Alternatives Are a Matter of Survival

In 2024, trust in institutions is plummeting. With a lack of options, people are turning to alternatives that once may have seemed radical but are now a matter of survival. Confidence in mainstream media has shattered, but the world is more interconnected than ever, and people have access to trustworthy information if they know where to look for it. Protesters in Palestine share tips on tear gas safety with anti-police brutality campaigners in the United States. Meanwhile, Afghan resistance stays in touch with the rest of the world via the internet. The propaganda machines of various states have become highly sophisticated. Still, the same social media platforms governments turn to when they want to sanitize their images abroad have spurred protests around the globe.

Official institutions that people once turned to for guidance and support have become redundant across the world. The UN Security Council is unable to maintain peace due to the greed and arrogance of nuclear powers and their proxies. Yet, people living in autocratic, as well as democratic, systems, despite feeling increasingly voiceless, are demonstrating remarkable resilience.

Politicians who hold marginal, unpopular, or even despised viewpoints exert disproportionate control over the foreign policy of democracies. Faith in voting has plummeted and is now often seen merely as an act of self-defense against creeping fascism.

Media institutions have become polarized and focused on clickbait models, leaving people to choose between sanitized mainstream perspectives and unverified online content. While there are more citizen journalists than ever stepping forward to fill this gap, their lives are treated as disposable, and their opinions are dismissed as unorthodox. Each year, pulling people out of the cycle of decay and disinformation is harder and harder, and the consequences continue to be dire.

As more people live outside the prescribed remedies society has offered, hope for the safety and health of humanity lies increasingly in the hands of people who have taken initiative. Individuals are not just passive recipients of failing institutions but could be active creators of alternative solutions, shaping the future of our society.

Nations under siege, from Palestine to Ukraine and Kurdistan, are often forced to work outside the international institutions to defend their populations and seek independence, with volunteers providing life-saving care as governments target civilian neighborhoods and infrastructure.

Governments cling to obsolete concepts like borders and ethnonationalism while they look increasingly dangerous in the light of a shrinking world. A push to stop immigration to Europe has created a deadly status quo with North African warlords like General Khalifa Haftar in Libya. What appears as a policy of containment is a policy of aggression, as seen with the recently released footage of a Spanish Coast Guard vessel trying to sink a boat carrying migrants.

A lack of housing for people living in Europe exists parallel to a crisis of unoccupied units in major cities like Paris, reminding us that in an abundant world, all scarcity is artificial.

In the absence of legitimate peacebuilding from governments, populations have taken to the streets in a powerful display of solidarity with Gaza. This unity in the face of government failures is a beacon of hope for a better future.

As the American Government becomes more and more complicit with the genocide, institutions are unable to push back. Students have sought to pressure the only institutions they influence over—the universities—prompting a violent response from those same institutions they should be able to turn to.

In Palestine, where the Israeli military seeks to suppress journalism, civilians have created “parallel structures” to keep in touch with the outside world. These structures, which include underground networks and digital communication channels, have allowed civilians to document the conflict despite the high risk to their lives. As many as 116 reporters have been targeted and killed in 10 months of war, one of the highest numbers ever recorded by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Yet, the conflict remains one of the most documented events in history, with civilians’ photo and video streams piercing the siege of Gaza.

In Israel, citizens desperate for a ceasefire have turned to street protests and direct confrontations with political leaders in the Knesset. In a new trend, trade unions are calling for strikes to support a ceasefire.

While the UN Security Council becomes a forum for the petty disputes of superpowers, unable to resolve ongoing conflicts, institutions like the International Criminal Court (ICC) are gaining traction and recognition. Systems that once only challenged relatively powerless warlords in the Global South and the fallen leaders of Serbian nationalism have begun to pose a threat to powerful leaders like Putin and Netanyahu. Enforcement mechanisms have never been established, therefore: the legal status of universal jurisdiction can easily be ignored by major powers. In spite of this, people across the world are turning to the ICC as a voice of moral authority in an international system run by superpowers that seem to lack the consistency to obey international law.

As the effects of climate change and pollution devastate ecosystems and the Earth’s oceans, governments have abdicated their responsibility to regulate dangerous practices. Agriculture, which is crucial for feeding the world, faces growing threats from irresponsible corporatism, the prioritization of short-sighted profits over sustainability, and the use of hunger as a deliberate weapon of war.

We live in an era where intelligent alternatives are a matter of survival. In this issue, we will explore how people across the world organize themselves to provide alternative solutions to the challenges we have identified. 

For example, Quarticciolo, a suburban neighborhood in Rome, Italy, saw locals organizing to improve their life conditions. Entirely neglected by the state, the people formed an association to reshape the territory, fight against years of abandonment. Maria Edgarda Marcucci’s article investigates how Quarticciolo residents are building an alternative model that could be reproduced elsewhere in the country.

Meanwhile, several other cities around the world have geared up municipal plans for green transition. Urban settlements cover only 2% of the world’s land surface but produce 70% of the global emissions. Cities like Medellin in Columbia or Milan in Italy plan to counter their emissions by turning the cities green with extensive planting of trees and other vegetation. Besides absorbing carbon dioxide and pollutants, the ramp-up of urban vegetation has been shown to cool down the city climate by up to 5 degrees Celsius. In his article, Henri Sulku explores the possibilities and limits of “green cities“: can urban planning propose a solid ecological alternative, or is it just a green cover for an inherently unsustainable way of life?

Building an alternative is a challenging task. The people of North East Syria know this all too well. Since 2012, they have committed to creating a more democratic system for its own people—an alternative to the regime of Bashar al-Assad and the agenda of Western democracies. Universities play a pivotal role in changing mindsets. Luqman Guldive writes about the challenges of creating a new educational system and how cutting out colonialism and European-centric vision from academia is necessary. 

The world is dark, millions are at risk, but people are not sitting quietly in that darkness. The message spoken from every corner of the world is that if governments fail to work for citizens, people will fight to improve their circumstances and take charge of their futures.