re: wanted our little political party to act as an assembly

[Richard Moore <rkm(at)quaylargo.com>]

Antonio Rossin wrote:

> > I wanted our little political party to act as an assembly,
> > with all
> > the supporting village citizens to share-in and discuss
> > proposal.
> > But no village citizen wanted to attend the assemblies,
> > mostly
> > because -- let's suppose -- they feared from being seen
> > and
> > attacked by other political authorities.

Hi Antonio,

Thank you for sharing your story. I think sharing our various stories would be a very good idea. This is how people reach consensus in dialog. When they get past debating positions, and get down to sharing their stories, then they can begin to work together to create a shared position that takes everyone's insights into account.

I think your assembly initiative is inspiring, and very much along the lines of my own model.

> > Actually, a war started with the traditional political
> > parties.
> > Their leaders attacked us, by charging us with
> > incompetence,
> > lack of social responsibility, wranglingness,
> > undemocratic
> > riots-like behaviour etc.,

This is a very good sign! When the political establishment attacks you, that means you're pursuing a path to real democracy. If they coddle you, that means they think they can co-opt you.

> > -- but in the meantime all the policies
> > we wanted to be implemented in favour of our distant
> > village
> > have been implemented.  Therefore, our political
> > initiative has
> > been actually successful.
> >     ...All they wanted to obtain, it was
> > some better representative
> > to decide for them.  All I wanted to obtain, it was
> > themselves
> > to be able to decide awarely and responsibly by
> > themselves.

You were successful in getting your proposals implemented, but you failed to create the democratic infrastructure you hoped for in your village. You achieved a standard victory in the context of political activism within the current political system. If you want to succeed in creating your village assembly -- a more radical goal -- then some of the suggestions in my Framework document might be useful to you.

best wishes,

richard