A little over a decade ago, when the world was just emerging from the ruins of the financial crisis, two Dutch guys met in an Amsterdam apartment and set out on a mission: to build an online platform to cover the emerging wave of global uprisings.

It was the spring of 2011: Tunisian and Egyptian revolutionaries had just overthrown their dictators, anti-austerity protests were kicking off in Spain and Greece, and the Occupy movement would soon take the world by storm. There was an urgent need for in-depth coverage and critical analysis of these historic developments, but few outlets capable of providing it. It was in this context that we (the two Dutch guys) decided to set up a new activist publication, dedicated to providing grassroots perspectives on the global struggle for real democracy. We called it Reflections on a Revolution — or ROAR.

Over the next years, this activist publication grew into a thriving online magazine with a diverse community of contributors and a growing international readership. Working as volunteers on a shoestring budget, we published eight thematic print issues, four special online issues, dozens of films and over a thousand long-read essays by authors from all over the world. All of this content has always been freely accessible on our website, without ads or paywall, under a Creative Commons license. Much of it has also been translated and/or republished elsewhere.

Looking back, we are immensely grateful that we were able to do all of this at such a critical juncture in world history. The fact that we managed to keep the publication going during this tumultuous decade far exceeded any expectations we had when we first set out on our journey more than ten years ago. Clearly, none of this would have been possible without the contributions of our authors and your continued support as ROAR readers and donors. Over the years, millions of you visited our website and shared our content, thousands of you took out subscriptions to our print issues, and hundreds of you donated on our Patreon page. We have always been incredibly humbled by this unexpected interest in our project. It’s the one thing that kept us going for over a decade.

Today, this long journey finally comes to an end. It is with a mixture of sadness and pride that we announce the discontinuation of ROAR as an active publication. After more than ten years of constant engagement, we feel the time has come for a fresh beginning: an opportunity to catch our breath and explore new horizons, before pouring our energy into exciting new challenges. We are not yet sure what form these future projects may take, but if you would like to stay informed about any of our upcoming activities, please feel free to sign up to our mailing list here.

Thankfully, the independent media ecology in 2022 is a much livelier place and a lot more diverse than it was when we first started out back in 2011. We are confident that the next generation of radical writers and media activists will continue to thrive in this environment. If you enjoyed reading ROAR in the past, please consider supporting some of these new grassroots initiatives in the future. We really need them to navigate the historic crises that lie ahead.

Meanwhile, we are using our remaining funds to preserve this website as an online archive covering a decade’s worth of reflections on social movements and radical politics. We are working on an improved user experience that should make it easier for researchers and organizers to find our most relevant content. We are committed to keeping this ROAR archive (along with all our content) online for at least another decade — and hopefully for much longer.

Over the years, we have had the great privilege to welcome a number of fellow travelers on our journey, all of whom made a unique and invaluable contribution to the project. ROAR would not have been the publication it is today without the help and support of Bojan Kanižaj, Bojan Opačak, Mario Janković, Carlos Declós, Leonidas Oikonomakis, Jelle Bruinsma, Marianne Maeckelbergh, Brandon Jourdan, Mirko Rastić, Zoran Svilar, Tanya Andrusieczko, Kai Heron, Eleanor Finley and Liam Hough. We owe a great debt of gratitude to each and everyone of you.

We want to end with a special word of thanks to Fiona Dove and Nick Buxton at the Transnational Institute, whose faith in the project helped keep ROAR afloat during these past few years. And thanks again to all of our readers for your continued interest in the magazine.

We will see you in the streets!

In solidarity,

Joris & Jerome