We have assembled some core reading materials that serve as an introduction to the Symbiosis strategy, as well as a broader collection of important readings on organizing for a cooperative, democratic, and ecological future. We have many more materials in the People’s Library, Symbiosis’s bank of ebooks. The People’s Library will be uploaded to the website soon!
Introductory Essays
Community, Democracy, and Mutual Aid: Toward Dual Power and Beyond, by the Symbiosis Research Collective, 2017. In this essay, we lay out an overview of our revolutionary strategy and utopian vision. It received first place in the Next System Project’s 2017 essay contest and was excerpted in the journal Perspectives on Anarchist Theory as “Reimagining Revolutionary Organizing: A Vision for Dual Power.”
Radical Municipalism: The Future We Deserve, by Debbie Bookchin. 2017.
Casting Shadows: Chokwe Lumumba and the Struggle for Racial Justice and Economic Democracy in Jackson, Mississippi, by Kali Akuno. 2015.
Ready to Fight: Developing a 21st Century Community Syndicalism, by Shane Burley
Biopolitics, Dual Power, and the Revolutionary Characteristics of “Serve the People” Programs
The New Municipal Movements, by Eleanor Finley
How to Be an Anticapitalist Today, by Erik Olin Wright
Thoughts on Libertarian Municipalism, by Murray Bookchin
Jackson Rising Syllabus
For reading groups, we have designed a syllabus around Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi, edited by Kali Akuno and Ajamu Nangwaya.
This is a very important book, laying out clearly this movement’s political vision and documenting the origins of Cooperation Jackson, a member organization of Symbiosis. It is broken up into twelve weeks of readings, with each group of chapters accompanied by related short pieces.
Some Practical Guides
“How to Win Back the City” a guide for integrating social movements into a coordinated municipalist movement in a major city. Written by the citizen’s platform Barcelona En Comú based in Barcelona, Catalonia.
“People’s Movement Assembly Handbook”. People’s movement assembly organizing handbook from the Southern People’s Movement, associated with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and community-based organizations in the US South.
“So You Want to Build a Solidarity Network” by Seattle Solidarity Network. This guide is about how to organize a workers’ and tenants’ mutual support organization.
Neighborhood Sharing Economy toolkit by Shareable.