<p>Created by: noncommercialhouse.</p> <p>featured by u.n.</p> true true <p><strong>Dual power</strong> is a concept first articulated in an article by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenin" title="Lenin">Lenin</a>, "The Dual Power," (<i>dvoevlastie</i>) which described a situation in the wake of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_Revolution" title="February Revolution">February Revolution</a> in which two powers, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers_councils" title="Workers councils">workers councils</a> (or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_%28council%29" title="Soviet (council)">Soviets</a>, particularly the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrograd_Soviet" title="Petrograd Soviet">Petrograd Soviet</a>) and the official state apparatus of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Provisional_Government,_1917" title="Russian Provisional Government, 1917">Provisional Government</a> coexisted with each other and competed for legitimacy. Lenin argued that this essentially unstable situation constituted a unique opportunity for the Soviets to seize power by smashing the Provisional Government and establishing themselves as the basis of a new form of state power. This notion has informed the strategies of subsequent <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist" title="Communist">communist</a>-led revolutions, including the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Revolution" title="Chinese Revolution">Chinese Revolution</a> led by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong" title="Mao Zedong">Mao</a>.</p> <p>Recently the concept of "Dual Power" has taken on an even broader meaning in the hands of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism" title="Anarchism">anarchists</a> who use it to refer to the concept of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution" title="Revolution">revolution</a> through the creation of "counter-institutions" in place of and in opposition to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_state" title="Sovereign state">state</a> power. For example, if <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative" title="Cooperative">cooperative</a> food markets were able to compete on an even-level with corporate grocery store chains, dual power would begin to be achieved in the domain of food.</p> <p>Dual Power Strategy</p> <p>Dual power is a method of struggle for the revolutionary transformation of society. It presupposes a pre-existing, fundamentally flawed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_order" title="Social order">social order</a>. Within that society, those who envision a different future create alternative institutions (AIs) that embody their vision. AIs are places for experimentation with new social forms as well as places for liberation for those who are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppression" title="Oppression">oppressed</a> within the larger society. As AIs spread and diversify, they take on more and more of the functions of a larger social system: creating over time an "alternative social infrastructure" that fulfills economic, political, social, and cultural needs. In addition to their direct functions, AIs demonstrate the viability of new ways of organizing society, and attract interest to the ideals behind them.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> 27 maxigas@anargeek.net 2009-10-10T00:36:16+00:00 2009-10-22T19:00:00+00:00 2565 featured maxigas

<p>Noncommercial House, 165 Commercial Street, London (discussion on the first floor)</p>

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