Activism is typically placed in opposition to state practice. Yet, state bodies often participate in campaigns and movements for change, drawing on different powers and capacities, including the ability to withhold goods, land and contracts. This article explores subnational state activism – what it means...

Fatih Macoglu, from the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP), took over as mayor of the central district of Tunceli this month after victory in March 31 local elections, which saw President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party lose control of the capital Ankara and Turkey’s...

The municipalist agenda has regained momentum across the world, as citizen platforms struggle to defend democracy against private, transnational threats strengthened by the global financial crisis. In order to revert some of the losses experienced by their citizens, both in terms of welfare and democratic...

How has COVID-19 affected municipalism’s confederal and democratizing mission? In Spain, as elsewhere, the government’s response to the pandemic has implied a centralization of power. At the same time, municipalities are seeing their already limited resources stretched to the limit by the health and economic...

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...

What is “New Municipalism”? In this first of a new series Ross seeks clarification from scholar-activists Bertie Russell and Matt Thompson who give us a conceptual and historical take on this new urban movement, offering reflections on UK examples like Preston. Photo: Henry & Co.

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...

A grassroots movement in the Serbian capital has its eye on 2022 local elections as the next turning point in a battle to bring down the country’s ruling Progressive Party and President Aleksandar Vucic. In power since 2012, the Progressives have been stung by an...

In Europe, it is the cities that once again lead the way as places of radical innovation and democratic renewal – and provide answers to the challenges we face in our continent. Photo: Soloman Soh

INDEX 0. JUSTIFICATION 1. SITUATIONS COVERED BY THIS DOCUMENT 2. PREVENTION 3. CODE OF CONDUCT 3.1. OUR VALUES. WHAT IS OK. 3.2. WHAT IS NOT OK. EXAMPLES. 4. LINES OF ACTION IN THE EVENT OF SITUATIONS OF  VIOLENCE 0. JUSTIFICATION This document proposes two lines...

There is a wide array of experiences that voluntarily fall under the definition of “new municipalism”. As in other dimensions of this radical movement, practice is preceding its conceptual definition, hence making it possible to elaborate a definition based on observation. There are some common...

Around 20,000 citizens protested in early February against Zagreb’s mayor and USKOK indictee Milan Bandić demanding his permanent removal from politics. Bernard Ivčić, from Green Action, said that citizens had come to say enough to Bandić’s system of clientelism, which is destroying Zagreb. Photo: Anna...