The UK will let 16 and 17-year-olds vote in general elections.

16- and 17-year-olds will be able to vote in the next UK general election.

The change marks the fulfilment of a Labour manifesto commitment and will bring UK-wide elections in line with those in Scotland and Wales.

The government highlights that young people “already contribute to society by working, paying taxes and serving in the military.”

https://mediafaro.org/article/20250717-the-uk-will-let-16-and-17-year-olds-vote-in-general-elections?mf_channel=mastodon&action=forward

#UK#Elections#Politics#Democracy#Youth

The usual amazing interview with Cory Doctorow:
"In this episode of Dot Social, recorded live at the Fediverse House at SXSW 2025, Doctorow unpacks the concept of “enshittification.” ... He talks about how to challenge platform monopolies and the importance of true federation."

#Internet#Computing#Capitalism#Democracy#Resist#Oligarchy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aULx-29nf-s

Thanks to the social.coop admins for all the help in getting us up and running on here at last! As an #introduction, we're a brand-new initiative from social enterprise Libre Digital, we’re going to be utilising multimedia to shed light on issues, spaces, and people from the margins, where insight can be found to help us all choose a different – better – way. We're also working on becoming a #cooperative in our own right. #safety #sustainability #democracy #cooperation #CovidIsNotOver

🗣️Thank you to Nate for having me on the Coach Vision #Podcast

To fellow coaches and #fitness pros: Our lived experiences aren’t just valid—they’re vital. They help us build inclusive spaces, challenge #racism and #misogyny, and drive #health equity in our industry and communities💪🏾

📣These conversations aren’t always easy—but they’re always necessary. And they’re worth it

▶️Full YouTube Episode: https://youtu.be/9RBVCyw6OTc?si=Kb3qvrKif_Tjpkh2

#Boston #democracy #unity

We’re proud to support @HowTheyVoteEU with our open source donation for their important work: making EU politics more transparent for everyone.

🔎💌 Open source + transparency = a perfect match!

👉 Learn more about this inspiring project & our support for open source: https://tuta.com/blog/open-source-spotlight-howtheyvoteeu

#opensource#EU#Democracy#Privacy#Email#FOSS#Tuta

Year of the Co-ops

[Read on Ethical Revolution]

Did you know the UN has made 2025 ‘International year of co-operatives’?

Co-ops are democratically owned businesses or organisations, with the co-op’s members in control to meet their shared needs. The members may be customers, employees, residents or suppliers.

All co-ops the world over shares the same 7 principles and 10 values.

Around 40% of the UK’s 7000 co-ops are consumer owned – think credit unions, high street Co-op supermarkets and Your Co-op, while over 350 are worker owned e.g. Essential (Food & Household specialists), Footprint Workers Co-op (Riso printers), Go Free Range (Software development revolutionaries: @freerange), Suma (Food, household, toiletries), Veggies (Catering company: @Veggies) and workers.coop (Federation of worker-led cooperatives: @workers_coop). Others can be multi-stakeholder owned such as Webarchitects (Cloud hosting services).

Examples of international co-ops are cosocial (Non profit social media platform: @coop – Canada), Limeleaf (Software developers: @limeleaf – USA), Nubo (Ethical mail & cloud services: @nubo_coop – Belgium), Ouvaton (Hosting & software services: @ouvaton – France) and Society (Digital technologies: @sociality – Greece).

The Labour government did say in its pre-election manifesto that it would double the size of the co-op sector and mutual economy in the UK, but as with many manifesto pledges I wouldn’t hold your breath.

The 10 official co-operative ‘values’ are:

1. Caring for others
2. Democracy
3. Equity
4. Equality
5. Honesty
6. Openness
7. Self help
8. Self responsibility
9. Solidarity
10. Social responsibility

[Via Ethical Revolution]

#Coop #cooperative #Cooperatives #coops #democracy #equality #honesty #solidarity

The trauma of racial profiling is real, and its effects—especially on youth—are long-lasting.

We must ensure that public spaces remain safe and welcoming—not sites of fear or intimidation.

Your voice matters. Don’t let silence win. Know your rights, and protect the rights of those you serve.

Link to story: https://abc7ny.com/post/nyc-youth-baseball-coach-says-ice-agents-approached-members-team-practicing-riverside-park-manhattan/17060854/

#America#Democracy#Coach#Boston#Civilrights#History#Leaders#Immigrants #racism #fascism #sports #freedom #nyc

4/4

👉🏽 As Coach Wilder puts it:
“The only way you can protect people is understanding that the Constitution has a role. And we have to rely on that. And we can’t cherry-pick it.”

#youth #racism #sports #fitness#Constitution #community #leadership #democracy #freedom#Boston#Harlem #immigration#Diversity #courage

🧵1/

🚨Attention coaches: You’re needed—not just to teach the game, but to protect dignity, defend rights, and uphold our shared humanity within your teams and communities.

This story should concern everyone who calls themselves a coach, regardless of where they live. Recently, in Manhattan, six #ICE agents entered a public baseball field during youth practice and began questioning kids, asking, “Where are you from?”—not out of curiosity, but because of how they looked.

#democracy #immigration

#EU #democracy

#democracy#Trump

Like a lot of nerds I've always had a "Uses/My set-up" page on my site. I'm embarrassed that it hadn't occurred to me that I should also have the opposite. I've set up a "Boycotts" page where I've documented the details of the companies, products and in some cases, categories of products, that I avoid or refuse to buy because they cause harm to my fellow humans and planetary ecosystems.

Ethics should play a role in what we use.
#democracy #ethics #climate #technology
https://beardystarstuff.net/boycott.html

Advocates of liberal democracy tend to veer between triumphalism and fatalism nowadays. But neither perspective really captures the politics of countries like Poland, Serbia, Hungary, Italy and the United States. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2025/07/14/world/is-democracy-stalemated/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #commentary #worldnews #hungary #poland #serbia #viktororban #karolnawrocki #democracy

Twelve Hong Kong pro-democracy activists appealed their convictions in a national security case that spotlights Beijing's ongoing crackdown on dissent and drawn international criticism. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/07/14/asia-pacific/politics/hong-kong-activists-47-democrats/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #asiapacific #politics #hongkong #china #democracy

"The intent of proprietary computing is that everything users do should come under the dictates of the owners of the code...

You can agree to your own subjugation, that’s your choice. It may seem more convenient. It may seem comfortable. It may even seem pleasurable and safe. But in the end, you’re handing over your own fate."

#fsf#FreeSoftware#GNU + #Linux#Freedom#Democracy#Computing#Apple#Microsoft#Google#Amazon#Ethics#Libre

https://beardystarstuff.net/posts/2025-07-04.html

Laleh Khalili:

"Is a moment of horror, really, to live through as the extent to which the expenditures are being routed towards killing technologies, essentially, and surveillance ones, rather than those that could actually benefit us all is really to all of our shame.

And it is also a complete and utter crystallization of the extent to which democratic control over the development of these kinds of technologies has been lost."

#Democracy #Imperialism #Technology
https://www.techwontsave.us/episode/284_how_the_us_weaponizes_tech_in_the_middle_east_w_laleh_khalili

So, the proscribing of Palestine Action has now led to the arrests of 100 people since the proscription just over a week ago... all peaceful demonstrators.

This is the chilling effect on democracy Yvette Cooper (aided and abetted by most MPs) has bought about... Cooper & her fellow travellers have demonstrated a contempt for democratic protest, that is going to be become increasingly clear.

#protest #democracy #politics

h/t Observer