“This is what democracy looks like”: A conversation with Direct Action Network Activists David Graeber , Brooke Lehman, Jose Lugo, and Jeremy Varon
Over 40,000 activists disrupted Seattle WTO meetings in 1999. On their return, New Yorkers Brooke Lehman, David Graeber, Jeremy Varon and Jose Lugo launched their Direct Action Network (DAN) aiming at a model of direct democracy. In this discussion they explain the decision-making in DAN, its advantages and challenges.
Decisions in the group are taken by consensus because of the idea that different paths to a common goal do not have to be adversarial. The decentralist model has a practical side to it – in case of arrests, multiple lines can remain operational. For the New York DAN, face-to-face interaction is superior to internet debates which tend to bring out the most polemical people. There is a certain tension between opposing the global entities and doing it in a small local group. The base can be broadened using the Greek model of sortition or working together with groups of colour, unions or poor people’s organisations. It might be aiming too high, but it is necessary to show possibilities in democratic decision making, to start a discussion about what counts as democracy.
Published in Social Policy 31: 25-30