Democracy

This Is What Democracy Looks Like

May 15, 2025 Kahlil Shahyd, Resilience. Strategize! climate crisis, Democracy, Environmental Movement, Participatory Democracy

The community of Boxtown in southwestern Memphis, Tennessee, has long been accustomed to fighting for its rights. Founded in 1863 shortly after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, this neighborhood of 3,000 people has a long history of battles against the unjust siting of polluting industries, which have increased residents’ health risks and lowered life expectancy. And today, the community is at the center of a growing fight between the future of our freedoms and technocrats. In June of 2024, Boxtown residents discovered that xAI, an artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk, intended to locate the “world’s largest” supercomputer in their community—without environmental reviews or community outreach.

Whole Process People’s Democracy: The Path Forward

May 14, 2025 Hanna Eid, Black Agenda Report. Strategize! Bolivia, China, Democracy, Economic Democracy, Indigenous Rights, Socialism

China’s political form is called ‘Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.' Chinese scholar Zhang Weiwei calls the Chinese political content ‘whole-process people’s democracy’. He distinguishes this model from the formulaic, procedure-obsessed, and anti-democratic model of the North American Republic and European social democracies. What separates the Chinese model from the political model of the central capitalist formations are a number of variables: firstly, mass participation from top to bottom is a key feature of Chinese socialism. Secondly, the subordination of the capitalist class to the party-state and thus the imperatives of the masses defines China’s ability to develop a socialist market economy.

UAW Reformers Close Caucus, Launch New Organization

April 30, 2025 Jane Slaughter and Keith Brower Brown, Labor Notes. Strategize! Democracy, Labor Movement, Rank and File, UAW, Unions

Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD), the reform caucus in the Auto Workers, voted to dissolve at its quarterly online membership meeting April 27. “It was a heartbreaking decision to come to,” said UAWD founder and chair Scott Houldieson, a 36-year electrician at Ford. “UAWD had become a caucus that is ‘resolutionary,’ and focused more on caucus discipline than on actually organizing workers. Meetings had become dreadful. We can have differences as long as we make a decision and move on.” A majority of the group’s steering committee had brought a resolution calling for the dissolution. It was hotly debated. About half of the caucus membership attended the meeting.

Community Struggles For Self-Governance In The Global South

April 29, 2025 Shrishtee Bajpai, Resilience. Strategize! Democracy, Development, Global South, Self-Determination

Are we really free? With this seemingly straightforward yet provocative question, Vijay Dethe from Pachgaon village in the Chandrapur district of Maharashtra, India, opened several philosophical and political questions. Vijay belongs to Dalit community and works with the Gond adivasis (indigenous peoples in India) and other marginal communities of Pachgaon towards self rule and overall governance in the village. He further added “the ones who destroyed their forests, polluted their waters, are now telling us what ‘vikas’(development) is! Do they really know what ‘development’ is!?”

Venezuela’s Journey Toward Real Democracy

April 28, 2025 Andreína Chávez Alava, Venezualanalysis. Create! Democracy, History, US Imperialism, Venezuela

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.

Member-Run Unions

April 20, 2025 United Electrical Radio And Machine Workers Of America (UE), Portside. Organize! Democracy, Rank and File, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Hundreds of workers are crowded into a high-school gymnasium. Their union leaders carefully go through each article of their employer’s last, best and final offer. Hands are raised, questions are asked and answered, and members share their thoughts with their officers and with each other. In the previous two months of negotiations, the union negotiating committee has been seeking language to help curb the company abuses that have become rampant in the plant. The company has not agreed. Each union member weighs whether they will take the company’s offer, and accept ongoing problems in the workplace in exchange for modest economic improvements, or reject the offer and strike for a better deal.

Black Alliance For Peace And MANE Reflect On Ecuadorian Elections

April 15, 2025 Black Alliance for Peace and MANE, Popular Resistance. Educate! AfroEcuadorians, Democracy, Ecuador, Elections, Racism, State Violence

The Black Alliance for Peace and Movimiento Afrodescendiente Nacional Ecuatoriano (MANE) reported back on the Ecuadorian presidential elections held on Sunday, April 13, 2025. Despite the fact the current president, Daniel Noboa, issued a last-minute decree (Decree 597) that sealed the northern and southern borders, intending to deny entry to international observers, the election team for the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) was able to enter and observe the elections on the ground. The National Electoral Council (Consejo Nacional Electoral) has declared Daniel Noboa the winner of the second round of elections, with over an 11-point lead. With this win, it is certain that Noboa’s declared “internal armed struggle” will continue to negatively and disproportionately impact Ecuador’s poor and AfroEcuadorian communities.

Ecuador: Leftist Luisa Gonzalez Rejects Election Results And Claims Fraud

April 14, 2025 Alejandra Garcia and Bill Hackwell, Resumen English. Resist! Daniel Noboa, Democracy, Ecuador, Elections, Luisa Gonzalez

Today Ecuadorians were called to the polls for the runoff elections, which pitted leftist candidate Luisa Gonzalez against incumbent President and Trump-supported Daniel Noboa. The election day was marked by a series of setbacks, including complaints of irregularities, violations of democracy and the activation of a new state of emergency which allowed the most extreme militarization the country has ever experienced. In addition, the arrival of international observers was prohibited, which generated even more doubts about the transparency of the process. Despite this complicated context, at the end of the day, the National Electoral Council (CNE) announced the victory of right-wing billionaire Daniel Noboa, which has raised questions about the veracity of the results.

Trump’s Rule By Fiat A Bipartisan Legacy

March 29, 2025 Vinnie Rotondaro, Consortium News. Educate! Democracy, Democrats, Donald Trump, Executive power, Liberal class, Wars and Militarism

U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest defiance of the courts — this time refusing to follow an appellate judge’s order to halt migrant deportations — has triggered another round of liberal outrage. Critics are calling it an authoritarian move, a blatant assault on the rule of law, and a warning sign that American democracy is on its last legs. But if this is the end of democracy, it’s been ending for a long time. And not just at Trump’s hands. The central truth we keep missing — especially on the left — is that Trump is not an aberration. He’s a grotesque continuation.

Will Trump Send US Citizens To El Salvador?

March 22, 2025 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Democracy, El Salvador, Imprisonment, Legal System, Trump Administration

Donald Trump is in a position to do almost anything he wants. He was the clear favorite of republican voters and won the popular vote and majorities in congress. Not content to be satisfied with what he says is a mandate, Trump has upped the ante and departed from the traditional definitions of power in Washington. He has legislative control, but he is making an end run around it with executive orders and defiance of the courts. At a moment of radical political change which includes firing thousands of federal workers and claiming that programs supported by most people are no longer needed, the democrats provide only the thinnest veneer of opposition when the public want them to step up.

Participatory Budgeting Includes Community Members In Public Funding

March 18, 2025 Damon Orion, Resilience. Create! Brazil, Democracy, History, Participatory budgeting, Worker Rights and Jobs

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.

Arizmendi: A Co-Op Of Co-Ops

March 15, 2025 Transition Bus, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Create! Cooperatives, Democracy, New Economy, Solidarity, Worker Rights

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 Need To Protect Direct Democracy

March 12, 2025 Billy Corriher, Governing. Strategize! Ballot Initiative, Democracy, Direct Democracy, State Legislatures

Direct democracy in America is under attack. That development has been underappreciated as we focus on the vibe shift represented by Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election. Still, it tells us just as much about the strengths and weaknesses of America’s constitutional system. Direct democracy in some form — through citizen initiatives, popular referendums or both — is an option in 26 states and the District of Columbia. Citizens can petition to place statutes or constitutional amendments on the ballot or ask voters to approve or repeal actions of their legislatures.

REI Board Blocks Labor-Backed Candidates From Ballot

March 9, 2025 Nate Sanford, Cascade PBS. Educate! Democracy, REI, Unions, Worker Rights

Unionized REI employees are calling on members of the outdoor retail co-op to vote no in this year’s board of director elections after the company excluded two union-backed candidates from the ballot. The two were Tefere Gebre, chief program officer at the international environmental advocacy group Greenpeace USA, and Shemona Moreno, a Seattle climate activist who leads the nonprofit 350 Seattle. Anyone who has an active REI membership can vote in its board elections. Members can also nominate themselves to run for a board seat, but bylaw changes in the early 2000s gave the existing board final say over who gets on the ballot.

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