This Week in Peoples’ History, Sep. 3–9, 2025

A padlocked door marked "FIRE DOOR: DO NOT BLOCK"
No Job Is Worth Dying For (1991), Racist Terror in Mississippi (1875), Max Roach Lays Down the Freedom Suite (1960), ‘Never Again’ (2000), ‘They Shall Beat Their Swords Into Plowshares’ (1980)

MAHA Madness: Kennedy’s Cruel New Gospel of ‘Fitness'

If we let Bob Kennedy, MAHA madness, and his billionaire patrons redefine America as a place where only the strong survive, we will lose not just our health but our souls.

Labor Day and May Day, Both Made in America

The battles that birthed these labor holidays united native-born and immigrant workers in an extraordinary alliance to demand an eight-hour workday at a time when American workers toiled an average of 10 or more hours daily, six days a week.

Solidarity Response to Anti-Immigrant Factory Practices

People confuse essential workers with workers who can be exploited,” Bibiana Gonzalez, a child care provider noted. “They want to toss these workers in the street just for being immigrants,” said Voces de la Frontera organizer Pablo Rodriguez.

African Union: End Use of Mercator Map

Member states back Correct the Map campaign that urges governments and organisations to use more accurate map

The Genes That Let Our Ancestors Walk Upright

A new study reveals some of the crucial molecular steps on the path to bipedalism.

Donald Trump Won’t Be Saved by Maps

Gerrymandering in red states is predicated on Republicans holding Trump’s support in 2024, particularly from Latinos. That could be a bad bet.

Not the First Time Israel’s Government Abandoned Jews

Argentine junta benefited from cooperation with right-wing Israeli governments. Unlike Hamas, it continued to benefit from those governments in the form of weapons/training, even after it was known that these weapons were being used to murder Jews.

Bernie Sanders: Kennedy Must Resign

Secretary Kennedy is putting Americans’ lives in danger, and he must resign.

Trump Proposes 200% Tariff, Xi Pushes for 300%

Trump's threat of 200 percent tariff on Chinese imports shows a fundamental misunderstanding of trade.
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Culture

tv

‘Alien: Earth’ Is One of the Best Shows So Far This Year

Eric Deggans NPR
'Alien: Earth' is one of the best shows so far this year. Many classic themes recur: A modern world corrupted by corporate exploitation of average people. The question of whether technological advancements are meant to serve humans or replace them.

poetry

In a Berlin Bar

Rafaella Del Bourgo
Poet Rafaella Del Bourgo offers a quick intro to sexual politics, reminding us that sex is "a tune both familiar and strange."

books

The New Samizdat

Lee Rossi Portside
These two anthologies showcase poets that are responding to the anxieties of our time.

tv

PragerU Wants to Propagandize to Your Kids

Lucy Dean Stockton Jacobin
Right-wing media outlet PragerU is known for its misleading viral videos that it has long created for teens and adults. The operation is increasingly seeking to reach children, hoping to fill the Sesame Street–sized hole left by the defunding of PBS.

Labor

labor

Fred Ross Changed Community Organizing

Peter Dreier Jacobin
Community organizer Fred Ross Sr was a key figure in progressive activism during the 20th century. He started in the 1930s farmworker camps that inspired John Steinbeck’s novels and went on to pioneer methodical tactics that transformed American orga

labor

Kentucky Battery Plant Joins UAW in Close Vote

Luis Feliz Leon Labor Notes
The outcome of the election will ultimately hinge on the 41 challenged ballots. The union called those ballots “illegitimate,” and called on Ford to “drop their anti-democratic effort to undermine the outcome of the election.”

labor

The Labor Education That Workers Need Most

Helena Worthen Dollars & Sense
Although labor education educates the individual, it also organizes the individual. It’s a kind of learning that progresses in sudden leaps and bounds, as people get the idea of the power of concerted collective activity and the whole group changes.

labor

Labor for Zohran Broadens Support for Mamdani Among City Workers

Duncan Freeman The Chief
Labor for Zohran was created by J.P Patafio, a Transport Workers Union Local 100 official, in the days after the primary as a way to unite people invested in promoting Mamdani’s candidacy and policies across unions.

Friday nite video

video

20 Years After Hurricane Katrina

Twenty years ago today, on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina roared ashore. Democracy Now! speaks with Academy Award-nominated director, Traci A. Curry.

video

ICE Regrets Stopping This Informed Citizen

Constitutional auditor Robert Trudell exercised his rights to legally bypass an immigration checkpoint, sparking frustration from the immigration agents on the scene.

video

BREAKING: Appeals Court Rules Trump's Tariffs Illegal

The Court of Appeals found the government’s use of “emergency authorities” to tariff dozens of countries unlawful, a decision that could strike down measures affecting more than 70 countries.

video

Putin Is Trapped by Trump's Misunderstandings

Trump has misunderstood what Putin told him, and that is a problem for the Russian president. Is this is a negotiation tactic or just Trump not understanding the issues?