Despite President Bolsonaro’s COVID-19 denialism, a small Brazilian city has one of the most ambitious responses in the world. While Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro denies that a serious public health crisis is underway, a small municipality an hour up the coast from Rio de Janeiro has instituted a remarkable and effective COVID-19 response. In Maricá, a […]
Why Common Ownership Is a Route to Social Transformation
The case for despair is made. Now let’s start to get out of the mess we’re in. “to be truly radical is to make hope possible, rather than despair convincing” With one breath, the friends of power told us that global capitalism was a dynamic, disruptive force, the source of constant innovation and change. With […]
How Civic Technology Can Help Stop a Pandemic
Taiwan’s Initial Success Is a Model for the Rest of the World The guiding principle was not top-down control but mutual respect and cooperation. Privacy was carefully protected, and the movements of an individual were not visible to others. This approach supported an astonishing degree of social coordination, which reduced transmission. And despite being an […]
The horror films got it wrong. This virus has turned us into caring neighbours
Across the world, Covid-19 has triggered community action on a vast scale. It’s a powerful riposte to both government and private money There is no guarantee that this resurgence of collective action will survive the pandemic. We could revert to the isolation and passivity that both capitalism and statism have encouraged. But I don’t think […]
Alone Against the Virus
Decades of neoliberal austerity will make it harder to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, more than ever, we must rebuild our social safety net and forge a New Deal for public health. The social safety net that Republicans and neoliberal Democrats love to hate is what undergirds successful health systems, and rebuilding it will be […]