Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Billy Wimsatt is founder and Executive Director of the Movement Voter Project, an organization that works to strengthen progressive power at all levels of government. He addresses the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?”
When trying to figure out how they should interact with political parties, social movements face a common challenge: Should they push from without or seek to operate from within?
The Indian farmers’ protest is a model for all struggling people worldwide. Their relentless and sustained protest shows that a sure resolve, control of resources, and perseverance is key to winning against neoliberal forces worldwide and ushering in a world where working people are the focus of national economic policies.
While many see Occupy as a failure or victory for the left, Momentum understands it as a lesson that needs to be dissected and understood.
The non-linear combined efforts of professor-activists like Dussán and integrated systems researchers like Angarita are helping to shift the tide against mega-dams in Colombia, paving the way for a more just and sustainable energy transition.
I think these are the two conflicting urban visions today: the one is about a top-down enforced homogenization and zoning of the city, and then there is the possibility for the citizens themselves to engage autonomously in morphing their urban environment.
Love builds social movements. It is the connective tissue of collective action. And its potential is revolutionary.
The body politic was sick long before the virus arrived, already at risk of collapse under the weight of its elite hierarchies. When its fever breaks, we must learn the right lessons about how to overcome the underlying issues that threaten its very existence.
As we find ourselves in the grips of a myriad of crises, unsure of what our collective future holds, the freedom sounds of social movements building power from below can be heard from Egypt and South Korea to Argentina.
President & Founder of Hip Hop Caucus, Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., brings his perspectives on racial justice, youth empowerment, climate change, and faith to the big question of “What could possibly go right?”
The recent surge in Black Lives Matter protests following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, along with growing evidence that COVID-19 is disproportionately hitting communities of color, have raised urgent questions about structural racism and white privilege in the U.S.
In my humble opinion, if these are our goals, we must get used to and comfortable with people being in dedicated, committed, and prolonged uprising. In fact, I believe that’s what this “new normal” is, and I hope that these protests go well into November and beyond until we see accountability and real, tangible actions taken by cities, states, and the country to abolish racism and white supremacy.
