“Solarpunks cherish nature, progress and science; the individual and the community.
They believe in a world that is green, colourful, and bright. It can be described as a literary genre, an aesthetic, or a movement. The key points are:
An emphasis on renewable energy, especially solar power.
A demand for technology and society to re-centre around sustainability, longevity, and balance.
A focus on decentralisation, community activism, social justice and civic empowerment.
A recognition that economic, social, and ecological injustices are all deeply inter-connected.”
- Sunbeam City
“Solarpunk is a literary movement, a hashtag, a flag, and a statement of intent about the future we hope to create” - Ben Valentine
Solarpunk as a concept emerged from the imagination of authors and creators in the early 2000′s, and was shared freely throughout the internet. It originated as a genre of creative writing and artwork, but it quickly began to be implemented into decentralised left-wing spaces. Nowadays, solarpunk embodies a whole range of politics, activism, design and art; but at its heart it encompasses positive, grassroots community action and innovation as a way to prevent ecological crises.
This is where I need your help - I would love to collate a list of Solarpunk-themed tumblr blogs. If you post about Solarpunk and would like to be included in this list, please comment or message me with your blog URL. Thank you!
Beautiful photo from the protest, yesterday on Santiago, Chile by Susana Hidalgo (su_hidalgo on Instagram)
¡REVOLUCIÓN!
The flag on the top is the mapuche flag. Mapuches are indigenous people who get constantly killed in the hand of cops. The goverment constantly silence us and killing us. This fight is for also us, indigenous people. Remember that
Kshama Sawant: I’m a Socialist Taking On Amazon and a Corporate Onslaught in Seattle
In
this op-ed, Seattle city councilmember Kshama Sawant explains how
socialism and people power are fighting back against corporate control
of her city.
In Seattle the political establishment was “apoplectic” at the prospect of having to work with an anti-capitalist in city hall who had spearheaded the fight for a $15 minimum wage at a time when the notion was considered radical and impossible.
My
first week in office, two longtime establishment politicians came by to
inform me they would not allow me to pass any legislation, much less
the $15 minimum wage, and that city hall would continue to run “on their
terms.”
Many of Amazon’s top executives, including members of the so-called S-Team who report directly to Jeff Bezos, appear to be taking revenge over our Amazon Tax by maxing out
directly to my opponent. It’s not every day that an Amazon’s senior VP
of global corporate affairs and former White House press secretary (Jay
Carney) steps into a city council election.
Sometimes, your enemies give you the best compliments. Being a target
of an unprecedented amount of corporate PAC money says a lot about how
much the ruling class fears our movement. Seattle real estate lobbyist
Jamie Durkan spelled out his view
to local media in 2017, in the wake of our landmark move-in-fees law.
He complained that Seattle council members “say all the right things in
their offices, then they get out of the podium and it all goes south.”
Durkan attributed the series of tenants-rights victories loathed by real
estate interests to the strength of our movement — a movement he calls
“Sawant’s army.”
I wear this is a badge of honor. Because under the bankrupt system of capitalism,
in which the billionaires hold the reins of power, the strength of
ordinary people has always been derived from collective organizing. As
anti-slaverly abolitionist Frederick Douglass once said: “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.… Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
Seattle and Washington State have long had
the most regressive tax system in the country, where ordinary people
carry the overwhelming burden of taxation, while corporations don’t pay
their fair share. I was a proud fighter for the Amazon Tax in Seattle, and fought alongside working people who opposed its shameful repeal when billionaires like Bezos acted like mafia dons and threatened to move jobs out of Seattle if the tax was passed.
This
is why Seattle’s elections this year are a key test. If the
billionaires are successful in buying them, I have no doubt a similar
dynamic will play out nationally to further push back against socialist
politics. Other alliances of right-wingers and big business will likely
step up to oppose new socialist elected officials, perhaps including
democratic socialists like state legislators in Pennsylvania or New York’s Julia Salazar, Chicago’s “red wave” of aldermen, and even congresswomen AOC and Rashida Tlaib
when they are up for reelection in 2020. With life under capitalism
increasingly unbearable for working-class people, and climate
catastrophe turning from looming to emergent, the ruling class is
determined to try to stem the tide of struggle.
For youth and
working people, we have no time to sit idle. There is simply too much at
stake. Because while it’s true that powerful forces are arrayed against
us, it’s equally true that a victory in Seattle this year could send a
powerful message around the country about grassroots power and socialist
ideas.
