The Movement For a Democracy of Content
Encyclopedia
The Movement for a Democracy of Content was a revolutionary
political organisation active from the late 1940s to the early 1970s in the US, in Germany the last issue of Dinge der Zeit, appeared in August 1997 (exactly 50 years after their first issue).
With groups in the UK, the US, West Germany
and South Africa
, the Movement is best known for publishing the influential political magazine Contemporary Issues - A Magazine for a Democracy of Content and for its involvement in the 1957 Alexandra Bus Boycott
in Johannesburg
.
.
The man credited with being the Movement’s leading theoretician was Josef Weber, a German former member of a Trotskyite group, the IKD (Internationale Kommunisten Deutschlands). Weber - also known as Ernst Zander, William Lunen and Erik Erikson - remained one of the most frequent contributors to Contemporary Issues until his death in 1959. The most prominent members of the Movement in its early years tended to be German émigrés - a mix of former Trotskyites and social democrats such as Max Laufer, Ulrich Jacobs and Fritz Besser. There were also South Africans living in exile such as Pierre Watter, Richard McArthur and Stanley Trevor.
Its followers also rejected the traditionally leftist notion of "class struggle
", instead believing that a "majority revolution" was possible. They hoped to undermine existing power structures by providing answers to a wide range of important, and frequently neglected, topics through the pages of Contemporary Issues.
Essays on topics such as the Aboriginal
experience in Australia
would often appear alongside articles discussing Diderot; while other writers would discuss everything from nuclear power
and urban development to food biology. In the Issue 53, December 1988 of Dinge der Zeit, Paul Brass took a look back to 40 years of history of the Movement for a Democracy of Content.
remilitarization. The New York
group campaigned hard in support of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising, while also causing a stir with Murray Bookchin
's articles about synthetic chemicals in food.
The Johannesburg
group, founded by Afrikaans
poet and activist Vincent Swart and his American wife Lillian, experienced particular success campaigning against the Apartheid government on several local issues. The most notable was the organisation and leadership shown by Dan Mokonyane
during the 1957 Alexandra Bus Boycott
. As part of one of six groups charged with organizing the Alexandra Township People’s Transport Committee, Mokonyane successfully helped the people of the township to oppose a price hike by the local bus company.
Revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...
political organisation active from the late 1940s to the early 1970s in the US, in Germany the last issue of Dinge der Zeit, appeared in August 1997 (exactly 50 years after their first issue).
With groups in the UK, the US, West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, the Movement is best known for publishing the influential political magazine Contemporary Issues - A Magazine for a Democracy of Content and for its involvement in the 1957 Alexandra Bus Boycott
1957 Alexandra Bus Boycott
The 1957 Alexandra Bus Boycott was a protest undertaken against the Public Utility Transport Corporation by the people of Alexandra in Johannesburg....
in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
.
Origins
The genesis of the Movement lay in the June 1947 publication of a magazine called Dinge der Zeit - Zeitschrift für inhaltliche Demokratie (Contemporary Issues). The first few issues of this magazine were shrouded in mystery, as nearly every contributor chose to write under a pseudonymPseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
.
The man credited with being the Movement’s leading theoretician was Josef Weber, a German former member of a Trotskyite group, the IKD (Internationale Kommunisten Deutschlands). Weber - also known as Ernst Zander, William Lunen and Erik Erikson - remained one of the most frequent contributors to Contemporary Issues until his death in 1959. The most prominent members of the Movement in its early years tended to be German émigrés - a mix of former Trotskyites and social democrats such as Max Laufer, Ulrich Jacobs and Fritz Besser. There were also South Africans living in exile such as Pierre Watter, Richard McArthur and Stanley Trevor.
Programme
The Movement opposed having a rigid ideological programme, and its founders rejected the idea of giving "solemn assurances of promises". The nearest thing it had to a programme of ideals was Weber’s contribution to Contemporary Issues in 1950, entitled "The Great Utopia". Ideologically, it opposed Western notions of parliamentary democracy and Soviet communism, seeing both "ideologies" as reinforcing one another. Yet the Movement for a Democracy of Content was not a political party in any conventional sense.Its followers also rejected the traditionally leftist notion of "class struggle
Class struggle
Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
", instead believing that a "majority revolution" was possible. They hoped to undermine existing power structures by providing answers to a wide range of important, and frequently neglected, topics through the pages of Contemporary Issues.
Essays on topics such as the Aboriginal
Australian Aborigines
Australian Aborigines , also called Aboriginal Australians, from the latin ab originem , are people who are indigenous to most of the Australian continentthat is, to mainland Australia and the island of Tasmania...
experience in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
would often appear alongside articles discussing Diderot; while other writers would discuss everything from nuclear power
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
and urban development to food biology. In the Issue 53, December 1988 of Dinge der Zeit, Paul Brass took a look back to 40 years of history of the Movement for a Democracy of Content.
Activities
The Movement’s influence on mainstream politics was marginal, and its leaders prone to feuding. However, it dedicated its energies to a number of important struggles in the 1950s. The German group was particularly active in opposing West GermanWest Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
remilitarization. The New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
group campaigned hard in support of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising, while also causing a stir with Murray Bookchin
Murray Bookchin
Murray Bookchin was an American libertarian socialist author, orator, and philosopher. A pioneer in the ecology movement, Bookchin was the founder of the social ecology movement within anarchist, libertarian socialist and ecological thought. He was the author of two dozen books on politics,...
's articles about synthetic chemicals in food.
The Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
group, founded by Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
poet and activist Vincent Swart and his American wife Lillian, experienced particular success campaigning against the Apartheid government on several local issues. The most notable was the organisation and leadership shown by Dan Mokonyane
Dan Mokonyane
Dan Mokonyane was a South African political revolutionary and writer and legal academic...
during the 1957 Alexandra Bus Boycott
1957 Alexandra Bus Boycott
The 1957 Alexandra Bus Boycott was a protest undertaken against the Public Utility Transport Corporation by the people of Alexandra in Johannesburg....
. As part of one of six groups charged with organizing the Alexandra Township People’s Transport Committee, Mokonyane successfully helped the people of the township to oppose a price hike by the local bus company.
See also
- 1957 Alexandra Bus Boycott1957 Alexandra Bus BoycottThe 1957 Alexandra Bus Boycott was a protest undertaken against the Public Utility Transport Corporation by the people of Alexandra in Johannesburg....
- Murray BookchinMurray BookchinMurray Bookchin was an American libertarian socialist author, orator, and philosopher. A pioneer in the ecology movement, Bookchin was the founder of the social ecology movement within anarchist, libertarian socialist and ecological thought. He was the author of two dozen books on politics,...
- Direct DemocracyDirect democracyDirect democracy is a form of government in which people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. Direct democracy is classically termed "pure democracy"...
- Economic DemocracyEconomic democracyEconomic democracy is a socioeconomic philosophy that suggests a shift in decision-making power from a small minority of corporate shareholders to a larger majority of public stakeholders...
- Inclusive DemocracyInclusive DemocracyInclusive Democracy is a political theory and political project that aims for direct democracy, economic democracy in a stateless, moneyless and marketless economy, self-management and ecological democracy...
- Historical materialismHistorical materialismHistorical materialism is a methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history, first articulated by Karl Marx as "the materialist conception of history". Historical materialism looks for the causes of developments and changes in human society in the means by which humans...
- Dan MokonyaneDan MokonyaneDan Mokonyane was a South African political revolutionary and writer and legal academic...
Further reading
- Josef Weber: "Dinge der Zeit" Kritische Beiträge zu Kultur und Politik, (Vorwort: Michael Schneider), (Hg.: Freundeskreis der Zeitschrift "Dinge der Zeit"), Argument Verlag, Hamburg 1995. ISBN 3-88619-631-3.
- Marcel van der Linden: "Wider den gesellschaftlichen Rückschritt. Die Bewegung für inhaltliche Demokratie (1947-1964), in: 'Grenzgänge. Deutsche Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts im Spiegel von Publizistik, Rechtssprechung und historischer Forschung', (Hg.: Angelika Ebbinghaus/Karl Heinz Roth), zu Klampen Verlag, Lüneburg 1999. ISBN 3-924245-77-0.
- Max Laufer: "Unter stalinistischer Diktatur". Edition Wahler, Grafenau 2006. ISBN 3-938145-02-1.
- Paul Brass/Moshe Zuckermann/Noam ChomskyNoam ChomskyAvram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
: "Friedensaussichten im Nahen Osten. Israel und Palästina im Spannungsfeld internationaler Interessen". Trotzdem Verlag, Grafenau 2003. - Marcel van der Linden: The Prehistory of Post-Scarcity Anarchism: Josef Weber and the Movement for a Democracy of Content (1947-1964), Anarchist StudiesAnarchist StudiesAnarchist Studies is a biannual academic journal on anarchism. It takes an interdisciplinary approach, examining the history, culture, and theory of anarchism...
, vol.9, no.2 (Cambridge, 2001) p. 127-145.
External links
- Marcel Van Der Linden, The Prehistory of Post-Scarcity Anarchism: Josef Weber and the Movement for a Democracy of Content (1947-1964)
- Bestand im Schweizerischen Sozialarchiv
- "Josef Weber and Contemporary Issues", Review by Bureau of Public Secrets
- "The Great Utopia" (1950) by Josef Weber
- Internetpräsenz des Trotzdem Verlages
- Eintrag in der Datenbank des deutschsprachigen Anarchismus/DadA
- Dinge der Zeit entry to the german Wikipedia