Left-wing populism and the feminization of politics are at the core of the debates among activists of the European left. The intellectual basis of while left-wing populism make it incompatible with the feminization of politics, since they reinforce patriarchy. Social transformation requires of a genuine...

The municipalist movement in the US today is like a seedling. It is small and delicate, fresh and brimming with potential. Although we often look for leftist leadership in big cities like New York City or Chicago, these new municipal leaders are rooted in relatively...

What is New Municipalism? Matthew Thompson, author of the article What’s so new about new municipalism? published in February 2020, walks us through the evolution of the concept of new municipalism starting from its origins, passing through international municipalism as a way of the sharing...

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...

This piece is an Interview with Camille, spokesperson for the Citizens’ Assembly of Commercy. This platform is an example what democracy can look like when it is not headed by an elite, a demonstration of how self-determined education among the people is capable of bringing...

In this podcast there’s a discussion of the work of Murray Bookchin, relating it to the experiences and debates around municipalism and wider left political practices and theory. The guests focus the discussion on the recent edited collection of Bookchin’s work: The Next Revolution: Popular...

On August 24, 1978, Murray Bookchin gave a lecture in Amherst, Massachusetts. In his speech, Bookchin argued against the ideology of futurism and for ecological utopianism. In the Q&A session, he pointed out that he was not against technology itself, he was against technocracy, and...

This case study of Barcelona is particularly interesting for a number of reasons. On one hand, for the strength of the participatory and collaborative tradition of Barcelona. On the other hand, because Barcelona has become particularly important since the local elections of May 2015, which...

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

Rather than essentialising cities as inherently progressive or democratic, the municipal is instead becoming framed as a “strategic front” for developing a transformative politics of scale. Given this critical awareness, this nascent movement demonstrates how local loyalties can be mobilised as part of a progressive...

A group of five famílies, fed up with the state of their houses, the repairs not being done thought they should be their own landlords. This group, dubbed the Corcoran Five, not only have been a major part of winning a landmark $18.5 million class-action...

The potential health impacts of COVID-19 are immense in informal settlements, but if control measures are poorly executed these could also have severe negative impacts. Public health interventions must be balanced with social and economic interventions, especially in relation to the informal economy upon which...