Explorations
Guides
A Textbook for the Ecocene
By Sarita Dougherty, edited by Simone Krug, copy edited by Gowri Chandra and Demi Corso An eco-feminist guidebook of practical how-to resources for better earth stewardship, originally created as a DIY PhD dissertation by Sarita Dougherty. Co-conspirator Press
Let Your Motto Be Resistance: A Handbook on Organizing New Afrikan and Oppressed Communities for Self-Defense
By Kali Akuno A guide that aims to strengthen the organizing capabilities of Black and New Afrikan communities for their defense against white supremacy and settler-colonialism, to ensure a more just future. Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
50 Ways to Prepare for Revolution
By Stephanie McMillan A basic primer on simple steps individuals can take to start organizing to prepare for a revolutionary moment. Anarchist Library
Organize Your Own: the politics and poetics of self-determination movements
By artists, poets, and writers like Rasheedah Philipps, Amber Art & Design, Bettina Escauriza, and many more An approachable resource for anti-racist organizing which connects past movements to the present organizing strategies. Soberscove Press
Visions of a Future Beyond Capitalism
Compiled by Jordan Flaherty A guide to films about revolution and revolutionary actions.
Driving Transformative Collaboration
By Chelsey Lepage A series of classes that offers perspectives for organizations to lay that foundations for long-term solutions that look beyond the pandemic. Reboot
Little Sis
By Public Accountability Initiative A grassroots project which maps the connections between people and organizations who hold power, whose name references an inversion of Big Brother.
Standing Indivisible Against White Supremacy
By Indivisible A starter guide for countering white supremacy within one’s self, in organizations, and in communities.
Over 300 'How to Guides' to Help You Bring a More Beautiful World into Being
Compiled by Shareable A dizzying array of everyday “how to” guides, centered around the theme of sharing. Films for Action
Sustainable Web Design
By Mightybytes and Wholegrain Digital A resource to measure the environmental impact of websites, often viewed as a “green” alternative to print media.
40 Ways to Fight Fascists
By Spencer Sunshine A list of actionable tactics for countering fascism in the streets and online, building for permanent resistance culture.
Developing a Resident Engagement Strategy
By Pedja Stojicic, MD, MPH and Ell Auchincloss A toolkit for anyone interested in increasing resident engagement. Meetings should not exceed 10-12 people and should be led by a dedicated facilitator. Groups should meet at least three times to use the tool effectively. ReThinkHealth
A Demonstrator’s Guide to Responding to Gunshot Wounds
By CrimethInc. This thoroughly detailed guide does not replace proper medical training, but it does provide special context into what it is like to treat gunshot wounds at demonstrations, including two personal accounts. CrimethInc.
Essays
The power of utopian thinking: it’s not just for naïve dreamers
By Jonny Thomson A meditation on the ways utopian thinking drives social change and blends with revolutionary action. Big Think
Ideas Arrangements Effects: Systems Design and Social Justice
By Lori Lobenstine, Kenneth Bailey, and Ayako Maruyama An excerpt from a work of the same name, this essay illustrates ways to frame common problems in new, progressive ways. Design Studio for Social Intervention
How the Powerless Can “Hack” Global Cities
By Saskia Sassen Sassen explores ideas about grassroots power reclamations in cities and can inspire creative methods for organizing. The Architect’s Newspaper
Future Gazing: What if Care was the Organizing Principle of Our Society?
By JM Wong A short collection of visions for a better future for one community. South Seattle Emerald
After the Pandemic, We Can’t Go Back to Sleep
By David Graeber A posthumous essay by Graeber that implores society to resist the forces of the rich and powerful to force us to continue abusive, degrading work. Jacobin
Humans aren’t inherently selfish – we’re actually hardwired to work together
By Steve Taylor An examination of the prevalence of cooperation in human history and the recent inventions of competition and war. The Conversation
Antifascist Practice and Impossible Nonviolence
By Natasha Lennard An exploration of the ways in which liberal aversions to left-wing antifascist tactics inadvertently endorse fascist violence. Evergreen
The Case for Reparations
By Ta-Nehisi Coates A long-form, richly-researched essay that explores the vast historical requirement for reparations and makes the strongest of arguments for them. The Atlantic
How Not to Go Back to Normal
By Diyora Shadijanova A request that in 2021 we take the opportunity to get things right, to not go back to our previous state of disconnection. It’s Nice That
The Real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months
By Rutger Bregman A real-life account of what happened when boys were marooned on a deserted island, demonstrating the care, cooperation, and altruism that is humanity’s real nature. New historical data suggests that war and violence are not innate factors of human nature, and that these are precipitated by resource hoarding and powerful institutions oppressing people. The Guardian
6 Ways Activism is Good for You
By Victoria Albina and Jules Netherland An exploration of the positive mental health benefits and community values that come along with activism and community organizing. Huffpost
Reading Lists
Speculating Futures
By Francis Tseng A critical, comprehensive reading list of utopian and dystopian futures. The New Inquiry’s December 2016 Science/Fiction issue
Five experimental designers reimagine spaces of the future for our new reality
Compiled by Matt Alagiah, written by Marina Willer, Kirsty Minns, Bas Van De Poel, Sthuthi Ramesh and Samar Maakaroun A collection of musings on how different kinds of spaces could be designed for better futures: the art gallery, the town square, the home, and the office. It’s Nice That
Appreciative Inquiry Tools, Exercises, and Activities
By Madhuleena Roy Chowdhury, BA Ways of engaging with others in both organizations and interpersonal relationships which hinge on strengths, possibilities, and success to bring about wholesome change. Positive Psychology
Zines & Booklets
Contours of the World Commune
by Friends of the Classless Society New philosophical theories about transforming society through revolution, written by an anonymous collective.
Rethinking the Apocalypse: an Indigenous Anti-Futurist Manifesto
By Indigenous Action A pamphlet exploring decolonial, anti-capitalist essay that illustrates the ways in which Indigenous ancestors dreamt against the end of the world.
An Activist’s Guide to Cultivating Collaboration in Neighborhoods
By Sofia Elisabeth A miniature zine and multifaceted design project to encourage cooperation, collaboration, and play within communities. Pumpipumpe
The Denizen Designer Project
By The Equity and Health Innovations Design Research Lab A co-created, community-based ethnographic exploration of participatory design.
Books
The Dispossessed
By Ursula K. LeGuin A seminal, deeply philosophical science fiction work by a master of the genre, imagining a pair of worlds — one that lives peacefully without money or politicians and one that is intrinsically capitalist — and the conflict that arises between them over science. HarperCollins
Another End of the World is Possible
By John Halstead A philosophical take on acceptance, hope, and survival, looking at wide-ranging ideas about the climate crisis, political upheaval, and rampant inequality.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
By Jane Jacobs A critique of American exceptionalism, white flight, sprawl, and misguided mid-century urban planning. Penguin
Spiritual Midwifery
By Ina May Gaskin First published in 1976, this revolutionary text re-introduced ideas about home birth and breastfeeding to segments of society who had lost it. Book Publishing Company
Podcasts & Talks
Heated
By Emily Atkin A limited-run series that demonstrates how the pandemic and the climate crisis are inextricably linked. Limina House
Behind the Insurrections: When Rich Fascists Almost Took Over America
By Behind the Bastards An historical look at an attempted coup that should sound familiar to the present day. iHeartMedia
February 13, 2014, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
By Angela Davis This iconic talk by Davis features the infamous quote, “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.”
Organizations
Design as Protest
An anti-racist design and architecture collective that works to dismantle systemic oppression in their industry and in the built environment of cities, organizing for a better future.
Community Futures Lab
A Philadelphia-based project dedicated to collecting oral histories of North Philly, functioning as pop-up community space, gallery, and resource center, building for a shared community future.
Black Quantum Futurism
A literary and art collective that creates stories, movements, and theoretical frameworks based in Afrofuturism.
Brown Boi Project
An organization dedicated to facilitating conversations and transformative learning about gender, especially supporting masculine-of-center people in communities of color and challenging oppression in all forms.
Dual Power Map
By Black Socialists in America The Dual Power Map details the landscape of economics in the U.S. today and explores those organizations and individuals who are building democratic, people-led institutions with specific, anti-capitalist aims.
Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance
An alliance of cooperatives that is working with the Bonfire Film Collective to create a documentary about starting co-ops.
Southerners on New Ground
A widespread, multi-chapter community organization for southerners resisting hate and oppression within their communities and more broadly using a number of restorative, decarceral, educational, and direct action tactics.
Restorative Justice
By The Centre for Justice & Rehabilitation A framework and resource center that defines restorative justice and teaches how to use it in communities.
Sunrise Creative School
By The Sunrise Movement Sunrise is an environmental justice movement, and these classes are “an art school for the movement,” specially geared towards Sunrise members.
Monument Lab
A Philadelphia-based multi-disciplinary public art and history studio dedicated to placemaking and collective memory.
News
A town in Mexico overthrew their local government. Things couldn't be going better.
By David Noriega In 2011, a community organized to remove their police, politicians, and the organized crime they supported by using directly democratic people’s assemblies. Vice
This Pandemic Will Lead to Social Revolutions
By Andreas Kluth A prediction that COVID-19 will directly cause social unrest because of the way it discriminately affects marginalized people. Bloomburg
The Only Way Out of the Crisis is to Fight for Open Borders
By Justin Akers Chacón An examination of all the ways in which the conversations around militarized, bordered capitalism only reinforce existing power structures and white supremacy. Spectre
Historic U.S. island return to native tribe 'path forward' for other land transfers
By Carey L. Biron Duluwat Island in California has been returned to the Wiyot people, its ancient stewards and their historically ceremonial center. Reuters
Disabled people ‘should push for radical overhaul of society after pandemic’
By John Pring An exploration that demonstrates how people should resist the idea of returning to “normal” post-pandemic, since “normal” did not equitably benefit all. Disability News Service
The Pandemic Shows It’s Time for an Alternative to American Capitalism
By David A. Love A critique which explores the ways in which capitalism fails to protect people in times of crisis, and how building an alternative to capitalism means also building alternative political systems. The Appeal
Journalist Talia Lavin Is Exposing White Supremacists, One Fake Online Account at a Time
By Nylah Burton Talia Lavin is one of the most experienced anti-fascist counterorganizers of the current day, and this interview gives a brief look at some of her tactics. Shondaland
The Left’s Failure to Envision a World Without Capitalism
By Conor Lynch A critical exploration that asks the question, “what will an anti-capitalist world look like”? The New Republic
What Will the World be Like After Coronavirus? Four Possible Futures
By Simon Mair An exploration of some radical ideas about the future after the COVID-19 pandemic, both hopeful and disastrous. The essay also includes practical ideas around which communities can organize. Singularity Hub
What would Philly look like if urbanists ran the city?
By Claire Sasko A re-imagining of a Philadelphia of the future, built for humans. Philadelphia Magazine
How Do You Build a City for a Pandemic?
By Harriet Constable A study of the ways in which the built environment can be better planned in the future to stand not only against disasters, but for human cooperation and growth. BBC Future
Manifesto of 170 Scientists: it’s a blunder if we don’t get out of the corona crisis greener
By Frank Straver A Dutch-language article about a climate justice manifesto on the ways society should be rebuilt coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Trouw
How to Talk About Antifa With People Who Are Freaked Out About It
By Natasha Lennard A list of countering the various popular liberal arguments against anti-fascism from Natasha Lennard, the author of Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist Life. Vice
Why the Wealthiest Americans should prepare for a ‘revolt against the unprecedented inequality’
By Shawn Langlois A warning signal for the top 10% in the U.S. against both the market consequences of their unmitigated, parasitic hoarding as well as the class of workers who will hold them accountable. MarketWatch
Utopia Think Tank Weekend 2016
By Somerset House A recap of a series of events held over a weekend that explored different possibilities for a better world.
Hotlines
Text HOME to 741-741 (U.S. and Canada)
Crisis Text Line
A support line with 24/7 access to crisis counselors.
800-273-8255 (U.S.)
National Suicide Prevention Hotline
A 24/7 suicide prevention hotline for people in distress and crisis.
800-950-6264 (U.S.)
National Alliance on Mental Illness
A grassroots organization for helping people in the U.S. affected by mental illness.
800-484-3731 (U.S.)
Never Use Alone
A radical harm reduction organization and hotline to serve as a judgment-free contact for people who use drugs.
Social Media
What Is Transformative Justice?
By theAfroLegalise A comprehensive definition of Transformative Justice and a framework that explains how it can work in practice.
“You have to ignore their reasonable arguments because their end goal is to be terrible, awful people.”
By Michael B. Tager A brief anecdote that, in very few words, sums up the way fascists organize and infiltrate public spaces, and why anti-fascist deplatforming works.