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Democracy

Sociocracy In The Higher Education Classroom

What might sociocracy look like on the small scale, less formally, enacted by college students who have just begun to feel it out? How might sociocracy’s resonance pervade an organization, even without the opportunity for thoroughly elaborated structure? In this presentation, Juan Pablo will share how “Students for Environmental Justice” used Sociocracy as a subversion of the traditional, hierarchical classroom model. In exposing the intrinsic, but invisibilized, governance and decision-making processes of the classroom, this group was then empowered to take ownership of their collective class– from the curriculum at the foundation of it, to the grant money that would fund their community outreach projects around climate justice.

Venezuela’s Participatory Democracy And The Struggle Against Imperialism

Alison Bodine is an anti-imperialist activist and solidarity organizer based in Canada who is active with the Venezuela Solidarity Network and the Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice. She has visited Venezuela regularly since 2018 as part of international observation missions. Bodine is the author of Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Venezuela, a book that analyzes the Bolivarian Process and the challenges it faces. In this conversation with Venezuelanalysis, Bodine discusses her experience as an international observer during Venezuela’s most recent parliamentary and regional elections held on May 25.

ALBA-TCP Congratulates Venezuela On Successful Elections

On Monday, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) congratulated Venezuela for successfully holding regional and parliamentary elections. Earlier, on Sunday night, the National Electoral Council (CNE) announced that the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) had won 23 out of 24 governorships. The Bolivarian Revolution also secured 40 out of 50 seats in the National Assembly. Among the new legislators will be current ALBA Secretary Jorge Arreaza. “The ALBA member states applaud and congratulate the people and government of the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for the resounding success of the legislative and regional elections held this Sunday, May 25, 2025.

REI Members Reject All Three Board Candidates In Election

Members of US outdoor retail co-op REI have voted to reject board candidates following a worker-led campaign. The election result was announced yesterday at REI’s online annual member’s meeting. The three candidates, made up of two incumbents up for re-election and one new director, had been selected by REI’s existing board, and were running unopposed, meaning members were given the choice to vote either for or against the candidates. A campaign led by the REI union had encouraged members to vote ‘no’ to the co-op’s slate of candidates, after REI refused to include two union-backed candidates on the original election ballot, despite the nominees receiving over 10,000 signatures of support.

This Is What Democracy Looks Like

The community of Boxtown in southwestern Memphis, Tennessee, has long been accustomed to fighting for its rights. Founded in 1863 shortly after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, this neighborhood of 3,000 people has a long history of battles against the unjust siting of polluting industries, which have increased residents’ health risks and lowered life expectancy. And today, the community is at the center of a growing fight between the future of our freedoms and technocrats. In June of 2024, Boxtown residents discovered that xAI, an artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk, intended to locate the “world’s largest” supercomputer in their community—without environmental reviews or community outreach.

Whole Process People’s Democracy: The Path Forward

China’s political form is called ‘Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.' Chinese scholar Zhang Weiwei calls the Chinese political content ‘whole-process people’s democracy’. He distinguishes this model from the formulaic, procedure-obsessed, and anti-democratic model of the North American Republic and European social democracies. What separates the Chinese model from the political model of the central capitalist formations are a number of variables: firstly, mass participation from top to bottom is a key feature of Chinese socialism. Secondly, the subordination of the capitalist class to the party-state and thus the imperatives of the masses defines China’s ability to develop a socialist market economy.

UAW Reformers Close Caucus, Launch New Organization

Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD), the reform caucus in the Auto Workers, voted to dissolve at its quarterly online membership meeting April 27. “It was a heartbreaking decision to come to,” said UAWD founder and chair Scott Houldieson, a 36-year electrician at Ford. “UAWD had become a caucus that is ‘resolutionary,’ and focused more on caucus discipline than on actually organizing workers. Meetings had become dreadful. We can have differences as long as we make a decision and move on.” A majority of the group’s steering committee had brought a resolution calling for the dissolution. It was hotly debated. About half of the caucus membership attended the meeting.

Community Struggles For Self-Governance In The Global South

Are we really free? With this seemingly straightforward yet provocative question, Vijay Dethe from Pachgaon village in the Chandrapur district of Maharashtra, India, opened several philosophical and political questions. Vijay belongs to Dalit community and works with the Gond adivasis (indigenous peoples in India) and other marginal communities of Pachgaon towards self rule and overall governance in the village. He further added “the ones who destroyed their forests, polluted their waters, are now telling us what ‘vikas’(development) is! Do they really know what ‘development’ is!?”

Venezuela’s Journey Toward Real Democracy

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.

Member-Run Unions

Hundreds of workers are crowded into a high-school gymnasium. Their union leaders carefully go through each article of their employer’s last, best and final offer. Hands are raised, questions are asked and answered, and members share their thoughts with their officers and with each other. In the previous two months of negotiations, the union negotiating committee has been seeking language to help curb the company abuses that have become rampant in the plant. The company has not agreed. Each union member weighs whether they will take the company’s offer, and accept ongoing problems in the workplace in exchange for modest economic improvements, or reject the offer and strike for a better deal.

Black Alliance For Peace And MANE Reflect On Ecuadorian Elections

The Black Alliance for Peace and Movimiento Afrodescendiente Nacional Ecuatoriano (MANE) reported back on the Ecuadorian presidential elections held on Sunday, April 13, 2025. Despite the fact the current president, Daniel Noboa, issued a last-minute decree (Decree 597) that sealed the northern and southern borders, intending to deny entry to international observers, the election team for the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) was able to enter and observe the elections on the ground. The National Electoral Council (Consejo Nacional Electoral) has declared Daniel Noboa the winner of the second round of elections, with over an 11-point lead. With this win, it is certain that Noboa’s declared “internal armed struggle” will continue to negatively and disproportionately impact Ecuador’s poor and AfroEcuadorian communities.

Ecuador: Leftist Luisa Gonzalez Rejects Election Results And Claims Fraud

Today Ecuadorians were called to the polls for the runoff elections, which pitted leftist candidate Luisa Gonzalez against incumbent President and Trump-supported Daniel Noboa. The election day was marked by a series of setbacks, including complaints of irregularities, violations of democracy and the activation of a new state of emergency which allowed the most extreme militarization the country has ever experienced. In addition, the arrival of international observers was prohibited, which generated even more doubts about the transparency of the process. Despite this complicated context, at the end of the day, the National Electoral Council (CNE) announced the victory of right-wing billionaire Daniel Noboa, which has raised questions about the veracity of the results.

Trump’s Rule By Fiat A Bipartisan Legacy

U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest defiance of the courts — this time refusing to follow an appellate judge’s order to halt migrant deportations — has triggered another round of liberal outrage. Critics are calling it an authoritarian move, a blatant assault on the rule of law, and a warning sign that American democracy is on its last legs. But if this is the end of democracy, it’s been ending for a long time. And not just at Trump’s hands. The central truth we keep missing — especially on the left — is that Trump is not an aberration. He’s a grotesque continuation.

Will Trump Send US Citizens To El Salvador?

Donald Trump is in a position to do almost anything he wants. He was the clear favorite of republican voters and won the popular vote and majorities in congress. Not content to be satisfied with what he says is a mandate, Trump has upped the ante and departed from the traditional definitions of power in Washington. He has legislative control, but he is making an end run around it with executive orders and defiance of the courts. At a moment of radical political change which includes firing thousands of federal workers and claiming that programs supported by most people are no longer needed, the democrats provide only the thinnest veneer of opposition when the public want them to step up.

Call For Permanent Mobilization In Support Of Social Reforms

In the midst of tensions with Congress over the shelving of labor reform, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, said in Bogotá that a referendum had been launched to decide on the future of the reforms and that the people must remain in permanent and growing mobilization so that the parliamentarians serve them and not the powerful. In front of tens of thousands of people who filled Plaza Bolívar, in the historic center of the capital, the head of state said that the proposal for a referendum is essential to decide the fate of the social reforms presented by the Government of Change.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

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Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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