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A popular assembly (or people's assembly) is a gathering called to address issues of importance to participants. Assemblies tend to be freely open to participation and operate by
direct democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate decides on policy initiatives without legislator, elected representatives as proxies. This differs from the majority of currently establishe ...
. Some assemblies are of people from a location, some from a given workplace, industry or educational establishment others are called to address a specific issue. The term is often used to describe gatherings that address, what participants feel are, the effects of a
democratic deficit A democratic deficit (or democracy deficit) occurs when ostensibly democratic organizations or institutions (particularly governments) fall short of fulfilling the principles of democracy in their practices or operation where representative and l ...
in representative democratic systems. Sometimes assemblies are created to form an alternative power structure, other times they work with other forms of
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
.


As a government


Ancient Greece


Athens

In Athenian democracy the Ecclesia was the assembly of all male citizens.


Modern times


New England

The
town meeting Town meeting is a form of local government in which most or all of the members of a community are eligible to legislate policy and budgets for local government. It is a town- or city-level meeting in which decisions are made, in contrast with ...
is the traditional governing body of the
New England town The town is the basic unit of Local government in the United States, local government and local division of state authority in the six New England states. Most other U.S. states lack a direct counterpart to the New England town. New England towns ...
, which in its traditional form is open to all adult residents to discuss and vote on the major issues of town government. It was founded in the colonial era as an outgrowth of church meetings, which then became secularized as a purely governmental meeting. Although larger towns have since moved to more representative forms of government, it is still widely practiced in smaller and more rural communities. The similarly named
town hall meeting Town hall meetings, also referred to as town halls or town hall forums, are a way for local and national politicians to meet with their constituents either to hear from them on topics of interest or to discuss specific upcoming legislation or ...
, where politicians meet with their constituents and discuss issues, is named after and meant to resemble the town meeting.


Mexico

At a local level, people attend a popular assembly of around 300 families in which anyone over the age of 12 can participate in decision-making. These assemblies strive to reach a consensus, but are willing to fall back to a majority vote. The communities form a federation with other communities to create an autonomous municipality, which form further
federations A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-governi ...
with other municipalities to create a region. The Zapatistas are composed of five regions, in total having a population of around 360,000 people as of 2018.


Syria

The autonomous region is ruled by a coalition which bases its policy ambitions to a large extent on democratic
libertarian socialist Libertarian socialism, also known by various other names, is a left-wing,Diemer, Ulli (1997)"What Is Libertarian Socialism?" The Anarchist Library. Retrieved 4 August 2019. anti-authoritarian, anti-statist and libertarianLong, Roderick T. (20 ...
ideology of democratic confederalism and have been described as pursuing a model of economy that blends co-operative and market enterprise, through a system of popular assemblies in minority, cultural and religious representation. The AANES has by far the highest average salaries and standard of living throughout Syria, with salaries being twice as large as in regime-controlled Syria; following the collapse of the Syrian pound the AANES doubled salaries to maintain
inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reductio ...
, and allow for good wages.


Examples

*
Curiate Assembly The Curiate Assembly (''comitia curiata'') was the principal assembly that evolved in shape and form over the course of the Roman Kingdom until the Comitia Centuriata organized by Servius Tullius. During these first decades, the people of Rome w ...
* Bolivarian Circles *
European Assembly for Climate Justice {{Use dmy dates, date=December 2018 The European Assembly for Climate Justice took place in Brussels from 26 to 29 November 2010. Over 250 people from ten European countries assembled for four days of debates, discussion, action and networking. ...
2010 *
Occupy movement The Occupy movement was an international populist socio-political movement that expressed opposition to social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of "real democracy" around the world. It aimed primarily to advance social and econo ...
2011 * 15M movement assemblies 2011–present


Argentine economic crisis (1999–2002)

During the
Argentine economic crisis (1999–2002) Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or ( feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...
many Argentinian citizens started engaging and organising their actions through assemblies. After closure, the Chilvert printing press was occupied by workers who organised through an assembly. Within weeks of being reopened as a
workers cooperative A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and self-managed by its workers. This control may mean a firm where every worker-owner participates in decision-making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one in which management is elected by ...
Chilvert printed a book calle
''Que son las Asembleas Populares?''
or ''What are the Popular Assemblies?'', a collection of articles written by renowned intellectuals ,
Stella Calloni Stella Manuela Juliana Calloni Leguizamón (born 19 June 1935) is an Argentine journalist and writer specializing in international politics, whose investigative work focuses on Latin American military dictatorships and related political processe ...
and
Rafael Bielsa Rafael Antonio Bielsa Caldera (born February 15, 1953) is an Argentine Justicialist Party politician from Rosario, province of Santa Fe. Since 2020 he has been Argentina's ambassador to Chile. Early life and education Bielsa spent his child ...
as well as workers and participants in the assemblies. As with other workplaces, the print factory was saved from closure by the actions of a popular assembly. The military and police were blocked from entering the factory after the popular assembly of Pompeya called on barrio residents to protect the workplace. Individual police officers expressed their support for the workers and the popular assembly and successfully petitioned the judge to rescind his order to seize the factory. The assemblies movement is reported to have spiked in power rapidly and fallen from any major significance within months. It is reported that Grigera summing up his analysis of the asambleas states
no matter how progressive or "advanced" the social relationships, forms of decision-making and activities of asambleas are said to be, their small scale, lack of influence and flawed coordination between themselves and other movements render this movement unable to overcome very narrow limitations.


Cherán (2011–present)

The town of Cherán in Mexico saw armed citizens kick out the corrupt police, drug cartels, and mayor in 2011. Since then they have adopted a system of popular assemblies to govern the town, which is somewhat independent of the central government.


See also

*
Autonomism Autonomism, also known as autonomist Marxism is an anti-capitalist left-wing political and social movement and theory. As a theoretical system, it first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerism (). Later, post-Marxist and anarchist tendenc ...
*
Anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessa ...
* Deliberative democracy *
Direct democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate decides on policy initiatives without legislator, elected representatives as proxies. This differs from the majority of currently establishe ...
*
Landsgemeinde The ''Landsgemeinde'' ("cantonal assembly"; , plural ''Landsgemeinden'') is a public, non-secret ballot voting system operating by majority rule, which constitutes one of the oldest forms of direct democracy. Still at use – in a few places †...
*
Participatory democracy Participatory democracy, participant democracy or participative democracy is a form of government in which citizens participate individually and directly in political decisions and policies that affect their lives, rather than through elected repr ...
*
Referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
* Spokescouncil *
Workers' council A workers' council or labor council is a form of political and economic organization in which a workplace or municipality is governed by a council made up of workers or their elected delegates. The workers within each council decide on what thei ...
*
Workplace democracy Workplace democracy is the application of democracy in various forms (examples include voting systems, debates, democratic structuring, due process, adversarial process, systems of appeal) to the workplace. It can be implemented in a variety ...


References

"Throw them all out" Argentina's grassroots rebellion, ''Roger Burbach'', Spotlight, 2 July 2002
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External links


Peoples Assemblies - resources, news and calendar

Website for UK Education Assembly January 2011

Website for the European Assembly for Climate Justice November 2010

Via Campsenia - 1000 Cancuns



The Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca

Map of Canadian Peoples Assemblies on Climate Justice December 2010


* * Throw the bums out- Argentines seek break from begging loans, ''Roger Burbach'', 28 February 2002
Spotlight, The abyss in Argentina, ''by Roger Burbach'', 5 May 2002Popular Assemblies in Revolts and RevolutionsOccupy Movement, the Zapatista's and the General Assemblies

Beyond Resistance - Fight the Cuts build Peoples Assemblies ''by Gerry Gold & Paul Feldman'', 2010

Methods to make assemblies and meetings effective, participatory and enjoyable, ''Collaborative document'',

Connect with Occupy activists and community organizers who are coordinating trainings across the United States to build Popular Assemblies


Videos


Video
of The People's Assembly during
COP15 The 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was planned to be held in April 2022 in Kunming, China, but was postponed, for a fourth time, to the third quarter of 2022 a ...
outside the Bella Centre, Copenhagen - 16 December 2009
Peoples Assemblies Video ''by Dylan Strain''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Popular Assembly Meetings Local government in the United States