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"From one of the key organizers of Occupy Wall Street and a leading activist in European social movements comes a book that shows a common thread in the recent upsurge in mass protests from Argentina to Greece to the Middle East to New York. The new movements, argue Marina Sitrin and Dario Azzellini, put forward a new conception of participatory democracy, challenging the idea that liberal, representative democracy--let alone the authoritarian regimes being challenged in the Middle East--is democratic, nor ever was. To make the argument and illustrate the kinds of democratic thinking being pioneered by the new movements, They Can't Represent Us! is propelled by scores of interviews with leading activists in Europe, South America, the Middle East, and Asia, allowing readers entre;e to a fascinating array of protest and prefigurative movements across the world. The book provides one of the most extensive portraits of the assemblies, direct democracy forums, factory takeovers, cooperatives, and organizational forms championed by the new movements, and its truly global focus provides a kind of political travelogue of the cutting edge of global activism"--

A brief history of movements and repression in Argentina -- From rupture to creation: new movements emerge -- Horizontalidad -- New subjectivities and affective politics -- Power and autonomy: against and beyond the state -- Autogestión, territory, and alternative values -- The state rises: incorporation, cooptation, and autonomy -- Measuring success: affective or contentious politics?

There is not much of a global anarchist movement today. At the same time, since the 1990s, many popular movements around the world have been animated by something that I would call an anarchist spirit—a way of organizing and relating that opposes hierarchy and embraces direct democracy. This is a spirit that we should applaud and help to flourish. Although they may not define themselves as ideologically anarchist or even always be aware of the connection, these new movements nonetheless have much in common with ideas developed by historical anarchists like Emma Goldman, Murray Bookchin, and the libertarian left in Spain during the 1930s.

This essay puts forward the basic premises around which the Occupy movements in the United States are organized, locates the movement globally, argues that the movements themselves are the ones that should determine their own success, and then distinguishes these positions from those that Michael Kazin puts forward in his article, "The Fall and Rise of the U.S. Populist Left." Kazin argues that the way to determine if the Occupy movements will be successful is if they articulate "what a better country would look like and what it would take to get there." This, however, is the wrong way to evaluate the Occupy movements. The intention of the thousands of assemblies taking place around the United States, as well as in Greece and Spain, where I have been most recently, is to open spaces for people to voice their concerns and desires—and to do so in a directly democratic way. These movements emerged in response to a growing crisis, the heart of which is a lack of democracy. People do not feel represented by the governments that claim to speak in their name. The Occupy movements are not based on creating either a program or a political party that will put forward a plan for others to follow. Their purpose is not to determine "the" path that a particular country should take but to create the space for a conversation in which all can participate and in which all can deter-mine together what the future should look like. At the same time, these movements are attempting to prefigure that future society in their present social relationships.

This essay puts forward the basic premise around which the Occupy movements in the United States are organized, locates the movement globally, argues that the movements themselves are the ones that should determine their own success, and then distinguishes these positions from those that Michael Kazin puts forward in his article, "The Fall and Rise of the U.S. Populist Left.". Adapted from the source document.