Consensus is the primary mode of governance among the Haudenosaunee. It is one of three bedrock principles of the KayaĀ“nereĀ“nhkowa (Great Law of Peace, or Constitution of the Five Nations), coming in under the discussion of NeĀ“ā GaĖshasdenĀ“āsaĀØā, or popular sovereignty.
Consensus is a long process, designed neither for speed nor for efļ¬ciency, which are Western, not Iroquoian, values. Under Haudenosaunee law (and Iroquoian customs generally), the point of councilmanic discussion is not to āreach a decisionā or ātake actionā (again, European values), but to achieve the One Mind of Consensus. Consensus building was, therefore, the essential political ingredient in the operation of the league and other Iroquoian governments.Ā
Under traditional government, in order to arrive at consensus, all minds had ļ¬rst to be consulted. Consultation occurred through a set round of councils, each of which met to discuss the issue(s) at hand. The next council in line could not meet until its preceding council or subcommittee of council had come to an agreement on the matter. Both men and women had councils, with womenās councils entertaining all issues ļ¬rst. Each council level, whether female or male, had to be in consensus before it sent a matter forward. If the Adodaroh (chairman of the federal menās Grand Council) or the Jigonsaseh (Head Clan Mother of the league) disagreed with a matter sent to him or her, he or she could āvetoā or table it until a later time. Issues could be reintroduced as often as sponsors wished, and matters could always be revisited judicially, through the action of womenās councils.Ā
These rules exasperated Europeans who were accustomed to small, exclusive clusters of men making all decisions, whether or not others agreed. During the colonial era, various Crown forces attempted to push their own hierarchical styles onto the Iroquois, with little success. During the forced assimilation after the establishment of the United States, the womenās councils were disbanded and Western-style government was foisted off on the people, but in the twentieth century, the old councilmanic styles have resumed. Although consensus is honored, womenās councils have yet to reattain their formalized place.
Encyclopedia of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) by Bruce Elliott Johansen and Barbara Alice Mann
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Itās likely to get lost in all the international chaos right now, but the Syrian government has launched a counterrevolutionary assault on the Syrian Democratic Forces (with the Trump regimeās approval), aimed at the Kurdish people and the social-ecological revolution of Rojava. Please spread the word. Donāt let this go unnoticed.
Call on members of US Congress to take immediate action to stop the Syrian stateās war on Kurds! If you are not sure what to say, you can
Across the country, a growing number of Republican-led state legislatures are moving to gut the direct democracy process ā stripping voters of their power to use ballot measures to pass laws when elected officials refuse to act.Ā
These attacks arenāt happening in isolation. They are part of a coordinated national effort to kneecap the citizen-led ballot initiative, once a cornerstone of popular reform and a tool for the people to check legislative power.
In recent years, red-state voters haveĀ approvedĀ initiatives to end partisan gerrymandering, raise the minimum wage, expand healthcare access and protect reproductive rights, among other progressive steps. In 2026, GOP lawmakers are pushing back harder by rewriting the rules: proposing higher vote thresholds to pass ballot measures, manipulating ballot language, burying petitions in red tape and working to overturn or ignore results.
āThis is part of the coordinated effort around rising authoritarianism across the country. This is how authoritarianism works,ā Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, told Democracy Docket. āThis has been a symptom of a larger problem across the United States where politicians who are in power cannot win fairly, so they change the rules of the game, even if it undermines the very constituents that they are supposed to represent in government.ā
Fields Figueredo called it āa form of retaliationā by lawmakers ā targeting the same constituents who have used ballot initiatives to āimprove the material conditions for their communitiesā in defiance of politicians.Ā
This year, the fight over direct democracy wonāt just be about how the process works but whether voters still have any real power to shape the laws that govern them.
Supermajority thresholds: the simplest way to shut down majority rule
In state after state, Republican lawmakers have embraced a blunt tool to block citizen-led reforms: moving the goalposts. Where once a simple majority of voters was enough to pass reforms or amend a state constitution, GOP-controlled legislatures are increasingly demanding that 60% or more of voters must vote in favor for initiatives to be successful.
In 2026, voters inĀ at least four statesĀ will face measures that would raise the bar for passing future ballot initiatives. InĀ North DakotaĀ andĀ South Dakota, lawmakers have placed constitutional amendments on the ballot that would require a 60% supermajority to approveĀ anyĀ future constitutional change ā effectively giving a minority of voters veto power over the rest.Ā UtahĀ will also include a ballot measure requiring tax-related citizen initiatives to clear 60% to be successful.
But perhaps no state better illustrates the GOPās extreme hostility towards direct democracy thanĀ Missouri, where Republican legislators have placed a measure on the 2026 ballot that, if successful, would require citizen initiatives to win a majority not only statewide ā butĀ in every single congressional district. Just one districtās opposition could doom a proposal backed by over 90% of the state. Given the makeup of the stateās congressional districts, the rule would make it all but impossible to use the initiative process at all.
The Missouri measure doesnāt apply to amendments placed on the ballot by the legislature itself, only those placed by grassroots campaign efforts ā highlighting a growing trend of asymmetric rules designed to hamstring voters while preserving lawmakersā own powers.Ā
[...]
Twisting the language and rigging the process
Not all attacks on direct democracy are as blunt or transparent as supermajority proposals. In many states, the threats by lawmakers are quieter but just as dangerous ā manipulating ballot language, limiting what issues citizens can address or burying campaigns under technical rules that make it nearly impossible to qualify for the ballot.
An increasingly favorite tactic by the GOP is writing misleading or biased ballot summaries.Ā Ā
In Missouri again, Republican lawmakers have emerged with some of the most aggressive rewrites.
A proposed 2026 measure would repeal Missouriās 2024 voter-approved constitutional right to abortion and replace it with a 12-week ban, with limited exceptions. But the original ballot summary ā written by GOP Secretary of State Denny Hoskins ā was so riddled with omissions, errors and misleading phrasing that a state appeals court wasĀ forcedĀ to rewrite it entirely.Ā
[...]
Overturning and ignoring the will of voters
The most brazen attacks on direct democracy sometimes come after voters have already spoken. In state after state, Republican lawmakers are working to ignore, override and repeal voter-approved initiatives.
In Utah, GOP leaders areĀ seekingĀ to repeal Proposition 4, the 2018 voter-approved initiative that created an independent redistricting commission and banned partisan gerrymandering. After the state supreme court reinstated the commission and struck down GOP gerrymandered maps, Republicans responded by launching a new 2026 ballot initiative to eliminate it entirely. Theyāve raised millions ā much of it from a single donor ā and are collecting signatures to put the repeal before voters again.
Never to be outdone, in Missouri, the 2024 abortion rights amendment that passed with 52% support is now under direct threat from a Republican-led repeal effort scheduled for the 2026 ballot. GOP lawmakers there have alsoĀ nullifiedĀ a 2024 initiative that expanded worker protections, repealing the sick leave and wage hike provisions via legislation.Ā
Not to forget, GOP officials areĀ continuingĀ to pull out all the stops, no matter how extreme, to impede a wildly successful referendum effort to block the GOPās latest congressional gerrymander for the 2026 elections.Ā
Republicans are waging war on direct democracy measures in red states to make it harder to pass policy items that donāt align with their vision.
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Republicans are yet again attacking mail-in voting on conspiracy theory grounds, trying to cheat to win by not counting legally-cast votes because they think "more Democrats than Republicans have voted by mail in the last few elections" means "Democrats are cheating". (And yes, by the way, I do think a lot of them believe this, because I think they don't believe there are people who honestly dislike or disagree with them.) Oh, they say, we're just making sure the election only takes place on Election Day.
Listen, buddy, here in New Hampshire, where we have an amount of democracy most of the US can't imagine, we have town meetings. Direct local votes on local issues. They are scheduled by law on Tuesdays. But, generally, local governments deal with how inconvenient this is by splitting it into an election for local offices on Tuesday and "adjourning" the rest of the meeting to Saturday. We do not currently have a grace period for mail-in ballots. If they don't arrive by Election Day, they're not counted. But we should, and the states that already have it should not be blocked because one party is throwing a tantrum about their own voters not voting by mail as much as they used to. If we can wait 4 extra days to actually get to voting on stuff we were theoretically supposed to do on Tuesday, we can wait 4 extra days for ballots to arrive.
Alright finished the second zine. Now this one I have something to actually talk about. It actually got me thinking at points, but not in the direction the author wants. But that's fine, I'll just take the parts I like and disregard the rest.
It does this thing where it presents an issue and I find myself agreeing but then their solution is democracy and I completely tune out. Like wtf? A pro-democracy anarchist? And yes I know they most likely mean direct democracy and uhh that's still democracy bucko. Some examples.
And
Anyways you can read it here.
Lucien van der Walt Alternatives from the Ground Up Anarchism/Syndicalism and (Black) Working Class Self-Emancipation in Post-Apartheid Sout
