Organising Radical Left Populism

Chapter Eight provides both an overview of the promise of anarchist cybernetics in relation to radical left social movement organising and a projection of how the principles of anarchist cybernetics may be utilised in understanding the kinds of organisation forms that have come to the fore since the 2011 uprisings. The chapter examines the so-called ‘electoral turn’ and developments in social democratic political parties such as the Labour Party in the UK, Syriza in Greece, Podemos in Spain and ongoing contestations in the Democratic Party in the US. Doing so, the chapter looks at, on the one hand, where horizontal forms of organising operate within these kinds of structures and, on the other, the limits on the power of horizontal, grassroots organising that come from its engagement with these typically structurally hierarchical organisations. The chapter makes the case for anarchist cybernetics as a way of articulating the limits of party forms of organisation and, more practically, in designing organisational and communication structures within such organisations to aid democracy and participation.