Independent Media Institute
What Are Republics, Exactly? It’s a Good Time to Learn
Republican ideals have evolved over millennia, shaping governance across the globe. Modern republics continue to adapt, but face challenges in upholding their foundational principles. By John P. Ruehl The 2024 U.S. presidential election was framed as a crucial test for…
Montana’s First Worker Cooperative Is In It for the Long Haul
How the custom steel fabrication and design company Crucible built a “gravel road” for other Montana worker co-ops to follow. By Damon Orion Worker cooperatives—businesses owned and democratically managed by their employees—have shown high rates of economic stability, employee retention,…
What Ideas From the Paleolithic Are Still With Us in the Modern World?
An interview with renowned economic historian Michael Hudson on where our calendar comes from, his collaborations with the late intellectual David Graeber, and the long-lost practice of forgiving debt. By Jan Ritch-Frel Is the order of the modern alphabet connected…
Mapping the Solidarity Economy
The worker-owned collective ChiCommons helps Chicago residents find local mutual aid-based organizations. By Damon Orion In July 2024, the Council Office of Financial Analysis (COFA) reportedthat Chicago, Illinois, was witnessing a struggling job market, a decrease in multifamily housing starts,…
Software Developers in Oakland Are Putting People Over Profit
How coders are working on creating community participation and democratic design. By Damon Orion The webzine ShiftMag points out that 80 percent of software developers worldwide are unhappy with their jobs, yet 68 percent code outside the workplace as a…
Do Other Animals Have Consciousness? Science Could Force Us to Rethink Our Relationships With Them
The broad consensus is that many species are sentient. By Marjorie Hecht Humans have had relationships with their pets for thousands of years, talking to them, coddling them, and imbuing them with human attributes. But are these animals “thinking,” and…
Activists in Philly Have a Novel Approach to Help De-Oppress Society
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s Anti-Oppression Resource and Training Alliance (AORTA) helps organizations restructure for greater equity. By Damon Orion In 2019, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America reported that one in 1,000 Black men in…
Greenfield, Massachusetts’s Compost Co-op gives ex-inmates a living wage through meaningful work.
The stigma of a criminal conviction can be a major barrier to community reentry for recently released prisoners. A December 2021 report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics highlighted the employment barrier faced by the more than 50,000 who were…
Political Collapse: Lessons From Fallen Empires
Our investigation of the disastrous society-wide collapses of four premodern polities, China’s Ming Dynasty, the South Asian Mughal Empire, the High Roman Empire, and Renaissance Venice led to the discovery of an unexpected historical pattern. This revelation was not evident…
The Role of Ancient DNA in Modern Traits
Ancient human retrovirus DNA could be one of the markers of susceptibility to mental illness—specifically schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder, a new study suggests. By Marjorie Hecht Ancient human retrovirus DNA could be one of the markers of…
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