By Cynthia A. Golembeski | – At least 77 million U.S. adults have criminal records, including nearly 7 million currently in prison or jail or on probation or parole. Typically, more than 10,000 of the incarcerated leave prison and nearly 200,000 churn through jails every week. But because more than 64,000 inmates and workers have […]
Seattle’s BLM Autonomous Protest Zone and the Paris Commune of 1871: Anti-Capitalist Spirit still Lives
Oli Mould | – A new autonomous zone set up in Seattle by the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement bears some striking similarities with the Paris Commune of 1871. Despite its brutal ending, the seminal event in the French capital 150 years ago set the agenda for progressive urban politics and broader social justice movements […]
Trump’s Infatuation with the Insurrection Act Recalls Worst Political Divide in US HIstory
The Vice President rebelled and sought to be Emperor of the West
Drones and Protesters: How High-Tech Surveillance Amplifies Police Bias and Overreach
By Andrew Guthrie Ferguson | – Video of police in riot gear clashing with unarmed protesters in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has filled social media feeds. Meanwhile, police surveillance of protesters has remained largely out of sight. Local, state and federal law enforcement organizations use […]
What does it Mean to ‘Defund’ and Re-imagine Policing?
By Michelle Stewart | – On May 25, social media erupted with the image of a Black man once again whispering “I can’t breathe” while under the knee of a white police officer for eight minutes and forty six seconds. George Floyd’s death sparked horror, outrage — and familiarity. Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin looked […]
What – or who – is Trump’s Bogeyman Antifa?
By Stanislav Vysotsky | – The movement called “antifa” gets its name from a short form of “anti-fascist,” which is about the only thing its members agree on. President Donald Trump and some far-right activists and militants have claimed antifa is allegedly conspiring to foment violence amid the protests sweeping the U.S. In my forthcoming […]
The 2020 uprisings, unprecedented in scope, join a long river of struggle in America
By Matthew Countryman | – The river was the metaphor that best captured “the long, continuous movement” of the black freedom struggle for theologian, historian and civil rights activist Vincent Harding. Harding, who had served as a speechwriter for Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., wrote in his groundbreaking 1981 study of African-American history, “There is […]
Are White Supremacists Coming out for the Protests in Hopes of Provoking a Race War?
By Matthew Valasik and Shannon Reid | – As protests about police violence among black people continue and become more widespread across the U.S., certain individuals and groups have begun to stand out – including anarchists, agitators and members of a variety of far-right groups. With the country’s long history of racist killings, it may […]
Trump’s use of religion follows playbook of authoritarian-leaning leaders the world over
By Laura R. Olson | – It was a striking moment: Donald Trump, Bible in hand, posing for photos in an apparent moment of political theater made possible by the dispersal of protesters through the use of tear gas. The president’s visit to St. John’s Episcopal Church, known as “the Church of the Presidents,” came […]