“On the practice of ‘democracy’”:
To be discussed on the The Waking Up Radio program of Sunday, August 18th, 2013: “’Decision-making’ in the Collective”
08.16.13: Brothers and sisters of the Collective:
After having just sat for two hours (which is very hard on my body… as an aside…) in a Berkeley Liberation Radio Collective meeting… one better attended than most… I’d like to share some thoughts…
• On the particular need to change our decision-making procedures in the Collective… and some thoughts…
• On the weakness of ‘decision-making-by-meeting’… the practice of using meetings as the means for decision-making… i.e.:
• The more people who attend, the less can ‘get done’… i.e. the less ‘decision-making’ can happen… regardless of ‘facilitation’ – I found our facilitation last night to be excellent – and the harder it is on people’s physical health… and…
• The fewer who come, the more ‘decision-making’ becomes oligarchic… a small group of people ‘govern’ the organization… and ‘the few’ cannot make good decisions for the majority (for instance, I learned last night that a two-tier-dues-payment structure was voted on and approved at the previous meeting… with no noticing to the Collective that such a drastic ‘solution’ [to the problem of folks not paying dues] was even being discussed… let alone voted on. Our history of the labor movement shows us that creating tiered payment structures is one of the first tactics of management to erode solidarity among the rank and file. If this proposal had been presented to the entire group this concern could have been brought to the attention of the full Collective….) It is only manufactured scarcity and concentrated ‘power’ (two ways of saying the same thing…) that is at root why we get twisted up in endless discussion and argument (‘crabs-in-a-bucket’….)
Why are we part of this Collective? What is our interest? We want to come to the studio and offer programming to our brothers and sisters that sheds light… that contributes to more and more people seeing and using more and more of their gifts. And we all contribute money and energy towards that end. So what resources do we need to accomplish this? Space… energy… and equipment – these are the resources we need… and the only reason ‘fulfilling our mission’ is difficult is because these resources are made scarce: manufactured resource scarcity… and this is a micro version of broad societal (global) conditions… which we struggle with in every aspect of our lives.
But… back to the particular circumstances of this Collective: under conditions of created scarcity, those whose energies are consumed in survival have no choice but to relinquish to others responsibility for decision-making in ‘non-survival-related areas.’ This is why ‘democracy’ (of any sort) cannot work under conditions of created scarcity… as ‘the few’ cannot make good decisions for ‘the many.’
So… to this specific problem of non-dues-collection which was used to justify what I consider to be an ‘undemocratic’ decision at the last meeting; and to the broader issue of decision-making in general… I’d like to offer a proposal for consideration and feedback:
At yesterday’s meeting Mouse said that Soul used to tape a ‘dues-collection-status’ sheet to the DJ table by the microphone with check-off marks by the names of those whose dues had been paid. I think this is a brilliant solution both for dues-collection… and determining ‘active-member-status’ specifically – but also for decision-making generally. So…
I volunteer to serve… alone or with others… as a facilitator of membership-dues-collection… and to help with determining active membership… and broad decision-making procedures… to:
• Keep current and taped to the DJ table a dues-status sheet…
• Keep current and posted a ‘key-decisions-voting-sheet’ taped just above it…
• Keep current and posted the Collective’s membership requirements policy…
(…e.g. “after a DJ has missed X number of key votes… [but only if we employ this means for folks to vote at the station when they come to do their show… and if there has been full email-tree discussion of the issue…], and X number of dues-payments, and X number of ‘unauthorized’ absences from delivering his or her program… her or she will be asked to return the keys and a designated person will meet with him or her to collect the key and secure a ‘sign-off’ on its return…. If the key is not returned then this is noted on the ‘dues-status’ sheet so we know that this person is no longer in the Collective.”)
Both of the above ‘status’ sheets reveal active membership – who’s coming and doing their shows, and who isn’t – so one of our first ‘key decisions’ could be on the (above exampled) ‘membership policy’… once all members have been added to the ‘email-tree’ (list serve).
Your feedback is appreciated.
The Raven
Well, all right now, make us know it.
NEWSE (The Nascence to End Work Savings Endowment)
P.O. Box 3952
Berkeley, CA 94703
phone: 510.420.8054
nas2endwork@gmail.com
(See also: Getting To Our Future Freedom – 2) and You Know How I Know 'Localization' or 'Democratic Economics' Is A Con? and Classifying Will Not Bring ‘Class’ To A Close: The Case For Not Labeling Our Future Freedom )