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Along with direct action and other forms of resistance, a transformational movement must also have a constructive program that builds new institutions based on the values that the movement aspires to achieve. These may eventually replace the old systems. From small, worker-owned cooperatives to national advocacy groups, hundreds of thousands of people around the country are working to create democratic and sustainable systems that meet the basic needs of all people.
Permanent capital provides financial stability for cooperatives. It consists of all the capital reserves that are unallocated to members. Unallocated equity can be defined as: ”The share of net margin (savings) from member and/or non-member business retained by the cooperative for operating purposes. This is considered permanent capital in that there is no obligation to redeem this equity to current or past members unless the cooperative is dissolved” (University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives).
Such permanent reserves provide a financial buffer during times of economic recession without having to impair member equity.
Detroit’s Eastside Gets Affordable Electric Vehicle Carshare
December 4, 2024
Ethan Bakuli, Next City.
Create!
Cars, Detroit, Electric Vehicles, Michigan, Transportation
As Loretta Powell settled into the driver seat of the Chevy Volt, she gave herself a few seconds to get acclimated to the vehicle’s settings before pressing the blue power button located behind the steering wheel.
It was the second time the Detroit educator was behind the wheel of an electric car. The first time she drove the Volt, she recalled, was “nice and smooth.”
“You couldn’t tell you were driving; it was very quiet and peaceful,” said Powell, as she backed out of the parking lot at community development organization Eastside Community Network‘s Stoudamire Wellness Hub. Like most electric vehicles, it emits an angelic hum as it reverses.
President Maduro Calls For Creation Of ‘Powerful Media Network For The People’
December 2, 2024
Alba Ciudad, Orinoco Tribune.
Create!
Colonialism, Genocide, Israel, Media, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, US Imperialism, Venezuela
The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, proposed the creation of a “powerful media network for the truth of the peoples across all continents, with all languages and on all existing social media of today and those that will be born as alternatives.”
He made this proposal on Friday, November 29, at the International Conference in Solidarity with Palestine, held in Caracas. He commented that there is a consensus across the world for “the cause of the struggle for freedom and the right to life of the Palestinian people, and we must do more for Palestine, because still there are many people who are misinformed about the brutal genocide that is being broadcast live.”
Lessons On Building Independent Progressive Power In A City
December 2, 2024
Steve Early, Popular Resistance.
Create!
California, Chevron, DSA, Green party, Left Politics
In 2006 Richmond, California became the largest city in the U.S. to elect a Green Party member as its mayor (a record it still holds). The successful candidate, who served eight years in that office, was Gayle McLaughlin, a leading critic of Chevron Corporation, the city’s largest employer and biggest polluter. McLaughlin co-founded the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA) and is now an East Bay DSA member as well.
In 2004, she was the sole RPA representative on the council, long dominated by friends of Big Oil. In January 2025, that seven-member body will have a progressive-majority of four, including DSA-backed Vice-Mayor Claudia Jimenez, who was re-elected to the council this fall. Richmond’s current mayor is Eduardo Martinez, one of just seven city hall leaders in the country who belong to DSA.
Indigenous-Led Environmental Planning: A Blueprint For Equity
November 27, 2024
Somia Sadiq and Desiree Theriault, Next City.
Create!
Canada, Indigenous People, Landback, Urban Planning
We gather around the dinner table as one of the participants starts a smudge ceremony. Among us are three women who transitioned out of the sex trade more than 20 years ago. They carry the deep scars of their pasts, including Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which shapes how they navigate our meetings.
They only speak with those they trust. Their triggers — such as needing to sit where they can see everything — are reminders of how trauma shapes their lives. We know these conversations will touch on their past, but only at a pace they set. To rush would mean losing their trust.
Maine Proposes Major Staffing Increases For Care Facilities
In the first major update to assisted living and residential care regulations in more than 15 years, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services has proposed significantly increasing staffing requirements, among other changes.
The proposed updates follow an investigation by The Maine Monitor and ProPublica into the state’s largest residential care facilities. It found dozens of violations of resident rights, including incidents of abuse and neglect, as well as more than 100 cases in which residents wandered away from their facilities and hundreds of medication and treatment violations.
Meet The Indigenous Leader Using Psychedelic Medicine To Heal Traumas
November 26, 2024
James K. Rowe, Waging Nonviolence.
Create!
Health Care, Indigenous culture, Psychedelics, Trauma
When you’ve endured a living hell, then a visit to heaven on earth can provide a healing counterweight. This premise underlies Rueben George’s psychedelic healing work with Indigenous peoples harmed by colonial dispossession and violence.
Rueben is a well-known Indigenous leader in Canada, having led opposition to a major fossil fuel pipeline that captured national attention and became a flashpoint in multiple election cycles. Despite fierce resistance, the Trans Mountain pipeline was recently completed and now pumps oil from the Alberta tar sands to the Pacific Coast over lands and waters long governed by Rueben’s Tsleil-Waututh Nation.
The Potential Of Cooperatives For Economic Equality
November 25, 2024
Cooperatives Europe.
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Cooperatives, European Union (EU), United Nations, wealth inequality
Released on October 17th under the title “Social Development in Times of Converging Crises: A Call for Global Action”, the report is the output of the global call by the GA resolution 77/281 in April 2023 to promote the social and solidarity economy for sustainable development.
Overall, the report estimates that the economic cost of crisis mitigation from 2020 until 2030 will translate into “a cumulative output loss of over $50 trillion”, to the detriment of social development. It is a global plea to prioritise people and the planet over profit, and for public-private social investments to be at the same level as their economic counterparts.
The Missing Link In Europe’s Sustainable Food Future
November 25, 2024
Anna Scavuzzo and David Dessers, Resilience.org.
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European Union (EU), Food and Agriculture, Sustainability, Urban Design
As we face increasingly urgent global challenges, including climate change, urbanisation and growing inequality, Europe must transform its food systems to ensure resilience, sustainability and inclusivity.
The Strategic Dialogue for Agriculture, convened by President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was designed to depolarise the contentious debates surrounding food and agriculture. It brought together a wide range of stakeholders who unanimously adopted a comprehensive set of recommendations for the future of Europe’s food systems.
Housing Cooperatives: Preserving Affordable Community Ownership
November 23, 2024
North Missoula CDC, Grassroots Economic Organizing.
Create!
Affordable Housing, Cooperatives, Housing
With affordable housing becoming increasingly scarce in Montana, innovative solutions are more important than ever. This documentary short highlights an inspiring cooperative housing model designed to prevent displacement and create home ownership opportunities for Missoula residents. This initiative, driven by the collaborative efforts of North Missoula Community Development Corporation (NMCDC) and Neighborworks Montana (NWMT), offers a promising blueprint for addressing housing challenges across Montana.
Try Imagining Another Urban Existence
November 23, 2024
David Graeber - Nika Dubrovsky, Counter Punch.
Create!
Mexico, Russia, Transformation, Urban Design
In thousands of ways, we are taught to accept the world we live in as the only possible one, but thousands of other ways of organizing homes, cities, schools, societies, economies, and cosmologies have existed and could exist.
We started a project called Made Differently: designed to play with the possibility and to overcome the suspicion—instilled in us every day—that life is limited, miserable, and boring.
Our first focus is Cities Made Differently, exploring different ways of living together. Read and imagine four different kinds of cities taken from our book which are listed below, and continue your exploration, downloadable at a4kids.org, for drawing and dreaming.
G20 Calls For Taxing The Ultra-Rich To End Global Hunger And Poverty
November 21, 2024
Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch.
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G20, Hunger, Palestine, Poverty, Wealth Tax
The G20 summit in Rio De Janeiro concluded on Tuesday, November 19 with a united call for reforms in the global governance, global cooperation in tackling climate change, hunger and poverty across the world. The declaration also demanded immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a peaceful settlement of disputes in Ukraine.
The G20 summit adopted a joint Leaders Declaration on Monday, in which it called for taxing the world’s ultra-rich and corporations as a way to fund the UN sponsored sustainable development goals (SDGs) such as eradicating hunger and poverty.
Paris Plans To Replace 60,000 Parking Spots With Trees By 2030
November 21, 2024
Paige Bennett, EcoWatch.
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Bicycles, Car-Free Community, climate crisis, Paris
A newly released plan would see 60,000 parking spots throughout Paris turn into grounds for tree planting by 2030. The goal of the project is to better prepare for extreme heat events by providing shaded green spaces. The plan still requires approval from the Council of Paris to move forward.
“Trees and nature are natural air conditioners,” Paris officials said, as reported by Yale Environment 360. “Their development makes the city more pleasant to live in during periods of high heat.”
By replacing the selected parking spaces with trees, the project would support a larger city goal to add more than 740 acres of green space in Paris by 2030, with 10% of that green space installed by 2026, Bloomberg reported.
NDN Collective Completes Landback Deal In Alaska
November 20, 2024
NDN Collective.
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Alaska, Indigenous Sovereignty, Landback Movement, Sacred sites
Cordova, AK –Last week, NDN Collective through our community development arm, NDN Holdings, finalized a LANDBACK deal with the Eyak Community Land Trust in Alaska and transferred title to two acres of land back to the Eyak people.
In October 2021, NDN Collective was made aware of an opportunity to purchase land along Eyak Lake on the southern coast of the state. NDN Holdings purchased the land and began working with the Eyak community to transfer ownership.
As of this week, the two acre property will now be wholly owned by Eyak Community Land Trust, which was established in collaboration with Native Conservancy, and be used by the community to host cultural and ecological education workshops.
La Via Campesina Gives Input To First In-Person Meeting Of UN Working Group On Rights Of Peasants
November 18, 2024
La Via Campesina.
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Human Rights, La Via Campesina, Rural Workers, United Nations (UN)
From the 21st to the 25th of October 2024, the United Nations Working Group on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (the Working Group) held its second session in Geneva. The Working Group on peasants was established in October last year when the member states of the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution tabled by Bolivia and a core group of states agreeing to further implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP).
La Via Campesina (LVC) delegates from Asia, Europe and Latin America together with their allies, CETIM and FIAN International, attended and participated in this first in-person historic meeting of the UNDROP Working Group in Geneva.