Power stays with the people doing the work

One of the useful lessons from the history of revolutionary politics is also one of the simplest – Power should stay with the people doing the work, it should not sprint upward into a permanent party, bureaucracy, managerial layer of professional political class. This has strong relevance for a first step for the current #OMN project. Then we need a clear second step away from reformism as only an end point, but not a blank rejection of reforms. Winning better wages, shorter working hours, stronger rights and better conditions matters. These struggles are how people develop confidence, solidarity and an understanding of their collective power. The problem comes when reform becomes the destination rather than part of a deeper process of social change. When the movement becomes satisfied with managing the existing system, the system itself becomes invisible. The danger is that organisations created to challenge power become organisations that administer power, language changes, the…