Stir to Action has worked in partnership with the Centre for Urban Research on Austerity at De Montfort University in Leicester to produce a new video resource for the municipalist movement. The video was inspired by CURA’s Municipal Socialism in the 21st Century event in June 2018, and highlights the latest concepts in the movement, summarising why it is growing, and explains some of its main concerns.
We have created this resource for all of us to use, to help others understand the key thinking behind this transformative politics. We actively encourage you to use it yourselves and share it with others. We hope you find it useful in lectures, at conferences, on educational programmes, on your website, in your news stories, or simply to share over your social media.
Find out more at cura.our.dmu.ac.uk
IMO this is propaganda. The municipal socialists who won power in Barcelona have gone on an international tour (Fearless Cities) trying to frame municipalism as socialist but it’s not. It’s decidedly non partisan because it’s about open government and participatory democracy.
Try running a participatory democratic process wearing the hat of any political ideology (capitalism, socialism, etc). It doesn’t work because people don’t participate when they think the process is partisan. Trust and openness is key. Ask the municipalists running Madrid, where they’ve got 500,000 people using their citizen proposal and participatory budgeting website.
At the foundation of Madrid’s success is non-partisanship. They play the role of a trusted facilitator of the public will, not an enlightened ruler who knows what’s best for their people.