An interview with Iva Ivsic, local representative of Zagreb Je NAS! at the Our Common City conference in Budapest (February 22 & 23, 2019). Part one: Part two: Photo: Ash Edmonds

Over the past few generations, gentrification has emerged as a broadly familiar frame for understanding the explosive changes that are disfiguring cities across the planet. However,  the dominant languages being invoked to theorize gentrification today fall short: they are necessary but not sufficient. Understanding urban...

Democratic socialists rely heavily on electoral strategies to bring about socialism, but elections make a poor venue for radical working-class struggles. Can electoral politics shift us from capitalism to socialism? Photo: Pixabay

This report examines the re-emergence of the urban commons as both a bottom-up emergence by citizens/commoners and a radical municipal administrative configuration. Starting with an exploration of the relationship between cities and the commons, with a particular focus on the recent revival and growth of...

If there’s one lesson the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us, it is that local government plays a vital role in people’s lives – and elected local politicians are better placed to make decisions that affect the communities they serve than distant apparatuses with little understanding...

As a fresh wave of popular revolt washes over the globe, the fundamental questions of how revolutions happen, and how emancipatory outcomes result, are suddenly concrete concerns for organizers and movement builders. Photo: Anthony

W.E.B Du Bois wrote these famous words in Black Reconstruction, linking America’s promise of democracy to the horrendous conditions for Black people in the South. Sadly, the State of Mississippi has long been a bellwether in this regard, from slavery and lynchings to Jim Crow,...

Barcelona en Comú is a part of a network of municipalist movements that calls themselves Fearless Cities. We will hear from Debbie Bookchin author and activist, based in New York; Rodgrigo Conejo of WikiPolitico based in Mexico; Kali Akuno of Operation Jackson based in Jackson...

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...

As faith in political systems and politicians continues to plummet and climate change escalates, an alternative that empowers local people to rescue their own communities is vital. How can politics be reclaimed by the people? Fed up with seeing their valued local services crumble over...

By building a “democracy from below,” the Zapatistas recognize the leadership of, and carry on a long tradition of resistance by Indigenous communities in Chiapas. Photo: Gareth Davies

Concerned by the transition their cities out of the crisis caused by COVID-19 looking for a social and solidarity way out, the mayors of Amsterdam, Milan, Barcelona and Paris speak out and share their considerations with the European institutions. Photo: Jp Valery