Once a month, we put together a list of stories we’ve been reading: things you might’ve missed or crucial conversations going on around the web. We focus on environmental and social justice, cities, science fiction, current events, and political theory.
We try to include articles that have been published recently but will last, that are relatively light and inspiring, and are from corners of the web that don’t always get the light of day. This will also be a space to keep you up to date with news about what’s happening at Uneven Earth.
This month, we’re highlighting a few articles on the work of activist organizing, the work of gestation, and… on doing less work. There’s also been a flurry of conversation about futurism on the left, spurred on by the release of Aaron Bastani’s new book, Fully Automated Luxury Communism. We highlight several critiques. From the recent setback to the municipal movement in Barcelona, to urban environmental justice struggles, we once again feature lots of pieces on radical municipalism. And, our section on the Green New Deal and Degrowth has basically become permanent, as the debate between them rages on.
Top 5 articles to read
Spadework. On political organizing.
The radical plan to save the planet by working less
Aaron Bastani just released his book, Fully Automated Luxury Communism. Read two critical reviews of the book: Cookshops of the future and Climate, communism and the Age of Affluence?. And two previous articles on the subject by our co-editors Aaron Vansintjan and Rut Elliot Blomqvist here: The shitty new communist futurism, Where’s the ‘eco’ in ecomodernism?, and Pulling the magical lever.
How a beloved Bay Area bakery is tackling the housing crisis
News you might’ve missed
The rise of the superbugs – and why industrial farming is to blame
Sudan protesters plan general strike as talks falter. And an update. And another (bad news).
The Yellow Vests of France: six months of struggle
MPs make history by passing Commons motion to declare ‘environment and climate change emergency’
New Zealand’s world-first ‘wellbeing’ budget to focus on poverty and mental health
Why the Guardian is changing the language it uses about the environment
Corporate trade tribunals used by mining companies against communities and governments
Indigenous struggles
The long read: bullet ants and stolen land
The Yurok nation just established the rights of the Klamath river
Brazilian Indigenous peoples propose boycott
Native knowledge: What ecologists are learning from Indigenous people
Dam violence against environmental defenders
The Zapatista women’s revolutionary law as it is lived today
Where we’re at: analysis
The ruin of the digital town square
The price of meat. And Two amputations a week: the cost of working in a US meat plant.
Far-right identity politics and the task for the Left
Time’s up for capitalism. But what comes next?
The problem of the Left is its reactive position in politics
It may not be fully visible, but we’re in the final years of the American Empire
The reason renewables can’t power modern civilization is because they were never meant to
Favelado’s diary. “The criminalization of poverty is the strategy to keep the system functioning against black populations in Brazil and in the world, because if the favela exists and is marked by the stigma of social violence, it does not come free or without interest.”
Just think about it…
The Blackfoot/Maslow connection. How Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs was stolen from Indigenous Blackfoot spirituality.
New Yorkers’ poop will soon be used to fuel their own homes
How to make wind power sustainable again
Loving a vanishing world. I want to move this away from the instrumental question of what you can do about climate change, important though that is, and back to the intrinsic value of what it means to love the world.
Why green pledges will not create the natural forests we need
International Relations Theory and ‘Game of Thrones’ are both fantasies
AirPods are a tragedy. If AirPods are anything, they’re future fossils of capitalism.
Could you give up flying? Meet the no-plane pioneers
When climate change starts wars. Rising temperatures are bringing ethnic tensions to a boil in Central Asia.
New politics
For the love of winning: An open letter to Extinction Rebellion
How to build a sustainable food system
Solidarity economy: Case studies from Rojava and Jackson, Mississippi
Cymru burns, but Northern Syria may help us douse the flames
‘Now is the time of monsters’: The future at a crossroads in Rojava
Inside the growing Indonesian anarchist movement
Water democracy. Farmers in New Mexico have banded together to protect scarce water resources from developments that could end their way of life. Their collective activity is a model for grassroots politics in the age of climate change.
Radical municipalism
Can Barcelona rekindle its radical imagination? Barcelona En Comú narrowly lost the popular vote, and possibly the city government. But there is much more to life than governance.
Why America can’t solve homelessness
NYC’s segregation was carefully planned. Its integration must also be.
Dozens died from heat in Montreal, yet zero in Ontario. Here’s why
How parks help cities adapt to climate change
How communities are contesting green inequities
Rebel Cities 24: How Catalonia’s CUP party is helping reclaim towns, cities and nation
Mobile home residents are trying to save affordable housing
Why councils are bringing millions of pounds worth of services back in-house
Which US cities have concrete strategies for environmental justice?
Degrowth and the Green New Deal
A ‘Green New Deal’ needs to be global, not local
Plan, mood, battlefield – reflections on the Green New Deal
A Green New Deal beyond growth (II) – Some steps forward
How the Green New Deal happened: the view from 2030
Our obsession with growth is ruining the planet. A Green New Deal can save us
An Indigenous critique of the Green New Deal
The ‘green new deal’ supported by Ocasio-Cortez and Corbyn is just a new form of colonialism. And a prior companion piece: A Green New Deal must deliver global justice.
Between ecosocialism, extractivism, the future and the Left in power
Time for Europe to stop growing and grow up
Debate between Giorgos Kallis (Degrowth) and Ted Nordhaus (Ecomodernism)
Resources
Elements of the democratic economy
History from below: a reading list with Marcus Rediker
Global tapestry of alternatives. An initiative seeking to create solidarity networks and strategic alliances amongst radical alternatives to the dominant capitalist, patriarchal, racist, statist, and anthropocentric regime on local, regional and global levels.
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