FAQ

Dual power is a way to imagine the moment just before our movements converge, as the possible becomes the actual. When the seeds of social transformation we have sown for generations bloom. When the old world begins to wither, and new worlds can be born. It is a way of thinking about how we get to that moment and beyond it.

Dual power is the project of building self determination, mutual aid, solidarity, and direct democracy in our communities by creating spaces that empower us all and from which new emancipatory institutions can emerge.

For a series of articles exploring dual power, check out the ROAR magazine issue on it. For a map that plots dual power projects, with a focus on cooperatives, check out the Dual Power Map on the Black Socialists of America website. For an overview that touches on the major points, look at Dual Power: a Strategy for Building Socialism in our Time.

El poder dual es una manera de imaginar el momento justo antes de que converjan nuestros movimientos, mientras que lo posible vuelva a lo actual. Cuando las semillas de transformación social que hemos sembrado por generaciones florecen. Cuando el mundo viejo comienza a marchitar, y los mundos nuevos pueden nacer. Es una manera de pensar en cómo lleguemos a ese momento y más allá.

El poder dual es el proyecto de construir la autodeterminación, el apoyo mutuo, la solidaridad, y la democracia directa en nuestras comunidades por crear espacios que apoderan a todos y de que las instituciones emancipadoras nuevas puedan emergir.

Para una serie de artículos que exploran el poder dual, mire la edición de la revista ROAR sobre ello (inglés). Para un mapa trazado de proyectos de poder dual, con un enfoque en las cooperativas, mire el Mapa de Poder Dual (inglés) del website de Black Socialists in America. Para una visión general que toca los puntos mayores, mire El Poder Dual: una Estrategia para Construir el Socialismo en Nuestro Tiempo.

Dual Power West is an autonomous event being organized by a developing network of tenants, workers and activists participating in Symbiosis Federation, Autonomous Tenants Union Network, Industrial Workers of the World and independent dual power projects across the country. We are not affiliated with any political party.

Dual Power West es un evento autónomo siendo organizado por una red en desarrollo de inquilinos, trabajadores y activistas que participan en la Federación Symbiosis, la Red de Sindicatos de Inquilinxs Autónomos, los Trabajadores Industriales del Mundo (IWW) y proyectos de poder dual independientes a través del país. No estamos afiliados con ningún partido político.

We come together from across the spectrum of anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist tendencies, traditions, and organizations. We all have experience with spaces where disagreement isn’t handled well, and choose instead to build one where we endeavor to build trusting relationships, construct bridges, share ideas and strengthen each other.

We believe in the power of groups coming together to share their knowledge, stories and experiences. Building connections and sharing skills makes our local work more resilient and better equipped to face the coming years. We’re setting very modest expectations for what’s next for all of us collectively, and we have different ideas of what that might look like, but we know that we can only build our relationships and knowledge if we come together and talk about it, harnessing our different perspectives, backgrounds, and ecologies.

In the face of escalating militarism, growing insecurity, wealth inequality, and climate collapse, we could widen the gaps between each other in growing isolation and frustration, or turn towards each other to inspire, build, and fight. We absolutely choose the second.

Nos unimos a través del espectro de tendencias, tradiciones y organizaciones antiautoritarias y anticapitalistas. Todos tenemos experiencia con espacios donde el desacuerdo no es manejado bien, y elegimos construir en cambio uno donde nos esforzamos para construir relaciones de confianza y puentes, intercambiar ideas y fortalecernos.

Creemos en el poder de grupos que se unen para compartir su conocimiento, historias y experiencias. Construir las conexiones y compartir las habilidades hacen nuestro trabajo local más resiliente y mejor equipado para enfrentar los años que vienen. Estamos poniendo expectativas muy modestas para lo que sea próximo para nosotros colectivamente, y tenemos ideas diferentes de cómo podría aparecer, pero sabemos que sólo podemos construir nuestras relaciones y conocimiento si nos unamos y hablemos sobre ello, aprovechando nuestras perspectivas, antecedentes y ecologías diferentes.

Enfrente del militarismo escalando, la inseguridad creciente, la desigualdad de riqueza y el colapso del clima, podríamos ensanchar las brechas entre nosotros del aislamiento y la frustración que crecen, o volvernos, cada uno al otro, para inspirar, construir y luchar. Absolutamente elegimos lo segundo.

An unconference is a participant-driven meeting. The term “unconference” has been applied, or self-applied, to a wide range of gatherings that try to avoid hierarchical aspects of a conventional conference, such as sponsored presentations and top-down organization.

Typically at an unconference, the agenda is created by the attendees at the beginning of the meeting. Anyone who wants to initiate a discussion on a topic can claim a time and a space. Some unconference sessions are led by the participant who suggested its topic; other unconference sessions are basically open discussions of the session topic.

An “unconference” is particularly useful when participants generally have a high level of expertise or knowledge in the field the conference convenes to discuss.

Intro Videos

Total duration of videos is 12 minutes and 6 seconds

What is an Unconference? (1:19)

Norms and Tips (2:50)

How to run an Unconference (4:29)

7 tips in Hosting an Engaging Unconference (3:28)

Facilitation styles

An unconference can be conducted using a number of facilitation styles. Some of these are:

Birds of a feather: birds of a feather informal discussion groups, each dealing with a specific topic.

Dotmocracy: Website

Fishbowl: How to facilitate a “fishbowl” conversation (0:54)

Ignite: Ignite (Ignite Talks) is a series of events where speakers have five minutes to talk on a subject accompanied by 20 slides, for 15 seconds each, automatically advanced. Video (3:48)

Lightning talks: A lightning talk is a very short presentation lasting only a few minutes, given at a conference or similar forum. Several lightning talks will usually be delivered by different speakers in a single session, sometimes called a data blitz. Wikipedia Page

Open Space Technology: Open Space Technology (OST) is a method for organizing and running a meeting or multi-day conference, where participants have been invited in order to focus on a specific, important task or purpose.

PechaKucha: PechaKucha (Japanese: ぺちゃくちゃ, IPA: [petɕa kɯ̥tɕa],[1] chit-chat) is a storytelling format in which a presenter shows 20 slides for 20 seconds of commentary each. At a PechaKucha Night, individuals gather at a venue to share personal presentations about their work. The PechaKucha format can be used, for example, in business presentations to clients or staff, as well as in education settings. Video (6:25)

Speed geeking: Wikipedia Page; example video (2:26)

World café (conversation): Wikipedia page

Several of our core organizers have children and they’ll be coming to the event. Some of those children are already thinking about what a child track for the event would look like!

Múltiples de nuestros organizadores centrales tienen hijos y los llevarán al evento. ¡Algunos niños ya están pensando en cómo parecería una pista para niños!

We are not going into this with predetermined expectations of what will come out of it. We’re not letting our own hopes define the event; we instead leave that to the people attending. What comes next will be defined locally, and the networks we build will help inform, grow, and help articulate our movements.

No entramos en esto con expectativas predeterminadas de lo que venga de ello. No vamos a dejar que nuestras esperanzas definan el evento; en cambio dejamos eso a la gente que asista. Qué siga será definido localmente y las redes que construimos ayudarán a informar, crecer y articular nuestros movimientos.

Dual Power West is a DIY kind of space, so if you want to make something, please do! It’s also fine to just copy+paste stuff though!

Check out this cryptpad folder that contains a bunch of materials made by a great comrade, including original versions of the above graphics (google docs doesn’t allow you to download them unfortunately).

If you’re on the discord, check out the materials-wg channel for a history of all materials people have made.

Dual Power West es un tipo DIY de espacio, y entonces si usted quiere hacer algo, ¡hágalo por favor! ¡También es bueno simplemente copiar y pegar cosas!

Mire esta carpeta de CryptPad que contiene muchos materiales hechos por un gran compañero, incluso versiones originales de las gráficas de arriba (Google Docs no permite descargarlas desafortunadamente).

Aquí hay un gif genial.

Si usted está en el Discord, mire el canal “materials-wg” para una historia de todos los materiales que personas han hecho.