This Week in People’s History, Jan 22–28

Drawing of soldiers shooting demonstrators in St. Petersburg
The Long, Long, Road to Revolution (1905), ‘Can’t Nobody Lick Us’ (1940), Voter Suppression Meets Its Match (1965), Fluoride’s Safe to Drink, Period (1945), Designing the Trail of Tears (1825)

A Brief Guide to Trump and the Spectacle

If Trump is what the image-world has now revealed itself to be – if he’s the ‘society’ we have settled for, looming against us, cruel and false and ugly and determined to destroy – then what answer is left but a fight to the finish?

Running in Circles on Racial Justice

The reaction to racial justice is relentless and comes whenever strives are made to make the nation more inclusive.

My Errant Uterus

In a time of heightened threats to reproductive rights, a women’s health scholar and mother of two comes face to face with her uterus.

Notes on Fighting Trumpism

To mobilize the abandoned working class, we need to revive the idea of solidarity.

It Wasn’t Just Flawed Forecasts

Economists have seriously failed the public in important areas over the last three decades. And these failures played a role in fostering the upward redistribution of income over the last four decades. People have a right to be angry.

For Reality

A few thoughts on the last day of the old world

A Public Model for Home Insurance

We must reimagine our disaster risk finance system so it reduces exposure and provides protection fairly.

Shove the Presidency Down Trump’s Throat

Liberals spent the president-elect’s first term trying and failing to kick him out of office. This time out, they need to turn the White House into a prison.

The TikTok Ban Won’t Help

The TikTok ban is about US tech hegemony, not national security or protecting Americans’ data, which homegrown social media companies make a business of collecting and selling.
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Culture

poetry

Holding Vigil

Alison Luterman Rattle Magazine
As we approach Trump's second inauguration, poet Alison Luterman asks if the patient will survive? The patient is us, the American people.

books

Whose Future Is It Anyway?

Jess Maginity Los Angeles Review of Books
This book discusses the effort by the alt-right and fascist movements to claim the genres science fiction and speculative literature as their own.

film

Costa-Gavras Directing the Revolution-‘Z’

Kenan Behzat Sharpe Jacobin
Political cinema can sometimes be too highbrow for a mass audience. But in the 1960s and early '70s, French-Greek director Costa-Garvas showed that films with a revolutionary message can also be popular.

tv

Squid Game 2, an Allegory of Capitalism Versus Democracy

Caitlyn Clark Jacobin
In the nail-biting new season of Netflix’s hit series Squid Game, players’ desperate circumstances push them to make fatally risky bets on individual success even when collective action might save them.

Labor

labor

Nurses and Doctors Are on Strike at Eight Oregon Hospitals

Kari Thompson Labor Notes
5,000 nurses, doctors, midwives, and nurse practitioners walked off the job January 10 in an open-ended strike at Providence Health and Services, the dominant hospital chain in the Pacific Northwest.

labor

Labor Can Fight Back Against Trump’s Mass Deportation

Natascha Elena Uhlmann and Sarah Lazare Labor Notes
To keep up the offensive fight, defense may be necessary. Organized workers can pressure employers to deny entry to ICE agents who arrive without an arrest or search warrant—or at least restrict the search area only to what is listed in the document.

labor

Union Election Set at North Carolina Amazon Warehouse

Mark Satinoff World-Outlook
On January 7, exactly three years since the founding of Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (CAUSE), the NLRB ruled that workers at Amazon’s RDU1 fulfillment center in Garner, North Carolina, can have an election.

labor

BLS: Oregon Union Membership Grew 23% Since 2013

Garrett Andrews Oregon Business
A new study shows Oregon saw higher than average union growth in recent years, a trend pushed by strong participation in education, behavioral health and social services.

Friday nite video

video

Sing Sing | Movie

Based on a true story of an individual imprisoned for a crime he did not commit and the real-life Sing Sing Correctional Facility Rehabilitation Through the Arts program. Now returning to theaters. The first film shown in theaters and prisons simultaneously.

video

John Deere Is Calling Trump's Bluff

John Deere has announced more than 1500 layoffs in the last year. We investigated what's behind it — and how to bring those jobs back.

video

Colonialism Is Back, Baby!

Desi Lydic and Jordan Klepper investigate Trump's push ahead of his inauguration, including making Canada the 51st state, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, and possibly invading Greenland

video

Rastaman Chant/ Amazing Grace | Playing For Change

A profound medley of Rastaman Chant/Amazing Grace Song Around The World, featuring the incredible talents of John Cruz, Chris Pierce, River Eckert, Tal Ben Ari, Nour Darwish, and many gifted artists from across the globe