Sunday, October 1, 2023
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Radical Ecological Democracy

Searching for alternatives to unsustainable and inequitable model of ‘development’

Power Dynamic

AgendaAnalysisIdeasStories

Rethinking “Social Transformation”: Understanding the Communitarian Revolutionary Actor

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As the need to counter the neoliberal assault on the planet is felt around the world, the idea of social transformation is undergoing fresh scrutiny to make it relevant to contemporary challenges. David Barkin and Alejandra Sanchez explore the unfolding socio-political experiments taking place in Latin America to give us an insight into the “Communitarian Revolutionary Actor” ushering in change on the continent.

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AgendaAnalysisNewsStories

The Coming Green Colonialism

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Given the clenching hold of inertia on international governments, not much was expected from COP25, the recently concluded U.N. Climate Change Conference. Predictably, it turned out to be a cop-out. Nnimmo Bassey gives us an idea of the frustrating and often pointless deliberations that took place inside COP25 and the dead-end they reached. As the author clearly shows, the ruling elite is utterly unable and unwilling to think in terms of alternatives to the ever failing neoliberal dispensation, and has completely abdicated any responsibility towards preventing climate chaos. A people’s struggle is the only way out.

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AnalysisConversationsIdeasStories

REDWeb Conversations Series – Cultivating autonomy in Rojava

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Rojava is a significant experiment in grass-roots democracy in a region mired in desperate political conflict. The socio-political and economic achievements made over the last few years in Rojava form an aspirational inflection point in the history of the Kurdish people as well as that of West Asia. Ashish Kothari speaks with Yasin Duman on how the Autonomous Administration in Rojava became an agent of change while establishing stability in northern Syria.

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ActionAnalysisIdeasStories

Landscapes of Renewal – Jukajoki, Linnunsuo and the Finnish Boreal

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Finland has been affected by mass extractivism since the end of the Second World War. Peatlands, marsh-mires and old-growth forest across the country have been converted into mines and forest plantations, with huge impacts on rural communities practicing hunting, fishing, berry-gathering and small-scale farming. Over the past decade, the Finnish community of Selkie has successfully revived lands and waters damaged by extractive industries, using a blend of traditional knowledge and science. Tero Mustonen, Head of the Village of Selkie, explains how they stopped a mine and brought life back to Selkie’s rivers and marsh-mires. This is the first case study in the on-going collaborative series between REDWeb and the global “Yes to Life, No to Mining” (YLNM) solidarity network exploring emblematic examples of community resistance to extractivism and the life-sustaining alternatives they are defending and innovating.

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ActionAgendaAnalysisIdeasStories

Resistance Is Fertile – The Emerging Alternative Political Discourse in the Indian Parliamentary Elections

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India is in the midst of a massive election campaign for the constitution of its 17th parliament since independence in 1947. While the electoral priorities of the mainstream parties are characterized by a false narrative of “development”, a rapidly growing civil society initiative is exploring an alternative political discourse which is underlined by socio-economic equality and ecological sustainability. Shrishtee Bajpai describes the intellectual and operative underpinnings of this initiative.

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AgendaAnalysisIdeasStories

REDWeb Anniversary Series – “From Socialism to Eco-socialism – Turning Points On a Personal Journey Through The Marxist Theory of Socialism”

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REDWeb completes its first year in September, and Saral Sarkar launches our anniversary initiative to understand and assess the work of Karl Marx in the context of the search for transformative alternatives. Sarkar uses his considerable experience as an analyst and an activist to help us fathom the immense integrity of Marx’s work as well as its imperfections. In this world ravaged and battered by ecological crises and economic peril for the vast majority of people, could eco-socialism be that viable path towards meaningful transformation that Marx had imagined and parsed for us?

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ActionAgendaIdeasNewsStories

Reflections on the Founding of the First Ecosocialist International

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The search for transformative alternatives to the current miasma of neoliberalism is very much on. Ecosocialism is one such idea finding resonance in many parts of the world. Quincy Saul recounts the thinking and the efforts behind the founding of the First Ecosocialist International.

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ActionAgendaIdeasStories

Mapping Grassroots Solutions: Lessons learned from the Utah Resilience Map Project

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As grassroots solutions to the current neoliberal orthodoxy emerge all around us, it is important to figure out a way to make them physically accessible for people. Emily Nicolosi writes about the Utah Resilience Map, a path breaking effort putting alternatives emerging in and around Salt Lake City on a map. It’s a bold initiative which challenges the stranglehold of corporate online mapping and an emerging template for replication at other places.

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ALTERNATIVE FUTURES: INDIA UNSHACKLED
AgendaAnalysisIdeasStories

RED Conversations Series – “Alternative Futures: India Unshackled”

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Ashish Kothari was recently on a book tour in the U.S., promoting “Alternative Futures: India Unshackled”, a book he recently co-edited with K.J. Joy. Here, he discusses the main themes of the book with Pallav Das and an audience at “Busboys and Poets”, an activist book-store in Washington D.C.

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AgendaAnalysis

Finding Pathways to a Better Future

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2017 has seen the kindling of resistance to global capitalism and the accompanying elite rule. John Foran gives us an insight into the ideological imperative of the movements leading that charge, and outlines the possible path towards an ecologically just and economically egalitarian future.

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AnalysisPoliciesStories

How an Ecuadorian Community is Showing Its Government How to Really Live Well

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After a fiery start in the early 2000s, progressive intent and revolutionary rhetoric are finding it difficult to usher in a meaningful transformation in South America. Neema Pathak-Broome and Ashish Kothari explain how the left in Ecuador is facing up to its dilemmas.

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AnalysisIdeas

Radical Ecological Economics

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There is a growing body of work in economics challenging the orthodoxy of free-market fundamentalism as well as exposing its link to rampant environmental degradation all over the world. David Barkin explains the incisive inroads Ecological Economics has made and the promise it holds in our search for an alternative to the dangerous myth of “endless growth”.

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Analysis

Is There A Way Out?

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There’s much that makes us feel despondent in the contemporary world – climate change, economic inequality, social discord and a sense of intense personal ennui. How do we move towards solutions which restore sanity to our existence and connect us to others in our communities and to nature? Ashish Kothari and Pallav Das explain the idea, conviction and commitment behind an attempt at documenting some of the serious efforts being made in that direction.

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