The project is to reclaim the commons. The place to start is in our communities.

The city is the solution

8 minute read

The past weekend saw millions come out for the No Kings protests. A genuine civic energy is building against the power grabs of the Trump Administration. But the fact of Trump speaks to a deeper systemic crisis. He did not come out of nowhere. Thus we need not only to resist, but also to channel our energies for systemic change. This is the goal of a project I call Possible Worlds, envisioning alternatives to the current system in the spirit of “Another world is possible.” To start the project I am doing a several-part series on Kohei Saito’s Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto. This is the third and final installment. The first part is here. The second part is here.

How local actions can turn into a global wave

The crises coming upon our world – ecological, social, political – have a shared root, an economic system devoted to the accumulation and concentration of wealth and power, one which undermines the common good in favor of private and limited interests. The climate crisis is the signature of this, but it spreads across many fields, from the general breaching of the planet’s ecological boundaries to the increasing wealth gap, the general unresponsiveness of political systems to popular will, and rising militarism.

Facing a multifaceted crisis that is beyond the possibility of solving with tinkering-around-the-edges reforms, it is obvious systemic change is needed. But dealing with a pervasive global system, where do we gain leverage points? How do we focus our efforts for change? What is the key idea?

Kohei Saito, in his groundbreaking work, Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto, identifies the problem as capitalism and poses a radical alternative he describes as degrowth communism. As I detailed in the first two parts of this series, it is a profoundly different form of communism than the centralized industrial state socialism with which the word is generally associated. Saito envisions a cooperative network based on community self-management and mutual aid. He defines the central project as reclaiming the commons, now fenced off and monopolized to serve private interests. Above all, to no longer let the atmospheric commons be used as a dumping ground for fossil fuel pollution. Whether one is comfortable with the term degrowth communism, reclaiming the social and economic commons very much defines the critical necessity of the time.

Saito has a practical answer for where to gain leverage. To reclaim the commons, we must start in our communities, the places where we live. The logic is obvious in the two closely related words. The place where we can most envision the commons is the community in which we are placed. It is where environmental and social connections are most tactile and immediate, where we can find common solutions for housing, energy, food, water, transportation and other basics of life that the current system is failing to provide in a just and sustainable manner. Saito’s prescription is remarkably similar to the paradigm The Raven has been forwarding under the rubric, building the future in place. A two-part scenario outlining how a community reclaims control through building a series of community-based institutions including public banking, social housing, worker coops, food security networks, community energy coops and circular economies begins here.

Our communities are also where we can begin to rebuild the severely eroded roots of mutual aid and trust, which Saito sees as a necessity for fundamental social transformation. “We are living in an era when mutual aid and trust in others has been thoroughly dismantled by the forces of neoliberalism. The only way to rebuild trust relationships is through face-to-face community building and local municipal politics, at least at the start.”

But how can that ramify to the broad changes that are urgently needed?

“There are surely those who say that such humble actions will never bring about change in time,” Saito writes. “But communities, regional associations, and social movements whose reach seems restricted to the local are finding ways to link up with comrades all around the world, and it is here that hope for the future resides.”

“ . . . small instances of resistance to capitalism occurring all over the world . . . have the power to spread until they become a coordinated wave. In cities all over the world that have been impoverished by global capitalism, a groundswell is rising – everyday people are searching for a new kind of economy that will address their suffering. These movements are occurring in cities in every region of the planet, gathering the power to change politics even at the national level.”

Saito’s vision for change rising from many sources is highly resonant with that of Fabian Scheidler in his spanning survey of civilization from its inception to the present, The End of the Megamachine: A Brief History of a Failing Civilization. Scheidler points to a more cooperative society achieved through a “revolution without a master plan,” He writes that while alternatives are emerging in all fields, there is no “master plan for a single global system that will replace the old one . . . it is rather a mosaic; a patchwork of varying approaches that are adapted to local and cultural conditions.” I did a deep dive on his book several years back. It begins here, while the part on his vision for the future is here.

Writing about the possibilities for broader changes emerging from action in cities, I have heard the critique that urban life will become impossible in a time of ecological breakdown. Saito’s answer is similar to mine. “If we simply ignore cities and retreat into the mountains, the entire Earth will be swallowed in the deluge to come anyway. (Italics author’s) Instead, “we must transform urban life to address the climate crisis and restore mutual aid.” In addition, in a practical sense, whatever the future of cities, it is in them that social power can be assembled to confront the multiple crises facing humanity. They are where the political ground is most fertile.

The Barcelona municipalist model

Saito spends some time delving into one of the most prominent examples of an urban movement achieving change, that of Barcelona. The city is held up as perhaps the planet’s premier example of what is known as municipalism, the concept of building local power to achieve fundamental change that has now spread to dozens of cities around the world. The very name of the party that has led efforts in that city, Barcelona en Comú - Barcelona in Common - calls to the essential project of reclaiming the commons.

The party won municipal elections in 2015 when one of its organizers, Ada Colau, became the city’s first woman mayor and the movement won a plurality of seats on the city council. She remained in office until 2023. In its years in power Barcelona en Comú achieved profound changes including upgrading social programs, especially for women, creating a city sustainable energy utility, fostering worker coops, and creating affordable housing. Among the greatest changes is democratization of city decision making by bringing grassroots voices into formulation of policy at all levels. A report on those 8 years is here.

Saito’s particular focus is how a grassroots engagement process led the city’s 2020 declaration of a climate emergency. The detailed climate plan it developed includes 240 actions aimed at eliminating the city’s carbon emissions by 2050, including increased public transport, restricting autos, airplanes, and ships, and adding to greenspaces. The city committed $600 million to reach its goals.

Two elements in particular stand out for Saito. One is a critique of growth. He quotes the plan’s plank, “Change the Economic Model.” “The current economic model is based on continuous growth and a never-ending race for profits, with an ever-increasing consumption of natural resources. The same economic system that is putting our planet’s ecological balance in danger has significantly increased its inequalities. Without a doubt, the global ecological crisis and the climate crisis in particular are largely due to excessive consumption on the part of rich countries and, above all, the wealthiest social groups.”

The second, related point, which Saito calls “the most ground-breaking part” of the climate emergency declaration, is “that large urban centers in the developed world must accept the magnitude of their responsibility in causing climate change as the first step in the realization of climate justice.” The declaration calls for the inclusion of voices of the most severely impacted, particularly women in the Global South who represent 80% of those displaced by climate disruption.

Thus, Saito sees climate as the lever for justice, a way to bring together disparate efforts into a common movement. If cities of the Global North take account of their responsibility, it will counter the tendency to externalize costs onto the most vulnerable and nature that Saito sees as the fundamental flaw of capitalism in its pursuit of profit, even so-called green capitalism.

Saito emphasizes that the comprehensive efforts for change embodied in the Barcelona model have deep social roots. The city and region have a long cooperative tradition among workers and consumers. The city’s social solidarity economy employs 53,000, about 8% of the working population producing 7% of the city’s economy. The 2008 financial meltdown hit the city hard, and overtourism is stressing local housing and infrastructure. Barcelona en Comú originated out of the 15-M anti-austerity movement focused on those issues, which began with occupations of city plazas. This fortifies Saito’s proposition that movements for broad social change can build from efforts centered around particular issues.

Politics from the bottom-up

Political renewal is necessary, Saito writes. He is distinctly not an anarchist. He sees much of the communal economy being organized beyond state ownership. “This does not, however, mean that I reject the power of the state. Indeed, it would be foolish to reject the state as a means of getting things done, such as the creation of infrastructure and the transformation of production. Anarchism, which does reject the state, cannot effectively combat climate change.”

But top-down politics narrows choices to an unacceptable degree, tending to push discussion of alternatives into a capitalist framework, Saito writes. Municipalism grounded in grassroots inclusion, such as in Barcelona, is one answer. Another is citizen assemblies, part of the Barcelona model, which embody a direct democratic form of politics not limited to the electoral arena, known as dual power.

“Representative democracy cannot expand the purview of democracy itself and cannot effect a revolution across all of society,” he writes. “Electoral politics always reaches its limits when faced by the power of capital . . . the field of political possibility must be expanded by a social movement that confronts capital directly.”

The time to begin moving toward a more communal future is now, Saito writes. “Community self-governance and mutual aid are necessary to avoid a barbaric future ruled by far-right militias, radical groups like neo-Nazis, and organized crime groups like the Mafia. We must create democratic means to attain and distribute the essentials of living amongst ourselves, for ourselves. Which is why now, during a time or relative peace, we must start to nurture modes of autonomy and mutual aid to prepare for the coming crisis.”

Saito first penned those words for the Japanese edition of his book which came out in 2020. In the years since the threats he outlined have grown only worse. The energy of opposition and resistance to fascist outcomes is surging. But we must move beyond protest alone and turn that energy to build a future based on community. Truly, we need to reclaim the commons, including our most fundamental common realm, the atmosphere. Saito has illuminated the critical path, starting by organizing and building power in the communities where we live. Indeed, we must build the future in place.

Since I started The Raven 4 years ago, I have sought to point out ways we can navigate the multifaceted crisis facing us, ecological, social, economic and political, to make a truly better world. It’s challenging work, especially in times like these. I appreciate any support you can offer to sustain my efforts, either through a paid subscription or one-time donations in $5 increments through the Buy the Raven a coffee button. Subscriptions are a modest price, only $6/month or $5 with an annual subscription. And please like and share.