society so that when I become mayor, you become mayor, genuinely.
This is what we fit into the new municipal platform. The nation state, almost everywhere, is an old edifice which is increasingly anti-democratic. Inherent structures defy communities and bring them into subjugation to national wills.
There’s a critical piece: there are more people on Earth who live in cities than outside. This is a new human phenomenon. It works in our favour. If we organise our communities to conflict with capitalism from below. Bring cities into solidarity. Supercede these old structures, if we stand in global solidarity, then the future is in our hands, let’s seize it.
Municipalist delegates from around the world:
Spain: 15M, and years after, hundreds of candidacies for municipalist campaigns. 60 won the government in cities and towns. Including candidates with a great will for transformation.
Poland: Polish politics divided into neoliberal and rightwing. They have power in every major city. We don’t have a left presentation in Poland. We’re struggling since 2015, e.g. against banning abortion, deforestations. Now more than 30 urban municipal movements, hoping to take over in the next election.
UK: Huge thanks to the practical examples from Barcelona. Use political office as a resource to support the transformation from below, not falling into the Syriza trap. We’ve learned the lessons from feminism, we change the order when we refuse to participate. From the UK election this week, people have great confidence, people feel the end of 40 years of neoliberalism coming. Corbyn’s slogan “For the many not the few” comes from Shelley’s revolutionary poem about nonviolent resistance. We hope the lack of mandate in the new national government will encourage the cities to get more radical. Use the power of the state to support popular transformation. We are the creative force, the existing order depends on us, we must refuse to participate, and create alternatives.
France: From this conference a new network of 30 francophones has formed. In France our priority is to fight xenophobia. We have commons assemblies across the country. Sharing experiences and feedback, including social movements, solidarity across difference. Common communication and coordination platform.
Belgrade and Zagreb. Used to be two cities of Yugoslavia. Now in 2 countries. Built on solidarity and anti-fascism. We no longer live in the same country, but we share the values of unity, closeness, familiarity. Belgrade waterfront project represents a paradigm shift, against financial speculation and privatisation, towards the citizens voice. Our fight is inspired by the struggles across Europe and the world. To meet the people who make this change, gives us great strength. Coordinated citizens can overcome the private interests of the elites. Events like this give us more confidence to demand change from our institutions. In Zagreb our friends won seats. Change is possible, keep fighting.
USA: we are building a network of fearless cities in the US. Fighting trump, take climate justice into our own hands. Fearless cities are true sanctuary cities, resisting deportation and criminalisation. Working together, testing new strategies. We need new ways of doing politics, not just new politicians. Across the country we’re building common language, growing power from the roots. Movements unafraid to engage with the state and take the right to govern from below. Solutions happen in networks not isolation. Trump election has global implications, fearless towns and cities are the frontline of resistance, building an alternative.
Chile: we are doing our part, building a prefigurative municipalism. 10 years experience. Building the future from the present. Education, work, rights.
Brazil. We’re learning a lot here. Belo Horizonte. Inspired by what happened in Mexico and Barcelona. Occupying public spaces.
Hong Kong. Umbrella Movement, 1M occupy highway and financial district against Beijing control of HK. We elected young candidates into city council. Govt is now trying to remove the new opposition. We need people to retake the streets.
Rojava: Delegates from Syria were denied entry to Spain. (The state knows the threat of municipalism.) 4 Rojava women couldn’t make it. Bookchin said there was an opportunity for a coalition of cities 400 years ago, but then the nation state took over. We have a new opportunity. Organising society starts very low, neighbourhood by neighbourhood. In Rojava we have more than 4000 communes, this is how the power of Rojava can resist all kinds of reactions. Communes are a strong element, a territory of solidarity, against capitalist modernity. We need all levels. Democratic autonomy. From the Middle East, our proposal is federated municipalism. Women-based, communal democratic, ecological revolution.
Comments from International Committee of Barcelona en Comú
There’s a growing map of cities around the world, all different contexts but all pursuing the same aims. Municipalism is based on local people, local means, people working outside institutions. People acting locally, linked globally. Local government not just as an administrative part of the state, but as an avenue for community self-government. Democratic radicality is absolutely necessary. Formal representative democracy is over. We need to invent new forms, radical accountability, real feedback between administration and citizens. You need strong society, beyond winning government control. Female-led, feminised politics, women front and centre, do things differently, put life and care work at the centre of politics and take down the patriarchy.
We have to win where we can. Small victories prove change is possible. Losing is disempowering. Win small spaces. Municipalism makes sense because so many global problems happen at the local level: we experience the problem there, so that’s where the response must come from. It is strategically better to do things from the local level because it is easier, it is the space we live, what we know. We don’t need to answer only one mandate, we can be diverse. Candidacies are different in each city. Proximity: if we can’t develop participatory politics at neighbourhood level.
After yesterday’s municipalist map, what now? what we cannot do is simply to act at the local level. How can we articulate this? How can we work together? Working in network: not creating a network of cities, just to start a web platform, wiki or website. Working in a network: what do we need, what can we give? Our context, abilities, needs. Exchange knowledge. Simply talking together can have a huge impact.
Comments from Ada Colau
Mayor of Barcelona
Barcelona, it must be said, is an exceptional city, historically. We feel very proud to be from here. We can also say that it honours us. Common people can take the local government because of our historical context. The first woman mayor of BCN. Also the first working class person. A lot of exceptional people in the city decided to organise from the bottom up to resist the inevitable and achieve great change. The organisation of neighbourhoods comes from a brave couragous history. Open to the world, brave, solidarity city. The fight for democracy and the republic didn’t have support of any other states. We’re still fighting for it.
A lot of examples have been shared. We are taking one more step forward on a necessary journey. We need these gatherings because the media and economic powers are not with us. Means are not with us. Network organising is crucial to counter balance that power. This will only work if many other cities take responsibility for this. To be ambitious and courageous as possible, we want politics of majority. The horizon is many more candidates in many more cities. The challenges we face are huge. Our adversaries are very powerful. Energy companies, transnational real estate companies. Titans. We must work as a network to balance their power. Water is in private hands. They invest millions, a great influence. We need each other. Proximity. There is so much to be done. 99% of humanity is fed up with non representation in institutions, we need to be as diverse as them. We are not alone, we are not crazy.
I’ll never run for president, they think being mayor is not important enough. It’s just not true, it answers to an obsolete reality. We are transitioning, we must defend things that we think are obvious.
The physical offices of the town hall separate us. Like working in a castle. Sure to come in, but not so sure to come out.
