Updates and more views of Occupy Wall Street
The Occupy Wall Street campaign, now in its third week, has inspired a wide range of commentaries, as well as like-minded events all across the US. Here are two somewhat contrasting views from commentators I trust. Arun Gupta of New York City’s Indypendent newspaper offers a positive outlook on this emerging movement’s potential to confront […]
“Occupy Wall Street” & the Radical Imagination
A thoughtful commentary by anthropologist and social movements scholar David Graeber in The Guardian of September 25th. One good source of daily updates is the Reader Supported News website at readersupportednews.org. An excerpt: The form of resistance that has emerged looks remarkably similar to the old global justice movement: we see the rejection of old-fashioned […]
Neoliberalism, Austerity & Participatory Democracy
Norwegian social ecologist Sveinung Legard has drawn our attention to his recent article on the New Compass website. In this piece, he aims to address some of the arguments raised in this blog last spring by writers who questioned whether it is still meaningful to raise demands for direct democracy in a period of neoliberal […]
Ben Grosscup: Questioning “economic development”
It is time to question the ideology of job creation that holds sway in most discussions of so-called economic development… The real mark of economic health is not merely that firms in a given municipality are hiring. Economic health is when the basic economic functions of society make ours a healthier place to live – a place with less war, less disease, more ecological health and justice.
Dan Chodorkoff’s September book tour
Dates for Dan Chodorkoff’s upcoming readings from his new novel, Fall 2011.
New webzine highlights global rebellions
The New Significance, edited by former ZNet co-editor Chris Spannos, is described as “A web magazine exploring revolutionary forces for change & autonomy in the 21st Century…” They offer both daily and weekly email newsletters highlighting important current developments. This week’s headlines include: Thousands In Chile Take To Streets, Demand Change A Deconstruction […]
New French video on social ecology
Vincent Gerber reports:
“Floreal Romero, who lives in Spain, sent me this link to his lecture in France in June. Some of you have met him in Lisbon [at the international libertarian municipalism conference] in 1998… It’s interesting because in my opinion it is the first video in French about social ecology… !”
Brian Tokar reviews “Loisaida”
“Coming of Age in a Different Time,” by Brian Tokar Excerpt: Loisaida [is] a compelling coming-of-age story that describes one young woman’s journey of self-discovery and political awakening. Purple-haired Catherine … escaped a liberal but far too safe enclave in Scarsdale to live with her lover in a Lower East Side squat and work on […]
Popular Assemblies in Revolts and Revolutions
A new article by Norwegian social ecologist Sveinung Legard offers a thoughtful historical assessment of the re-emergence of popular assemblies in Europe this spring and summer: “These assemblies derive not only from the initiative of their protagonists but also from the history of the major revolutions in Europe from the 18th to the 20th century […]
Toward a “Green New Deal”?
My friend and colleague Richard Greeman, now living in France, has recently added some provocative and forward-looking comments to the ongoing discussion of whether a “Green New Deal” — centered in publicly funded expansion of renewable energy and other “green” technologies — can provide a necessary opening toward a more ecological future. Appropriately for a […]
