Democracy is a fiction today. A genuine municipal democracy would require tha the elected representatives of the workers be under the constant control or nose wne voted for them. It would require permanent participation by the toiling population in all the affairs and decisions of the cities, which in turn requires that they have the time and information with which to do so Elected officials should be recallable at any time. But this is not the case today; elected local officials are not recallable by the voters. The mayor himself, once designated for his six-vear term, can be removed by the minister of the interior but not by the municipal council. And the council itself can be censured by the prefect if he decide. that any council decision HoIS "illegal'.
The workers will not be able to radically overturn this situation unless there is a central political change. But it would be possible, beginning right now, for a municipal council that really represented the interests of the workers to place the council and all important municipal decisions under the direct control of the workers and toiling layers of the city. To do this, it would aid the development of organs of struggle and control that include both voters and nonvoters, to any and all organisations that renresent ine tolling population (trade unions, tenants associations, users of public services, etc.).
These organs, which could take various orms neenpournoo or locar commis sions, struggle committees on particular probiems, cic. providca uncy werc genum ely democratic mass bodies, would have the right to propose and control, would have de facto power over the questions with which they deal. Revolutionaries would commit the municipal council to respect the decisions of these organs and to submit to their