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How can we support this natural solution to ensure there is water for future generations?
Luke Skywalker wasn’t just a farmer. In the original 1977 Star Wars film, the lead character was desperate to leave his home planet of Tatooine, where his family farmed moisture from the atmosphere using devices called “vaporators”. In the planet’s hot and dry desert...
As we have entered a new century we face great crises both in society and in the natural world. Today we are not only still witnessing poverty, hunger and devastating wars: enormous environmental dislocations even threaten the stability of the planetary climate and vital...
– Instead of the small class of capitalists controlling society, we can make our own decisions about work and social life.
The United States recently experienced its first wave of large-scale anti-immigration raids following the election of Donald Trump, who made the mass deportation of “illegal” immigrants a central part of his campaign. Although ICE officials claim that these raids targeted...
La Casa de los Ningunos is an experimental community in the Bolivian capital city of La Paz, 12,000 feet up in the Andes Mountains. In a recent piece on the Casa, Sian Cowman explained the inspiration for the name, which also elegantly describes the Casa’s mission, “…Los...
We’re all feeling the squeeze.  What can we do? ORGANIZE!
Pachamama, our dear Mother Earth, is 4.5 billion years old. She is home to an estimated 8.7 million species of life! This wondrous web of relationships is truly a gift to be a part of, and we can thank our growing and evolving Mother Earth for the eyes and mind we have to...
We live in a world dominated by the principle of private property. Once indigenous people were dispossessed of their lands, the land was surveyed, subdivided and sold to the highest bidder. From high above, continents now appear as an endless property patchwork of green and...
If you’re out there trying to change your neighborhood, community, city, country, or the world then this is for you. In moments when everything seems hopeless, read this to get your hope on. 1. Hope can co-exist with other feelings. Grief and hope can co-exist. Fear and hope...
It has been said that we’re living through “The Age of Loneliness.” Loneliness is “epidemic” among young adults, and even more common among the elderly, with some reporting that the numb
The Ecological Land Co-operative (ELC) was set up to address the lack of affordable sites for ecological land-based livelihoods in England. There is an enormous disconnect between the combined cost of land and rural housing, and the income that is usually derived from...
A universal basic income (UBI) – an idea in which the government replaces all other forms of monetary assistance (welfare, social security, etc.) with yearly stipend – has enormous potential to radically transform our current unsustainable consumer economy based on individual...
By reframing the economy, Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics changes our view of who we are and where we stand.
The “21 Theses,” dated July 2014 and published in November 2015, marked the birth of the Social Ecology Cooperative in Paris. In May 2016 I had the opportunity to ask Patrick Farbiaz, one of its founders, what the cooperative meant by social ecology. He explained that it...
The Power of Humility, Forgiveness, Gratitude and Love
Many anarchists oppose in principle such use of the political process for anarchist ends. It is unethical, they say, for anarchists to participate in the political process. Voting entails selecting a representative to exercise coercive force in our name; and appealing to such...
We have created this series of films to celebrate and interpret intervention, undertaken by individuals and communities, to shift our food and farm economy.  These episodes each address a major systemic failure of the old food economy: toxicity, monoculture, monopoly...
In “Finding Inner Peace,” David Lynch describes how his personal experience with meditation helped him to deal with anxiety, fear, and depression and taught him how to tap into the root source of creativity and bliss.
While it may seem difficult these days to remain anonymous online, it's not impossible. We spoke with Kevin Mitnick, author of "The Art of Invisibility," who told us the one tool you should be using if you want to protect your identity.
Rebel Diaz went to Venezuela last month, where U.S. corporate interests are waging a devastating economic war on the Venezuelan people. In the face of hyperinflation and food shortages, groups of young people are coming together to create collective alternatives for survival,
The Edible Bus Stop transforms neglected sites across London's bus network into valuable community growing spaces. Originating as a guerilla garden project adjacent to a bus stop in South London, we transform once-forgotten spaces into thriving neighbourhood hubs that are...
Hi, I’m Matt Orfalea and for 3 years I’ve been writing and making videos about the BIG idea of a Basic Income Guarantee (aka Universal Basic Income)
The Edinburgh Remakery is a social enterprise that teaches repair. The shop sells refurbished computers and furniture, and hosts workshops where people can come along and learn how to repair their own things.
Tamera is an extraordinary intentional community in Portugal. A model for regional autonomy in energy and food, it is focused on creating a truly peaceful society, working harmoniously with nature. This short film looks at the many projects that have transformed the arid...
"Capitalism is Evil!" "No, socialism is Evil!" "You must love oligarchy!" "You must love communism!" Sound familiar? That's what passes for "debate" these days- beating each other over the head with divisive labels and any extreme straw-man arguments handy. Ideas become...
Have you noticed all the cuts being made to your city budget? To schools and libraries, fire fighters and social services, and other public spending? Think you could do a better job managing the budget? Soon, you may have that chance.
Whether it's 1966 or 2016, one thing that hasn't changed much is how people organise and campaign for social and political advancement. Amidst rising political and social division, newsPeeks spoke with Noam Chomsky, Kathleen Cleaver, Devon Thomas, Angela Phillips, Erin...
From Raleigh to Los Angeles, communities on the frontlines are building the movement infrastructure for a coordinated fightback.
"So much in society we are bombarded with a competitive approach and it is about reimagining that and reworking it!" A glimpse into the working lives of people from the Leeds Bread Co-op who can't imagine having a boss and are bringing the values of democracy, equality and...
Free your mind, find your power, change the world
Everything we do in life serves as an example to someone, whether anyone involved is even consciously aware of it. Whatever these people (be it ourselves, co-workers, kids, family, even strangers) perceive as our mentality and motives becomes recorded and spread quite like a...
In just one week, with several strokes of a pen, Trump unleashed upon the working class in the U.S. an attack not seen in decades. From his attack on the flawed Affordable Care Act to the banning of immigrants from Muslim countries to the explicit targeting of “sanctuary...
Humanity stands at a crossroads. Now, more than ever, history calls for a grassroots democracy at a global scale. If we look carefully, all the tools are at hand.
All living beings share one thing in common. Each man, woman, child, bird, bee, and dog – all have just one life. For every living being, life begins and ends. We are all here for a very short time. Most of us live a life preoccupied by work, earning a living, being on time...
A 2-minute introduction to the global-to-local argument.
Neoliberal policies contribute to alienation, disempowerment and non-unionised jobs, but a new model for unions could break the vicious circle, argues Simon Taylor.
Travelling the length of the country and back again with a pair of horses and gypsy caravan, Live Before You Die is the ultimate horse-drawn road movie, following a band of Travellers with handcarts, goats, donkeys and ponies along green lanes to the fairs and festivals of...
It’s getting hot out there. For a stretch of 16 months running through August 2016, new global temperature records were set every month.[1] Ice cover in the Arctic sea hit a new low this past summer, at 525,000 square miles less than normal.[2] And apparently we’re not doing...
Your feelings of pain and uncertainty are real. The world is now in a time of darkness. Shadows are all around us. It can be very confusing and painful. But it may reassure you to know that feeling pain and confusion is a sign that you are awake. Humanity is now in the...
A group of street people in Austin, TX edit, write, and distribute their own newspaper as a way to help get them off the street. The Challenger Street Newspaper improves their lives by helping them to earn a living in an environment where job opportunities are virtually...
A new socioeconomic order is inevitably taking shape. The future is human connection.
Compassionate activism is activism that is rooted in an underlying compassion for all beings. It is an activism that resists the strong urge we all face to dehumanize our opponents, as they often do to us, and we often do to them. This collection of articles and videos...
In this series of 5 short films we visit five farms where incredible things sprout. From growing massive, 100-pound vegetables to giving injured animals another chance, these are the finest farms around.
When you find yourself in a suddenly darkened room, what do you do?   Some rush blindly to where they think the door might be.  Others stand still, let their eyes get adjusted to the different environment, re-orient themselves, then cautiously and sensitively, move forward. ...
Look to Norway and Sweden, where cooperative, socially democratic countries emerged after a frightening period of extreme polarization and social fracturing.
Can compassion be learned? The answer is yes! Sometimes, all it takes is truly paying attention to the people around us. Visit happify.com for guided meditations and fun activities to help you build compassion for yourself and others.
As in most post-industrial societies, Britain’s media is in a radical state of flux. With the demise of the daily newspaper and news dissemination increasingly moving online, alternative and independent media sources have flourished. But the absence of a viable, generally...
How five large trees in remote Oregon ended up as winter housing for water protectors, including their first newborn baby.
We have a crisis of work. The secure, well-paid jobs of the past — many of them in manufacturing — are disappearing. What is replacing them is insecurity and uncertainty. Low-paid, part-time, temporary and seasonal work. The “feast or famine” of self-employment. The so-called...
“Only the paranoid survive.” — Andy Grove Andy Grove was a Hungarian refugee who escaped communism, studied engineering, and ultimately led the personal computer revolution as the CEO of Intel. He died earlier this year in Silicon Valley after a long fight with Parkinson’s...
There is no one right way to be an activist. There is no one right way to change the world. There is no one right philosophy of leftist politics. There is no one right solution to the massive problems we're facing.
Cities can offer shelter and protection to their vulnerable citizens and become a place progressives can exert real power.
From my book Engines of Domination, p. 229-230
“To love without knowing how to love wounds the person we love.”
It's hard to believe Films For Action has been around now for 10 years. From our early years focusing on local film screenings to our more recent years, focusing on raising awareness globally via our website and social media, our mission has been to provide a DIY alternative...
The joy and practice of learning to share
In the 1990s an unusual encounter took place in the Ecuadorian Amazon. In plant rituals, shamans of the Achuar, a tribe living in pristine forest that had never been in touch with Western civilization, received the warning that the “white man” would try to invade their lands...
There's a simple solution: it's called the future.
“Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away,” Hugo Award-winning author John Scalzi wrote in a personal blog post over a decade ago. “Being poor is a heater in only one room of the house... Being poor is needing that 35-cent raise... Being poor is six dollars short on the...
In this Open Letter animation, Michael Nagler from the Metta Center for Nonviolence encourages Bernie Sanders' supporters that they don't need to "get over their anger," but harness it because it's a real power—and it can serve as the basis of a major transformation in the...
Transparent solar cell tech could transform our buildings - and make the world more sustainable.
A short film covering the innovative research area of Cultured Meat and Cellular Agriculture. This film explores current developments in the field, as well as pondering what is next for this new science and the public perception of this interesting field of research.
These were the concluding remarks to the first annual Native Liberation 2016 Conference convened at the Larry Casuse Center in Albuquerque, NM on Aug. 13, 2016. Nick Estes is a co-founder of The Red Nation and a member of the Leadership Council.
As momentum continues to grow against the colossal U.S. imprisonment system, the need for strategic targets is crucial, yet we are seeing an overbearing focus on private prisons. We are in a moment when reforms that appear to be “progressive” can actually entrench the...
When we see the suffering of people on the street, we, too, feel their pain whether we acknowledge it in our conscious minds or not.
What is Universal Basic Income? Everyone’s talking about a ‘citizen’s income’ or ‘basic income’, but what on earth is it?! It sounds like a Utopian dream, but support for a flat, government-sponsored annual income is growing across the world. Exponents argue that it would...
Practitioners of nonviolent struggle have an entire arsenal of “nonviolent weapons” at their disposal. Far too often people struggling for democratic rights and justice are not aware of the full range of methods of nonviolent action.
Imagine a school where children and teenagers are accorded all the rights and responsibilities of democratic citizenship; where students truly practice, rather than just read about, the principles of free speech, free association, and freedom to choose their own activities...
In April 2012, I attempted suicide whilst living in San Francisco. It was - obviously - an incredibly intense time, but in many ways the time that followed the attempt was even more intense than the time that led to it.  The road I walked after my attempt was different to...
On August 1 the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), a coalition of over sixty organizations, rolled out “A Vision for Black Lives: Policy Demands for Black Power, Freedom & Justice,” an ambitious document described by the press as the first signs of what young black activists...
In this film we take a tour of Adam and Sian's beautiful off-grid tiny house truck that was built using mostly reclaimed building materials on the back of a 1969 Bedford truck.
An explanation for why defeating Donald Trump—despite what we know about Hillary Clinton—should be the left's primary national electoral objective this November
Dallas, Ferguson, Nice. Turkey, Trump & Brexit. The simultaneous rise of global terrorism, of authoritarian strongmen and the far-right are the twin faces of our current moment. Even though Trump-type politicians and terrorism pretend to fight each other, on a deeper level...
It is a delicate balance to know how much the world is messed up and still be hopeful about the future. This is something I dance with on a daily basis — while writing about systemic corruption, the angst that arises from&nb
Finding and connecting with your soul tribe is more important than ever—not just for connection but also to thrive in our modern society
Let’s say you’ve found a new sense of awareness or elevated consciousness —  suddenly you feel connected to the beauty of the world, you understand yourself better, and you’re filled with a drive to become better, to nurture yourself and the world around you.
When one of the kids at Robert W. Coleman Elementary School in West Baltimore acts out, chances are she'll be sent not to the principal's office but to the Mindful Moment room, a soothing space with comfy cushions and beanbags, lit by glowing pink Himalayan salt lamps. It's...
Why we need to move empathy from personal emotion to collective moral concern -- Empathy comes in two distinct forms: affective empathy is our instinct for mirroring the emotions of others, while cognitive empathy is our conscious ability to understand someone else’s...
How can a traffic offense get you a ticket to prison?
for a working class orientation at the heart of white anti-racist organizing
Regardless of the outcome of November’s U.S. elections, what will count most is what happens in the streets. As Frederick Douglass put it plainly a century and a half ago, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did...
Hillary Clinton will trounce the self-destructive Donald J. Trump, but the neo-liberals secure total victory if the Sanders movement falls away
The Southern Poverty Law Center gathered hundreds of stories of everyday bigotry from people across the United States. They told their stories through e-mail, personal interviews and at roundtable discussions in four cities. People spoke about encounters in stores and...
My favorite definition of privilege is 'thinking something's not a problem because it's not a problem to you.'
Why Bernie Sanders supporters should advocate for Universal Basic Income.
Can voter identification, registration, and protection efforts help not only defeat Trump, but build a mass movement for democratic socialism?
Four ways to make it through trying times with an open heart
I am Black. I capitalize Black and leave white lowercased. Sure, it’s the accepted spelling, but really I do it because it feels good. My family lived in Missouri, but my mother crossed state lines to birth me in Kansas. Missouri was a slave state. Kansas was free, and she...
Bringing together the inner and outer aspects of transformation may be the revolution of our times
It's The Biggest Problem in American Politics
This is deep. "Whose story is defining the context of your reality?"
In 1987, the United States Senate passed a resolution which acknowledged the contribution of the Iroquois Confederacy of Nations to the development of the United States Constitution. Furthermore, the resolution acknowledged the historical debt which the United States owes to...
This is something everyone can do to take some of the power from the present system and put it into the people's hands. Find a bank near you: blackoutcoalition.org/black-u-s-banks/
Once again we find ourselves confronting the murder of another black man at the hands of police. The video showing Michael Slager fire eight times at a fleeing Walter Scott is irrefutable evidence of the police brutality that people of color fear. As with Trayvon Martin...
Charles Eisenstein is one of the first people I heard talk about the "new story," synthesizing a diverse movement that has been emerging for the last several decades. When I go back far enough, I first heard about these ideas from reading Ishmael by Daniel Quinn when I was...
Visions of Utopia documents and profiles 7 diverse intentional communities in the United States.
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