Here at the Whirlwind Institute, we are looking forward to an exciting 2026 with the launch of several new projects. In February, our publisher Bold Type Books will be releasing a 10th anniversary edition of This Is An Uprising. This edition contains a new forward and afterward addressing our current political moment and discussing some of the developments in the field of civil resistance over the past decade. We’ll be sending updates in the coming weeks about this release!
Soon after, we hope to be sharing the new website for the Whirlwind Institute—the development of which is well under way and which should be officially launched in the next couple of months. The website will contain a wealth of resources on each of the core areas of our work—movement ecology and mass protest, inside-outside strategy, impact tracking, ideology, movement history, and alternatives.
2025 marked the first year of operation for Whirlwind, and we’re proud of the work we have completed so far. Below are some highlights of the articles on social movement strategy we’ve produced—as well as links to some podcasts we’ve done that you might enjoy!
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Understanding the Political Moment
Trump’s first year has been truly horrible but it also prompted a historic wave of protest. In covering this surge of revolt, we wrote about why, “There’s no need to wait for resistance. It is happening now.”
The importance of “moments of the whirlwind” is one of the central arguments of This Is An Uprising, and indeed it’s where we got the name for the Whirlwind Institute. We’ve long wanted to say more about what makes these periods of mass mobilization distinctive and valuable, and so we were excited to write an article that delves deep into the concepts of trigger events, decentralized action, and movement cycles. The essay, entitled “Could We Be Entering a Movement Moment Against Trump?” details how to recognize the five key characteristics that make for movement moments, and it explains why they are critical in propelling forward drives against tyranny and injustice.
Separately, we each took on some individual projects. Paul wrote about what social movements can learn from the “Innovator’s Dilemma”—a business-world concept that he believes has genuine value for those trying to create new projects on the left. In essence, the article is an argument about why we should be creating a culture of experimentation and why “incubation” of new groups is essential. You can read the article here: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/11/innovators-dilemma-social-movements/
Meanwhile, Mark wrote about lessons from the legendary career of popular educator Myles Horton. A founder of the renowned Highlander Folk School in Tennessee, Horton offered profound lessons on living through the ups and downs of social movements, and he entered into fascinating debates with figures such as Paulo Freire about inside-outside strategy. Check out Mark’s essay here: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/12/myles-horton-highlander-folk-school/
Whirlwind Institute Research Analyst Celeste Pepitone-Nahas wrote a great overview on the progress that has been made toward implementing “Maximum Wage” ordinances in the U.S. and abroad. The concept of a Maximum Wage is something that Mark has written about repeatedly over the years, and Celeste’s article provides an important update on how the idea is being put into practice. A leading expert described the essay as “an ace survey on who’s accomplishing what at the income-capping cutting edge.” You can read it here: https://inthesetimes.com/article/maximum-wage-billionaire-ceos-economy-trump-inequality
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Everyone’s Got A Part to Play — A Podcast on Movement Ecology
Last summer, we were honored to join in dialogue with Shane Murphy Goldsmith of the Liberty Hill Foundation for an episode of their “Conversations From The Frontlines: Real Talk, Real Change” podcast. The chat gave us a chance to share about our personal stories of growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, being influenced by the peace and justice tradition of the Catholic Church, gaining a deep appreciation of structure-based organizing through unions such as UNITE HERE, and participating in the mass protests movements of the late 1990s and early 2000s—including the global justice movement that erupted into public view after demonstrations in Seattle, as well as the huge actions against the Iraq War.
Talking with Shane, we focused on how a movement ecology perspective helps us to understand different organizing models and how they can work together to force change. We also dive into topics such as polarization as movement strategy, challenging the monolithic view of power that most Americans hold, and how movements can shift the Overton window and alter the terrain of the politically possible.
You can listen to the full podcast here: https://www.libertyhill.org/news/podcast/
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Uruguay’s People’s President and Japan’s Marxist Innovator
In a final highlight of the past year, we’ve been excited to bring aboard Senior Research Associate Guille Bervejillo, who wrote a wonderful essay on the “The Radical Legacy of the ‘Poorest President in the World.’” In it, he explored what we can learn from the life of Uruguay’s former guerrilla and leftist president Pepe Mujica, sharing stories from his personal meetings with Mujica as well as insights about the country’s innovative progressive party formations. Needless to say, it is a stark contrast with Trump, who (as we wrote in June) has spent his time co-governing with the billionaire class.
Guille’s article is well worth a read, and you can find it here: https://whirlwinddispatches.substack.com/p/the-radical-legacy-of-the-poorest
Earlier in the year, Guille spoke on an episode of the Process This podcast with host Tripp Fuller about some of his other interests and research areas. In particular, they discussed the ideas of the innovative theorist and Japanese Marxist Kojin Karatani, a thinker Guille studied in depth while earning his PhD in economic geography at Ohio State University.
Discussion between Tripp and Guille focused on how Karatani’s ideas might be applicable to activists coming out of the mobilizations of the 2010s—such as Occupy and Black Lives Matter—and who are now facing the global rise of far-right governments internationally. In addition to sharing some of his personal story, Guille describes Karatani’s The Structure of World History, a text which offers a novel account of the forces animating world history and of the characteristics of emancipatory movements. Though Karatani is not well known in the west, in Japan he is widely read as a leading public intellectual, literary critic, and major figure in Marxist theory. As Guille says, Karatani is “not just another academic. He’s writing for popular audiences in something akin to the New York Times commentary or The New Yorker. So he’s an intellectual, an academic, but he’s very much writing for a popular audience.”
Karatani’s writing explores how reciprocity and mutual aid might replace structures of exploitation. Guille argues that the theorist’s readings of Marx and his thinking on “modes of exchange” may be useful to all those thinking about alternatives to global hyper-capitalism.
Check out the wide-ranging discussion here:
For a more compact introduction to Karatani, you can also check out the Ayni Institute’s videos on the “Modes of Exchange” framework, available here: https://ayni.institute/modesofexchange/
We welcome your thoughts and comments, and we are excited to be in conversion with you in the new year!
In solidarity,
Mark and Paul