The People’s Parliament, Part III: How It Is Structured

The People’s Parliamentary Charter (Continued)

We have covered the purpose for the People’s Parliament, who participates, where and when it’s held, and what it does. Let’s now discuss how to structure these chambers in order to facilitate the stated purpose of parliament.

How It Is Structured

Getting Started

Don’t worry. Getting started is simple. All you need is the desire to do the work to make your voice heard. You can track your progression by following the guideline below.

• Be Your Own Parliament
  • Parliament, and our democratic government, overall, works best when each individual understands their political landscape. Study your local, state and federal government for your own understanding, and formulate your own ideas about how these entities should best function, without the influence of outside voices. Our voices are most powerful when they are informed.
• Find Compatriots
  • Find other people in your community who are also interested in parliament. Start with those you speak to about these issues the most. Consider friends and family members. Remember, building community is important, so start with those people you are comfortable with discussing political issues.
• Begin Meeting
  • Meet with fellow parliament members on a regular basis in order to both study and discuss your role and positions with regard to your local, state and federal government.
• Familiarize Yourself With Government
  • Study and understand both the documents and organizations that comprise your government. Here are some ideas:
    • Read the Constitution of the United States and the constitution for your state.
    • Research and understand the Electoral College.
    • Read the Declaration of Independence.
    • Find and familiarize yourself with the U.S. Code and the code of laws for your state and city/town/village.
    • Understand the branches of the federal government and your state and local governments.
    • Attend or watch videos of town halls, city councils, state legislature meetings and Congressional meetings. The goal is to understand the process and witness how representatives debate the issues.
    • Learn to research political issues efficiently and form your own opinion, independent of the input of others.
• Teach Others
  • During meetings, take the time to teach what you have learned and are learning.

Getting Focused

Once you’ve built consistency with the tasks in the “Getting Started” phase, look to take the following actions to create deeper focus within your parliament.

• Elect Officers
  • Chair
    • Provides parliamentary leadership and direction to both other officers and the member body, as a whole.
    • Directs and maintains order in meetings.
    • Delegates relevant tasks to other officers and members via either direct appointment or management of election by the member body, with respect to that parliament’s by-laws.
    • Serves as both lead for all inter-parliamentary activities and de facto representative to the parliamentary body at the tier above the parliament for which they serve as chair.
  • Vice Chair
    • Assists chairperson with all responsibilities of the Chair and assumes the role of Chair, when the elected Chair is unavailable.
  • Secretary
    • Maintains records for the parliament. This may include, but not be limited to:
      • Taking, keeping and maintaining meeting notes; including appointing an alternate when unavailable.
      • Completing paperwork associated with parliament organization and/or participation in extracurricular events.
      • Other administrative duties as either assigned or deemed necessary by the Chair, Vice Chair, or member body, as appropriate.
      • Maintaining a storage of all parliamentary records.
  • Treasurer
    • Maintains accounting for any and all funds associated with parliament.
  • Sergeant at Arms
    • Serves to maintain security at all parliamentary events, at the discretion of the Chair.
  • Representative
    • Serves as representative to all extraneous parliamentary chambers.
    • Carries all relevant votes and feedback from the parliament for which they serve as representative to the upper tier parliament.
    • Note: this is an optional election. The Chair or Vice Chair can serve this role.
• Govern Meetings With Structure
  • Conduct meetings with a formal protocol in order to both maintain discipline and resolve positions on elections effectively.
• Create By-Laws
  • Implement a set of by-laws in order to create a culture of discipline, respect and inclusivity.
• Register Your Parliament
  • Ensure that your parliament has been formally introduced to all other existing parliaments. This provides awareness amongst parliaments and supports inter-parliamentary coordination.
• Actively Recruit New Members
  • Engage in planned, organized efforts to grow the membership of your parliament.
• Affect Local and State Voting
  • Work to galvanize your parliament to vote in ways that benefit all in your community.

Getting Serious

Once the parliament is focused, it’s time to finalize its maturity. The final steps suggested are below.

• Increasing Reach of Parliaments
  • Use your parliamentary influence to help, guide and mentor other communities, cities/towns/villages, counties, districts and states in order for them to form their own parliaments.
• Coordination of Multiple Parliaments
  • Hold inter-parliamentary meetings in order to focus on elections that occur at parliaments at superior tiers; e.g. multiple city parliaments coordinate at the state parliament level in order to determine positioning on state legislation, policy and gubernatorial elections.
• Affect Federal Elections & Legislation
  • Engage in both intra-parliamentary and inter-parliamentary state-level cooperation in order to coordinate positions on federal legislation, policy and candidates.

Parliamentary Structures, Hierarchies and Responsibilities

As stated previously, individuals would ideally always attend their community parliaments. Here, they should be able to both discuss and vote on all relevant political issues with other members that extend to the level of the National Parliamentary Convention, where presidential candidates and national policy are discussed. This means that all issues are addressed at the community tier, including member votes and feedback on issues. The community parliament chair or representative will carry this information forward to the next tier of parliament, repeating this process at each level until the terminal tier is reached. It may be possible that the lowest tier of parliament exists at the city/town/village level, in the case of sufficiently smaller local areas. As always, all members should be free to attend any and all parliaments relevant to the context of the issues to be voted on.

Let’s take a look at the hierarchical structures that exist in parliament. The final tier listed in each hierarchy is the terminal tier, which represents the level at which voting would take place; e.g. final issue debates and voting decisions for county-wide issues would take place at the County Parliament tier of the County Parliamentary Hierarchy, below.

City Parliamentary Hierarchy

This parliament meets to vote on all issues related to their city, which relates to voting for all relevant city officials and legislation, negotiating legislation and policy at the city level, and holding all elected officials accountable. The initial tier is the community parliament, and the terminal tier is the city/town/village parliament.

1. Tier I – Community Parliament
2. Tier II – City/Town/Village Parliament

County Parliamentary Hierarchy

This parliament meets to vote on all issues related to their county, which relates to voting for all relevant county officials and legislation, negotiating legislation and policy at the county level, and holding all elected officials accountable. The initial tier is the community parliament, and the terminal tier is the county parliament.

1. Tier I – Community Parliament
2. Tier II – City/Town/Village Parliament
3. Tier III – County Parliament

State Assembly/House District Parliamentary Hierarchy

This parliament meets to vote on all issues related to their state body of legislative representatives, which relates to both candidates for and members elected to the state body of legislators. Additionally, this parliament is responsible for holding their state legislature accountable to parliamentary demand, once in office. The initial tier is the community parliament, and the terminal tier is the state assembly/house district parliament.

1. Tier I – Community Parliament
2. Tier II – State Assembly/House District Parliament

State Senate District Parliamentary Hierarchy

This parliament meets to vote on all issues related to their state senate, which relates to both candidates for and members elected to the state senate. Additionally, this parliament is responsible for holding their senator accountable to parliamentary demand, once in office. The initial tier is the community parliament, and the terminal tier is the state senate district parliament.

1. Tier I – Community Parliament
2. Tier II – State Senate District Parliament

Congressional District Parliamentary Hierarchy

This parliament meets to vote on all issues related to their congressional district, which relates to both candidates for and members elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for the district. Additionally, this parliament is responsible for holding their representative accountable to parliamentary demand, once in office. The initial tier is the community parliament, and the terminal tier is the congressional district parliament.

1. Tier I – Community Parliament
2. Tier II – Congressional District Parliament

State Parliamentary Hierarchy

This parliament meets to vote on all issues related to their state, which relates to voting for candidates for both the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate seats, negotiating statewide legislation and policy, negotiating national legislation and policy related to the U.S. Senate seats, and holding all elected officials accountable to parliamentary demand. The initial tier is the community parliament, and the terminal tier is the state parliament.

1. Tier I – Community Parliament
2. Tier II – City/Town/Village Parliament
3. Tier III – State Parliament

National Parliamentary Convention Hierarchy

This parliament meets to vote on all national issues, which relates to voting on presidential candidates, negotiating on policy, and holding the elected president accountable. Additionally, the national convention can address any relevant federal issues with the requisite federally elected official. For example, the representatives that attend the national convention would be from all states. Therefore, they could hold senators accountable and carry district concerns to the House of Representatives. The initial tier is the community parliament, and the terminal tier is the National Parliamentary Convention.

1. Tier I – Community Parliament
2. Tier II – City/Town/Village Parliament
3. Tier III – State Parliament
4. Tier IV – National Parliamentary Convention

Parliament in Action

In all of the hierarchies listed above, and as mentioned above in “Getting Focused – Elect Officers”, each parliamentary tier will send a representative to the next, higher tiered parliament, carrying forward a record of all member votes, feedback, and the parliamentary position on relevant issues. Debate should occur at each tier of parliament as a means of conducting inter-parliamentary coordination on issues. Representatives can then return to their tier of origin to relate information about the parliamentary stances of peer chambers of the same tier.

For example, let’s consider that a state parliament needs to consider some issues. All community parliaments in the state would debate, provide feedback, and vote on the issues. The community parliament representatives would travel to the relevant city parliament, debating their community parliaments’ stances on statewide issues. They would debate, enumerate and document all relevant concerns before sending the city parliament representatives to the state parliament. The process of debate would replicate similarly at the state parliament tier, where city parliament representatives from across the state would debate all outlooks from all communities that reported up to the city parliament tier. Parliamentary representatives would then report back down the chain, until all representatives present the statewide votes and stances to their community parliaments. Community parliaments can then begin debate again, in an effort to reconcile all outlooks on state issues from all communities that reported up to the state parliament level. This may sound cumbersome, but it doesn’t have to be. With the use of web meetings, messaging groups and social media groups, convenient means of coordination can be used to streamline this process.

Notes on Parliamentary Progression

The important point is to get started. Do not bind yourself to the progress outlined in “Getting Started”, “Getting Focused”, and “Getting Serious”. If you find any of the steps too cumbersome, then skip them and work in areas that keep you motivated. Through your work and effort, you will eventually hit all of the requirements through necessity. The steps outlined above are meant only as a general guide, not a set curriculum.

Don’t worry about nailing the parliament hierarchy perfectly. If you form parliament with a group of people who live in different cities within the state, then just run a state parliament until you have enough members to build all of the layers in your state. The important point is to get used to meeting with your in-state neighbors, reviewing the political process and working to affect those politics for the betterment of everyone. Conversely, if you only have members in one city, then just run parliament in your city. This will cover you for all layers except for specific districts and counties/parishes. In both cases, focus on recruitment in your area and surrounding areas to build out parliamentary coverage in your state.

Interaction with other parliaments is not only recommended, but it is necessary in order to fully unlock the power of parliament. Share ideas and approaches to the political process. Hold inter-parliamentary meetings in order to align on relevant voting and policy decisions. Remember, we build community through gathering around our shared values.

Convenience of Representation

As stated, people in our current time are busy with any number of personal responsibilities. The representative aspect of parliament is meant to alleviate this obstacle. Each parliamentary member can attend a minimal amount of community chamber meetings to get enough information to vote on candidates and/or issues. Busy members can then register their votes on all related ballot items and allow their representatives to carry their votes forward to the terminal tier of parliament. The officers of the terminal tier can then use all totals that roll up their tier to negotiate with their government representatives and agencies, as appropriate.

Creation of By-Laws

By-laws are meant to regulate the activities of our parliament. Since the parliaments will function in a decentralized manner, each parliament should structure its by-laws appropriate to its membership and community. However, it is clear that by-laws should be created in each parliament based on similar areas of activity and with respect to all applicable federal, state and local laws. As always, it is recommended that inter-parliamentary caucusing be used in order to share best practices. Below is a list of areas of activity for which by-laws should be constructed with the purpose of establishing consistent protocols.

1. Holding Meetings
2. Recruiting Members
3. Debating Issues
4. Engaging in Public Activity
5. Settling Disputes Amongst Members
6. Dispensing Disciplinary Actions
7. Creating, Updating and Removing By-laws

Always Autonomous

The People’s Parliament must never become a branch of government at any level, whether local, state or federal. The power of the parliament lies in its ability to fluidly represent the will of the people, free of influence from political forces that may be aligned with private interests. This power must never be either relinquished to formal branches of government or made subservient to private interests of any kind. Any parliament that willingly submits in this way is to be considered a rogue parliament, and it should be disqualified from inter-parliamentary activity. Parliament officers and members should keep a vigilant watch for compromised chambers and update the parliamentary registry, accordingly. Any parliaments with available bandwidth should reach out to any rogue parliaments and offer assistance, where possible. If the rogue chamber is unable to be salvaged, then all efforts should be made to reconstruct the political body with members from its community who wish to engage in productive parliamentary activities that serve the people.

Protecting Our Power

Once parliaments become active and represent a quorum of voters that can significantly influence the political sphere, we should expect shifts in the efforts of private interests. These interests will always try to find a way to tilt public opinion in their favor. This is not necessarily a bad occurrence. It can open productive dialogue between both the people and industry. However, we must remain aware that these interests will seek to enact strategies against parliament that are similar to the strategies that they use now on Capitol Hill. We must watch for members who would do deals with private interests as a means to either distract the people or mislead them through misinformation or disinformation campaigns. A significant infection of private interest meddling could result in a parliament receiving the rogue label, and being forcibly disbanded and reconstructed. As a general warning, outside forces will likely attempt to interfere with parliamentary procedure, where they believe parliament might threaten their interests.

The powers that lie with the parliament are the very powers of the we, the people. These powers are both undeniable and sacred, and any individual or group of individuals who would seek to undermine this power and neuter it by delivering it away from the people are to be considered traitors to the parliament, the people within the purview of the parliament, all related parliaments and the people within those purviews, and the nation, as a whole. Said actors seek to provide both aid and comfort to those who would undermine the will of the people. Such persons are to be considered treasonous, acting with seditious intent, and should be subject to punishment consistent with the by-laws of parliament. As a non-government entity, we are restricted to social disciplinary actions. Punishment should be as severe as allowable by law.

Full National & Global Expressions

The full expression of the People’s Parliament will result in the people of the United States of America fully grasping their power, initiating a people’s takeover of the government through legal, electoral process, and directly running their own government by electing parliamentary representatives to all levels of government. These representatives will not take office as members of a political party. Rather, those that fill governmental seats will do so as representatives of their respective parliaments, fulfilling their roles based on adherence to parliamentary directives. In this context, legislation will flow directly from parliaments to the floors of the chambers of all legislative bodies that have all seats occupied by parliamentary members, passing legislation that was approved by the people in parliament. Legislative district parliaments will have already coordinated on the legislation. Policy and procedure within the executive branches will also have been decided within the local, state and national parliaments. These policies will be passed to the mayoral, gubernatorial, or presidential seat, which is occupied by a parliamentary member that was both selected for candidacy and voted in by the relevant parliament. Any court rulings on actions that are determined to be illegal will simply result in parliaments re-writing the laws to be appropriate to what is desired by the people. It is also likely that the courts will eventually be filled with parliamentary members.

The ultimate expression of the People’s Parliament is defined by a parliament in every city across the globe, enabling all working class peoples from all corners of the world uniting in their vote to create the world that they desire. In this situation, we would see parliamentary continental conventions (e.g. influencing USMCA, EU, etc.), parliamentary national alliance conventions (e.g. influencing NATO, G7, BRICS, etc.) and parliamentary global conventions (e.g. influencing a U.N. representing all active nations and sovereign states on the globe).

Through our use of parliament, we can construct a government of the people, by the people and for the people. This political structure can be used to pull away the power that exists in the constitutional constructs and deliver it back into the hands of the people.

This is what true revolution looks like. Power to the people.

To Be Continued

As we can see, the People’s Parliament is a political body that can be used to both galvanize and focus both the will and voice of the people. This allows the citizens to directly influence their government through exercising their power.

In the next entry to this series, we will discuss the importance of building community and solidarity as a means of powering the dynamic engine represented by the People’s Parliament.

Now that we’ve covered the full framework for the People’s Parliament, share your thoughts on this idea in the comments below. I’ll see you in the next article.