Thus, the mainstream element of the feminist and multicultural movements has abandoned the original demands of those movements for a fundamental change in the social, economic, and political structures and now only seeks a more equitable piece of the pie. As they welcome their token integration into the corridors of power within modern advanced capitalist society, they no longer challenge institutional domination per se, or the hierarchical structures which express the concentration of social, economic, and political power in today's society. The green movement, in particular, despite the growing ecological crisis, has lost almost all of its radical potential. Part of it, especially in Europe, has been integrated into the existing social system and is engaged in expressing in the corridors of power the disquiet of the middle classes about the deteriorating quality of life. For us, democracy, which, properly defined, implies the abolition of the unequal distribution of political, economic and social power, is not only the political expression of a project with freedom as its aim, defined as individual and collective autonomy.
Democracy is also the only way out of the present multidimensional crisis.
This is so, because it is the concentration of power in the hands of various elites that marks the foundation of every aspect of this crisis. This crisis is expressed, mainly, by the continuous expansion of inequality, the relentlessly growing gap not only between the North and the South, but also between the economic elites and the rest of society within the North and the South. The triumph of the particular over the general interest, expressed by neoliberalism, is inevitably followed by the aggravation of class, gender, ethnic, race, and religious conflicts. Furthermore, with male and national chauvinism rampant, women and minorities continue to be the first victims of the massive unemployment induced by neoliberal capitalism. It is also the concentration of economic power in the hands of economic elites which fuels the social and cultural crisis, as expressed by the parallel enhancement of the dialectic of violence, both personal and collective, drug abuse, general social irresponsibility, as well as cultural homogeneity.