<nettime> The Revolutionary Role of a Transnational Counterparty

["Dmytri Kleiner/ Friends." <dk@telekommunisten.net>]

In explaining the Initiative to form an International Debtors' Party I  
have discussed the issues of why "Debtors" and why a "Party", now I  
would like to introduce some ideas as to how the Debtors' Party will  
be different from other parties, by proposing the idea of a  
"Transnational Counter-party."

A Transnational Counterparty is a transformative political  
organisation, that works towards the goals of a world with no classes  
and therefore no state.

It is Transnational, because, within itself, it recognizes no borders,  
and it is a Counter-party, because it's goal is not to transform  
society from top down by seizing the power of the State, but to fight  
for the social conditions required by existing and emerging community- 
initiated, bottom-up, forms of transformation. To engage in the  
political theatre and struggle against the plutocratic interests from  
the old society that would crush any new social developments that  
would challenge there privilege.

To be a transformative structure requires divergent outwardly and  
inwardly characteristics.

Being part of a transformation, such a structure is a creature of the  
current society, it's outwardly appearance and interfaces must be  
structured according the laws and practices of the existing society in  
order for it to function. Within itself it is an incubator for a new  
society and thereby the relations contained within itself must reflect  
those it want to achieve. It must be the revolution it seeks. It's  
external characteristics must be the characteristics it seeks in the  
society it strives to achieve.

Venture Communism is such a transformative model, externally a joint- 
stock corporation, internally fostering commons-based production,  
Copyleft and Copy-far-left are also such transformative models,  
externally claiming property rights, while internally creating an  
information commons.

Antithetical extrinsic and intrinsic characteristics are essential  
features of any transformative structure. Above all, the extrinsic  
structure must ensure that the regressive relations of the outside  
must not penetrate and corrupt those of the inside, the extrinsic  
characteristics must create a bastion that allows its intrinsic  
properties to develop and thrive.

A Transnational Counterparty is such a transformative model,  
externally a network of regionally-bound Political Parties that  
contest elections for representation within hierarchical,  
authoritarian Governments, but internally operating as a radically  
participatory, non-hierarchical collective that operates without  
borders.

The network of Political Parties it founds and co-ordinates must be  
legally recognized as eligible to participate in government, and thus,  
these local Parties are objects of specific Government jurisdiction.   
A Transnational Counterparty, however, must operate such local  
entities as extrinsic interfaces to local governments which are  
closely bound to it's own, fluid and participatory international  
internal democracy, and likewise it's elected candidates must not  
become holders of individual power, must must excercise power on  
behalf of the democratically established census of the global  
membership, contractually bound to do so, and to forfeit their  
position if they fail to do so. The ultimate power in the  
Transnational Counterparty must be held by the membership itself, and  
never either it's internal executive officials, nor it's candidates  
and representatives in local governments. All agents of the  
Transnational Counterparty must be held accountable to the global  
membership.

The Transnational Counterparty can not ever be a ruling party, though  
it may have electoral success in places, the plutocratic parties will  
always hold more power. This is not a rule or principle of that the  
party needs to observe, this is a simple biproduct of the fact that it  
represents the new society, the emerging autonomous, collective  
communities striving to create a new ways of living. The plutocratic  
parties represent the powerful economic forces of the current society,  
and thus will always have more power so-long as the current society is  
not yet transformed.

Once the social power of the communities represented by the  
Transnational Counterparty overcome the power of the plutocrats, this  
means that such a newtork of autonomous, independent and inter- 
dependant communities will be larger in it's social and economic base  
than that of the old society. Society will have already been  
transforme. classes will no longer exist, and without them nations  
will vanish. There will no longer be any ruling class or ruling party,  
the State will have withered away and the Transnational Counterparty  
will have dissolved into the fabric of the new society.

By the time a Transnational Counterparty has the power to seize the  
State, their will no longer be any State to sieze.

A nation is a body of people kept together for the purposes of rivalry  
and war with other similar bodies, and when competition shall have  
given place to combination, the function of the nation will be gone."  
-- William Morris

http://dmytri.info/we-need-to-work-with-the-consciousness-we-fin
http://dmytri.info/the-existence-of-demands-proves-the-existence
http://www.telekommunisten.net





#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org