The Occupy movement in North America and Europe
From social ecologist Raf Grinfeld in Belgium: Many people in Europe were surprised to see the Occupy Together movement become so big in North America, even those of the Left who had seen more and more interesting popular protests in the Middle East and the south of Europe in 2011, and had hopes that a […]
From the streets of Montreal: Le printemps érable
The phrase ‘printemps érable‘ translates as “Maple Spring,” but it also sounds like the French for Arab Spring. A new website, http://translatingtheprintempserable.tumblr.com/ (also available at quebecprotest.com), offers a diverse mix of messages, commentaries and news stories from the Quebecois French press and activist blogs, e.g. this excerpt from a story by one of the site administrators. […]
“The Meaning and Necessity of Revolution in the 21st Century”
An exceptional work of analysis and vision from one of the most astute observers of the present worldwide revolt. Jerome E. Roos is the founder of ROARmag.org (Reflections on a Revolution), and has traveled extensively in southern Europe over the past year. This is from a talk he gave in Barcelona on the eve of […]
“Failure of the Green Economy”
The German group, Bundeskoordination Internationalismus (buko.info), has just published a new critical paper titled After the Failure of the Green Economy. This comes at an important time, as delegates from around the world are readying to meet in Rio de Janeiro for the 20th anniversary of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development. Unfortunately, […]
New book on participatory evolution
Counterpunch this week features an interview with molecular biologist James Shapiro, whose new book, Evolution: A View from the 21st Century, seeks to offer a comprehensive view of current work in evolutionary biology and concludes that concepts of innovation, self-organization, and self-directed evolution have now overtaken traditional Darwinian views of evolution driven by random mutations. […]
Exclusive: The Grand Botanical Chess Game
From Puerto Rican social ecologist Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero: All over the world, debates on the future of food and agriculture are dominated by one supreme subject: the seed. Its importance cannot possibly be overstated. Seed is, after all, the beginning of the human food chain. In the words of University of Wisconsin professor Jack R. Kloppenburg: […]
Video: John Holloway at the Left Forum (NYC)
In an engaging and genuinely subversive presentation to the closing plenary at this year’s Left Forum in New York City, social critic John Holloway challenged many of the assumptions underlying traditional left strategies in the current economic context. Holloway suggested that today’s popular movements are the real “crisis of capitalism.” We can either aim to […]
On horizonal decision making and bureaucracy
From the UK webzine Stir (stirtoaction.com), a perceptive analysis by anthropologist and activist Marianne Maeckelbergh, highlighting the potentialities and pitfalls of horizontal decision-making processes and their central role in current popular movements. Maeckelbergh begins by highlighting the historical roots of conscious horizontalism, its liberatory potential, and also the need to implement such processes very deliberately: […]
General strike in Spain
Adbusters reports: Spain was hit with a massive General Strike today (March 29th) that shut down shopping centers, roads and transportation hubs. Barricades of burning tires were erected in Barcelona, hundreds of airline flights were canceled across the nation, and an estimated 91% of all employees at large businesses stayed home or took the streets, […]
From Turkey: A social ecology challenge to environmentalism
From social ecologist Cagrideniz Eryilmaz in Turkey: Social Ecology Challenges Environmentalism: HES Opposition Cases in Turkey I have completed a sociology dissertation aiming to analyze environmental grassroots movements in Turkey within a frame of social ecology. Hundreds of local movements rose against the construction of thousands of HES[1] (hydroelectric power plants) in the last few […]
