The activists who took over the city hall of Catalonia’s capital have changed one of Europe’s preeminent cities for good, while also confronting the limits of being in power.
While Republicans have used legislative majorities at the state level to undermine their opposition, the Democratic Party has too often failed to fight back.
As social movements move beyond the default anarchist sensibility that prevailed through Occupy, they must still reckon with hard questions about bureaucracy and cooptation.
In the past five years, abolitionists and advocates of criminal justice reform in Los Angeles County have amassed some impressive victories—laying out a vision for reducing incarceration and providing care that could have national significance.