Welcome to Dispatch #25! This is an issue all about change! Let’s talk about the big events happening all over the world in the past few weeks, how they are connected, and what it all means for the future. And speaking of change… It’s the Conscious Citizens’ 1st birthday, so we’re rolling out lots of new things over the next couple issues!
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Easy Actions to Take
Why: The Global Sumud Flotilla is a historic coalition of over 40 countries to bring an end to the siege on Gaza and deliver vital humanitarian aid. The Israeli government has a history of attacking and harming activists doing this so you can pressure your government to ensure the safe passage of their citizens. Organized by Newscord
Why: Trump has ended a vital environmental rule that protects forests from clearing and is the latest in attacks on the environment by the Trump administration. Leave comment by 9/19/2025! Organized by US Forest Service
Little (Movement) Wins
Why It Matters: Nepalese students and young people across the nation organized to oust their corrupt government. The chaotic weeks have lead to a newfound hope as students were able to vote, elect, and install a Prime Minister on their own (and through Discord too!).
Why It Matters: Pakistan is proving that abundant, renewable, inexpensive solar energy is a great investment — for individuals and communities. Community members are even coming together to pool their resources to install solar panels on buildings like mosques, which struggle to afford rising electricity prices from the country’s grid.
Searching for a way to live that can meet your needs without undermining Earth's life-support systems? Reslience+ is hosting a free webinar, "Bioregioning: How to Thrive Where We Live", to provide you with foundational knowledge for restoring damaged ecosystems, re-envisioning a healthy economy, and getting reconnected to the places we live.
It's a 90-minute discussion exploring:
- How we can adopt and truly embody a bioregional worldview,
- How we can we share the bioregional worldview so that it gains mainstream appeal
- The practicalities of living bioregionally, and
- Some key ways to make progress toward a bioregional society and culture that can thrive for ages.
🗓 Tue, September 30 @ 10am US Pacific Time on Zoom
The Legacy of May 1968
Activist History
The French have long been legendary for their ability to organize and protest but it’s important to know that this isn’t entirely because of the French Revolution. The events of May 1968 played a critical role too.
The May 68 movement began with students, inspired by Marxist and anarchist ideas, protesting against university conditions, rigid schooling, and conservative pro-capitalist teaching. After months of conflict with university officials and police, the government shut down the Sorbonne and Nanterre universities in Paris at the beginning of May. This triggered even more protests with students eventually occupying the two universities. At the same time the French working class were frustrated with stagnated wages and poor working conditions, and the brutal repression faced by students inspired mass support. The General Confederation of Workers called for a general strike and over 100,000 workers went on strike and occupied 13 factories within days. Demonstrations quickly escalated and gained momentum and evolved into a nationwide general strike that mobilized millions of French workers across the country, creating one of the largest popular movements in modern European history and bringing the country to the brink of full revolutionary change.
What made May 68 so significant is the broad coalition of people across the working class which transcended traditional boundaries between student activism and labor organizing, radically re-imagining students' revolutionary potential and their relationship with the working class. At its peak: more than 50 factories were occupied and 10 million workers were on strike across all industries. It wasn’t all perfect though - some argue that May 68 was also a missed opportunity. While there were victories, such as wage increases and reduced hours, violent repression, deportations, and conservative leaders prevented a full socialist revolution. Still, the legacy of May 68 continues today and is still profoundly influential in French politics. The ideas, slogans, and tactics of May 68 continue to inspire generations of activists and thinkers in France, making it a vital reference point for radical thought and collective action against systems of power.
Miswanting
The Conscious Citizens Dictionary
Miswanting refers to the phenomenon of desiring or pursuing things that do not contribute to one’s long-term happiness or well-being. It involves a disconnect between what an individual believes will make them happy and what actually brings them fulfillment. In the context of politics, propaganda and misinformation leads people to miswanting policies they perceive will improve their lives (ie, deporting immigrants) when in reality they simply distract from the real problem (ie, billionaire greed).
The Opportunity at the End of Neoliberalism
Connecting the Dots
If you look closely enough, there are signs across the world that signal the end of an era. In just the past couple weeks, there have been numerous revolutions and uprisings around the globe, primarily led by students and other young people:
- In Indonesia: mass protests broke out in late August 2025 after reports revealed elected officials were receiving an exorbitant monthly housing allowance as the rest of the country struggled with unemployment and high inflation.
- In the Philippines: mass protests broke out after it was revealed massive corruption where private contractors were taking billions of pesos meant for flood control projects.
- In Nepal: the government tried to ban social media apps where users were exposing corruption and nepotism, triggering a nation-wide revolution that overthrew the government within 72 hours.
- In France: Prime Minister François Bayrou’s government has collapsed after Parliament members voted to oust him in a no-confidence vote (and nationwide “Block Everything” protests) after he presented an economic plan that included freezing welfare and cutting social service jobs.
- In Japan: Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has resigned after a series of election losses, instructing the Liberal Democrat Party (who has ruled Japan for over 50 years) to hold an emergency elections as Japan grips with strain caused by Trump’s tariffs.
This all just happened in the last few weeks, and it is just the latest example. Similar things happened earlier this year in Argentina, Serbia, Bangladesh last year, and Sri Lanka in 2022 (and other places we’re not mentioning too, we’re sure). When we look at the major complaints from all of these places, there are some clear trends: corruption, wealth inequality, high unemployment, inflation, and broken social promises (especially for young people). The similarities are not a coincidence.
What all of this signals is a growing discontent everywhere with the dominant political and economic ideology of the world for the past 50 years or so - neoliberal capitalism. Many political scientists argue that the age of neoliberalism is ending. The question now is, what comes next?
Uplift the Conscious Citizens
We're firm believers that our communities would be a little better if everyone could easily make sense of the world, understand how connected our problems are, and had access to the resources and guidance needed to build economic and social systems- beyond capitalism. If you can take 1-minute to share the Conscious Citizens with someone, we'd seriously appreciate it!
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Conscious Creatives: Kate DeCiccio
Kate DeCiccio is a community artist, muralist, educator, and creative strategist based in Oakland, California. Her work focuses on counter-narrative portraiture, community storytelling, and creative skill-building, often in lock up facilities like mental institutions, prisons, and detention centers, to advocate for abolition, and collective liberation. Before becoming a full-time artist, she worked as a mental health and substance abuse counselor and taught art in various institutions, so her work is deeply influenced by themes of mental illness, addiction, and ancestral investigation
As someone also confronting their whiteness, she takes an active responsibility in using her skills to inspire other white people to examine their privilege. Through her work, Kate explores how whiteness, colonization, and the prison industrial complex have damaged our collective imagination and offers tangible ways we can heal, reclaim our creativity, and harness it to create positive change.
➡️ Visit Kate’s Site | Follow Kate on Instagram
Resources & Tools
Please share these links with anyone that might find them helpful:
- 📓 The Ground-Zero Guide to Community Building | A comprehensive and practical guide to help you start building more intentional and resilient communities.
- 💝 Solidarity Economy Principles | Learn about an alternative economy the global collective is building and find a Solidarity Economy near you.
- 💝 Fallen Fruit | A global collaborative food foraging map to help you find local, fresh, free food.
- 💝 Free Repair Cafe | Free global community-led repair cafes + website sharing online repair guides & tips for all types of broken items.
- 🤝 How to Build Your Own Care Pod | Learn about the care framework, pod-mapping, and how to create your own.
- 🧩 The Activists Handbook | A collection of really helpful guides on organizing, campaign strategy, creative protest tactics, and more.
- 🧩 The Info-Activism How-To Guide | Creative strategies, tools, tips, and guides for creating your own effective advocacy campaign.
SUBMIT A RESOURCE!
Know of a helpful resource that our community need to hear about?
Submit it HERE.
Till next time, do what you can. Care for yourself and the people around you. Believe that the world can be better than it is now. Never give up. And remember, you're not alone. We always have each other.
Onward to the World We Deserve,
Elisa & Ray
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