October readings
On world-wide uprisings against austerity, Rojava, and working class environmentalism
Shrink the military, shrink injustice
The US Green New Deal must be anti-imperialist
A Green New Deal for an ecological economy
Introducing a series of proposals for a truly transformative GND
Designing for a world after climate catastrophe
While architects are often told they will change the world, a new book fails to imagine what a world after capitalism could look like
September readings
On climate fascism, climate de-nihilism, and climate rage
Degrowth should be a core part of the just transition
A review of Degrowth by Giorgos Kallis
Utopia, not futurism: Why doing the impossible is the most rational thing we can do
This 1978 speech by Murray Bookchin is strikingly relevant today
Last stand on Ménez Hom
At the top of the Ménez Hom, between the earth and the sky, history had displayed the ability to repeat itself.
Life in flames
On pain and hope in the aftermath of catastrophic fires in Bolivia’s Chiquitanía and Amazon regions
The vine underground
“The unthinkable had happened. No one plans for the end of their own world.”
Destructive space-time
How war bombs and resource extractivism compress past, present, and future
August readings
On eco-fascism(s), the burning Amazon, and worldwide uprisings
Why a hipster, vegan, green start-up service economy lifestyle cannot be sustainable
Dematerialized service economies, industrial veganism and hipsterized eco-aesthetics will only deepen the social and ecological damage wrought by capitalism
Report card on Bernie Sanders’ Green New Deal
A hot take from an eco-socialist
A toy keyboard for a Coca-Cola bottle of gas: Amadeus’ story
“Mogadishu was slowly dying, like an LED at low battery”
Micro effect
“In the space of a summer month, the outbreak had infected 309 people, with 182 dead so far”
The founding of New Crockett, Texas
Hurricane Elmer had blown all the other record storms off the map
In the land of the rising sun, climate efforts are falling behind
As the Abe government and major corporations fail to take meaningful steps to reduce emissions, Japanese citizens are working to pick up the slack
July readings
On global land conflicts, agro-ecology, and the fall of the discipline of economics
Super glue / Superlepak
‘Fuck, he can do this every single day. Why the fuck does he have to do it? What are we going to do? There’s no point in rushing like this and trying to save him each time he gets into a dark mood’, Ivan said, looking out of the taxi window.
Redwashing capital
Left tech bros are honing Marx into a capitalist tool
June readings
On batshit jobs, utopia vs. the apocalypse, and fascist environmentalism
Metamphynus baalis
Un bebé bisonte de la especie Metamphynus baalis es capaz de distinguir los humores fertilizados de las mujeres en los restos del sueño
The right to say no
Women organizing against extractivism in southern Africa
All the water
“Everything was on autopilot; the only thing the operator had to do was push a virtual button to engage the missiles.”
Dispatch from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec
What it will take to build alliances with our neighbors to the South
How much will the US Way of Life © have to change?
On the future of farming, socialist science, and utopia
May readings
On the work we don’t talk about, Fully Automated Luxury Communism, and radical alternatives
April readings
On Extinction Rebellion, climate stories, and industrial farming
Degrowth is utopian, and that’s a good thing
A response to Socialist Forum on degrowth by Giorgos Kallis
February & March readings
On eco-fascism, post-extractivism, and why we should have zero lawns
Is Heidegger’s philosophy anti-Semitic?
Considering the new book, Heidegger and the Jews
After mass mobilizations, what direction for the Belgian climate movement?
A report from a participant
January readings
On the future of farming, Venezuela, and resources for Indigenous allyship
Gilets Jaunes: A slap in the face of our vocabulary
A report from an observer
December readings
On burn-out, eco-primitivism, and the yellow vest movement
A new North American network emerges from the grassroots
Announcing a congress of municipal movements
Time for the subaltern to speak
The movement against waste incineration in Can Sant Joan, Catalonia
The 8th of December, the end of the month, and the end of the world
The yellow vest movement shows us the potential of a “convergence des luttes” to demand a just ecological transition
Why we need alternatives to development
An excerpt from the forthcoming book Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary
November readings
On the Green New Deal, the great grazing debate, and the end of the world
How circular is the circular economy?
Why this proposed solution is little more than a magic trick
Why libertarian municipalism is more needed today than ever before
To fight fascism and climate change, the left must rebuild political life
Techno-fantasies and eco-realities
What role does technology play in our ecologically sustainable future, and how do we get there?
October readings
On fascism in Brazil, a growth economist winning a prize, and responses to the IPCC report
Meet catabolic capitalism: globalization’s gruesome twin
We’ll soon discover that capitalism without globalization is much, much worse.
‘Dark municipalism’
The dangers of local politics
September readings
Degrowth… or Green New Deal?
EXTENDED DEADLINE Not afraid of the ruins #2: Local science fictions
Call for submissions for futuristic imaginaries
The shock doctrine of the left
New book by Graham Jones is part map, part story, part escape manual
How the world breaks
Stan and Paul Cox describe the destructive force of nature in the context of climate change
How radical municipalism can go beyond the local
Fighting for more affordable, accessible places to live means fighting for a less carbon-intensive future
August readings
On Jetsonism, deindustrialization, and finally having enough, with Anthony Galluzzo
Pulling the magical lever
A critical analysis of techno-utopian imaginaries
The social ideology of the motorcar
This 1973 essay on how cars have taken over our cities remains as relevant as ever
July readings
On human-environment relations, grassroots environmental activism, and climate depression, with Salvatore De Rosa
July
“She enjoys the way they fill the space with artificial flight; an awkward posture that makes their death seem comical.”
June readings
On decolonial re-imaginings, the escalating climate crisis, and the root causes of socio-ecological problems
Science Fiction Belgrade
Imagining different realities in the works of Enki Bilal and Aleksa Gajić
The promise of radical municipalism today
Politics is about bringing people together and taking control of the spaces where we live
Science fiction between utopia and critique
On different perspectives used in science fiction narratives, situated knowledge, and how discontent is useful
What’s it like for a social movement to take control of a city?
For Barcelona En Comú, winning the election was just the first step
The swell
“We were waiting to be accepted as refugees in Iceland, the only country left in the region with stable electricity from their geothermal resources, and the only place that would take UK citizens.”
May readings
On radical municipalism, bullshit jobs, food justice, and the rights of nature
The post-Columbian exchange
How content creators continue to misuse Indigenous culture, and how they can do better
Blueprint for an Earth jurisprudence economy
A speech presented at the UN General Assembly
Endless life
A post from a future
Odetta, Odessa
“The sisters slow their rocking and let the man walk back to his car. They know what has to be done to keep him away.”
Creation
“Their only constraints now were the limitations of imagination”
April readings
Hope and grief in the Anthropocene, global Indigenous uprisings, and resources for decolonisation
How to build a new world in the shell of the old
Every city has its graveyard of community groups. Without a strategic vision, local projects cannot possibly amount to a systemic alternative to capitalism.
Mother Frankenstein
Revisiting feminist science fiction history-telling
In Annihilation, the revolution will not be human
If scientists need training in the uncanny, what better way than a crash course in science fiction?
Hierarchy, climate change and the state of nature
We can start building new tools for a democratic and ecological society once we understand hierarchy as the central problem
The Craven mode of production: Introduction
“Theirs was an undeveloped society, I thought, and their success over the past centuries has been largely accidental.”
Fish out of water
“For those who refuse to be humble, the earth has a way of insisting upon humility.”
How to navigate the disorientation of a seismic world
Taking inspiration from past revolutions to build a new framework for the future
March readings
On women, modernity, new international movements, and ecological thought
Krishna never looks up
“Several tentacle-antennae coiled around his extended arm like Medusa’s hair.”
The migration crisis and the imperial mode of living
Notes toward a degrowth internationalism
Dreaming spaces
“Everywhere is filled with the dream of what could grow, slowly coming true”
Climate change mitigation and adaptation of the poor
A call for decolonial responses to climate change
URGENT REPORT Protomunculus spp
“If an infected robionic is discovered at any stage, universal mandate requires its immediate incineration”
Avatar revisited
Gesturing at decolonization of the great epistemological divides
February readings
On the good life, decolonizing science, economic disruption, and the future of work
La Barceloneta’s Struggle Against (Environmental) Gentrification
The Transition: towards a psycho-social history
“The facts revealed in the historical record are clear: most people were terrified of their neighbours.”
Encyclopedia of the mad gardener
“They feel the smells seep into their nasal channels, dioxins boiled under the pink moon.”
The collector
“When you upload the dream, I cease to be a dreamer…”
Waterways
“After the Division, Avon split from Greater Thames and declared a matriarchy”
January’s readings
Our new sci-fi section, loneliness, communist futurism, and sidelined voices
Borne on a damaged planet
Two books that do the hard work of thinking through the Anthropocene
Why the left needs Elinor Ostrom
An interview with Derek Wall, author of Elinor Ostrom’s Rules for Radicals, on the need to think beyond market and state.
Library
A climate change poem
The naked eyes
“Keith’s livelihood was sandwiched between an ocean of algorithms and a ceiling of decision-making programs.”
New Year readings
Robots, utopias, and our new printing press
Why stories shouldn’t always have endings
An alternate reading of St. Kilda
A lifetime opposing the US military on Okinawa
Interview with Hiroshi Ashitomi, activist and elder
