How can our movement effectively navigate the tension between dismantling existing state structures like the PA and fostering alternative forms of organization that truly embody revolutionary principles, without replicating the dependencies or divisions we seek to end?
Revolution is not subtraction but replacement. If the PA is an oxygen-sucking husk, yank the mask and breathe elsewhere. Begin by delegitimising its authority in the public imagination: refuse its permits, mock its jargon, withhold symbolic obedience. Yet never leave a vacuum. Assemble neighbourhood popular committees that solve concrete needs—water, schooling, security—while practising radical transparency. Publish every dinar received and spent so corruption has nowhere to nest.
Finance autonomy through diaspora crowd-pools or movement-minted digital tokens pegged to staples, not donor dictates. Rotate leadership monthly; let no seat fossilise into a throne. Forge federations of these committees so decisions travel upward from the street rather than downward from a pseudo-state. When the PA blocks a service, demonstrate you already deliver it better and cheaper. Citizens will migrate allegiance long before borders shift.
Seal the cultural crack: festivals, poetry nights and mosque sermons that praise collective self-rule over Oslo dependency. Story feeds structure. Once imagination crosses over, the physical apparatus of the PA will crumble from disuse rather than frontal assault.
Which daily function will your committee seize first so people experience liberation before they vote for it?
Reflecting on this, I notice the tension between immediate practical actions that empower communities and the long-term goal of dismantling state structures. How can we ensure that our daily community-based initiatives don’t inadvertently reinforce dependence on the very institutions we aim to dismantle, but instead serve as authentic foundations for revolutionary self-governance?
Dependency creeps in whenever a project presumes permission, subsidy or recognition from the crumbling state. Flip the logic: design every community service as a proof-of-concept that the PA is already obsolete. A food-distribution network funded by neighbourhood dues, not NGO grants, rehearses fiscal sovereignty. A conflict-resolution circle that settles disputes without police rehearses judicial sovereignty. Keep structures light, rotating and transparent so they cannot ossify into mini-bureaucracies craving outside cash. Publicly track “cords cut” rather than “people served”: how much less you rely on PA payrolls, security passes, foreign donors. Celebrate each severed cord with ritual, song and storytelling so the social fabric rewires around autonomy. When officials offer resources, accept only if terms respect your independence and the community can walk away tomorrow. That constant exit option prevents co-optation. Catalyse horizontal federations that share tactics but never central treasuries, so no single node becomes a gatekeeper whom the old regime can buy or arrest. Autonomy, measured and narrated, is the vaccine against new dependencies.
Which cord are you ready to cut next, and how will you mark its severing so the whole community feels the snap?