"After eleven years the incessant mistakes of the Communist leaders, the brutality of the State Security Police, the widespread bureaucracy and mismanagement, the bungling, the arbitrary methods and the lies have led to total collapse. This was no counter-revolution, organised by fascists and reactionaries. It was the upsurge of a whole people, in which rank-and-file Communists took part, against a police dictatorship dressed up as a Socialist society-a police dictatorship backed up by Soviet armed might.

And I have no hesitation in placing the blame for these terrible events squarely on the shoulders of those who led the Hungarian Communist Party for eleven years... They turned what could have been the outstanding example of people’s democracy in Europe into a grisly caricature of Socialism. They reared and trained a secret police which tortured all-Communists as well as non-Communists-who dared to open their mouths against injustices. It was a secret police which in these last few dreadful days turned its guns on the people whose defenders it was supposed to be."

– Peter Fryer, 1956

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956

anarchists for 150 years: abolish the state, the state sucks

tankies: you have never seized state power, you failures

"Mendha-Lekha’s success is partially attributable to its tribal culture, small population, and close-knit social structure. However, its principles—community-led governance, decentralized decision-making, resistance to bureaucratic dominance, and environmental stewardship—offer valuable lessons for the world. In an era of increasing centralization, market-driven policies, and socio-economic inequalities, the village’s model challenges the limitations of modern governance.

Consensus democracy, as practiced in Mendha-Lekha, ensures that minorities are never overlooked and that decision-making fosters strong human relationships through dialogue. By prioritizing collective well-being over personal gain, the village presents an alternative to hierarchical power structures and political nepotism. It is a testament to how everyday discourse can bridge social divides and foster a truly participatory democracy.

In an age marked by environmental crises and deepening inequalities, Mendha-Lekha stands as a beacon of sustainable and justice-driven governance. The concepts of degrowth, interdependence, and decentralized resource management gain new meaning in the light of their achievements. As the world grapples with the limitations of existing systems, Mendha-Lekha provides a hopeful paradigm for the future—one where people reclaim agency over their lives and communities."

https://countercurrents.org/2025/01/mohan-hirabhai-hiralal-a-pioneer-of-self-governance/

'if someone is beating you with a stick and you say "stop please" and people are like "please articulate the details exactly how you want society to function without that guy beating you with a stick" you are under no obligation to answer.

while the work of envisioning society without police is worthwhile, it is not necessary that each of us have it at the tip of our tongues, it is easy enough to say "not this."

because, after all, the goal is not to, as individuals or some vanguard, have the answers, the goal is to solve these problems and build new societies as a society, collectively, we offer processes, not answers.

the answers, we'll figure them out together, for now, abolish the police, we are not safer for having an armed gang that enacts racist violence with impunity.'

— Margaret Killjoy

'... the logic of carcerality is not limited to the systems of domination that characterize our capitalist society. Carcerality is also a logic that permeates the socialist movement. The most obvious and egregious example of this are leftists who defend mass incarceration and mass deportations under the former Soviet Union and the current People’s Republic of China, but also more subtly through social democrats and democratic socialists upholding borders, police, and prisons.

In an example of the subtle way carcerality persists among radicals, it has become common in radical spaces in the Philippines to hear “abolish the Philippine National Police” followed by proposals for the creation of a decentralized, local, or refounded police—again, a repeat of replacing the Philippine Constabulary with the PNP. Such proposals fail to address the root causes of the violence of policing, merely rearranging how this violence is carried out.

It is not enough to oppose carceral institutions: the very logic of carcerality must be interrupted in our own spaces and expunged from our programs.'

https://cosmonautmag.com/2025/02/why-socialists-must-be-abolitionists-challenging-carcerality-in-socialist-spaces/