Articles

"Sorry for the inconvenience" protest poster

OCP Part 3: Align your frontline

18.10.2012
One useful way to think about aligning frontlines to make a distinction between “activism” and “organizing.” While different political traditions understand these concepts in different ways, we’d like to offer some that have been useful to us in clarifying our work.
Community center in water colors

Occupy your Neighborhood

10.10.2012
Occupy presented a model for direct democracy in radical movements and greatly inspired participants and observers. Still, conceived as primarily a protest movement, Occupy is not only a testament to both the vision and spirit of its organizers, but to the limitations of protest.
Obedient dog

The Ordeal of Disobedience

02.10.2012
What explains the deep psychological pull of conservatism? Stanley Milgram’s infamous experiment showed how straight-forward it was to obey and how hard to disobey. It also posed an uncomfortable question: Is an ethical society possible?
Organize for Climate Justice

Organizing Cools The Planet - Part 2

16.09.2012
An articulation of a political framework to understand some of the challenges we face and respond to them. Part two of a series from the booklet published December last year. By writers, organisers and activists Hilary Moore and Joshua Kahn Russell.
Protests in Mexico during elections 2012

We will never forget Atenco, Sr. Presidente!

16.07.2012
On 1st of July Enrique Peña Nieto was elected president i Mexico. He was the governor who ordered the attack on the village Atenco in 2006, and has not been held to account. Neither has any police officer that performed the abuse on the women. The social movements fear the development in Mexico.
Severe shock image for Milgram article part 1

The Lure of Obedience

13.07.2012
Fifty years ago, a psychological experiment showed how people were willing to inflict excruciating pain when ordered to do so. Today, as an ideology of personal responsibility obscures the causes of economic and ecological collapse, its insights are more relevant than ever.
Cover Image of Organizing Cools the Planet

Organizing Cools The Planet - Part 1

07.06.2012
An articulation of a political framework to understand some of the challenges we face and respond to them. Part one of a series from the booklet published December last year. By writers, organisers and activists Hilary Moore and Joshua Kahn Russell.
Image of John Maynard Keynes

Why Keynes was Right, and Utterly Wrong

18.05.2012
Was John Maynard Keynes "the greatest economist who ever lived"? Keynesian theories are enjoying a renaissance, but Keynes himself believed that by now humanity should be close to "economic bliss" and a leisure society. He did not understand how capitalism would thwart the liberating potential of the economic abundance he foresaw.
Butterfly for Civil Disobedience Campaign

Kurdish Autonomy and Social Ecology

11.05.2012
As the legitimacy of the nation-state weakens, the Kurdish people's struggle for recognition and democracy seem to gain a particular importance. Let us have a look at the relationship between the democratic demands for Kurdish autonomy and social ecology.
Hungary Silenced

Preserving the Voice of Democracy in Hungary

01.04.2012
Klubrádió’s struggle for survival not only represents a test case of how far the government is willing to silence any opposition to its authoritarian aspirations. The station has also been endowed with a symbolic value: as long as we hear its broadcasts, we are able to sustain our hopes that all is not lost.
Small scale housing

Community Ownership of the Economy

05.03.2012
What are the municipalist alternatives to the capitalist market economy and the nation-state? What are their underlying principles and what are their historical precursors? What can we learn from the left-libetarian political experiences in order to create a new, truly democratic form of collectivism?
Ballot box

Occupy Local Government?

26.02.2012
After a year of protests and occupations, the movement against austerity measures and the dominant economic policy is asking how it can realize its demand for real democracy. Could participation in local elections be a part of its strategy?
The Windy Roads to Kurdish LIberation

Bookchin, Öcalan, and the Dialectics of Democracy

16.02.2012
After his abduction in 1999, Abdullah Öcalan initiated a profound rethinking of the Kurdish struggle for self-determination. To what extent has Öcalan been influenced by Murray Bookchin? What are the similarities between these two thinkers, and how did their ideas mature?
Map of Kurdistan

The Communalist Alternative to Capitalist Modernity

12.02.2012
Despite massive repression, strong radical movements in Kurdistan are advocating social ecology, communalism, feminism, and confederalism. What are the basic principles of communalist politics? How is it relevant to the Kurdish struggle for self-determination and true democracy?
Consensus and Anarchism symbol

Egalitarian Structure or Consensus?

04.02.2012
Decision making by consensus is a common way for groups to organize on the autonomous left. It has the benefits of being direct and participatory. However, this does not mean consensus is the only horizontal organizational structure. It’s not even the best.

Pages