The artwork, commissioned by my old boss Billy Steinberg, is a reminder that there’s an alternative to today’s brutal agribusiness.
"We have canvassers and organizers who are ready to go. We saw a huge difference when we engaged and organized communities in terms of the [election] turnout in Southwest Georgia. The same can be done with accessing the vaccine."
The upcoming Biden administration must take action to protect the air, water, land and health of rural communities overrun and bankrupted by factory farms. Joe Biden’s plan for rural America does not mention any kind of comprehensive farm reform.
The diversity of manufacturing workers, even in rural communities, makes an organizing committee meeting a rare and important place: a space where people can sit down face-to-face and confront their differences.
"Organizing in rural spaces with progressive, multiracial solidarity messaging is the future. Either we get there first or white supremacists get there first.”
There are no quick fixes to the state’s water woes – and so many impoverished residents remain exposed to unsafe water.
Rural voters hold enormous potential for progressives. When Donald Trump came in 2016, many rural voters were desperate. He promised to bring back factory jobs. He promised to bring back coal-mining jobs. Sure, these were lies. But they were lies.
What they got: $1.5B information highway to nowhere.
Sexual health is a lifetime responsibility, and we need to equip young people with the tools they need.
Focusing on places like McDowell County, West Virginia, perpetuates the image of rural America as populated primarily by people of white Western European origins, a narrative that fit the media’s interest in white rural working-class voters. But while the economic suffering in McDowell might reflect the experiences of many working-class people outside of major metropolitan areas in the Trump era, McDowell’s whiteness is less representative.
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