Category: Repression
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Abolishing the United States’ empire of policing
As US imperialists succeeded in policing experiments on the other side of the world in the early 20th century, irrational hysteria gripped domestic elites that were threatened by a boiling US labor movement. Their fears of a militant left-wing insurrection were widespread, and in response, they sought support from the coercive state by applying repatriated…
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See something, say something? The science of speaking out
Tattling, whistleblowing, snitching, call it what you will: Patrick Bergemann has spent the past 15 years studying the many ways that people tell on one another, examining everything from Afghan villagers’ reports of illegal Taliban activity to informers’ charges of treason in 17th century Russia. In a recent article in the Annual Review of Sociology,…
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Inside the Indigenous ‘land back’ movement in Colombia
It is common for Indigenous land defenders opposing the interests of armed groups and the extractive sector on their territories to be targeted for harassment or assassination. Colombia is the deadliest country in the world for land and environmental defenders, accounting for 40 percent of killings globally in 2023. Nearly half of the victims were Indigenous…
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What would a general strike in the US actually look like?
Calling for general strikes is a staple of the radical toolkit. (I’ve made questionable efforts to call two or three myself over the past half-century.) But why has the idea of such mass actions suddenly appeared on the lips of such a wide range of people? There are three principal reasons:
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How the Metal of NUMSA was Bent
Animating all of this is a bigger strategic rift between rival factions of Numsa and the broader federation. In 2018, SAFTU convened a working-class summit (WCS) where 147 organizations representing unions, social movements, and civics were present. The majority of delegates affirmed the need to form a new working-class party, but the question of when…
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A Civilian-Led Solution to Addressing Cartels
While both countries continue to rely on military efforts to counterattack drug cartels, families are demanding technical and financial assistance to accelerate the search of the missing and the identification of the more than 70,000 bodies that remain in the forensic backlog. As a first step, they seek to initiate a national dialogue, with the…
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How to Organize Against Authoritarian Creep(s)
Simply, we can’t do the same things as before because what we’ve done wasn’t enough. Living in these “interesting” times, it bears remembering that in crisis there is also opportunity. We find ourselves in a closing space — our inclusive civil society under attack. There is an element of claustrophobia bearing down upon those of…
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How Unions Can Fight Back Against Deportations
The battle won’t be fought only in the courts. “We need to expand our base beyond the already converted,” Goodner says. “We need to go and talk to people, including Trump supporters, and win them over one by one, the same way organizers do when they organize a union. So we have a plan to…
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In Fighting Fascism, We Must Choose Our Battles Wisely
Since being sworn in, Trump acted on many of his statements immediately and signed a flurry of executive orders redefining birthright citizenship and gender as well as reversing climate regulations, among other terrible things. These issues alone paint just a portion of the picture of what’s coming to those of us who plan to fight back.
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A Return to Leftist Self-Defense
These kinds of threats were nothing new. Historically, wherever working-class social movements grow, fascists see them as distinct threats both because of their politics and the marginalized communities they represent. To guard against this, self-defense projects—organized efforts where people from these communities are trained, and often armed—are formed to ward off these outside threats.
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