Archive
A United Front Is the Right Strategy to Defeat Authoritarianism
1932 paramilitary rally, Spandau, Germany. Photo credit: Bundesarchiv, Wikimedia Commons / cc My political views have pretty much been aligned with those of the activist left for my entire life. I supported Bernie Sanders to be the Democratic Party nominee for...
Making Movement Politics Real
As a young organizer, I was told we shouldn’t engage in electoral politics - that it was dirty, and a distraction. But after a long run of not winning what we most needed, it became crystal clear that operating only in a landscape created by someone else was not...
Caged Indefinitely During COVID-19
Photo credit: Monroe County Sheriff / Twitter / cc In May, Citizen Action of New York, part of the People's Action national network of grassroots groups, learned of a man being held in indefinite detention because of COVID-19. We asked him if he would be willing to...
Follow John Lewis: Don't Let Trump Provoke Violence
Photo credit: Spider Martin GPA photo archive / flickr / cc John Lewis, the Georgia Congressman who led the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and was one of the "Big Six" civil rights leaders who organized the 1963 March on Washington, is being...
We Need a People's Bailout NOW
One of every five working Americans – more than 32 million people – have lost their job to COVID-19. A tsunami of evictions will come unless lawmakers take meaningful action now. Unemployment is rising - again. Hunger is rising, too. And cases of COVID are rising...
Policing Is Not A Public Good
Photo credit: Sgt. Joe Davis, Utah National Guard / cc For decades, we’ve been told that policing is a public good: available to all, for the benefit of all. But in practice, that’s never been true. One of the basic measures of a “public good” is that it’s accessible...
An Open Letter to LeBron James: Don't Dribble, Organize for Voting Rights
“Don’t Mourn, Organize.” - Union organizer Joe Hill, before his unjust execution in Utah in 1915 “Shut up and dribble.” - Laura Ingraham to LeBron James for commenting on racial justice Dear LeBron, Basketball fans endlessly argue about who’s the greatest player...
Georgia's Primary Election Meltdown
Photo credit: National Archives, USDA / cc The signs kept coming that Georgia’s June 9 primary would not go well. On the last day of early voting, the Friday before the election, Jon Ossoff, a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, waited for more than three hours to vote...
Freedom Is Ours To Take: Join Us On Juneteenth
Photo credit: Ted Eytan / Flickr / cc “Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man (or woman), you take it.” - Malcolm X So much has changed in our nation’s Capital since my last Letter from D.C. That time of hope...
Education Secretary DeVos Is Using COVID To Get What She Wants
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr / cc As American deaths from COVID-19 crested 100,000, the New York Times reported U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos declared her intention to “force” public school districts to spend a large portion of federal funds they’re...
