Ideas – Page 2 – Radical Ecological Democracy

Ending systems of domination: Reclaiming our bodies and politics from global trauma

October 24, 2021April 13, 2022 Capitalism, Climate Change, Community, Democracy, Ecology, New Economy, New Politics, Power Dynamic

COP26 is just around the corner, and the world is preparing for another bout of smoke and mirrors from the international ruling class – looking sincere while doing nothing with sincerity. People understand the need to create solutions to the climate and economic crises independent of the elite, and many initiatives are underway all over the world. Eva Schonveld and Justin Kenrick of the “Grassroots to Global” platform describe the thinking, and the preparations afoot to hold “Sunset” and “Sunrise” assemblies to advance solidarity and action on crucial socio-political and ecological issues.

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The many misunderstandings of degrowth: A response to Kelsey Piper’s “Can we save the planet by shrinking the economy?”

September 30, 2021April 13, 2022 Capitalism, Climate Change, Community, Ecological democracy, New Economy, New Politics, Sustainability

The concept of “degrowth” is evoking interest in the mainstream media, but more as an exotic, impractical idea than a serious attempt at addressing the current environmental emergency and rising economic inequality. Carlos Tornel responds to a recent article on “degrowth” in the Vox Magazine to set the record straight.

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The path to a just and sustainable society

September 25, 2021April 13, 2022 Community, New Economy, New Politics, Power Dynamic, Sustainability

If the current neoliberal dispensation continues to make the society increasingly unequal, and the planet progressively unlivable, how do we transition to a new system, which addresses these challenges with deliberate intent and assured success? In the second part of his discussion on “Eco-anarchism”, Ted Trainer lays out the core characteristics of a post consumer capitalist society, operating on the principles of “The Simpler Way”.

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We Thought It Was Fiction

September 18, 2021April 13, 2022 Capitalism, Cooperatives, Democracy, New Politics, Power Dynamic, Revolutionary Struggle, Revolutionary Technology

The recent revelations concerning Pegasus, the malicious hacking software developed by the Israeli tech firm, NSO, confirm the paralyzingly intrusive capabilities being developed by the State-Corporate nexus to surveil and dominate the increasingly connected world we live in. Alfredo Lopez, Melanie Bush, Hamid Khan and Ken Montenegro, our colleagues from ” May First Movement Technology” discuss how the progressive and “alternatives” communities should organize to push back against this steady erosion of people’s rights, and work to end tech dominance and intrusion into our lives.

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Eco-socialism vs. Eco-anarchism: Exploring “The Simpler Way”

August 29, 2021April 13, 2022 Community, New Economy, New Politics, Power Dynamic, Sustainability

As the search for alternatives to the current neoliberal order becomes increasingly essential and urgent, analysts and activists are beginning to clarify their theoretical frameworks for crafting a new world. In this first part of a two part series, Ted Trainer discusses the idea of “The Simpler Way” to construct a sustainable future based on Eco-anarchism.

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Challenging colonization: Building sustainable human and natural communities in Palestine

July 29, 2021April 13, 2022 Community, Development, Ecological democracy, Indigenous Communities, New Politics, Power Dynamic, Revolutionary Struggle

As resistance to Israeli occupation continues to inspire the Palestinian people, a search for “alternatives” is also emerging as a national imperative. In a two part series we explore how the universe beyond the political question is being imagined by the people of Palestine. In the first part, Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh gives an insight into the hard work of environmental conservation in a landscape battered by colonization.

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The Fourth Industrial Revolution, the Great Reset and the global resistance to come

July 4, 2021April 13, 2022 Capitalism, Ecology, Economy, New Economy, New Politics, Power Dynamic, Revolutionary Struggle, Revolutionary Technology

Four decades of neoliberalism have seen a relentless push by the world’s mega corporations to capture global governance and the global commons. With the rise of the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution,’ and the global crises unleashed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns, they may have found their biggest opportunity. But resistance, too, is in the air. Sajai Jose analyzes the tussle for our future evolving and taking shape in the world.

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Quand vous voudrez…a 1976 poster which envisioned degrowth

June 1, 2021April 13, 2022 Capitalism, Community, Degrowth, Development, Ecological democracy, New Economy, New Politics

In 1976, a poster produced for a local election in Paris, France took an enormous leap forward to imagine a world defined by ecological sustainability and social conviviality. Christine Dann discusses the contemporary relevance of the Quand vous voudrez poster and the revolutionary idea of degrowth it envisioned far ahead of its times.

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From Political Ecology to Critical Theory, and back again

May 16, 2021April 13, 2022 Capitalism, Ecological democracy, New Politics, Political Ecology, Revolutionary Struggle, Sustainability

As we look for societal alternatives to neoliberal fundamentalism, it is important to situate our search in a credible philosophical framework. Omar Dahbour takes a dive into the works of Adorno, Horkheimer and Marcuse to explain how “Critical Theory” could help conceptualize such alternatives by recalibrating the relationship between human beings and nature.

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Water, the driving force of Nature: Emancipation through popular consultation

April 20, 2021April 13, 2022 Capitalism, Community, Ecological democracy, Ecology, New Politics, Power Dynamic, Rights of Nature

Water is under threat from commodification, as capital increasingly ensnares nature all over the world. But, a consolidated resistance comprising indigenous communities, environmental activists and left progressive groups is challenging those devious designs. Alberto Acosta explains how Andean communities are using referendums and popular consultations to push back on extractivist pressures, and exploitation of natural resources, to build a democratic firewall to defend water and the rights of nature.

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Dismantling “Power” by building “Democratic Autonomy”

April 12, 2021April 13, 2022 Alternatives, Democracy, Ecological democracy, New Politics, Power Dynamic, Revolutionary Struggle

All across the world, the quest for socio-economic and political equality continues with varying degrees of success. Often, political transformation has occurred without any compelling changes in the structures of state and power. But, a decidedly meaningful effort at instituting a new framework of grassroots democracy is underway in the Kurdish region of Rojava (West Kurdistan). In this first part of our new series on “Power”, Şervîn Nûdem discusses how the concept of “Democratic Autonomy” is helping shape a novel societal framework consisting of local and regional people’s councils, cooperatives, academies and self-defense forces with the participation, and substantial leadership of the women of Rojava.

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The rising green tide: Fighting for reproductive justice in Argentina

February 8, 2021April 21, 2022 Capitalism, Community, Democracy, New Politics, Power Dynamic, Revolutionary Struggle

The recent victory for reproductive rights in Argentina was breathtaking for its spirited resolve as well as its organizational rigor. In this article, Ana Cecilia Dinerstein explains the genesis and the evolution of this struggle. She also speaks with Maria Alicia Gutierrez, a prominent leader of the women’s Campaign to explore what lessons could be drawn from its success by movements engaged in alternative politics in other parts of the world.

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More powerful together – Alternatives as Resistance (Part 2)

December 28, 2020April 13, 2022 Capitalism, Community Rights, Conservation, Ecological democracy, Ecology, Environment, New Economy, New Politics, Power Dynamic, Sustainability

The contemporary resistance to neoliberalism is searching for ways in which it can raise up the values and relations it is fighting for. It is also looking for low-carbon, ecologically sensible, culturally grounded alternatives, which would help stop the destruction of the planet. In this second part of her series, “More Powerful Together – Alternatives as Resistance”, Jen Gobby describes how movements in Canada are challenging the stale idea of making our existing systems work better. Instead, they are offering new societal alternatives by forging resistance to colonialism and resurgence of Indigenous economies, governance structures and ways of life.

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An economy that works for everyone

November 30, 2020April 13, 2022 Capitalism, Climate Change, Community, Cooperatives, Degrowth, Environment, New Economy, New Politics, Power Dynamic

Why does the current economic system continue to fail the vast majority of people all over the world despite the ostensible strength of the structures put in place to look after their welfare? How is it that while ecological turmoil and economic inequality continue to fester, the solutions provided by the ruling elite are always ineffective and mostly dubious? In this final part of the series on the “Shared Society”, Clem McCartney examines how the economy could be made to respond constructively to poverty, alienation and anomie affecting the world, and how people can proactively impact the process by which the economy is managed for the benefit of the majority, and ensure the survival of the planet rather than its annihilation.

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More powerful together – Integrating Resistance with Alternatives

November 8, 2020April 13, 2022 Alternatives, Democracy, Development, Ecological democracy, Environment, Indigenous Communities, New Politics, Power Dynamic, Resistance

Societal discontent manifests itself in the shape of resistance to the existing structures and is channeled through people’s movements. Hope, on the other hand, propels the society to look for alternatives to the existing paradigm. In this first article in a two part series, Jen Gobby provides an insight into how “resistance” and the search for “alternatives” are coming together to shape the movement towards an ecologically sensible and economically egalitarian future in Canada.

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Migration and the shared planet

October 18, 2020April 13, 2022 Capitalism, Climate Change, Community, Development, Environment, New Economy, New Politics

Migration has been a constant factor shaping human history. People have moved from one geographic area to another for ages, sometimes out of choice, but far too often fleeing threats to personal safety and physical survival. In our times, immigration has become a point of tension in international politics as well as a significant cause of rising socio-political discord within countries. In this second part of our series on “Shared Societies”, Clem McCartney describes a path away from the fear, alienation, desperation and misery, which have marked the issue of migration. The article imagines a place where new solutions could be crafted and executed in an efficient and humane manner, more in consonance with our shared humanity than the malign cycles that our society has been caught up in.

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The crisis of Capitalism, role of technology and our imaginations

October 5, 2020April 13, 2022 Capitalism, Democracy, New Politics, Power Dynamic, Revolutionary Struggle, Revolutionary Technology, Science & Innovation

As the systemic crises confronting the world become ever more alarming and daunting, is there a role for technology in helping find a solution to them? Can technology strengthen the struggle for socio-economic and environmental justice? In this analytical piece Samantha Camacho, Jerome Scott, Alfredo Lopez and Melanie Bush help us understand the urgent need for a proactive societal role in harnessing the energy and potential of the Internet in creating a sustainable future for the planet.

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“Shared Societies” in the times of Covid-19

September 19, 2020April 13, 2022 Community, Democracy, Innovation, New Politics, Social Change

As vicious viruses, climate calamities and sapping economic inequalities become the hard realities of contemporary human existence, how should the world prepare itself to deal with them? Clem McCartney analyses the societal response to Covid-19 from the lens of a “Shared Society” to outline a possible way out of the present predicament.

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Decolonial feminism and Buen Vivir

September 3, 2020April 13, 2022 Democracy, Ecology, Gender, New Economy, New Politics, Social Change, Social Movements

The idea and practice of Buen Vivir have gained popularity all over South America because of its far-reaching socio-political acuity and penetration. Thinkers and practitioners of “alternatives” have analyzed Buen Vivir’s efficacy in dealing with various societal challenges – gender relations being a significant subject for that interrogation. Dennis Avilés Irahola provides an insight into how decolonial feminists are assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the process of implementation of the principles of Buen Vivir taking the Constituent Assemblies of Bolivia and Ecuador as examples, and how it could be sharpened to create an “alternative” paradigm in the continent without delaying action on women’s demands.

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Setting out the principles of post-growth conservation

August 23, 2020April 13, 2022 Conservation, Ecology, Environment, New Politics, Power Dynamic

What would the post-growth conservation model look like? Would it continue to promote “fortress conservation” professing to preserve isolated ecosystems of “value” without really impacting the continued global exploitation of natural resources? Or, would it finally confront the profound sense of alienation that has developed between people and nature over the last three centuries through an almost demonic belief in free market capitalism ? A group of academics and activists from Wageningen University, the Netherlands and Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group puts forward a conceptual outline of the future of conservation.