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Dispatches From the Culture Wars — March 10, 2026

Building solidarity for the long haul

Benjamin Nowain and Jenny O’Connell-Nowain protesting at a Shasta County board meeting on 7 November 2024 before her arrest. | Shasta County board
  1. Building Solidarity for the Long Haul
  2. Lessons from Minneapolis …
  3. … And from NYC Nurses’ Strike
  4. California: Tried and Convicted for a Peaceful Protest
  5. How DOGE Sabotaged NEH Grants
  6. National Minorities Struggle for Survival
  7. Has MAHA Taken Over the Dinner Table?
  8. Racism, Sexism and Epstein
  9. Folk Artists Take on Fascism
  10. Reckoning With the War Machine

 

 

Building Solidarity for the Long Haul

By Adaku Utah and Deepa Iyer, Nonprofit Quarterly

In the past few months, people and organizations have gathered for protests against immigration enforcement, No Kings rallies, and mutual aid support. These powerful examples of episodic solidarity—which are often catalyzed by injustice, state violence, or catastrophic events—spread awareness, mobilize people, and make demands to power holders.

Lessons from Minneapolis

By Kelly Hayes, Organizing My Thoughts

Some community members were reluctant to so much as blow a whistle, to alert their neighbors to the presence of ICE agents, unless they had attended a training. Responders described the need for outreach that allowed residents to embrace their own agency — a process that sometimes had messy results, but often resulted in essential, creative interventions.

The NYC Nurses’ Strike

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By Shella Dominguez, Jacobin

The strike made us different. We were in the fight zone and ready to stay on the line together because we knew that our cause is worth fighting for. Even when things were going slowly in the negotiations and we felt discouraged, it gave us encouragement and hope to know our patients and community support and trust the nurses.

California: Tried and Convicted for a Peaceful Protest

By Dani Anguiano, The Guardian

Jenny O’Connell-Nowain was arrested for holding a protest sign in small-town California. She was put under house arrest and her husband lost his job for protesting at board of supervisors meetings. “There’s consequences to standing up but – if you don’t see from what’s happening nationally – you kind of have to,” she said. “Because every time you let them take ground, they don’t give it back.”

How DOGE Sabotaged NEH Grants

By American Council of Learned Societies, PR Newswire

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) used a flawed ChatGPT process to identify “DEI programs” and inform decisions to terminate grants awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. This was revealed in discovery documents made available as part of a motion for a summary judgment filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

National Minorities Struggle for Survival

Haitians   By Aline Gue and Gabrielle Apollon, Common Dreams

Guatemalans   By Lauren Bain and Andrés Suárez Jaramillo, France 24
 

Has MAHA Taken Over the Dinner Table?

By Annie Levin, The Nation

Healthy eating—a cause that’s as foundational as they come—has gradually been put to pasture as a collective national Rather than addressing the working and living conditions of Americans that are at the root of the issue, one presidential administration after another has punted the problem to the free market.

Racism, Sexism and Epstein

By Francesca Coin, il manifesto Global

UN panel: “So grave is the scale, nature, systematic character, and transnational reach of these atrocities against women and girls, that a number of them may reasonably meet the legal threshold of crimes against humanity.”

Folk Artists Take on Fascism

By Bill Nevins, Green Left

In New Orleans, while ICE roamed the city and as 350 armed National Guard patrolled its French Quarter, the 38th Annual Folk Alliance International (FAI) Conference took place from January 21–25. The official theme of the conference was “Rise Up!”. Defiant and diverse feminist, socialist and LGBTQ+ activist performing artists and their allies rose up.

Reckoning With the War Machine

By Negin Owliaei, Truthout

Despite the abject horror of this moment, we cannot afford to slip into despair. No one can predict what will happen over the coming days and weeks, but we know they are likely to be filled with more violence and uncertainty. We need to use every tool at our disposal to chip away at the war-making systems inflicting this horror, which are so thoroughly embedded in the heart of the United States.