Six principles the federation and both co-ops work by: cooperative, directly democratic, human-centered, inclusive, outernationalist, and counter.
01CooperativeThis means that we work with each other in a horizontal way instead of leaning into vertical, centralized, and hierarchical exploitation. As a cooperative network, all workers involved have the option to “own” and/or control 400,000,000 institutions together, instead of all operations being dictated from above by a few shareholders who are only interested in a return on investments and profit.
02Directly DemocraticThis means that we decide things ourselves, don’t believe in having “representatives” or “delegates” decide all things for us inside or outside of our organizations as a default, and in the cases where we do wish for people within our organizations to represent us on the inside or the outside, we have the option of recalling them if we have an issue or change our minds.
03Human-CenteredThis means that our ultimate aims and goals are around serving the cultural laborers within our organizations, their communities, and the broader subcultures that they nurture (instead of profit or capital accumulation). There is no getting around money and the broader elements of our global economy under our present systems. But we choose to navigate “business” in a way that prioritizes the survival and dignity of the humans who make everything go (beyond wages). We are attempting to create our own collective and material safety net via eco-communities, with the hope that “wages” can become supplementary to the collective living infrastructure and security we afford members.
04InclusiveThis means that our organizations will account for dynamics around representation, understanding that there are multiple, interconnected layers of social oppression impacting different people within our society in different ways (along axes of class, gender, race, sexuality, and more), and that this calls for all of our creative institutions to have measures in place that ensure the most disenfranchised have a say along with everyone else.
05OuternationalistThis means that we don’t believe borders and nation-state boundaries should limit our collaboration with creatives in other places around the world, but that we prioritize those native to the spaces upon which we are operating in our organization as well. We seek to contribute to a global network where people with shared values in different local and cultural contexts can reinforce each other’s efforts. The logic here is simple: from local to global, we are stronger together.
06CounterThis means that we are uninterested in long-term partnerships with traditionally capitalist firms or governments of any kind (“domestic” or “foreign”). It also means that we seek to build out on our own platforms/technologies controlled by us and designed to serve the commons (real-world and digital). A part of this includes a desire to cultivate a social counter-logic grounded in cooperation instead of competition and exploitation. We understand that, as a means to survive, members of our organizations will each have their own particular relationships with “outside” institutions we consider exploitative or oppressive. However, the hope through 400,000,000 networks is that the spaces we open up will serve as refuges from the logics that define these institutions, and will also lend themselves to systems change.