Contract For Ourselves
by members of For Ourselves: Council for Generalized Self-management
1974

Preamble

We, the undersigned founding members of the revolutionary organization herein constituted having chosen one another as associates in the revolutionary project herein undertaken, assume co-proprietorship of and co-responsibility for all activities executed in our name, and make commitment of the following articles to ourselves and to each other:

Article 1: Name

We agree that only the assembly of the council as a whole and no section or individual member thereof, shall determine the group name(s) and have sovereignty over its (their) use, once chosen.

Article 2: Meetings

1. We agree to assemble once every week, which regular assemblies shall conduct the management of all aspects of the existence in acts of our council: mandate sections, entertain motions to admit and exclude members, hear and decide on proposals for offensives, interventions, and sub-projects of all sorts, and hear reports from the already delegated sections. We agree that only the totality of the membership assembled wields sovereignty in the name of the organization — our collective name — and thus, that only the full assembly of the membership constitutes a quorum. We expect that every member shall attend each meeting. We further agree, therefore, that continued absence from the assembly, i.e., self-exclusion from 50% or more of the meetings constitutes grounds for formal exclusion, except under special circumstances as decided by the assembly (delegated missions and the like). We also agree that any member who anticipates his or her absence from a meeting shall inform the rest of the assembly beforehand of their intentions and reasons for non-attendance. It is further understood that such persons shall take full responsibility for informing themselves of decisions and discussions which took place during the missed meeting.
   
   
2. We agree that the first order of business at each meeting is "unfinished business", meaning an opening in the agenda for the airing of inter-personal conflicts and resentments accumulated in the practice since the last assembly, which, if left ulterior, would impede and falsify the process of the whole assembly. We see this process as the "reassembly" of the assembly; the re-acquaintance of its parts with one another, since the history of the assembly has gone on "in parts" since disassembly, generating new experience that needs to be made common property if the transparency we desire in our relations is to be maintained. We also recognize the importance of strokes in our relations and encourage their frequent and open exchange, both as part of unfinished business and throughout our meetings.
   
   
3. We agree to exercise collective control over the space-time of our collective existence. That this means, with regard to our space, security of meetings — that only full members and full participants, and no mere spectators, be present. That this means, with regard to our time, punctuality — that we keep our time commitments to one another.
   
   
4. We agree that irregular assemblies may be called by any member, at such a space-time that all members can be in attendance.
   
   
5. We agree that emergency assemblies may be called by any member, at any time, by means of a "telephone tree" set up for this purpose.
   
   
6. We agree that at the close of each assembly decision will be made as to its reproduction: the time, place, and tentative agenda of the next assembly.
   

Article 3: Membership

1. foundation:
   
   We agree that the set of signatories appended to this document constitute the founding membership of this organization for the duration of this contract, the subject or all these articles, named herein by "We". That further, we agree to the following process of admission to membership and exclusion from membership for the future — that is, outside the singular process through which we have herein mutually admitted one another, and excluded everyone else — in order to insure the expanded reproduction of this organization, and its quality, which only the collective control of our association can insure. If the addition of new members would result in the unwieldiness of the group, as shall be determined by the extant membership, then steps should be taken towards the creation of a second or third, etc., council, to work with the original in a relationship of federation, as defined in section 8b.
   
   
2. admission:
   
   Any member may move admission at a new member, consideration to proceed without need of a second. The member-select may be requested to express his desires and abilities in writing to the council, as a sort of resumé similar to the self-statements which the founding members each contributed to each other. Likewise, the founding documents and contract of the council will be made available to the member-select. Personal meetings may be requested by members in order to develop mutual personal knowledge and rapport. Collaboration in some intervention may be attempted. All of this, of course, depends on the extent of interpersonal knowledge and affinity already developed with the prospective member. Admission is effected by unanimous consent of the assembled council. Refusal to admit normally entails a written statement to the refused individual, clarifying the reasons for this refusal and, for our part, the grounds, if any, for further association. Refusal also implies an important disagreement with the member who moved admission, and thus may entail renegotiation with that member.
   
   While making no decisions in advance, we recognize in ourselves the following general criteria for admission to membership, in order of priority:
   
   
   1. residence within the local area (geographical proximity, in order to avoid objective exclusion, tending inevitably to become subjective exclusion)
      
      
   2. personal affinity
      
      
   3. ability to come to an explicit agreement on theory and practice, i.e., a contract
      
      
   4. equality of desire (for social revolution and for participation in the revolutionary project)
      
      
   5. equality of information (theoretical fluency)
      
      
   6. equality of capacities
      
      and, finally, especially in the long run, the practical proof of all these:
      
      
   7. equality of participation
      
      
   Of course, equality does not mean identity, and all of these are a matter of thresholds that can only be determined in the case.
   
   
3. exclusion:
   
   Any member may move exclusion of any other member, consideration to proceed without need of a second. Such a motion is germane at all times. No grounds for exclusion are laid down in advance because:
   
   
   1. clearly, the signing of the contract itself by all members implies that abrogation of anyone of the articles may lead to exclusion, since it constitutes a disagreement in acts with the contract, and because
      
      
   2. no amount of grounds could force us to exclude against our collective desire out of abstract respect for consistency, idolatry of a written document, or to avoid "hypocrisy" any more than any lack of pre-established grounds would prevent us from excluding if such was the collective will. Exclusion shall take effect only by unanimous vote of all "remaining" members (i.e., of all those members other than the one moving exclusion and the one so moved). However, the unanimous failure to exclude implies exclusion of the member moving exclusion. The failure to exclude unanimously implies a split in the organization. Thus, either of these outcomes requires renegotiation of the status of the association for all involved.
   
   
4. resignation, or self-exclusion:
   
   Of course, any member may resign at any time. However, we each agree at present to supply the rest of the assembly with a written statement of reasons and criticisms in the event of our resignation, for our mutual benefit in the larger revolutionary project.
   
   
5. leave of absence:
   
   A member who, due to special circumstances involving job, school, health, etc., is unable for a definite foreseeable period to maintain the level of participation requisite to membership, but who does not wish to incur the onus of rejection attached to exclusion or resignation, may apply to the assembly for a leave of absence for a specified period, after which his membership status will be renegotiated and resolved. The motion for a leave of absence is decideable by simple majority. The granting of this status signifies the intent of the assembly to readmit this member at the earliest possible moment, and the mutual desire to continue the association, unlike either exclusion or resignation.

Article 4: Security

With due regard to the growing danger to all revolutionaries posed by the expanding techno-repressive apparatus of global totalitarian state-capitalism — in all its variants, our mortal enemy — and, locally, the dire threat to us posed by the growing surveillance and secret police activities of the U.S. state, we agree to adopt security precautions to control access to our identities and to protect our persons. [In general, we agree that no plans discussed within the assembly shall be revealed to anyone outside the assembly without prior unanimous consent of the full assembly.]

Article 5:

1. 
   
   
2. 
   
   
3. 
   
   
4. 
   
   
5. 
   

Article 6: Specific Projects

1. We commit ourselves to complete the following projects within the 90-day period of this contract:
   
   
   1. publication of a journal, with the general assembly of our council acting as a "section of-the-whole" for the editorial and production process — mandated study sections will prepare certain articles and report to the general assembly;
      
      
   2. translation and publication of the most significant unavailable S.l. texts — Vaneigem's Traite de savoir-vivre pour l'usage de jeune generation, Vienet's Enrages et Situationnistes dans le mouvement d'occupations, Debord & Sanguinetti's La Veritable Scission dans l'Internationale and selected documents from, or perhaps the whole of, the twelve numbers of the French Section's journal, with critical introductory material written by us (a timetable will be worked out for the production of the translations);
      
      
   3. an intervention into the local and national spectacle;
      
      
   4. a section for the pillaging of psychotherapy, yoga and martial arts theory and practice, with an emphasis on practice as opposed to a mere reading-study group — critically appropriating whatever we can use, while furthering our critique of the ideologies growing out of all of these;
      
      
   5. the establishment of at least one collective enterprise to augment our survival — possibly incorporating as a producer's cooperative, the formation of a collective capital, etc..
   
   
2. We intend to begin or explore the following projects during the 90 days and beyond, listed here to make visible our tendencies and concerns:
   
   
   1. the take over of the "national poster" project by this council;
      
      
   2. a publication or shorter periodicity than a journal, more like a newspaper, to dialectize on current events while they are still current, etc., and to serve as a self-organizing tool, perhaps to begin as a wall-poster issued whenever we want to comment on important outbreaks;
      
      
   3. a study and research section on the Marxian critique of political economy, and on present developments in the global economy, mandated to make periodic reports to the general assembly, and to prepare articles for inclusion in the journal;
      
      
   4. to explore the propagation of our critique through media heretofore neglected (film, video tape, record albums, public poems and murals, etc.);
      
      
   5. 
      
      
   6. a pamphlet for general distribution that would outline our theory, practice and desires in a simple and concrete form — sections of this pamphlet to be appropriated as needed for specific interventions;
      
      
   7. an exchange of our utopian constructions, fantasies, and concrete visions of the new world as we desire it to be;
      
      
   8. a coordinated psychogeographical assault on a specific selected locale;
      
      
   9. a characterological map of the U.S. proletariat;
      
      
   10. a project for the continuation of the Hegelian analysis of Art since the end of Romanticism with special emphasis upon the surrealist movement as the cross-fertilization/origin of Art and Intervention (degree zero) and further penetration into the avant-garde of the present;
       
       
   11. an analysis/cntique of the roots of surrealism, i.e., De Sade, Fourier, Lautreamont, the Gothic Novel, etc. to uncover any useful material for the project of the supersession of Art to advance beyond the surrealist project and into creative intervention;
       
       
   12. the development of a theory and practice that realizes the art of dada and negates the surrealist object in the supersession of both for the creation of an art that works and subverts the "work of art."
       

Article 7: Production Process

We intend to organize our collective activity through the following means: delegation of sections of one or more members off the general assembly by a process involving explicit written instructions or mandates, and a staggered rotation of the delegates to each section, whenever the duration of the delegated function exceeds one month, at a rate of one rotation per month, unless explicitly decided otherwise according to the desires of the general assem bly and the individual delegates. Sections nonnally report back to the general assembly at each of its meetings about the progress of their activity, etc. Of course, all delegates are recallable in the event of the dissatisfaction of the assembly with their conduct of the mandate.

1. permanent sections:
   
   We agree to delegate the following permanent sections, and to mandate them with a detailed list of their tasks:
   
   
   • records
     
     
   • correspondence
     
     
   • research
     
     
   • collective finance
     
     
   • security
     
   
   
2. ad hoc sections:
   
   Ad hoc sections may be delegated and mandated at any meeting of the general assembly. The duration of the mandate should be specified in the mandate. The vote to delegate a section, i.e., the vote in favor of its specific task being undertaken by the organization at all, should be unanimous. The vote on the detailed mandate, however, should be decideable by simple majority. The confirmation of the nominated or volunteered (self-nominated) delegates should also be by unanimous consensus, since each of them represents the whole in his/her function.
   
   
3. collective time resource:
   
   We agree to provide each other with continuously updated time deployment maps so as to make readily visible to one another areas of mutual access and overlap in our weekly disposable time. We further agree to commit a certain amount of time to each other for collective tasks and projects, preferably but not necessarily equal, and subject to negotiation in each individual case.
   
   
4. collective space resource:
   
   We agree to investigate the setting up of a spatial locus or permanent physical center for collective activities: assemblies, central archives, supplies, section meetings, project drafting, etc..
   
   
5. collective financial resource:
   
   We agree to a prior and precise financial commitment from all members before embarking on all unanimously approved projects. We further agree to establish a war-chest for the council, to which donations may be made at any time. Moneys donated to the war-chest are the collective property of the council, and may be disposed only by decision of the whole assembly.

Article 8: Alliances

We agree to the following process in order to coherize cooperation in interventions and projects in general with groups and individuals not party to this contract:

1. collaboration:
   
   Collaboration with individuals or groups not party to this contract on a one-project basis requires four steps:
   
   
   1. a motion to collaborate;
      
      
   2. a unanimous 'yes' vote on this motion;
      
      
   3. the delegation and mandation of a body from the council to negotiate a special contract with said group or individual for the extent of the collaboration;
      
      
   4. a majority ratification of this special contract. We see no reason to refrain from such transparent and contractual relations with a group or individual with whom a common interest is mutually perceived, even if this commonality does not extend to the point where membership or federation is indicated, provided that the limitations and reservations concerning this association are mutually made explicit.
      
      
2. federation: 
   
   Federation with other councils, implying a desire for more permanent collaboration, requires these steps:
   
   
   1. a unanimous 'yes' vote on a motion to federate;
      
      
   2. the negotiation of a federal contract;
      
      
   3. a majority ratification of the federal contract;
      
      
   4. the setting up of a federal-central council of delegates mandated by election of the combined base of all the member-councils to the federation, whose powers shall be specified in the federal contract. Federation implies a much larger area of mutuality and resonance among federated councils than collaboration. The federated councils become, in fact, a single new organization.
      

Article 9: Records

1. 
   
   
2. 
   

Article 10: Contract

1. duration:
   
   We provisionally agree on 90 days from the date of signing as the duration of this contract. That is, we intend to share a common history for these 90 days, meaning among other things that we at present intend neither to admit any new members or exclude any of the rounding members during this trial period wherein we intend to get to know each other in practice. However, we feel free to make exceptions to these intentions should the desire or need arise. The agreements on exclusion and admission processes are included already because we at present expect this contract to form the basis of an organization which will extend beyond the 90 days, and we want to manifest our views on these processes to others now.
   
   
2. renegotiation:
   
   Our attitude is that this contract should be subject to renegotiation at any time, not just at the end of the 90 days, and be, in fact, renegotiated constantly, whenever the demand and desire for changes comes up; whenever the discovery or invention of new praxical and organizational concepts crystallizes out of our practical experience. The «bildung» of this contract in the course of its use should be a record, an objectification, of our own collective and individual «bildung» in the course of our using it. Hence:
   
   
   • amendment:
     
     We agree that the motion to amend this contract should be germain at any time, without need of a second, that its passage should require unanimous consensus, and that the records section should be responsible to collect and publish ratified amendments, and to distribute updated copies of the contract to members and contacts. A "historical" version of the contract should also be kept ready for reproduction by copier or other means, consisting of the original contract version with dated amendments appended.
     
     
   • evaluation:
     
     At the end of the 90 day period, each member agrees to submit a written evaluation self-statement to the other members, reviewing the experience of the preceding 90 days, the practice of the organization, the performance of the individual members; reconsidering the basis of association and the membership thereof, and proposing amendations for a new contract if he/she so desires. We further agree to assemble soon thereafter for a special meeting to consider negotiation of a new contract.
     
   
   
3. publication:
   
   We agree to publish an edited version of this contract, as signed and ratified, for the information of our correspondents, contacts, and comrades, and for that of other councils, as to the form and content, the self-definition, of our organization, and for the benefit of whatever practical theory they might glean from this document, the theory and organizational practices which it reflects, as a way of sharing with them our experience. In addition, we delegate to the records section the responsibility for preparing and delivering full copies of this contract to each of the founding members.
   
   
4. ~ contract:
   
   We in no sense intend to "live up to" this document. Its production was simply a use-value for us, an objectification in which to reflect ourselves back to ourselves, and make our self-conception visible. Internally, the process of producing it was of greatest value to us: as a test of our pre-existent unity; a forging of our present and future unity; a revelation of hidden disagreements, a thinking out together of the totality of our forseeable practice, in which each member had to think through that totality. Externally, the finished product is the greatest use-value: to tell others who we are, to define us, to make us initially transparent to other comrades who might consider joining us, and to other councils with whom we might consider federating, and to interested contacts generally, as a manifestation of our "tendency". The document is already a communication of our theory in its most intimately practical form, conveying our best self-consciousness, our best theory of (our own) practice. But any document, any objectification, is clearly subordinate to ourselves and our desires. We have no inclination to "obey" it. We are not afraid of being "hypocrites" or of "contradicting" ourselves whenever we decide we need to do so. Consistency to ourselves, to the kernel of our own desires, is more important to us than any other consistency. It is the only real "integrity". We refuse to dis-own our selves, our freedom, our responsibility in every moment — to fetishize or project this contract; to alienate ourselves in this document. The sovereignty of the federated individuals, as a collective and as individuals, in every here-and-now — our subjectivity — automatically overrides any of our past objectifications.
   
   We are:
   
   

   epublisher's note: this (only-slightly edited) contract herein had the signatures of the eight (8) founding members (using pseudonyms).