Association of Anarchist Communist Wikipedians

Welcome to the Association of Anarchist Communist Wikipedians (AACW). What unifies us is our opposition to authority and hierarchy on Wikipedia. We believe, in the words of Errico Malatesta, that "authority not only is not necessary for social organisation but, far from benefiting it, lives on it parasitically, hampers its development, and uses its advantages for the special benefit of a particular class which exploits and oppresses the others"^[1].

An injury to one is an injury to all!

The AACW was founded on 7 December 2011 at 1:35 UTC by Life in General. It is open to anyone who agrees with its Constitution. This article shall be the Constitution of the AACW.

Goals

The goals of the AACW are as follows:

To continuously improve Wikipedia and make it the most comprehensive source of reliable encyclopedic information available on the planet.
To support Wikipedia's premise to be comprised of the sum of all human knowledge, freely-accessible to all humans.

We share these goals with the Association of Inclusionist Wikipedians (AIW): the AACW is an inclusionist organisation. Where we differ with the AIW is in the means through which we intend to reach those goals. That is our instrumental goal. The instrumental goal of the AACW is:

The creation of a directly democratic and horizontal (i.e. non-hierarchical) means of governance for Wikipedia, that is to say Wikipedian self-management.

This instrumental goal requires us to advocate revolution on Wikipedia. We call for the Wikipedian Social Revolution. Of course, this being on the internet, our call for revolution should not be taken as indicating us being violent: a "revolution" on a website could not possibly be a violent revolution in the first place. Additionally, it would require a very substantial majority to agree with us for the Wikipedian Social Revolution to be possible in the first place: as anarchist communists, we will not impose our views on anyone.

¡Viva la Revolución Social de Wikipedia!

Principles

The AACW is united on the following principles:

The AACW functions according to the principles of direct democracy, recallable, mandated and rotatable delegates, real, functional equality among members, and horizontal federalism among all its members;
AACW members treat each other in a comradely manner, based on trust, esteem and respect.
AACW members are anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-heterosexist, and anti-xenophobic.

Membership

To join the AACW, sign up here at the active membership list. Members who are inactive within the AACW's instruments of governance (described in the next section) for more than three weeks (21 days) will be considered inactive members, and will have their names removed from the active membership list and placed in the inactive membership list. Inactive members may become involved again at any time they choose, provided that they first transfer their name back to the active membership list. The inactive membership list exists so that some reasonable standard of quorum can exist for the AACW's instruments of governance; inactive members do not count for quorum purposes.

Below are the active members of the Association of Anarchist Communist Wikipedians:

Internal governance

The General Assembly and the General Secretariat are the AACW's instruments of governance. They shall be considered to exist when the AACW has at least 10 active members. If the AACW has fewer than 10 active members, the talk page shall be considered the instrument of governance.

General Assembly

The supreme decision making body of the AACW shall be the General Assembly. All active members are members of the General Assembly. Any active member may submit a proposal before the General Assembly, followed by which discussion can occur. Amendments to proposals during the discussion period will pass provided:

Any 5 active members of the AACW agree and there are no conflicting amendments; or, in the case of conflicting amendments
The amendment in question is supported by more active members than any conflicting amendments.

A proposal shall be brought to vote no later than 48 hours after its submission to the General Assembly, unless at least 5 active members wish to postpone the vote. Before 48 hours, or if a vote has been postponed to later than 48 hours, a proposal shall be brought to vote as soon as any 5 active members wish to bring it to vote.

The quorum for voting on any proposal is 50% of the active membership of the AACW. Voting shall close and a decision shall have been reached when:

The entire active membership of the AACW has submitted a vote; failing which
At least 50% of the active membership has submitted a vote and at least 5 days has passed.

Except in the case of amendments to this constitution, a simple majority of 50%+1 shall be sufficient to reach a decision. In the case of an amendment to this constitution, a 65% majority is required.

The General Assembly shall decide on the AACW's strategy (to be typed under the "Strategies for achieving an anarchist communist Wikipedia" section of this article), and it shall also decide on arguments to be placed under the "Arguments for an anarchist communist Wikipedia" section of this article.

General Secretary

The General Assembly shall elect a General Secretary whose task shall be to represent the AACW to the outside world.

Talk Page

In the event of the AACW not having at least 10 active members, supreme decision making power shall revert to the talk page. In that case, all decisions shall be made by the unanimous consent of all active members.

Arguments for an anarchist communist Wikipedia

Arguments deemed strong by the General Assembly are be placed here. This section may only be edited by the explicit mandated consent of the General Assembly (or the Talk Page if the AACW has fewer than 10 active members).

Strategies for achieving an anarchist communist Wikipedia

The strategies adopted by the General Assembly will be placed here. This section may only be edited by the explicit mandated consent of the General Assembly (or the Talk Page if the AACW has fewer than 10 active members).

References

↑ Malatesta, E. 1897. l'Agitazione (June 4).

[1] Malatesta, E. 1897. l'Agitazione (June 4).

[1]