A Conscious 2025 Year in Review | CC Dispatch #32

Welcome to Dispatch #32! This is our last Dispatch for 2025, and what a year it has been! We’d like to spend some time reflecting on all the amazing stories we’ve shared this year. Below we have links to our favorites, but we would love to hear what have been your favorites too! (Please tell us in a comment on the web article!)

Looking into 2026, we would also love your feedback for how to improve the Conscious Citizens! What types of stories do you want to hear more of? What types of articles and resources did you find the most helpful or inspiring? Is there anything you want us to stop doing or do more of? Please feel free to leave a comment, message us in our Discord or on Instagram, or even send us an email. We’d genuinely love to hear from you!

Whether this is your first Dispatch you’ve read, or the 32nd, we want to thank you for being a part of this journey with us. We never imagined that the Conscious Citizens would grow as fast as it has, and we’re so grateful for your attention and support. If you’ve enjoyed our work, please share it! And if you can, please consider a one-time donation or monthly subscription to help us keep this project alive and growing.

Easy Actions to Take

Little (Movement) Wins

Top Stories of Resistance Shared in 2025

Activist History

History is a story of constant struggle, and we share tales of organizing and activism from around the world because we want you to realize that this has never been a one-sided struggle. Wherever oppression and authoritarianism has existed, there has always been fierce resistance, and by learning what has been done before to fight for a better world, we can get clues for how what we need to do today to keep the fight going.

Some of our favorite stories from this year include:

• The Rebel Clown Army | from Dispatch #15
  • The Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (CIRCA) was an anti-authoritarian activist group active in the UK from 2003 to 2005, using clowning and humor to protest against issues like corporate globalization and war, and a fantastic example of how whimsy, humor, and fun can be weaponized in militant organizing.
• The Zapatista Uprising | from Dispatch #13
  • The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is a far-left political and militant group who has controlled a large portion of southern Mexico since 1994. They are one of the most successful modern examples of an indigenous liberation movement reclaiming territory and governing themselves.
• Chile Before the 1988 Plebiscite | from Dispatch #20
  • Augusto Pinochet was a brutal dictator of Chile from 1973-1988, but a referendum in 1988 gave Chileans a chance at change. A massive nationwide organizing campaign urged Chileans to vote “No” and successfully toppled the violent regime.
• Greenham Commons Peace Camp | from Dispatch #17
  • One of the longest running occupations in the world was the Greenham Commons Peace Camp which was established to resist nuclear weapons being stored in the UK, and lasted over 20 years.
• How Students Defeated Their Dictator Serbia | from Dispatch #27
  • Otpor ("Resistance" in Serbian) was a Serbian student-led civil resistance movement founded in 1998 that used humor, satire, and creative street theater to mobilize mass opposition against dictator Slobodan Milosevic. Otpor successfully undermined the regime's pillars of support and played a pivotal role in driving Milosevic from power in October 2000.
• How Kurdish are Recreating Kurdistan | from Dispatch #23
  • After the Sykes-Picot agreement divided the Middle East between colonial powers, the Kurdish people were left state-less. The Kurds in Syria launched an ambitious and innovative political experiment called Rojava (or the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria) based on the ideals of Democratic Confederalism, a system of decentralized, grassroots democracy organized through local communes and councils. Today they control 1/3 of Syria in a relatively stable coalition, representing one of the most exciting political experiments happening today.

Every Dispatch we share terminology, and phrases that help us better understand and put words to our present moment. Here is a compilation of the most popular words & phrases from this year! What were your favorites?

It’s undeniable that there’s a lot happening in the world all the time. Understandably, that can get really overwhelming really fast. That's why we’ve designed our Connecting the Dots section to be a space to tie together our history, our present moment, and our potential future in order to ground us in a more holistic version of reality that is rooted in international solidarity.

Some of our most popular articles this year have been:

• Harnessing the Power of Art in Activism | from Dispatch #15
  • Art has the unique power to reach directly to people’s hearts, while activism is often a practice of reaching people’s minds. By combining the best of both, art and creativity becomes one of the most powerful weapons we have to resist.
• The 5 Stages of a Living Revolution | from Dispatch #27
  • Individual tactics are great, but what is often missing is an overall strategy everyone can get behind. In this issue we share a 5-Part Framework based on what has worked in the past around the world.
• The Radical Roots of Pan-Asian Identity | from Dispatch #19
  • In the West, Asians are seen as passive “model-minorities” but that’s far from the truth. Asians have been on the forefront of radical organizing for decades but we have been intentionally separated from this history.
• How Palestine Connects to Literally Everything | from Dispatch #18
  • The genocide in Palestine is not something happening in isolation, it is the unifying factor that ties together all the systems of oppression that we face around the world. From militarism, to the climate crisis, immigration, or a lack of social services - it all reveals itself in Palestine which reminds us it is a global system that we face.
• The Opportunity at the End of Neoliberalism | from Dispatch #25
  • Part of the chaos we see in the present moment is because of the death of the dominant ideology of the last 50 years, but what will come next? While there is chaos, there is also opportunity in this moment.
• The Psychology Behind What's "Right or Wrong" | from Dispatch #26
  • Having political conversations, especially with friends and family, is one of the hardest things - but it doesn’t have to be! We released our first long-form Youtube video this year to break down the Moral Foundations Theory and how we can use it to build more bridges between us and the people we talk to.

Conscious Creatives of 2025

In the media, we are often given only one version of what resistance can look like - large masses of people facing off head-on with riot police - but in reality, resistance and activism encompasses much more and typically looks different for each of us. Everyday, artists around the world are leveraging their unique skills, interests, and expertise in big and small ways to help guide humanity in a better direction. In 2025, we’ve shared dozens of inspiring artists whose works have sparked conversations about race, gender, class, war, and human rights. We hope that by learning about these diverse practices, we can expand our own view of what activism can look and realize that we each have hidden power waiting to be tapped - we just need a bit of will and creativity.

• Dr. Joy Buolamwini - Computer Scientist, Author | from Dispatch #30
  • Joy Buolamwini (also known as “The Conscience of AI”) is an innovative computer scientist, author, and activist who founded the Algorithmic Justice League to challenge algorithmic bias in AI systems through art, advocacy, and research⁠.
• Ash Lukashevsky - Illustrator | from Dispatch #26
  • Ash is an illustrator, visual artist, and activist using their skills to strengthen social causes centering immigrant rights, racial justice, LGBTQIA+ equality, and gender equity aiming to dismantle the oppressive power structures and uplift hope.
• Elizabeth “Lizzie” Magie - Game Designer | from Dispatch #23
  • Lizzie was an influential game designer, writer, and feminist best known for her invention of The Landlord's Game, a board game that critiqued capitalism. Her ideas were stolen from her and used to create the most popular board game in the world, Monopoly.
• Faith Ringgold - Painter, Author, and Narrative Quilter | from Dispatch #22
  • Faith was an influential American artist, activist, and author best known for her narrative quilts which fused textile art, painting, and storytelling to bring Black history to life.
• Olalekan Jeyifous - Visual Artist | from Dispatch #15
  • Jeyifous is a Nigerian-born, Brooklyn-based visual artist expanding our collective imagination by offering utopic visions for a new world through the lens of climate afrofuturism, expanding our ideas for how we can start transforming our lives and economies to be more sustainable and equitable.

Resources & Tools

Here are some recent adds to the directory. Please share these links with anyone that might find them helpful:

• 📱 Qobuz | An alternative to Spotify (music-only, no audiobooks)
• 🖼 Freelancers Union | A nonprofit serving freelancers across the US through education, advocacy, and access to tools and benefits (ie. healthcare plans) for independent workers regardless of industry or income level.
• 🖼 Artist Opportunity Database | Get more money with this helpful, non-exhaustive database by Fractured Atlas with active artist grants, awards, fellowships, open calls, and residencies from across the world–collected into one place for easy access.
• 🛍 Shop Red Bag | An online marketplace supporting and uplifting Black-owned and other underrepresented brands.
• 🛍 Local Harvest Directory | Shop fresh, local, and directly with this US directory of 40,000+ family farms, farmers markets, events, restaurants, and grocery stores that carry farmer-grown specialty products.
• 💝 Food Not Bombs | 'Tis the season to get involved with this global volunteer-led grassroots group providing free vegetarian food with hungry people across Earth. Find food, volunteer at a location near you, or start your own chapter to start feeding others in your area.
• 📓 How to Feed Your Community | A helpful guide by Food Not Bombs for anyone wanting to feed their neighbors/localized community.
• 🏥 Liberatory Wellness Network | A community-powered directory of mental health professionals, coaches, and healers providing conscious, anti-oppressive care for anyone that's been harmed, dismissed, or pathologized by traditional healthcare systems. Find a therapist or healer who sees your full humanity, someone who affirms your identity and lived experience, and understands that healing is deeply political, personal, and powerful.

➡️ Explore More on our Directory!

Know any resources that you think would be a great add to our directory? Share it with us! (We only see so much from our corner of the world)

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Have a Warm End of Year and Happy Holidays!

We'll leave you with this 4-min wholesome tear-jerker rooted in love and connection. (it made Elisa cry)