radiofree.asia

Category: Create!

  • A Town In Transition, And Local Community Resilience

    A large town, not yet a city, Reading (UK) is typically seen as a commuter hub, with thousands travelling into London every day to get to work. Reading itself may seem unexceptional, even bland, with not much going on there. But, on looking a little closer, Reading has real community, a group of local people who are coming together to create real change.

    While many of our problems are global – e.g. the climate and biodiversity emergency, declining fossil fuels, dwindling resources, pollution, overconsumption, food insecurity, inequality – there is much we can do at the local level to make things better.

    The post A Town In Transition, And Local Community Resilience appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Militarizing The Ledger, Colonizing The Future

    When we begin to examine U.S. hegemony, the Military-Industrial Complex often serves as the shorthand for understanding the entangled relationship between investment capital, militarism, neocolonial extraction, and unipolar power. But to truly unravel this system, we must look deeper into how the Military-Debt Nexus is legitimized—not only through ideological alignment or geopolitical pressure, but through institutional mechanisms such as trade agreements, national accounting rules, and debt-financed militarization. The intersection between military expenditure and global trade is not incidental; it forms the core infrastructure of compliance and control, shaping everything from resource acquisition to sanctions enforcement, all under the veil of economic normalcy.

    The post Militarizing The Ledger, Colonizing The Future appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • McKinley Or Lincoln? Tariffs Vs. Greenbacks

    President Trump has repeatedly expressed his admiration for Republican President William McKinley, highlighting his use of tariffs as a model for economic policy. But as critics note, Trump’s tariffs, which are intended to protect U.S. interests, have instead fueled a stock market nosedive, provoked tit-for-tat tariffs from key partners, risk a broader trade withdrawal, and  could increase the federal debt by reducing GDP and tax income. 

    The federal debt has reached $36.2 trillion, the annual interest on it is $1.2 trillion, and the projected 2025 budget deficit is $1.9 trillion – meaning $1.9 trillion will be added to the debt this year. It’s an unsustainable debt bubble doomed to pop on its present trajectory.

    The post McKinley Or Lincoln? Tariffs Vs. Greenbacks appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • French Parliament Moves To Tackle Medical Deserts

    After years of political struggle, French parliamentarians made significant progress in tackling the country’s problem of medical deserts by backing a motion to regulate where physicians can establish their practices. Led by Socialist MP Guillaume Garot, the proposal received cross-party support – from right-wing Republicans to the left France Unbowed (La France Insoumise, LFI) – and was opposed only by part of the Macronist camp and the far-right National Rally.

    The motion proposes that regional health agencies be granted the authority to approve physicians – both general practitioners and specialists – wishing to set up practice in a given area.

    The post French Parliament Moves To Tackle Medical Deserts appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Top Manta Co-op Helps Barcelona’s Street Vendors Formalise

    Undocumented migrants arriving in Spain with hopes for a better life get trapped into a life of informality. Their undocumented status prevents them from accessing jobs in the formal economy, and, as a result, they cannot get healthcare or contribute to the social security system.

    According to the International Labour Organization’s Recommendation 204 on the Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy, “most people enter the informal economy not by choice but as a consequence of a lack of opportunities in the formal economy and in the absence of other means of livelihood.”

    The post Top Manta Co-op Helps Barcelona’s Street Vendors Formalise appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Project In Venezuela Wants To Build Food Sovereignty

    A project to guarantee Venezuela’s food sovereignty: This is how the Patria Grande del Sur program is being treated by the Venezuelan government and the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST, in Portuguese). The initiative was launched two weeks ago and will use 180,000 hectares for food production based on agroecology.

    Rosana Fernandes has been coordinating the MST brigade in Venezuela for two months. The movement has been active in the country for 20 years and is now the central organization leading the project in southern Venezuela. She says it intends to occupy the territory of Vergareña and expand the food production carried out by small families in the region.

    The post Project In Venezuela Wants To Build Food Sovereignty appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Commoning Within Arts Collectives: Three International Stories

    What are some of the distinctive ways that precarious arts collectives share resources, support each other, and make art?

    I recently learned a lot about this topic from a workshop of international artists convened in Amsterdam. Most of the artists are associated with the so-called Lumbung Practice collective, an interdisciplinary group experimenting with how to cultivate a commons-based art economy.

    The artists come from Indonesia, Iran, Morocco, transqueer-migrant disaporas, and other geographies and circumstances, so they have some very different experiences and talents.

    The post Commoning Within Arts Collectives: Three International Stories appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • A People’s History Of Palestine

    My journey into the realm of people’s history began during my teenage years when I first read Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.

    This initial exposure sparked my curiosity about how history is constructed and it led me to delve deeper into historiography — particularly the evolution of people’s history as an intellectual movement.

    Over the years, a wide range of historians, from Michel Foucault and Marc Bloch to Lucien Febvre and Chris Harman, each offered unique perspectives on the study of ordinary people in history.

    The post A People’s History Of Palestine appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Worker-Owned News Outlets Are Changing The Media Industry

    The arrival of COVID-19 in the United States kicked off an ongoing period of job insecurity within the media industry. In April 2020, the New York Times reported that about 37,000 news company employees had been laid off, furloughed, or had their salaries reduced since March of that year.

    This instability was still evident in 2024, with media outlets like the Los Angeles Times, the Messenger, and HuffPost undergoing major layoffs and closures.

    An October 2024 report from the executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray, and Christmas, Inc. found that 13,279 media jobs had been cut that year. This included 3,520 cuts in the broadcast, digital, and print news industry—the most since 2020.
    Job insecurity has helped spur the rise of worker-owned journalism cooperatives like Flaming Hydra, Aftermath, Racket, and RANGE. According to the Poynter Institute, “[a]t least six worker-centered [news] outlets launched in 2024 alone.”

    The post Worker-Owned News Outlets Are Changing The Media Industry appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • As Federal Environmental Priorities Shift, Native American Nations Plan

    Long before the large-scale Earth Day protests on April 22, 1970 – often credited with spurring significant environmental protection legislation – Native Americans stewarded the environment. As sovereign nations, Native Americans have been able to protect land, water and air, including well beyond their own boundaries.

    Their actions laid the groundwork for modern federal law and policy, including national legislation aimed at reducing pollution. Now the Trump administration is seeking to weaken some of those limits and eliminate programs aimed at improving the environments in which marginalized people live and work.

    The post As Federal Environmental Priorities Shift, Native American Nations Plan appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • The Rise Of Community Land Trusts In Hawai‘I

    On Aug. 8, 2024, a new milestone was reached in the aftermath of the deadly Lahaina wildfire that destroyed 2,200 structures and displaced 12,000 residents on the island of Maui: A Lahaina nonprofit secured its first residential parcel for community ownership.

    1651 Lokia Street, which once held a four-bed, three-bath house, sits empty. But one day, the property will accommodate a new main house and two accessory dwelling units — known locally as ‘ohana units — providing a stable, affordable home for an extended or multigenerational family.

    The post The Rise Of Community Land Trusts In Hawai‘I appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Beyond Community Currencies: Strengthening Your Local Economy

    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: Strengthening Your Local Economy appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • A St. Paul CDFI Is Now Offering Net Zero Banking

    Once an outdoor educator, Laura Wildenborg spent 10 years taking kids on field trips to go rock climbing or cross-country skiing across the region, all to inspire children to love and care for the environment.

    After receiving her MBA in 2020, she made a drastic career pivot — to banking. But she brought her care for the environment along with her.

    “That love of the outdoors, that was such an important aspect of what I was doing, and I wanted to carry that through into my next role,” says Wildenborg, vice president of strategic lending for Sunrise Banks, a community development financial institution based in St. Paul, Minnesota.

    The post A St. Paul CDFI Is Now Offering Net Zero Banking appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Providing Family Benefits In Washington State

    When Democrats had control of the House, Senate, and Presidency in 2021 and 2022, there was some hope that they would pass a comprehensive scheme of benefits for families with children. But the failure to pass the Build Back Better legislation and failure to extend the Child Tax Credit provisions of the American Rescue Plan dashed those hopes. With Republicans now in control of the House, Senate, and Presidency, any federal expansion of family benefits is effectively off the table for the next four years.

    States, especially those controlled by Democrats, have the ability to fill the void left by the federal government and enact their own suite of family benefits.

    The post Providing Family Benefits In Washington State appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Sociocracy: A ‘Light In Our Path Towards A Co-operative Society’

    When it comes to collective leadership, simply having the willingness to work in this way is not always enough, and trying to ensure everyone is heard without systems and structures to support this aim can become messy and unworkable. 

    A growing number of co-ops are exploring how the governance system of sociocracy can help them to ensure those involved have a say while still getting things done. 

    Sociocratic organisations are made up of small, semi-autonomous working groups called circles, connected by members who ensure the flow of information between them. Roles within circles are selected via an open, transparent selection process rather than a secret ballot. 

    The post Sociocracy: A ‘Light In Our Path Towards A Co-operative Society’ appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Retrofit For The Future: Fuel Poverty Action, Corbyn, Others Launch New Campaign

    A coalition of groups is launching a new campaign that joins together the dots on the climate, housing, and fuel poverty crises. Retrofit For the Future plans to put renters’ rights and a green and just transition for workers at the heart of the retrofit debate.

    Retrofit For The Future

    Fuel Poverty Action, ACORN, Greener Jobs Alliance, Medact, and the Peace & Justice Project will be officially launching the new initiative on Wednesday 19 March. You can join them online for this at 7.30pm if you sign up here.

    The campaign will call on the government to direct its attention to retrofit-upgrading and improving existing homes. It will set out the compelling case that doing so is a key to tackling both the climate emergency and the housing crisis.

    The post Retrofit For The Future: Fuel Poverty Action, Corbyn, Others Launch New Campaign appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Participatory Budgeting Includes Community Members In Public Funding

    In 1989, one-third of the inhabitants of Porto Alegre, Brazil, lived in impoverished regions on the fringes of the city, cut off from sanitation, clean water, medical facilities, and other essential resources.

    In response, the Brazilian Workers’ Party created participatory budgeting (PB), a citizen engagement process that enables community members to decide how to use a portion of public funds. A 2007 report by the North American Congress on Latin America stated that this brought treated water to 99 percent of Porto Alegre’s population, expanded the sewer system’s reach from 46 percent in 1989 to 86 percent of the city, led to the construction of more than 50 schools from around 1997 to 2007, decreased truancy from 9 to less than 1 percent, and helped double the number of students attending university from 1989 to 1995.

    The post Participatory Budgeting Includes Community Members In Public Funding appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Arizmendi: A Co-Op Of Co-Ops

    I like everything all together. I like the fact that it’s a cooperative. I like working with my hands and I like physical labor. Everybody’s paid the same wage no matter how long you’ve been working at the Cheeseboard. Even though I’m one of the newest people there – I’ve only been there two years – I still have all of the rights, responsibilities and privileges as somebody who’s been there for 30 or 40 years. Everybody is valued equally and we operate by consensus, but we all make decisions collectively. We’re always trying to work together to make the decision work for everybody. So we reach unanimity on almost every decision.

    The post Arizmendi: A Co-Op Of Co-Ops appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • How Appalachian Towns Are Learning To Help Each Other After Floods

    When the rivers and creeks running through eastern Kentucky jumped their banks and flooded a wide swath of the region for the second time in as many years, Cara Ellis set to work.

    One week later, she’s hardly let up. Ellis has spent countless hours helping friends in her hometown of Pikeville evacuate and delivering supplies to people who have lost their homes. “I’ve been here, there, everywhere in the county,” she said. “It’s overwhelming. There’s been a lot of devastation.”

    Ellis spoke during a brief moment of rest in the chaos. Her home was spared when storms brought torrential rain to central Appalachia during the weekend of February 15.

    The post How Appalachian Towns Are Learning To Help Each Other After Floods appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Cuba Sends Doctors, The United States Sends Sanctions

    On February 25, US secretary of state Marco Rubio announced restrictions on visas for both government officials in Cuba and any others worldwide who are “complicit” with the island nation’s overseas medical-assistance programs. A US State Department statement clarified that the sanction extends to “current and former” officials and the “immediate family of such persons.” This action, the seventh measure targeting Cuba in one month, has international consequences; for decades tens of thousands of Cuban medical professionals have been posted in around sixty countries, far more than the World Health Organization’s (WHO) workforce, mostly working in under- or unserved populations in the Global South.

    The post Cuba Sends Doctors, The United States Sends Sanctions appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Indigenous Food Reciprocity As A Model For Mutual Aid

    In the Arctic and Far North, where a successful hunt can mean the difference between feeding the village or scrounging to make ends meet, one might assume a scarcity mindset would take hold. Instead, reciprocity prevails.

    Examples of this sharing-focused approach abound. A recent documentary, One With the Whale, follows the hunting practices of an island community in the Bering Sea. In one scene, after a long period without finding game, a hunting crew harpoons a seal, which will allow them to feed some of the community. “It’s always a blessing to receive any animal that you catch,” Siberian Yupik hunter Daniel Apassingok tells the filmmakers. “As small as the game is, the game is dispersed with four or five other boats.”

    The post Indigenous Food Reciprocity As A Model For Mutual Aid appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Transit Stations Aren’t Designed For Women And Caregivers

    A new report takes mobility hubs (traditionally, transit stations) and asks: How can planners design these spaces around the needs of women and caregivers?

    Imagine a centralized place in your neighborhood where you can chat with your friends over coffee, buy a few carrots for dinner, fill a prescription or watch your kids play on a playground – all while accessing the train, bus, bikeshare or rideshare.

    “Part of the feedback that we’ve gotten from practitioners is that it seems a bit utopian,” says Natalia Perez-Bobadilla, Research Communications Specialist at the Shared-Use Mobility Center (SUMC) and one of the authors.

    The post Transit Stations Aren’t Designed For Women And Caregivers appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Venezuela: Communal Banks To Reactivate Communal Economy

    The minister for communes and social movements, Ángel Prado, has said that in light of the relaunching of illegal economic sanctions by the US empire, Venezuela is counting on the reactivation of the popular and communal economy through use of the Communal Banks.

    “In the face of this new aggression from [forces of] imperialism,” he stated during the Assembly of Communes of the People’s Power this Wednesday, March 5, “in our Communal Banks we have funds that come from the surplus of the different social production companies that the El Maizal Commune has; previously, we invested those resources in infrastructure.”

    The post Venezuela: Communal Banks To Reactivate Communal Economy appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Entrepreneur’s Eviction Leads To Community Model For The World

    Kiyomi Rollins can smell the coffee even before she walks through the door at The Ke’nekt Cooperative in Atlanta’s Westview neighborhood. Sunshine fills the space with energy; every seat is full. She smiles at the neighborhood aunties sitting next to the entrepreneurs from Atlanta University Center and the community resident teaching a small group about social media content creation for neighborhood startups. She watches as a middle-schooler from down the street fundraises for his school trip and each person around the table helps out however they can.

    The post Entrepreneur’s Eviction Leads To Community Model For The World appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Out Of The Dark And Into The Light: The ROSCA Movement In Canada

    Most Canadians have never heard of a Susu, Pardner, Hagbad, Chit Fund, or Tontine, collectively known by their academic name, ROSCA. But that’s about to change. Especially if Dr. Caroline Shenaz Hossein has a say—and the freedom to say it.

    For over ten years now, Dr. Hossein, award winning University of Toronto scholar, author, international speaker, and daughter of Caribbean immigrant parents, has been an unstoppable researcher and fiery advocate for the acceptance of ROSCAs as part of our financial system.

    Dr Hossein, also a founding member of the Banker Ladies Council, has been holding the torch through her research for over a decade

    The post Out Of The Dark And Into The Light: The ROSCA Movement In Canada appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Community Bank’s Innovative Strategy For Affordable Homes

    When the pandemic hit, Mayra Ibarra moved back into her mother’s house to get some help with rent and childcare. There, she had to share a bedroom with her youngest son. Ibarra’s mother didn’t have internet access, but they quickly installed it so her son could attend kindergarten remotely. She bought him an old classroom chair, the kind with the desk attached to it, to keep in their bedroom.

    The setup worked for a few years, “but it felt like this is not my home, this is my mother’s home,” Ibarra says. “I wanted my home, my own space. Same for my kid.”

    The post Community Bank’s Innovative Strategy For Affordable Homes appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Socialism Leads Humanity Out Of Artificial Scarcity

    “The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity,” said fictional Captain Picard of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

    Humanity is standing on the cusp. Climate change is presenting the U.S. with the same choice nature has gifted all its species: evolve or die; change is the only constant.

    As the cost of basic goods and, more importantly, energy continues to rise across the capitalist economies of Japan, Western Europe and North America, others have decided to utilize their economy to actually innovate. Instead of phallic vanity projects of the impotent super-wealthy, presented by SpaceX and Blue Origin, the “Chinese Academy of Space Technology” (CAST) has shown humanity a different way forward into the stars.

    The post Socialism Leads Humanity Out Of Artificial Scarcity appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Welcome To ‘Think Like A Commoner’

    About a year ago, some folks in Bangkok reached out to me. Hans van Willenswaard and his wife Wallapa wanted to translate my book Think Like a Commoner into Thai and publish it. Hans is the founder of the Innovation Network International in Thailand, and his wife Wallapa is a social entrepreneur and founder of the Mindful Markets movement. Both have been quite involved in the commons for some time.

    I was thrilled by their request, but upon re-reading the original version of my book, published in 2014, I was dismayed to realize that parts of it felt outdated.

    The post Welcome To ‘Think Like A Commoner’ appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Reviving Native Food Sovereignty

    The Tongass is one of the most ecologically important places on Earth, and plays a critical role in the climate crisis by sequestering one billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. The towering old growth forests of the Tongass store the carbon equivalent of six million cars a year, while producing a quarter of all the salmon in the Pacific Northwest.

    This intact and abundant rainforest are the homelands of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian Peoples, who care for, steward, and honor the lands and waters that sustain all Southeast Alaskans. Communities in this region practice a way-of-life that is rapidly disappearing across the globe.

    The post Reviving Native Food Sovereignty appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • One First Nation Is Taking Back Control Of Their ‘Devastated’ Lands

    Kasandra Turbide finds her footing on the dry, rocky exterior of Sinkut Mountain, one of the highest peaks in Saik’uz First Nation territory, an hour’s drive west of Prince George. The forest below looks mottled, as if it has been gouged by giant razor blades and painted in shades of yellow and green.

    “This is what we’ve been up against historically,” says Turbide. “And it’s what we’re trying to save.”

    Located in the saucer-plate indent of the Nechako Plateau, Saik’uz territory is home to one of B.C.’s few truly wide-open skies. Lumbering glaciers etched its sloping hills millions of years ago, forming fertile valleys threaded with rivers, lakes and wetlands.

    More recently, the territory became an easy-access buffet for the farming, mining and logging that gripped the region. And now, after a century of persistent development, many of its ecosystems risk collapse.

    The post One First Nation Is Taking Back Control Of Their ‘Devastated’ Lands appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.