Institute for Local Self-Reliance

Institute for Local Self-Reliance National research and policy organization working to fight corporate control and build local power.

Some of our programs also have their own presence on Facebook. See our work on Community Broadband Networks () and Energy Self-Reliant States ().

10/08/2026

As Digital Inclusion Week 2026 kicks off October 4-10, the Building for Digital Equity webinar series — co-hosted by the Institute for Local Self Reliance’s (ILSR) Community Broadband Networks Initiative and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) — returns with a timely question: with federal support for digital equity work in retreat, what does it actually take to keep this work alive, growing, and reaching people at the local level?

10/02/2026

The line connecting German industrial monopolies to the N**i regime’s atrocities seems clear in hindsight, but it’s easy to miss in the moment, as too many people did. Concentrating technological and economic power in a few companies creates powerful partners for authoritarian leaders. 

Today, American monopolists help fund Trump’s ballroom while their companies provide the technological infrastructure to support ICE and DHS. We can’t trust corporations to preserve democratic freedoms and protect human life when cooperating with authoritarianism is more profitable. Like the postwar trustbusters, we “must take decisive action if we’re to avoid teetering over the precipice of monopoly fascism where we as a country are currently perched,” Ron Knox writes in Democracy Journal.

10/02/2026

The immense corporate concentration in our current economy wasn’t inevitable. In the 1950s, lawmakers closed a major merger loophole, helping to usher in decades of stronger antitrust enforcement. In the 1970s, regulators attempted to take on oligopolies. But in the 1980s, powerful corporations and far-right economists successfully pushed to reverse this trend. 

We feel the consequences of these policy decisions every time companies conspire to raise prices and limit choices. Now, we’re at a crossroads: take decisive antimonopoly action to protect liberty and democracy, or suffer the consequences of further ceding political power to a small group of corporate interests. Once again, we can choose to fight back.

10/02/2026

After World War II, American officials understood that the dangers of monopolies weren’t unique to Germany. In fact, in the decades leading up to the war, U.S. monopolies like Standard Oil had conspired with German companies to entrench their dominance and limit competition. “The defeat of the N**i armies will have to be followed by the eradication of these weapons of economic warfare,” President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote in 1944.

The lesson they learned is still true: the consolidation of economic power and the consolidation of political power go hand in hand. In order to prevent rising fascism at home, we have to dismantle the concentration that enables it.

10/02/2026

The story of IG Farben’s complicity in the Holocaust is a sobering reminder of the dangers of unchecked corporate concentration. We can’t count on corporations to protect our health, keep necessities affordable, or defend our freedom when doing so conflicts with their bottom line.

N**i Germany’s war machine was largely powered by one industrial giant. The mergers that formed IG Farben weren’t intended to fuel the Holocaust, but when Hi**er rose to power, that didn’t matter — fascism was profitable. Farben’s enormous industrial capacity helped the N**i regime wage war and commit mass murder on a devastating scale. 

Read the full story from ILSR’s Ron Knox in Democracy Journal (link in bio).

09/29/2026

Whether or not you buy Amazon ads — or even shop on Amazon at all — you’re probably paying higher prices as a result of Amazon’s latest scheme. The FTC and 22 states just sued Amazon for rigging advertising auctions at the expense of third-party sellers, consumers, and competition. In total, this deceptive practice likely extracted tens of billions of dollars from small business owners and other Amazon sellers — and the costs were largely passed on to consumers buying groceries, medication, school supplies, and other everyday goods.

09/11/2026

What happens when a data center comes to town?

Communities across the country are asking that question and organizing to make sure their voices are heard. In our latest episode, Danny Caine of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance discusses the growing pushback against giant data centers and what it means for local communities.

We also look at changes affecting shareholder resolutions, a ruling that could shape how AI companies operate, and what the new Trump Accounts for kids mean for responsible investing.

Listen to the latest episode via links in the comment and join the conversation.

08/25/2026

SoCal Edison’s failure to act on repeated safety warnings before the deadly Eaton fire exposes a flaw in the investor-owned utility model: because utilities earn shareholder profits on capital investments, they have an incentive to prioritize new infrastructure over routine maintenance. It’s a tragic example of the danger of allowing private utilities to shape the rules meant to govern them — and it demonstrates the need for structural change.

07/27/2026

Big Tech companies are trying to sneak data centers into communities through a familiar Trojan horse: misleading promises about job creation and economic development. But next door to Elon Musk’s Colossus data centers, residents of historically Black neighborhoods in South Memphis describe a very different reality — enormous plumes of pollution, horrible smells, dozens of unpermitted methane gas turbines, heavy construction traffic, and children forced to miss school due to respiratory illnesses. 

The truth is that data centers rarely create long-term local jobs, despite Big Tech’s multimillion-dollar ad campaigns claiming the opposite. On top of that, many states and counties offer enormous tax incentives for data center projects, sacrificing revenue that could otherwise support public infrastructure. By concealing the costs and exaggerating the benefits, tech giants are robbing communities of the agency to make fully informed decisions about their own future.

07/10/2026

The DOJ and 17 states accused three major egg producers of working together to raise prices — and then agreed to settle the case for little more than a slap on the wrist. Not only does the settlement fail to hold these egg producers accountable, it also sends the wrong message to companies across the economy.

This case is just one of many examples showing how dominant corporations manipulate markets. An unsealed FTC complaint revealed that PepsiCo gave Walmart special discounts and blocked other retailers from offering lower prices. The DOJ sued RealPage over an alleged algorithmic pricing scheme that artificially inflated rents across the country. And California is currently suing Amazon for pressuring vendors to raise prices on rival sites like Chewy and Target.

These cases all point to the same structural problems, and they call for structural solutions — not just fines that can be shrugged off as the cost of doing business.

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