A Review of "Parliament or Democracy?" by Kevin Doyle, published by
	the WSM, PO Box 1528, Dublin 8, Ireland. £2

	This comprehensive, well written pamphlet is one I would recommend.
	It traces the evolution of the idea of democracy, what anarchists
	mean by the term and how the State uses it to have a completely
	different meaning. The roots of modern democracy lie primarily in
	the 18th century, with the revolt against those born to privilege
	which was the French revolution, and from where most modern European
	political ideas and movements can trace part of their ancestry.  At
	school, we are always presented with a straight black and white
	question whenever there is a great historical moment. In this case,
	it is the absolute monarch against the people.  Obviously, the
	'people' are the good guys (no one these days who isn't an absolute
	monarch or an eastern mystic believes in divine right). But what's
	never mentioned is that the "people" aren't a homogenous mass, and
	contain both the would be new ruling class (the bourgeoisie) as well
	as peasants, artisans, workers and so on. They can all use democracy
	as a rallying cry, but the bourgeoisie put a number of conditions on
	it - property ownership and sex being the main ones.

	The pamphlet goes on to address how workers organising was
	sidetracked into Parliamentary politics, and why as anarchists such
	parliamentary antics are the antithesis of our politics. An
	examination of Labour Parties records in power shows just how dismal
	was the failure of early socialists who trod that first step on the
	chimera of the Parliamentary road to socialism. A quick look at many
	countries around the world quickly shows that "democracy" as most
	people would understand it is not practised anywhere at a
	governmental level.

	It would have been very easy to end the pamphlet with that, a survey
	that shows up how far from democracy Parliament is. However, in
	closing, Doyle puts forward the anarchist alternative to Parliament,
	what we can really call democracy, and looks at the mechanisms of
	democratic control developed during the Spanish revolution.