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This Week in People’s History, May 6–12, 2026

Portside
Official portrait of Russian Czar Nicholas II
The Czar Saved His Neck, but Not Forever (1906), Major Demonstrations Need Lots of Planning, but Not Always (1970), If Ending Slavery Was Hard, Why Was Woman Suffrage Even Harder? (1866), A Big Step Down the Slippery Slope in Vietnam (1961)

Tony Mazzocchi Embodied the Best of the Labor Movement

Steve Early and Rand Wilson Jacobin
As an OCAW local and national officer, Mazzocchi juggled day-to-day union responsibilities with a commitment to civil rights, labor-based environmentalism, job safety reform, single-payer health care, nuclear disarmament, and union democracy.

Who Killed the Florida Orange?

Alexander Sammon Slate
Deep in desiccated Southern groves, the powerhouse of American citrus is suffering a brutal, unrelenting decline. No one wants to face what that means.

Capitalism Was Built on the Ruins of the Commons

Peter Linebaugh, Daniel Denvir Jacobin
The Industrial Revolution's chief product was not goods, but a new class of laborers who owned nothing and worked to survive. Historian Peter Linebaugh traces the creation of this working class through the violent enclosure of the commons they once r

Dr Freezelove

Laleh Khalili London Review of Books
Who owns the Arctic?