How
Two core beliefs drive The Radical Commons: knowledge is a commons, not property; and knowledge can change the world. So we've built a place where knowledge is treated as the infrastructure needed to dream up the Utopia and build what comes next. We've gathered thousands of works in one place. The theories that named the enemy. The strategies that won against empire. The art that refused to look away. The histories they tried to erase. From Frantz Fanon to Angela Davis, the Zapatistas to Black feminists, prison abolitionists to ecological defenders. But also Kiarostami showing us how to see and Sembène documenting the wealth of our cultures.
Two core beliefs drive The Radical Commons: knowledge is a commons, not property; and knowledge can change the world. So we've built a place where knowledge is treated as the infrastructure needed to dream up the Utopia and build what comes next. We've gathered thousands of works in one place. The theories that named the enemy. The strategies that won against empire. The art that refused to look away. The histories they tried to erase. From Frantz Fanon to Angela Davis, the Zapatistas to Black feminists, prison abolitionists to ecological defenders. But also Kiarostami showing us how to see and Sembène documenting the wealth of our cultures.
01
We stand with anti-colonial, anti-capitalist, abolitionist, feminist, queer, and ecological struggles. Climate collapse, mass displacement, rising authoritarianism, deepening inequality, genocide: the crises are real and overlapping. Most of us feel lost and powerless — an all too familiar plight in human history; we're not the first. So we turned to radical traditions, theory and art that have always offered tools to survive and imagine beyond the present. We don't pretend to be all-encompassing. Our priority is to center voices from the Global South, its diasporas, the forgotten and the marginalized. Because we work for the global majority.
We stand with anti-colonial, anti-capitalist, abolitionist, feminist, queer, and ecological struggles. Climate collapse, mass displacement, rising authoritarianism, deepening inequality, genocide: the crises are real and overlapping. Most of us feel lost and powerless — an all too familiar plight in human history; we're not the first. So we turned to radical traditions, theory and art that have always offered tools to survive and imagine beyond the present. We don't pretend to be all-encompassing. Our priority is to center voices from the Global South, its diasporas, the forgotten and the marginalized. Because we work for the global majority.
02
An archive alone is not enough. The old world is ending and we refuse to let what replaces it be decided by those who got us in this mess. This is why TRC is a living archive. Our editors curate new selections every week. New videos, essays, and artworks are added weekly. Members submit dispatches documenting their way of resisting as it happens. Every month, organizers, thinkers and artists share curated picks of the works that shaped them. Contributors from Algiers to Bogotá, Lagos to Delhi help us shape what we and future generations must remember. We're collecting seeds for tomorrow's flowers.
An archive alone is not enough. The old world is ending and we refuse to let what replaces it be decided by those who got us in this mess. This is why TRC is a living archive. Our editors curate new selections every week. New videos, essays, and artworks are added weekly. Members submit dispatches documenting their way of resisting as it happens. Every month, organizers, thinkers and artists share curated picks of the works that shaped them. Contributors from Algiers to Bogotá, Lagos to Delhi help us shape what we and future generations must remember. We're collecting seeds for tomorrow's flowers.
03
Ready to explore? The Radical Commons is organized so knowledge inspires action. Start anywhere. Everything connects across disciplines, movements, and time. The Library: Search thousands of texts, films, artworks, and oral histories organized by struggle, geography, mediums and movement. The Dispatches: Monthly contributions from writers, artists, and organizers responding to what's unfolding now. Members can submit their own. Curated Picks: Every month, those leading the way share the works that shaped them. Trace connections across borders and generations.
Ready to explore? The Radical Commons is organized so knowledge inspires action. Start anywhere. Everything connects across disciplines, movements, and time. The Library: Search thousands of texts, films, artworks, and oral histories organized by struggle, geography, mediums and movement. The Dispatches: Monthly contributions from writers, artists, and organizers responding to what's unfolding now. Members can submit their own. Curated Picks: Every month, those leading the way share the works that shaped them. Trace connections across borders and generations.
04
The idea behind The Radical Commons began in 2023 when we realized radical knowledge was scattered everywhere and accessible nowhere. Essential texts sat behind paywalls. Films documenting resistance gathered dust. Oral histories of movements that won were at risk of disappearing. We started gathering what had been dispersed: anti-colonial theory, abolitionist practice, feminist manifestos, artistic resistance, workers' struggles. This archive is infrastructure for movements building the world that comes next.
We believe the future can be radically different if we learn from those who came before and act collectively. The Radical Commons stands with anti-colonial, anti-capitalist, abolitionist, feminist, queer, and ecological struggles. We center voices from the Global South and its diasporas. We treat knowledge as commons, not property. This platform grows with the movements shaping our future: gathering seeds that are already sprouting, making memory available as nourishment, building collective power through shared understanding and being unapologetic about it all.
Submit dispatches. Suggest books, films, sounds. Unlock selected chapters. Meet in person. Organize. Help decide what our common archive holds, what doesn't get erased. Because we need a knowledge commons to arm our resistance and feed our imagination. A knowledge commons for the world we are building. Membership is free.
The Radical Commons is guided by an international circle of thinkers, artists, and organizers whose work has shaped radical movements worldwide. They help us navigate where this commons should go next: what struggles to center, which voices to amplify and most importantly where this commons grows next without losing our roots. They are companions in this project that we consider lucky to have by our side.
We work with independent publishers, radical bookstores, NGOs, and cultural organizations committed to making knowledge accessible and imagining a more just future for all. These partnerships help us expand the archive, commission translations, weave a network of resistance and keep membership free.
