Commentary

Commentaries by strategic thinkers of our time

Financial Transactions Tax: A Little Tax on the Big Casino

by Tanya Dawkins

posted Mar 09, 2010

The Center for Economic and Policy Research estimates that an FTT of only one-half of one percent would generate at least $60 billion to $100 billion dollars in the United States alone.

Lessons from the Attack on Van Jones

by Rob Biko Baker

posted Dec 15, 2009

Jones is a powerful role model in or out of the White House.

Health Care Déjà Vu

by Brooke Jarvis

posted Aug 28, 2009

Can health care reform that does not build on the universal right to health care be successful?

Would Obama’s Mother be Amazed?

by Fran Korten

posted May 08, 2009

Would Barack Obama’s mother be amazed that her son is president of the United States? Fran Korten knew his mother, and she doesn’t think she would be.

Instant Runoff Elections are a Vote for Civility

by Rob Richie

posted May 07, 2009

Burlington’s success with instant runoff voting (IRV) is a model of a clean, open debate. Is it time to take it to the national level?

Commentary :: Don't Fix Wall Street, Replace It

by David Korten

posted Feb 13, 2009

"Let Wall Street corporations and their phantom wealth machine slip into the abyss … Devote our public resources to building and strengthening Main Street businesses and financial institutions devoted to creating real wealth in service to their local communities."

Commentary :: Worker-Owned Café Offers Local Food, Space to Talk

by Robert Jensen, Carlos Pérez de Alejo

posted Oct 31, 2008

Robert Jensen, Carlos Pérez de Alejo describe the thinking behind “Piqueteros” (a name drawn from the movement of un- and under-employed workers in Argentina), one of the few worker-owned-and-operated cafés operating in the United States.

Commentary :: Food From the Grassroots

by Raj Patel

posted Jul 30, 2008

The food crisis is only getting worse. The answer involves a deep shift in the way our food comes to us.By making local governments pay attention to hunger, a range of organizations, working on everything from local food purchasing programs to farmers markets, are shaping the future of food.

Commentary :: Don’t Be Nice—Be Kind

by Akaya Windwood

posted May 22, 2008

Niceness is often filled with falseness—it is a way to not tell the truth, or to obscure it. “Be nice!” is something many of us heard as children as a way of avoiding upsetting someone… it’s not effective in the long run as a way to come together to solve the myriad difficulties facing our communities, both local and global.

Commentary :: The Fierce Urgency of Now

by Grace Lee Boggs

posted Feb 03, 2008

Call for Beloved Communities: "We are living in a time of great peril and possibility. In 1957, with the Montgomery bus boycott, we embarked on a journey that enlarged the soul of America. We found ..."

Commentary: New Flow in the Global Plumbing

by Jonathan Rowe

posted Nov 07, 2007

There’s an effort underway to turn remittance payments from global workers into the foundation of a new grassroots development fund that bypasses the World Bank and IMF with their built-in agendas.

Commentary: Cooperators of the Prairies

by Jonathan Rowe

posted Jul 29, 2007

Few images loom larger in the American psyche than that of the Wild West. In contrast to the myth, it was the cooperators who really made the West.

Commentary: An Honorable Exit from Iraq

by Poka Laenui

posted Jul 29, 2007

Poka Laenui outlines the 7 steps the U.S. should take to achieve an honorable exit from Iraq.

Commentary: Our Conservative Allies

by Jonathan Rowe

posted May 30, 2007

Jonathan Rowe debunks the myth that the Bush Administration is "conservative."

Commentary: US Social Forum - What Another U.S. Might Look Like

by Michael Leon Guerrero

posted May 07, 2007

Will the first US Social Forum be an "aha" moment in the global movement for change.