Thinking about Europe en Comú
The document framed the relationship between the municipalist revolution and the reconstruction of Europe from below. It was created in preparation for the Barcelona en Comú plenary assembly of 1 June, 2016. Photo: Anna Shvets
Why we still love the Zapatistas
For Mexico, Latin America and the international left, what emerged from the Chiapan mist along with the Zapatistas was the specter of revolution with a capital R—something the Mexican autocracy of the ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional, the PRI, believed it had killed a long time…
Rebuilding the commons: a global network of rebel cities takes shape, part I
The global movements of 2011 reconfigured urban space as a new interface of collective action and policy creation. The new political narrative of cities is serving to counteract prevailing neoliberal narratives.More than a phrase, “the Cities of the Commons vs. global neoliberalism” could be understood…
Ecology or catastrophe: the life of Murray Bookchin
This book is the first-ever biography of Murray Bookchin, written by his personal collaborator and copyeditor, Janet Biehl. From 1987-2006, Biehl edited every word that Bookchin wrote, and worked with him on numerous articles and books. She tells the story of Bookchin’s life from a…
Murray Bookchin and the Kurdish resistance
Libertarian municipalism promotes the use of direct face-to-face assemblies in order to “steal” the practice of politics back from the professional politicians and place it back in the hands of citizens. Describing the state as “a completely alien formation”, Bookchin presents libertarian municipalism as “democratic…
A democratic devolution underway in Barcelona: Barcelona en Comú
This paper seeks to outline the changes that enabled the citizen platform Barcelona en Comú (Catalan for “Barcelona in Common”) to win the elections in Barcelona in 2015, a victory that signaled a rupture in the status quo of Spanish politics. Although the citizen platform…
Reinventing urban democracy in Barcelona
Discussions about creating an alternative city have tended to focus on grassroots movements, community organising and Jane Jacobs-style passion for creating liveable cities. These are all essential parts of the process, but one avenue of change has remained curiously outside of the discussion – taking…
Barcelona en Comú: the city as horizon for radical democracy
In 2015, a new cycle of struggles for democratic governance unfolded at the level of the city. One such municipal movement and platform is Barcelona en Comú. Pioneering new ways and words for approaching the city as common(s), Barcelona en Comú opens possibilities for a…
Radical politics in an era of advanced capitalism
Defying all the theoretical predictions of the 1930s, capitalism has transformed itself from an economy surrounded by many precapitalist social and political formations into a society that itself has become “economized”. Is there a public realm that can become an arena for the interplay of…