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Democracy

Movements Need To Learn To Fly Like Bees And Thread Like Spiders

July 4, 2025 John Paul Lederach, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
The first months of the Trump administration — with its rapid and sweeping turn toward autocratic rule — have rightly led to calls for collective and national resistance. Leading civil resistance scholars Erica Chenoweth and Zoe Marks have described the need for a “large-scale, multiracial, cross-class, pro-democracy front.” And Maria Stephan, writing for Just Security, called this a critical moment for taking up the “journey from individual angst to collective action, from siloed work to big-tent formations.” Creating such a collective response, however, requires a great deal of creativity and focus, particularly — as these authors suggest — when it comes to relating to different groups and building unexpected connections.

We Need A Pro-Democracy Environmental Movement

June 29, 2025 Khalil Shahyd, Next City. , , ,
Few people outside of Memphis, Tennessee, have heard of Boxtown, a community of about 3,000 residents in the city’s southwest corner. Founded in 1863 by formerly enslaved Black Americans, Boxtown has a long history of resisting environmental injustices, from polluting industries to toxic infrastructure, that have worsened health outcomes and lowered life expectancy. Today the community is at the center of a growing fight over the future of our democracy and the role of technology and technocrats in deciding for us what constitutes progress and good governance. When residents learned that xAI, a company led by Elon Musk, planned to install the “world’s largest” supercomputer in their neighborhood — without public input or transparency — they mobilized.

Lawyers Fight Back

June 20, 2025 Michael Steven Smith, Alte. , , ,
Trump and the MAGA movement behind him have taken huge steps to upend and overturn the kind of democracy, however limited by race and class, that we have lived with since our independence from England some 250 years ago. In order to secure their rule, these fascists, like those in the Hitler movement 90 years ago, attempted to get control of the various apparatuses of our society. They aimed at the major media, the universities, the states like California, the scientific establishment, the medical profession, the cultural apparatus, the top brass in the military, and the big law firms.

Communities From Global South Know What Democracy Is

June 17, 2025 Ashish Kothari, Resilience. , , ,
The contrast could not be starker. In 2024, with over 60 countries covering half the world’s population going to the polls, there was a clear tendency to vote in right-wing political parties with thin democratic pretensions. In many countries including India, USA, Argentina, and Russia, and in the European Parliament, the trend was clear. A powerful counterpoint to this was provided by a modest but inspirational gathering of Indigenous peoples and local communities from over 20 countries, in South Africa, in February 2025. They spoke about how their foundations were not hegemonic power and profits, but justice, equity, and respect not only amongst peoples but also with the rest of nature.

Sociocracy In The Higher Education Classroom

June 7, 2025 Grassroots Economic Organizing. , , ,
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

May 31, 2025 Cira Pasqual Marquina, Venezuelanalysis. , , ,
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

May 26, 2025 TeleSURenglish. , , ,
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

May 17, 2025 Alice Toomer-Mcalpine, Co-operative News. , , ,
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

May 15, 2025 Kahlil Shahyd, Resilience. , , ,
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

May 14, 2025 Hanna Eid, Black Agenda Report. , , , , ,
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

April 30, 2025 Jane Slaughter and Keith Brower Brown, Labor Notes. , , , ,
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

April 29, 2025 Shrishtee Bajpai, Resilience. , , ,
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

April 28, 2025 Andreína Chávez Alava, Venezualanalysis. , , ,
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

April 20, 2025 United Electrical Radio And Machine Workers Of America (UE), Portside. , , ,
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.
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