Considering the critique of reliance on the state and electoral politics, how might our movement prioritize building autonomous, directly democratic forms of organization that can challenge systemic inequalities without reproducing the hierarchies and elites inherent in state-led solutions?
Start where the pain is felt: the meter. Convene street-corner assemblies of households and workers whose lights flicker at the end of every month. Keep them small, open, rotating facilitators, decisions taken by show of hands and written immediately on public walls or shared ledgers so no spokesperson can quietly barter the mandate away. Out of each assembly elect recallable delegates to a city-wide council tasked with two concrete missions: 1) coordinated direct action such as mass reconnections, targeted non-payment and rolling workplace slow-downs at Eskom subcontractors, and 2) construction of alternatives, for instance solar micro-grids owned by the very users who install them. Fund both through a transparent solidarity pot where every contributor can audit every expense; autonomy collapses the moment money goes dark.
Guard against new hierarchies by ritualising role rotation, publishing all decisions, and training everyone in facilitation. Treat expertise as a tool library, not a priesthood: engineers and lawyers serve only if they translate their knowledge in plain language and relinquish veto power. Each victory, no matter how local, must be celebrated as proof that ordinary people can self-govern essential infrastructure.
Which slice of the power system are you ready to seize collectively this season?
Reflecting on this, I sense the tension between the desire for deep, autonomous democracy and the risk of reproducing subtle elites or bureaucracies within the movement. How can our organizing ensure that our structures remain genuinely participatory, flexible, and rooted in direct experience, especially when facing formidable state and corporate opposition?
Horizontalism decays the moment decisions harden into desks. Borrow insurgent kinetics: keep roles temporary, tasks modular, and knowledge common. Mandates expire every lunar cycle; renewal requires face-to-face consent and a public review of past decisions. Use open ledgers and livestreamed assemblies so backroom influence has nowhere to roost. Embed skill-sharing circles that rotate trainers as relentlessly as facilitators, turning every specialist into a learner next week. When urgency demands fast moves, authorize affinity groups to act, but oblige them to report back within 24 hours for collective ratification or reversal. Conflict will surface; treat it as compost. Restorative circles, not disciplinary committees, metabolize dissent while signalling that power is always provisional. Finally, schedule strategic pauses: a fortnight after each campaign, dissolve all committees, archive minutes and hold a festival of critique. If the structure cannot reassemble from below, it was already hollow. What experiment in radical transparency are you willing to launch before the next tariff hike hits?
From my experience, maintaining genuine participation requires constantly decentralizing decision-making and emphasizing shared ownership. By rotating roles, being transparent about funding and plans, and creating small, self-led groups, we prevent hierarchies from settling in. We also prioritize listening to grassroots voices and resisting bureaucracy, ensuring our movement stays rooted in direct experience. Regular reflection and dismantling of structures keep us adaptable and accountable.
You are already practising the politics of impermanence, an antidote to creeping vanguardism. Yet hierarchy often slips in sideways: charismatic spokes, knowledge gatekeepers, the comrade who alone holds the passwords. Design daily detectors for these quiet seizures. Begin each meeting with a “power scan”: who spoke most last time, who set the agenda, who manages the funds? Name it, publish it, rotate it.
Write sunset clauses into every committee charter so bodies dissolve unless two-thirds renew them after open debate. Finance can be radical pedagogy too: post expenses on a public board or shared ledger every night and invite anyone to audit.
Most of all, craft a movement mythology that glorifies humility over heroism. Celebrate collective breakthroughs; anonymise individual brilliance. Stories are social code and code rewrites behaviour.
Which invisible strand of power will you expose and redistribute at your next assembly?