The Power of Beautiful Solutions

The Power of Beautiful Solutions
By Eli Feghali


(YES! Magazine) What if the solutions to our greatest challenges were already all around us? This idea comes from a simple yet radical belief that the wisdom to transform our world already exists in our communities. It’s in the mutual aid networks providing care where governments fail, in cooperatives fostering economic democracy, and in movements reclaiming land, culture, and sovereignty.

Amid ecological collapse, rising authoritarianism, genocide, and widening inequality, the urgent need for these stories and tools is clear. The challenges we face often feel overwhelming, but we are not starting from scratch. Across history and geography, people have responded to injustice and hardship with ingenuity, laying the groundwork for solidarity economies and imagining new systems that can work for all of us.

....(snip)....

These stories are part of a larger collection we call Beautiful Solutions: A Toolbox for Liberation (OR Books, 2024), a rallying cry for those ready to resist repression, reimagine thriving in our current conditions, and keep building a better world. The future we deserve isn’t a distant dream; it’s in the seeds already being sown in our communities. This collection inspires us to nurture that future, together. Written collaboratively by more than 70 contributors, and born from the lived experiences of grassroots organizers, solidarity economy practitioners, and communities on the front lines of climate and economic crisis, Beautiful Solutions demonstrates that a more just and democratic world is not only possible—it’s actively under construction.

....(snip)....

Public Pharmaceuticals
Written by Dana Brown

The global medicines market is dominated by large private drug companies responsible for a decline in meaningful innovation as well as skyrocketing prices, recurring shortages, troubling safety issues, and corruption in the institutions that are supposed to regulate them. These trends are harmful to our health, economies, and democracies—and they are inevitable outcomes of an industry driven by profit maximization. ............... From Massachusetts to the U.K., Thailand, India, and beyond, there are many existing examples of states turning to public ownership of pharmaceutical companies in efforts to combat high prices, medicine shortages, and political interference by multinational corporations. ....................(more)

https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2024/12/10/the-power-of-beautiful-solutions