In your standard dictatorship, activists are brought out back and shot. In the United States' crypto-dictatorship, activists are bullied by the state until they go bankrupt, are buried under a mountain of legal woes, are publicly discredited or humiliated, or as in the case of activist and Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz , made to crack under the constant pressure, and commit suicide...
Regularly watching the news over the years, and getting my news from a variety of sources, I’ve noticed that the mainstream news media does a pretty bad job of covering certain issues. A story about Paris Hilton takes the lead over a story about the Afghanistan war or a piece on climate change. Some issues don’t get covered at all. But to address this problem at a local level, many...
There is a tremendous amount of information available on the Internet and in books exploring different aspects of issues raised in the film. Our goal in creating this resource guide is to make it easy for viewers to act, now while the film is still fresh in your mind - not re-create the wheel! We hope these handouts and questions will get you started and inspire you to seek out the...
The economy is changing. Dramatically. Coping with these changes means changing the way we do things. The path of the future involves root level, radical changes. Things we have always considered “normal” won’t work anymore. We must think LOCALLY, and act now to begin growing a resilient local economy. Understand the full extent of the problem. We’ve only seen the...
It is time to try to describe, at first abstractly and later concretely, a strategy for destroying capitalism. At its most basic, this strategy calls for pulling time, energy, and resources out of capitalist civilization and putting them into building a new civilization. The image, then, is one of emptying out capitalist structures, hollowing them out, by draining wealth, power, and meaning...
Help limit the influence of big corporate banks and strike a blow for the working man by moving your funds to a credit union. 1. Fuck Convenience (And Your Money is Federally-Insured) The subversion used by the big banks is “convenience.” How it makes cattle of us all. It’s the same predilection
Corporate power is behind the politics of climate denial, Wall Street bailouts, union busting, and media consolidation, to name just a few. And policies advocated by the 1 percent are bankrupting the middle class. But real people have power, too. Here are some of their most successful strategies.
Members of the sustainable food movement are furious and, frankly, we have a right to be. Last month's decision by the USDA to fully deregulate GE alfalfa isn't just a minor skirmish in a long and exhausting battle. It threatens the existence of organic farming and organic food, and flies in the face of USDA's mandate from Congress under the Organic Foods Production Act to promote and...
This guide will give you step by step instructions on how to host Films For Action sponsored film screening events in your city. It is intended primarily for people who have started or want to start a local Films For Action chapter, which will host multiple events per year. You can also review this guide to see if this is something you'd be interested in doing. We hope this guide will...
The problem: We wake up every day to go to work , taking orders from a manager. We sit at work counting down the minutes until we go home, counting down the days until the weekend, counting down the weeks until our next holiday, wishing our lives away. Or worse, we can't find a job, so we have to scrape by on benefits . We worry about paying the bills and making rent and we always...
Across the world millions of people are actively resisting the process of corporate globalization while simultaneously building viable local alternatives. Effective (and enjoyable!) change, in both cases, requires collective action – linking hands with like-minded people – from the global to the local. There are many community groups and ‘translocal’ alliances springing...
Across the world millions of people are actively resisting the process of corporate globalization while simultaneously creating viable local alternatives in the here and now. This powerful emerging movement represents a radical departure from ‘business as usual’. In place of the imposition of a single, global world economy, the new paradigm seeks ‘a world that embraces many...
The economic collapse of 2008 came at the end of three decades of stagnant wages that resulted in record household debt and made it apparent that the economy does not work for most Americans. Even during the collapse the rich got richer and the poor got poorer as trillions of dollars were transferred from the Treasury and the Federal Reserve to the economic elite who were most at fault for the...
The vicious intimidation campaign against WikiLeaks is wrong, dangerous and undermines the rule of law. Top US politicians have branded WikiLeaks a terrorist organization, and urged corporations to shut it down. Commentators have suggested assassinating its staff. The future of our freedoms and the Internet is at stake. Let's urgently take a stand to ensure governments and companies act...
Started in late 2008, The Zeitgeist Movement exists as the communication and "Activist Arm" of an organization called The Venus Project. The Venus Project was started many decades ago by Social/Industrial Designer Jacque Fresco and his life's work has been to address and overcome the lack of sustainability existing currently across the world and to work to incorporate new methods and values...
Forgive this brief editorial moment, but for a number of reasons I feel compelled to speak on the recent #OCCUPYWALLSTREET movement in regard to it's aim.
There are many things you can do to be part of this growing movement—and only some of them involve sleeping outside.
Starting a food co-op takes a lot of work. But the rewards are many. This book provides an overview of the basic steps and procedures. The manual is not an exhaustive or comprehensive reference document. Groups interested in starting a new co-op are strongly encouraged to check additional references, including those listed throughout the manual. Starting a co-op is a challenging and...
Films For Action's City Chapter websites aim to provide a definitive web-based resource for the activist community of that city. By providing a robust set of information and communication tools geared to amplify the impact of local efforts, the website serves to build synergy and momentum to affect dramatic and radical change at a city-wide level. We believe an informed, well connected, and...
I personally support the spirit of Occupy Wall Street, especially the spotlight it has cast on the shocking level of inequality in our country. But the movement oddly conveys a very mainstream message that Wall Street can and should be fixed. Just clean up our existing financial institutions – make them more accountable, honest, transparent – and all will be well. Really? I think...
Alright you redeemers, rebels and radicals out there, We're living through a magical moment … #OCCUPYWALLSTREET has catalyzed into an international insurgency for democracy … the mood at our assemblies is electric … people who go there are drawn into a Gandhian spirit of camaraderie and hope for a new kind of future. Across the globe the 99% are marching! You have...
The American Anti-Corruption Act was just unveiled. It's a gamechanging law that gets money out of politics, for good. In order to pass it, we need a million people to add their names as "Citizen Co-Sponsors." Will you add your name now to help put the pressure on Congress? Sign the Petition of Support Here The Act was crafted by former Federal Election...
The future of the news is upon us! Simply put, the internet has taken over. With newspapers, magazines, television networks, and radio shows distributing their content online, you as a consumer now have a definite voice in the discussion of what content is favored by these organizations . Where in the past, newspapers might be able to see how the front page story affected readership, online...
Egypt's Mubarak regime today shut down Internet and cell phone communications before launching a violent crackdown against protesters. Free Press has just discovered that one American company — Boeing-owned Narus of Sunnyvale, Calif. — has sold Egypt "Deep Packet Inspection" (DPI) equipment that can be used by the regime to track, target and crush political dissent over the...
Ever wonder how much you paid to fund the war? Use the Afghanistan War Tax Calculator to find out. We'll give you an I.O.U. for what you paid that you can forward to your Member of Congress. Ask for your money back!
A guide to building a successful solidarity network along the lines of the Seattle Solidarity Network, written by two SeaSol organisers, in text and PDF pamphlet format. The Seattle Solidarity Network (or “SeaSol” for short) is a small but growing workers’ and tenants’ mutual support organization that fights for specific demands using collective direct action...
Maybe you’re itching to take a wide, full swing to drive the shiny steel of a nice heavy pick deep under the asphalt. You too can leverage up a satisfying big slab of that black, gooey hard stuff. I love destroying asphalt and maybe you’d like to join the party. Here’s a “how to.” Alas it all begins with land ownership. It all ends with redesigning land uses and...
Bill McKibben and the folks at 350.org have decided to target the pernicious financial influence of the fossil fuel industry and its front groups. On the day following the election, they kicked off a 21-city “Do the Math” tour to “mount an unprecedented campaign to cut off the industry’s financial and political support by divesting our schools, churches and...
The last 30 years have seen a protracted crisis in American agriculture. We have fewer farmers, less land, a degraded soil base and intensifying corporate control over production, processing and technology. With 58 being the average age of farmers in America, there is a growing need for young people to consider pursuing agriculture as a way to make a positive impact on the future of food. If...
Teaching you how to meet your neighbors, grow food together, share the harvest and create a life that excites you. The Food is Free Project is creating a repeatable model of growing food and community. It is our vision and wish to empower you with the knowledge and know-how to transform your block and neighborhood step-by-step. Using salvaged materials we are building front yard community...
Hosting film screenings can be used as a powerful method to accopmlish many goals. They can be used to launch solutions-oriented campaigns (either designed by your group or to assist already on-going campaigns). They can create a common foundation of understaning among a large group of people, making it easier for those people to organize and act on those understandings. They can raise...
The political and economic policies that have shaped our world today systematically favor large, transnational corporations over small local businesses and farmers, ecological health and community well-being. In short, they favor economic growth and corporate profits over the needs of people and the planet. A new approach to economic policy, from the global to the local, is desperately needed...
Democracy Now! is a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez. Pioneering the largest public media collaboration in the U.S., Democracy Now! is broadcast on Pacifica, NPR , community, and college radio stations and its podcast is one of the most popular on the web. If you'd like to have Democracy Now broadcast in you area...
Why Kill the Mockingbird, Mr. President? teaser from Petite Pointer We enter a new year, a year of same old same olds, resolutions and new Hollywood films, including films about Wikileaks that sensationalized the organization, leaving many people in the dark about the truth. From "The Man that Sold the World" to "We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks"...
Thorium is readily available & can be turned into energy without generating transuranic wastes. Thorium's capacity as nuclear fuel was discovered during WW II, but ignored because it was unsuitable for making bombs. A liquid-fluoride thorium reactor ( LFTR ) is the optimal approach for harvesting energy from Thorium, and has the potential to solve today's energy/climate crisis.
Deep in a recession and with scary ecological scenarios looming, now may be the ripest moment we’ll ever have to power-shift global capitalism onto a new path. Adbusters #85 asks economics students around the world to join the fight to revamp Econ 101 curriculums and challenge the endemic myopia of their tenured neoclassical profs. Read a few articles, download the Kick it Over Manifesto...
Hosting film screenings can be used as a powerful method to accopmlish many goals. They can be used to launch solutions-oriented campaigns (either designed by your group or to assist already on-going campaigns). They can create a common foundation of understaning among a large group of people, making it easier for those people to organize and act on those understandings. They can raise...
Supporting local farms is one of the best and easiest ways to eat healthy, reduce your carbon footprint, and strengthen your community. 7 Reasons to Eat Locally 1) Helps the Local Economy: According to a study by the New Economics Foundation in London, a dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy. When businesses are not owned locally, money leaves the...
Television and radio broadcasters get to use our public airwaves for free. It’s a great deal … for them, at least. For the rest of us, it’s just another corporate giveaway. These broadcasters rake in billions in profits using our public property. And what do we the public get from them in return? Next to nothing.
A school bus-sized satellite—the world's most capable—is for sale, as its corporate owner goes under. But rather than let it slowly die, a non-profit is raising money to repurpose it as a free internet provider for the poor. Buy This Sate
DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, represents bigotry and discrimination against millions of Americans who want the same rights the rest of us cherish. We don’t need to wait for a study. We don’t need to read a poll. We know right from wrong. And we know it’s time for DOMA to go. Passed in 1996, DOMA: enshrined into US law the discriminatory notion that marriage is...
Imagine six months from now a social movement that no longer waits for elected politicians to lead and engages in direct action against the fossil fuel industry and their lobbying power. ~ By Chuck Collins It is time to form affinity groups. We need to come together to form small groups of friends and neighbors that can engage in creative nonviolent action and lean on each other in...
One of the main causes of deforestation in Indonesia, and the greatest threat to orangutans in the wild, is the conversion of forests to oil palm plantations. As more and more forests fall, other critically endangered species, including Sumatran elephants, tigers and rhinos, are also put at risk. Such 'development' is usually followed by increased levels of hunting, poaching...
Survival is the only international organization supporting tribal peoples worldwide. We were founded in 1969 after an article by Norman Lewis in the UK’s Sunday Times highlighted the massacres, land thefts and genocide taking place in Brazilian Amazonia. Like many modern atrocities, the racist oppression of Brazil’s Indians took place in the name of ‘economic growth&rsquo...
The following ideas were generated by the more than 85 people who participated in the World Cafe discussion that was part of the Economics of Happiness Summit + Launch of the Common Wealth Time Bank on September 3rd, 2012. We hope they will inspire and challenge you to make at least some of these changes in your own life and in your wider community.
Donald Trump has declared war on wind farms! So why is the world’s biggest windbag in a flap? Well, if you were on the 12th hole of his golf course in Scotland and stood on your tippy toes and squinted out to sea you might just see some of the offshore wind turbines that are planned to be built there. This would, of course, ruin the view. I mean how can you enjoy your game, played on a...
350.org is an international campaign that's building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis—the solutions that science and justice demand. Our mission is to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis—to create a new sense of urgency and of possibility for our planet. Our focus is on the number 350—as in parts per million...
Comcast lobbyists are working the halls of Congress to pave the way for their big takeover of NBC. Unfortunately, the merger would mean more media consolidation and could be a serious threat to net neutrality. When the same company owns both the production and distribution of information and entertainment, consumers historically recieve less diversity of programming and higher price...
HowToOccupy is conceived to promote and spread the methods, techniques and knowledge about peaceful occupation of public spaces while developing sustainable ways of living based on participatory democracy. We are an open community based on free information, we believe in the power of synergy applied to creative commons and copyleft for the benefit of the many. Our goal is to...
Films For Action is a local and international organization dedicated to providing you with the information and perspectives essential to creating a more just, sustainable, and democratic society. Along these lines we are many things. We're community film screening organizers. We're an alternative news center. We're a problem/solutions learning library. We're an international and city-focused...