How the “15-minute city” will transform work
Even before the coronavirus crisis, a key topic of debate among town planners was how to create a sustainable, healthy urban environment that is easy to get around by either walking or cycling. The idea of the 15-minute city. A concept developed by Sorbonne Professor…
Defending life in cities through feminist action. Taking care services out of corporate hands
Care activities essential to city life, such as personal services or cleaning, are increasingly monopolised by large companies offering poverty wag- es and draconian working conditions. But their employees — women who are often discriminated against because of their origin, skin color or age —…
The “Preston Model”. A UK city takes the lead in progressive procurement
Strongly affected by deindustrialisation, and more recently by austerity policies imposed on councils following the financial crisis, Preston, in the north of England, has chosen to no longer depend on external investors for its “development” and radically reorient its public procurement to favour local economic…
Universal basic income won’t help people find work but it will make them happier, expert report finds
Researchers looked at the implementation of guaranteed income in a neighbourhood in Barcelona and found out that it didn’t help people find work, but it made them happier. Against what some critics of basic income say, the money didn’t stop people from looking for a…
Seattle flirts with ‘municipal socialism’
The Seattle City Hall is deploying a set of “municipalist socialist” actions aimed at reversing the negative trends of the new urban job market and limiting private interests, therefore improving the lives of its inhabitants. An in other progressive cities, the municipal level has become…
Municipalist syndicalism: Organizing the new working class
The emergence of the new municipalist agenda coincides with the decline of labor unions. Unless they are incorporated, the working class will not be fully present in the definition and implementation of a new, radical political agenda. In order to become the essential part of…
Democratize the union: Let the rank-and-file decide!
Labor unions are losing political force in the US. Unless organized labor finds solutions to problems pervasive within its own organizations and structures, union membership numbers will continue to shrink. In order to revitalize labor unions, the lack of internal democracy is to be reversed….