If movements reject hierarchical power, what do they build in its place?
In Episode 2, we explored why radicals reject illegitimate authority and the distinction between “power over” and “power with.” Now we turn to construction: how do movements create structures of collective self-governance that embody liberation?
This episode introduces prefigurative politics—the principle that we create the world we want by organizing today. We examine how worker cooperatives, community land trusts, and mutual aid networks put this into practice, and look at real movements doing this work: Cooperation Jackson in Mississippi and Argentina’s recuperated workplaces.
We also confront a harder question: what happens when these alternatives come under attack? From Argentina to the United States, movements building genuine alternatives face repression—and sometimes cooptation of their language by forces working against them. What does this teach us about prefigurative politics?