A spectacular candidate’s choice of party raises questions.

Dr. Cornel West has announced his 2024 candidacy for president.

He’s already discussing issues of empire and class that get vanishingly little attention from Democrats or Republicans.

However, his decision to run with the People’s Party is raising questions. The party’s various dysfunctions have kept it from achieving ballot access, which means that West will likely have to run as an independent. In an interview with Democracy Now!, West demurred when asked to address allegations against the party’s chair, mentioning accountability while saying that he hadn’t kept up with their ins and outs.

I volunteered with the People’s Party for a year and a half. I left around the time that Black Voters for a People’s Party was disbanding for the second time.

Maybe Dr. West can fix the organization’s problems. We’ll see.

Gretchen Morgenson, co-author of “These Are The Plunderers”, names names.

”It’s interesting now that David Rubenstein is retired [from the Carlyle Group], he’s a philanthropist. This is what these wealthy people do once they’ve finished their careers and made so much money. They become philanthropists… We’ve all read about David Rubenstein and Steve Schwarzman and Leon Black and Henry Kravis. We read about them constantly. They are always lauded for their brilliance and their billionaire status. What we just don’t hear about are the people on the other side of their transactions.”

—Gretchen Morgenson, co-author of “These Are The Plunderers.”

Cooperation Jackson founder Kali Akuno on how cooperative economics can drive social change.

“We think that the cooperatives and the tools of the social and solidarity economy can be used to liberate Black people by democratizing the economy, democratizing the means of production…but if these tools don’t get us where we need to go, then we’ll try something else.”

— Cooperation Jackson founder Kali Akuno, in discussion with Dr. Jared Ball (author of The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power)

Cooperation Jackson is part of the Climate Justice Alliance.

The movement to ditch GDP makes its case.

Beyond Growth 2023 was held at the European Parliament this week. The conference focused on alternatives to measuring human progress by gross domestic product growth—and how to reduce the Global North’s unsustainable energy and resource use.

Less Is More author Jason Hickel had several applause lines, including this one:

“The constant hunt for capitalist growth in the EU and other high-income economies relies on a constant plunder of goods and resources and labor from the Global South.”

Economist Fadhel Kaboub has said that that plunder amounts to $2T every year.

Other notables included Doughnut Economics author Kate Raworth and degrowth economist Timothee Parrique.

Apparently there were a lot of journalists there as well.

Full conference playlist


Of possible interest: Seeking Solutions Beyond Growth in 2023

Angela Davis, Jasmine Burnett, Mariah Parker, and M Adams

“It’s an incomplete analysis not to talk about the ways in which Democrats are participating in this.”

— Jasmine Burnett, of Community Movement Builders (Atlanta)

This discussion on Black Power Media covers a lot of ground. I especially appreciated how Angela Davis connected the 2020 uprisings with the movement to Stop Cop City.


Of possible interest: “I’m an abolitionist because this is slavery. That’s what it is, period point blank done.”, Data-Driven Abolition, Civil Unrest Is Here to Stay

Alternatives to investor-owned utilities.

There’s no love lost between many people and their power companies. That’s what made Last Week Tonight’s episode on utilities so cathartic. But how do we build alternatives to the dominant investor-owned utility paradigm? Climate Justice Alliance has spotlighted some examples.

”In this episode we zoom in on ‘energy democracy,’ a term describing a wide range of solutions that move away from a fossil fuel economy into renewable energies that also ensures energy is community-owned.”

First in a series on homelessness in Portland, Oregon

The deep knowledge, considered positions, and communications prowess on display in this episode of Greater Greater Portland bode well for the rest of the series.

Part Two:

Of possible interest: “Right to Rest? Not in Oregon.”

How everyday people are meeting the moment.

The individual financial decision to buy an electric vehicle can be huge. However, in terms of climate action, it’s like giving a Tic-Tac to a whale with bad breath: Neither will make much of a dent in emissions. That comparison comes from a recent interview with Marion Gee, Climate Justice Alliance’s co-executive director.

In the interview, Gee and Just Solutions series host Gloria Neal talk about how overwhelming climate problems can seem, and how individuals can team up to be part of the solution. They also discuss the roles that businesses, governments, and philanthropies have to play in the just transition.

Climate Justice Alliance member groups include NY-based UPROSE, the Kali Akuno-led Cooperation Jackson in Mississippi, Chicago’s Little Village (LVEJO), the Micronesia Climate Change Alliance, and many more.

Of possible interest: The Inflation Reduction Act Is Not a Climate Justice Bill, Environmental Injustice and the Inflation Reduction Act

An unfinished POGO animated special resurfaces

Walt Kelly (POGO) wrote like a low-boiled Lewis Carroll, inventing new words for Everyman characters, all served in a Jabberwocky étouffée.

Animation Anarchy has posted the story behind Kelly’s unfinished animation special “We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us”, along with an animated 12-minute workprint and a 27-minute animatic. Kelly did the voice acting in both versions.

”Walt Kelly could not find a sponsor. No TV network in the USA, then or now, would have produced his very depressing (and sadly prescient) story.”

A letter distributed to members of the Young Democratic Socialists of America at its annual convention held in Chicago, Illinois last weekend.

“The DSA claimed that by electing its members as Democrats, it would be able to push the American political system to the left. In fact, it is those members of DSA who have shifted to the right and, in the process, committed monstrous betrayals of the most elementary principles of the socialist movement.” letter