Freedom News

Our alternative to Putin is the abolition of the presidency: a statement from Autonomous Action

Mass protests in early 2021 show that the authoritarian regime of Putin and his billionaire friends is no longer agreeable with a significant part of Russian society. We support everyone who takes to the streets of their cities, everyone who helps the detainees, everyone who organizes themselves for resistance. Civil disobedience can be manifested in many different ways, and everyone chooses for himself.

But it is also important to think about the future. What are we going to do when we manage to wrest power out of the clutches of the inhabitants of the Kremlin in one way or another? How to prevent a new Dragon from appearing on the throne instead of the previous one?

Anarchists’ answer to this question is the decentralization of power. We propose to:

  1. Completely abolish the presidency.
  2. Pass all laws only by collective elected bodies (we, of course, do not mean the current State Duma, which is a total spectacle).
  3. Prohibit secret ballot in parliaments and self-government bodies of any level: the list of names of deputies who voted should be immediately available on the Web.
  4. Introduce a real possibility of recalling a deputy of any level by his voters at any time.

In addition to this, two more important things need to be done to ensure freedom of political discussion:

  1. Disband the political police – the Anti-Extremism Centers and the FSB [The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation] – as criminal organizations that are actively involved in repressions against opponents of the current government (including murder and falsification of criminal cases).
  2. Completely repeal the law “On Counteracting Extremist Activity” and the corresponding articles of the Criminal Code.

Still, we consider the abolition of the presidency to be the most important.

For many centuries, power in the Russian kingdom, the Russian Empire, the USSR, the Russian Federation was concentrated in the hands of one person. It did not bring any particular benefit to the people. Power corrupts, and the danger of slipping into dictatorship is too great.

But collective decision making distributes power more evenly and promotes public debate and transparent discussion. This is normal political life, when different groups in society freely defend their vision of the further development of society.

Throughout written history, there are numerous examples of collective forms of government in the absence of a sovereign head of state, even if participation in government was not available to all residents, as, for example, in ancient city-states or the Novgorod and Pskov republics. During the revolutionary period of 1917-1918, in many areas of modern Russia, there were elected and accountable to all strata of the population Soviets of workers ‘, peasants and soldiers’ deputies. Supporters of the true power of the Soviets . Universal grassroots self-government and control over all elected bodies also took place in the and in the communes that arose during the We see this in those areas of , where the peoples living there have the opportunity to determine their own lives.

Let’s take responsibility for our lives and move towards self-government, and not look for a new master!

Down with the Tsar!

A free society does not need a leader!

Our solution is self-government!

Anarchists
“Autonomous Action”


Re-posted from Avtonom.

This text was machine-translated and then edited. Any issues: do let us know: editor(at)freedompress.org.uk

Discover more from Freedom News

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading