What a Society Designed for Well-Being Looks Like

To address the dramatic increase in mental and emotional distress in the U.S., we must move beyond a focus on the individual and think of well-being as a social issue.

Tabita Green

The Everyday Power of Movement Activism

Activism is normal; what’s strange is that we don’t see it that way.

Laurence Cox

How to Take on Fascism Without Getting Played

In front of a standing-room-only crowd at the Howard Zinn Book Festival in San Francisco earlier this month, historian Mark Bray and I debated the value of using violence to quell the growth of neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Anti-racism trainer Molly McClure was the moderator.

George Lakey

Biological Annihilation: a Planet in Loss Mode

On the great vanishing happening before our eyes

Subhankar Banerjee

We Have Been Groomed to Consume

With Christmas coming up, household consumption will soon hit its yearly peak in many countries. Despite homely pictures of tranquility on mass-produced greeting cards, Christmas is more about frenzied shopping and overspending than peace on earth or quality time with family...

Anja Lyngbaek

The State of the Spirit, 2018

1. The State of the Spirit, 2018

Rabbi Michael Lerner

Elements of the Democratic Economy: Employee Stock Ownership Plan

An employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) enables full or partial ownership of a business by its employees through a pension plan or trust.

Stephanie Geller

Hey Progressives, Can We Stop Using the Tools of Social Justice to Tear One Another Down?

Hi everyone. This might be another one of those serious posts, so please take a few deep breaths and eat some dark chocolate. While perusing an online group, I witnessed a conversation between several colleagues, and it was disheartening. A difference of perspectives led to...

Vu Le

We Are The People of the Apocalypse

As growth-driven consumer culture spurs on planetary destruction, why don’t we spring into action? Psychologist John F Schumaker says a frightening erosion of human personality lies at the heart of the problem.

John F. Schumaker

The Case Against Police Brutality: Towards Radical Social Transformation

[T]he biggest enemy of society’s security is the state and the private organization’s belonging to it. Selma Irmak, member of the Democratic Society Congress[1] Introduction Police arbitrariness and impunity are a common trait across the world. In the U.S. the...

Yavor Tarinski

The Turn Towards a Global Police State is Structurally Rooted in Capitalism’s Achilles Heel

(Excerpts from the keynote speech given by Professor William Robinson at the Nov 18 L.A.

William I. Robinson

The Green New Deal Goes Viral: What's Next Is up to Us

Ted Franklin argues that climate activists must seize the time and get to work on the Green New Deal proposal.

Ted Franklin

If You Oppose Donald Trump, Don't Hate Him

When we allow ourselves to fall victim to hatred, we are doing our opponents’ work for them.

Susan L. Rhodes and Charles R. Schwenk

Degrowth Is the Radical Post-Brexit Future the UK Needs

As the Brexit negotiations wrap up and Theresa May’s deal is lambasted by Remainers and Leavers alike, it’s still far from clear what the future holds for the United Kingdom. On March 29 2019, it is due to leave the European Union.

Joe Herbert, Newcastle University

To Restore Our Soils, Feed the Microbes

Our soils are in trouble. Over the past century, we’ve abused them with plowing, tilling and too much fertilizer.

Matthew Wallenstein

Unlike a Globalized Food System, Local Food Won't Destroy the Environment

Our food system is linked to an economic system that is fundamentally biased against what’s good for people and the planet.

Helena Norberg-Hodge

Unity and Diversity in the Land of Nonviolence

[Note: This essay was just published in the Fall 2019 theology journal, "Oneing," by Fr. Richard Rohr and the Center for Action and Contemplation. To order a copy, visit: www.cac.org ]

Rev. John Dear

An Ecosocialist Path to Limiting Global Temperature Rise to 1.5°C

An emergency plan to meet the climate emergency

Richard Smith

Indigenous Principles of a Just Transition

INTRODUCTION TO JUST TRANSITION “Indigenous prophecy meets scientific prediction. What we have known and believed, you also now know: The Earth is out of balance. The plants are disappearing, the animals are dying, and the very weather – rain, wind, fire itself – reacts...

Indigenous Environmental Network

We Can Restore Democracy by Disrupting Politics. Here's How.

First, you have to admit that you have a problem . . . Hi there. If you are here, it is probably because you have come to the conclusion that our political system is no longer “fixable” by ordinary means and that some sort of deep structural changes need to be made. If you...

Jordan Hall

Want to End Sexual Harassment? Landmark Study Finds Ousting 'Bad Men" Isn't Enough

The most potent predictor of sexual misconduct goes beyond individual perpetrators.

Emily Peck

How Would Mother Jones Eulogize George H.W. Bush?

Mother Jones would have us pray for George H.W. Bush, who died at age 94, but also for his victims, many of whom, children included, were buried without pomp, or were simply disappeared

Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan

The Trouble With Saying 'It's Okay to Be White'

The ‘It’s okay to be white’ poster campaign, seen in the context of reacting to ‘Black Lives Matter,’ cannot be seen as benign.

Matthew Flisfeder

Capitalism Is Killing Patients... and Their Physicians

Physician burnout, depression, and suicide increasingly invade discussions within the medical field. Depression and suicide are more common among male and female physicians, with suicide rates 1.41 and 2.27 times greater than that of the general male and female populations...

Dr. Michael Pappas

Military “Service” Serves the Ruling Class

One cannot serve both the one percent and the 99 percent as their interests are at odds with each other. Although many join for righteous reasons, actions speak louder than intentions. Actions of the U.S. military has always been death, destruction, anguish of the working...

Will Griffin

The Opposite of Evil Is No Longer Goodness

My headline is provocative, so let me quickly explain, starting with a huge claim about what’s unique about our world in this moment. Then I ask, What, right now, is most required of our species? Our era has been dubbed the Anthropocene because for the first time we humans...

Frances Moore Lappé

Neoliberalism's Dark Path to Fascism

Neoliberalism transforms freedom for the many into freedom for the few. Its logical result is neofascism.

Chris Hedges

Nationalism and Its Contradictions

Allow me to begin by stating an anthropological and genetic fact. Any conversation about so called “American” nationalism must begin with the story of human migration itself, which is a story that started in Africa: the one place where all humanity can affirm a shared genesis...

George Cassidy Payne

Want Change? Take the Outside View

The Outside View is a new way to look at the world. To realise the cultural simulations we live with and work to change them.

Julyan Davey

The Proud Boys Are Imploding

The extremist gang’s leader is trying to bail, its members are in jail, and the FBI is on its tail.

Andy Campbell

No Justice Without Love: Why Activism Must Be More Generous

I want to be a member of a thriving and diverse social movement, not a cult or a religion.

Frances Lee

Democratic Party "Leadership" Is Upside Down

No matter how intense the top-down pressure gets from Speaker Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, we should insist from the bottom up that members of Congress stand their ground for progressive principles.

Norman Solomon

It's Time to Go on the Offensive Against Racism

When I read this in the morning paper, my heart stopped: Just 40 minutes away from me, the white mother of black children in New Jersey was repeatedly harassed via Facebook by a stranger, who told her that her children should be hung.

George Lakey

Prisoner Prophet: Revisiting George Jackson's Analysis of Systemic Fascism

"Fascism must be seen as an episodically logical stage in the socio-economic development of capitalism in a state of crisis.” The rise of Donald Trump has brought talk of fascism to the forefront. While comparing US Presidents to Hitler is certainly nothing new -- both...

Colin Jenkins

Noam Chomsky Turns 90: How a U.S. Anarchist Has More Than Survived

“The person who claims the legitimacy of the authority always bears the burden of justifying it. And if they can’t justify it, it’s illegitimate and should be dismantled. To tell you the truth, I don’t really understand anarchism as being much more than that.” —Noam...

Bruce E. Levine

Where Are the Voices of Indigenous Peoples in the Thanksgiving Story?

Thanksgiving is an important time, when schools teach the story of who we are and where we come from as a nation.

Sarah B Shear

No Effective Means of Stopping Climate Breakdown Is Deemed “Politically Realistic.” So We Must Change Political Realities.

It was a moment of the kind that changes lives. At a press conference held by Extinction Rebellion last week, two of us journalists pressed the activists on whether their aims were realistic. They have called, for example, for carbon emissions in the UK to be reduced to net...

George Monbiot

7 Reasons Not to Rake Your Leaves

Fall leaves are not a nuisance. They’re part of the natural ecosystem, providing free mulch and fertilizer, wildlife habitat, and a beautiful array of butterflies and birds in the spring.

Return to Now

Activism Revisited: Conscious Participation and Collective Intelligence

If success or failure of this planet and of human beings depended on how I am and what I do […] HOW WOULD I BE? WHAT WOULD I DO? — R. Buckminster Fuller We cannot individually comprehend the range, depth and detail of the consequences we are collectively generating for...

Daniel Christian Wahl

Crucifying Julian Assange

What is happening to Assange should terrify the press. And yet his plight is met with indifference and sneering contempt.

Chris Hedges

Pathological Consumption Has Become So Normalised That We Scarcely Notice It

There’s nothing they need, nothing they don’t own already, nothing they even want. So you buy them a solar-powered waving queen; a belly button brush; a silver-plated ice cream tub holder; a “hilarious” inflatable zimmer frame; a confection of plastic and electronics called...

George Monbiot

To Help Democrats With 'Stiffening Their Spines' New Indivisible Guide Details How Trump Resistance Can Switch From Defense to Offense

"We can set the legislative agenda with a bold progressive vision rooted in inclusion, fairness, and justice. But none of this is automatic—we have to demand it of Congress."

Jake Johnson

This Facebook Post about the Kansas Midterms is Going Viral

121,000 likes and 36,000 shares attest to a powerful story about how change is fought for.

Davis Hammet

Let's Hear It for Men!

Stepping up in the era of Me Too and Total Shutdown.

Chris Taylor

80 Years Since the Holocaust Began: Can We Stop Fascism Today?

"The speedy rise of fascism always seems to hit the world by surprise. Yet what we're witnessing did not begin with the Bolsonaros, Trumps or Dutertes, just as German fascism did not begin with Hitler."

Martin Winiecki

Blaming ‘Both Sides’ for Hate Plays Into Hands of Right-Wing Media

Media coverage of tragedies like shootings and bombings is frequently politicized, particularly when jihadism is a factor in perpetrators’ motives. In its coverage of the recent outbreak of conspiracy-fueled far-right wing terrorism, however, many media outlets have rushed to...

Justin Anderson

The Cult of Trump

Cult leaders arise from decayed communities and societies in which people have been shorn of political, social and economic power. The disempowered, infantilized by a world they cannot control, gravitate to cult leaders who appear omnipotent and promise a return to a mythical...

Chris Hedges

Brené Brown on True Belonging

Have you ever felt like you just don’t belong? Like you’re a pink chicken in a field of graceful giraffes, or that perhaps you came to the wrong planet? Certainly many people seem to feel this way, either about their families, or their community, their sexuality and culture...

Azriel ReShel

Beyond Body Image

This thing we call female body-image - the relationship which women have to our own bodies - is, without doubt, in need of urgent attention. I know from my own deep exploration of the subject, that as a woman, I am unable to really separate my own sense of self from the...

Ayla Amano

A Usetarian Manifesto: Simple Living to Save the Planet

How to make simple living go viral.

Julyan Davey

I'm an Anarchist and I Vote

Greetings from Trumplandia, also known as the second congressional district of Maine, which is now polling for Donald Trump. I have called Lewiston, Maine, home since 2001 when I moved there for university as a teenager. I am currently finishing a Ph.D. in Quebec, from where...

Ryan Conrad

Ideological Hegemony: How Our Own Thoughts Became the Greatest Weapon of the Ruling Class

"Ideological hegemony is the process by which the exploited come to view the world through a conceptual framework provided to them by their exploiters." - Kevin A. Carson

Tim Hjersted

100 Short Films to Expand Your Consciousness

There are over 4,500 videos on Films For Action, hand-curated for their potential to inspire action and raise awareness of just about every topic related to making the world a better place. You've probably already seen our top 100 documentaries feature. Here are our 100...

Films For Action

There Is No Such Thing As A Bad Parent

Parenting is the most important role a person can fulfill in their lifetime.

George Siegal

Why Patriarchy Is Not About Men

In response to my recent newsletter, which I named “Tenderness, Vulnerability, and Mourning as a Response to Patriarchy”, I received two comments from men that led me to choose to write this piece. In two very different ways they pointed me to the reality that the word...

Miki Kashtan

If You Want to Save the World, Veganism Isn’t the Only Answer

Veganism has rocketed in the UK over the past couple of years – from an estimated half a million people in 2016 to more than 3.5 million – 5% of our population – today. Influential documentaries such as

Isabella Tree

To Leave or Remain: Dichotomy or Distraction?

Ever since the Brexit referendum was first announced, we have been bombarded by an array of starkly contradictory pronouncements – from the Leave camp’s now infamous claim that withdrawal from the EU would release £350 million a week for the NHS to the former Chancellor...

Helena Norberg-Hodge

Indigenous Wisdom for Living Responsibly

The Wholeness of Life Kanyini is best expressed in English as the combination of the two words ‘Responsibility’ and ‘Unconditional Love’, but it is actually a relationship; it is an enormous caring with no limit – it has no timeframe: it is eternal. – Uncle Bob...

Anneloes Smitsman

Time to Wake Up: the Neoliberal Order Is Dying

In my recent essay, I argued that power in our societies resides in structure, ideology and narratives – supporting what we might loosely term our current “neoliberal order” – rather than in individuals. Significantly, our political and media classes, who are of course deeply...

Jonathan Cook

Hiding in Plain Sight: Why We Cannot See the System Destroying Us

I rarely tell readers what to believe. Rather I try to indicate why it might be wise to distrust, at least without very good evidence, what those in power tell us we should believe.

Jonathan Cook

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