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This Week in People’s History, Feb 11–17, 2026

Portside
Photo of a poster with the words, All Gave Some, Some Gave All, Some Had Bone Spurs, Veterans Against Trump
Hell No We Won’t Go! (1966), A Titan of a President (1809), What Part of ‘War Crime’ Don’t You Understand? (1976), Bringing NYC to Its Knees (1946), Kidnappers Go to Hell! (1851), A Woman in Revolt (1986), ‘No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger’ (1966)

Republican Frostbite

Robert Kuttner The American Prospect
Defense of ICE has become a political loser, and the deal to trade reforms for continued funding is off the table.

Heated Rivalry and Modest Fantasies for Monstrous Times

Helen Stuhr-Rommereim Convergence
An obscure 19th-century Russian novel about love and class and a 21st-century gay hockey romance might seem worlds apart. But both Heated Rivalry and Molotov offer the same thing: small parables of tenderness and bravery in overwhelming times.

The UAW Volkswagen Contract Is a Win for Unions in the South

Chris Brooks Convergence
After over 500 days of bargaining, the UAW have reached a first contract with Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tennessee — a major breakthrough for unions in the South that lays the ground for further inroads at other employers across the regionl

DSA’s “Rank-and-File Strategy” Has 60s Roots at UC Berkeley

Steve Early California Red
This readable volume has much solid advice for socialists trying to revitalize existing unions or create alternatives to them today.  One key lesson is that building a big labor or political tent is better, for the left, than becoming a small one.

What We Can Learn From Picasso’s Guernica

Hannah Gemeny MutualArt
Picasso’s monumental anti-war mural uses cubism and historical tragedy to empower the public against totalitarianism and creative oppression