Applied anarchy
Earlier this year a group of people in Reykjavík started a not for profit organization called Lindy Ravers, for Lindy Hop dancers in Reykjavík. The purpose of the organization is to increase awareness of swing dancing and Lindy Hop in particular, and create a social forum for practitioners of the dance.
When the organization was founded I managed to convince Þórgnýr, one of the key people involved, that we should make a very different set of bylaws than are commonly adopted by similar organizations. After almost four months of success I think it’s time to describe the concept here.
The laws are available here in Icelandic. I’ll translate the significant ones into English:
Article 6. [All] the members of the organization form a council that governs the organization. The organization chooses four representatives, thereof one foreman, by way of election, at every council meeting. No member can be a representative for more than three years in a row.
This law is interesting because of the words “at every council meeting.” But those words aren’t important without the context of the other laws, so I continue:
Article 7. The foreman of the representatives calls representatives together as justified by need and interest. Representatives take care of everyday execution of the organization, such as organization of singular events, financial organization, etc.
Nothing interesting there really, except that you can note that the “representatives” are more like unpaid elected employees of the organization than any kind of authority - they aren’t given any right to make large scale decisions.
Article 8. Laws can be changed at council meetings. Any three members of the organization can request that a council meeting be called, and shall this be done at least once per year. Representatives oversee organization and advertisement of such meetings. Council meetings are open to all, but only members have right to motion and vote.
Put this into context with article 6. The representatives are elected at every meeting (if no changes need to be made then unanimity will make this a formality) and you only need three people to cause such a meeting to be called. The barrier for revolution is lowered significantly, and one could even suggest that it is encouraged.
Article 10. There are no membership fees. The organization is granted authority to accept and retain money for any sort of workshop, class, or other events that members organize and allocate funds on behalf of its members. Any surplus funds at the end of the year remain in the organizations funds.
The last sentence is a legal formality ordered by Icelandic law. What’s interesting here though is that it isn’t the representatives that are granted the authority to manage funds, but the organization as a whole. This means that any transfer of funds is open to democratic debate, but as per article 7, if no debate arises then the representatives can continue with everyday business.
Article 11. Funds from the treasury may only be used to pay for the business of the organization. This includes but is not limited to rent of premises, hiring of teachers for longer or shorter periods of time and purchase of any essentials. Should any dispute arise a council meeting should be called. Representatives are obliged to seek good deals for all costs.
Here the frame for representatives executive power is clarified. The point that any dispute should refer to a council meeting is another option for revolution.
The idea, in case you missed it, is simple: The people have the power, and they do not give it away, they just refer tedium to a subset of the polity with the safeguard that any misuse of the severely limited power granted to the subset can be called out and fixed with minimal hassle.
Further, unlike a lot of organizations, the “executive body” does not have a monopoly on organizing events. Rather, each member is able to start an initiative on his own accord and has the organization as a supporter and a framework (both legal and social) for these initiatives. Initiatives are run by individuals, not by the organization.
The idea of building revolutions into the system as a method of self-correction is one that conventional authority is deeply afraid of. People who are in power in countries and so on today know that if the people had the authority to call for re-election if there were any suspicion of misconduct, they would quickly loose their jobs. (There is an issue of scale here: how big can the polity be before the re-election rate becomes so high that it is essentially impossible to remain stable? The obvious answer is to enlarge the number of members needed to call for an election, but not too much - in most countries this power exists, but the number of people needed for such a demand is so high that it is unattainable in practice.)
So far there has been one revolution in Lindy Ravers. Since the organization has this built into the legal framework this was an entirely peaceful revolution, and all others will be. The change made in the representative body was that yours truly was removed from the subset of representatives on account of being unfit - since I currently work in Vestmannaeyjar I’m not able to fulfill my duties as a representative in Reykjavík, so I got swapped out. Quick and easy. Perfect.
Þórgnýr informed me tonight that there is one organization that has had similar laws for more than six decades, and most people don’t realize it: Alcoholics Anonymous. Indeed, their charter’s first bylaw states:
1. Final responsibility and ultimate authority for A.A. world services should always reside in the collective conscience of our whole Fellowship.
The rest can be found here. This is an extremely social cry: let the people be governed by the people for the people. It is grounded in a faith in the ability of the individual and the ability of individuals to work together. Whilst most political theories put either the group or the individual first, the anarchist way is to recognize the inherent symbiosis between individuals and groups and acknowledge that one cannot function without the other.
This realization is important, and may matter a lot in coming years.
On another note, this is interesting: Gresham’s Law and Alcoholics Anonymous.
