DNA in Movement: Reflections on a New Form of Movements

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Notes

1 A spokescouncil is a decision-making tool for larger decentralized groups. Each participating group or working group can maintain their autonomy and at the same time come to decisions with the whole. Modeled on the spokes of a wheel, there is an inner circle of people who are “spokes” for their groups, not representatives, but people who are to share what the group has decided or thinks. Spokescouncils are flexible, though often are very active, engaged discussions where people within each grouping discuss what the other groups think and then share these ideas back through their spoke. Sometimes this is a tool used for large discussions, and other times it is intended as a decision-making form, where all voices are reflected but not necessarily heard. I have participated in effective spokescouncils where as many as 1,000 voices were represented, and on one occasion 2,000 people.

2 Last line of three-part series reflecting on successes of movement, “As we’ve been saying for some time, being happy is our best revenge” (Gutierrez 2013).

3 From my interview with Gustavo Esteva in 2006.