Create!

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.

Young Farmer Helps Heal Her Community’s Connection To The Land

March 26, 2023 Alexis T. Reed, Next City. Create! Black Farmer, Food, Land, New Orleans

Jonshell Johnson-Whitten’s path to farming started when she was a teen living in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. The area is known as a “food desert,” a low-income neighborhood with limited food access. But when Johnson-Whitten connected with a network of backyard gardeners, she discovered the potential for not just healthy food options, but also for community empowerment. “Being able to put [neighborhood] growers next to the folks who want to grow was the biggest part of inspiring people,” she says. That was just the beginning. Now, Johnson-Whitten takes seriously her role as a Black community farmer.

Strike At The New School Spawned An Ongoing Radical Coalition

March 25, 2023 Miles Hamberg, Truthout. Create! Coopreative, Higher Education, The New School, Worker Rights and Jobs

Though the 25-day labor strike of part-time faculty at The New School, a private university in New York City, ended three months ago, the university administration’s hardball approach has not been forgotten. A student-led coalition that emerged in solidarity with the striking adjunct faculty is still going strong. And with the school’s graduate students set to begin their own contract negotiations with the university later this year, the coalition could potentially add pressure to the university administration to bargain in a different manner than it did with the part-time faculty union. The coalition is certainly poised to rally support during a strike if no agreement is reached before the graduate students’ contract expires.

Banking Crisis 3.0: Time To Change The Rules Of The Game

March 24, 2023 Ellen Brown, Scheer Post. Create! Banking Crisis, Finance and the Economy, Nationalization, Silicon Valley Bank

So what caused this crisis, and what can be done to remedy it? In the midst of the 2008 economic crisis, former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan conceded that there was a flaw in his perception of the financial operating system. For 40 years, he had believed that banks could “self regulate” responsibly, a presumption that had proven to be flawed. In the case of SVB, however, the bank was not engaged in the sort of risky lending seen in the subprime crisis, and increased “stress testing” wouldn’t have saved it. It had put its deposits largely in federal securities, purported to be the safest assets available – so safe that they carry a “zero risk weighting” requiring no extra capital buffer.

Self-Governance In Times Of Blockade: El Sur Existe Commune

March 24, 2023 Cira Pascual Marquina and Chris Gilbert, Venezuelanalysis. Create! Communes, Sanctions, US Imperialism, Venezuela

El Sur Existe [The South Exists] is an urban and periurban commune in Valencia, Venezuela’s third-largest city. Its communards have displayed impressive flexibility and creativity in these times of imperialist blockade. They initially worked to develop an economic foundation for their commune that would respond to people’s material needs. Then they worked to strengthen a model of self-government where executive and legislative decisions have to be taken by the community, not by an isolated few. In Part I of this two-part piece for the Communal Resistance Series, El Sur Existe communards explained their commune’s history and its productive initiatives.

Bridport Goes Solar

March 21, 2023 Chris McCartney, Resilience. Create! Community Solar, Energy, Solar Energy, Transformation

A Transition group is exploring a new way to make it cheaper and easier for residents to install solar panels on their roofs. Sustainable Bridport (the new name for Transition Town Bridport) negotiated a discount from a local PV panel installer – if the group facilitated a number of homes to come forward for solar panels at the same time. Sam Wilberforce said the approach allowed them to smooth the way for individual householders, who may not have time or knowledge to research different options. Yet neighbours often live in similar houses and face similar challenges – looking at a whole area can be more efficient.

Drug Decriminalization Saves Lives

March 20, 2023 Editors, In These Times. Create! Harm Reduction, Health Care, Legalization, War On Drugs

The criminalization of drugs hasn’t kept them from becoming a public health hazard — and we can’t just pretend they don’t exist. More than 106,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2021 in the United States, a number that has doubled since 2015. Three-quarters of the overdose deaths in 2021 were from opioid use, and nearly 3 million Americans struggle with opioid use disorder today. To help affected people, many are arguing for a policy of “harm reduction” to make drug use less risky. Sites provide clean syringes and alcohol wipes to prevent the spread of infectious diseases for IV drug users, for example and are prepared with oxygen masks and the anti-overdose drug naloxone to help manage bad reactions.

China’s Example Of Leadership Injects Hope Into A World Of Uncertainty

March 19, 2023 Danny Haiphong, Black Agenda Report. Create! China, Diplomacy, Peace, US Imperialism

On the one-year anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, China released a position paper on the path forward to peace. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that the peace proposal lacked credibility and questioned China's commitment to the sovereignty and international law. Just weeks after China released its position on peace in Ukraine, Blinken was proven wrong. Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to reestablish relations on March 10 after a round of successful talks that took place in Beijing. Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, called the agreement a victory for peace. He was right.

Global Freshwater Demand Will Exceed Supply 40% By 2030, Experts Warn

March 18, 2023 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, Ecowatch. Create! climate crisis, Environment, United Nations, Water

Today, the planet is facing an unprecedented water crisis, with global freshwater demand predicted to exceed supply by 40 percent by 2030, President of the 77th United Nations General Assembly Csaba Kőrösi said at a press conference on the upcoming UN Water Conference, as Down to Earth reported. “The scientific evidence is that we have a water crisis. We are misusing water, polluting water, and changing the whole global hydrological cycle, through what we are doing to the climate. It’s a triple crisis,” Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research Johan Rockstrom, who is co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW), told The Guardian.

San Francisco Considers $5 Million Reparations Payouts

March 16, 2023 Janie Har, Portside. Create! Black America, California, Reparations, San Francisco

San Francisco, California - These were some of the more than 100 recommendations made by a city-appointed reparations committee tasked with the thorny question of how to atone for centuries of slavery and systemic racism. And the San Francisco Board of Supervisors hearing the report for the first time Tuesday voiced enthusiastic support for the ideas listed, with some saying money should not stop the city from doing the right thing. Several supervisors said they were surprised to hear pushback from politically liberal San Franciscans apparently unaware that the legacy of slavery and racist policies continues to keep Black Americans on the bottom rungs of health, education and economic prosperity, and overrepresented in prisons and homeless populations.

A Four-Day Work Week Could Be Closer Than You Think

March 14, 2023 Anna Coote, In These Times. Create! Four Day Workweek, United Kingdom, Worker Rights, Worker Rights and Jobs

The future of the four-day work week is looking brighter after the results of a major new study were released last month. Nearly 3,000 workers at over 60 organizations took part in the latest trial of reduced working time — and the findings surpassed most expectations. A large majority of workers reported significant improvements in their quality of life. And it wasn’t just employees who preferred the shorter working week: more than 90% of employers who participated opted to continue the arrangement. The U.K.-based experiment introduced a four-day week or equivalent cut in hours, with no loss of pay, from June to December 2022.

Achieving 30×30: Percentages Matter, We’re All In This Together

March 13, 2023 Adrian Ayres Fisher, Resilience. Create! Biodiversity, climate crisis, Restoration, Treaty

Did you know that back in December, one of the most important planetary environmental agreements in history got approved in Montreal? This would be the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF), approved by the 15th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, which clearly states the goal of protecting, conserving, and restoring 30% of Earth’s lands and waters by 2030. Not only was another opening created for the concept that non-human species have the right to exist and live their lives according to their kind in appropriate habitats, but indigenous peoples were included and given their due as primary keepers of land.

Bison Restoration To Be Led By Tribes

March 12, 2023 Last Real Indians. Create! Animals, Bison, Environment, Restoration

Washington – The Department of the Interior today announced several new steps to restore wild and healthy populations of American bison and the prairie grassland ecosystem. Through a new Secretary’s Order and over $25 million from the Inflation Reduction Act, the Department will empower its bureaus and partners to use the best available science and Indigenous Knowledge to help restore bison across the country. “The American bison is inextricably intertwined with Indigenous culture, grassland ecology and American history.

The Digital Tools Unlocking Democracy In Our Cities

March 12, 2023 Hollie Russon Gilman and Grace Levin, Next City. Create! Cities, Direct Democracy, Participatory budgeting, Science and technology

Digitization. It’s the threat that modern democracies, and especially cities, must solve – at least according to current dialogues on digital regulation. Many of the social and political problems our cities face today have been exacerbated by technology. Social media and other digital tools have increased the spread of misinformation and overall weakened public trust in our civic, social and political institutions. Recent developments in virtual reality and artificial intelligence raise new concerns for issues around surveillance, bias, automation and exploitation, especially with increasing public scrutiny on technology giants like Meta and Google.

Individual And Collective Steps Towards A Post-Patriarchal Life

March 11, 2023 Miki Kashtan, Resilience. Create! Capitalism, Feminism, Gift economy, Patriarchy

When we are in the grip of patriarchal systems and conditioning, our vision is stunted and replaced, all too often, with the belief inculcated in us that there is no alternative or that what we have is the best option even if it’s flawed. In defiance of this, we can embrace the radical possibility of shifting from the patriarchal social order built on scarcity, separation, and powerlessness to living, again, in alignment with life’s flow. I offer, here, a feminist vision of a global maternal gift economy and describe pathways to moving towards it from exactly where we currently are, both collectively and individually.

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