Message from @ElectricSwine
Discord ID: 600806695509164055
But not for long cause unless they have a good farmer personel they would all starve
And that's without counting how to deal with internal strife
External threats that would want to put down this territory that is neither protected and isn't trading with them
I don't see a reason for why people can't be educated in a direct democracy, they would actually be more educated since people could go back to post-secondary without the threat of debt. Defense could also be sorted out in this manner, not to mention the fact that every commune is protected since everyone has the access, ability, and education to use violence. Defence forces as seen in Rojava are organized in the principle of direct democracy and they have been able to hold out against Turkey.
Well
This "army"
You have 2 options
A decentralised army, everyone making their own moves
Basically easy picks for bigger armies that just need to defeat them individually
Or a centealised comand
But then you have a direct democracy over a lot of people
And thus hundreds of opinions and diferent aproaches
Also you understimate how globalized the world is rn
Regions cannot survive without trading with others
And hopping for a single commune to have enougj personel to produce enough to trade and sustain itself
While also needing personel for mantainence and moving those goods
Numbers do start packing up
If you decide to let every commune be independent and to not trade
Congratulations, you've now made everyone's lifes worse than under capitalism
Communes could trade and should trade with each other. There is no reason for why they wouldn't negotiate with each other into unions of communes. Production would increase (As was seen in anarchist communes during the Spanish Civil War) because more jobs would be dedicated to production. Lots of jobs right now don't make anything useful. Workers in things like advertising, management, investment, and banking could be educated and work towards the production of food and useful items. Because of this reorientation towards production you would also see lower hours.
As for defence, the CNT-FAI was able to organize its forces democratically. They were crushed (like the other centralized armies in Europe) by German manpower. Soviets also played a role in the demise of the CNT-FAI because of their vanguardism.
You don't have to teach me about that
My family fought for them
But i gotta say they really didn't do a great job
Defending was easy considering they normally defended cities
Erected barricades and such which were a pain to cross
But when they decided to do something else
They failed miserably
This can be seen at the battle of Terol of 1937
They tried to make an offensive all the way north to relieve the basque country
They failed cause of a lack of disciplone
Coordination
And overall strategy
Germany only sent the condor legion
Mostly
The CNT was defeated by nationalist forces
As was the republic in its entirety
As i said communes have realistically 2 choices
I'll say more than 200 people would be almost imposible to coordinate into dping something
And with those people you need personel to mantain the commune
Trade with other communes