Our studies in civil resistance offer insight into the level of popular organizing needed to repel assaults on democracy. Published on February 15, 2026 in The Guardian. In the wake …
Honoring Baker alongside Martin Luther King would highlight the long and patient work of building a social movement.
Is Muhammad Yunus selling ”free market” neoliberalism in the guise of liberal do-gooderism?
From fare strikes to sick outs, movements are deploying a variety of creative tactics to disrupt business as usual.
Does Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine hold water?
Having experienced recent mass mobilizations, some community organizers are interested in questioning the old divide between “movements” and “organizations”—and in harnessing the power of both.
Talk to Ai-jen Poo about her work and it won’t be long before you hear language you don’t often hear in the midst of intense social movement campaigning.
Reconsidering Poor People’s Movements in the wake of mass uprising.
Lessons from late-Cold War cinema for the post-9/11 era.
Like those of Black Lives Matter activists today, King’s methods were widely criticized—even when they were effective.
Where insider politics fails, a transformational approach can turn the impossible into the inevitable.
Seventy years old this week, the veteran sage of sustainable agriculture has made a life of stewardship, “staying home,” and turning off the computer.
On the politics of food.
A wave of disruptive protest fifty years ago helped put women’s liberation on the map—and showcased a radical feminist vision that remains relevant in the age of Trump.
The strengths and limitations of prefigurative politics.
Doesn’t supply and demand dictate that new immigrants will steal jobs and drive down wages for U.S. citizens? A leading immigration economist explains why not.
The real question is not whether the government should spend on job creation. It is whether the government has been spending well.
How creating a healthy “ecology of change” can help propel social movements.
The sexist job ads of the 60s are gone, but female-dominated jobs are still vastly undervalued today.
How Thomas Friedman gets it wrong about globalization. An excerpt from How to Rule the World: The Coming Battle Over the Global Economy (Nation Books, 2008)
Alex Rivera, director of the new film Sleep Dealer, imagines the future of the Global South.
Can theories of movement cycles equip activists to persevere over the long haul?
The contested legacy of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers.
Did the 1999 protests against the World Trade Organization actually make a difference? Yes. Here’s how.
Why the market fails in calculating the true cost of our dependence on oil.
Deciding the time has come for direct action to stop global warming.
In his new “financial history of the world” a historian famous for celebrating empire turns to praise the wonders of capital.
How Dr. King might have responded to current crises of recession, unemployment, and foreclosure.
A review of Political Fictions by Joan Didion.
A journey into Television City.
Assessing the state of the World Social Forum after five years.
The fiction of Wendell Berry.
With a new film, the Yes Men carry forth their gonzo brand of anti-corporate activism.
All over the world, truly democratic approaches are bubbling up from the grassroots.
Supporting ‘clean clothes’ campaigns to end the exploitative labour practices that pervade the textile industry is not as simple as just picking the ‘right’ brand to buy.
“How the INS Stole Three Days of My Life.” A testimonial from Behrooz Arshadi, as told to Mark Engler.
Why it matters to remember the Iraq War’s civilian victims.
A review of Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer.
The Church of Stop Shopping hits the road.
A series of post-9/11 reflections.
A report from outside the 2002 annual meetings of the IMF/World Bank in Washington, D.C.
Florida sugar growers milk taxpayers, farm workers, and endangered wetlands.
A review of Rebecca Solnit’s Field Guide to Getting Lost.
A week in review from the Republican National Convention, inside and out.
Why the city will—and should—demonstrate against the Republican Convention.
A consideration of human rights in liberation theology, published in the Journal of Religious Ethics (Vol. 28, Issue 3).
A dispatch for the “Arguing the World” blog at Dissent magazine.