Act Resources

By Nathan Schneider, Hachette Books

The origins of the next radical economy is rooted in a tradition that has empowered people for centuries and is now making a comeback. A new feudalism is on the rise. While monopolistic corporations feed their spoils to the rich, more and more of us are expected to live gig to gig. But, as Nathan Schneider shows, an alternative to the robber-baron economy is hiding in plain sight; we just need to know where to look. Cooperatives are jointly owned, democratically controlled enterprises that advance the economic, social, and cultural interests of their members. They often emerge during moments of crisis not unlike our own, putting people in charge of the workplaces, credit unions, grocery stores, healthcare, and utilities they depend on. Everything for Everyone chronicles this revolution–from taxi cooperatives keeping Uber at bay, to an outspoken mayor transforming his city in the Deep South, to a fugitive building a fairer...

September 20, 2018

Warehousing Wealth

By Chuck Collins, Helen Flannery, Josh Hoxie, Institute for Policy Studies

At a time of staggering inequality, wealthy individuals are using donor-advised funds, or DAFs, to claim substantial tax benefits, while often failing to move funds in a timely manor to independent nonprofits addressing urgent social needs. Of particular concern are the growing number of DAFs founded by for-profit Wall Street financial corporations that provide incentives for the warehousing of wealth. This report, Warehousing Wealth: Donor-Advised Charity Funds Sequestering Billions in the Face of Growing Inequality, documents the dramatic expansion of DAFs and the risks an unregulated DAF system poses to the public interest and the charitable sector. Explosive Growth DAFs are now the fastest-growing recipients of charitable giving in the U.S. Donations to DAFs increased from just under $14 billion in 2012 to $23 billion in 2016—growth of 66% over five years. In contrast, charitable giving by individual donors nationwide grew by just 15% over the same five years. DAFs appear to be...

September 5, 2018

The Production of Money

By Ann Pettifor, Verso Books

In this accessible, brilliantly argued book, leading political economist Ann Pettifor explains in straightforward terms history’s most misunderstood invention: the money system.

August 24, 2018

The Power Manual

By Cyndi Suarez, New Society Publishers

This concise action manual explores major concepts of power, with a focus on the dynamics of domination and liberation, and presents methods for shifting power relations and enacting freedom.

August 21, 2018

Emissions Impossible: Report

By Staff, IATP, GRAIN Staff, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

In direct contradiction to JBS’s outlook for strong growth, the imperatives of climate change necessitate a significant scaling back of production from the world’s largest meat and dairy companies without delay.

July 26, 2018

Resistance

By Jeff Biggers

Resistance is a masterful chronicle of the arduous, courageous, and often squabbling resistance movements that insured the benchmarks of our democracy—movements that served on the front lines of the American Revolution, the defense of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, the defeat of fascism during World War II, and various civil rights struggles.

July 25, 2018

Building the Solidarity Economy

By David Cobb, Transition US

Cooperation Humboldt exists to develop a solidarity economy across the North Coast. They identify, support and nurture local cooperative economic efforts that help people meet their needs without exploiting or oppressing anyone, without being exploited or oppressed by anyone, and commit to do so in an ecologically sustainable manner.

July 18, 2018

A Love Poem to the Words “What If”

By Rob Hopkins, ManagEnergy

For its first edition, the ManagEnergy Talk chose to invite serial storyteller Rob Hopkins (UK). Founder of the Transition movement, Hopkins gave insights to how bottom-up actions can have very real impacts through imagination.

June 25, 2018

RetroSuburbia: The Downshifter’s Guide to a Resilient Future

By David Holmgren, Meliodora Publishing

This 592 page manual shows how Australians can downshift and retrofit their homes, gardens, communities and, above all, themselves to be more self-organised, sustainable and resilient into an uncertain future.

June 25, 2018

Nourished Planet

By Danielle Nierenberg, Island Press

In Nourished Planet, the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition offers a global plan for feeding ourselves sustainably. Drawing on the diverse experiences of renowned international experts, the book offers a truly planetary perspective.

June 15, 2018

A Quest for Meaning

Bullfrog Films

A QUEST FOR MEANING tells the story of Marc and Nathanaël, two childhood friends who take an impromptu road trip attempting to uncover the causes of our current global crisis and to discover a way to bring about change.