Introduction
After our participation in the first-ever People’s Platform Europe Conference in Vienna, Austria, from February 14th to 16th, 2025, and in the workshop on Building Autonomy, we felt the need to share our brain, views and strategic framework—expanded upon with knowledge exchanged during the event with fellow organisations and initiatives across Europe—on the topic of Autonomy and, more specifically, Self-Governance. We also focus on how self-governance correlates with the principles of Self-Sufficiency and Self-Defense, as well as real-world applications of these ideas and the movements that have inspired us. Lastly, we attempt to give our complete answers to the 3 main questions that were posed and discussed collectively during the Workshop’s sessions, also including all the key points that were highlighted.
About the Conference
This conference marked an important step toward creating a transnational, structured, and militant internationalist movement to combat the accelerating threats of capitalist destruction, state repression, rising fascism, and ecological collapse. More than 800 delegates from 160 organizations and movements, spanning over 30 countries, convened under the slogan: “Reclaim the Initiative!”— not simply to analyze the crises of capitalist modernity, but to build concrete strategies for liberation.
Workshops covered a wide range of topics, including democratic media, anti-genocidal struggle, methods of organizing and building autonomy, youth and feminist movements, ecological resistance, democratic confederalism, and anti-militarism. The sheer diversity of perspectives and experiences brought together in Vienna highlighted the richness of the struggle and the necessity of coordination across different fronts of resistance.
The lessons from Vienna, however, must not remain confined within the walls of a single conference. We recognize that self-governance does not come from abstract theory alone but from continuous practice, adaptation, and the exchange of experiences between movements. In this document, we seek to contribute to this process by laying out a comprehensive analysis of self- governance, its theoretical basis, its practical applications, and the lessons we can learn from movements in Europe and beyond.
A New Internationalism: Beyond Borders, Beyond Nations
This platform is not merely a moment of discussion—it is a foundation upon which we must continue to build an internationalist, anti-capitalist, and anti-patriarchal movement. The Kurdish Freedom Movement and the Democratic Academy of Modernity have shown remarkable organizational capabilities in bringing together revolutionary forces from across Europe. Their ability to orchestrate multilingual, multi-sectoral, and transnational coordination at such a level is an inspiration for all self-organized struggles.
However, if we are to move forward effectively, we must overcome the limitations of fragmented resistance. This means breaking free from self-imposed ideological insularity, forging common strategic objectives, and ensuring that our diverse struggles are not merely parallel but actively reinforcing one another. As stated in the final part of the conference:
“Let us unite our struggles, perspectives, and capacities, and build the free life that the people of the world and all beings of this planet deserve! Our differences are our strength, not our weakness, and they will only make us stronger on our shared path.”
This moment calls for decisive action. The rise of militarism, fascism, environmental devastation, and mass displacement is accelerating. We no longer have the luxury of passivity. We must coordinate, strategize, and organize across Europe and beyond—learning from past movements, avoiding past mistakes, and remaining steadfast in our refusal of co-optation by the state or liberal institutional frameworks.
Let this document serve as both a contribution to ongoing debates and as a call to action for all those striving toward autonomy and self-governance.
The Anti-Authoritarian Movement, the Theory and the Praxis of Self-Governance
The Anti-Authoritarian Movement (AK) is not merely a network of collectives but a living practice of self-determination. It operates outside the logic of state control and market domination, rejecting hierarchical power structures and advocating for Direct Democracy as the means to shape social autonomy. We understand self-governance as the lifeblood of autonomy, a process of continuous self-institution and collective reorganization from below. It is not about seizing power but about abolishing it, dispersing it back into communities, and ensuring direct participation in all aspects of life.
The Urgency of Self-Governance (Why Self-Governance?)
We live in a time of deep systemic crises—economic, political, ecological, and social. The neoliberal capitalist system, this capitalist modernity, has reached its limits, generating widespread economic, social and gender inequality, social fragmentation, environmental destruction, and escalating authoritarianism, through its control over life, alienating people from their communities, degrading ecosystems, and maintaining structures of hierarchy, state oppression, and gendered domination. However, as the system intensifies its violence in its efforts to avoid collapsing on itself, the necessity for alternatives emerges.
Another world is possible, and more than that—it is already being built. Across the globe, movements are constructing autonomous self-governing structures as viable alternatives to the state and market-controlled systems. These structures are not theoretical exercises—they are lived realities that reject the inevitability of capitalism and hierarchical governance.
Self Governance – Some Theory
Self-governance, the capacity of individuals and communities to manage their own affairs without external control, is a foundational concept in our political philosophy. It emphasises the importance of autonomy, direct participation, and decentralised decision-making in shaping societies that reflect the genuine will and needs of their members.
At its core, self-governance involves individuals and groups exercising control over their own lives, making decisions through participatory processes that ensure equal input from all members. This approach fosters a sense of ownership and responsibility, as people collectively determine the rules and structures that govern their interactions.
In practice, self-governance manifests in various forms, such as direct democracy, where citizens engage directly in the legislative process, and libertarian municipalism, which advocates for local assemblies managing community affairs. These models prioritise grassroots involvement, aiming to dismantle hierarchical systems that concentrate power and often lead to alienation and disenfranchisement.
A self-governing society is characterised by its commitment to continuous self-reflection and adaptation. Members are encouraged to question existing norms and institutions, fostering an environment where change is driven by collective deliberation and consensus. This dynamic process ensures that the society remains responsive to the evolving needs and aspirations of its members. Therefore self-governance is not just an ideal; it is a continuous process of self- institution, a conscious forging of institutions from below that safeguard collective freedom and lay the groundwork for a society unshackled from capitalism.
Moreover, self-governance is closely linked to the concept of autonomy, which entails individuals and communities having the freedom to define their own paths without undue interference. This autonomy is not merely about independence but involves the active creation and maintenance of social structures that embody shared values and goals.
In essence, self-governance advocates for a decentralised approach to societal organisation, where power is distributed among the people, and decisions are made collectively. This framework seeks to cultivate societies that are more equitable, participatory, and attuned to the authentic desires of their members.
But self-governance must be grounded in substance. For us, this means it must be:
- Free – liberated from both the state and market constraints. It cannot be subjected to capitalist exploitation or state administration but must be independently sustained by the communities themselves.
- Public – reclaiming and inhabiting the public sphere beyond privatisation and state bureaucracy. It is the common ground where decision-making occurs transparently, ensuring that governance does not become an elite function.
- Communal – ensuring that power flows horizontally, through assemblies and participatory processes where decisions reflect the collective will of the people. A powerful example of this is Vio.Me, the worker-run factory in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece, where the decision on what to produce is being made by the solidarity assembly and, the way of production is determined by the workers themselves, embodying a model where production is determined by the needs of the community rather than profit motives and where knowledge and experience are being respected.
Beyond Capitalism: Towards Ecological and Social Autonomy
Social Ecology and Libertarian Municipalism
Bookchin’s ideas of social ecology and libertarian municipalism lay the groundwork for understanding self-governance as an ecological and directly democratic alternative to both capitalism and the nation-state.
- The hierarchical organisation of society is not inevitable but is socially
- Direct democracy in decentralised municipal assemblies is the foundation of true self-
- The state is inherently oppressive, as it monopolises decision-making and enforces top-down control.
- Capitalism is ecologically unsustainable, as it prioritises endless growth & profit, and capital accumulation over community and ecological well-being.
From this perspective, self-governance requires the dismantling of centralised state institutions and the creation of federated communes, where people govern themselves through face-to-face assemblies rather than distant bureaucratic structures.
The Radical Imagination and Autonomous Self-Institution
Castoriadis expands on self-governance by emphasizing the role of imagination and autonomy in shaping society.
- Society is self-instituting: No institution is natural or eternal—every social structure is created and can be changed by collective will.
- Autonomy means self-legislation: True democracy is when people continuously create and re-create their own social and political institutions.
- Capitalist alienation must be broken: Modern capitalist societies suppress autonomy by enforcing passive consumption rather than active participation. Self-governance is a process, not a fixed system—a continuous creation and recreation of institutions based on participatory decision-making.
Anarchism and Decentralised Power
Chomsky approaches self-governance from an anarchist and libertarian socialist perspective, emphasising:
- Hierarchical power should always be questioned: The burden of proof must be on those who justify authority, not on those who resist it.
- Decentralised, federated structures are necessary for democracy to
- Mutual aid and solidarity are natural human tendencies, contrary to capitalist ideology that promotes individual competition.
Here we reinforce the idea that state power and corporate control are not necessary for organising a functioning society—rather, self-governance flourishes when people have equal access to information, decision-making, and resources.
If self-governance is to be a true alternative, it must directly challenge the economic system that sustains hierarchy and societal and ecological devastation. The capitalist growth model, which prioritises endless accumulation and profit, has led to climate catastrophe, economic inequality and insecurity, social fragmentation and patriarchal oppression. Our response cannot be a mere critique; it must be a radical counter-strategy that envisions an organised exodus from the economic paradigm of domination.
This shift is embodied in the strategy of degrowth, a deliberate transition away from capitalist expansion towards autonomous, ecological, and democratic societies.
Degrowth: Both Ecological / Anticapitalist and Societal
Degrowth is not about austerity or scarcity, but about redefining wealth and well-being outside the capitalist framework. It prioritises human and ecological flourishing over profit-driven growth through:
- Production for social needs, respecting planetary boundaries rather than exhausting
- A radical shift in production relations, embracing horizontality and collective control instead of wage labor and exploitation.
- A transformation in wealth distribution, ensuring resources are shared equitably and sustainably across generations.
- A re-imagining of society, where value is placed on collective well-being rather than individual accumulation.
A degrowth-oriented society is not one of scarcity, but one of abundance—abundance of time, autonomy, and shared wealth, where production serves communities rather than capital.
The Commons and Peer-to-Peer: Collective Organization Beyond the Market and State
The Commons as the Infrastructure of Self-Governance
The Commons are systems where resources are owned and managed collectively, outside the control of both corporations and states. They are not merely resources or accommodations; they are living social relationships, grounded in collective responsibility and shared decision-making.
A commons-based society does not operate on private ownership or state control but on community stewardship. There is no universal model—the commons evolve in response to local conditions and needs. The ideology of the Commons aligns perfectly with self-governance because it removes property from the market and state control and places it in the hands of the people.
Examples include:
- Traditional / physical commons, such as a herding or fishing community managing shared lands and waters.
- Worker-owned cooperatives, where labor and decision-making power belong to the workers and the solidarity communities.
- Knowledge Commons (open-source software and digital commons, such as free software movements that create shared resources under licenses like GNU General Public License, education, research).
- Social Commons (cooperatives, mutual aid, free housing projects).
The commons represent a break from industrial-era organisational models, emphasizing cooperative production and community governance over hierarchy and competition. They ensure economic independence from capitalist structures, prevent enclosure—when corporations or states seize resources for profit and reinforce democratic control—resources are governed by those who use them, not external elites.
Examples of the Commons in Action
- Community-Owned Energy Cooperatives (Denmark, Spain, Germany)
- Instead of private energy corporations, communities generate and distribute power
- Everyone has a say in how energy is used and distributed.
- The system prioritizes sustainability over profit.
2. Common Land and Food Sovereignty Movements
- Peasant movements like La Via Campesina reclaim land from agribusiness corporations to
grow food for communities rather than export markets.
- Land is not owned individually, but held in common by farmers and cooperatives.
- Self-governance emerges naturally, as communities decide together how to manage the
3. Digital Commons: Free Knowledge Movements
- Wikipedia, Creative Commons, and Free Software projects prove that knowledge can be governed collectively.
- No corporation or government owns the knowledge—it belongs to all, and everyone can contribute to and sustain it.
Peer-to-Peer: A New Social and Economic Paradigm
Peer-to-peer (P2P) is a type of social relation; it is a social model rooted in mutual aid, reciprocity, and decentralised cooperation and exchanges between individuals and groups without hierarchical mediation. It embodies the prefigurative politics seen in both indigenous
societies and modern movements like the Zapatistas and Rojava, where decentralized networks of people sustain resources without intermediaries. It is an organizing principle that underpins self- governance. It denotes systems where every person, every member of the community, has the power to contribute to and sustain a shared resource, while also benefiting from it. These relations existed in the earliest human hunter-gatherer societies. (Since the mid-1990s, with the rise of the internet, they are back with a vengeance.)
- Instead of central authorities (states, corporations, institutions), P2P structures rely on voluntary, cooperative, and networked interactions.
- Instead of consumer-producer relationships, P2P fosters active participation—everyone contributes and benefits.
This philosophy aligns with self-governance because autonomous societies must function without top-down control, as it:
- It eliminates hierarchy by ensuring that everyone has equal access to knowledge, power, and decision-making.
- It creates resilience—P2P networks are harder to dismantle than centralized institutions because they do not rely on a single node of power.
- It fosters collective intelligence, enabling communities to govern themselves without external control.
Peer-to-peer economies reject extractive capitalism and instead create horizontal structures where people contribute to and benefit from shared wealth and knowledge. Whether in the form of digital collaborations, self-managed workplaces, or community-led food systems, P2P relations reframe the very meaning of economy and governance.
Examples of P2P in Self-Governance
- Free Software and Open-Source Communities (GNU/Linux, Wikipedia)
- No central authority dictates how the software or knowledge is
· Communities collaborate, improve, and distribute resources freely.
- Decisions are made collectively, with anyone able to
2. Rojava’s Direct Democracy System
- Power flows horizontally, with councils and assemblies functioning as P2P decision- making bodies.
- Instead of centralized governance, multiple councils share knowledge and decisions across different communities.
- Women’s organizations exist independently, ensuring autonomy in
3. Mutual Aid Networks in Times of Crisis (COVID-19, Climate Disasters)
- Communities shared food, medicine, and resources without state
- Organizing was horizontal, ensuring no one was in control over
- People contributed voluntarily—no one was forced, but everyone
The Bare Minimum: No Seizure of Power, No Hierarchy, Direct Democracy
For self-governance to flourish, we must break away from the state-centric and hierarchical models of past revolutions. Unlike traditional leftist strategies that sought to capture and reform state power, we believe that self-governing movements should prioritise the dismantling of centralised authority through the construction of autonomous alternatives. This means:
- Rejecting the seizure of power—true autonomy does not seek to take over the state, but to dismantle it by building decentralised alternatives. It aims to render it obsolete by creating self-sufficient, bottom-up institutions that replace it.
- Anti-hierarchical structures—ensuring that all social and economic relations are organised horizontally and that power does not concentrate in any elite, party, or leadership class.
· Direct democracy as the foundation—decision-making through open assemblies, rotating responsibilities, and participatory structures
Our movement does not require a single ideological orthodoxy or dogmatic adherence to a single theoretical framework. What unites us is the commitment to open, public assemblies, whether in free social spaces, self-managed workplaces, or broader political movements. We embrace a pluralism of struggles, each contributing to the broader goal of a world without domination.
Global Inspirations: The Zapatistas, Rojava, and the Ongoing Struggle for Autonomy
AK’s perspective on self-governance does not exist in a vacuum. We stand in solidarity with global movements that have pioneered autonomous self-management under the most difficult conditions.
- The Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico, have built a system of autonomous governance, rejecting both the state and corporate interests in favor of collectively-run councils, education systems, and sustainable agricultural practices.
- They created Juntas de Buen Gobierno (Good Government Councils), rotating governing bodies that ensure no single group monopolizes decision-making, developed a self-sufficient agrarian economy, practicing communal land ownership and resisting extractivist capitalism and built an anti-patriarchal social structure, ensuring women’s leadership in governance, education, and self-defense.
- Their emphasis on communal decision-making and resistance to extractivist capitalism provides a model for anti-authoritarian movements worldwide.
- Rojava’s democratic confederalism has demonstrated that autonomy is possible even in war-torn regions. Rooted in direct democracy, women’s liberation, and ecological balance, Rojava’s system actively resists both state oppression and capitalist Its key aspects are:
- Council-based self-governance, with rotating leadership and direct participation at every level.
- Women’s self-determination, with autonomous women’s councils and militias (YPJ).
- Cooperative economies, rejecting capitalist wage labor in favor of sharedproduction.
- Ethnic and religious pluralism, ensuring Kurdish, Arab, Assyrian, Yazidi, and other communities coexist without state-imposed nationalism.
- Ecological policies, including reforestation, sustainable agriculture, and anti-extractivist practices.
- Despite ongoing military aggression, their model of self-governance proves that radical democracy can be defended and sustained in practice.
These examples show that autonomy is not just a theory—it is a living struggle, requiring both vision and militant defense against those who seek to crush it.
Further examples of movements that build autonomy and inspire us: The Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) – Brazil
The Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) is one of the largest agrarian social movements in the world, fighting for land redistribution and food sovereignty. MST occupies unused land and builds:
- Self-managed farming cooperatives, based on communal decision-
- Autonomous education and healthcare systems, disconnected from capitalist and state
- Environmental protection initiatives, ensuring sustainable agriculture rather than corporate monoculture.
MST’s commitment to land justice, agroecology, and collective governance provides a model for anti-capitalist rural autonomy.
La Via Campesina: Global Food Sovereignty Movement
A transnational peasant movement, La Via Campesina unites small-scale farmers, landless workers, and indigenous communities against the corporate takeover of food production. Their principles include:
- Reclaiming land for collective farming, rather than market-driven
- Building self-managed agricultural cooperatives, resisting dependency on capitalist supply chains.
- Defending indigenous and peasant autonomy, ensuring traditional farming practices remain outside corporate control.
Their model reinforces that self-governance is deeply tied to economic autonomy, particularly in reclaiming food production from agribusiness.
Vio.Me – Worker Self-Management in Thessaloniki, Greece
Vio.Me, a worker-run factory in Thessaloniki, Greece, emerged from the economic collapse of the country’s industrial sector. Instead of allowing their factory to close, workers took control and:
- Operated under direct democracy, making all decisions in collective
- Shifted production from industrial adhesives to eco-friendly cleaning products, serving community needs rather than corporate interests.
- Integrated solidarity networks, ensuring community participation in their
Vio.Me exemplifies how worker self-management can challenge both corporate ownership and wage labor exploitation, laying the groundwork for self-governed economies.
These are not future dreams or distant visions, but realities we can build now in liberated spaces, where the potential exists, in free social spaces as they are, and, ultimately, in a society unshackled from capitalism.
But we must sharpen these proposals with the language of a new, defiant perspective. Faced with the unbridled capitalist growth that spawned the climate catastrophe, we must aggressively reverse this destructive trajectory with the strategy of degrowth – an organised exodus from the reign of the economy-centric society, embracing instead the liberating vision of autonomous ecological and democratic societies. The embrace of the commons and peer-to- peer relations is crucial now.
To break free from the ideological baggage and organizational models of industrial society, we embrace contemporary forms of political and organisational structure forged by the Zapatista struggle and, more recently, the autonomous movement of Rojava. Our framework is this: No seizure of power. Anti-hierarchical structures. Direct democracy. This is the bare minimum for the social spaces we occupy (or not occupy). As an anti-authoritarian movement, we refuse ideological dogma. Our foundational principle is the open and public assembly, whether for free social spaces or political assemblies.
The Supporting Pillars of Self-Governance
A. Self-Sufficiency: How Can We Sustain Our Autonomous Spaces?
One of the biggest obstacles to autonomy is material dependency—on state funding, on capitalist markets, on external institutions. How do we sustain ourselves, our movements, and our communities without being pulled back into the logic of the system?
Strategies for Self-Sufficiency:
- Autonomous Economies – Worker-owned cooperatives, solidarity-based production (e.g., Vio.Me), alternative currencies, and barter networks.
- Communal Food Production – Community farms, permaculture, food-sharing initiatives, and reclaiming abandoned land.
- Autonomous Health Care – Free clinics, mutual aid networks, and reclaiming traditional and herbal medicine to reduce dependence on privatized healthcare.
- Liberation from Industrialism – Resisting capitalist industrial expansion and building eco- industries that respect planetary boundaries.
Projects like Dunja Social Center in Skopje showcase how spaces can sustain themselves outside the capitalist market, while solidarity agriculture movements in Europe prove that food autonomy is not only necessary—it is entirely possible.
Yet, self-sufficiency is not just material—it is also ideological.
B. Self-Defense: How Can We Protect Our Autonomous Spaces?
In every instance where autonomy is successfully built, it has been met with aggression—be it from the state, fascist forces, or internal ideological disintegration. How do we defend these spaces?
Self-defense is often misunderstood solely as physical defense, but it is far broader—it is ideological, cultural, and psychological. It means resisting the mental colonization of capitalist modernity and rejecting the false idea that “there is no alternative.”
Strategies for Self-Defense:
- Community-Based Defense – Organizing neighborhood patrols and response teams against state repression, police violence, and fascist attacks.
- Ideological Defense – Combatting liberal co-optation, dogmatism, and internal conflicts that weaken movements.
- Cultural and Language Defense – Revitalizing indigenous languages, local histories, and traditional knowledge systems.
- Feminist Self-Defense – Recognizing that the frontline of self-defense is the fight against patriarchy. Without autonomous women’s organization, there can be no real autonomy for anyone.
Movements like the Kurdish Women’s Movement (TJK-E) in Europe have pioneered autonomous women’s self-defense structures, ensuring that liberation is not only collective but deeply gender-conscious.
C. Organisational Forms: What Structures Can We Use to Build From the Bottom Up?
Building autonomy requires strategic organisation. Yet, the left in Europe often struggles with fragmentation, a fear of structured organization, and an inability to sustain long-term movements. How do we overcome these contradictions?
Forms of Organization for Self-Governance:
- Assemblies as Decision-Making Bodies – Open, non-hierarchical, participatory decision- making must be at the heart of every autonomous structure.
- Neighborhood Councils and Communes – Localized self-management through directly elected councils (e.g., Prosfygika in Athens, the Basque Batzarre).
- Confederal Structures – Connecting local communes into larger federated networks, as seen in Rojava, the Zapatistas, and the IDK network in Germany.
- Parallel Institutions – Creating alternative educational, healthcare, and economic structures that bypass the state and function independently.
To build lasting autonomy, we must go beyond protest and direct action—we must build institutions of our own.
Challenges in Self-Governance
While these models of self-governance offer hope, they also reveal significant challenges:
- External Attacks: Both movements have faced constant military aggression—the Zapatistas from the Mexican state and paramilitaries, and Rojava from the Turkish military and ISIS.
- Economic Blockades: Without access to state or capitalist funding, sustaining autonomous economies remains difficult.
- Internal Contradictions: Balancing collective decision-making with efficiency can be complex. Movements struggle with internal conflicts, ideological rigidity, and maintaining long-term engagement.
- Scalability: How do we expand these experiments beyond regional pockets into broader revolutionary movements?
The Challenge of Liberalisation: Breaking Free from Capitalist Modernity
A critical challenge facing self-governing movements in Europe is the ideological trap of neo- liberalism; the liberalisation of our struggles—the idea that isolated individual freedoms are sufficient, while systemic alternatives are dismissed as “unrealistic.”
Liberalism presents itself as “democratic,” yet it functions to depoliticise, fragment, and pacify. It absorbs revolutionary potential, turning radical ideas into commodified, harmless versions of themselves.
If we are to build real autonomy, we must reject the liberal tendency of reducing politics to individual lifestyles and symbolic actions. We must commit to collective struggle and understand that self-governance is not about individual choice—it is about shared responsibility and collective transformation.
Recognizing these challenges does not mean abandoning self-governance—instead, it requires strategic adaptation and learning from historical experiences.
The Role of the Vanguard: Avoiding Dogmatism, Authoritarianism, and the State Mentality
How Do We Build a Vanguard Without Falling into Hierarchy?
The term vanguard has often been associated with authoritarian structures, centralized leadership, and rigid ideological control. However, if we revisit the concept through an anti- authoritarian lens, a vanguard does not mean a ruling elite, but rather a collective force that pushes ideas and actions forward without imposing them on others.
To prevent ideological dogmatism, we must rethink what avant-garde organizing means in the context of self-governance and anti-hierarchical movements. The role of the vanguard should not be to dictate, but to inspire, experiment, and develop strategies that can be voluntarily adopted by communities.
Lessons from the Past: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Traditional Vanguardism
Historical revolutionary movements—from Marxist-Leninist parties to centralized labor organizations—have often replicated the very hierarchical structures they sought to destroy. Some key failures include:
- Centralization of power in the party elite, leading to bureaucratic
- Rigid ideological purity tests, suppressing plurality of thought within
- Replication of state authority, where the revolutionary organization becomes the new state apparatus rather than dismantling state power altogether.
This is where critiques of authoritarian socialism are crucial: a vanguard should not impose a “correct line” but rather provide an open framework for self-organization.
The Vanguard as Facilitators of Self-Governance, Not Controllers of It
A true libertarian vanguard does not seek to command but to empower—it must be a catalyst for autonomous action, not a ruling body.
1. The Vanguard Must Be Experimental, Not Absolute
- Instead of dogmatic correctness, a real vanguard embraces experimentation and adjusts based on real-world struggles.
- This means testing alternative models of governance, community resilience, and economic self-sufficiency rather than enforcing one-size-fits-all solutions.
2. The Vanguard Must Be Pluralistic, Not Monolithic
- Recognizing that different communities require different structures based on their
- The anti-authoritarian vanguard must embrace multiple tactics, perspectives, and strategies without forcing a singular ideological narrative.
- Feminist movements, indigenous struggles, workers’ self-management, and ecological struggles each have their own forms of leadership and organization— none should be subordinated to a single ideological model.
3. The Vanguard Must Be Temporary, Not Permanent
- Unlike traditional vanguards that create self-perpetuating leadership circles, an anti-authoritarian vanguard must be constantly evolving, self-dissolving, and rebuilding itself through rotation and decentralization.
- This aligns with the principles of Rojava’s Democratic Confederalism, where leadership is temporary, accountable, and non-hierarchical.
The Danger of Adopting State and Capitalistic Mentalities
One of the most subtle yet dangerous traps for any revolutionary movement is the unconscious replication of state mentalities. Even within decentralized, anti-authoritarian spaces, the logic of the state can creep in through:
- Bureaucratic managerialism → When movements become focused on administration rather than revolutionary action.
- Security paranoia & centralized control → Over-policing of movement members, creating internal hierarchies of who is trusted and who is not.
- Suppression of dissent → A refusal to allow internal critique, which leads to a rigid ideological orthodoxy rather than a living, evolving movement.
How Do We Avoid Reproducing State Mentalities?
- Power Must Be Continuously Dismantled
- The key difference between self-governance and statecraft is that in true self- governance, no structure should be permanent.
- Decision-making structures should be constantly evaluated, rotated, and altered to prevent consolidation of power.
2. Emphasize Collective Responsibility Over Leadership
- Leadership should be functional, not positional—it exists for specific tasks, not as a permanent role.
- Zapatista governance follows this principle by rotating community roles and ensuring that those in governance are accountable to the assemblies, not the other way around.
- Encourage Internal Critique and Horizontal Accountability
- Movements must be self-reflective and open to constructive criticism.
- Internal discussions should prioritize horizontal debate, not top-down
- The dea of autonomy as self-institution teaches us that every community must re- invent its governance continuously—nothing should be set in stone.
The Challenge: Can We Be Organized Without Hierarchy?
Some argue that without centralized leadership, movements will fall into chaos. However, history and practice show that organization does not require hierarchy—it requires deep-rooted participation and accountability structures.
Case Studies of Non-Hierarchical Organization in Action
1. The Zapatistas: Governance Without a State
- No permanent leadership—community assemblies rotate
- Decisions are made through direct participation, not delegation to elites.
- Structures are fluid and can be adapted by the people based on
2. Rojava: Democratic Confederalism
- Women’s autonomous councils prevent male domination within
- Multiple ethnic and religious groups self-organize, ensuring no centralized nationalism
- Committees manage key social functions (food distribution, education, security)without creating a bureaucratic state apparatus.
3. Vio.Me (Greece): Self-Managed Industry Without Bosses
- Workers collectively make decisions without a management class.
- Instead of hierarchical production structures, all workers share equal say in economic planning.
- Solidarity networks ensure long-term
The Path Forward: How Can We Build and Sustain Self-Governance?
A. Creating Self-Governing Institutions Locally
We must build autonomous structures where we live—starting in neighborhoods, workplaces, and social spaces. This includes:
- Neighborhood Assemblies: Organizing direct democratic structures where decisions are made collectively.
- Worker Cooperatives: Reclaiming the means of production through horizontal economic structures.
- Alternative Education Systems: Creating schools and workshops that promote radical critical thinking and self-management.
B. Expanding Confederal Structures
Individual collectives must federate into larger structures, as seen in:
- The Zapatista Caracoles (local communities linked into a larger network).
- Rojava’s Council System (local assemblies connected into regional and confederal councils).
· The historical example of the Spanish anarchist communes (CNT-FAI), which coordinated thousands of self-managed communities.
C. Emphasizing Women’s Liberation and Ecological Sustainability
No real self-governance is possible without addressing patriarchy and environmental destruction.
- Women’s assemblies and self-defense structures (as in Rojava).
- Decentralized, regenerative food systems that ensure independence from capitalist
D. Defending Our Spaces and Movements
As history has shown, autonomous zones will always be attacked. Self-defense is not just military—it is ideological, economic, and cultural.
- Countering state repression through strong community
- Rejecting co-optation by NGOs and liberal politics.
- Building long-term resilience rather than short-term activism.
A Call to Action
The fight for self-governance is not about resistance—it is about creation. The task before us is to build, sustain, and expand these liberated spaces. We must challenge capitalism not just in rhetoric but in material, everyday practice.
Autonomy is not something we wait for—it is something we do.
From worker-run factories to digital commons, from grassroots ecological initiatives to neighborhood assemblies, self-governance is already emerging. Our role is to defend, refine, and expand it—not in the future, but now.
The task before us is to:
- Expand autonomous zones and free social
- Build infrastructures of self-
- Develop strong ideological foundations against state co-
- Unite struggles through confederal structures, ensuring strength in This is not just resistance—it is creation.
Let us build a world beyond capitalism and the state, not as a distant dream but as an immediate, practical reality.
Autonomy is not something we wait for—it is something we do. Now.
The world we seek will not be given to us—it has to, and it will be made by us.
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Attempting to Answer the 3 Questions from the Workshop of “Building Autonomy” :
(1) What suggestions do we have for the existing organisations?
1. Strengthen Internal Democracy →
- Move beyond representative leadership models and ensure direct
- Implement rotational leadership structures to prevent bureaucratic
- Develop mechanisms that ensure all members can actively shape the movement’s direction.
- Strengthen horizontal networks across movements to avoid Create Stronger Networks to Avoid Isolation
- Establish a network of self-defense and solidarity across Europe, connecting
◦ Form a logistical and financial support network to overcome economic dependency.
- Expand mutual aid structures that connect neighborhoods, workplaces, and feminist struggles.
3. Develop Confederal Structures →
- Link local initiatives into federated networks for greater strength and a united front against state repression.
- Εnsure that local assemblies and projects have autonomy while remaining interconnected.
- Establish training and educational spaces to deepen political and organiσational knowledge →
- Establish training and educational spaces to deepen political and organizational
- Share and develop different techniques for self-organization and direct
- Encourage study groups and reading circles to strengthen ideological
- Embed Anti-Patriarchal Practices → Encourage education over gender inequalities, feminist movements to minimise gender stereotyping, and establish autonomous women’s spaces:
- Establish autonomous women’s structures within
- Ensure movements do not reproduce patriarchal dynamics in leadership and decision-making.
- Dismantle gendered divisions of labor in organizing
6. Increase Economic Autonomy →
- Develop worker-run cooperatives and commons-based goods production to break dependency on external funding.
◦ Encourage collective financial strategies, such as community-based crowdfunding, solidarity funds, and cooperative economies.
- Use profits from community-run projects for political work (e.g., Swedish commons model).
- Expand Mutual Aid Networks → Strengthen community ties by ensuring access to (basic needs) food, housing, and healthcare.
- Develop Confederal Structures → Link local initiatives into federated networks for greater strength and a united front against the system. Develop defense Strategies Against Co- Optation:
- Resist state and institutional co-optation, particularly from NGOs, political parties, and academia.
- ◦ Build independent communication networks to avoid reliance on corporate social media platforms.
- Implement rotational leadership structures (where needed) to prevent bureaucratic stagnation. Every role is revocable (inspired by Zapatistas Good Government Councils (Juntas de Buen Gobierno)).
(2) What can we learn from European Praxis? How can we create a brain of praxis and action?
Lessons from European Struggles1:
- Self-governance is possible when rooted in local
- Example: Neighborhood Councils in Italy, Greece, and Germany have shown that self- managed community structures can effectively govern and sustain local needs, from food distribution to public safety.
2. Occupation and communal living build long-term resilience.
- Example: Prosfygika (Greece)—a self-organized, multi-ethnic squat that has resisted state eviction for decades, demonstrating the power of occupation as a political strategy against state violence.
3. Direct democracy strengthens resistance against hierarchical and bureaucratic co- optation.
- Example: IDK (Germany) has implemented democratic confederalism at a local level, showing how council-based governance and consensus decision-making can function beyond the state model.
4. Expropriation and reclaiming of abandoned spaces provide essential infrastructure for autonomy.
- Example: Self-Organized Housing Projects in Italy and Spain have transformed occupied buildings into permanent, self-managed community spaces, providing housing, cultural spaces, and public services outside the state and market
5. Anti-fascist networks provide crucial defense against far-right and state repression.
- Example: Anti-fascist groups across Europe have created decentralized, rapid- response networks to counter growing right-wing violence, while integrating self- defense strategies into broader community organizing.
6. Linking struggles internationally enhances movement resilience and knowledge- sharing.
- Example: La Saó (Catalonia) and Comité Valenciano de Solidaridad con el Rojava have developed transnational solidarity strategies, linking European struggles with anti-colonial and anti-imperialist movements worldwide.
7. Migrant and refugee solidarity must be an integral part of self-governance efforts.
1 This list includes only a few examples from a handful of organizations. We strongly encourage further research into all the participating organizations and their remarkable praxis, strategies, and contributions to autonomous self- governance across Europe and beyond.
- Example: Catania Solidale Col Popolo Curdo and Dunja Social Center in Macedonia are key examples of how movements center refugee and migrant-led initiatives while rejecting borders and state violence.
8. Feminist and anti-patriarchal organizing must be a structural part of self-governance, not a secondary issue.
- Example: Feministisches Bündnis Heidelberg and Non Una Di Meno Torino have demonstrated how self-managed feminist spaces and assemblies play a fundamental role in ensuring gender liberation is central to all autonomous organizing.
9. Self-sufficiency in resources and finances increases autonomy from capitalist structures.
- Example: RiseUp Wien and Centri Sociali del Nord-Est have implemented cooperative economic structures to fund their activism outside of state and corporate control, while fostering solidarity economies and mutual aid networks.
10. Education and political formation are critical for sustaining long-term autonomy.
- Example: Platform C (Netherlands) and Ya Basta! Êdî Bese! have prioritized political education, skill-sharing, and ideological training to ensure movements remain self- aware, adaptable, and resistant to state co-optation.
11. Self-defense against repression must be embedded in autonomous organizing.
- Example: Ararat Collective (Berlin) and Internationalist Youth Commune of Turin have helped integrate self-defense strategies, legal support, and security culture into radical organizing to protect movements from state surveillance, police violence, and far-right attacks.
12. Developing federated structures prevents isolation and fragmentation.
- Example: Spazio Antagonista Newroz (Pisa) + CUA are working toward creating regional and transnational confederations that enable local struggles to coordinate beyond their immediate environment, strengthening collective decision-making and direct democracy at scale.
13. Reclaiming land and food production is key to breaking capitalist dependence.
- Example: Coscienza Verde (Italy) and Social Center Solidaria have engaged in land occupation, cooperative agriculture, and sustainable food production, creating alternatives to capitalist food systems.
14. Building the infrastructure of resistance requires constant adaptation.
- Example: Non Una Di Meno Torino and Dunja Social Center have shown the importance of continuously developing methods, structures, and networks that respond to repression, changing political conditions, and movement needs.
AK’s Praxis & Activism:
A key example of free social spaces, squats, and migrant solidarity initiatives. AK and similar groups have:
- Hosted and supported undocumented migrants with shelter, food, and legal
- Created self-managed free social spaces that function as cultural, political, and educational hubs.
- Organized direct action movements against police violence, gender oppression, and the privatization of public spaces.
- Implemented anti-patriarchal frameworks, ensuring the active participation of women and gender minorities in decision-making.
Building the Brain of Praxis:
- Cross-Movement Coordination:
- Build stronger ties and connect feminist, environmental, anti-racist, and communal struggles into a shared strategy.
- Form a European-wide organizational structure that facilitates real-time
communication, resource-sharing, and collective strategy development.
- Political Education & Popular Assemblies:
- Create a shared ideological framework that unites different struggles without enforcing rigid dogma.
- Use community-led workshops, world cafés, and skill-sharing events to continuously refine tactics and strategies and expand political education.
- Establish popular assemblies in occupied and free social spaces, using them as hubs for theoretical reflection and collective decision-making.
- Avoid ideological rigidity while ensuring a strong anti-capitalist, anti-statist foundation for movements.
3. Resisting State Mentality & Bureaucracy:
- Avoid structures that replicate the hierarchical logic of the state.
- Ensure leadership roles remain temporary, revocable, and directly accountable to assemblies.
- Maintain horizontal structures without defaulting to ineffective liberal consensus models that paralyze decision-making.
4. Resilience Against Co-Optation:
- Develop alternative media platforms and secure communication networks for coordination across borders.
- Strengthen autonomous media platforms to resist the co-optation of radical struggles by NGOs and institutional funding and to counter legal and physical repression.
Key Takeaway: To create a “brain of praxis,” we must integrate theoretical understanding with hands-on organizing, learning from existing models while developing new strategies tailored to local conditions. We must combine historical lessons, existing autonomous practices, and ongoing struggles into a unified yet decentralized counterpower. Our movements must remain flexible, avoiding dogmatic stagnation, bureaucratic centralisation, and ideological purism. They must be rooted in lived struggles, adapting to evolving conditions while staying committed to revolutionary transformation.
(3) What forms of organisation, initiatives, and methods can we use after the platform?
- Federated Assemblies →Establish horizontal local councils that make decisions collectively and are linked through confederalism.
- Avoid centralized authority by ensuring rotational leadership and accountability within assemblies.
- Base organizing on direct democracy, where every member has an equal say in
- Link these assemblies across different regions and struggles, creating
interconnected autonomous networks similar to Rojava’s system of councils.
- Ensure that autonomous regions can function independently while still maintaining solidarity and mutual aid agreements.
- Federation of Autonomous Zones → Connecting local struggles into larger confederations, following the model of Rojava’s system of councils.
- Connect different liberated spaces, occupations, and cooperative projects into a
broader European confederal network.
▪ Ensure continuous exchange of knowledge, resources, and tactical support
between different self-governing zones.
- Develop a mutual aid system where food, healthcare, and housing are collectively shared and managed.
- Establish a network of self-defense to protect liberated zones from state and far- right violence.
- Communal Land Projects → Developing community-owned food, housing, and energy resources for self-sustainability and self-sufficiency.
- Establish cooperative agricultural projects, urban gardens, and decentralized food networks.
- Reclaim abandoned land and buildings for collective housing and self-sufficient
- Integrate eco-industrial methods that promote local sustainability rather than industrial exploitation.
- Learn from models such as Zapatista agro-ecology and Kurdish communal production to ensure food sovereignty.
- Commons-Based Economic Networks → Expanding community-owned resources and peer-to-peer production as a counterweight to capitalist dependency.
- Promote solidarity economies where goods and services are produced for communal well-being, not profit.
- Create worker-run cooperatives where labor is collectively organized, removing the power of bosses and capitalists.
- Develop alternative trade systems, such as time-banks, barter networks, and mutual credit cooperatives, to move beyond the capitalist financial system.
- Encourage community-led funding initiatives, including crowdfunding and cooperative financial structures, to sustain autonomous projects.
- Establish self-organized social security systems to provide healthcare, education, and housing outside of state institutions.
- Autonomous Women’s and Femininities’ Structures → Parallel organising spaces to dismantle patriarchal control, gender violence, sexuality Get rid of misogynistic, LGBTQ+-phobic behaviours that exist inside our movements and initiatives. We must break free from internalised patriarchal practices and mentalities.
- Build autonomous spaces where women, queer, and non-binary people can organize independently, .
- Ensure movements do not reproduce patriarchal dynamics in leadership and decision-making.
- Implement feminist self-defense groups and anti-patriarchal training to combat gender-based violence.
- Challenge gendered divisions of labor and ensure that women and marginalized groups have equal access to resources and organizing spaces.
- Dismantle misogynistic, LGBTQ+-phobic, and patriarchal behaviors within all our movements.
- Strengthen international feminist solidarity networks between autonomous
- Worker Self-Management → Expanding cooperative production to sustain self-governing economies
- Expand self-managed workplaces where workers control production, wages, and organization.
- Encourage cross-sectoral cooperation between worker-controlled industries, farms, and services.
- Develop autonomous labor unions that fight against exploitation while building alternative economic structures.
- Build cooperative supply chains that function outside of capitalist markets, ensuring fair and collective trade.
- Self-Defense Networks → Developing mutual defense strategies against state repression, gender-based violence and far-right violence. Instant communication and awareness of struggles in Europe can lead to multi-faceted and widespread resistance against the suppression of our movements, initiatives and endeavours.
- Establish collective defense strategies against state crackdowns and other
▪ Form rapid-response networks to coordinate resistance across multiple regions.
- Use secure communication tools and digital security protocols to protect movements from surveillance and safely coordinate synchronised actions and activism (e.g. simultaneous protests, boycotts etc).
- Strengthen legal and political support structures for arrested and persecuted
- Encourage militant yet community-oriented defense models that do not fall into authoritarianism and isolationism.
- Set up networks for Communication, Media, and Counter-Hegemony →
- Create independent media networks to break away from corporate social media
- Develop digital platforms, encrypted channels, and radical news outlets to amplify struggles and counter state narratives.
- Strengthen inter-movement communication strategies to prevent isolation and
- Establish a network of alternative publishing, research, and historical documentation to preserve and transmit radical knowledge.
- Popular Assemblies, Political Education & Collective Learning Spaces→ Creating ideological clarity through political education and community participation.
- Set up popular assemblies as permanent spaces for education, discussion, and decision-making.
- Make political education a daily practice—teach people how to organize, resist, and sustain autonomy.
▪ Promote self-managed schools, radical pedagogy, and anti-authoritarian education models.
- Develop workshops, reading circles, and skill-sharing programs to train new organizers and prevent ideological stagnation.
- Use non-hierarchical education to break the state’s monopoly on knowledge
- Avoiding Authoritarianism & State Mentalities in Organization→ One of the greatest dangers in building self-governing structures is the unconscious adoption of state-like behaviors, even in radical movements. To counter this:
- Reject the “seizure of power” mindset—focus on dismantling power structures, not taking control of them.
- Ensure leadership is always collective, temporary, and revocable to avoid bureaucratic stagnation.
- Avoid ideological dogmatism—encourage critical thinking, debate, and adaptability in movements.
▪ Resist the professionalisation of activism—keep organizing rooted in everyday people and their struggles.
- Ensure that movements do not replicate the rigid structures of the state under the guise of efficiency or discipline.
- Maintain open and public assemblies as the foundation of decision-
The concept of Free Social Spaces are at the heart of this approach, from our perspective. These are self-organized spaces that encompass all of the above; spaces where individuals and groups can come together to share ideas, resources, and support without interference from external authorities.
These are not just physical locations but arenas for collaboration, experimentation, and resistance. They embody direct democracy and mutual aid, serving as environments where individuals can come together to reimagine and reshape their lives without external domination. Managed collectively and free from commercial or institutional interference, these spaces foster a spirit of inclusivity and solidarity. They are cultural hubs where workshops, discussions, and skill-sharing sessions take place, creating a fertile ground for building a better society. For us, Free Social Spaces are catalysts for wider societal transformation rather than secluded havens, and the challenge lies in avoiding the pitfalls of isolationism that have plagued similar movements in the past. We advocate transcending “safe spaces” by actively engaging with societal concerns, creating alliances across communities, and embedding self-organized initiatives into the fabric of everyday life. To overcome isolation, the focus must be on inclusivity and the amplification of voices from marginalised communities, ensuring that autonomy is a shared and expanding reality rather than a secluded experiment.
Recognizing Different Realities, Contexts, and Capabilities in Self-Governance
As we work toward building autonomous and self-governing structures, it is crucial to acknowledge the vastly different political, social, and historical contexts in which movements operate across Europe and the world. The struggles faced in one region may differ significantly from those in another, and our approach must be adaptable, sensitive, and non-universalizing.
For example, in Western European countries, a central aspect of radical movements is the fight against their governments’ historical and ongoing imperialist policies, corporate globalism, and the deep entrenchment of liberalism as a form of pacified oppression. In contrast, in Balkan and Eastern European countries, the focus often shifts toward struggles against economic neocolonialism, ethnic-nationalist tensions, and the ongoing consequences of post-socialist privatization that devastated working-class and communal structures. These historical distinctions shape how self-organization emerges—what is feasible in one place might be impractical or even dangerous in another.
Beyond regional differences, we must also recognize the varying capacities and risks individuals face within our own movements. A migrant without legal papers engaging in a protest or direct action risks immediate deportation, imprisonment, or even death—a risk far greater than that faced by a citizen of the same country2. Similarly, women, LGBTQ+ people, and racialized individuals often bear the brunt of state repression and fascist violence, requiring different strategies for self-defense and engagement. This is why our organizing must always be intersectional and adaptive, never forcing individuals into actions that disproportionately endanger them.
Understanding these layers of context—historical, political, geographical, and personal—is key to developing a flexible and truly liberatory and non-authoritarian (anti-authoritarian)
framework for self-governance, one that does not impose rigid models but instead adapts to the struggles, capacities, and realities of those involve
2 Here we must emphasise that we have to reject the nation-state’s concept of “citizens” and “non-citizens / foreigners”—a framework designed by the state to justify oppression and violence against those it deems disposable. Borders, nationalities, and legal statuses are artificial tools of control, and our self-governing structures must actively dismantle these divisions rather than reproduce them. True self-governance must be rooted in radical solidarity, where no one is excluded or forced into invisibility for the sake of strategy or convenience.
Conclusion: Toward a Coordinated Common Struggle for True Autonomy
Because of the varied realities, struggles, and capabilities that exist across different regions and communities, our movements must embrace openness, communication, and the constant exchange of tools, narratives, and strategies. While each local movement may focus on a different aspect of combating transnational capital, state oppression, and the nation-state’s suppressive structures, in truth, these struggles are not separate but interconnected facets of a shared fight for autonomy and self-governance. The repression faced by a landless farmer resisting corporate extraction in Latin America is intrinsically linked to the struggles of migrants facing brutal border regimes in Europe or factory workers fighting exploitation in the heart of capitalist metropoles.
To truly dismantle the power structures that oppress us, we must coordinate and weave our seemingly distinct struggles into a common front. This does not mean enforcing a single ideological model or rigid blueprint, but rather creating a flexible and evolving network of resistance and self-organization—a living, breathing infrastructure of autonomy that is constantly learning from itself.
On this theoretical basis, all self-organized movements and initiatives must also document, articulate, and share their paradigms and experiences—how they have applied the brain of self-governance within their own unique social, political, and historical environments. By doing so, we create a repository of collective knowledge, making it easier for others to analyze, reflect upon, and adapt these ideas to their own conditions. Future and current movements facing similar sociopolitical conditions will not have to start from zero—they can stand on the shoulders of past struggles, immediately applying solutions and accelerating their ability to resist, organize, and grow.
If we truly wish to build autonomy and self-governance beyond the state and capitalism, we must ensure that our struggles are not fragmented, but interconnected. By actively organizing and coordinating beyond borders, we strengthen the resilience of every autonomous initiative, making it harder for oppressive forces to isolate and crush them. Our future lies in the continuous exchange of ideas, the deepening of strategic coordination, and the unwavering commitment to collective liberation.
Photos from the People’s Platform Europe Conference in Vienna
