A-Infos (en) Greece, antiauthoritarian festival of Direct Democracy in thessaloniki

On Monday 12 July at 8pm there will be held, in the Social Space for Freedom Micropolis 
(Venizelou & V. Irakliou 18) a public meeting about the Antiauthoritarian Fest of Direct 
Democracy, which will take place in Thessaloniki in September. ---- Topics:---- a) Form 
and project of the fest and the demonstration of the 11th of September ---- b) Speakers, 
topics & workshops ---- c) Bands, organizational issues, cost, expositions and 
presentations ---- d) Participations and co-organizing ---- We invite you to participate 
in the first âFestival of direct democracyâ which will be held on 8-10 September 2010, and 
in the demonstration of the 11th of September, when the opening of the TIF (Thessaloniki 
International Fair) will take place, under the common project of Direct Democracy, through 
which we believe that the new social power, formed by the free and diffuse resistance 
movement against the choices of the state, is politically expressed.

The generalised capitalist crisis has evolved from a monetary crisis into a deep systemic 
one, bringing to light issues related to the collapse of the social cohesion, upon which 
the regime was based so far. This degradation is manifested through the whole of the 
institutionalized social activities that concern the employment, the education, the 
family, the neighborhood, the city, etc. If, in addition to these, we take into account 
the intensity of the ecological destruction, as a product of the âcapitalist developmentâ, 
we can understand why the crisis of the system and of the representative democracy 
constitutes the trigger to search for a radically different, a new social identity, beyond 
the one imposed by capitalism and sovereignty.

A battlefield has opened up, one we do not want to stay away from, and in which we invite 
you to participate, not just by being present, but through your substantial contribution, 
by sharing your views and experiences, which we regard as essential parameters in this battle.

In the 3-day festival of direct democracy, we do not recognize just a literary 
intercourse, and also the bloc of direct democracy does not constitute for us just a 
moment that defuses its protest through a demonstration. On the contrary, we expect that 
the presence and participation of people with different paths, but with the common choice 
and pursuit of the realization of direct democracy, will contribute significantly to the 
establishment of a relationship of solidarity, with continuity and depth in time, 
characterized by a common vision for a just, free and anti-sovereign society.

The dates we have chosen are not without meaning. On September 11, at the opening of the 
Thessaloniki International Fair, the Prime Minister will announce its economic policy for 
the coming years, at the same time when tens of thousands of people will be demonstrating 
on the streets. We will be there with them, bringing the message of Solidarity and 
Resistance, as well as the call for social Overthrow, by the means of a positive and 
creative project against the state, the capital and the authority, through direct 
democracy, for the social antiauthority.

open assembly for the fest 2010 of direct democracy

Thursday 8 July 2010
ÎÎÏÎÎÎÏÎÎ: texts

The crisis has opened up all issues

The form of maelstrom, which the crisis is expected to get from September and thereafter, 
is going to drift the entire system of domination into collapse and failure, not only in 
the narrow sense of the financial terms that describe its monetary stamina, but also 
regarding the whole of the structural and ideological edifice, upon which the capitalist 
consensus has been built. This brings into the society a violent demand concerning its 
ability not only to give an answer, but first and foremost to clarify the question to be put.

What, how and for whom. Three dimensions of the qualitative leap in which the radical 
outlet of the crisis occurs.

These questions will lead us to this yearâs International Fair of Thessaloniki.


Festival of Direct Democracy at 8-10 September 2010 AUTH

- Speeches, international participations, with people from the fields of the intellect, 
the science, the social movements, the labor, the city and the countryside.

- Theatrical performances, film festivals and documentaries, activities for children, 
stands with books and products of horizontal trade and concerts.

Speeches on the crisis, the production and the direct democracy

3 days to hear but also to suggest realistic ways for the outlet from the framework of 
capitalism and from the environmental destruction.

We create â we protest on the 11th of September, at the TIF, with the bloc of direct 
democracy.

We address direct democracy in society as the immediate possibility of social organization.

The project of horizontal social organization

Direct democracy does not come to simply add a criticism to the existing, but to abolish 
it. Never before had the direct-democratic targeting such an appeal, not only in the 
social movements but also in the juvenile social actions. The direct-democratic structures 
are not the question and the solution but the way in which the question will be clarified 
and the solution will be looked for. In the discredited political and party system, the 
direct-democratic outlet can constitute the modern radical project, as long as we realize 
that the crisis is not just financial or just political, but concerns the state, which 
means that it reaches the deep core of the system itself.

The deep crisis which is imbedded in the society as a whole is not simply an economic one. 
The economic crisis is just the tip, or better said the visible part, of the iceberg. On 
its basis appear issues that concern the sum of social and political institutions.

The traditional components which are expressed through the political party system and and 
trade-unions controlled by these political parties, are incapable to provide a prospect 
for escape. There is nothing for negotiation any more, a negotiation that was the basis of 
the traditional political or syndicalist antagonism in society.

The phrase âthere is no salivaâ â a greek expression which means there is nothing left â 
used recently by the minister of labour A. Loverdos, put forward a message towards all 
directions that the negotiational quota is not only blocked but has began the negative 
count-down.

Into the well that they have sunk us, the way out is not quantitative but qualitative.

The crisis has opened up all issues. From September on, the crisis will become a maelstrom 
that will sweep along into bankruptcy and meltdown the entire system of domination not 
only in a narrow sense of economic terms of its financial stamina, but sweeps along the 
whole structural and ideological edifice which has supported the capitalist concession.

What enters in society with a violent manner is not only its ability to provide an answer 
but first and foremost the lucidity of the question that has to be posed. We have to 
redefine our existence in all of the areas of social life that we participate. In land, in 
the factory, in services, in education. The fundamental questions that are being posed 
shock their own traditional existence to the core. What, how and for whom? Three 
dimensions of the qualitative leap which contribute the final outlet from the crisis.

With this questions we will guide ourselves to this yearâs Trade International Fair of 
Thessaloniki.

The argument for horizontal social organisation in which presides the direct democracy is 
not coming just to add one more critique to the present state of affairs but to abolish 
them. Never before the direct-democratic aim had such an appeal, not only within the 
movement itself but also to the primary social actions. The direct-democratic structures 
are not the question and the solution, but the way that will clarify the question and the 
way that will seek the solution. In the decadent political party system of parliamentary 
democracy, the direct-democratic outlet can constitute the modern radical reasoning, as 
long as we realise that the crisis is not just economical or just political but reaches 
the deep core of the system itself.

The undertaking to form the bloc for Direct Democracy in this yearâs trade international 
fair of Thessaloniki comes to synthesise all those social powers that perceive the 
bankruptcy of the traditional as an opening in the horizon of freedom with direct feasible 
targets.

The disengagement of the public sphere from the state and private interest, as a new 
matrix of relations unmediated and socially free, gives direct democracy the 
insurrectional dynamic that corresponds to it. Direct democracy is not an alibi nor a 
pretext that will fit in the organisational level of a neighbourhood and will stand back 
in the central political scene of municipality and general elections.

The political proposal of the social emancipation is not a anthology of ideas. It is the 
reality of Social Antiauthority that is experienced with Direct Democracy in local and 
social struggles and movements. It is the claim of the free spaces in the neighbourhoods, 
it is the creation of public assemblies and open and free procedures. It is the occupation 
of public places abandoned by profitability (or the lack of it), or private spaces that 
are turned into free public and social ones. Those spaces can be turned into centres of 
struggle through their multifarious activity so that every action will constitute another 
relation to the present and yet another proposal to society.

Direct Democracy to the agricultural production is the horizontalization of the relations 
between producers and consumers which will extend from the field to packaging and 
distribution. What cultivation and by which way, for whom and for what needs are the 
direct questions that seek an answer in the direct-democratic organisation of food chain.

This chain includes and unites labour with society. From the agriculture and social 
control in the factory, the way and the product of production so that the labour and the 
production will answer to the social needs and not to the profit accumulation.

A chain directly linked with the organisation of society that even though seems to be 
chaotic, in its extent can be materialised through perceptible and operationally 
realisible targets that have to do with a neighbourhood, or the networking of 
neighbourhoods that deal with a municipality, or the networking of public assemblies that 
deal with a city.
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http://www.ablocfest.gr/?lang=en
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