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  • South Side Neighbors Want Housing Protections Before City Oks ‘Luxury’ Hotel Near Obama Center

    With a 26-story hotel planned blocks from the Obama Presidential Center site, housing activists are calling on city leaders to prioritize a long-delayed slate of housing protections for residents near the center before advancing any hotel plans.

    More than 50 members of the Obama CBA Coalition rallied Tuesday on the vacant lot at 6402-6420 S. Stony Island Ave. in Woodlawn, where developer Aquinnah Investment Trust is looking to build a 250-room hotel . CBA stands for community benefits agreement.

    The rezoning application for the hotel, which was submitted last month, comes as the South Shore Housing Preservation ordinance proposal remains stalled in the City Council’s housing committee 18 months after its introduction.

    The post South Side Neighbors Want Housing Protections Before City Oks ‘Luxury’ Hotel Near Obama Center appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • South Side Neighbors Want Housing Protections Before City Oks ‘Luxury’ Hotel Near Obama Center

    With a 26-story hotel planned blocks from the Obama Presidential Center site, housing activists are calling on city leaders to prioritize a long-delayed slate of housing protections for residents near the center before advancing any hotel plans.

    More than 50 members of the Obama CBA Coalition rallied Tuesday on the vacant lot at 6402-6420 S. Stony Island Ave. in Woodlawn, where developer Aquinnah Investment Trust is looking to build a 250-room hotel . CBA stands for community benefits agreement.

    The rezoning application for the hotel, which was submitted last month, comes as the South Shore Housing Preservation ordinance proposal remains stalled in the City Council’s housing committee 18 months after its introduction.

    The post South Side Neighbors Want Housing Protections Before City Oks ‘Luxury’ Hotel Near Obama Center appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • South Side Neighbors Want Housing Protections Before City Oks ‘Luxury’ Hotel Near Obama Center

    With a 26-story hotel planned blocks from the Obama Presidential Center site, housing activists are calling on city leaders to prioritize a long-delayed slate of housing protections for residents near the center before advancing any hotel plans.

    More than 50 members of the Obama CBA Coalition rallied Tuesday on the vacant lot at 6402-6420 S. Stony Island Ave. in Woodlawn, where developer Aquinnah Investment Trust is looking to build a 250-room hotel . CBA stands for community benefits agreement.

    The rezoning application for the hotel, which was submitted last month, comes as the South Shore Housing Preservation ordinance proposal remains stalled in the City Council’s housing committee 18 months after its introduction.

    The post South Side Neighbors Want Housing Protections Before City Oks ‘Luxury’ Hotel Near Obama Center appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Trans-Led Advocacy Wins Hard-Fought Victory In Colorado Legislature

    On Tuesday, Colorado lawmakers passed a landmark bill aimed at strengthening protections for transgender people in the state. After the Senate passed the measure, the House quickly approved the amendments, clearing the way for the legislation to be signed into law by the governor.

    “In a time where trans people are feeling lost, alone, terrorized, and unsafe let this bill be a message. Trans people deserve to live,” Z Williams, co-executive director of Bread and Roses Legal Center, told Truthout. “Trans people can win. Trans people belong.”

    Named in honor of Kelly Loving — a transgender woman killed in the Club Q shooting — the Kelly Loving Act includes several provisions designed to make Colorado a safer, more affirming place for trans people.

    The post Trans-Led Advocacy Wins Hard-Fought Victory In Colorado Legislature appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • In Lagos, Nigeria, A Farmers’ Market That Sells All Week

    Every Saturday in Ikoyi, Lagos (Nigeria), a small but steady ritual unfolds behind Nakenoh’s Boulevard mall. TKD Farms Farmers’ Market, founded in 2017, brings together a rotating group of vendors—15 to 20 each week, out of a larger pool of 185. What happens here is more than retail. It’s a working model of what a community-centered economy can look like.

    This isn’t a typical market. Vendors don’t just show up, set up, and sell. They interact, adapt, and build relationships that carry beyond the day’s sales. The layout changes weekly—no vendor has a fixed spot. This prevents any one business from monopolizing customer flow and encourages everyone to connect with different neighbors each time.

    The post In Lagos, Nigeria, A Farmers’ Market That Sells All Week appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • US Cities Need More Diverse Teachers; Philadelphia Has An Answer

    Public education is at a crossroads. Federal funds for public education have been threatened over the Trump administration’s war on DEI. Mental health funds for schools have been cut. The federal government’s move to slash AmeriCorps programs is already hitting classrooms in low-income ZIP codes hard. And all the while, teacher shortages continue to rise, and stark disparities in educational opportunities persist.

    The future of our students depends on how we invest in and support our educators, especially teachers of color, who face systemic barriers to recruitment and retention despite their vital role in student success.

    The post US Cities Need More Diverse Teachers; Philadelphia Has An Answer appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Reclaiming Our Roads From Cars

    Change, one might say, is afoot. We often think of streets as vehicular infrastructure, as “pipes for cars.” But streets, including the roadway surface, are social spaces — indeed public places. Stepping off the sidewalk onto the asphalt, we experience firsthand the diversity, dynamism, dangers and inequalities of the American city on the move. If we hope to achieve a more livable, equitable and sustainable city, we must reclaim the roadway for people.

    Historically, American streets were bustling, mixed-use spaces, but a century ago they were swept by the epidemic novelties of the automobile and influenza.

    The post Reclaiming Our Roads From Cars appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • One Democratic State Campaign For Palestine

    In recent years, the idea of ​​a single democratic state in all of historic Palestine has re-emerged as the best solution to the conflict, and it has begun to gain increasing popular support. This idea is not new; the Palestinian national liberation movement, both before and after the Nakba, embraced it, including the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), until its engagement in peace negotiations in the late 1980s, culminating in the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993. The Palestinian leadership envisioned this agreement as a transition to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the territories occupied in 1967.

    The post One Democratic State Campaign For Palestine appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • China Helps Cuba Fight Blackouts, Strengthen Power Grid

    Cuba may slowly ease its crippling blackouts and strengthen the electricity grid as it begins building seven solar parks with the first batch of equipment from China.

    The Chinese aid helps Cuba’s plan to build 92 solar installations by 2028, adding about 2,000 megawatts to the island’s power grid and help reduce dependence on fossil fuel imports. Once completed, the project would significantly boost Cuba’s strained power system, which currently has a capacity of 7,264 MW.

    Installation work is set to begin soon in Artemisa, about 50 kilometers west of Havana, where the equipment arrived late last month. Additional solar parks are planned for the provinces of Pinar del Rio, Las Tunas, Holguin, Granma and Guantanamo.

    The post China Helps Cuba Fight Blackouts, Strengthen Power Grid appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Venezuela’s Journey Toward Real Democracy

    The term “democracy” triggers different reactions when it comes to Venezuela. For local far-right forces, democracy has been nonexistent since 1998 and can only be restored by dismantling everything that evokes popular power, self-determination and social justice. 

    In the hawkish eyes of the United States, “democracy” is an excuse to punish sovereign nations with economic sanctions and blockades until regime change is achieved. Whether elections are fair and free is irrelevant for US “democratic” standards, as are human rights abuses, as long as a country complies with US interests.

    The post Venezuela’s Journey Toward Real Democracy appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

  • An Indigenous Credit Union Is Leaning Into Mobile Banking

    When Lakota Federal Credit Union opened its doors in 2012 in Kyle, South Dakota, access to a financial institution was severely limited for the people of Pine Ridge Reservation. Up to 60% of community members were unbanked — a proportion that bank leaders believe has since decreased thanks to initiatives such as Lakota FCU’s mobile banking unit.

    “It’s always been about accessibility, for us to be in communities that can’t up and just come to Kyle on a whim,” says Shayna Ferguson, manager and CEO of Lakota FCU, a federally-certified community development financial institution with about $15.9 million in total assets.

    The post An Indigenous Credit Union Is Leaning Into Mobile Banking appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Planned Obsolescence Vs The Right To Repair

    Spring reminds me of the rituals of farming that were customary as I was growing up on the prairies.

    Among these were making sure that farm machinery was maintained, and repaired if necessary, to ensure that spring seeding occurred on time and without delay – at least as much as possible. And the other memory related to farm machinery was that there were always breakdowns at the most inopportune of times.

    Despite best efforts there was often a need to repair equipment during seeding or harvest. That was the way it was. Often someone from the family was dispatched to a nearby farm equipment dealer or garage to purchase a part so that a seeder, tractor, or discer could be repaired on the farm..

    The post Planned Obsolescence Vs The Right To Repair appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • China’s Solar And Wind Capacity Surpasses Mostly Coal-Based Energy

    China’s National Energy Administration has announced that the country’s solar and wind energy capacity has exceeded that of thermal energy — which is mostly coal-powered — for the first time.

    The largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, China has pledged to achieve peak carbon emissions by the end of the decade and become carbon neutral by 2060, reported AFP.

    “In the first quarter of 2025, China’s newly installed wind and photovoltaic power capacity totalled 74.33 million kilowatts, bringing the cumulative installed capacity to 1.482 billion kilowatts,” the country’s energy body said.

    The post China’s Solar And Wind Capacity Surpasses Mostly Coal-Based Energy appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • In Uncertain Times, The Port Of Oakland Goes Electric

    The Port of Oakland’s surrounding Black communities have fought for decades for their right to cleaner air. Now that dream is within reach. In October 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded the port a $322 million grant to transition its cargo handling operations to zero emissions. Matched by the port and local partners, the total investment will be close to half a billion dollars, all flowing into green, sustainable energy. This effort will reduce the more than 69,000 tons of yearly greenhouse gas — the equivalent of burning more than 160 Statues of Liberty’s weight in coal — emitted by drayage trucks, cranes, forklifts, and tractors.

    The post In Uncertain Times, The Port Of Oakland Goes Electric appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • These Black Architects Are Helping Rebuild Altadena After The LA Wildfires

    Carla Flagg remembers the joy of growing up in west Altadena.

    “We had these great pool parties where all the cousins and everybody would come to the Fair Oaks house,” she says, smiling, as tears welled up in her eyes. Her parents owned the house and passed it down to her sister and her sister’s kids. “ We had that home for 50-some odd years, and there are still people who know the original phone number.”

    Flagg’s family home was one of some 9,400 structures that were destroyed in the Eaton Fire in January. It was also one of many homes passed down within the Black community by family members. Discriminatory redlining of the 1960s steered her parents away from Pasadena, and realtors encouraged them to purchase on the west side of Altadena.

    The post These Black Architects Are Helping Rebuild Altadena After The LA Wildfires appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • ‘No Tariffs On Sharing’: Tool Libraries Offer Resilience Amid Federal Chaos

    As a handy person, Devon Curtin spends a lot of time helping people enrich their living spaces. Recently, while working with a friend to remodel their floor, Curtin noticed that the cost of do-it-yourself projects is already rising because of Donald Trump’s tariffs.

    “The cost of mahogany was the same as Douglas fir, which is kind of wild, but the cost of oak was double. And I was like, ‘Oh, we’re probably getting oak boards from Canada, and so the tariff cost on that is going to skyrocket,’” said Curtin. “And so all of a sudden, this project of building an oak countertop doubles in price because the tariffs are there.”

    The post ‘No Tariffs On Sharing’: Tool Libraries Offer Resilience Amid Federal Chaos appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • The Homeless Garden Project: Opening Doors To The Unhoused

    An analysis of data from 2017 and 2022 by the Pew Charitable Trusts points to a direct connection between high housing costs and homelessness rates in the United States. Unsurprisingly, a Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury 2024 report stated that the city, which the National Low Income Housing Coalition ranked as America’s most expensive rental market in 2023 and 2024, has the most people experiencing homelessness in California per capita.

    A University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), research project called No Place Like Home labeled Santa Cruz as “the least-affordable small city in the U.S.”

    The post The Homeless Garden Project: Opening Doors To The Unhoused appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Unmoved By Tariff Threats, Mexican GM Workers Win Double-Digit Wage Hike

    Mexican General Motors workers in the Silao, Guanajuato, factory complex clinched record raises after staring down company scaremongering about tariff threats.

    “They said, well, we’re offering 6 percent,” said Norma Leticia Cabrera Vasquez about management’s offer at bargaining.

    “We knew they were going to show up with that, but we said, ‘We still have weeks to negotiate, so we won’t let that intimidate us,’” said Cabrera Vasquez, who worked at the plant for 15 years, and now serves as a leader of the union’s Women’s Department.

    In spite of the company’s efforts to stoke uncertainty, auto workers stood their ground, garnering wage increases of 10 percent on average.

    The post Unmoved By Tariff Threats, Mexican GM Workers Win Double-Digit Wage Hike appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • How Eco-Localism Differs From Tariff Terrorism

    Trade makes many folks materially better off by enabling a local abundance of resources or skills to be shared across a wider area. However, increased trade often worsens economic inequality and depletes and pollutes the environment faster than would otherwise happen. Therefore, eco-localists see trade as a mixed benefit whose unintended negative impacts must be carefully managed.

    Globalization of trade raises the stakes of both benefits and risks. On the risk side of the ledger, taken to the extreme, it leads to a world in which everything is for sale, all resources are depleted, pollution is everywhere, labor is exploited to the maximum degree, and everything is owned by a tiny number of super-rich investors and entrepreneurs.

    The post How Eco-Localism Differs From Tariff Terrorism appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Chicago Teachers Win Greener Schools

    The Chicago Teachers Union won a tentative agreement in December that, for the first time, addresses climate and environmental justice demands—making healthy green schools a priority in our city. We achieved this breakthrough even while broader contract negotiations stalled. Finally, in April, we ratified the full agreement, which also includes big raises and lower class sizes.

    Our environmental justice victory stems from a collaboration between teachers and environmental activists to expose urgent problems facing us and our students—and link those problems to larger struggles.

    The post Chicago Teachers Win Greener Schools appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Communal Feminism: A Conversation With Moira Blanco Cardona

    Broadly speaking, the project dates back to 2018, when we began promoting the idea of anti-patriarchal communes—calling for the gradual dismantling of patriarchy within communities and, by extension, across society. Then, in 2019, the proposal for a national organization emerged: the Communard Union. The Union was conceived as a political and social instrument to unite and integrate the communal movement into a single organization with a socialist horizon.

    The Communard Union was born with the aim of regrouping and promoting the communal movement at a time when it had been rendered practically invisible.

    The post Communal Feminism: A Conversation With Moira Blanco Cardona appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • ‘Landmark’ Global Shipping Agreement Reached After Years Of Talks

    After nearly a decade of negotiations, nations have come to a “landmark” global shipping agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

    The new International Maritime Organization (IMO) Framework introduced a carbon pricing mechanism that will require ships with high emissions to pay for the excess pollution they release, reported UN News. It also sets mandatory fuel standards for the shipping industry.

    “Ships must reduce, over time, their annual greenhouse gas fuel intensity (GFI) – that is, how much GHG is emitted for each unit of energy used,” a press release from IMO said. “Ships emitting above GFI thresholds will have to acquire remedial units to balance its deficit emissions, while those using zero or near-zero GHG technologies will be eligible for financial rewards.”

    The post ‘Landmark’ Global Shipping Agreement Reached After Years Of Talks appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • The Black Swan: Why The Age Of Tariffs Is Sunsetting

    Unlike physical goods produced by global companies and subject to tariffs in world trade, global companies and high tech small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) utilizing AI directed 3D printing/additive manufacturing can share digital software files for their product lines with local distributors at near zero marginal cost around the world. Distributors can then print out the items and deliver them to consumers without paying tariffs.

    And that changes everything.

    On April 2nd, the White House announced that the administration will issue a reciprocal tariff “number” to various nations that the US argues “represents their tariffs” obligation, in what’s shaping up as the great geopolitical tariff war of the 21st century.

    The post The Black Swan: Why The Age Of Tariffs Is Sunsetting appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • We Need To Completely Rethink Affordable Housing

    I used to think climate change was the crisis we would solve last, if at all. But seeing the affordable housing crisis up close has changed my mind.

    Unless we find a reservoir of will to tap the oceans of money we are swimming in and the mountains of land we are sitting on, we may never solve this crisis. Instead, our country will be left with the challenges we at Enterprise Community Partners, the national affordable housing nonprofit that I help lead, push up against every day:

    Special interests that carve up the already-small pie of public funding into incoherent slices that don’t scale. The technocracy of building codes, zoning and regulation that has vexed basic home construction with a cipher so complex that you need a PhD to make sense of it.

    The post We Need To Completely Rethink Affordable Housing appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Can The Global South Get Out Of The US-Dominated Financial System?

    Is it possible to create systems of trade, finance, and funding outside the US-dominated system? Is the BRICS bloc able to build the necessary alternatives to challenge this system? Economists, academics, and political leaders participating in the IV Dilemmas of Humanity Conference in São Paulo tackled this pressing question that today the nations of the Global South confront. Nations, who find that their plans for poverty alleviation, economic sovereignty, and trade with their neighbors, are held back by restrictions imposed by the United States and their debt commitments, for which they need a reserve of dollars.

    The post Can The Global South Get Out Of The US-Dominated Financial System? appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Haiti And The Global Movement For Reparations

    Since November 11th travel to and from Haiti has become difficult. A shooting at the capital’s airport triggered an immediate ban by the US government on all US flights. Our border with the Dominican Republic has been closed for over a year. International travel from Port-au-Prince involves either a 6-7 hour bus ride to Cape Haitian or a 40-minute helicopter shuttle that can run up to 2,500 US dollars. From there a local airline flies to Miami – at a significantly increased ticket price.

    The country is facing an extraordinary situation. The capital (and some provinces) are under siege by heavily armed paramilitary forces. They are responsible for an untold number of killings, kidnapping, rapes, acts of arson and pillage.

    The post Haiti And The Global Movement For Reparations appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • A New Plan To Fix Mexico’s Housing Crisis

    Lined by purple jacaranda trees and lush tepozanes, the walkable streets of Mexico City’s Condesa neighborhood connect a dense urban environment where contemporary apartment towers rise alongside squat multifamily buildings designed in a mix of architectural styles. Surrounded by bustling cafés, creameries, and art galleries, a public park draws passersby who pause to enjoy an impromptu jazz concert.

    North America’s largest metropolis is an urbanist’s dream — but also a cautionary tale of progressive ideas turned sour.

    In the early 2000s, the city’s government, under then mayor and future president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), embarked on an ambitious plan to curb urban sprawl by densifying the four central boroughs where employment centers concentrate: Cuauhtémoc, Miguel Hidalgo, Benito Juárez, and Venustiano Carranza.

    The post A New Plan To Fix Mexico’s Housing Crisis appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Beyond Community Currencies

    In recent years, there has been a growing interest in Renewable Energy Communities (REC), legal entities that collectively manage energy, promoting economic, social, and environmental benefits for their community. This model of citizen management over an essential resource has been widely accepted — so could a similar principle be applied to money?

    Ekhilur, a nonprofit citizen cooperative, is pioneering an innovative approach to strengthening the local economy. Instead of creating a new currency, it operates its own payment system — regulated by the Bank of Spain — to maximize the circulation of the existing euro within the community for as long as possible.

    The post Beyond Community Currencies appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Turning A Neglected State Roadway Into An Economic Engine

    Business Loop 70 looks like many American roads as it cuts through Columbia, Missouri. Four lanes of traffic; some sections with sidewalks, others without; a car dealership with a sea of available cars; an old single-floor mall set behind rows of parking, and an old brick smoke stack from a long-forgotten power plant.

    Yet that one-and-a-half-mile stretch of state highway contains a model of innovation for the nation. Every day, Carrie Gartner parks in front of a small storefront and steps into the offices of the Loop Community Improvement District, where for the past decade she’s been working to achieve the seemingly impossible: turning a random collection of properties along a state highway into a destination for families and entrepreneurs.

    The post Turning A Neglected State Roadway Into An Economic Engine appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • These Black Bookstores Are Committed To The Fight For Freedom

    Blooming from the tumult of the Civil Rights era, Black bookstores emerged during the Black Arts Movement as cultural hubs where some of the first seeds of slam poetry, spoken word and hip-hop were planted. In 1968, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover hoped to curb ​“the establishment of Black extremist bookstores which represent propaganda outlets for revolutionary and hate publications,” ordering his agents to pursue a targeted, nationwide surveillance.

    Today, a new generation of Black bookstores is blossoming amid the upheaval of the Movement for Black Lives.

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