DEMOCRACY

About this course

In this course we will be looking at democracy – what is it all, really? To uncover this together, we will organize the classroom as democratically as possible – the students themselves decide what and how they learn. Finally, we will work together to see how democracy can help us solve some of the key issues we are facing.

Lesson 1

Welcome to our course on Democracy! Before our first class together, we would like you to watch our introductory video and think about these questions: 

  • What is democracy? Can you think of any examples of democracies and ways of practicing it?
  • What role does democracy play in your daily life? Can you think of examples of democratic (or undemocratic) practices in your family, spare time, at school? At your job (if you have one)?
  • What do you want to learn about democracy and what are some questions you want to explore?

Lesson 2

Welcome to day 2 of democracy! Today we are going to learn more about consensus democracy and assemblies (both theoretically and practically) and from that, which tools we can use in making our classroom run as democratically as possible. 

Please watch our intro video, then watch this video. And then read this very short text on how to discuss things together democratically.

While reading and watching, please then think about these questions:

  • How to make sure that everyone’s opinion is heard?
  • How to avoid that one or two people dominate the discussion or take control and make all the decisions for everyone else?
  • How are they doing this in Occupy Wall Street?
  • How can we do it?
  • What kinds of problems do you think we can run into?

Lesson 3

It’s day 3! Today we are go ing back at some of the questions you asked in our first lesson – and we are also going back in history, and having a look at how our current idea (or myth) of democracy was formed! First, we would like you to have a look at our intro video, and then watch these two short videos:

  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK0H8Nbzu8M
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fivQUlC7-8

Then have a think about: 

  • What is the purpose of the myth of “Western democracy”, aka. what is it trying to do?
  • Is Western democracy democratic? 
  • And why do we call our societies democracies?

Lesson 4

Welcome to day 4 of Democracy! Today we are looking beyond Europe and the US, and also back in history, to learn about other democratic practices and how these have both influenced our “democracies” and how they can empower us now. 

First watch our short intro video, then watch this short video by David Graeber on anarchism and how Madagascar operated without a state, then look through these extracts from a larger text on the myth around why we have social inequality (what’s been outlined is most important to read).

Then, listen to the first 7 1/2 minutes of this text, (an audio version is linked at the top of the article) and you can read along as you listen (you’re very welcome to read all of the text if you have time). When reading/listening, we want you to think about these questions:

  • Why do you think the myth that humans in the past were equal (more democratic) and now we live in too complex societies and have to have inequality, is so popular?
  • What is the connection between liberalism and democracy?
  • How have people organised themselves without a state and without politicians?
  • Why did many societies have different systems depending on the time of year? Can you think of situations where this might be useful today?

Lesson 5

Today we are talking about contemporary democratic movements, there have been many examples of similar movements building independent democratic structures and taking control of their own territories and lives. Maybe most famously the anarchists in the Spanish civil war, but some of these still exist like the Zapatistas in Mexico who have been in control of their own territory since 1994 and who have inspired many movements, like occupy wall street which we looked at in the beginning of the course. Today we will look at Rojava who have maybe come the furthest in building a fair and democratic society from scratch, and here’s a video about it for you to watch. This video is a little bit longer than usual and has a lot of details of how the democracy works, so you might find it helpful to take notes. It is also divided into chapters so you can look at the chapters you find the most interesting.

Lesson 6

So today we don’t have a strict topic, but we’ve found some things you might find helpful/ interesting about deliberative democracy and pros and cons of different voting processes. 

There is a ted talk on voting here. And a short video on deliberative democracy here .There are also longer videos which you can look at if you have time which go more into specifics about how this has been used here and here.

Today we are talking about contemporary democratic movements, there have been many examples of similar movements building independent democratic structures and taking control of their own territories and lives. Maybe most famously the anarchists in the Spanish civil war, but some of these still exist like the Zapatistas in Mexico who have been in control of their own territory since 1994 and who have inspired many movements, like occupy wall street which we looked at in the beginning of the course. Today we will look at Rojava who have maybe come the furthest in building a fair and democratic society from scratch, and here’s a video about it for you to watch. This video is a little bit longer than usual and has a lot of details of how the democracy works, so you might find it helpful to take notes. It is also divided into chapters so you can look at the chapters you find the most interesting.

Lesson 7

Project democratise begins! We thought it might be helpful here to go back into history a bit to look at the history of what kind of democracy has been practiced on the Balkans. And we have found some information on democracy in Yugoslavia; on “worker’s self management”. We have found this article on this which might be interesting to read. And we’ve also found some videos on how people are taking power into their own hands by forming different democratic cooperatives in other parts of the world. Se these here:

Also, please google around to see if there are any workers’ co-ops (cooperatives) or housing co-ops in your country/city. 

Lesson 8

We find ourselves in the imaginary country of [insert country name], where things have been going great until the Pollution Corporation has come in and bribed and misinformed our population → which has led to pollution and other environmental issues in our country – how can we, the citizens of [insert country name], come together and fix this problem in multiple ways?

To help us, here is a short video on the Koch Brothers (one of the most powerful companies/people in the world) which describes how corruption and pollution is connected.

Indigenous people taking direct action and organising mutual aid networks

Page for a group organising for climate justice and democracy: https://rebellion.global/

Beautiful trouble/climate justice: https://www.beautifultrouble.org/toolbox/#/climate-justice 

Strategy, who has power and how can we influence them:

Example from the Global Justice Movement who managed to really limit the power of the International Monetary Fund IMF to spread misery around the world: https://www.beautifultrouble.org/toolbox/#/tool/battle-in-seattle 

Practical organising tools, how to: 

Lesson 9

Citizens of Utopia! Our politicians have been corrupted by the Pollution Corporation! How can we come together and change society so corruption becomes impossible and we can solve climate issues! 

 Tips on organising:

Lesson 10

Welcome to the last lesson! Today we are going to do a simulation where all the politicians in our country of Utopia are in jail and the pollution corporation have collapsed after a successful mass protest movement – but what now?! You will be divided in two groups and will try to solve the issue of democratisation and of the pollution.

Then, for this last lesson we want to open the theory door a little and introduce you to the work of Murray Bookchin, a philosopher of environmental anarchism talking about democracy and the elimination of hierarchies and domination as central to environmentalism. He is actually one of the inspirations for Rojava who put a lot of his ideas into practice. You can watch one or more of these to learn more about Bookchin. 

Introduction to Bookchin (Not detailed): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8wV4zGlEMY 

Explanation and commentary on Bookchins communalist democracy model (long): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqGa2DtMXmg 

Essay by Bookchin on post-scarcity anarchism (a little difficult): https://youtu.be/xG9HLYm3ZQ4?t=825 

Teachers

Colin Bojer and Mia Helene Engeskaug