How cities are leading the fight against climate change
City governments were an important source of environmental protection in the United States from the 1800s until well into the 1900s. However, since Congress passed a series of landmark environmental statutes in the 1970s, scholars have primarily equated environmental law with federal law. NYU Law…
Meet the city council at-large candidate endorsed by Elizabeth Warren
Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren recently endorsed Philadelphia City Council contender Kendra Brooks, from the Working Families Party. This interview with K. Brooks deepens her views on politics. Photo: Felipe Ribeiro
Black Socialists of America is putting anti-capitalism on the map
Black Socialists of America is a network of anti-capitalist black Americans who are not just interested in building up a platform for black American leftists or getting the ideas of black American leftists out into popular dialogue; we’re also trying to push mass education in…
The left needs a statewide strategy
For the first time in decades, the Left is on the rise in the United States. This resurgence has primarily been driven forward by local and national struggles. In towns across the country, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) chapters have helped win important victories, such…
Austerity urbanism or pragmatic municipalism? Local government responses to fiscal stress in New York State
As local governments respond to fiscal stress after the global financial crisis, some scholars warn about an austerity urbanism response wherein local governments cut and privatize services, while others see a pragmatic municipalism response that seeks to protect public services by sharing services, applying for…
Dual power: a strategy to build socialism in our time
The Libertarian Socialist Caucus of the Democratic Socialists of America has reached consensus as to the broad outlines of a revolutionary strategy that fits our current context and material conditions. The article depicts the notion of dual power and the need to build it, as…
Why libertarian municipalism is more needed today than ever before
We can understand almost all of today’s crises to be crises of democracy. Representative ‘democracy’ has turned people from empowered citizens to alienated constituents. Libertarian municipalism, which promotes direct democracy, is an essential tool to regain power at the citizen level and provide solutions to…
How woke is the left?
Is the left today “woke,” i.e. is it self-consciously learning from the limits of the path it has been on to design a new systemic architecture based on alternative, networked institutions to challenge the status quo? New institutions are needed because in the past farms,…
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…