A look at the tension within anarchist and activist organizations between overall decisions of the group and the self-management of those who carry out the decisions.
Producer: George King Uploaded by: George King
Broadcasters: Please note that this recording might not meet your broadcast standards. The talk was held outside on a somewhat windy day. I have tried to filter the wind noise, but you can still hear it (and its artifacts) in some places.
--------------------
Whereas contemporary North American anarchists often focus on "direct democracy" when asked to describe the goals and practice of anarchist organizing, classical anarchists were much more likely to describe their aspirations and radical practice in terms of "worker's control" or "self-management." More than a semantic difference, this represents a substantive difference in the way anarchists have come to think about democracy. Blake and Andrea use past and contemporary examples of anarchist organizing to draw out the tensions between direct democracy and worker's control in order to begin articulating an effective model of contemporary anarchist organizing that does not rely on a simplistic fetishization of direct democracy that is fundamentally liberal in character.
And your vocabulary word of the day is: instantiate.