Community and Organization: The New Left and Michels' "Iron Law"

Oligarchy, Iron Law of

“…Michels' study of the German Social Democratic Party was largely a critique of the vanguardist strategy embraced by the parliamentary socialists of his day, who, in claiming to represent the emancipatory interests of 'the masses,' felt justified in repressing dissent within their own ranks. Debate over this question has been an especially prominent feature of leftist politics over the last half-century, underlying the New Left's embrace of participatory democracy and the extra-parliamentary stance of many of the so-called New Social Movements in the postwar era (Breines, 1980(Breines, , 1982Epstein, 1991;Katsiaficas, 1997), and playing a central role in the factionalization of the German Green Party (Markovits and Gorski, 1993). If we imagine that all it takes to avoid oligarchy is to remain committed to a radical agenda, no matter how undemocratic the means used by 'revolutionary' leadership might be, we bypass the question at the very heart of Michels' work and indeed, at the very heart of much of activist history since then.…”

“…Similarly, research on workers' cooperatives has found that economic competition and the nature of markets can force organizations to sacrifice more democratic practices for the sake of efficiency, opening the door for oligarchy (Getz, 1998;Rosner, 1998). Breines' (1980) analysis of the collapse of Students for a Democratic Society -the leading organization of the student movement in the 1960s -argued that government repression was a major factor that fed the polarization, radicalization, and turn to militancy in the group, ultimately contributing to their rejection of participatory democracy and allowing an oligarchic minority to seize control of the organization.…”

“…In the 1980s, a new critique emerged that challenged the first step of Michels' argument -the underlying premise that organizations must necessarily develop a bureaucratic structure in order to be effective (Breines, 1980;Rothschild and Whitt, 1986). Even though his primary referent, the German Social Democratic Party, was in fact a large-scale bureaucratic organization, Michels explicitly stated that he was talking about all types of nominally democratic organizations: "The formation of oligarchies within various forms of democracy is the outcome of organic necessity, and consequently affects every organization ."…”

The Anarchism of Occupy Wall Street∗

“…In the 21st century, the antiglobalization movement blockaded several international summit meetings, in the process introducing cadres of young people to anarchism 3 The term prefiguration was coined by Carl Boggs (Boggs, personal communication) to characterize revolutionary movements in Russia, Italy, Spain, and the U. S. New Left (Boggs, 1977). It was applied by Sheila Rowbotham (1979) to the women's movement of the 1970s; by Wini Breines (1980;1989) to the U. S. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), and by myself to the Portuguese Revolution (Hammond, 1984;1988). In none of these cases was it identified with anarchism, though it clearly evokes a concept proposed by anarchists around the turn of the 20th century (cf.…”

Peasant Poverty and Persistence in the Twenty‐first Century: Theories, Debates, Realities, and Policies, edited by JulioBoltvinik and SusanArcher Mann, London, England: Zed Books, 2016. 456 pp. $35.95 (paper). ISBN: 978‐1‐78360‐843‐0.

“…It's a bit of performance to impress people and send them off inspired by what humans are capable of" (Sundeen 2016:122). These communities offer "demonstrations" of what Wini Breines (1980) referred to as prefigurative politics-the practicing of the world one wishes to see. Sarah from the alliance emphasizes: "It's creating a culture instead of fighting against systems we don't agree with.…”