This Week in People’s History, Aug 13–19, 2025

A formal portrait of Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass’ Winning Oratorical Debut (1841), Setting the Standard for Jury Nullification (1670), “Free Joan Little!” Done That. (1975), A Dire Warning, Heeded Not (1975), VERY Late, But Never TOO Late (1920)

Bullets in the Windows

First: gunshots, lockdown. The headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control campus in Atlanta was under attack. Dozens of my friends and colleagues were inside.

International Forum for Peace 2025 (Brussels)

The Forum gathered diverse voices advocating peace, climate justice, and social justice, seeking to break Europe’s political deadlock and avert its march to war. The Forum concluded with a common declaration.

The Death of the Fourth American Republic

Last Friday, the Supreme Court all but announced how it would rule on the future of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Genes: Different Parent - Different Effect

New approach finds ‘parent-of-origin’ effects in more than a dozen genes — without the need for parental data.

IRS: Churches Can Endorse Candidates, Result?

While the IRS move applies across the country, Texas — with more than 200 megachurches — will be the epicenter for pastors and congregations to test out their new influence, one expert said.

Sisi Accuses Israel of Genocide-Signs Israeli Gas Deal

The massive deal will see Egypt redouble its energy dependence on Israeli gas exports even as the war on Gaza has placed a strain on bilateral relations.

We Don’t Need Nuclear Reactors on the Moon

Transportation Secretary and acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy's plan to fast-track nuclear reactors on the moon is a dangerous distraction.

Is Trump the Real Problem

How social movements like Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street forced politicians to abandon austerity economics during the pandemic -- what it will take to make those changes permanent in the face of Trump's renewed politics of division?

Hysteria Over Mamdani’s Crime Platform Is Based on Lies

Mamdani’s critics have launched a smear campaign that ignores that police pose an existential threat to victims—and all of us.
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Culture

poetry

In Breath / Out Breath

Esther Kamkar
Iranian-American poet Esther Kamkar has lived in both Iran and Israel. Rather than split herself in two, she strives to knit her warring halves together.

books

The Most Important Book of 2025

Paul Buhle Portside
If denial of collective self-determination of a people is a sin of the modern age, as Israeli defenders often repeat, what of the self-determination of Palestinians? Palestinian violence falls and rises when the hopes for autonomy...[are] crushed...

books

The Liberal Who Hates Leftists

Pratinav Anil The Guardian
In his caustic critique of identity politics, Williams ends up condemning every kind of collective action.

Labor

labor

Everyone Hates Airlines, Especially the Workers Set To Strike

Adam D. K. King Jacobin
The flying experience is increasingly miserable, for both passengers and the people working the cabin. While Air Canada executives rake in millions, flight attendants are unpaid for large parts of their job and ready to strike.

labor

Bringing Labor Stories to Conservative Communities

Tim Sheard & Len Shindel Portside
My book is quenching the throats of those who are sick of seeing the wealthy and powerful credited with everything good in the county and the working families castigated for their backwardness by the privileged members of both political parties.

labor

A Spark of Hope From Scrappy Federal Workers

Hadas Thier Hammer & Hope
The federal work force, like much of the country, is in a do-or-die moment. As federal unions engage in lengthy legal battles, the growing Federal Unionists Network has provided a fulcrum for rank-and-file members who don’t want to wait to resist.

labor

“No Tax on Tips” Is an Industry Plant

Eyal Press The New Yorker
Trump’s “populist” policy is backed by the National Restaurant Association—probably because it won’t stop establishments from paying servers below the minimum wage.

Friday nite video

video

Is Information a Fundamental Force of Our Universe?

Researchers put forward a bold new law of nature — one that could explain how everything in the universe evolves, from atoms, minerals and stars to living cells, ecosystems and even human civilization