Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
On November 2nd nearly 70 students walked out of an introductory economics class at Harvard in solidarity with the Occupy movement. The mainstream media largely ignored the protest. That’s regrettable since the economics profession has provided the intellectual framework and justification for the inequality and centralization of corporate power the Occupiers are challenging.
– Krugman: Depression and Democracy
– Anarchist Anthropology – OWS house theorist on debt and the gift economy
– What is Debt? – An Interview with Economic Anthropologist David Graeber
– Global rebellion: The coming chaos?
– TIME Person of the Year 2011: ‘The protester’
– Why I Protest: Dr. Arthur Chen of Oakland, California (TIME profile)
– Inside Wukan: the Chinese village that fought back
– With Port Actions, Occupy Oakland Tests Labor Leaders
– Walter Moseley: 10 Things You Can Do to Sustain the Occupy Movement
Just how far gone is Putin’s government? The evidence so far is that they are still feeling invincible, and are willing to resort to repression in order to make the election results stick. But the Russian people want to express themselves; they want to be heard; they want those who hear them to make the required changes in response.
The Occupy movement is a start. But the stakes are rising. The earth is dying. The biocidal industrial economy, while coming apart at the seams, still rages on. …And what if the industrial disease DOESN’T die with collapse? What then? And what does that imply for resistance movements?
– Occupy protesters blocking gates at West Coast ports, halt operations at some
– Launching a New Online Library that Can’t Be Destroyed
– (Re)learning the Value of Place and Occupying a Sustainable Future
– The Fracturing of Occupy Wall Street
Our collective efforts forced the US to back down from locking in the “worst idea ever”: delaying agreement on a new climate treaty until 2020. The roadmap agreed to in Durban calls for a climate agreement to be reached by 2015, with full implementation five years later. It’s better than “the worst” possible outcome, but it’s still a cowardly, unacceptable delay on global climate action — and a recipe for climate disasters.
Occupy events in big cities like New York, Oakland, and Los Angeles receive considerable coverage in the corporate media, especially when police react. Yet in small towns and mid-size cities throughout America, peaceful occupations occur that engage people in conversations and education in public spaces and beyond.
– Putin and Medvedev try to calm Russian election outcry (50,000 protestors in Moscow; 50+ cities affected)
– Quiet after the storm – official silence after Russia protests (video)
– Russia’s Great December Evolution
– Putin’s Big Mistake?
– In Uniform at Protests, and in Trouble as a Result
– My Occupy LA Arrest (Fox “Family Guy” writer)
– Russian Vote Wrath Swells Protests as Putin Blames Clinton
– Putin Contends Clinton Incited Unrest Over Vote
– The New Cyber-Industrial Complex Spying on Us
– Fox: The Muppets Are ‘Brainwashing’ Young People To Hate The Oil Industry
– How net neutrality helped Occupy Wall Street
– Amazon Launches Christmas Attack on Local Shops
The streets of Barcelona appear deceptively calm at first sight. Fashionable people stroll the streets, shopping bags in hand, while others stop to drink a glass of wine at a sidewalk cafe. These luxurious images project a sense of prosperity onto the streets of Barcelona, but underneath the surface, a struggle rages. The 15 May Movement that captured the global imaginary just six months ago and encouraged people all across the world to occupy public space and hold massive democratic assemblies is no longer limited to the central square. Now, they are everywhere.
