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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.
In recent years, the idea of a single democratic state in all of historic Palestine has re-emerged as the best solution to the conflict, and it has begun to gain increasing popular support. This idea is not new; the Palestinian national liberation movement, both before and after the Nakba, embraced it, including the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), until its engagement in peace negotiations in the late 1980s, culminating in the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993. The Palestinian leadership envisioned this agreement as a transition to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the territories occupied in 1967.
China Helps Cuba Fight Blackouts, Strengthen Power Grid
April 29, 2025
Jimena Esteban, Orinoco Tribune.
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China, Cuba, Economic Blockade, Energy, energy crisis, Solar power
Cuba may slowly ease its crippling blackouts and strengthen the electricity grid as it begins building seven solar parks with the first batch of equipment from China.
The Chinese aid helps Cuba’s plan to build 92 solar installations by 2028, adding about 2,000 megawatts to the island’s power grid and help reduce dependence on fossil fuel imports. Once completed, the project would significantly boost Cuba’s strained power system, which currently has a capacity of 7,264 MW.
Installation work is set to begin soon in Artemisa, about 50 kilometers west of Havana, where the equipment arrived late last month. Additional solar parks are planned for the provinces of Pinar del Rio, Las Tunas, Holguin, Granma and Guantanamo.
Venezuela’s Journey Toward Real Democracy
April 28, 2025
Andreína Chávez Alava, Venezualanalysis.
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Democracy, History, US Imperialism, Venezuela
The term “democracy” triggers different reactions when it comes to Venezuela. For local far-right forces, democracy has been nonexistent since 1998 and can only be restored by dismantling everything that evokes popular power, self-determination and social justice.
In the hawkish eyes of the United States, “democracy” is an excuse to punish sovereign nations with economic sanctions and blockades until regime change is achieved. Whether elections are fair and free is irrelevant for US “democratic” standards, as are human rights abuses, as long as a country complies with US interests.
An Indigenous Credit Union Is Leaning Into Mobile Banking
April 28, 2025
Connie Aitcheson, Next City.
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Banking, Credit Union, Indigenous People, Pine Ridge
When Lakota Federal Credit Union opened its doors in 2012 in Kyle, South Dakota, access to a financial institution was severely limited for the people of Pine Ridge Reservation. Up to 60% of community members were unbanked — a proportion that bank leaders believe has since decreased thanks to initiatives such as Lakota FCU’s mobile banking unit.
“It’s always been about accessibility, for us to be in communities that can’t up and just come to Kyle on a whim,” says Shayna Ferguson, manager and CEO of Lakota FCU, a federally-certified community development financial institution with about $15.9 million in total assets.
Planned Obsolescence Vs The Right To Repair
Spring reminds me of the rituals of farming that were customary as I was growing up on the prairies.
Among these were making sure that farm machinery was maintained, and repaired if necessary, to ensure that spring seeding occurred on time and without delay – at least as much as possible. And the other memory related to farm machinery was that there were always breakdowns at the most inopportune of times.
Despite best efforts there was often a need to repair equipment during seeding or harvest. That was the way it was. Often someone from the family was dispatched to a nearby farm equipment dealer or garage to purchase a part so that a seeder, tractor, or discer could be repaired on the farm..
China’s Solar And Wind Capacity Surpasses Mostly Coal-Based Energy
April 26, 2025
Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch.
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Carbon emissions, China, climate crisis, Renewable Energy
China’s National Energy Administration has announced that the country’s solar and wind energy capacity has exceeded that of thermal energy — which is mostly coal-powered — for the first time.
The largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, China has pledged to achieve peak carbon emissions by the end of the decade and become carbon neutral by 2060, reported AFP.
“In the first quarter of 2025, China’s newly installed wind and photovoltaic power capacity totalled 74.33 million kilowatts, bringing the cumulative installed capacity to 1.482 billion kilowatts,” the country’s energy body said.
In Uncertain Times, The Port Of Oakland Goes Electric
April 26, 2025
Juan Pablo Perez-Burgos, Next City.
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climate crisis, Electrification, health, Oakland, pollution, Ports
The Port of Oakland’s surrounding Black communities have fought for decades for their right to cleaner air. Now that dream is within reach. In October 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded the port a $322 million grant to transition its cargo handling operations to zero emissions. Matched by the port and local partners, the total investment will be close to half a billion dollars, all flowing into green, sustainable energy. This effort will reduce the more than 69,000 tons of yearly greenhouse gas — the equivalent of burning more than 160 Statues of Liberty’s weight in coal — emitted by drayage trucks, cranes, forklifts, and tractors.
Student Activists Pass Municipal Resolution To Make Polluters Pay
April 25, 2025
Sunrise Smith, Popular Resistance.
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climate crisis, Fossil Fuels, Massachusetts, pollution, Student Activism
Northampton, MA. – Sunrise Movement activists at Smith College and local advocates passed a Climate Superfund Resolution in Northampton last Thursday. On Earth Day dozens rally in Amherst, calling on the Amherst Town Council and other municipalities in the Connecticut River Valley to join the call to make polluters pay. Thursday’s resolution in support of H.1014/S.588, “An Act to Establish a Climate Change Superfund”, was the first to pass in Western Massachusetts, following previous resolutions in Boston, Cambridge, Medford, and Malden.
“I’ve watched my generation strike, resist, campaign, lose hope, and get back up again,” said Emma Coopersmith.
These Black Architects Are Helping Rebuild Altadena After The LA Wildfires
April 24, 2025
Corinne Ruff, Next City.
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Architecture, Black America, California, Community, Disaster Recovery, Los Angeles, Wildfires
Carla Flagg remembers the joy of growing up in west Altadena.
“We had these great pool parties where all the cousins and everybody would come to the Fair Oaks house,” she says, smiling, as tears welled up in her eyes. Her parents owned the house and passed it down to her sister and her sister’s kids. “ We had that home for 50-some odd years, and there are still people who know the original phone number.”
Flagg’s family home was one of some 9,400 structures that were destroyed in the Eaton Fire in January. It was also one of many homes passed down within the Black community by family members. Discriminatory redlining of the 1960s steered her parents away from Pasadena, and realtors encouraged them to purchase on the west side of Altadena.
A Santa Ana Community Land Trust Energizes Innovation
April 22, 2025
Ilana Preuss, Next City.
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California, community land trusts, Manufacturing, small-scale manufacturing
It was a cool Saturday morning in Santa Ana, California, earlier this year. At the corner of Walnut and Daisy, an urban farm displayed rows of beautiful carrots and greens. Shipping containers – turned into coffee-shop business space – were painted in blues, oranges, and greens. Community artists speaking English and Spanish gathered at the center of the area to add the finishing touches to an artisan production shed.
Ana Urzua, executive director of Cooperacion Santa Ana, looked out at the nearly completed construction. Ten years ago, this had only been a dream.
In 2015, when the city announced plans to widen two large streets of Santa Ana and began purchasing neighboring homes and storefronts to demolish, Urzua was part of a community coalition that knew they would need to organize against it innovatively.
‘No Tariffs On Sharing’: Tool Libraries Offer Resilience Amid Federal Chaos
As a handy person, Devon Curtin spends a lot of time helping people enrich their living spaces. Recently, while working with a friend to remodel their floor, Curtin noticed that the cost of do-it-yourself projects is already rising because of Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“The cost of mahogany was the same as Douglas fir, which is kind of wild, but the cost of oak was double. And I was like, ‘Oh, we’re probably getting oak boards from Canada, and so the tariff cost on that is going to skyrocket,’” said Curtin. “And so all of a sudden, this project of building an oak countertop doubles in price because the tariffs are there.”
The Homeless Garden Project: Opening Doors To The Unhoused
April 20, 2025
Damon Orion, Counter Punch.
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Community, Food and Agriculture, Gardens, Homelessness
An analysis of data from 2017 and 2022 by the Pew Charitable Trusts points to a direct connection between high housing costs and homelessness rates in the United States. Unsurprisingly, a Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury 2024 report stated that the city, which the National Low Income Housing Coalition ranked as America’s most expensive rental market in 2023 and 2024, has the most people experiencing homelessness in California per capita.
A University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), research project called No Place Like Home labeled Santa Cruz as “the least-affordable small city in the U.S.”
Unmoved By Tariff Threats, Mexican GM Workers Win Wage Hike
April 18, 2025
Natascha Elena Uhlmann, Labor Notes.
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Labor Movement, Mexico, Tariffs, Unions, Wages
Mexican General Motors workers in the Silao, Guanajuato, factory complex clinched record raises after staring down company scaremongering about tariff threats.
“They said, well, we’re offering 6 percent,” said Norma Leticia Cabrera Vasquez about management’s offer at bargaining.
“We knew they were going to show up with that, but we said, ‘We still have weeks to negotiate, so we won’t let that intimidate us,’” said Cabrera Vasquez, who worked at the plant for 15 years, and now serves as a leader of the union’s Women’s Department.
In spite of the company's efforts to stoke uncertainty, auto workers stood their ground, garnering wage increases of 10 percent on average.
How Eco-Localism Differs From Tariff Terrorism
April 18, 2025
Richard Heinberg, Resilience.
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China, Local Economy, Tariffs, Trade, Trump Administration
Trade makes many folks materially better off by enabling a local abundance of resources or skills to be shared across a wider area. However, increased trade often worsens economic inequality and depletes and pollutes the environment faster than would otherwise happen. Therefore, eco-localists see trade as a mixed benefit whose unintended negative impacts must be carefully managed.
Globalization of trade raises the stakes of both benefits and risks. On the risk side of the ledger, taken to the extreme, it leads to a world in which everything is for sale, all resources are depleted, pollution is everywhere, labor is exploited to the maximum degree, and everything is owned by a tiny number of super-rich investors and entrepreneurs.
Chicago Teachers Win Greener Schools
April 17, 2025
Nick Limbeck and Lauren Bianchi, Labor Notes.
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Chicago, Education, Green Economy, Public schools
The Chicago Teachers Union won a tentative agreement in December that, for the first time, addresses climate and environmental justice demands—making healthy green schools a priority in our city. We achieved this breakthrough even while broader contract negotiations stalled. Finally, in April, we ratified the full agreement, which also includes big raises and lower class sizes.
Our environmental justice victory stems from a collaboration between teachers and environmental activists to expose urgent problems facing us and our students—and link those problems to larger struggles.