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Democracy

Portugal: Communists Celebrate Five Decades Of Democracy And Struggle

September 9, 2026 Luke Rotello And Moth Wisnewski, People's World. , , ,
Hundreds of thousands of Communists, workers, youth, and their allies joined the 50th anniversary of the Avante! Festival (Festa do Avante!) from Sept. 4 to 6 in Seixal, Portugal, a suburb just outside the capital, Lisbon. The event is named for Avante!, or Forward! in English, the newspaper of the Portuguese Communist Party, which organizes the massive gathering. Held annually, the festival celebrates Portugal’s struggle for democracy after the 1974 Carnation Revolution, a bloodless coup orchestrated by left- and Communist-aligned sections of the Portuguese military. It brought an end to the fascist Estado Novo regime, which ruled the country through terrorism and political repression for over 40 years.

To Confront White Supremacy, Build More Social Justice Unionism

September 7, 2026 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , , , ,
On this Labor Day, while we celebrate the gains of the Labor Movement in the United States, it is also critical to assess the state of that movement today as we face many of the conditions that led to a surge in labor power during the early 20th century. In his new book, "Unions, Race and Popular Democracy," labor expert Dr. Kim Scipes compares two labor organizing committees that formed in the Midwest, one by the steelworkers and another by the meatpackers. Scipes joins Clearing the FOG to discuss the differences between top-down trade unions and grassroots industrial unions and how Social Justice Unionism confronted White Supremacy and won victories for all workers.

From CAFOs To Data Centers: Do Rural Residents Have The Right to Say ‘No’?

September 5, 2026 Raj Patel and Jim Goodman, Counter Punch. , , ,
Today’s data center proponents argue such projects bring needed jobs and a boost to local economies. Rural America has heard confident pitches like these before. Nearly 40 years ago, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) arrived one barn at a time with bold promises of jobs and a county tax base. By the time neighbors organized, right-to-farm laws and state pre-emption had severed the ground from under them. All the while, manure lagoons leached into the groundwater and fouled the air, shortening the life expectancy of the farmworkers and downwind neighbors.

Results, Not Rhetoric: How Austria’s Communists Govern

September 4, 2026 Zo Haderekh, People's World. , , , ,
In the city of Graz, Austria, a city of about 300,000 people, the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) has been the dominant force in local government since the 1990s. Elke Kahr, the party’s leading figure, became mayor in 2021, the first Communist to lead an Austrian state capital since World War II. She was re-elected this past June. In the interview below, conducted by Zo Haderekh, newspaper of the Israeli Communist Party, veteran left activist Leo Kühberger, who ran on the KPÖ ticket in Graz, discusses why the party has been so successful.

Bookchin And The Legacy Of Direct Democracy

August 29, 2026 Yavor Tarinski, Grassroots Economic Organizing. , , , ,
With the fall of the Soviet Union, but also with the continuous inability of left-wing parties to alter the current state of things through reforms from within the system, the traditional political organizations have become largely marginal, with little to no genuine linkage to society. Rudi Dutschke’s strategy of “the long march through the institutions” is repeatedly failing to achieve anything different from the absorption of the Left by the dominant institutions it tries to change. Society at large have lost trust in the parliamentary model and its inability to cope with the crucial crises of our time: climate change, extreme inequality, concentration of power in the hands of few. Proof for that are the rising levels of abstention in elections worldwide.

Co-Governance And The Next 250 Years Of American Democracy

August 21, 2026 Liz Sullivan-Yuknis and Anna Canning, In These Times. , , ,
As the fireworks fade from the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it’s time to reflect on what we want to see over the next 250 years of American democracy.  The founding promise of this country, that ​“all men are created equal” was written by a few property-owning white men. And for the last 250 years, movements for justice have fought to close the gap between that promise and the reality. That fight continues in this moment as armed ICE agents snatch people off the streets, the Supreme Court affirms states’ rights to disenfranchise Black and Brown voters, and unelected billionaires run roughshod over basic rights.

What D.C.’s Election Defense Under Occupation Can Teach Us

August 7, 2026 Daniel Hunter, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
As we approach the one-year anniversary of the National Guard’s occupation of Washington, D.C., it’s worth pausing to learn what D.C. resistance has to teach us — especially heading into the midterms. Many of us are carrying real fear about how far Trump might go to interfere with this election. Our fear isn’t unwarranted. But it doesn’t have to be ungrounded, either. Yes, he will say outrageous things. Yes, the heads of the Department of Justice and FBI are trying to keep power for their boss and intimidate voter rights groups. Yes, if Trump could stop elections he would. 

Thousands Rally In Japan To Block Right-Wing Attack On Democracy

August 2, 2026 C. J. Atkins, People's World. , , ,
Braving scorching summer heat, 25,000 people rallied outside Japan’s National Diet building on July 20-21, part of a wave of protests at more than 270 locations across the country. The target of their anger: Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s push to gut proportional representation in the lower house of parliament, a move critics say is designed to silence women and opposition parties alike. The rally, live-streamed to tens of thousands of other viewers, was the latest and largest mobilization against a bill backed by Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the right-wing Japan Innovation Party (Ishin).

Building Workplace Democracy

July 31, 2026 USW, Portside. , , , , ,
Mat Forth and his co-workers at the Keystone Development Center, a technical assistance provider for co-ops, had a goal – to create a democratically structured workplace where they collaborated equally in governance and decision-making and prioritized the common good. “We really wanted to practice what we preached and live our values,” Forth said. That pursuit ultimately led them to the USW, which helped them connect the union with their co-op development work.  Cooperatives, or co-ops, are member-owned or worker-owned, and KDC works to support all types of co-ops.

Education Crisis A Major Malfunction In The Engine Of Democracy

July 27, 2026 Mary Rose Quinn and Michael O'Dea, People's World. , , , , ,
Houston, Texas — While students, parents, teachers, and school staff enjoy what remains of their summer, the nation’s literacy crisis continues to loom overhead. The results of three decades of educational “reform” reveal a dangerous backslide in education that has coincided with the broader backslide in democracy. Among the many factors identified as contributing to the education crisis are an overemphasis on standardized testing, remote learning that took off during the COVID-19 pandemic, the elimination of free reading time in schools, declining rates of reading for pleasure among both children and adults, the rise of digital technologies that compete for attention, and growing economic inequality.

Workplace Democracy Is Essential To Defending Democracy

July 24, 2026 James Araby, Portside. , , ,
America has celebrated its 250th year of existence. At the center of the American story is the promise of democracy, freedom, and equality. The actual history of the country is far more complicated than the grand narrative we often tell about ourselves, but one thing remains clear: the American project has always been defined by the struggle to become the democratic nation it claims to be. But as we look back over the past decade, the democratic ideal does not feel like it is in ascendence. It feels like it is in decline. Autocratic regimes and the politics associated with them have gained power across the world, including in our own country.

When Dissent Becomes ‘Terror’

July 20, 2026 Henry Giroux, Counter Punch. , , ,
Every democracy worthy of the name recognizes a simple but indispensable truth: dissent is not its enemy but its lifeblood. The freedom to criticize those in power, expose injustice, challenge entrenched authority, organize collectively, and imagine a more just future is the foundation upon which a meaningful democratic society rests. Without the right to dissent, citizenship becomes obedience, violence is normalized, politics collapses into spectacle, corrupt power is legitimated, reason disappears into an abyss of lies, and freedom is reduced to little more than an empty slogan.

The Fight Against Surveillance Cameras Is A Struggle For Democracy

July 15, 2026 Ed Vogel, Truthout. , , ,
When residents of Madison County, North Carolina, sought to speak about the county’s AI surveillance cameras at a recent Madison County Commissioners meeting, commissioner Michael Garrison’s response was simple: “You will not speak on Flock tonight.” A clip capturing Garrison’s move to prevent public comment soon went viral, resonating with others waging similar battles in their communities. This sort of democratic abuse is not unusual when it comes to the fight against Flock Safety, automated license plate readers more broadly, and other forms of surveillance.

Haudenosaunee Roots Of The American Experiment

July 15, 2026 Paul Spinrad, The Main Street Journal. , , ,
Many centuries ago, the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, formed a confederacy under the Great Law of Peace that covered much of what is now New York state and beyond. The governance structure of the resulting Haudenosaunee Confederacy, with its balance of centralization and decentralization, influenced Benjamin Franklin’s early Albany Plan proposal for a united government of states, which presaged the U.S. Constitution— even though the Declaration of Independence had meanwhile criticized King George III’s backing of “merciless Indian Savages” to conduct war against the colonists.

Democratizing Training For Nonviolent Resistance

July 13, 2026 Jamila Raqib and Alia Braley, Waging Nonviolence. , , , ,
At a time when democratic institutions are under attack, authoritarianism is resurgent, and communities around the world are confronting severe and overlapping crises, there is at least one reason for hope: people are organizing. They are organizing in neighborhoods, workplaces and places of worship, experimenting with alternative ways of meeting their communities’ basic needs, mobilizing in demonstrations, and, in many cases, refusing to cooperate with oppressive systems. The challenge people face today is not a lack of courage, creativity or commitment to the causes they care about.
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