All power to the people.
Symbiosis is building a directly democratic confederation of grassroots institutions and movements. Our organizations and members stretch across North America, all Symbiosis-wide decisions are made through votes by the full membership, and our working groups are organized horizontally. We have no fixed leaders, no formal hierarchy, and no single headquarters.
Listed below is our structure until the Congress in September 2019, after which time it will likely change significantly as Symbiosis dissolves into the emergent confederation.
Decision-Making
Grassroots Power: All decision-making power is held at the grassroots level and centered around member organizations embedded in the communities they are transforming. At-large members can vote as individuals and join working groups, but they are also encouraged to join or form member organizations with those in their area.
Direct Democracy: All Symbiosis-wide decisions are made by the full membership through monthly referenda. All Symbiosis member organizations (and at-large members) are welcome to propose ballot items each month.
Horizontalism: Symbiosis is non-hierarchical, with decision-making power distributed horizontally. As such, all members are empowered to propose ideas and all members have an equal say in the decisions that affect us all. Likewise, all members share an equal responsibility for the outcomes and well-being of the broader network.
Monthly referenda periods occur in the last two weeks of each month – one week reserved for debate and discussion among the membership, after which time all ballot items are finalized, and a second week reserved for voting.
To view our full bylaws, click here.
Members and Partners
As a confederation of grassroots organizations, Symbiosis is built by and for its affiliated organizations. There are two types of organizational affiliation with Symbiosis:
Member organizations are local, place-based, grassroots institutions or institution-building movements who will constitute the decision-making body of our confederation.
Partner organizations are ideologically-aligned allies whose work does not fall into the member organization category but who nonetheless have an interest in seeing the Congress take place and a permanent confederation arise.
To view our current members and partners, click here.
To affiliate as a member or partner organization, click here.
Digital Organizing
Given the geographic dispersion of our members, the bulk of our organizing happens digitally. For now, day-to-day organizing and community conversations happen on our Slack workspace. The Slack workspace is open to all member organizations and at-large members to join and get involved. Each working group collaborates on documents in its own folder on Google Drive. We hold regular digital meetings and Town Halls over Zoom video conferencing platform. Monthly referenda ballots, working group notes, and newsletters are sent out over email.
Invitations to join Slack, along with information on its use for those unfamiliar with the platform, will be sent to all new member sign-ups. If you sign up for any working groups, you will also receive invitations to those Google Groups and Google Drive folders.
Working Groups and Coordinators
Symbiosis is an entirely volunteer-run organization.
Until the Congress of Municipal Movements, when delegates from each of our member organizations will meet in-person to deliberate and formally launch a continental confederation, much of the daily work of Symbiosis centers around outreach to new organizations, planning the Congress, and building the infrastructure necessary to ensure the confederation can form.
Symbiosis has various working groups responsible for the tasks necessary to establish the confederation. Working groups are open to the full membership to join and participate in, and representatives from new organizations are strongly encouraged to get involved.
Each working group has 1-2 coordinators who act as administrators for that group’s activities. These coordinators do not hold any greater decision-making power than other members.
Likewise, for coordination across Symbiosis, we have a Coordinating Committee (“CC”) of 12 democratically-elected members. The CC is responsible for Symbiosis-wide administration, such as sending out monthly ballots, organizing monthly Town Halls, and taking on tasks that do not obviously fall to any other working groups. The CC can directly add measures to the ballot and helps to oversee finances along with the Finance and Fundraising Working Group. All CC calls are open to the full membership as observers.