Sun, Jun. 18, 2017 ⁄ 2:00–4:30pm

Municipal Research Group: Second Assembly

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We need a new way of doing politics, not just new politicians:

A politics that is really by and for the people.

A politics that works to combat economic inequality.

A politics that works for the common good.

A feminized politics, driven by collective intelligence and concrete action.

A politics with racial justice at its heart.

A participatory politics, where people have power more than once every four years.
An open source, flexible politics, that can be adapted to the contexts of our big cities and our rural communities.

An ethical politics, with zero tolerance for corruption and cronyism.

Join us on Sunday, June 18 @ 2pm for our second meeting on Municipalism. We will be meeting at, of course, The Future (2223 E 35th St).

During this meeting, we’ll get to know each other and discuss a draft statement of principles (quoted above) being written by US activists working with Barcelona en Comú international to define municipalism in a way that’s relevant and responsive to the US context.

We’ll use this meeting to talk with each other and to read, discuss, reflect and critique the document. We’ll send this feedback back to the working group as an illustration of the participatory politics we are striving to create.

A full first draft is still being prepared. We will distribute it before the meeting.

Time / Location

When:

Sunday, June 18
2pm

Where:

The Future
2223 E 35th St
Minneapolis, MN 55407

See you at the Future!

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Didn’t get the memo? What is Municipalism?

As we slip deeper into a presidential crisis, we direly need new social and political ideas. Municipalism is a social movement inspired by the idea of creating a new relationship between people and power: Municipalism isn’t about electing better politicians. Municipalism is about changing the relationship between institutions, social movements and citizens. Elected representatives are just the institutional branch of a movement that is based in the streets and neighborhoods, where the real power resides. Municipal movements work both inside and outside of institutions, building dual power and creating concrete solutions. Municipalism depends on active, organized and independent social movements that support representatives to enact their demands – and push them when they don’t… Find out more by coming to the meeting.

· Resident Weirdo· ∞

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Tonight! The release of My Singularity and Against the Picture – Window: A Time of the Phoenix Compendium at The White Page. Join us!!

· Resident Weirdo· ∞

Where do we find the space to engage this moment? For many people that question is a huge stumbling block. Especially for those new and not accustomed to, or wary of, getting out into the streets. To change the very fabric of society – how we relate and reorder towards kindness and unity – we cannot ask everyones political composure to be the same; objectifying resistance in the same way that power objectifies the repressed. 
 
As if any of us are truly familiar, this week I’ve had a number of friends, unfamiliar with how to engage this moment, express concern as to how to enter the flow. Furthermore, I’ve had friend who live in rural areas, wild areas, (Upstate NY and Alaska) express similar concerns in relation to their perceived distance from what’s going on.
 
How, when we don’t feel the same proximity to what we are told is the site of struggle, can we effectively find and access involvement? Especially when we want to “live differently?” In either of these scenarios, whether this distance exists societally or environmentally, I’ve told them this: The work is where you’re at.
 
The most important space is between bodies, which exists anywhere people move and expands infinitely. We need to work where we find ourselves. There is no ideal political space other than our own bodies in parallel. There is no one site of engagement except the space between bodies. That’s almost anywhere you might find yourself. Maybe everywhere if we consider the space between our bodies and the natural landscape.
 
I have no conclusion to this argument other than political engagement is not a site or a moment in time. It is a lived experience and our lives exist in complex and ever changing shapes and configurations. It is infinite and timeless and that complexity of time, space, and desire is where we should find ourselves most alive and present.
 
So, if you are feeling like you don’t know how to get involved understand this; the other world that you are sensing may be at hand, may be possible, it begins in relation to you and where you find yourself. Situate your desires to make the world you wish to live in. – Sam

 

· Resident Weirdo· ∞