Willie Osterweil

A march, a concert, a cooperative

Last Monday five thousand people poured into Ivanofio Stadium in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city, for a concert headlined by Thanassis Papakonstantinou, one of Greece’s foremost folk musicians. The stadium was packed, sold out, and more than a thousand people were left outside, unable to enter and hear the concert. On any other Monday, such a show would be unremarkable, …

A new era: From occupation to workers' control

This week, Strike Debt tweeted out triumphantly: “It’s a new era. First machine fired up at worker owned factory. #NewEraWindowsandDoors”. For those of us who’ve been following news about the Chicago factory formerly known as Republic Windows and Doors, this was the culmination of years of struggle. It’s an exciting moment, and a victory which hopefully can …

Microfinance supports social currencies in Brazil

The rise of the Brazilian economy, as with all of the “BRICS” countries, is a story often told in breathless tones of admiration and boosterism. But the “other side” of the economic expansion: the poverty of the favelas, the dislocation of agrarian workers (which has given birth to a very powerful popular movement, The Landless Worker’s Movement), etc. has come …

A (very very) brief history of Occupation tactics

By now, most people know that ‘Occupation’ as a tactic was not invented by 2000 of us at Zuccotti park on September 17. The occupation is a powerful tactic for a number of reasons: it foregrounds the political issues of everyday life and public space, it produces a positive communitarian solution to the problems it critiques, it is highly visible and struggle is continuous in a way that …

Yes we camp: A global fight for radical democracy

Millenials all over the world have received a brutal political education. The lucky few of us paid far more and will get far less for our college degrees than any generation before, we have watched with dismay as our parents squabble over light bulbs while the seas boil, and we have witnessed the steady erosion of public space, individual rights, the fourth estate, and checks on executive …