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For the majority of the past century, a battle has been waged between two dominant ideologies – capitalism and communism. Both competing economic systems focus on how best to allocate goods and services to the population. Capitalism uses democracy and “free markets” to...
Chris Agnos
Our aim is a society where people are guaranteed the necessities of life not because they’re sympathetic, but because they’re human beings.
Clio Chang
Poverty as we know it is not and has never been the fate of humanity.
Jim Tull
The crawl toward despotism within a failed democracy is always incremental. No regime planning to utterly extinguish civil liberties advertises its intentions in advance. It pays lip service to liberty and justice while obliterating the institutions and laws that make them...
Chris Hedges
Environment, public education, worker protections, and cultural institutions all stand to lose under Trump's "cruel" budget blueprint
Deirdre Fulton
2 min
An interview covering neoliberalism, migration, Brexit, Trump, community-building, climate change, democracy, power, globalization, and lots more.
14 min
In this interview with Professor of Economics Emeritus (University of Massachusetts) and founder of Democracy at Work, Richard D. Wolff talks about bankruptcy protection, debt jubilee, students debt and the function that a credit system serves in our society today.
America has always been great for the richest 1%, and it's rapidly becoming greater. Confirmation comes from recent work by Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman; and from the 2015-2016 Credit Suisse
Paul Buchheit
5 min
In his introduction to "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," L. Frank Baum claims that the book is simply an innocent children's story. But some scholars have found hidden criticisms of late-nineteenth-century economic policies in the book. Is it possible that this much-loved...
3 min
"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...
I ran into my friend Rick the other day in a small town near our homes in northern Vermont. He was just coming out of the bookstore, holding a pink plastic bag that, I would soon learn, contained a dozen eggs from his flock of free range hens. After a bit of small talk, Rick...
Steven Gorelick
When I lived in San Francisco, I often would marvel at the movement of goods through the ports across the bay in Oakland. Full container ships would enter the bay one after another and unload their cargo, which ultimately would be making its way to the many big box stores...
Chris Agnos
6 min
London squatting activists ANAL (Autonomous Nation of Anarchist Libertarians) are squatting empty multi-million pound buildings and opening them up to the homeless.
15 min
If you don't know this story, you'll never look at the word the same again.
This is just a window into the sometimes shocking, subversive and untold history of the United States, from the film Plutocracy by Scott Noble. Watch the full documentary online here (free).
6 min
Over the past few weeks, Redneck Revolt has been communicating with a former member of a III% Patriot Militia based out of Ohio. Peter made contact with our organization after questioning the basis for an upcoming operation that his local militia group was asked to be...
What economic system designs, out of all conceivable ones, might be among the best at helping us meet real needs?
John Boik, PhD
19 min
After 10 years and three terms, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa's time in office has ended. Under his administration Ecuador made far-reaching economic and social gains, despite having inherited a country on the brink of collapse. In one of his last interviews before...
One of the best forms of resistance will be our demand for a more equitable and humane economy
Les Leopold
7 min
Last week, a video statement made by self-proclaimed members of the "Alt-Right" was shared by Milo Yiannopoulos and has since spread across the Internet.
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...
Chris Agnos
A world free of extremes of wealth and poverty in which no one needs to stand in line for a chance at a secure and fulfilling life.
David Korten
4 min
What if, this holiday season, instead of saying "thank you" to your aunt for her gift of a knitted sweater, the polite response expected from you was to show up at her house in a week with a better gift? Or to vote for her in the town election?
Neoliberal policies contribute to alienation, disempowerment and non-unionised jobs, but a new model for unions could break the vicious circle, argues Simon Taylor.
Simon Taylor
Rich people don’t have to have a life-and-death relationship with the truth and its questions; they can ignore the truth and still thrive materially. I am not surprised many of them understand literature only as an ornament. Life is an ornament to them, relationships are...
Over the last century, capitalism has repeatedly revealed its worst tendencies: instability and inequality. Instances of instability include the Great Depression (1929-1941) and the Great Recession since 2008, plus eleven "downturns" in the US between those two global...
Richard D. Wolff
80% of the world’s oil has already peaked, and the resulting oil crunch will flatten the economy
Nafeez Ahmed
I began to experience the crippling power of anxiety in my third year of university.
The panic attacks were one thing, but the most horrifying thing about anxiety, the thing that sustains it, is the insomnia. I would wake up in the middle of the night, heart racing, and...
4 min
A new socioeconomic order is inevitably taking shape. The future is human connection.
2 min
The words 'the economy' weren't mentioned in a winning British election manifesto before 1950. But today, says Catriona Watson of Rethinking Economics, politicians put it front and centre of their politics. This is undemocratic, she argues, when it is discussed in terms most...
In 2015, a major study of 24 indicators of human activity and environmental decline titled ‘The Great Acceleration’ concluded that, “The last 60 years have without doubt seen the most profound transformation of the human relationship with the natural world in the history of...
Alex Jensen
2 min
EVENT VIDEO TRAILER: Edward Snowden, Jeremy Scahill, Jürgen Todenhöfer, Paul Jay, Richard Wolff & Srećko Horvat
On the 15th of January 2017, acTVism Munich is hosting an event called “Freedom & Democracy – Global Issues in Context” at the Muffatwerk in Munich. The video...
Look to Norway and Sweden, where cooperative, socially democratic countries emerged after a frightening period of extreme polarization and social fracturing.
George Lakey
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...
Frances Coppola
My relatives in Maine are deplorables. I cannot write on their behalf. I can write in their defense.
Chris Hedges
How a ruthless network of super-rich ideologues killed choice and destroyed people’s faith in politics
George Monbiot
Now is the time to hold strong to our humanity. The world is changing quickly and much is at stake. It is even possible that our entire global civilization will collapse in our lifetime. This is a very difficult concept to sit with — yet sit with it we must, for now is a time...
Joe Brewer
If we want to escape from the wetiko disease of our current capitalist culture, we need a credible concept for a new nonviolent global society and for transforming the old matrix of fear and violence into a new matrix of trust, compassion and cooperation.
Martin Winiecki
2 min
Join Matthew Cooke and Susan Sarandon by pledging to withdraw your money from these big banks until they agree to:
1. Divest from Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
2. Pressure President Obama to halt construction and put a stop to...
The solidarity economy proposes more transparency, much more democracy, much more participation, much more redistribution of wealth and goods of production. The solidarity economy fights for free software, for free knowledge, for freedom of access to information, completely...
Yavor Tarinski
While it's not entirely clear who coined the phrase "socialism for the rich, free enterprise for the rest," its ability to provoke — and, more importantly, to describe — is beyond question.
Jake Johnson
Disclaimer: I do not support Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton for president. I think the scope of the political debate is far too narrow for the kinds of actions that need to take place to prevent the extinction of most of the life on earth, including human beings. Stepping...
“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...
Matt Stannard
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.
Nick Estes
Five years after Occupy, organizer and anthropologist David Graeber speaks to ROAR about the power of finance, the history of inequality and the legacy of the movement.
David Graeber
2 min
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...
What does it mean to earn a profit in an extractive economy? Simply put, it means to behave like a parasite. All you need do is attach yourself to a nutrient-rich host and suck the value out of it. When the host dies, move on to the next “market opportunity” and never look...
Joe Brewer
It’s time to pour our creative energies into imagining a new global economy. Infinite growth is a dangerous illusion
Jason Hickel
9 min
Fort McMurray residents were forced to flee a huge wildfire that destroyed much of their city in Canada's Alberta province in May 2016. About 88,000 residents were evacuated from the oil-rich region during the fire, the costliest natural disaster in Canada's history.
5 min
It's more complex than women earning 79 cents for every dollar a man makes. When there is talk about the gender wage gap, often the statistic heard is, “Women earn 79 cents for every dollar a man makes.” While this is factually correct, it does not encompass the nuances of...
There is no such thing as the dignity of work. It is not the right to employment but a guaranteed material existence that gives dignity to human life.
Daniel Raventós and Julie Wark
87 min
Protecting our planet has become big business with companies promoting new environmental markets. This involves species banking, where investors buy up vast swathes of land, full of endangered species, to enable them to sell “nature credits.” Companies whose actions destroy...
Shifting to new paradigms to replace dysfunctional ones.
Floris Koot
14 min
Ha-Joon Chang is a professor of economics at Cambridge University and a best-selling international author. Author and journalist Owen Jones asked him to provide an argument against much of today's prevailing economic thought. Isn't austerity necessary? Do we have capitalism...
They mindlessly consume wealth — and destroy the planet.
Joe Brewer
11 min
A new way of living is in the process of formation. Capitalism as we know it has reached the limits of its ability to adapt. A networked Alternative is already in the works- You can see it in the cooperative businesses on the rise and the tough time traditional parties are...
My mother died of cancer five years ago. While most of the cells in her body grew and reproduced at a rate that merely kept her alive, there were a few rogue cells that mutated and changed — reprogramming themselves as greedy individuals who cared about nothing except rapid...
Joe Brewer
What those striking are now bravely confronting in Atlantic City should resonate deeply with American workers, their unions, and beyond
Adolph Reed Jr.
18 min
Auto lenders can steer vulnerable people into crushing debt. Keegan-Michael Key and Bob Balaban help John Oliver show exactly how.
How can a traffic offense get you a ticket to prison?
David C. Couper
The Economic Enigma of Money vs Life: [A Social Value Disorder]
Pope Francis argues that modern economy's worship of 'god of money' leads to disenfranchisement and extremism
Nika Knight
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...
R.L. Stephens
3 min
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/
6 min
It may seem hard, but it's not impossible.
One of the downsides of presenting such a visionary solution to our global crisis is that it's hard to know where to begin, beyond raising awareness. The gap between where we are now, and where we'd like to go appears so great that it is not at all obvious how the transition...
12 min
‘Economics is for everyone’, argues legendary economist Ha-Joon Chang in our latest mind-blowing RSA Animate. This is the video economists don’t want you to see! Chang explains why every single person can and SHOULD get their head around basic economics. He pulls back the...
15 min
How can communities rethink ownership to remedy poverty? In this powerful talk, Eric Kornacki shares the story of his journey carrying lessons learned from Central American sweatshops to empower the transformation of a now-gentrifying neighborhood gripped in poverty in his...
4 min
In 2013, the richest 300 people in the world were more wealthy than the poorest 3 billion combined. Since then, the disparity has continued to grow because every year rich countries take over 10 times more money from poor countries than they give in aid.
Great Britain’s decision to leave the European Union has wiped out many bankers and global speculators. They will turn, as they did in 2008, to governments to rescue them from default. Most governments, including ours, will probably comply.
Chris Hedges
Election seasons bring with them a renewed interest in politics. For most that couldn't care less about such concerns, election season becomes, for at least a moment, a time to reflect on deeper issues. For those of us who spend a large portion of our lives thinking, writing...
The following is a statement by the Left Unity Executive Committee following the outcome of the referendum vote in the UK:
Left Unity
4 min
Degrowth: A vocabulary for a new era is a book edited by Giacomo D'Alisa, Federico Demaria and Giorgos Kallis, which consists of over 50 entries covering various themes related to degrowth.
The natural tendency toward discrimination and inequality
Yanis Varoufakis
The facile and indiscriminate use of the term fascism has led to a widespread misunderstanding and misuse of its meaning. Asked to define fascism, most people would respond in terms such as dictatorship, anti-Semitism, mass hysteria, efficient propaganda machine, mesmerizing...
Ismael Hossein-zadeh
16 min
Britain could soon vote to leave the European Union. John Oliver enlists a barbershop quartet to propose a smarter option.
Wall Street continues to back the most polluting fossil fuel industries "at the expense of some of the most vulnerable communities on the planet," states new report
Lauren McCauley
When attending meetings with peace and justice activists, I often find myself the only business person in the room. Inevitably, someone makes a comment about the evils of business, or greedy capitalists, or some other negative comment that implies business people are the...
Judy Wicks
I recently attended a ceremony at the Tamera village in Portugal in which the officiant invoked “the healing of money.” Immediately a vivid image popped into my head of a man, vast and muscular, bound to the earth with stakes and tethers, straining with every atom of his...
Charles Eisenstein
5 min
They're called "vulture funds" and they make a killing off of places like Puerto Rico - sometimes literally.
In any great adventure, there are always obstacles in the way. The first hurdle is just to be aware that we, as a civilization and as a species, are facing a crisis point. When looking at the mainstream of our society, and the priorities expressed or goals pursued, it is hard...
Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone
3 min
John Oliver, the host of HBO's Last Week Tonight, announced on Sunday that he had bought back and forgiven $15m of medical debt. Oliver announced the giveaway during a 20-minute segment on the 'grimey business' of debt collection.
“Climate change and extreme weather events are not devastating a random selection of human beings from all walks of life. There are no billionaires among the dead, no corporate executives living in shelters, no stockbrokers watching their children die of malnutrition.”
Ian Angus
The current economic system advances through free trade and deregulation; the American Dream has been outsourced globally. This has created a bureaucratic nightmare, asserts David Graeber in his latest book, The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of...
Steve Rushton
20 min
Companies that purchase debt cheaply then collect it aggressively are shockingly easy to start. We can prove it!
4 min
In which Trickle Down Economics collides with Impotent Tax Reform to create a super-massive Budget Black Hole.
Unconditional basic income, a policy option that seems radical by American standards, is gaining new traction across Europe, Canada, and even a few places in the United States. Also known as “universal basic income,” the policy mandates a guaranteed stipend to every resident...
Leslee Goodman
We seem to have forgotten that the human spirit is not satisfied by material progress alone. It’s time for us to reconnect with nature
Fiona Reynolds
To be, or not to be: that is the question.”
—Hamlet
“Psychopaths are capable of taking the perspective of somebody else, but only to take better advantage of you. They’re able to play the empathy game, but without the feelings involved. It’s like an empty shell. The core of...
John Stanley & David Loy
Inequality represents simultaneously a cornerstone and a weak link in today's capitalism. The idea that wealth creation for the few benefits the many is a core myth of the system. But the expanding inequality divide shreds this theory. In practical terms, the super-rich buy...
Steve Rushton
Having successfully used the EU to conquer the Greek people by turning the Greek “leftwing” government into a pawn of Germany’s banks, Germany now finds the IMF in the way of its plan to loot Greece into oblivion.
Paul Craig Roberts
19 min
This is a shortened version of the award-winning feature-length documentary film, The Economics of Happiness. Cut down from 68 minutes to less than 20, it provides an introduction to the concept of localization - a systemic alternative to corporate capitalism - and shows how...
On the surface, things appear normal. The status quo of life in America circa 2016 isn’t to everyone’s liking, but at least the system is still working after a fashion. The price of oil is going up a bit: that means the cost of driving is also creeping higher, but steeper...
Richard Heinberg
Last week a research wing of the International Monetary Fund came out with a report admitting that neoliberalism has been a failure. The report, entitled, “Neoliberalism: Oversold?” is hopefully a sign of the ideology's death. They were only about 40 years late. As Naomi...
Benjamin Dangl
'Business leaders who refuse to look into the realities of their own supply chains are misguided and irresponsible.'
Deirdre Fulton
In facing up to the many profound crises of our time, we face a conundrum that has no easy resolution: how are we to imagine and build a radically different system while living within the constraints of an incumbent system that aggressively resists transformational change?...
David Bollier
My first impression at OuiShare Fest was a weird utopian blockchain mania: a poorly understood but massively hyped technology that will somehow fix all our social, political, and economic inequities. As I got to know some of the people here though, I started to see through...
Richard D. Bartlett
To defeat the current upsurge in right-wing populism, progressives will need to disrupt, defuse, and – critically – compete for portions of its constituency.
Tarso Luís Ramos
In the last few months basic income—an unconditional cash payment to every member of the population—has been getting more and more attention in the media and social networks. Three items are especially interesting.
Daniel Raventós and Julie Wark
4 min
An animated look at David Schweickart's proposal for a next system, grounded in democratic worker cooperatives and built around public control of financial capital.
Neoliberalism encourages us to treat every aspect of our lives as if it were on sale in a marketplace: is it an anti-spiritual project?
Deborah Grayson and Charlotte Millar