The radical citizens' movement and party, Barcelona en Comú, has a goal of democratizing the relationship between civil society and city institutions by transforming the traditional structures of political parties and creating new formsof democratic political participation. Through the study of one of the city's many neighbourhood assemblies, Zelinka examines whether it is possible for a political organization to be movement and institution at the same time and what kind of challenges, conflicts and opportunities emerge through this undertaking.
The rural communities in the Västernorrland county of Northern Sweden are not used to being in the national spotlight, but in 2017 their struggle to stop cutbacks in maternity and emergency care made national news. What are the lessons for all those involved in building counter-power in rural areas of the Global North?
Popular movements everywhere are on the rise at the same time as we face ever-greater corporate impunity and increasing state violence. In TNI's seventh flagship State of Power report, we examine today's social movements, their potential to build counter-power, and how we can best resist injustice as well as lay grounds for long-term transformation.
Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres talks about how her mother's example and a belief that ancestors continue to accompany our struggles helps her and the indigenous movement in Honduras to continue to mobilise against injustice, state violence and corporate abuses.
Medha Patkar of the National Peoples' Alliance shares her thoughts on how to build powerful movements based on three decades of campaigning in India against mega-dams and other forms of unsustainable and exploitative development.
A hundred years after the Russian Revolution of 1917 and almost ten years after the financial crisis, TNI brought together leading activists and researchers in South Africa to talk about alternatives to both soviet-style socialism and Wall Street style financial capitalism. This video produced by the Laura Flanders Show shares the voices and perspectives of those articulating an inspiring new politics.
Zoe Brent, Alberto Alonso-Fradejas, Gonzalo Colque, Sérgio Sauer
05 September 2017
Paper
Governments, social movements, corporations, and marginalized people around the world are increasingly involved in struggles and negotiations about the control of land and resources. Questions of who gets what land, how, how much, why and with what implications are being vigorously contested in a variety of spaces.
This sixth annual State of Power report examines the cultural processes that are used by corporations, military and privileged elites to make their power seem 'natural' and 'irreversible'. It also explores how social movements can harness creativity, art and cultural forces to resist and to build lasting social and ecological transformation.
There is no escaping it. 2016 was a terrible year for anyone concerned with social and environmental justice. Even so, amidst the gloom, there were important struggles and victories by social movements. Here are 12 stories that inspire us to act as we move into 2017.
From policing to intellectual copyright, Raj Patel talks global governance at the Colloquium on Global Governance, Climate Justice & Agrarian Justice in The Hague. Raj Patel provides insights on the beneficiaries of current structures of global governance and the next steps for social movements.
Friends of the Earth`s activists from the five continents and several dozen countries met with representatives of numerous social movements to celebrate the strength of the peoples and reaffirm the need to be united in the struggle for climate justice.
Against a barrage of opposition media propaganda funded by Bolivia’s elites, the new constitution was approved with 61% of the popular vote. Bolivia was once the prized pupil for its wholesale application of policies encouraged by the IMF and the World Bank. Now it is one of the countries articulating an alternative.
