What is Prefigurative Politics? | Red Plateaus

This video is about how we might create the social change we want through the movements we develop.
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Bibliography
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Boggs, C., 1977a. Revolutionary Process, Political Strategy, and the Dilemma of Power. Theory and Society, 4(3), pp. 359-93.
Boggs, C., 1977b. Marxism, Prefigurative Communism and the Problem of Workers’ Control. Radical America, 12(1), Available at libcom.org/library/marxism-pr....
Combahee River Collective, 1977. The Combahee River Collective Statement. [Online]
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Cox, L. & Nielsen, A., 2014. We Make Our Own History: Marxism and Social Movements in the Twilight of Neoliberalism. London: Pluto Press.
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Harris, D., 2001. ‘From the Kennedy Commission to the Combahee Collective: Black Feminist Organizing, 1960-80. In: D. Collier-Thomas & V. P. Franklin, eds. Sisters in the Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement,. New York: NYU Press, pp. 280-305.
Hill Collins, P., 1990. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman..
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Malatesta, E., 2014. The Method of Freedom: An Errico Malatesta Reader. Oakland, CA: AK Press.
Marx, K., 1992. Karl Marx: Early Writings. London: Penguin.
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Raekstad, P. & Gradin, S., 2019. Prefigurative Politics: Building Tomorrow Today. Cambridge: Polity.
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[@anarchozoe]

Good video.

[@RedPlateaus]

Thanks comrade!

[@Anark]

What an incredible resource!

[@zeroclout6306]

This is the best video on KZbin.

[@RedPlateaus]

Thanks!

[@jkRatbird]

Im inclined to agree. Feels like a crucial thing for people to realise and start exploring more. Maybe at some point you can follow this up with another video that has a bigger focus on how to actually do it! Like going through in detail a few examples of how to organise decision making, maybe talking about where in our lives it's possible to implement, and really focusing on encouraging people to explore it more and find ways to start implementing thi in their lives. Also, I'd recommend a title that brings people in without an already existing interest in the term "prefigurative politics". Im sure many people are interested, but don't know they are since they never heard the word. Something like "Prefigurative politics: How to socialism" or "Making hierarchies obsolete "! Looking forward to see your channel grow! So close to 10.000 now!

[@pablosole1693]

+1 @@jkRatbird. While it is clear there isn’t a “one size fits all” of political organization. it would be nice to hear from successful prefigurative political organization as examples to materialize the concepts. Thank you for this video, great edition.

[@elliswrong]

Huh, good timing. I ordered "Prefigurative Politics: Building Tomorrow Today" yesterday. I'm looking forward to reading it next weekend.

[@RedPlateaus]

Great, hope you enjoy it!

[@dialecticalveganegoist1721]

Great work comrade!

[@RedPlateaus]

Thanks comrade!

[@drawingdownthestars]

Amazing!!! So many sources for me to peruse as well.

[@RedPlateaus]

The tried to keep the sources we cite here to a minimum, but the book has a much more complete set, depending on how deep you want to go.

[@swapnavasavdatta379]

The current scenario of organization building is going to learn very much from this. In undeveloped countries as us, the politics remains divided among small sections of identity to large extend. This has weaken class politics. A video to explain these and suggest possible solutions on identity politics would be very helpful. You are doing great work, thanks.

[@ottoludewig1244]

It remembered me about the concept of "Latent Potentialities" on Bookchin's bibliography, about reading and using the technologies and means produced within capitalism to do emancipatory activities, like how the Internet can help us organize across continents easier. Really helpful video

[@RedPlateaus]

Didn't even think of that, but yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I think that also connects to the Marxist idea that capitalism develops both technology and industry in ways that we can only fully take advantage of by changing our social relations and the forms of agency capable of and potentially driven to make that change.

[@ottoludewig1244]

@@RedPlateaus Part of a revolutionary narrative and praxis is realizing how transformative power is born inside capitalism, which is one of the main points in Das Kapital, and we can see that clearly today and how the burgeoise tends to appropiate these changes into their models of welfare and such in figures like Stiglitz and the so called Keynesian School of Economics. Roar Magazine has an issue on some AMLO's projects and how they digress from their supposedly socialist campaign. Some interesting readings can be done here

[@footbaht6401]

so basically, be the change to see in the world.

[@iadros10]

Great vid, thank you!

[@RedPlateaus]

Thank you and you're welcome.

[@maidden]

Excellent explanation! Thank you!

[@ValiumSadfemmeMcGirlBoss]

Important.

[@RedPlateaus]

Thanks, we thought so too.

[@luciennoxisou9502]

Build Counter Power - Build the Future NOW!

[@graete8644]

wonderful video, thank you

[@mastervule1844]

This is such an important subject and for some reason I didn't see this mentioned in leftist circles. Thank you for covering this!

[@jeangrondin921]

Inspiring.

[@gregorsamsa2271]

I got a question: will be the book "Prefigurative Politics" also available in german? I'm very interested to read it now even more. Brillant video. Love how you explained the meaning "Prefigurative Politics" by also using the examples of feudalism, and capitalism - how certain institutions must be developed before we reached a new form of society we have in mind. Thank you for all of your work!

[@RedPlateaus]

I've no idea, but I'd love it if it happened.

[@theotherothersean2183]

Out of curiosity are you familiar with The Tyranny of Structurelessness? I think a lot of the recommendations at combatting informal hierarchies are really important :D

[@RedPlateaus]

Yes and yes. And her recommendations fit the forms of prefigurative politics we talk about very nicely (e.g. they've been doing delegation, rotation, etc. since way back).

[@Cobalt1917]

What’s that black and white clip early on with tv show hosts interviewing revolutionary workers? That looks dank af

[@Cobalt1917]

I assume it’s the Paris Commune

[@RedPlateaus]

@@Cobalt1917 It is.

[@eyesofnihility]

very good video!

[@eyesofnihility]

also thank you for bringing up intersectionality!

[@littlebeefbeefpro1920]

What’s the last clip from (the one where you were talking about the IWW)

[@Dorian_sapiens]

Fantastic work, like all this channel's videos! Question: What differentiates prefigurative politics from what is sometimes dismissed as lifestylism? I know the terms mean different things; but it seems like, in some cases, both terms might be used by different people to describe the same situation.

[@zeroclout6306]

I think lifestylism is parochial and cloistered individual expression while prefiguration is a collective action which builds community power. I should say that lifestylism can be said to prefigure something, just, is that something desirable? Not always. An analogy might be Lifestylism = personally recycling and leaving it at that Prefiguration = creating a communal effort which transforms the entire production/consumption process into a fecund relationship. (See Iceland)

[@tigerstyle4505]

Emma Goldman was one of many socialists that were initially enthusiastically supportive of the revolution in Russia and, while not thrilled about being deported, was eager to participate in the project. But after her arrival, meeting and speaking to the people, watching how the new state functioned, and meeting with Lenin where she learned more about the revolution it fundamentally altered her perspective. She went from an open and loud advocate of violence in the name of the Cause, even when most of her comrades were distancing themselves from such tactics, to a position that essentially boiled down to "the means you use are the ends you'll be left with". She didn't shy away from the reality that emancipation would almost certainly have to come from violent struggle, but she warned against allowing that violence to become institutionalized which she viewed as one of the most immediate failures of the Bolsheviki. Something Malatesta and many other socialists warned of before anyone knew what a Bolshevik was. I see it as very much bearing out looking back through history. When we look at attempts like the Makhnovshchyna in Ukraine, the Spartacists in Germany, the EZLN in Chiapas, the co-op movement in Australia and Argentina (particularly the more radical elements), the CNT/FAI and several smaller trade unions in Spain, many of the Partisan militias in the 1930's and 1940's, the Democratic Confederalists in the territories they control, etc, that have been able to have huge parts of their ideals immediately put to practice without the need for suppression of dissent or violent maintenance of order, one common thread runs through them all even though they vary a great deal on theoretical grounds and the conditions they made history within. That common thread that seems to be ignored by so many people is that we neither saw the successes from some natural essential nature of humans spontaneously acting on their material interests or a vanguard or individual leader at the center of things, but duel power structures and organizing bodies being successfully put to use after years and years of building and laying the groundwork. Parties, trade unions, militias, etc, hell even loose affiliations of bandits and other criminals, that had all been around and become normalized parts of the lives of the people who lived around them even if those people hadn't been active or held revolutionary ideals beforehand. These parties absolutely influenced things and shaped the developments of the revolutions, uprisings or movements but it was a very different relationship than that of a top-down, centralized, Party above all approach that we saw elsewhere and while there was a lot of amazing sporadic self-governance and organization, most of it revolved around existing groups and organizations. It seems undeniable that the seeds they planted for decades in some cases eventually bloomed without the need of a gardener or idealized humans. So we HAVE to put in the effort and build NOW! The uprisings we see around the world right now could have so much more of an impact if there had been those seeds waiting and structures ready to be utilized. Unfortunately that's not what we see. Marx gets a lot of credit for things he didn't come up with lol Expanded on? Sure, but “the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves” is exactly what Proudhon was saying when he wrote “the proletariat must emancipate itself without the help of the government.” before Marx, as was his version of the LToV, and I believe both Proudhon himself took from Ricardian socialism. Amazing that Marx and Proudhon's big ego beef largely stemmed from Proudhon using a translator that Marx had beef with 😂 Petty mfs for real lol Not a huge fan of Proudhon overall, but still. I hate that Marx is viewed in an unrealistic light by so many people. The real him was a lot more unlikeable in some ways but was far more interesting and I don't know if one can really understand his work if their opinion of him is inaccurate. It's a shame that so many self-described socialists are so negative about, or just completely ignoring, the project of Democratic Confederalism that the Kurds have undertaken. I don't know if it's cause they went from a fairly run of the mill ML guerilla org but later rejected it and did a hell of a job dismantling it if ya ask me due to the material conditions and historical analysis that fundamentally shifted their perspective or that they take aid where they can get it cause they are in the middle of war zones and sieged by tyrants, reaction, and enemies of liberation on all sides, but they are pushing theory and praxis right now in a way that should be defining for our movements in the future. But instead are swept away as if they don't matter. What they've accomplished is nothing short of amazing, seemingly impossible, and it doesn't matter what label they put on it. They have embodied theory, practice, failure, revision, practice, or understand, try, fail, rethink, try again, fail better. They are doing exactly what most Marxists and anarchists claim to be about. They are exemplifying prefigurative politics and organization while warding off the brutality of reactionary extremists, imperialists and bigots. And they are making vital discoveries in the process. Anybody that called themselves an anti-capitalist or claims to be in favor of liberation or ecological living that isn't tuned in should be ashamed of themselves and find another description for themselves. Sorry so late to this video, family. Love.

[@guidemarkings3670]

Did they have microphones? holy shit. please be more honest.

[@RedPlateaus]

You are in fact absolutely right that the Paris commune did not have this kind of technology (nor did they, in fact, have TV grade television cameras). This is why Peter Watkins, the director of the classic on-site documentary "La Commune (Paris, 1871)" -- perhaps our most important living, or at the very least vivid, historical evidence of the occasion -- had to invent time travel to make it (as well as space-like wormholes. Lazy bum wouldn't on any occasion leave England).

[@NathanDudani]

Prefigurative Politics Raekstad, Paul, Gradin, Sofa Saio, , Sofa Saio Gradin Year: 2020 Language: English ISBN 13: 9781509535910

[@tomthatguy123]

I don't think the soviets and the peasant communes are comparable or that related. The soviets first and foremost were a result of the working-class struggle, they were directly formed in 1905 and later 1917 from the strike committees. They also have a very different role under a revolutionary situation where they actually can act as a sort of political dual power, while in a non-revolutionary situation they don't have that large of a function. Again, the soviets in 1905 and 1917 in the industrial centers is not that comparable to just having like a peasant assembly during a down turn in class struggle.

[@RedPlateaus]

This sounds compatible with everything we say. We agree that the two have a very different history and that they have very different functions in non-revolutionary situations (and we'd add the caveat that the peasant communes were there during both upturns and downturns in the class struggle). What we're arguing is that the peasant communes were important for the Russian Revolution, in particular for explaining how the rapid revolution throughout the Russian Empire, a largely rural and feudal society, happened. We're particularly interested in this from a Marxist perspective, because Marx was onto their importance way ahead of his time (in this as in so many other things): www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1881/zasulich/index.htm

[@tomthatguy123]

@@RedPlateaus I honestly think you are overestimating these communes. Have you read anything on them except for what Marx wrote? While nicer they were still in reallity conservative and patriarchal formations with their own set of strange property relations. Furthermore they were also being broken up and not like fighting organisations like the unions or factory committees were. The reason the revolution grew so quickly was because tens of thousands of workers were being put into the same factories in a few large cities, this gave them the same interests and reasons to organize in a much more discipline manner. That is where the revolution really started.

[@RedPlateaus]

@@tomthatguy123 Again, these are things we agree with and that don't contradict anything we say in the video, as far as I can tell. So maybe this is easier if we ask: what is it exactly you think that we're saying about these communes?

[@RURK_]

Mandatory Watching for all Leftists

[@RedPlateaus]

Thanks, that's kind of you to say.

[@RURK_]

@@RedPlateaus Np, I really like leftist strategy videos

[@yungyahweh]

Do you think if Napoleon hadn't lost a different capitalism would've developed?

[@pulpreservoir3894]

So basically libertarian municipalism Is BASED?