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This Week in People’s History, Mar 19–25

Portside
1935 newspaper with headline Harlem Uprising Reveals Misery
Rioters in Harlem Win Concessions (1935), A Big Win for White-Collar Strikers (2000), A Century of Classroom Censorship (1925), Witch-Hunt Targets Get a Very Belated Apology (1980), The Long Road from Selma (1965)

Learning From the Courage of the Civil Rights Movement

Jeanne Theoharis Convergence
Many on the Left are wondering what to do against the Trump administration’s vicious assaults on workers, immigrants, and free speech. We can look to US civil rights activists, who kept taking great risks even after demoralizing setbacks.

Unionizing UnitedHealthcare

Benjamin Y. Fong Convergence
The largest NLRB union election win in February was at the primary care group Optum Care, a subsidiary of UnitedHealthcare. The vertical integration of health care has brought frustrating consequences for health workers, who are now organizing

Heather Cox Richardson on March 15th, the Day Maine Joined the Union

Heather Cox Richardson Letters from an American
Maine's petition for statehood was stopped dead by southerners who refused to permit a free state—one that did not permit human enslavement—to enter the Union without a corresponding “slave state” resulting in the infamous "Missouri Compromise."

We Can Organize Amazon, but Only if We Understand It

Stephen Maher and Scott Aquanno, Benjamin Y. Fong and Scott Jenkins Convergence
Organizing Amazon workers is both an existential challenge and an opportunity for labor. But the company’s cash advantages and operational flexibility mean that traditional union tactics won’t be enough. We need strategies that combine disruption and