Understanding Trump's Game Plan in Portland Could Be the Key to Preventing a Coup in November

Defeating Trump’s “law and order” strategy will mean creating a plan to win based on our strengths and his weaknesses.

George Lakey

Necropolitics, Social Fascism and Algorithmic Colonialism

Is the old world really dying while the new one struggles to be born? Or does it merely mutate, gorging on technology and the intensification of social fear?

Antoni Aguiló

6 Reasons so Many Spiritual People Have Been Fooled by Qanon

At a time when paramilitary units snatch nonviolent protesters from the streets of big American cities and when even Fox News has finally begun to apply scrutiny on the occupant of the White House, seeing much of the New Age scene convert into the latest constituency for...

Martin Winiecki

Human Beings Are Not a Virus

'Buoyed by our present solidarity, let us look to Ireland’s own historical fights to protect the environment and each other.'

Sinéad Mercier

The Cure of the Earth

"Love of life is the guide and motivator of ecological healing on Earth. Next comes learning how to put that love into action. How do we do that for that most alive of all places, the Amazon?"

Charles Eisenstein

Free Films For Action - Summer 2020 Highlights

In this round-up, you'll find the links to watch 19 documentaries we wanted to highlight this summer.

Films For Action

Nonviolence and the New Story of Human Nature

How do we get from the world of now to the society we long to live in?

Michael Nagler

Degrowth and the Emerging Mosaic of Alternatives

After decades on the defensive, the left has once again started to embrace positive visions of the future.

Corinna Burkhart, Nina Treu, and Matthias Schmelzer

Affluence Is Killing the Planet, Warn Scientists

Would you like to be rich? Chances are your answer is: “Yes! Who wouldn’t want to be rich?” Clearly, in societies where money can buy almost everything, being rich is generally perceived as something good. It implies more freedom, fewer worries, more happiness, higher social...

Julia K. Steinberger, Thomas Wiedmann and Manfred Lenzen

A Working Definition of Racism

1. Human beings are members of the same species. The term 'racism' is useful as a shorthand way of categorizing the systematic mistreatment experienced by people of color and Third world people both in the United States and in many other parts of the world. But this term...

Ricky Sherover-Marcuse

We Need Solidarity, Not White Guilt, to Fight Racism

The well-intentioned drive among white progressives to “check their privilege” or “take responsibility” for their unconscious biases won’t do much to fight racism. But forging real solidarity through concrete campaigns, protests, and movements can.

Hadas Thier

Working Assumptions for White Activists on Eliminating Racism: Guidelines for Recruiting Other Whites as Allies

Assume that all human beings desire warm, close relationships with each other. This is also true of you and of all other white people. Assume that you are a regular white person (not an exceptional white person) and that all whites are good people, caring...

Ricky Sherover-Marcuse

What Are We Talking About When We Talk About 'A Police-Free Future'?

Over the past two weeks, our “Building a Police-Free Future: Frequently-Asked Questions” zine has been shared tens of thousands of times. That zine is a great first step, but it’s also only 1000 words long! We know people still have questions, especially when it comes to some...

MPD150

We Must Look Beyond Police for Community Safety

As community leaders calling for less funding for police and more funding for alternative community safety measures, we were glad to see the Star Tribune Editorial Board reflecting on the relationship between police and public safety a few weeks ago (“Defunding cops is not...

Tony Williams, Leilah Abdennabi and Sheila Nezhad

The War on Crime Is Really a War on the Poor - a Civilized Society Would Simply Abolish Poverty

Invest in people, not prisons.

Tim Hjersted

Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police

Congressional Democrats want to make it easier to identify and prosecute police misconduct; Joe Biden wants to give police departments $300 million. But efforts to solve

Mariame Kaba

Native Americans Are Being Killed by Police at a Higher Rate Than Any Other Group

SUQUAMISH TRIBE DESCENDANT JEANETTA RILEY, A 34-YEAR-OLD MOTHER OF FOUR, LAY FACEDOWN ON A SANDPOINT, IDAHO, STREET. One minute earlier, three police officers had arrived, summoned by staff at a nearby hospital. Her husband had sought help there because Riley—homeless...

Stephanie Woodard

Activists Catalog Nearly 600 Videos of Police Violence Against Protesters

"This kind of documentation serves as a counter-narrative to repeated denials of responsibility from the police, who are routinely claiming protesters were the ones to grow violent first."

Jake Johnson

Five Reasons Why People Defend Police Brutality

As protests against police brutality are met with an unceasing barrage of police brutality, the obsequious bootlicking copologia in online discussion forums has been cranked up to eleven. I’ve written a

Caitlin Johnstone

No More Money for the Police

Redirect it to emergency response programs that don’t kill black people.

Philip V. McHarris and Thenjiwe McHarris

Who’s Afraid of Vulnerability?

Reframing vulnerability as a strength is what makes transformation possible.

Jason von Meding & Heidi Harmon

ARMY FOR TRUMP “Enlists” Citizens to “FIGHT” for Donald Trump 2020

A terrifying new website recently opened up: ArmyForTrump.com

Matthew R. Bishop

We Have to Demand an End to the Social Order That Led to George Floyd's Murder

At times of widespread misery, a single incident of blatant injustice can cause enormous, unexpected outrage — outrage that then fuels far wider protests and more radical demands. This is exactly what we’ve seen across the United States since George Floyd’s murder.

Jeremy Gong

Police Abolition 101: What a World Without Cops Would Look Like

“Can we come up with a situation where there are fewer killings, and fewer collateral consequences?”

Madison Pauly

As the George Floyd Protests Continue, Let's Be Clear Where the Violence Is Coming From

Using damage to property as cover, US police have meted out shocking, indiscriminate brutality in the wake of the uprising

Rebecca Solnit

Yes, the Looting Must Stop

Looting is the word of the day, on the lips of every newscaster, the president, and elected officials across the country. And, indeed, looting is a major problem in America.

Thom Hartmann

Don’t Fall for the Myth of the “Outside Agitator” in Racial Justice Protests

Whenever mass protests of any kind kick off, defenders of the status quo immediately accuse protesters as being duped by “outside agitators.” Don’t fall for it — the lie of the outside agitator is designed to weaken protests and downplay our widespread anger at injustice.

Glenn Houlihan

No Neutral

A letter to white people from a white person.

Josh Liveright

Dr. Cornel West Finally Said What Americans Need to Hear - Here's Why

Brother Doctor Cornel West finally said what needed to be said on CNN. The one narrative a neo-fascist liberal mediasphere can’t headline. Not in Venezuela. Not in Syria. Not in Yemen. Not in Tel-Aviv, Paris, the UK, or anywhere throughout the neo-liberal world. “We are...

Josh Adler

The Answer to Police Violence Is Not 'Reform'. It's Defunding. Here's Why.

Bias training, body cameras, community dialogues – Minneapolis has tried them all. We need a better response

Alex S Vitale

May the Screams and Tears and Protests Shake the Very Conscience of This Nation

No one wants to see their community burn. But the fires burning in Minneapolis, just like the fire burning in the spirits of so many marginalized Americans today, are a natural response to the trauma black communities have experienced, generation after generation.

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II

Another Uprising Was Inevitable

This epidemic of racism is more prevalent, more real, more tangible than even a virus that is taking lives seemingly overnight. When do Black people get to rest, to be safe, to breathe?

Zenobia Jeffries Warfield

How to Fix the World

The pandemic is very quickly teaching us what’s important: health, love, food, a safe and comfortable home, creativity and learning, connectedness, and being able to get out into nature. Shouldn’t those things be the pillars around which our societies are organised? The virus...

Laura Basu

'The Condor and the Eagle' Takes Flight

From the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, to the oil fields of Texas, to the Ecuadorian Amazon, The Condor & the Eagle tells the story of the collective struggle of the Indigenous peoples of North and South America in their fight to preserve their communities and to protect the...

Linda Etchart

Forget "Looting." Capitalism Is the Real Robbery.

This morning the president of the United States threatened state-sanctioned murder in response to “looting,” laying bare the way in which white supremacy, capitalism and the state work together to violently repress people who defend Black life.

William C. Anderson

Let Yourself Grieve

Whatever causes you grief, let yourself grieve. It is healing and necessary to feel the pain of the loss, whether we understand the fullness of its dimensions or not.

Anthony Rella

No, We Should Not Condemn Uprisings Against Police Murders Like George Floyd's

The uprising in response to George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer this week has led to predictable calls to condemn looting. But the real looting in our society comes from the military, the police, the pharmaceutical companies, private equity, the landlords...

Peter Gowan

Biodiversity Now!

Progressive International Council member Carola Rackete and Dr. Claire Wordley explore the dimensions of Europe's biodiversity crisis — and how the Green New Deal can address it.

Carola Rackete and Dr. Claire Wordley

Nobody Takes the Renewable Energy Transition Seriously

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Despite all the demands from climate activists, scientists, and even policy makers, hardly a single country is taking the shift to renewable energy seriously. Even countries and regions that claim to be...

Richard Heinberg

A Degrowth Perspective on the Coronavirus Crisis

The coronavirus (covid-19) has caused upheaval across the world, deaths of the most vulnerable, closed borders, financial market crashes, curfews and controls on group gatherings, and many more devastating effects.

Degrowth Editorial Team

Post-Pandemic Development: a Ladakhi Perspective

A week before the announcement of the Janata [public] Curfew slated for March 22, 2020, I spoke with a 43-year-old close relative in her village in Leh, Ladakh, by phone from Delhi. Around that time, the news of rising infections from the novel coronavirus coming in from...

Padma Rigzin

Beneath Conspiracy Theories, the Class War

The danger of conspiracy theories is their ability to breed apathy and resignation, offering an easy narrative that makes people susceptible to influence and limits social change. There is another way.

Aragorn Eloff

The Conspiracy Myth

The other day I was amused to read a critique of The Coronation in which the author was absolutely certain that I am a closet conspiracy theorist. He was so persuasive that I myself almost believed it.

Charles Eisenstein

If You Found That ‘Plandemic’ Video Convincing, Read This Too

There’s a video out there that claims to show a scientist being silenced by the government. I keep seeing people share it while saying things like “What do you think of this?” or “I don’t know if this is right, but it’s worth listening to.” If you want to learn more but are...

Beth Skwarecki

It Is Right to Take Time to Grieve

For the past few weeks, I’ve been writing down my hurts and disappointments, my losses. Since the pandemic began, all the plans I’d made, all the things I’d finally given myself permission to get excited about, to invest money and energy in, to do what I wanted have been...

Anthony Rella

The Bizarre Blindspot in 'Planet of the Humans'

So, was the film “Planet of the Humans” a hit job on the environmental movement disguised by the filmmakers’ phony claim to care about Mother Earth? Or was it an honest, get real, exposé of its assertion that, “The takeover of the environmental movement by capitalism is now...

Craig Collins

Why We Cling to Conspiracies in Times of Crisis

They say anxiety is us weaving conspiracy theories about ourselves. But what if those feelings are already there, and we are actually telling stories to support them? We weave stories to try to explain how something inhuman and awful could happen to us. We also need people...

Justice Bartlett

Student Debt Forgiveness: Let's Do Some Math

What would it cost to wipe out everybody’s student loans? The answer may surprise you.

Sparky Abraham

Why the Neoliberals Won’t Let This Crisis Go to Waste

AN INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP MIROWSKI - Many observers expected that the 2008 financial crisis would mark the end of neoliberalism. Instead, we saw a wave of privatization and sharp cuts in public services. Today, the forces best placed to exploit the coronavirus pandemic are...

Alex Doherty

Introducing the Wire International - A Response to Media Oligarchy

Counteracting corporate media consolidation, the Progressive International has launched the Wire, to disseminate critical perspectives around the world.

Michael Galant

The Class Divide in a Time of Pandemic: a Permaculture Perspective

The divide between the haves and the have nots has been highlighted by the impacts of the pandemic.[1] For those able to work online with a spacious and secure home base, and some financial resources to ride out the pandemic, life has mostly been tolerable. Consumption has...

David Holmgren

TAWAI: a Film About Reconnection

"We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.” - Albert Einstein Tawai is a film about reconnection. It connects us to our ancestors and the type of life they may have lived. It connects us with our bodies and senses, inviting us to...

Bruce Parry

A Healthcare Worker Answers Governor Cuomo

Recent data out of New York City shows a large number of people with COVID-19 have largely been staying home. Governor Andrew Cuomo called this a “surprise.” But capitalism is forcing working-class people to spread the virus. A socialist doctor from New York explains the...

Mike Pappas

No, You Don't Have to Admit You're Wrong to Apologize (And Other Apology Myths Debunked)

Why are real, meaningful apologies so few and far between? What have we internalized about the meaning of apologizing?

Teri Lynn

The Great Giving Up (and The Film that Made It Worse)

This is the final in a series on Planet of the Humans. The other posts are here:

Ketan Joshi

Our Coming Baptism by Fire

There is worse ahead. In acceptance, hope is transformed into energy for the unimaginable.

Chris Taylor

Who Owns the Future of California's Energy? Its Residents

For many homeowners, rooftop solar is a smart move. But what if you could get every home and business in your entire county to switch to renewables, all at once? This is essentially what’s happening in my state, California: a quiet revolution awkwardly named community choice...

Peter Kalmus

The Important Debate Planet of the Humans Misses

Instead of lambasting yesteryear’s renewable energy, the movie could have taken up current, more relevant questions.

Kate Aronoff

Ahmaud Arbery

A Poem Aflame

Tai Amri Spann-Ryan

Planet of the Humans Is the Media Literacy Exercise of the Year

"In disputes upon moral or scientific points, let your aim be to come at truth, not to conquer your opponent. So you never shall be at a loss in losing the argument, and gaining a new discovery.” - Arthur Martine

Tim Hjersted

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