Articles

Janet Biehls graphics of Murray Bookchin

Creating Free Cities

25.01.2012
Throughout his life Murray Bookchin was searching for political alternatives to the nation-state and capitalism. His social ecology explicitly sought to create free municipalities peopled by free citizens. His ideas will—we hope—receive more attention in the future.
German forest swastika

Ecofascism Revisited: A Brief Interview

19.01.2012
In the mid-nineties, Janet Biehl and Peter Staudenmaier co-authored a book on Ecofascism. Now this books has been republished by New Compass Press—with an extensive epilogue assessing this historical legacy. What is the relevance of ecofascism today?
Picture from assembly of Occupy London

- A New Era of Democratic History

14.01.2012
"The multiple crises we face indicate the need for a new paradigm, and that needs new organisational forms as the old ones are relatively defunct," says Mark Barrett from the People's Assembly Network in the UK. We talked to him about the prospects for assembly democracy in the UK.
Occupation of Wall Street

Solidify Occupy

04.01.2012
These past weeks have seen the destruction of the Occupy Wall St., Boston, Chicago, Oakland, LA and most recently Tucson camps, among others. Now the nascent Occupy movement faces one of its strongest tests. What social organization can replace the existing capitalism?
Image of bombing of government headquarters in Oslo July 22nd

Conspiracism and Violence

10.12.2011
Al Qaeda and the Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik may appear very different, but they share the view that the world is ruled by a secret and all-powerful conspiracy. We reveal the conspirative fantasies behind the July 22nd attacks in Norway and other terrorist ideologies.

What's Next for the Occupy Movement?

05.12.2011
For some 30 years, the progressive Left in the US has been on the defensive. With the rapid growth of the Occupy movement this seems to be shifting. But what will happen now after the iconic tent encampments have been evicted, and when winter is coming?
Javier Sicilia hugs two women

We've had it up to here!

30.11.2011
For the last 6 years more than 40.000 people have been killed in the so-called Mexican drug war. A new grassroots peace movement has been initiated by the poet Javier Sicilia. Can it do what the government is not able to do – to provide real security to the Mexicans?
Girl holding banner during Chile student protest

Bad Education

27.10.2011
In Chile thousands of self-identified ‘badly educated’ students occupy their school campuses, and demand that education should be free and accessible to all. Their uprising has been met by unprecedented levels of repression by the authorities and divides the country in two.
Occcupy Wall Street photo

Argentina to Wall Street

16.10.2011
As unemployment and poverty in the US reaches record levels, the protest is catching on, with hundreds of parallel occupations across the country. It was a similar disparity in economic and political power that led people to the streets in the Arab Spring, and in Wisconsin, Greece, Spain and London.
Stig Marlon's illustration with glasses on paper

Challenges for a better anti racist-critic

12.10.2011
Danbolt calls for a confrontation with the various racist exclusion mechanisms that have structured public life in Norway for decades. Queer feminist critics warns against the effects of the growing culturally, as well as genetically, motivated racism that is blooming in Europe and North America.
Ercan Ayboga, photo by Janet Biehl

Kurdish Communalism

09.10.2011
For five years, the Kurds of southeastern Turkey have built communalist institutions on an unprecedented scale. Interviewed by Janet Biehl, activist Ercan Ayboga explains the origin, theory, and practice of what Kurds call democratic confederalism.
Mesopotamian Social Forum Poster

Report from The Mesopotamian Social Forum

05.10.2011
September 20-25, 2011, the Mesopotamian Social Forum was organized in the Kurdish city of Dyarbakir. Janet Biehl brings us a report from the conference and her impressions of the state of Kurdish radicalism today and the challenges this movement faces.
T shirt design motive of Rudolf Steiner reading "Guru"

Anthroposophy and Ecofascism

02.10.2011
Did you think that anthroposophy and the thinking of Rudolf Steiner was a progressive pedagogical and environmental philosophy? Well, read this article about Steiner’s race theory and anthroposophy’s relationship to German Nazism and think again!
Picture of sea of roses after 22 July terrorist attack in Oslo

A Tale of Two Terrorists

28.09.2011
The sociologist Michael Kimmel believes that you can not understand right-wing extremism without also understanding gender. In this article he takes a look at the two terrorists Breivik and McVeigh in the light of fear of feminism, as well as global economic changes and immigration.
Manifestation against private health care creative common licence

Neoliberalism, Austerity and Participatory Democracy

14.09.2011
It is often argued that the period in which we live is not suitable to the struggle for participatory democracy. This article presents several important reasons that make the case for participatory democracy – even in an age of austerity.

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