1. The Abolition of the State
   Anarchist & Marxist Perspectives
   Resource Type: Book
   First Published: 2007
   Both Anarchists and Marxists believe that it will be possible to do away with the state. But what do they mean by that? What is the state, after all? What institutions, if any, would be necessary to replace its functions? Would a transitional “dictatorship of the proletariat” be needed or will it be possible to immediately abolish the state? Does modern technology require a centralized institution such as the state? Throughout the history of revolutions, the people have created workplace councils and neighborhood assemblies--how could these replace the state?
2. Against All Odds
   Resource Type: Article
   First Published: 1985
   The shadow haunting the power structure is the danger that those who are controlled will realize they are powerless only so long as they think they are. Once people stop believing they are powerless the whole edifice is in danger of collapse.
3. Against the Current
   Resource Type: Serial Publication (Periodical)
   First Published: 1986
   Bi-monthly magazine oriented toward movements for social and economic justice; radical, socialist and feminist in orientation.
4. An Anti-Capitalist Manifesto 
   Resource Type: Book
   First Published: 2003
   An extended argument about what the anti-capitalist movement should stand for.
5. Barcelona's Experiment in Radical Democracy 
   Resource Type: Article
   First Published: 2018
   Issues that Barcelona en Comu is tackling come up against limitations set by Catalan and Spanish law. The city lacks authority to regulate housing, although the city has created new affordable housing, and has successfully limited the reach of Airbnb.
6. The Battle for Democracy in Mexico
   Against The Current vol. 117
   Resource Type: Article
   First Published: 2005
   The Mexican people won a battle for democracy this past spring when massive demonstrations — the largest in Mexico’s tumultuous history — prevented President Vicente Fox from making Mexico City Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador ineligible to run for president in 2006. The defeat of Fox on this issue was a victory for the Mayor, but above all for the Mexican people, who defended their right to vote for a candidate of their choice in the coming national elections.
7. BB BG or DD
   Who Should Shape Society: World Power Politics of the 20th Century - and their lessons
   Resource Type: Book
   
8. Beating Back the Corporate Attack 
   Socialism and the struggle for global justice
   Resource Type: Book
   First Published: 2000
   Our movement is calling for a new direction -- for democratic control of our political life, and for democratic control over the most important aspects of the economy. Why should handful of the super-rich run the planet, and, moreover, run it into the ground?
9. Bureau of Public Secrets 
   Resource Type: Website
   Articles from a Situationist perspective.
10. Canada's Distorted Electoral System
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 2000
    Canada's electoral system is undemocratic
11. Canadian Information Sharing Service
    Volume 3, Number 3 - June 1978
    Resource Type: Serial Publication (Periodical)
    First Published: 1978
    
12. Changing The Cogs
    Activists and the Politics of Technology
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1979
    What are the best ways to achieve beneficial change in society? Will widespread use of solar energy and other renewable energy sources bring about a good society? What technologies will be promoted by vested interests in government and big business?
13. Communication for and Against Democracy
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1989
    This anthology explores the circumstances in which communication serves at times as an instrument of repression and domination, and at others as a support for human emancipation.
14. Connexions Annual Resource and Reading List
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 1989   Published: 1994
    A short and selective list of resources on issues addressed in the Connexions Annual, such as environment, education, peace, interntional development, women's issues, urban issues, housing, human rights, civil liberties, social change.
15. Connexions Digest
    Issue 50 - December 1989 - A Social Change Sourcebook
    Resource Type: Serial Publication (Periodical)
    First Published: 1989
    
16. Democracy Against Capitalism 
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1995
    Wood provides a brilliant explication and defense of the key theoretical concepts relevant to socialism, understood to be the most radical social and economic democracy.
17. Democracy and Social Change
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 1966
    Gray maintains that liberal democracy places power in only a few hands and calls for a radical democratization of power within the framework of an economy owned, controlled, and responsible to the public.
18. Democracy is in the Streets 
    From Port Huron to the Siege of Chicago
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1987
    A thoughtful and evocative history of the American New Left in the 1960's, looking critically but sympathetically at the struggles and passions of that period.
19. Democracy Is that it?
    New Internationalist June 2000
    Resource Type: Serial Publication (Periodical)
    First Published: 2000
    Democracy has become commonplace and its original meaning -- "rule by the people" -- has got lost. Real democracy depends on active citizenship, something that's missing from contemporary culture. Articles cover democracy in Canada and the developing world, economics in relation to democracy and politics in Pakistan.
20. Democratic Struggle: What Role for Marxism?
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 2003
    Exploring what Marxist approaches to democracy have offered to contemporary discussions.
21. Diemer, Ulli
    Connexipedia Article
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 2010
    Canadian socialist publisher, writer, and archivist.
22. Direct democracy
    Connexipedia Article
    Resource Type: Article
    A form of democracy wherein sovereignty is lodged in the assembly of all citizens who choose to participate.
23. Electing for Democracy
    Proportional Representation and the Left
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1990
    An argument for proportional representation in the United Kingdom.
24. Electoral reform will give us a voice
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 1998
    The democratic case for electoral reform is fundamental, and to attack it
    as somehow a 'right wing' issue is a betrayal of the radical democratic tradition.
25. The End of Politics
    Corporate Power and the Decline of the Public Sphere
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 2000
    From the events of privatization, economic globalization, spread of violence and gun culture, and the end of the cold war, Boggs explores the depoliticization process in the United States.
26. Essais sur les droits humains et le developpement democratique
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1996
    
27. Essays on Human Rights and Democratic Development
    People or Peoples; Equality, Autonomy and Self-Determination: The Issues at Stake of the Internation
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1996
    
28. Faces of global resistance
    New Internationalist September 2001 - #338
    Resource Type: Serial Publication (Periodical)
    First Published: 2001
    Discussion of corporate globalization and how some are organizing themselves to resists.
29. The Fifth Modernization
    China's Spirit of Democracy
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 1978
    Wei Jingsheng, a 28-year-old electrician, posted this on the “Democracy Wall” in Beijing in 1978.
30. For Political Equality 
    All citizens vote on all policies: 20th Century Power Politics and their 21st Century electronic alternative
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 2007
    This book aims to motivate people to set up post-parliamentary direct democracy (DD) enabling all citizens to propose-debate-vote on all issues of society. Every citizen - one vote - on every issue of society. This political equality abolishes Power - the role of deciding on behalf of others - the main cause of violence and corruption in society. "To be" is not merely "to exist" but to decide all issues of one's life. Denying citizens' right to decide all issues of society reduces them to mere political pawns. All citizens have the right to decide all policies.
31. Global Visions
    Beyond the News World Order
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1993
    This book seeks to establish how our diverse globalizing world can be turned into a common home. The authors create a dialogue about the two types of globalization occurring in the world: globalization from above and globalization from below.
32. The Great Class War
    1914-1918
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 2016
    In this critical, revisionist account, historian Jacques Pauwels shows how the First World War was rooted in class strife that begin with the French Revolution in 1789 and continued long past the war itself. As Pauwels sees it, war seemed to offer major benefits to the European upper classes of the early twentieth century, who felt threatened by the seemingly irresistible process of democratization or, as they saw it, the "rise of the masses." War was expected to serve as an antidote to social revolution, causing workers to abandon socialism's focus on overthrowing the established order via internaitonal worker solidarity in favour of nationalism and militarism.
33. Hal Draper on the Two Souls of Socialism
    Insights from Hal Draper
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 1990
    A comparison of socialism-from-below and socialism-from-above that considers Marx's struggle for socialism through liberal democracy.
34. Hatred of Democracy
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 2007   Published: 2009
    Rancière defends the principle of democracy against neoconservative repression. He argues that the West can no longer simply extol the virtues of democracy by contrasting it with the horrors of totalitarianism.
35. The History of Democracy 
    A Marxist Interpretation
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 2013
    Roper traces the history of democracy from ancient Athens to the emergence of liberal representative and socialist participatory democracy. He argues that democracy cannot be understood separately from the social and economic contexts in which democratic states operate.
36. Imagine Democracy 
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 2000
    Rebick calls for the transformation of fundamental institutions in Canada: the economy, the media and the electoral system.
37. International Forum on Globalization
    Resource Type: Website
    An alliance of activists, scholars, economists, researchers and writers formed to stimulate new thinking, joint activity, and public education in response to economic globalization.
38. Interview with Ulli Diemer
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 1990
    Jeff Orchard interviews Ulli Diemer about socialism, capitalism, life, and social change.
39. The Invading Socialist Society
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1947
    History has shown that in moments of great social crisis, its farthest flights fall short of the reality of the proletarian revolution. Never was the proletariat so ready for the revolutionary struggle, never was the need for it so great, never was it more certain that the proletarian upheaval, however long delayed, will only the more certainly take humanity forward in the greatest leap forward it has hitherto made. The periods of retreat, of quiescence, of inevitable defeats are mere episodes in the face of the absolute nature of the crisis.
40. Israel & Palestine The occupation is killing us all
    New Internationalist August 2002 - #348
    Resource Type: Serial Publication (Periodical)
    First Published: 2002
    An in-depth look into the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Discusses modern myths that have further fuelled the conflict, possible paths to peace, and the role of the United States in the issue.
41. The Joy of Revolution 
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1997   Published: 2007
    Knabb says "What is needed, I believe, is a worldwide participatory-democracy revolution that would abolish both capitalism and the state. This is admittedly a big order, but I'm afraid that nothing less can get to the root of our problems. It may seem absurd to talk about revolution; but all the alternatives assume the continuation of the present system, which is even more absurd."
42. Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution 
    Volume I: State and Bureaucracy
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1977
    A wide-ranging and thorough exposition of Marx's views on democracy.
43. Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution
    Volume III: The Dictatorship of the Proletariat
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1986
    Hal Draper examines how Marx and Marxism dealt with the issue of dictatorship in relation to the revolutionary use of force and repression, particularly as this debate has centered on the use of the term "dictatorship of the proletariat." Draper strips away the layers of misinterpretation and misinformation that have accumulated over the years to show what Marx and Engels themselves meant by the term.
44. Keep raising the issue of democracy
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 1989
    Socialists should keep hammering away at the issue of democracy.
45. The Key to Happiness That No One -- Not Even the Happiness Gurus -- Are Discussing
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 2009
    There's just one pathway to happiness in which this deep, human need for power is given pride of place: democracy. By this I mean democracy as a living practice that enables us to have a real say in every dimension of our public lives, from school to workplace and beyond.
46. Latin America
    Peace, Democratization and Economic Crisis
    Resource Type: Book
    Wars between countries in Latin and Central America may be rare, but peace in the region is a fragile hostage both to economic crisis and repressive regimes, and Cold War conflicts and U.S. intervention. This book, which represents the views of leading Latin American scholars, explores the links between economic, military, and human rights issues and poses the question of possible solutions.
47. Let's Stop Kidding Ourselves About the NDP 
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 1989
    Canadian socialists are terribly reluctant to give up their illusions about the NDP.
48. Letters from Lexington
    Reflections on Propaganda
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1993
    
49. The Long Haul 
    An autobiography
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1990   Published: 1991
    Myles Horton tells the story of the Highlander Folk School. A major catalyst for social change in the United States for over sixty years, this school has touched the lives of so many people, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and Eleanor Roosevelt.
50. Looking for Democracy
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 1989
    Instead of sitting on the sidelines congratulating ourselves on how wonderfully free and democratic we are, we should be pressing for a radical democratization of our own society.
    
51. Manifestos, Programs, Visions 
    Selected Manifestos - Political Statements - Programs
    Resource Type: Website
    First Published: 1649   Published: 2016
    A selection of left manifestos, programs, poltical statements and visions from the 1600s to today.
52. Marx at the Margins 
    On Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Non-Western Societies
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 2010   Published: 2016
    Marx’s critique of capital was far broader than is usually supposed. To be sure, he concentrated on the labor-capital relation within Western Europe and North America. But at the same time, he expended considerable time and energy on the analysis of non-Western societies, as well as race, ethnicity, and nationalism.
53. Marx on Democratic Forms of Government 
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 1974
    Marx's socialism (communism) as a political programme may be most quickly defined, from the Marxist standpoint, as the complete democratization of society, not merely of political forms. For Marx, the fight for democratic forms of government - democratization in the state - was a leading edge of the socialist effort; not its be-all and end-all but an integral part of it all.
54. A Marxist History of the World part 14: The Greek Democratic Revolution
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 2010
    Neil Faulkner looks at the radical participatory democracy which began in Athens between 510 and 506 BCE and spread to virtually every city-state in the Aegean.
55. Memory as Resistance: Grassroots Archives and the Battle of Memory
    Preservation as subversion: Do grassroots archives have a future?
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 2012
    CONNEXIONS and Beit Zatoun are spotlighting grassroots archives this November with an open house and networking event November 24, a talk and discussion November 27, and an exhibit (November 16-27). Grassroots archives play a valuable role in what has been called “the battle of memory”. Mainstream media and institutions of power consign inconvenient histories, struggles, and alternative visions to what George Orwell called “the memory hole.” People’s history projects such as grassroots archives preserve and share stories of resistance, hidden histories, and alternative visions. Their role is particularly important as official archives are forced to restrict acquisitions, limit access and discard materials as funding is slashed.
56. New Democracy Internet site
    Resource Type: Website
    Supports a democratic revolution to overthrow corporate capitalism, but opposes socialism. Features short articles on labour issues, the deficit, education.
57. The No-Nonsense Guide to Democracy 
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 2002
    Ths book explores how democracy is constricted and deformed by economic power-brokers and a self-serving political class.
58. Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - November 13, 2014
    Libertarian Socialism
    Resource Type: Serial Publication (Periodical)
    First Published: 2014
    The topic of the week is Libertarian Socialism. Articles on no-state solutions in Kurdistan; right-wing dirty tricks used to attack labour and environmental groups; scientists unravelling the risks of new pesticides; the terrors faced by fishermen in Gaza; and bringing books and seeking peace in Colombia. Film of the week is Even the Rain, and book of the week is Adolph Reed's Class Notes.
59. Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - July 2, 2016
    Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn, and Contempt for Democracy
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 2016
    Brexit, the British vote to leave the European Union, has thrown the political elites into turmoil and confusion. The referendum was supposed to be a safe political manoeuvre, a way to produce an appearance of democratic legitimacy for the profoundly undemocratic structures of the EU. The gambit turned out to be a spectacular miscalculation, as millions of people turned out to express their opposition to a state of affairs that is leaving the majority worse off while enriching a small minority. This issue of Other Voices looks at the Brexit referendum, elite loathing for democracy, and the related attempt to get rid of Labour's leftwing leader, Jeremy Corbyn.
60. Overcoming Zionism 
    Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 2007
    Kovel argues that the inner contradictions of Zionism have led Israel to a 'state-sponsored racism' fully as incorrigible as that of apartheid South Africa and deserving of the same resolution. Only a path toward a single-state secular democracy can provide the justice essential to healing the wounds of the Middle East. Kovel draws on his detailed knowledge of the Middle East to show that Zionism and democracy are essentially incompatible. Ultimately, Kovel argues, a two-state solution is essentially hopeless as it concedes too much to the regressive forces of nationalism, in which lie the roots of continued conflict.
61. Palestine/Israel: A single state, with liberty and justice for all
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 2009
    The notion of religious-ethnocentric entitlement and exclusivity for one people at the expense of another has been rejected the world over. Palestinians reject it and we assert that we are human beings worthy of the same human rights accorded to the rest of humanity; that we are worthy of our homes and farms, our heritage, our churches and mosques, and our history; and that we should not be expected to negotiate with our oppressors for such basic dignities. The two-state solution was and remains an instrument to circumvent the basic human rights of Palestinians in order to accommodate Israel's desire to be Jewish. Polls show that Palestinians refuse to be the enemies of our Jewish brothers and sisters anywhere, just as we refuse to be oppressed by them.
62. Participatory Democracy
    Prospects for Democratizing Democracy
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 2008
    Twenty or more arguments for participatory democracy written contributors including Goerge Woodcock, Murray Bookchin, Gerry Hunnius, Colin Ward, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, and Don Calhoun.
63. Politics Without Politicians
    Resource Type: Article
    Citizens can - without representatives - run society by voting directly for policies rather than for politicians.
64. Popular Struggles for Democracy in Africa
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1989
    In this book, leading African and Caribbean scholars examine the forms of popular alliance being forged, the demands for 'a second independence', and what they may presage for the future of the Continent. Theoretical questions concerning the nature of the state in Africa - the context of local class formations and the global pressures of capitalism - are explored in essays by Harry Goulbourne, Abdelali Doumou, and Samir Amin.
65. Radical Democracy 
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1997
    Lummis revives the meaning of democratic struggle and critques the economic and technological processes that have hindered its growth.
66. Radical Digressions 2
    Resource Type: Website
    First Published: 1981   Published: 2000
    
67. Radical Digressions 5
    Resource Type: Website
    First Published: 2008
    
68. Relentless Persistence
    Nonviolent Action in Latin America
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1991
    There is in Latin America a tradition of "firmeza permanente," relentless persistence, which has enabled the people to preserve parts of their culture during five centuries of conquest and oppression.
69. Reveille for Radicals 
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1946   Published: 1969
    Alinksy connects his theoretical notions on radicalism to practical movements and events.
70. Revolutionary Optimism: Journeys in Radical Politics Past and Present
    Resource Type: Film/Video
    First Published: 2018
    On the "Reality Asserts Itself" program of The RealNews network, Prof. Leo Panitch is interviewed by host Paul Jay. Discussion topics include his political leanings, the rise of Jeremy Corbyn, the UK Labour Party, and whether radical change is indeed possible.
71. Ruling the Void
    The Hollowing of Western Democracy
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 2009
    Analyzes democratic trends over the last few decades in Europe and America.
72. The Russian Revolution 
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1918   Published: 1961
    The basic lesson of every great revolution, the law of its being, decrees: either the revolution must advance at a rapid, stormy, resolute tempo, break down all barriers with an iron hand and place its goals ever farther ahead, or it is quite soon thrown backward behind its feeble point of departure and suppressed by counter-revolution. To stand still, to mark time on one spot, to be contented with the first goal it happens to reach, is never possible in revolution. And he who tries to apply the home-made wisdom derived from parliamentary battles between frogs and mice to the field of revolutionary tactics only shows thereby that the very psychology and laws of existence of revolution are alien to him.
73. Socialism and Revolution 
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1967   Published: 1973
    Representative democracy in every industrially advanced country is in a state of profound crisis. But we have been accustomed for so long to accept democracy in the form of its outward appearances and parliamentary institutions that its decay often does not become apparent to us until those institutions have been either brushed aside or reduced to a purely decorative role.
74. Socialism.ca 
    Resource Type: Website
    First Published: 2016
    A gateway to resources about socialism, socialist history, and socialist ideas, compiled by Connexions.
75. Socialist Register 2018
    Volume 54: Rethinking Democracy
    Resource Type: Serial Publication (Periodical)
    First Published: 2017
    We have conceived this 54th volume of the Socialist Register on Rethinking Democracy as a companion volume to the 2017 volume on Rethinking Revolution. As we put it in the preface to that volume: ‘The "political event" of gaining state power, whether by taking parliament or in a collapse of the existing political regime, has proven time and again to be less crucial than the social revolution of building capacities for self-government and the democratization and socialization of institutional resources … The "event", in itself, … will never be a sufficient condition for the exploited and oppressed to build their own capacities for establishing collective, rather than competitive, ways of living through developing socialist democracy.'
76. SOS Alternatives to Capitalism 
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 2014
    An investigation of the alternatives to capitalism, including socialism, anarchism and deep ecology.
77. SOS Alternatives to Capitalism: A discussion with Richard Swift
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 2014
    Montreal Serai had the opportunity to discuss SOS: Alternatives to Capitalism – a handy, slim compendium of vital, essential thoughts and discussions on the concept of an alternative economy and society – with Richard Swift.
78. Street Level Democracy
    Political Settings at the Margins of Global Power
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1999
    A wide-ranging book that traces the conflicts between global power and local action. People in farming communities, town mosques, city markets, and fishing communities suffer the effects of wrenching change and grapple with the politics of everyday life.
79. The Struggle for Democracy
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1988
    A sweeping illustrated survey of the growth of democracy, its heroes and heroines, its enemies, its failures and successes.
80. The Struggle for Ecological Democracy
    Environmental Justice Movements in the United States
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1998
    Explores the ecosocialist perspective on the goals, strategies, and accomplishments of environmental justice. Faber also identifies the emerging principles of ecological democracy in the quest for a solution to America's social and ecological crisis.
81. Tactics of desperation: Using false accusations of 'anti-semitism' as a weapon to silence criticism of Israel's behaviour 
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 2009
    The Israeli state and its defenders are increasingly attempting to silence critics because they are losing the battle for public opinion.
82. Thoughts on a Timely Narrative for the Left
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 2012
    "Without a story every battle is lost”, formulated the authors of the Wu Ming group, whose name demonstrators in Rome had on their shields which protected them from the police clubs. With the naming of great authors and narratives of world literature on their book shields they were indicating that power does not shy back from violently attacking even intellect and beauty.
83. Towards 21st Century Democracy
    Interview with a Proportional Representation Activist
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 1996
    
84. We Make the Road By Walking 
    Conversations on education and social change
    Resource Type: Book
    First Published: 1990
    Horton, the founder of the Highlander Folk School, and Freire, a Brazilian education leader, are from two different backgrounds, but their shared views on the use of participatory education in bringing about social change are the basis for this thought-provoking book.
85. We must win back democracy, even if it takes Hedges' revolution
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 2016
    While the banks, elites, and the super-rich have been scrambling to try to hold onto their billions following the UK's shocking vote to exit from the European Union, the anger expressed by the leave side was another emotional cry to end the control that corporations and the elite have over everyday people in many Western countries.
86. What Do We Do Now? Building a Social Movement in the Aftermath of Free Trade 
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 1989
    We have the potential to create a social movement in this country that goes beyond single-issue organizing to work toward an integrated vision of a more just and caring society.
87. Zimbabwe: One state, one faith, one lord
    Resource Type: Article
    The one-party system of Zimbabwe.

Experts on D‚mocratisation in the Sources Directory

1. Connexions
2. Ulli Diemer
3. International Forum on Globalization
4. Marxists Internet Archive
5. Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe