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Strategize!

strategy-iconThe section provides articles on strategy to assist you in making your campaigns more effective. They include case studies of social movements and information about the current resistance environment. Visit the Resources Page for links to organizations that provide both online and in-person training on strategy and tools for designing and evaluating your campaigns and actions.

Don’t Let Insurance Companies Fleece Homeowners

March 4, 2025 Kelsey Condon, Counter Punch. , , ,
As climate-fueled disasters escalate, insurers are getting richer while leaving Americans in the lurch. Citing climate-related losses, many insurance companies are exorbitantly inflating rates, refusing to renew policies, and delaying, denying, or underpaying claims. The latest of many examples is Los Angeles, where wildfires devoured over 40,000 acres and left thousands unhoused and unemployed. Many families were dropped by their insurers or struggled to find affordable options before the fires. Some turned to the state’s coverage plan, which costs more and covers less.

How Rank-And-File Democracy Transformed The Teamsters And UAW

March 3, 2025 Michael J. Goldberg, Power At Work. , , , , , , ,
It’s well known in labor circles that the 2020’s opened with a tremendous resurgence of rank-and-file activism in the workplace. Beginning with 2021’s “Striketober” and sparked initially by the hardships of the pandemic and emboldened by the labor shortages that followed, that upsurge targeted union and nonunion workplaces alike. Among the collective bargaining breakthroughs in already unionized workplaces, two of the most important involved the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and the United Auto Workers (UAW). In 2023, the IBT won a historic contract with its largest employer, UPS, without having to follow through on its threat to strike.

Speak, Claudia!

March 2, 2025 Patrick Lawrence, Scheer Post. , , , ,
Lago de Chapala, Mexico—Watching that procession of hapless European supplicants passing through the Oval Office this week, my mind wandered briefly and came back with an imaginary scene I found pleasurable and instructive all at once: What if Claudia Sheinbaum went to see President Trump right after Andrzej Duda, the ineffectual Polish president, Emmanuel Macron, the ineffectual French president, and Keir Starmer, the hopelessly ineffectual British prime minister? What a kick. The spirited, self-possessed Mexican president, who took office but five months ago, would have put on full display—I am sure of this—the dynamism of an emergent generation of non–Western leaders right next to three exemplars of the wilting, wandering West.

ICE Reopens Detention Center As Part Of Trump’s War On Immigrants

March 1, 2025 Samuel Karlin, Left Voice. , , ,
The Department of Homeland Security has confirmed the impending reopening of Delaney Hall, an ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey. The movement for immigrant rights had previously shut down the center. It will be the first expansion of ICE detention centers under the second Trump presidency. This comes after a high profile ICE raid in Newark. ICE has also been conducting raids throughout Hudson County. The fight against ICE in New Jersey is becoming more urgent. Delaney Hall has a capacity of 1,000 beds. Private prison company GEO Group signed a 15-year contract worth roughly $1 billion, to run the 1,000-bed detention center.

I Am Seeking A Discharge From The US Military Over The Gaza Genocide

February 28, 2025 Joy Metzler, Mondoweiss. , , ,
My name is Joy Metzler, and I am an active duty Air Force lieutenant, looking to gain a conscientious objector discharge. This decision is largely due to my horror over the continued U.S. support of the genocide in Gaza in direct violation of many of the same laws and values I was taught about at the Air Force Academy. I am waiting for my package to be approved, but I have been vocal about my opposition to U.S. policy in Gaza. Aaron Bushnell’s self-immolation a year ago started me on my journey, and on the anniversary of his death, I feel the weight of our country’s crimes more heavily than ever.

Is Trump ‘Making America Affordable Again’?

February 28, 2025 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. , , , , , ,
US President Trump ran his campaign on a pledge to “make America affordable again,” following the inflationary crisis during Biden’s administration. But since the beginning of his presidency, the cost of living crisis, including the cost of staple grocery items and rent, has persisted. Peoples Dispatch spoke to economist Richard Wolff, who outlined that “prices are shaped by many factors, and only a few of those are under the control of any president.” “Trump did what American politicians usually do, which is take a cheap shot at his political enemies by blaming them for something bad going on in this case, inflation,” Wolff said.

Targeted Postal Workers Are A Bellwether For All US Unions

February 27, 2025 Eric Chornoby, Labor Notes. , , , ,
The Trump administration has set its sights on the U.S. Postal Service and its 600,000 workers, 91 percent of whom are union members. The USPS is the nation’s largest unionized employer. Postal workers like me are raising the alarm. If any agency should be immune to political meddling, it’s the USPS. The Postal Service’s role is outlined in the U.S. Constitution. The 1970 Postal Reform Act establishes postal workers’ right to collective bargaining and to filing with the NLRB. If the Trump administration thinks it can interfere in this unionized workplace, no worker is safe.

International Solidarity Is The Union Answer To Tariffs And Deportations

February 25, 2025 Jeffrey Hermanson, Labor Notes. , , , ,
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain has recently expressed the UAW’s readiness to “work with Trump on trade.” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien spoke on a podcast against “illegal immigrants that come into our country to commit crimes and steal jobs.” But based on my experience, in the long run, international solidarity is the only way we can build working-class power. Demagogues like Trump have often exploited the protectionist and anti-immigrant sentiments that have been widespread in American labor for generations. A working class that is divided, both within the U.S. and across North America, is easier to exploit. Corporations have greatly profited from our divisions over the three decades since NAFTA was enacted.

Action On Climate Change May Look Different Than You Expect

February 23, 2025 Vijay Kolinjivadi and Aaron Vansintjan, Counter Punch. , , ,
Talk a walk through the Los Angeles’ Arts District, and you’ll learn that there’s nothing contradictory about trying to save the world and living a luxury lifestyle. Start your tour with the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), which proudly displays a banner stating: “the future begins here.” LACI is “a non- profit organization creating an inclusive green economy” and run “by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs.” They are also supported by a “community” that includes not only the City of Los Angeles but also BMW, Wells Fargo, United Airlines, and JPMorgan Chase.

For Workers, There’s Nowhere To Go

February 22, 2025 Gabriel Thompson, Scheer Post. , , ,
When Connor Hovey began talking to his co-workers at Trader Joe’s in Louisville about forming a union, he knew it wouldn’t be easy. What he didn’t expect was that the campaign would transform from a marathon into a race without a finish line. Two years after Hovey and his co-workers won a union election in Louisville, their fight for union representation remains in limbo. The grocery chain with a progressive reputation filed six objections with the National Labor Relations Board after workers voted 48 to 36 to join Trader Joe’s United, an independent union.

How Movements Can Make Courts Play A Role In Defending Democracy

February 22, 2025 Doug Coltart, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
Courts are often seen as a last line of defense for democracy. In the month since Donald Trump took office, over 60 legal challenges have been filed against his administration’s executive actions. Yet many Americans are concerned with how U.S. courts will fare in the new tests to their role as defenders of democracy. What if the courts are compromised or politicized? Do they still have a role and can they still be influenced? In my country, Zimbabwe, our parliament is gearing up to change the Constitution to extend the president’s term of office (and its own term) indefinitely, effectively abolishing the need for future elections.

We Want To Build Communities Of Readers

February 21, 2025 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. , , , ,
There are days when the dusk of events settles heavily on me, and I try to find a way to retreat into a quiet corner and throw myself into the world of a book. It does not matter if it is a novel or a history book, as long as the author is able to conjure up a world that transports me from the flood of brutalities to an island of imagination. In recent months, I have been reading more and more novels – including Japanese crime fiction, a notable favourite – and finding in them characters with whom I can sometimes laugh and sometimes frown in bewilderment. Madness is not new to our world. It has been there before.

China’s AI Breakthroughs Show It Is Outcompeting Monopoly Capitalism

February 21, 2025 João Romeiro Hermeto, Geopolitical Economy. , , , , , ,
The Chinese company DeepSeek has made a major breakthrough in the development of artificial intelligence (AI), with the release of its deep learning model R1. As the Financial Times put it, “With DeepSeek, China innovates and the US imitates”. Until now, the West had deemed China incapable of innovation, and Western monopoly capitalism was considered the summit of technological development. China has quietly and gradually overcome not only crucial internal contradictions but, above all, impediments imposed by the West that sought to curb its development.

Trump Or Not, Africa Must Take Charge Of Its Future

February 20, 2025 Nicholas Mwangi, People's Dispatch. , , , , ,
For decades, Africa’s relationship with the US has been shaped largely by foreign aid, security partnerships, and economic ties that have fostered dependence rather than mutual benefit. Now, under Trump’s “renewed” leadership, this dynamic is being called into question, especially as his policies begin to impact critical sectors such as health, education, and security, causing unease across the continent. On January 20, Trump announced a 90-day freeze on USAID funding, halting essential services and sparking outrage across the world.

Malcolm X, Black Nationalism And The Cold War

February 19, 2025 Abayomi Azikiwe, Black Agenda Report. , , , ,
During his stay in prison in the state of Massachusetts between 1946-1952, Malcolm X began to reflect seriously on his life’s mission. He would join the Nation of Islam (NOI) after being urged to do so by four siblings, a fact documented in a series of letters archived in his Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files which contained tens of thousands of pages. In extensive letters written to his brothers he strongly stated that his future career would be preaching the religious beliefs enunciated by Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam.
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