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An inspiring declaration for our times.
5 min
First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.
CELDF
Living the Change explores solutions to the global crises we face today – solutions any one of us can be part of – through the inspiring stories of people pioneering change in their own lives and in their communities in order to live in a sustainable and regenerative...
85 min
It might not have been as black, brown or working class as many might have liked. But criticizing it from the sidelines doesn’t help anyone
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Hey everyone! We're excited to announce that Films For Action has launched a
Is it time to give more power to the cities? VPRO backlight explores the growing and innovative power of the city in Eindhoven, Seattle and Hamburg. Where governments are stuck in their own ambition and party politics, the cities are bubbling with energy, optimism and vigor...
49 min
Chasing economic growth gains us nothing but global warming. We should follow the lead of tiny Costa Rica, where life expectancy is soaring
Jason Hickel
The Northern California Fibershed aims to skirt the rampant waste of resources in the apparel industry.
Araz Hachadourian
Films For Action is a learning library for people who want to change the world.
Despite endless capitalist greed and militarism, people are still fighting for a just world.
Nick Buxton
It was the last day of a week-long holiday and although it was mid-morning we had already been to the beach. The beach had been beautiful.
Hannah Alexander
Paul Stamets is a mycologist, author and advocate of bioremediation and medicinal fungi. Check out https://www.youtube.com/paulstamets
133 min
This is their inspiring story of what can happen when people with different perspectives decide to sit down, have a conversation, and hear each other out.
2 min
“The way we are trying to change the world is not going to work, and it’s never going to work”
This is the bold statement Deborah Frieze offers as she opens her TEDx talk.
In this wonderful video, Deborah offers us a new map for navigating the potential for transformative...
Ash Buchanan
I’m republishing this article I wrote a few months before the 2016 election because it contains an analysis which is absolutely essential for anyone who wishes to participate in transforming American political, economic, social, cultural and intellectual reality. Some of it...
Rabbi Michael Lerner
Many of us spiritual progressives have been in deep grief for the loss of life of Heather Heyer, the woman killed by a Nazi fanatic who also wounded 19 other anti-racist activists. We are also in grief about the ways racism continues to flourish on so many levels in the U.S....
Rabbi Michael Lerner
The Left can't allow itself to be consumed by debates about antifa. We need a proactive program and patient organizing.
Robert Greene II
Organize a fundraiser for a peacebuilding non-profit across the street from their event, or somewhere close by.
Arno Arr Michaelis IV
Read the Manifesto "Society for the Many: A Vision for Revolution"
2 min
Using humor and irony to undermine white supremacy dates back to the days of the Third Reich, from jokes and cartoons employed by Norwegians against the Nazi occupation to “The Great Dictator” speech by Charlie Chaplin.
Sarah Freeman-Woolpert
How do we build alliances across our varied agendas so as to have the greatest impact? And how do we involve what I call TWANYAS (Those Who Are Not Yet Activists) -- those who care, but have-not yet come forward?
Joyce S. Herman
One of the most emotional and difficult topics in contemporary discourse is the history of slavery and its lingering legacy. A common proposal for addressing slavery is reparations, compensatory payments to the descendants of Africans who had been enslaved as part of the...
Vishal Wilde
We turn out in the streets and nothing seems to happen. Maybe we’re doing it wrong.
Nathan Heller
Progressives need to fight for their values in a smarter, more inclusive way
Emily Crockett
Hate in America has become commonplace. What can we do to stop the hate?
The Southern Poverty Law Center
'Kids play with mud. They build sandcastles. It's like building your own little fortress. It's not rocket science.'
Ross and Kathryn decided that they were not going to get into debt buying a big house. Instead, they spent a year building it themselves. They made use of...
2 min
After the murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, many people are asking themselves what they should do if Nazis rally in their city. Should they put their bodies on the line in counter demonstrations? Some say yes.
Laurie Marhoefer
An engineer in Algeria has developed an ingenious new house building technique on a desert refugee camp. He wanted to build a home for his grandmother that would beat the heat and sandstorms, and plastic bottles were readily available. Filled with sand and straw and encased...
Jeremy Williams
Peter Joseph is the founder of the Zeitgeist Movement, a grassroots, worldwide organization that advocates an alternative economic system based on sustainability, cooperation and human need. His most recent book, ‘The New Human Rights Movement,’ delivers a startling exposé...
45 min
The times certainly are a-changing.
Juan Manuel and Martin Kirk
Once-celebrated author and thinker Daniel Pinchbeck can't find an audience for his new book. He has a few ideas why.
Katie Bain
In order for the Democratic Socialists of America’s 2017 Convention to be successful, three major tasks needed to be accomplished this past weekend.
1. Members needed to develop meaningful relationships with comrades from around the country.
2. Members had to participate in...
Michael Stivers
Americans think they live in a democracy. But their workplaces are small tyrannies.
Elizabeth Anderson
Martin Winiecki speaks about 'What is Sacred Activism?' in the opening speech (6th of August 2017) of the international gathering 'Defend the Sacred - Envision a global alternative' in Tamera.
12 min
A short film exploring transitional steps that countries can adopt which could lead to preventing nuclear weapon conflicts.
7 min
The Democratic Socialists of America, a traditionally progressive socialist organization founded in 1982, has seen its membership increase from roughly 5,000 to 25,000 members in the past year following the Bernie Sanders campaign and the subsequent election of Trump. Now...
Adam Weaver
Our organizing can't just speak to the everyday crises of people's lives under capitalism. It has to intervene in them.
R.L. Stephens
The present economic system is based upon the class ownership of the means of living. It is not geared to meeting our needs but to making profits for those who own the world’s resources. The gap between the rich and everyone else is now greater than ever before. Oxfam reports...
3 min
Movement manuals can be useful. Marty Oppenheimer and I found that out in 1964 when civil rights leaders were too busy to write a manual but wanted one. We wrote “A Manual for Direct Action” just in time for Mississippi Freedom Summer. Bayard Rustin wrote the forward. Some...
George Lakey
Seattle further cemented its reputation as one of the most progressive cities in the U.S. last week, when its City Council passed a law to tax the rich, sponsored by socialist City Councilmember Kshama Sawant along with Councilmember Lisa Herbold. The law places a 2.25% tax...
Adam Ziemkowski and Rebekah Liebermann
A solution-oriented film about creating sustainable and democratic cities.
60 min
Weaving together traditional stories, personal experiences and core concepts, Thich Nhat Hanh offers step-by-step practices that foster understanding and intimacy in any kind of relationship: between lovers, parents and children, even those who have done us harm.
According...
73 min
While many of us work to create a better world, it’s worthwhile to consider other countries where masses of people succeeded in nonviolently bringing about a high degree of democracy and economic justice. Sweden and Norway, for example, both experienced a major power shift in...
George Lakey
There is good reason for people on the left to have divisiveness on their minds. In the news and on social media, the leftists that are shown most often are those that are ranting and raging at each other, calling each other out over this badly-phrased thought or that...
A. E. Elliott
Most students are told to be seen and not heard. “Democratic schools” offer a refreshing alternative.
Brian Foglia
Embrace paradox. Embrace the unknown. Surrender who you think you are into what is.
2 min
Achieving comprehensive social change requires radical alteration of everything, including education. But most of the attempts to reform the educational system are limited. What is needed is a democratization of education through the introduction of alternative egalitarian...
Yavor Tarinski
For the past few months we have published a series of posts on New Compass introducing social ecology, discussing possible future environmental scenarios, studying the crisis of capitalis
Jonathan Korsár and Svante Malmström
When Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris climate deal, the world reacted with outrage. And rightly so: the agreement represents a remarkable achievement in international diplomacy – a breakthrough after 20 years of failed climate negotiations. But as we...
Jason Hickel
There's been a lot of talk about where the Baby Boomer generation will live as they age. Several interesting, sharing-based housing alternatives such cohousing and senior villages have emerged as potential options. But what about all the businesses that Baby Boomers own? What...
Cat Johnson
Pierre Fulton was black. He was poor. He had struggled his entire life. He had been in trouble with the law as a youth. Armed robbery, drug distribution, and gun possession were all on his record. It was now 2015 and Pierre was thirty. He had turned his life around. He got a...
R.L. Stephens
Individual actions can amount to change at a large scale. In his talk, Rob explains how this applies to environmentally friendly living. His extreme activism initiatives, such as the “Trash Me” campaign he ran in New York in 2016, are meant to awaken our consciousness on the...
18 min
On March 8, a crowd of over 50 protesters in Geneva, New York, (population 13,261) occupied the office of Republican Congressman Tom Reed. The occupation was part of a women’s strike organized in connection with International Women’s Day by the Geneva Women’s Assembly.
Liberation Staff
Happy father’s day to the fathers, and to our fathers’ fathers, and their fathers’ fathers, and all the way back to Grandfather Sky. Past there to before there were fathers, because all was just ONE.
Tai Amri Spann-Ryan
On Sunday, June 18th, 2017, Tai Amri Spann-Ryan gave a powerful and moving sermon at the Lawrence, KS Unitarian Fellowship in celebration of Juneteenth and the on-going struggle for liberation. The talk audibly left the crowd speechless for several seconds afterward. It is...
23 min
In the wake of Katrina, New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward was one of the few neighborhoods where relief came slowly. Less than 25% of its pre-Katrina population has returned and many houses have been abandoned or mowed down. As a result, the USDA officially listed the...
6 min
It’s time to ensure that no American has to worry about where they and their families will sleep tonight, says housing consultant James Stockard.
James Stockard
No one is naturally or genetically oppressive; no human being is born as an oppressor. No one is naturally or genetically destined to be oppressed; no one is born to be oppressed.
Ricky Sherover-Marcuse
A common objection against participatory democracy is that, yes, it is a beautiful idea, but it can only work at the local level, like the neighborhood, the small town or the village. Our modern world is too complex, too global and interconnected – and we are simply too many...
Sveinung Legard
RE-LEARNING HOPE is the story of Unitierra, an autonomous university in Oaxaca, Mexico that is immersed in, and has emerged from, the social and indigenous movements of the region. The film tells the story of this emergence of Unitierra and its powerful critique of...
70 min
Doughnut Economics, the new book by Kate Raworth, is out now.
These animations tell the story of the book's seven ways to think in 60-second bites. Check out the full set as they come online at
9 min
The Commons is maturing politically, its methods and principles becoming more visible and its participants winning municipal elections in a variety of European cities. How did this happen, and what happens next? First, a look at our present political context, and then some...
Stacco Troncoso & Ann Marie Utratel
Returning power — and profit — to the people.
Natalie Holmes
Although farmers have come to rely on imported honey bees, wild pollinators are hardier.
Lori Panico
Each generation has had one common desire: to live a more honest, ethical life of self-sufficiency and oneness with nature.
Nancy Matsumoto
Baking soda isn't just useful for cooking. You can use it as a deodorant, cleaning paste for rusty metal, heartburn relief, and more.
2 min
Without collective action, social change will be slow.
4 min
Catalonia is at the forefront of new economic thinking. They are a region rich in social currencies and in projects and people creating functioning post-capitalist societies. In June 2015, while in the midst of arranging the launch of the Exeter Pound, a local currency for...
53 min
Nasir Sobhani of Melbourne, Australia, aka The Streets Barber, gives free haircuts to the homeless to help them feel clean, empowered, and understood. Life on the streets is rough, with homeless people often ignored or abused to the point that they no longer feel human -- and...
1 min
It should be quite obvious, but apparently it’s not, that we can’t devise an anarchist revolutionary strategy until we have a clear idea of what it is we’re trying to achieve.
James Herod
Shorter workweeks could help reduce accidents, combat climate change, make the genders more equal, and more, contends historian and author Rutger Bregman.
Rutger Bregman
Storm clouds gather for a future that will be turbulent and dangerous. We need designers ready for this future.
Joe Brewer
Since, under present world conditions, everyone either is now, or has been, or will be at some time a target of social oppression, and since everyone is now, or has been, or will be in a non-target group in relation to some other group’s oppression, alliance-building is for...
Ricky Sherover-Marcuse
“In Wildness is the preservation of the World.” Thoreau says it in “Walking,” and Jack Turner, in his exquisite collection of essays, The Abstract Wild, questions how many of us have any idea what it means. Pe
Carol Black
I was around 14 when I heard about Concentration Camps for the first time.
Dieter Duhm
But the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no reason to conspire. They needed only to rise up and shake themselves, like a horse shaking off flies. If they chose, they could blow the party to pieces tomorrow morning. ...
Joe Carpenter
What does it take to create change in a world in desperate need of it? Mike Prather explains the story of the dust mitigation and ‘restoration’ of the Owens Dry Lake.
5 min
Because racism is both institutional and attitudinal, effective strategies against it must recognize this dual character. The elimination of institutionalized racism requires a conscious project of attitudinal transformation. The deliberate attempt to transform racist...
Ricky Sherover-Marcuse
A basic income could defeat the scarcity mindset, instill a sense of solidarity and even ease the anxieties that gave us Brexit and Trump
Jason Hickel
A not-so-quiet repair revolution is taking place in communities across Britain. Consumers, fed up with having to throw away broken phones, toasters and other appliances, are instead meeting to learn how to repair them and to extend the lifetime of their products. These repair...
Christine Cole, Alex Gnanapragasam
'Giving workers a seat at the table and their fair share of the profits they help produce is one way to even up the playing field and give hardworking Americans a chance to create an economy that works for everyone'
Lauren McCauley
What should a community do with its unused land? Plant food, of course. With energy and humor, Pam Warhurst tells at the TEDSalon the story of how she and a growing team of volunteers came together to turn plots of unused land into communal vegetable gardens, and to change...
13 min
“Cryptography is the ultimate form of nonviolent direct action.” - Julian Assange
Sophie Toupin
Engineer Toby McCartney explains how his Scottish start-up MacRebur is persuading councils to use local waste plastic to build roads. Two English councils have already started building roads this way.
3 min
Classrooms all over the country are trying something new: sitting and breathing.
5 min
The extraordinary tale of a community who defied the gas juggernaut. Filmed over five years, The Bentley Effect documents the highs and lows of the battle to keep a unique part of Australia gasfield-free. This timely story of a community’s heroic stand shows how strategic...
4 min
From our fellow change agents at United Earth….
6 min
A new generation of designers are applying ecologically inspired design to agriculture, architecture, community planning, cities, enterprises, economics and ecosystem regeneration. Join them to co-create diverse regenerative cultures in the transition towards a regenerative...
Daniel Christian Wahl
Here are 4 excellent articles about how to end police brutality and reform our broken criminal justice system. Together they offer a holistic and comprehensive approach that should get us well on our way towards the more just and egalitarian world we all long for. The key is...
Planning on going to a protest? You might not be aware that just by showing up, you can open yourself up to certain privacy risks — police often spy on protesters, and the smartphones they carry, and no matter how peaceful the demonstration, there’s always a chance that you...
3 min
Our food system is built on stolen land and exploited labor. Here’s what we can do it fix it.
Leah Penniman
Biomimicry, the practice of looking deeply into nature for solutions to engineering, design and other challenges, has inspired a film about it's ground-breaking vision for creating a long-term, sustainable world. This film covers how mimicking nature solves some of our most...
22 min
When I graduated from high school in 1985, college was the unquestionable next step for an intelligent, middle-class or upper-middle class young person. I entered an elite school not out of any particular ambition, but because the story that surrounded me said that this is...
Charles Eisenstein
We the People 2.0 describes the growing people’s revolt against destructive corporate activities in the US to stop toxic dumps, mines, drilling, etc. Communities are seizing back the right to say no through local lawmaking, outlawing oligarchy.
91 min
There's plenty of serious documentaries on the world's environmental problems. How to Boil a Frog takes a different approach, mixing fast-paced comedy with hard-hitting facts to help make complex subjects both understandable and more engaging. The accompanying study guide...
53 min
Award-winning filmmaker Jesse Borkowski delivers a refreshing meditation on how business can be used to create value beyond profit; connecting motivational stories from social entrepreneurs working in agriculture, apparel, insurance, and biofuel, with the captivating science...
70 min
If the rich nations in the world keep growing their economies by 2% each year and by 2050 the poorest nations catch up, the global economy of more than 9 billion people will be around 15 times larger than it is now, in terms of gross domestic product (GDP). If the global...
Samuel Alexander
After a year of disheartening setbacks, many activists and change-makers may feel that the critical goal of transforming capitalism is slipping out of reach. Yet, having just returned from a four-week trip to many sites and gatherings working on social, economic, and...
Otto Scharmer
It has been 10 long years since Congress passed legislation to raise the minimum wage. It’s time to raise it for all Americans.
Bernie Sanders and Patty Murray
What if telling a story that gives hope by pointing out solutions was the best way to solve the ecological, economical and social crises that shake our world?
120 min