We’ve been doing an awful lot of livestreaming since we joined the viral sequestering a few weeks ago. Maybe you’ve noticed. Eight broadcasts, with dozens of interviews, guest poets and musicians, news updates (COVID-related and otherwise), action alerts, all made possible by a whole lot of plugging and unplugging of […]
Analysis
Lockdown Offers Prep Time for Major Social Change
No one would wish for this kind of painful shake-up and lockdown, but activists have been in this position before and now is the time to learn from them. George Lakey The pandemic is many things for many people. For a lot of activists, it offers both frustration and opportunity. […]
War: COVID-19 Era’s Ultimate ‘Non-Essential’ Activity
United Nations call for ceasefire is silencing weapons around the world … just not where the U.S. is a key combatant. Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies At least 70 countries have signed on to the March 23 call by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for a worldwide ceasefire […]
HOLY SH*T! 7 pandemic responses better than hoarding toilet paper
We’re facing down a global pandemic. If you find yourself saying “Holy shit! What do I do?!” you’re not alone. Beautiful Trouble’s irreverent guide to activism in the time of pandemic has your back. Rae Abileah and Nadine Bloch A renegade bug is showing how deeply broken our system is. […]
Poetry as Citizen Science
Environmental writer Mobi Warren reflects on the science and pedagogy of nature poetry. EDITOR’S NOTE: In the fall of 2019, environmental writer Mobi Warren taught a community-based writing class called “The Poet as Citizen Scientist.” This essay—originally published in the February 2020 issue of Voices de la Luna, a special […]
Winning on Climate Requires Radical Demilitarization
Why we can’t avert climate catastrophe without demilitarization, dismantling the world’s militarized power structures. Andrew Metheven Over the last few weeks and months, grassroots activism has pushed climate change into the media in the United Kingdom. In particular, the Extinction Rebellion movement has spread from the UK to countries around […]
Degrowth: the transformation needed to combat climate breakdown
Previous global ‘efforts’ to tackle climate breakdown have failed dramatically, because they have been based on a fundamentally flawed economic paradigm: growth. Joe Herbert The concept of growth is an altar at which economists, politicians and businesspeople across the political spectrum have worshipped for decades. Unfortunately, where the planet’s long-term […]
Threats to Indigenous Rights Dangerous for World Climate
Though critical to forest protection and reversing the climate crisis, indigenous rights are under attack and losing the fight in Bolivia against agricultural interests. Iokiñe Rodríguez and Mirna Inturias Earth’s forests oxygenate the atmosphere and store vast quantities of planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2). But research suggests that the health of […]
VIDEO: How Border Enforcement Hurts Children
Hurts may not always be visible, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t intended, panelists say. Greg Harman This week, a handful of parents were allowed to fly into the United States from Guatemala City to claim their children. Not that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wanted to release their […]
On the Rights of Wild Rice
The White Earth Band of Ojibwe Legally Recognized the Rights of Wild Rice. Here’s Why. Editor’s Note: Originally published last year in YES! Magazine, this piece by Indigenous writer, scholar, and environmental justice thinker Winona Laduke lays out an important framework that has greatly informed our work at Deceleration–namely, the […]
Year in Review: Latin America’s ‘Revolt of the Dispossessed’
In 2019, the people’s struggle against neoliberalism gained ground across Latin America. Roger Harris A year ago, John Bolton, Trump’s short-lived national security advisor, invoked the 1823 Monroe Doctrine making explicit what has long been painfully implicit: the dominions south of the Rio Grande are the empire’s “backyard.” Yet 2019 […]
Decelerator of the Year (Or, Type Slowly)
In the gentle ferocity of Manuel de la O lies a manual for survivance. Marisol Cortez This Solstice of 2019, as the earth sinks into deepest cold and dark, and as we close out San Antonio’s “Decade of Downtown,” we recognize Mr. Manuel de la O as Decelerator of the […]