America the Possible: Manifesto for a New Economy by James Gustave Speth shows that it’s possible to fix our economy, our environment, and our democracy — and that each goes hand-in-hand with the others.

As millions of people in the US and billions around the world suffer unemployment and deprivation, those who care about workers instinctively reach for economic growth as the way to create decent livelihoods for all.  Yet those who are paying attention to what is happening to our land, waters, and climate know that the unintended consequence of modern economic growth is the destruction of the very ecosphere that makes life on earth possible.

Speth synthesizes a wonderfully wide range of models, proposals, and forms of action into a synergistic whole.  He shows how we can create full employment by greatly expanding our production of things that people need — from education and healthcare to climate-protecting energy, manufacturing, and transportation systems.   (more…)

[by Brendan Smith; Cross-posted with Grist and Huffington Post]

A new insurgent force has joined the climate wars: planet Earth.

This summer, she’s blanketed two-thirds of the country in drought; turned New Mexico and Colorado into blazing infernos; crumbled roads in Alaska and Texas with record-breaking temperatures; and, in biblical fashion, shut down a nuclear plant by clogging cooling pipes with dead fish.

Armed with an arsenal of extreme weather, the Earth has taken to the battlefield and single handedly trounced the climate deniers by convincing an overwhelming number of Americans that climate change is a real and imminent threat. Texas, the axis of Big Oil, experienced one of the largest opinion shifts in the nation, with belief in climate change climbing 13 percentage points from March to July. Even more stunning, 77 percent of Americans now believe the government should limit the amount of carbon dioxide that businesses can emit. (more…)

On the occasion of its one-year anniversary, Occupy Wall Street has invited all members of the 99% to New York City for three days of education, celebration, and direct action from September 15-17.  [Read the OWS S17 Call to Action. View the OWS S17 promotional video]

The Labor Network for Sustainability – an organization devoted to sustainable livelihoods on a livable planet — urges all those concerned about the future of working people and the future of our planet to join OWS in New York and across the country.

Remember Occupy Wall Street?  A year ago on September 17, a few hundred people occupied a New York City park and started a national – indeed a global – conversation about the power of Wall Street and the future of our world.  There are those who want to shut down that discussion – and they use every tactic from racial division and global fear-mongering to police clubs and illegal surveillance.  But that discussion – and the fight for the well-being of the 99% all over the world galvanized by OWS — must continue. (more…)

[by Jeremy Brecher; Original published at Nation.com]

Something is happening, but we don’t know yet what it is.

The first half of 2012 saw a wave of people-powered actions protesting foreclosures, evictions, racial profiling, student debt, union busting, climate change, war and other problems of the 99 percent. They were conducted by local and regional convergences of Occupy Wall Street, community, labor, and environment groups, and individuals who just showed up.

The actions reached a crescendo in April and May, following the “99% Spring” program, which aimed to train 100,000 activists in the history and techniques of nonviolent direct action. Thousands protested (and some were arrested) at Wells Fargo in Des Moines, GE in Detroit and many other corporate annual meetings. On April 24, for example, community, labor, environment and other groups, along with Occupy San Francisco, entered Wells Fargo’s annual general shareholder’s meeting, mic-checked CEO John Stumpf, and held up the meeting by laying out the grievances of the 99 percent against the bank. (more…)