Ursula LeGuin on Murray Bookchin
“Capitalism’s grow-or-die imperative stands radically at odds with ecology’s imperative of interdependence and limit. The two imperatives can no longer coexist with each other; nor can any society founded on the myth that they can be reconciled hope to survive. Either we will establish an ecological society or society will go under for everyone, irrespective of his or her status.”
Eyewitnesses to the Kurdish revolution
Last December a delegation, including social ecologists, visited the Kurdish region of Syria – known as Rojava – to experience their implementation of “democratic confederalism”…
NY Times letter on Kobane
From the New York Times editorial page, November 25, 2014. Also see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-schumacher-and-debbie-bookchin/the-kurdish-experiment-in-radical-decentralism_b_5996184.html: To the Editor: Re: “More Than a Battle, Kobani Is a Publicity War” (front page, Nov. 20): While the Syrian border town of Kobani may be viewed as a public relations battle by the United States and the Islamic State, Kobani’s true […]
Richard Grossman, ¡Presente!
Richard Grossman, activist and thinker ahead of his time by Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero Research Associate, Institute for Social Ecology November 17 2014 This month marks three years since the passing of my good friend, activist and valuable anti-corporate crusader Richard Grossman. What made his work unique was his research and critical thinking on the nature of […]
Kurdish teach-in in NYC: Livestream Tues. 11/18
On Tuesday evening, November 18th, at the City University of New York (160 Convent Avenue in Manhattan, 5-7 pm), will be a panel titled “Kobanê & the Rojava Revolution,” featuring David Phillips, Salih Muslim, Nazan Üstündağ and Mutlu Çiviroğlu. The event will be livestreamed at http://www.kurdslist.org/kobane_and_the_rojava_revolution_live. The announcement for this event states in part: The […]
Leading British filmmaker on Bookchin & the Kurds
The influential documentarian Adam Curtis has posted an excellent, detailed blog post at the BBC on the connection between Murray Bookchin and Abdullah Ocalan of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). This piece is more explicit about Bookchin’s specific contributions than most of the earlier articles. The post also features several short film clips of key […]
Scarcity, post-scarcity and community after the Italian earthquake
Our good friend and past ISE intensive participant Federico Venturini writes from the University of Leeds in England, where he’s finishing his dissertation on revolutionary social movements in Rio de Janeiro. You can follow Fede’s blog at http://rioprarua.noblogs.org; which also features some photos from the recent Ecological Challenges conference in Oslo: I am very pleased to […]
New Murray Bookchin collection in French
From our colleague Vincent Gerber in Geneva: October 16th will be the publication date for our book “Murray Bookchin, une écologie sociale et radicale,” in the series titled Precursors of Degrowth, produced by Serge Latouche. For more information, see my posting here. This project comes up after the publication of my earlier book on Bookchin […]
2 items on social movements and power
ROAR Magazine has posted two thought provoking articles on social movements and the contest for political power: an interview with John Holloway on movements and the state, and a reflection from Greece on the current and potential role of the leftist Syriza alliance. From the latter story: The effects of such a [left] electoral victory […]
Call to support Kurds under attack in Syria
Urgent Call International People’s coalition against ISIS – for Kobanê – and for humanity! On the 15 September 2014 the ISIS launched a major multi-front military campaign against the Kurdish region of Kobanê (Arabic: Ayn Al-Arab) in Rojava/Northern Syria. This is the third ISIS onslaught on Kobanê since March 2014. As the ISIS was unsuccessful […]
