WILL BIDEN END FAMILY SEPARATION? the Immigrant Rights Movement Prepares for a Fight

THE MOST MAGICAL FOOD BIDEN’S DEBT TO AGAINST LOVING PFIZER PLAYS BANK ON EARTH P. 9 DEBTORS P. 6 YOUR JOB P. 34 GOD P. 25

BY MAURIZIO GUERRERO WILL BIDEN END FAMILY SEPARATION? The immigrant rights movement prepares for a fight.

+ Bobbi Dempsey investigates the devastating delays in disability benefits under Covid FEBRUARY 2021 Dear Friend, On behalf of our staff, our writers and members of our board of directors, I’d like to thank all of the readers who pitched in during our final 2020 fundraising drive. Because of your financial backing, we were able to meet our budgeted revenue goals for 2020—and do so in the midst of a pandemic. It is only through the generous support of these readers that In These Times is able to send this magazine to you each month. Our community of readers relies on In These Times to provide them with information that helps them understand and connect with the progressive movement. In These Times does not know exactly how the Biden administration will govern over the next four years, but with your help, we can hold him to the progressive platform on which he ran. As we do so, we will continue to cover the issues you care most about—access to healthcare, the rights of working people, institutional racism and the climate crisis among others. Better times are ahead. Both for the country, and for the future of In These Times’ brand of community-supported, independent journalism. We could not do any of this without your support. Thank you for making In These Times possible!

In solidarity,

Joel Bleifuss Editor & Publisher

P.S. If you weren’t able to make a contribution earlier but would like to now, it’s not too late—just use the envelope at the center of this magazine, or visit InTheseTimes.com/Support to make a safe, secure donation online. VOLUME 45 NUMBER 2

ON THE COVER Our Next Deporter-in-Chief ? 18

Pfizer Plays God Against Biden’s Debt The pharmaceutical company Loving Your Job to Debtors is opposing vaccine access for poor countries Capitalism has pushed us to “Biden owes this city,” say work endlessly at the expense of Philadelphia activists BY SARAH LAZARE building meaningful relationships 25 BY MINDY ISSER BY SARAH JAFFE 6 34

FEBRUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 1 No political movement can be healthy unless it has its own press to inform it, educate it and orient it. “ — IN THESE TIMES FOUNDER JAMES WEINSTEIN ” TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOUNDING EDITOR & PUBLISHER JAMES WEINSTEIN (1926–2005)

DISPATCHES FEATURES EDITOR & PUBLISHER Joel Bleifuss EXECUTIVE EDITOR Jessica Stites 6 Biden’s Debt to Debtors 18 Our Next EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER Christopher Hass BY MINDY ISSER Deporter-in-Chief? MANAGING EDITOR Diana Babineau BY MAURIZIO GUERRERO WEB EDITORS Miles Kampf-Lassin, 7 Virtual Courts Fail Sarah Lazare GUEST EDITORS Kat Jercich, Asylum Seekers 25 Pfizer Plays God Susan Rinkunas BY ARVIND DILAWAR BY SARAH LAZARE LABOR REPORTER Hamilton Nolan INVESTIGATIVE FELLOWS 9 LABOR 30 SPECIAL INVESTIGATION Alice Herman, Indigo Olivier COPY EDITOR Bob Miller The Most Magical With Covid Delays, PROOFREADERS Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin, Food Bank on Earth You May Die Waiting Rochelle Lodder BY HAMILTON NOLAN for Disability Benefits SENIOR EDITORS Patricia Aufderheide, Susan J. Douglas, David Moberg, Salim BY BOBBI DEMPSEY Muwakkil, Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Kate Aronoff, VIEWPOINT Theo Anderson, Michael Atkinson, Frida Berrigan, Michelle Chen, Sady Doyle, Pete DEPARTMENTS Karman, Kari Lydersen, Moshe Z. Marvit, 12 We Can’t Make Jane Miller, Shaun Richman, Slavoj Žižek Nice with Biden 4 In Conversation CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Dean Baker, BY BRANKO MARCETIC Rebecca Burns, Barbara Ehrenreich, 7 This Month in Jeremy Gantz, Leonard C. Goodman, Mindy Isser, Naomi Klein, Chris Lehmann, John Late Capitalism Nichols, Rick Perlstein, Micah Uetricht UP FOR DEBATE EDITORIAL INTERNS Frank Carber, 9 By the Numbers: Hannah Faris, Clara Liang, Janea Wilson Annus Horribilis 14 Is Mutual Aid a Good Way CREATIVE DIRECTOR Rachel K. Dooley 10 In Case You Missed It DESIGN ASSISTANT Matt Whitt to Build Movements? CARTOONS EDITOR Matt Bors A discussion with Marianela 13 The Big Idea: CARTOONISTS Terry LaBan, Dan Perkins D’Aprile and Vicko Alvarez Card Check DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Lauren Kostoglanis DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR Jamie Hendry CULTURE PUBLISHING ASSISTANT Caroline Reid ON THE COVER CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Rebecca Sterner 34 Against Loving Your Job Gabriela Parra Pérez’s mother, IN THESE TIMES BOARD OF DIRECTORS BY SARAH JAFFE sister and brother look on from M. Nieves Bolaños, Tobita Chow, Kevin Creighan, Dan Dineen, James Harkin, their neighborhood in Portland, Comics Robert Kraig, Paul Olsen, Rick Perlstein, 38 Ore. Gabriela (not pictured), 26, Margaret Rung, Steven Saltzman, Stacy Sutton, David Taber, William Weaver 40 In Those Times: is being deported—despite living Cuban Dissidents Log On in the United States for 15 years. The work of In These Times (Creative direction by writers is supported by the Rachel K. Dooley, Photo Puffin Foundation. by Pedro Oliveira) Our staff and writers are represented by these unions: pms 3015 pms 130

2 IN THESE TIMES + FEBRUARY 2021 EDITORIAL Armies of the Right or decades, the voter-suppres- long con now spinning out of control, the par- sion wing of the Republican Party (perhaps ty’s corporate sponsors scrambled for safety and a distinction without a difference?) has pro- turned off the campaign cash spigot to all 147 of moted myths about voter fraud. These false- those House and Senate Republicans. No lon- hoods are then deployed to push so-called ger would Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Ted Cruz Felection reform, such as enacting legislation that (Texas) receive support from Amazon, American suppresses voters (rather than enfranchises them) Express, AT&T, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Com- in Black and marginalized communities. cast, Disney, Dow Chemical, Marriott, Master- So, it comes as no surprise that this Republi- card, Verizon and Walmart. can Party—long operating on the belief that Black votes are illegitimate—is refusing Prior to their assault on the Capitol, to accept the legitimacy of the presidential election now that its schemes at voter Hawley greeted the insurrectionists suppression have failed. The January 6 in- with a raised fist. surrection on Capitol Hill is the natural culmination of this Republican Par- It is important to note, however, that ty campaign to gain power by stoking these companies, like the slick Repub- racial divisions and subverting the licans who promote conspiracy theo- institutions of American democracy. ries in one sentence and in the next call The story begins in the 1960s, when for healing and reconciliation, have no Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon, issue with authoritarianism. Corporations dog whistles in hand, courted Dixiecrat defectors are, after all, soulless entities, albeit ones with con- from the Democratic Party. This “Southern strat- stitutional human rights. In recent years they have egy” turned the South’s racist Democrats into re- been happy to support Republican candidates who liable Republican voters. Ever since, racist GOP cut polling locations and persecute immigrants, state legislators across the South (much like their just as they supported centrist Democrats who pro- Democratic predecessors) have rallied their base moted trade agreements that gutted once solid around the flag of white identity. And the plan blue-collar communities. worked—until November 2020, when a crack ap- Prior to their assault on the Capitol, Hawley peared. Georgians voted to send Joe Biden to the greeted the insurrectionists with a raised fist. One White House. “It’s just not possible to have lost day and multiple deaths later, an unrepentant Georgia,” Donald Trump whined in a phone call to Hawley—fluent in doublespeak—pledged to “nev- Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. er apologize for giving voice to the millions of Mis- On January 1, the president, not going down sourians and Americans who have concerns about without a fight, tweeted an invite to his 89 million the integrity of our elections.” followers: “The BIG Protest Rally in Washington, Trump, Cruz and Hawley are, of course, the D.C., will take place at 11.00 A.M. on January 6th. ones spreading lies and undermining the “integ- Locational details to follow. StopTheSteal!” rity of our elections.” And we reap what they have And come they did, some gulled into think- sown. According to a November 2020 Reuters ing the election had been stolen, others just hap- poll, 28% of American adults (52% of Republicans) py to join the fray, egged on by their commander share the delusion that Biden won because of “ille- in chief. “Fight like hell,” Trump told them. Then gal voting or election rigging.” they stormed the Capitol. We now face a future in which a sizable block of Of course, Trump alone did not incite the white nationalist-leaning Republicans have aban- mob. Congressional Republicans did their part doned reality to participate in a Trump-inspired promoting the big lie—the day after the insur- political fairy tale. Here’s hoping their fantasy rection, eight senators and 139 representatives doesn’t become our nightmare. voted to overturn the election. With the GOP’s — JOEL BLEIFUSS

FEBRUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 3 IN CONVERSATION

MAGA MARCH TOWARD ELON MUSK’S FINAL THE GIG ECONOMY PUBLIC WAILING AS OBLIVION P. 6 FRONTIER P. 20 CREEP P. 12 POLITICAL DISSENT P. 34 will only bring a Republi- candidates like them who ganizations (CIO). Two can landslide in 2024 at the are straight-talkers, who concessions then render expense of progressive po- do as they say, who don’t today’s unions powerless litical accomplishments. talk down to people (unlike to stop factory closures: ARE TRUMP Perhaps he should spend many centrist and almost- “no-strike” and “manage- VOTERS less time in the streets and Republican Democrats). ment prerogative.” A LOST CAUSE? more time in the library. Second, unions are tout- First, standard contracts BY MINDY ISSER —Harold N. Boyer ed as a big part of the an- now state there will be no Berwyn, Penn. swer, to connect and strikes or slowdowns for + educate members. That the duration of the con- Clarissa Donnelly- DeRoven investigates a Covid outbreak I subscribe to your mag- is fine—when it is a union tract, which deprives work- at an ICE jail JANUARY 2021 azine because you stress they can trust. But unions ers of what Isser calls their the real issues in these, must become much more “power on the job.” JUST GIVE our divided, times. The democratic if they expect Second, management BIDEN A CHANCE December 2020 issue members to listen. Unions won the exclusive author- Upon reading Hamilton did not disappoint, ex- should have direct elec- ity to determine where, Nolan’s essay about class cept for Hamilton Nolan’s tions for all officers and when and how production war (“Power Comes From piece. Contrary to what salaries should be com- should occur. In 1980—as Class War, Not Biden,” he writes, about 40% of mensurate with members’, lead lawyer for a coalition December 2020), I am re- voters identify as moder- instead of double or more. of six local unions, a num- minded of the 1948 elec- ate, and so might have pre- —Karen Holden ber of religious bodies, the tion between Harry ferred a decent “healer” Duluth, Minn. Republican congressman, Truman, Thomas Dew- centrist. Had Joe Biden and several dozen individ- ey, J. Strom Thurmond and and Kamala Harris run on Thank you and Mindy Iss- ual steelworkers—I tried Henry A. Wallace. Wal- a radical platform, they er for “Are Trump Voters a to stop U.S. Steel from lace led the Progressive would not have won. Lost Cause?” I offer anoth- closing its Youngstown fa- Party, which advocated Please, In These Times, let er perspective to continue cilities. The court found for a federal health insur- Biden get established in of- the discussion. we had no legal authority, ance program, desegregat- fice before issuing a nega- Youngstown, Ohio, used and they closed. ed schools, and opposed tive assessment of what has to be one of the major Education by organizers, the Cold War, among other not occurred. steelmaking communities while positive, is not a solu- progressive ideas. —Donald in the United States. When tion to factory flight. There While the Progressive Sidney-Fryer Alice and I moved to the was and is an alternative: Party was soundly defeated East Sandwich, Mass. area in 1976, many here “collective direct action at at the polls, its significance remembered the bloody the local level.” lies in pushing Truman to- THE TRUMP UNION VOTER confrontations of the 1937 John Sargent, first presi- ward the political left. Two I enjoyed the in-depth ar- Little Steel Strike. In 2016, dent of the 18,000-member examples include Truman’s ticle on winning back Hillary Clinton narrowly Steel Workers Organiz- support for price supports those voting against their carried Mahoning Coun- ing Committee (a branch for farmers and civil rights. own economic benefit— ty (where Youngstown is of the CIO) at Inland Steel Having spent 42 years the union Trump voters located). In 2020, for the in East Chicago, Ind., con- in public administration, I (“Are Trump Voters a Lost first time in decades, it sidered the Little Steel know two things are par- Cause?,” January). went red. strike (which most la- amount in politics. First, Having belonged to two Why have so many bor historians consider a politics is the art of the pos- unions before I retired, I of- unionized workers support- crushing defeat) a “victo- sible. Second, perfect is the fer some insight. First, Ber- ed Trump? ry of great proportions.” enemy of the good when it nie Sanders and Elizabeth Look all the way back to The union did not win a comes to political change. Warren can talk to work- the early steel contracts contract, but did win an And one thing is certain: ing people and many will made standard by the Con- agreement through the Nolan’s call for class war listen. What we need are gress of Industrial Or- governor’s office that In-

4 IN THESE TIMES + FEBRUARY 2021 IN CONVERSATION land Steel would recognize we participated in a huge and bargain with the union. march supported by many “We secured for our- local unionists, including selves agreements on a large number from the working conditions and United Auto Workers. As wages that we do not have we marched, we chanted: today,” John said in 1980, “Warren is a union town. looking back. “You had a We won’t let you tear it series of strikes, wildcats, down.” shutdowns, slow-downs, This promise can only anything working people come to fruition when no- could think of to secure for strike and management- ɯ WE KNEW HER WHEN themselves what they de- prerogative language is Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), (after decades of working with cided they had to have.” removed from union con- one of a handful of people the local Democratic Party), Only at Inland Steel, where tracts. Until then, workers with Native ancestry to serve told Woodard: the strike did not achieve may feel they have no oth- in the U.S. Congress (and one “I know what it’s like to be its objective of a signed er option than to believe of the first two women), is on food stamps and to piece contract, did the workers the untruthful and self- Joe Biden’s pick to head the together healthcare for my return to a reopened steel interested leadership of a Department of the Interior. daughter and me. I had a lot of mill—“amid cries of victo- Donald Trump. Once confirmed, the Green experiences that could help my ry from thousands of jubi- —Staughton Lynd New Deal proponent will be- district. Every day, Americans lant workers.” Youngstown, Ohio come the nation’s first Native go hungry or can’t get health- Interior secretary. care. Not to mention those who In 1982, when workers We featured Haaland on our are homeless, or veterans who were on strike at Trum- This letter is an excerpt. February 2019 aren’t getting the bull Memorial Hospital Read the full version on 10 BEST FILMS BERNIE ON THE WAR A BETTER PLACE TO cover. In “Native THE ART OF THE P. 36 OF 2018 P. 44 help they need. We P. 33 GROW OLD GREEN NEW DEAL P. 6 IN YEMEN in nearby Warren, Ohio, InTheseTimes.com. Americans Take have to fight on be- Power,” Stephanie half of all the peo- Woodard report- ple in this country. TELL US HOW YOU REALLY FEEL ed on the increas- The more people Q ing number of we have in office Tell us what you like, what you hate and what you’d like to Native candidates who can relate to NATIVE see more of by emailing [email protected] or tweeting winning elected of- AMERICANS things that hap- TAKE POWER + fice. Haaland, who The new wave of indigenous Heather Gies on pen every day to @inthesetimesmag, or reach us by post at 2040 N. Milwaukee elected officials BY STEPHANIE WOODARD how unions are rising to the had just won her challenge Americans, the Ave., Chicago, IL 60647. of Janus congressional seat FEBRUARY 2019 better off we’ll be.”

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FEBRUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 5 DISPATCHES

Ewan Johnson, a 24-year-old organizer with the Black and Brown Coalition of Philadelphia, says he carries $190,000 in student debt. “Student debt dispro- portionately affects Black and Brown people,” he tells In These Times. “How are we supposed to feel like somebody doesn’t have their foot on our necks?” Most of Johnson’s loans are under his mother’s name, who had only paid off her own student debt (from an unfinished degree) a few months prior to taking out Parent PLUS loans for Johnson. Johnson did graduate from college in 2020—the first in his family to do so—but now believes his “mountain of debt” will hold him back. “I live at home and I don’t see a way for me not to live at home,” Johnson says. If John- son didn’t have student debt, he

PHOTO BY JOSH YODER says, he would live on his own, pursue a law degree and help out his mother. As it stands, he phia—the poorest big city in the is unable to do anything of sig- Biden’s Debt country—delivered the election nificant expense; his monthly for Biden, and now Biden needs payments are “just not livable.” to Debtors to deliver for Philadelphia. The Johnson’s case is not unique, PHILADELPHIA—The Mad Beatz city’s poverty rate was a stun- and his situation exemplifies Philly drumline pounds ener- ning 23% in 2019, and is now why some economists argue gy into the crowd outside Biden surely higher because of Cov- debt cancellation could offer an 2020 campaign headquarters as id-19 and mass unemployment. immediate economic stimulus. Lauren Horner, with the group What’s more, a quarter of Phila- Nearly 45 million Americans Debt Collective, leads the chant: delphians have student debt, ow- (roughly 1 in 8) hold a total $1.7 “Philly, do you hear me? Biden ing an average of $37,468. trillion in student debt. While owes this city!” It’s January 4, Rally organizers linked the the CARES Act froze federal Above: two weeks before President- problem of student debt to rac- student loan payments and in- Activist Ismael elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, ism, colonialism and police bru- terest, that forbearance is set Jimenez speaks and activists (including Black tality. The poorest residents, to end February 1. And with job at the “Biden Lives Matter Philly, Philly Dem- living in lower-income ZIP codes, losses at a level not seen since Owes Philly: Can- ocratic Socialists of America and are the most likely to be the most the Great Depression, organiz- cel Student Debt Rally”outside Philly Boricuas, among others) behind on their loans; these ers believe millions of people Biden campaign have rallied to demand the can- neighborhoods also have higher will continue to be unable to headquarters celation of all federal student percentages of Black and Latino pay back their loans. in Philadelphia loans on day one of Biden’s term. residents, exacerbating the racial Organizers also hope to gal- on January 4. They argue that Philadel- wealth gap. vanize that inability to pay into

6 IN THESE TIMES + FEBRUARY 2021 DISPATCHES THIS MONTH an active choice not to pay. support of Congress (and a mass Back at the rally, Debt Collec- movement), some lawmakers say tive organizers in orange “Debt he does have the power to wipe IN LATE CAPITALISM Strike” masks lead a chant away federal student loan debt of “can’t pay, won’t pay!” The by executive order. Johnson and group has helped debtors go “on Wozniak are not optimistic, and ? THE UNITED STATES IS STILL NO. 1 IN THE strike” from their loans—polit- Biden has said he won’t do so. WORLD—at Covid-19-related deaths. And icizing the fact that 1 million Biden does support legislation true to form, even during a pandemic, we people default on their loans ev- to forgive up to $10,000 of stu- stand united against any sort of guaranteed paid sick leave, even for healthcare workers ery year, which they say are un- dent debt and eliminate student who have to swap sick days amongst them- just to begin with. debt for people earning less than selves to make sure they can get needed Organizer Jason Wozniak tells $125,000 a year, but Wozniak is treatments. In These Times that Debt Collec- unconvinced. “Biden will do as tive will formally launch a debt- little as possible to help the work- ? “THE BEST SOLUTION IS NOT TO NEED ors’ union in the spring. The ing class, and the only way he HEALTHCARE” in the first place, according group wants to “build debtor will do anything is if there is pow- to Whole Foods CEO John Mackey. power through collective orga- er that makes him do it,” he says. In 2020, Whole Foods stopped of- nization” and to “link debtors The rally in Philadelphia may fering a health plan to its part-time across the country” because be a first step on that path to pow- employees, who promptly joined “part of the problem with debt is er, helping transform the econo- the 30 million other Americans that we’re often isolated and we my by winning debt forgiveness without health insurance. Sounds don’t have a common gathering for working people. like a win-win, until someone brings Covid-19 into the grocery area or network to build power MINDY ISSER works in the labor with.” Union dues would fund movement and lives in Philadelphia. store. But just don’t get sick! protests, campaigns, debt clin- ? FORTY MILLION AMERICANS ARE ics and trainings. Virtual Courts ALSO AT RISK OF EVICTION, but The nascent union’s demands housing profiteers are having are much larger than just the Fail Asylum a grand old time. According to Jacobin, cancellation of student debt; Blackstone—the world’s largest private they want to tackle medical Seekers equity firm—has “bankrolled campaigns debt, rental debt and even mu- against rent control and been accused by nicipal debt (often used to fund CHICAGO—Lisa Koop, asso- the United Nations of fueling a global housing public works projects). And they ciate director of legal services crisis.” Nevertheless, Stephen Schwarzman, want to end the cycle of debt, for the National Immigrant Jus- billionaire CEO of Blackstone, bragged about supporting the College for All tice Center (NIJC), stood with its “huge increases in rents” at a Goldman and Medicare for All programs her client in immigration court Sachs conference, adding the company will recently popularized by Sen. in September 2019. The client be a “huge winner” coming out of the crisis. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). (name withheld for privacy) We already know who the losers are. As Wozniak sees things, peo- had escaped violence in Central ple are taking on debt “just to America and fled to the United ? UBER IS RAISING FARES IN CALIFORNIA, even after it celebrated the passage of ballot survive.” He adds that “wag- States with her young daughter. measure Prop 22 (which ensured that its es are stagnant and there’s no Here, they were taken into cus- drivers would not be reclassified “employ- public services because they’ve tody by immigration authorities, ees” rather than “contractors”). Uber used been hollowed out through 40- which landed them in this court- scare tactics to win support, warning that plus years of neoliberalism,” so room, waiting to hear whether fares would increase if Prop 22 failed. It’s debt has become “the only way they would be granted asylum. funny because now it almost people get by.” They were initially sched- feels like Uber was go- While President Joe Biden may uled with a traditional, in-per- ing to raise fares not be able to implement free col- son immigration judge. But that regardless. lege and healthcare without the judge retired and the case was

FEBRUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 7 RESIST

CHICAGO—Protesters demonstrate outside Trump Tower on January 7. The previous day, in Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump continued his incendiary rhetoric and false claims of election victory while Congress met to formally count the Electoral College votes. Trump supporters soon stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the legitimate victory of the president-elect. On January 13, the House of Representatives impeached Trump for inciting insurrection; the article next heads to the Senate. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

transferred to an “immigration ment agency that oversees these groups in March 2020 to learn adjudication center.” This new immigration adjudication cen- how they work, seeking a list judge videoconferenced in. Koop ters—nearly 300,000 asylum of the centers, their procedures says the judge did not allow an cases have been heard via video- and planned expansions. opening statement, was not fa- conference in the past two years. When their request went un- miliar with relevant precedent Many of those cases were like- fulfilled, the groups followed and did not ask Koop to address ly held through these new ad- up in October 2020 with a law- any particularities of the case in judication centers, which were suit against the EOIR and the the closing argument. The judge introduced by the Trump admin- Justice Department, accusing ruled that, while the case was istration in 2017. them of unlawfully expediting “very sad,” it did not meet the The operations of immigra- deportations under the pretense criteria for asylum, then wished tion adjudication centers remain of efficiency: “[The Justice De- Koop’s client “good luck” follow- so opaque that some critics call partment’s] purported aim in ing deportation. them “judicial black sites.” The expanding courts and creat- This experience is not unique. NIJC, which advocates on being [immigration adjudication According to the Executive Of- half of immigrants, filed a Free- centers] is to address backlogs,” fice for Immigration Review dom of Information Act request the lawsuit states. “However … (EOIR)—the Justice Depart- with other immigrant rights these efforts instead amount to

8 IN THESE TIMES + FEBRUARY 2021 ANNUS HORRiBILIS the facilitation of assembly-line seem to be taking notes, asking justice, in which cases are rapid- follow-up questions on direct [ex- BY THE NUMBERS ly funneled with little oversight amination] when the judge seems or regard for due process.” engaged or confused.” She adds, more time was spent in March 2020 Only two such immigration “Not being able to see the judge 215% accessing news on mobile devices adjudication centers are listed well during questioning disad- than the previous year, according to Nielsen on the Justice Department web- vantages the client.” site—in Falls Church, Va., and So far, the Freedom of Informa- was added to the Fort Worth, Texas. They began to tion Act request has revealed plans $282 Billion personal wealth hear asylum cases via videocon- for at least four new immigration of America’s billionaires within ferencing (from across the coun- adjudication centers. Valenzuela is the first month of lockdown try) as early as 2018, and at least hopeful their concerns “will war- 20 judges have been appoint- rant revisiting by the Biden admin- of Black workers, 9% ed to the centers. Statistics from istration,” but the “clear intent,” 10% of Latino workers EOIR suggest remote immigra- she argues, is “to essentially pro- and 6% of white workers were tion caseloads are growing—with cess immigration cases under a unemployed in December 2020 more than 134,000 cases heard sort of judicial assembly-line sys- via videoconference in 2019 and tem, with little regard for transpar- of young adults age 18-29 nearly 164,000 in 2020—though ency or due process.” 52% lived with their parents in what percentage of these cases Koop acknowledges that the July 2020, the most ever recorded are heard through immigration backlog of cases in immigration adjudication centers is unknown. courts hurts clients, but stresses of Chinese American parents of EOIR declined to respond to mul- these immigration adjudication % school-aged children (and half of 10- tiple requests for comment. centers are not a solution. 51 to 18-year-old Chinese American children) Regardless of outcomes, the re- “Substituting this woefully say they experienced discrimination fueled by liance on videoconferences and flawed court-by-video system for Covid-19 rhetoric, according to Pediatrics the lack of information is det- a meaningful day in court is not rimental, advocates say. Clau- the answer,” Koop says. “When dia Valenzuela, senior attorney judges are making life-and- of women said they wanted to with the American Immigration death decisions from thousands 34% delay pregnancy or have fewer Council (and plaintiff alongside of miles away, with compro- children because of the pandemic, ac- NIJC), points out that these is- mised visual and audio access cording to the Guttmacher Institute sues create confusion for clients to the asylum-seekers appearing and attorneys alike. before them … they are prevent- was donated to “Confusion has arisen around ed from doing the job they took $80 Million community how attorneys or noncitizens can an oath to do. bail funds the month after submit documents to the [im- “Asylum-seekers are wrongful- George Floyd was murdered migration adjudication centers] ly denied asylum, and justice is not and, in some instances, how [at- served.” torneys] can appear,” Valenzue- ARVIND DILAWAR is an independent 26 Million la says. “Depending on where the journalist whose work has appeared in people protested police noncitizen is appearing from, it Newsweek and Vice. violence by July 4, 2020, may or may not be possible for the the largest protest movement in U.S. history attorney to be present.” This, Va- The Most lenzuela explains, is “not ideal for more top-selling anti-racism legal representation in an adver- Magical Food 6,800% books were sold in May and June sarial proceeding.” 2020, compared to the previous two months Koop explains that “such a big part of lawyering in immigration Bank on Earth court is reading the immigration ORLANDO, FLA.—The cars line up of eligible people voted in the judge, taking cues from their ex- as early as 3 a.m. each Saturday. 66% 2020 general election, the pressions, pausing when they The line snakes down the drive- highest rate in at least a century

FEBRUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 9 way of a nondescript office park ist industry, then by the failure found themselves furloughed and winds out onto La Quinta of the state and federal govern- and idled in spring 2020; they Drive on the anonymous back- ment to provide assistance. Now, wanted to do something to help. side of the posh, sprawling Flor- an important part of their social One of them was Sharon Ryan, ida Mall. At 7 a.m., volunteers safety net is packed in bags full who worked for 25 years as a serv- begin distributing hand-assem- of beans and rice and flour and er at Disney’s Cinderella Castle bled bags of food through car cookies, handed out with mili- before abruptly losing her job in windows as drivers slowly pull tary precision by union members April, along with tens of thou- through. These volunteers are who are themselves suffering sands of her colleagues. Since the members and employees of right along with their neighbors. $600 per week in unemployment UNITE HERE in Central Flori- There are diapers for families benefits provided by the CARES da, the union representing work- with babies and toys for fami- Act ran out in July 2020, Ryan ers at Disney’s Orlando theme lies with kids. The entire oper- has been living on $242 a week park empire. But the people in ation is financed by the union in Florida state benefits. She saw the cars are everyone. with church and community do- friends selling their cars just to Every Saturday since May, this nations and the sweat of dozens make rent, leaving them with union has run its food bank for of volunteers. nothing for food (or anything thousands of Orlando residents The enormously successful else). Moved to action, she and left desperate—first, by the pan- food bank is the brainchild of a some friends turned to the union: demic’s devastation of the tour- handful of Disney workers who “We have to do something.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ALL THE NEWS THAT WAS FIT TO PRINT— HYPED AND WHAT GOT PRINTED INSTEAD Doing her best Marie Antoinette impression, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed the $600 Congress has banned most relief checks were “significant.” surprise medical bills, one of the few bright spots in the $900 billion relief bill.

The State Department website perfectly The far-right riot at the Capitol captured the chaos of the New Year by should disabuse everyone of the prematurely listing Donald Trump’s presi- notion that the country will “re- dency as over, then hastily correcting it and turn to decency” after Trump.

blaming a “disgruntled” staffer. VITAL TRIVIAL Biden’s campaign manager Women accounted for all apologized for calling Republicans of the 140,000 U.S. net job “a bunch of fuckers,” even though losses in December. Yes, you No charges will the truth will set you free. read that right. All of them. be filed against the Kenosha, Wis., police officers who shot and paralyzed Jacob Blake in August. Trump Press Secretary Hogan Gidley defen- sively declared Trump “the most masculine person to ever hold the White House.” Sure, maybe “masculine” in the sense of being angry, pathetic and unable to control emotions. IGNORED

10 IN THESE TIMES + FEBRUARY 2021 “I can’t right now afford to give [anyone] a large check,” Ryan says. “But I have time on my hands. I can do whatever.” At first, the group did all the food shopping themselves at Walmart, cleaning out shelves at multiple stores—enough food for 200 people. That only lasted the first week. As word spread, they saw 400 cars line up, then 600. Within two months there were a thousand, then more. Ryan has chatted with countless people as they come through—some fellow union members, others laid off from other parts of Orlando’s tour- ist economy. Ryan knew how they felt; she was not planning on any Christmas shopping this year. “It could be another year before I could find work, or another year before they call me A weekly line of cars carrying more than a thousand people greets volunteers at the UNITE HERE food bank in Orlando, Fla., home of Walt Disney World. back,” Ryan says. Another volunteer is Nick Caturano, a union shop steward back to work at Disney yet, but non-union Orlando attractions and a server at Disney’s Holly- his deepest concern is for fel- will surely be rehiring only the wood & Vine restaurant for the low union members having an cheapest workers they can find, past 16 years. Like thousands of even harder time. “It’s the men- leaving older employees (who other Disney workers, he suf- tal health aspect that worries worked years to earn higher wag- fered for weeks trying to get me,” he says. “I hear it in peo- es) bereft. The union contract the utterly broken Florida state ple’s voice. Even though they has been the only real safety net unemployment system to start call me and say they’re okay, thousands of people in Orlan- paying his benefits. you can hear this deep panic do have. Disney workers have at “The panic was setting in, and anxiety. least been able to negotiate the the longer it went on,” Catura- “That’s the quiet killer in this terms of their furloughs and get no remembers. Frantic union whole thing.” help navigating the unemploy- members were calling him with Orlando is a city that lives and ment system. The food bank is questions; older workers needed dies on tourism and conven- their chance to pass on a small his help filling out applications. tions. The nature of this pan- bit of that to the community. All the while, he was scram- demic has absolutely gutted its “You expect people to pick bling to secure his own benefits. livelihood. themselves up by their boot- “The stress created by that—I For UNITE HERE, whose straps,” Caturano says. “What got shingles,” he says. membership faced near-total you don’t realize is, those peo- Caturano has survived in unemployment when the first ple did pick themselves up.” part by spending money he had lockdowns hit, 2020 was a very The cars lining up for the food saved up in hopes of remodel- concrete demonstration of the bank are full of people who ing his house. His wife lost her benefits of a union. have worked their whole lives. job as a hairdresser, and the Disney has committed to re- “They’re just holding on.” family lost its health insurance. calling the same union work- HAMILTON NOLAN is a labor reporter

PHOTO BY HAMILTON NOLAN Caturano hasn’t been called ers they laid off, while other for In These Times.

FEBRUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 11 VIEWPOINT

BRANKO MARCETIC fended the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, then faced down years of gay We Can’t Make rights protesters disrupting fundraisers and public events. Nice with Biden He ended up the most progressive president in U.S. history on nce Joe Biden Democrats voiced their objec- LGBTQ issues. Similarly, his secured the Demo- tions, some Democratic strate- executive orders on immigra- cratic presidential gists chastised them. One told tion—including the Deferred nomination, many Politico, “They can either con- Action for Childhood Arriv- progressivesO pivoted to the task tinue to just beat the drums on als program—came only after of “pushing him left.” Some the streets or they can start to years of similar protest. urged an “inside approach” to leverage the relationship they The creation of Medicare influence his campaign, exem- have.” Another warned, bluntly, and Medicaid, in 1965, was plified by the Unity Task Forc- “We don’t negotiate with terror- achieved in the face of opposi- es that brought Biden’s backers ists.” But history suggests this tion from the American Med- together with those of Ber- deferential approach is a mis- ical Association and other nie Sanders. Yet, since becom- industry groups—thanks to ag- ing president-elect, Biden has itation by organized labor and shown some hostility to a pro- a host of church and civil soci- gressive turn, stacking his ety groups. President Lyndon B. administration with war prof- Johnson was sympathetic to the iteers, Wall Street bigwigs and cause, but such pressure can others pulled from the revolv- work regardless of the attitudes ing door between Washington of those in leadership. and corporate America. An escalation of protest in While Biden has made some 1963—a whopping 758 pro- progressive nominations, tests and 13,000 arrests over such as Rep. Deb Haaland (D- 10 weeks in spring 1963 alone— N.M.) for interior secretary, take: It’s not making nice, but forced the reticent hand of there are also causes for con- making the administration’s life President John F. Kennedy. cern in his cabinet selections. difficult, that gets results. “Mr. Kennedy got disturbed,” Brian Deese, global head of sus- President Barack Obama said Martin Luther King Jr., tainable investing at BlackRock rode a swell of goodwill and who added that the world is (the “world’s largest investor public trust with scant resis- not going to “respect the Unit- in deforestation” according to tance from progressives in the ed States of America if she de- Friends of the Earth), is to head early years of his administra- prives men and women of the the Council of Economic Advis- tion. The right-wing Tea Par- basic rights of life because of ers. Gen. Lloyd Austin, board ty movement, however, staged the color of their skin.” member at weapons manufac- 500 rallies numbering over Biden has pledged to be “the BRANKO turer Raytheon, is Biden’s pick 800,000 people on Tax Day most progressive president MARCETIC for defense secretary. Multi- 2009 alone, crashing public since FDR.” But FDR was him- is a staff writer ple alums from Goldman Sachs, hearings on healthcare poli- self “pushed left” by what at Jacobin McKinsey & Co. and Boston cy and demanding that the na- he saw as political threats. magazine and Consulting Group are on the tional debt be addressed. That Alarmed at socialist civil rights the author of transition team. These individ- popular anger (and their elec- leader A. Philip Randolph’s Yesterday’s uals will hold vast sway over toral victories) soon pushed warning that he planned to lead Man: The decision making in the Biden Obama toward austerity. 100,000 Black marchers to Case Against administration. Where Obama did face pro- Washington, FDR banned racial Joe Biden. When media outlets and left- gressive pushback, the results discrimination in federal jobs. wing groups such as Justice speak for themselves. He de- Roosevelt took power at a

12 IN THESE TIMES + FEBRUARY 2021 THE BIG IDEA time when the Communist Par- Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which ty was exerting noticeable in- card check passed the House in 2007 but stalled fluence on American politics. noun during the Obama administration. He brought radicals and pro- The ability for workers to form Card check sounds way easier test leaders into the fold not 1. + an official, legally recognized than what I had to do to win my out of generosity but to control union by simply telling everyone union. Yep! The current unioniza- threats. The major initiatives they’re a union (and signing tion process allows employers ample of Roosevelt’s “Second New cards that say as much) time for some pretty aggressive tactics. Deal”—Social Security, the Roughly three out of four large employ- Works Progress Administration + Is this a new idea? Nope! ers hire anti-union consultants; more and the Wealth Tax Act—were Card check, also called “majority than 40% are charged with violating motivated in part by popu- sign-up” (because it requires a federal labor law in response to union list Louisiana Sen. Huey Long simple majority of the workers campaigns. The associated stress and his “Share Our Wealth” involved to agree to move for- and risk are a major reason why ward), has been a thing since movement; Roosevelt want- just 6% of private-sector workers the passage of the National ed “to steal Long’s thunder.” belong to a union. Labor Relations Act in 1935. This dynamic illustrates the im- But as it currently stands in portance of building left-wing the United States, employ- opposition in the halls of power. ers have the option to But Roosevelt was also The [PRO Act] removes either recognize the newly “ pushed from the outside. formed union or force an barriers for workers to form Strikes more than doubled from additional step: a formal 1932 to 1933, with the number election. Those elections unions, protects strikers, of workers involved leaping by are put on by the National helps lock in first union nearly a million. These work Labor Relations Board contracts, and a lot more. stoppages often ended in po- (NLRB); both sides pres- ” lice violence, spurring action ent a case, and then the —SARA NELSON, INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATION OF on jobs programs. The Farmers’ workers vote. (Fun fact: In FLIGHT ATTENDANTS-COMMUNICATION WORKERS OF AMERICA Holiday Association, a protest These Times editorial and movement that saw farmers use development staff union- + What are the prospects for card barricades to return foreclosed ized via card check in 2014.) check under the Biden administra- farms to their owners, led to Forcing employers to recognize tion? Now that Democrats control foreclosure moratoriums in 25 unions formed by card check with- the Senate, they’re actually pretty good. states, with Roosevelt fearing out an election has long been a priori- Joe Biden was a sponsor of the original an “agrarian revolution.” ty for labor. It was a centerpiece of the EFCA and supports its successor, the Biden and the Democratic PRO Act, which passed the House Party want to bring back “nor- in 2020. Biden’s labor platform malcy” in the post-Trump era. also includes some “that’d be cool if it really happens” points, such But history suggests the nor- as “[holding] company executives mal we should return to is that personally liable when they inter- of a combative Left. Wheth- fere with organizing efforts.” er it’s climate protesters blocking pipeline construction, racial + Will this save the labor move- justice advocates flooding the ment? Not by itself! Polling shows streets or workers in key sectors 48% of non-unionized Americans withholding their labor, such would join a union if they had the civil unrest and relentless ad- option. Card check could give us the vocacy may be the only way to opportunity to find out if that’s true, spur the Biden administration just for starters. to meet at least some progressive demands. That’s where the real leverage lies. ILLUSTRATIONS BY TERRY LABAN

FEBRUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 13 THIS MONTH: FOR DEBATE Is mutual aid a good way UP to build movements? AN OPEN FORUM FOR PROGRESSIVE CONVERSATION

MARIANELA D’APRILE Desperate Times, Direct Measures he numbers I am a socialist because I do ing, I am hard-pressed to find bear repeating: More not want working-class peo- a good reason to tell my com- than 20 million people to be forever doomed to rades they shouldn’t donate ple lost their jobs; take it upon ourselves to give cans to a food pantry or col- T40 million people are at risk of to each other what our govern- lect outerwear to give to poor eviction; 12 million people have ment owes us. That’s why we families. As many of us look lost their health insurance. organize, either through polit- around and see the depths And those are just the most ba- ical organizations or through of human misery exacerbat- sic figures regarding the toll of unions: to wrestle back what ed by the pandemic, we reach the Covid-19 pandemic. we know is ours. the conclusion that if we don’t Hundreds of thousands As I have argued before, do something—if we don’t take of children and teenagers left organizations—including matters into our own hands— across the country are attend- the one I help lead, the Dem- no one will. ing school remotely, which ocratic Socialists of Ameri- That conclusion is too often can mean from a closet or ca—should focus their limited correct, but the political con- the bathroom, the only plac- time, energy and resources ditions that have led to it are es they have with any privacy. on campaigns to build pow- always unacceptable. So, in ad- Meanwhile, their parents bal- er and organize the working dition to whatever else we do— ance full-time parenting with class. Certain types of direct which, in a pandemic, may well full-time work—if they’re service, like providing meals be direct service—we must still lucky enough to be working. to striking teachers and stu- be organizing ourselves. Some workers, those deemed dents, are worthwhile; they To win working-class peo- essential, must risk exposure feed into and support the or- ple what we need to live de- to the virus daily (and then ganization of the working cent lives, it’s going to take risk carrying the virus home, class—in this case, union ac- mass power, built democrat- MARIANELA exposing anyone they might tivity. I also argued that other ically from below. Over the D’APRILE live with). Workers lucky types of direct service —like past few years, leftists have is a writer in enough to be able to work volunteering to change brake seen people who share our Chicago. She from home (and limit their lights in heavily policed com- politics elected to office, but has served on unnecessary exposure to the munities — do not necessari- that’s just one step. The power the National virus) are in a semi-perma- ly support the organization of of elected officials is severe- Political Com- nent state of social and physi- the working class; leftist or- ly limited by the fact that they mittee of the cal isolation. ganizations should therefore have to work and compromise Democratic People are hurting in innu- not spend their limited time with other politicians, and by Socialists merable, deep ways, and the on those pursuits. the fact that even the most of America suffering will continue de- I stand by my argument. left-wing of them don’t have since 2018. spite the vaccines. They— Yet, in this time of unbear- an organized base they can we—need help. able crisis and human suffer- credibly call on to threaten

14 IN THESE TIMES + FEBRUARY 2021 The Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus—from the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America—give out winter coats and talk housing justice in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood on Dec. 20, 2020. Mutual aid networks across the country are helping address local material needs during the pandemic.

strikes or mass disruption. VICKO ALVAREZ and winterwear, primarily in Even Rep. Alexandria Oca- the Back of the Yards neighbor- sio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), the most hood I call home. As neighbors visible and popular member Mutual line up, we also have organiz- of the left wing of the Dem- ing conversations and share ocratic Party, has built a di- Aid Can socialist literature. rect service tutoring program A mutual aid approach is for students struggling with Be Militant not new to movement build- remote learning. Theoreti- midst the trage- ing and is particularly viable in cally, she could write a bill dies of 2020, the surge communities already shorted to give more funding to pub- A of mutual aid efforts on essential items by system- lic schools. Theoretically, she across the country has demon- ic neglect from the state. Meet- could work with the United strated the best in us. But can ing these immediate needs VICKO Federation of Teachers (UFT) the Left build power through while sharing earnest conver- ALVAREZ to support such a bill. Theoret- mutual aid? sation creates an opportunity is a teaching ically, UFT could threaten to The answer depends on for relationship building. One artist and strike until the bill passes. the community you seek to of the best-known examples is former union While the Left continues to empower. the Black Panther Party’s free organizer. grow, we do not have the pow- In Chicago, as part of the breakfast program (1969-1980), She serves er to pull any of that off. That committee for the South Side which fed tens of thousands of as co-chair of the South level of power and organiza- Mutual Aid Solidarity (MAS), Black and Brown children na- Side branch tion is exactly what we should we have chosen to build with tionwide. Another is the Gar- of the Chicago be building. the Black and Brown poor. Our bage Offensive of the Young Democratic If leftists find ourselves in group is composed of members Lords (1969), which cleaned up Socialists of an urgent moment—for ex- from the South Side branch of neglected streets in New York’s America and ample, a pandemic—when we the Chicago Democratic So- Puerto Rican neighborhoods chief of staff can’t help but engage in di- cialists of America (CDSA), the and dumped the trash on ritzy to Chicago’s rect service, then it’s incum- Afrosocialists and Socialists Third Avenue. These efforts not 33rd Ward bent upon us to carry out of Color Caucus of CDSA, and only exposed the shortcomings Alderperson such programs in a way that unaffiliated community ac- of the white supremacist state Rossana Rodri- builds lasting, working-class tivists. Our volunteers distrib- but tightened the social fabric guez-Sanchez.

PHOTO BY ROB WILSON ROB BY PHOTO organization. ute hygiene items, food boxes between the organizers and

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FEBRUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 17 BY MAURIZIO GUERRERO Our Next Deporter-in-Chief? Biden won’t be Trump. But immigrant-rights advocates fear he’ll be Obama.

18 IN THESE TIMES + FEBRUARY 2021 ne initiative stood out as especially (and cruelly) effective in President Donald Trump’s often inept White House: his administration’s monomaniacal attack on immigrants. Starting with an unconstitutional Muslim ban his first week in office, Trump signed more than 400 executive actions against migrants in a single term—curtailing

legal immigration, casting out tens of built to surveil, catch and imprison mi- thousands of refugees and asylum seek- grants predates Trump. While separat- Oers, separating undocumented families ing children from their parents at the and sowing terror in immigrant commu- border was a cruel Trumpian twist, the nities. Trump’s caging of migrant chil- U.S. immigration system has long torn dren at the border sparked nationwide apart families through deportation. The protests in 2018 under the banner “Keep current iteration of that system, which Families Together.” criminalizes migrants for making mis- But despite mass outrage among lib- takes once considered paperwork errors, erals, the enormous bipartisan machine took three decades to construct before Trump arrived—from the landmark im- Left: Cesar, 35, from Nicaragua, holds his migration reform act under the Reagan 8-year-old son at the Paso del Norte Interna- administration in 1986, to the founding tional Bridge between Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, of Immigration and Customs Enforce- and El Paso, Texas, on April 6, 2020. Cesar, who ment under President George W. Bush in is seeking asylum in the United States, must 2003, to ICE’s massive raids under Presi- show up to the dangerous Ciudad Juárez city dent Barack Obama. center before dawn to receive his next court President Joe Biden has promised to re- date—despite stay-at-home orders on both sides of the border. He is one of thousands verse some of Trump’s most egregious stranded in Mexico under Trump’s “Remain in anti-immigrant policies, but few signs sug- Mexico” policy, which President Biden has said gest he will address what paved their way:

PAUL RATJE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES he will not immediately repeal. the ongoing criminalization of simply

FEBRUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 19 Dec. 22, 2020, that he would need “probably the next six months” to re- build the asylum processing system and secure funding for immigration judges. He also said an immediate change in policies was “the last thing we need” because it could lead to “2 million people on our border.” Brenda Valladares, an organizer with Movimiento Cosecha, a group that advocates for the permanent protection of all migrants, thinks the Biden team is raising the specter of migrants at the border as a ploy “to alarm people and get excuses as to why they won’t do what they said they were going to do.” “There’s a lot of fear that this administration is going to be very timid,” says Jacinta González, senior campaign organizer at Mijente, a nonprofit that advocates for racial, economic, gender and climate justice. “That is why we have actually seen tremendous unity in the immigrant rights movement to be pushing against policies of crimi- Gabriela Parra Pérez, 26, moved to the United States with her mother and sister in 2001, nalization, against detentions, against fleeing domestic abuse. While in ICE detention, Parra Pérez’s U.S.-based family kept her ICE raids and deportations.” close through digital images on a smartphone. The Immigration Reform and Con- trol Act of 1986 normalized the idea that any interaction with law en- existing in the United States as an immigrant. forcement, from a simple traffic stop to reporting a Biden has declared a moratorium on deportations witnessed crime, could lead to deportation—even for during his first 100 days in office. He also promises to legal permanent residents. Well-established by the send an immigration reform bill to Congress. But nei- Obama era, the criminalization strategy of immigra- ther of these measures, advocates say, would neces- tion enforcement was aggressively expanded by the sarily effect a meaningful change; the moratorium is a Trump administration. temporary measure, and a bill could be delayed in Con- Gabriela Parra Pérez, a 26-year-old Mexican, mi- gress and might expand immigration enforcement as a grated to the United States with her mother and sister trade-off for pro-migrant measures. in 2001. Fleeing her violent and sexually abusive fa- The president has already walked back one cam- ther, she and her family came to live with her maternal paign commitment on immigration: his promise that grandfather. After living in the United States for nearly “on day one” he would end Trump’s Migrant Protec- two decades, and after being paroled for a DUI incident tion Protocols (also known as MPP or the “Remain in in a Portland, Ore., suburb, Parra Pérez got into a fight Mexico” policy). Under MPP, more than 68,000 asy- with her son’s father, with whom she had “a difficult re- lum seekers have been expelled from the United States lationship,” and broke his car window. She was placed since January 2019, sent to some of Mexico’s most dan- in deportation proceedings and jailed in January 2020 gerous regions to await their U.S. court hearings. As in a detention center in Tacoma, Wash., away from her of December 2020, according to Human Rights First, then-1-year-old son, Ezekiel—“Zeke.” there had been at least 1,314 publicly reported cases of She tried several legal routes to stay in the country murder, rape, torture, kidnapping and other violent as- (10-year cancellation of removal, withholding of re- saults against asylum seekers and migrants forced into moval, relief under the Convention Against Torture Mexico under MPP. A federal court enjoined the poli- and applying for asylum), but an immigration judge cy as illegal, but the conservative Supreme Court rein- rejected her applications. The judge argued that Par- stated it until an appeal is heard. ra Pérez had not proven her son would suffer “excep-

Biden told reporters, at an event in Delaware on tional and extremely unusual hardship” if she were PHOTOS BY PEDRO OLIVEIRA

20 IN THESE TIMES + FEBRUARY 2021 deported. The boy now lives with his father. The power of the pen The judge reasoned that, because Parra Pérez and npacking immigration courts that her son had spent only one year together, Zeke “does have been stacked with judges sympathetic to not even know me,” Parra Pérez told In These Times the Trump administration will take time and over the phone. effort. So, too, will reversing Trump’s more Biden’s campaign platform promised to reunite fam- than 400 changes to immigration rules, says ilies separated at the border, and in the Oct. 22, 2020, Sarah Pierce, senior analyst at the Migration presidential debate, Biden spoke witheringly of the UPolicy Institute (MPI). “kids ripped from their [parents’] arms” by Trump, call- The office of the president, however, does have con- ing the practice “criminal.” But Biden has been silent on siderable authority to interpret and enforce immigra- the separation of families through detention and depor- tion laws. “If anything, the Trump administration tation, like Parra Pérez’s. taught us how much executive power there is on immi- Parra Pérez pleads, “I would ask [President Biden] to gration,” says Silky Shah, executive director of Deten- be aware that families in detention [across the United tion Watch Network, a national coalition dedicated to States] are also separated.” abolishing immigration detention. Parra Pérez took her case to the Board of Immigration Biden seems reluctant to wield those executive pow- Appeals, the highest administrative body for interpret- ers broadly. In a Dec. 8, 2020, meeting with civil rights ing immigration rulings, currently packed with Trump leaders about a range of issues, Biden said, “Executive appointees. In January, they denied her appeal and or- authority that my progressive friends talk about is way dered that she be deported. beyond the bounds.” The board wrote in its ruling, “The lack of a stable Progressive immigration advocates are demand- home is not ideal for a young child, but this is often the ing concrete and immediate steps forward. The Mi- case when a parent of a young child is ordered removed grant Justice Platform is a blueprint of actions for the from the United States.” next administration and Congress, issued in 2019 by a

Gabriela Parra Pérez’s young brother, Nathaniel, and young sister, Sinai, sit with their mother, Celmy, in Portland, Ore. Gabriela’s immigration status was compromised after she was arrested after an altercation with her child’s father. She is now being deported to Mexico.

FEBRUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 21 commission of migrant rights advocates from various tion held the record on deportations. That distinction organizations, including the Refugee and Immigrant goes to President Bill Clinton when people apprehend- Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), the ed at the border are included in the tally. National Day Laborer Organizing Network, the Black Shah, from Detention Watch Network, says that Alliance for Just Immigration, the Coalition of Immo- what Biden meant by “a big mistake” in 2020 remains kalee Workers and Movimiento Cosecha. The platform “a real question mark.” She asks, “What are the parts recommends the White House eliminate obstacles to of the Obama strategy he sees as mistakes and how is asylum, demilitarize the border and impose indefinite he going to reckon with that?” (Perhaps tellingly, in moratoriums on all ICE operations, deportations and a town hall meeting in 2019, when confronted about detentions—a strategy that moves beyond the slow and Obama’s deportation legacy by an activist from Mov- costly “comprehensive reform” legislation attempted imiento Cosecha, Biden sarcastically snapped, “Well, during previous administrations. you should vote for Trump.”) Within the immigrant rights movement, the mem- “Biden does not have the motivation to make pro- ory of the Obama administration looms large. During found changes because he is not a progressive,” says the Obama years, while Congress endlessly debated Maru Mora Villalpando, founder of La Resistencia, a reform, more than 3 million migrants were forcibly grassroots and undocumented-led organization. The removed from the country, a record number. In fis- incoming administration “won’t be willing to address cal years 2012, 2013 and 2014, Obama deported more the root of the problem, which is precisely what Biden than 400,000 people per year (a record), compared to and Obama strengthened.” That root, she says, is treat- Trump’s peak of 267,000 in fiscal year 2019. ing migrants as expendable commodities. Despite their Biden was asked in February 2020—as Sen. Bernie contributions to the United States, undocumented mi- Sanders surged in the Democratic presidential prima- grants live exposed to poor health and quality-of-life ry—whether he would apologize for the number of de- conditions, ever in danger of removal from a country portations carried out while he served as President that refuses to acknowledge basic human rights. Barack Obama’s vice president. “I think it was a big The Covid-19 pandemic has rendered the exploitation mistake,” Biden said. “[It] took too long to get it right.” of migrants more visible. Although half of the 10.5 mil- Biden disputed, however, that the Obama administra- lion undocumented migrants in the United States are

Day laborers and their allies participate in the Caravan for Essential and Excluded Workers on April 14, 2020, in Los Angeles. Their goal was to pressure Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to ensure Covid-19-related emergency aid reaches undocumented workers and their families—people intentionally excluded from federal relief.

22 IN THESE TIMES + FEBRUARY 2021 Biden spoke witheringly of the “kids ripped from their [parents’] arms” by Trump, calling the practice “criminal.” But Biden has been silent on the separation of families through detention and deportation.

considered essential workers, they have not received ed if we continue to have this language of ‘felons, not financial aid from the government—as if they did not ex- families,’ ” says Valladares. “[When Biden] said, ‘We ist. Migrant workers, notes the Migrant Justice Platform, should have done better,’ he actually did not learn. We subsidize the U.S. economy: “That’s not up for debate.” can see an apology but it is empty.” While Biden has made a new Covid-19 aid package a Advocates demand the Biden administration shut off priority, he has not mentioned assisting undocument- programs that entangle the criminal justice and immi- ed workers. gration systems, such as the Secure Communities pro- Biden did not respond to requests for comment for gram and the 287(g) program. Both programs enable this article on the topics of Covid-19 assistance for un- cooperation between ICE and local law enforcement documented workers, deportation proceedings, deten- agencies, and both ensnare people regardless of their tion and immigration enforcement policies. criminal records. They have caused the deportation of “We never believed that Biden was going to be our migrants who reported or were victims of crimes or were savior,” González says. “That is why we are being so unlawfully arrested—even with legal immigration status. unequivocal about demanding policies that are against The programs, then, actually deter migrants from report- criminalization, that are for racial justice and that re- ing crimes, seeking protection from domestic violence ally dismantle the enforcement system that has creat- and serving as witnesses in criminal prosecutions, all of ed so much harm in our communities.” which arguably make the country less safe. In 2018, the call to “Abolish ICE” became a shorthand Obama 2.0? for ending the criminalization of migrants and disman- tling the detention and deportation system (and became hen Biden first announced the a polarizing demand within the Democratic Party). plan for a 100-day moratorium on deporta- Now, advocates are taking a broader approach. tions, in February 2020, he seemed to sug- “The problem is not just one agency,” says Val- gest deportations would resume only for ladares. “It’s the whole system, designed to have those convicted of felonies. “The only ra- people come to this country, be forced into an undoc- tionale for deportation will be whether or umented status, be abused at the workplace for cheap Wnot—whether or not you’ve committed a felony while labor and then be detained and deported.” in the country,” he said. Such a policy would eliminate the terror many migrants experienced under Trump, Private detention who signed an executive order to detain undocumented migrants regardless of their criminal records in 2017. he new Biden administration immi- Biden’s directive, nonetheless, could simply mean a re- gration platform does offer “alternatives” to prise of one of Obama’s most harmful policies. the current system of detaining migrants— After an outcry over the Obama administration’s mass which makes sense, considering that most peo- deportations in 2014, Obama announced a policy infor- ple in deportation proceedings show up to their mally known as “felons, not families” to focus on the court hearings. According to the Transaction- deportation of those with a felony in their background. Tal Records Access Clearinghouse, a research center at But in immigration law, what constitutes a “felony” is Syracuse University, migrant families with legal repre- expansive, and migrants can be considered “aggravat- sentation have a 99% court appearance rate. ed felons” after committing less serious crimes, such as Advocates are pushing for more, however, with the misdemeanors (like one “felon” who stole some Tylenol). demand to end migrant detention entirely. They call for Migrants who reenter the U.S. after being deported can the federal government to end its detention contracts receive felony convictions, as can those who get a job and with private corporations and local jails, as well as its pay taxes under a false Social Security number (consid- contracts for surveillance and facial recognition tech- ered a crime of “moral turpitude”). nologies used to target migrants.

ROBYN BECK/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES “We are looking at millions of people being deport- The pandemic enabled advocates to win a partial

FEBRUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 23 The Biden administration will decide whether ICE detention centers will return to pre-pandemic levels.

victory in their decades-long push against detention. (DHS)—has not assuaged advocates’ concerns. Given detainees’ vulnerability to Covid-19, activists “We cannot confuse representation with power in successfully pressured ICE to release some migrants. these moments,” says González from Mijente. “I think In December 2020, there was an average of 16,135 mi- it is dependent on communities to stay vigilant.” grants in detention each day, compared with more Advocates worry that, with Trump out and Mayor- than 30,000 a day during the Obama administration kas at the head of DHS—the agency that oversees ICE and more than 50,000 a day in fiscal year 2019. and Border Patrol—liberals may be lulled into a sense “We are now in a very important moment: We have of complacency about immigration issues. Local pres- the lowest number of detainees in a very long time,” sure on Democratic mayors led to the strengthening says Mora Villalpando of La Resistencia. The Biden ad- of “sanctuary” policies, in which municipalities re- ministration will decide whether the detention centers fused to work with ICE. Mora Villalpando fears that will return to pre-pandemic levels. local elected officials may stop advocating for mi- Detaining migrants is expensive, and the current grant rights, expecting Biden to push for an immi- U.S. migrant detention system is the most expensive gration reform bill. (In an email to In These Times, in the world. The more than 200 ICE-administered the office of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot affirmed centers cost $3.2 billion in fiscal year 2019, according the mayor’s commitment to strengthening the city’s to Detention Watch Network. It’s also deadly. Unlike sanctuary policy.) defendants in criminal proceedings, migrants are not It’s unclear if Congressional Democrats who rallied granted public attorneys and are often denied urgent around demands like “Abolish ICE” during the Trump medical attention. More than 210 people have died in administration will push Biden for executive action or ICE custody since 2003. will wait to hash out legislation. Members of the Con- Just a fraction of that $3.2 billion budget could provide gressional Progressive Caucus did not respond to In legal representation for migrants in court, Shah says, These Times’ request for comment. and render the migrant detention system unnecessary. Valladares says immigrant rights groups will not take a “Instead, the U.S. invests in a model that retraumatizes “wait and see” approach with the Biden administration. people and that can cause them long-lasting damage.” “We have already experienced a Democratic administra- Biden has stated his intention to end the use of pri- tion that told us that everything would be okay, and we vate prisons by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a repeat know that we should not trust that,” she says. Instead, ex- of a 2016 Obama directive scrapped by the Trump ad- pect the migrant rights community “to take actions and ministration. He has also pledged to “make clear that to take to the streets [in 2021] and beyond.” the federal government should not use private facili- Indeed, advocates did not wait for Inauguration Day ties” for immigrant detention. For-profit corporations to bring their concerns to Biden’s doorstep. On January administer 81% of all detention beds. But the two larg- 13, undocumented activist Jeanette Vizguerra (who has est private prison companies, Geo Group and CoreCivic, been living in sanctuary at the First Unitarian Society are in fact “not panicking” after Biden’s victory, accord- of Denver since 2015) accompanied a grassroots coali- ing to an investigation by nonprofit reporting organization at Biden’s transition headquarters in Wilmington, tion The Marshall Project. Both companies derive about Del. The coalition demanded immediate action on im- half their revenue from contracts with the federal govern- migration and an end to detentions and deportations. ment, mostly through their migrant detention facilities. “I am here today to personally ask Joe Biden ... to act immediately when he takes office next week,” said The struggle ahead Vizguerra, who risks arrest by ICE just for stepping out of the church. “[Biden must] protect families like mine iden’s historic nomination of that have been hunted and terrorized simply for daring three Latinos to his Cabinet—Miguel Cardona to exist in this ‘land of the free.’ ” at the Department of Education, Xavier Becer- ra at the Department of Health and Human MAURIZIO GUERRERO is a journalist based in New Services, and Obama alumnus Alejandro May- York City. He covers migration, social justice movements and B orkas at the Department of Homeland Security Latin America. 24 IN THESE TIMES + FEBRUARY 2021 BY SARAH LAZARE PFIZER PLAYS GOD

The pharmaceutical company is opposing vaccine access for poor countries

he Dec. 11, 2020, approval of Pfizer’s al Property Rights agreement, known as TRIPS. Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use in the These rules treat the vaccines as the intellectu- United States (along with German partner Bi- al property of pharmaceutical companies, giving oNTech) offered a first ray of hope in the U.S. them exclusive rights to their production. pandemic. But as the U.S. pharmaceutical gi- Instead, the new proposal asks that the intel- ant ships hundreds of millions of doses to the lectual property rights and patents surrounding United States, the European Union and other vaccines and other medicines “essential to com- wealthy buyers, it is fighting the global effort bat Covid-19” be suspended to encourage afford- to give poor countries access to the vaccine. able and timely access. The campaign for universal access be- Supported by nearly 100 countries, the propos- gan before a vaccine was approved. In October al would allow companies and entities other than TI2020, India and South Africa proposed that the World Trade Organization (WTO) pause the en- Above: Stocks soar on Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine hopes forcement of intellectual property rules regard- Nov. 9, 2020, though neither the stock market rise nor the ing Covid-19 treatments, currently covered under vaccine news offers respite to residents of Times Square

DAVID DEE DELGADO/GETTY IMAGES the WTO’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectu- in New York City.

FEBRUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 25 Pfizer, for example, to manufacture a generic ver- quarter of the world population will not get vacci- sion of the vaccine during the pandemic. If ap- nated until 2022. The delay of Covid-19 vaccines will proved, this new proposal would potentially save almost certainly result in countless more deaths. countless lives in the Global South. So far, the United States, the European Union, There is “substantial evidence that middle- and the United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland, Japan low-income countries have been largely priced out and Canada have blocked the proposal. from access to Covid-19-related products,” said The pharmaceutical industry, concerned with an October 2020 report from the United Nations protecting its profits, is a powerful partner in this Conference on Trade and Development. “Since the opposition. In a Dec. 5, 2020, article in The Lancet, start of the pandemic,” humanitarian organiza- Pfizer registered its opposition, saying “a one-size- tion Doctors Without Borders noted in a Novem- fits-all model disregards the specific circum- ber 2020 statement, “pharmaceutical corporations stances of each situation, each product and each have maintained their standard practice of rigid country.” On Dec. 8, 2020, Albert Bourla, chief control over intellectual property rights, while pur- executive of Pfizer, declared, “The [intellectual suing secretive and monopolistic commercial deals property], which is the blood of the private sector, that exclude many middle- and low-income coun- is what brought a solution to this pandemic and it tries from benefitting.” A December 2020 analysis is not a barrier right now.” by the New York Times found that many poor coun- Pfizer’s appeals make it sound as though the tries had secured enough vaccine for less than 20% framework of intellectual property rules and of their populations, while wealthy countries like pharmaceutical monopolies is a common-sense Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia had global order whose benefits to human society are preordered “enough doses to immunize their own apparent. In reality, these international norms are multiple times over.” Researchers at the Johns Hop- fairly new—and were created, in part, by Pfizer it- kins Bloomberg School of Public Health warn that a self. From the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, Pfiz- er played a critical role in establishing the WTO’s intellectual property rules, which the company is now invoking to argue against the WTO proposal that would free up vaccine supplies for poor There is “substantial countries. The “blood of the private sector” is not some natural state of affairs but part of a global trade structure created to the detriment of poor people around the world. evidence that middle- A CORPORATE CAMPAIGN n the mid-1980s, parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) were in the midst of their historic and low-income Uruguay Round of talks. (GATT preceded the World Trade Organization, which was estab- Ilished in 1995.) There, Edmund Pratt, then-chairman of Pfizer, was on a mission to ensure that countries have been strong protections for intellectual property (IP) were included in these negotiations. Pratt’s logic was simple: Such protections were vital to protect the global “competitiveness” (read: largely priced out of bottom line) of his and other U.S. industries. To Pratt’s great advantage, he had considerable institutional power beyond his immediate corporate rank. As Charan Devereaux, Robert Z. Law- access to Covid-19- rence and Michael D. Watkins note in their book, Case Studies in U.S. Trade Negotiation, Volume 1: Making the Rules, Pratt served on the Advisory Committee on Trade Negotiations for the Cart- related products.” er and Reagan administrations. In 1986, Pratt co- founded the Intellectual Property Committee,

26 IN THESE TIMES + FEBRUARY 2021 JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES in domestic explained controls, as price dermine monopoly un the and powertect of corporations would pro rules stronger IP that grounds on the WorldThird resisted such inclusion countries includedwould be Many trade negotiations. in property.” intellectual to proach forable a trade-based ap support to their enroll were organizations business strategic positions in executives who key occupied Progressively, Pfizer bodies. business and trade associations mittees, com business of commerce, councils, business went networks to business chambers out the along property tom-tom, message about the intellectual Economy? Knowledge the Owns book, note their in “piracy.”as Braithwaite John Peter and As Drahos to follow failure them casting rules, IP on strong contingent trade should be idea international that talks. GATT the in protection IP ensure lobby Unitedof aggressively Nations—and to the Organization World Property the from Intellectual officials Japan, meet and with across Europe tries indus would relationshipswhich go with on to build staff. Memorial 65 and over people professionals, healthcare to licensed vaccine the of version Pfizer-BioNTech the ing offer is system hospital The inoculated. to be world the in 14, people Dec. on 2020, first the of Fla., Miramar, one in System Healthcare Covid-19 against at Memorial Puga Monica practitioner nurse vaccinates (right) Carolina Diana Pharmacist At the time, it rules not was agiven time, IP the that At the promoted Pfizer domestically, and Globally Information Feudalism: Who Feudalism: Information : “Like the beat: “Like of the a - - - - - Intellectual Property Committee played active Committee an Property Intellectual ginning, taking a leadership role.” WTO to the Guide TradeWhose A Comprehensive Organization? cades,” book to according the Pratt declared, de over past three the Pfizer, including nesses, busi government U.S. U.S. and of the efforts hard-fought the from part resultedproperty, in ry, established which provisions for intellectual for development. the victo GATT current “The took some credit for part, his agreement. Pratt, TRIPS current the role securing in important played Their efforts Opel. John an chairman new of round talks.” the in tion - protec property intellectual include to attempts have blocked has spearheaded that agroup U.S. Argentina and “Brazil 1986, in Monitor reported, death.” and life from ing The Chris no be profiteer patents offree all there will and be will world discovery medical which one is in Assembly,Health idea “The of abetter-ordered told World the Gandhi Indira Minister Prime dian Trade in U.S. Studies Case Negotiation During the TRIPS negotiations, Pratt and Opel’s and Pratt negotiations, TRIPS the During IBM including allies, had powerful But Pratt . “We’ve be it the been from in FEBRU ARY 202 tian Science . In 1982, In 1982, . In 1

IN THESE TIMES IN THESE ------

27 role in organizing corporate leaders in the Unit- tells In These Times. “Previously, both had been ed States, Europe and Japan to support strong IP outside trade agreements, so countries could rules. By 1995, when the WTO was formally estab- have whatever rules they want.” lished and the TRIPS agreement concluded, Pratt was no longer chairman of Pfizer—but his contri- CUTTING OFF ACCESS TO MEDICINES bution, and the role of Pfizer, was still strongly RIPS increased profits for phar- felt. As Devereaux, Lawrence and Watkins note, maceutical companies, “raised pharmaceu- one U.S. negotiator said it was Pratt and Opel who tical costs in the U.S. and further restricted “basically engineered, pushed and cajoled the gov- the availability of lifesaving drugs in WTO ernment into including IP as one of the topics for developing countries,” according to corpo- negotiation” in the first place. Trate watchdog group Public Citizen. This dynamic TRIPS would become the “most important agree- played out ruthlessly during the AIDS crisis, which ment on intellectual property of the 20th century,” was in full swing as the WTO was created. By the Drahos and Braithwaite write. It brought most of early 2000s, “only one in a thousand people living the world under minimum standards for IP, includ- with HIV in Africa had access to AIDS treatment,” ing patent monopolies for pharmaceutical compa- according to a 2011 article published in the Journal nies (with only limited safeguards and flexibility). of the International AIDS Society. “Antiretroviral “TRIPS required developing countries, and drugs were largely available only from the origina- countries around the world, to adopt a U.S.-type tor companies that controlled the patents on these patent and copyright rule,” Dean Baker, econ- medicines, and came with a paralyzing price tag.” omist and co-founder of the left-leaning think “It took the South African government almost tank Center for Economic and Policy Research, a decade to break the monopolies held by foreign

Two masked children look past a celebratory vaccine-related mural in Kolkata, India, a country pushing the World Trade Organization to temporarily ban Covid-19 vaccine patents so it can increase vaccine access in poor countries.

28 IN THESE TIMES + FEBRUARY 2021 DEBARCHAN CHATTERJEE/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES poverty,global lay it over amap of lack of vaccine ac predicted months ago: make a map could One of July). beyond stretch may pandemic the reality, in (when, thereafter shortly aprofit turning company may the Baker—so start 2021,”July Jayadev to Prabhala, according and to declare pandemicright the over “as early as says it the reserves AstraZeneca rule: to its own however,has, what a loophole devised be could pandemic. It the vaccine during the from profit it won’t claims it also countries; to poor make a made accesshas to increase some commitments University of the Oxford,produced avaccine with sive storage requirements. of its expen light in particularly countries, many vaccine likely doses, is for the too costly million cost of $19.50timated 100 per dose for first the Germany. from Butes at an publiccant funding BioNTech,partner for example, received signifi developments. the enabling in search Pfizer’s government-funded and public funds basic re IP,hoard “their” despite tremendous the role of They’re it.” pushing this. ones are that the against up who’s stand to going industry pharmaceutical don’t they thing There’s like. the no one than other pressed to do hard be some will and industry pharmaceutical the from hearing to going is be enormous,”is Baker tells In These Times proposal. the force against come full out in veloped Covid-19 leading another vaccine—have de which has Moderna, companies—including ual individ and trade groups industry Pharmaceutical demic waiver—has been akey IP of point criticism. for proposal apan of the blocking on display the in WTO— the in corporations United U.S. States and ment power The to public outsized of health. the domestic labor from to environ protections, mine power to under the of corporations expanding in play Fund) Monetary International the and Bank (such World the as institutions global other and tremendous on the which focused role WTO the movementjustice early 2000s, 1990s and of the Covid-19 follow pandemic. global Their calls the have demanded the laws asuspension of IP during experts rights human UN and groups rights man Yorkber 2020 New piece the in Times . Jayadev aDecem Baker in Dean and Arjun hala, keptand people Prab dying,” there Achal wrote hostage, kept country that companies the drug Indeed, the dataIndeed, indicates the what have could been which company AstraZeneca, Pharmaceutical to fighting is industry The pharmaceutical industry pharmaceutical of the influence “The out its opposition. staking not is alone in Pfizer hu mainstream of activists, global A swath . “Biden “Biden . ------These Times LAZARE SARAH search article. to this re Frank Hannah Faris Carber contributed and ly possible?” as wouldn’t you vaccine want every available wide as benevolence “Why Baker asks, As not are enough. of corporate assurances herd immunity—vague pursue countries rich face loss while devastating continue to countries which poor distribution—in of equitable distribution). guarantee no there is Global North, the within (although, populations exceed doses reserve that their tries coun wealthy Global many North while die, and left to suffer are large, byand countries, Brown Black majority and again, Once of colonialism. entrenched byan legacy informed er structures pow outset to reinforce the from long-existing enough.” to secure poorer struggle nations Yorkpopulations,” New the “as many Times reports, their outnumber far doses that reserving bets, their hedging are others and Canada Britain, U.S., “The match. one-to-one it and would a cess, virtual be Given the risk of a global apartheid of vaccineGiven of apartheid aglobal risk the outcome This for logical is a system designed one-to-one match. one-to-one it would be avirtual and vaccine access, over amap of lack of of global poverty, lay it map a could make One .

is and a web reporter editor for FEBRU ARY 202 1

IN THESE TIMES IN THESE In In - - - -

29 WITH COVID DELAYS, YOU MAY – DIE – WAITING FOR DISABILITY BENEFITS

BY BOBBI DEMPSEY

ade Dunham was 15 when she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Since then, she says, she has been on “almost every medication on the market for my condition.” The disease is chronic and debili- tating, and Dunham’s symptoms are wide-ranging. They affect nearly every routine task she attempts. “My shoulders no longer have cartilage, and I Jhave holes in the humeral head of both joints [at the shoulder], meaning I will require both to be replaced,” Dunham says. “I can no longer lift my arms above the elbows without severe pain. My left foot and ankle are bone-on-bone and become so painful to walk on, I have to crawl. Jade Dunham

30 IN THESE TIMES + FEBRUARY 2021 INVESTIGATION

“My hands are damaged, my knees are damaged, my neck cracks and pops to the point I get severe headaches,” Dunham adds. Because of the severity of her rheumatoid arthritis, Dunham, now 28, is unable to work. Last fall, she and her husband were living in an I definitely cannot old RV in southeast Minnesota, the only option they could find. But the RV had no heat, leaving them in a tough situation as the colder weath- afford to get my records er rolled in. Dunham’s husband has additional “ health issues, making his employment sporad- ic and unpredictable. or mail in the pile of In July 2019, Dunham applied for Social Secu- rity Disability Insurance (SSDI), a federal program meant to provide basic financial support records due to cost,” to people unable to work because of a disability. The program is managed by the Social Security Administration (SSA). Dunham says. “We can The average monthly disability benefit isn’t much at $1,259, which varies based on age and savings. For Dunham, though, that steady in- barely afford food.” come would be life-changing. Six months after applying, however, she was denied due to “lack of supporting evidence.” Dunham can appeal the SSA’s decision, but it won’t be easy. Early in her application process, Dunham sorted through two 75-pound boxes even more challenging during the era of Covid-19. of her medical records—the supporting evidence she The first step is to submit an application in the SSDI says she needs. But her housing circumstances forced system, whether online, by phone or in person. An ap- her to suddenly relocate, and she lost access to those plicant is required to submit documentation related precious records. to their income and medical background. After that, To replace the records, each medical provider will the case is forwarded to a state-level agency, Disability generally charge a fee to hunt them down and make Determination Services. This agency may request ad- copies. In cases like Dunham’s, with an extensive ditional medical records and require more forms and treatment history, those charges add up. documentation from applicants, or even request an ap- Meanwhile, SSA field offices were closed to the plicant be evaluated by one of its approved doctors, public nationwide for months in response to the Cov- called a “consultative examination.” id-19 pandemic, opening on an extremely limited ba- In 2019, about 2 million disabled workers filed sis in late October 2020. Even if Dunham were able to applications for disability benefits, according to SSA get the documents, she would likely have to mail the records. Through the first three quarters of 2020, boxes, “and I can only imagine how much that would roughly 1.4 million applications from disabled workers cost,” she says. had been received. (This figure includes applications “I definitely cannot afford to get my records or mail in to SSDI as well as the related needs-based Social the pile of records due to cost,” Dunham says. “We can Security program called Supplemental Security Income. barely afford food.” Although it’s possible to apply for both programs, most For now, Dunham is at a standstill. Meanwhile, people who receive benefits are only enrolled in one or according to her most recent breathing test, her lungs the other, and the SSA does not generally differentiate struggle to perform at 60% capacity. between the programs in its official statistics.) The SSA notes that, during normal times, processing A SLOW PROCESS MADE SLOWER an application for disability benefits can take three to five months. For most applicants, that’s just the end of Obtaining disability benefits is a noto- part one. According to SSA data, between 2008 and 2017 riously time-consuming and slow-moving process. It (the most recent 10 years for which data is available), the involves considerable red tape and many potential pit- average percentage of applicants who were awarded

PHOTO COURTESY OF JADE DUNHAM falls—and In These Times has found that it’s been made benefits at the initial claims level hovered around 30%.

FEBRUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 31 INVESTIGATION

The other 70% of applicants can appeal the decision within 60 days, which can lead to hearings before an administrative law judge, a review by SSA’s Appeals Council and eventually federal court. Denied applicants who do not appeal in that time frame can opt to just start the process over. SSA records show that, for fiscal year 2020, about 430,000 administrative judge hearing requests were received. Many offices encourage hearings via teleconference—which can sometimes help things move more quickly—but applicants have the right to opt out, and during this period, 34% of applicants did so. It’s common to hear applicants share stories of getting caught in a years-long cycle of hearings and appeals. A recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that almost 110,000 people died while waiting for an appeal after initially being denied disability benefits between 2008 and 2019. DIFFICULTIES AT EVERY STEP The process can seem to move at a snail’s pace—and the Covid-19 crisis has, by many accounts, made that worse. Some people haven’t gotten through the initial application stage at all, hindered or discouraged by pandemic disruptions. Applicants at the next level of appeal—a hearing— “Research shows that, when the Social Security have a choice: telephone conference, or wait for the Administration closes a single field office, disability hearing offices to reopen. The first option still involves applications from those who live nearby decrease,” some delays, but many applicants prefer it to the indef- says Stacy Braverman Cloyd, director of policy and inite prospect of the alternative. As the SSA website administrative advocacy at the National Organization of notes, “If you do not want a telephone hearing and you Social Security Claimants’ Representatives (NOSSCR). ask us to postpone, please be aware that we do not have “Now, we are seeing the effect of closing every field an estimate of when we will be able to hold your hear- office in the country, plus closing many libraries and ing.” And no hearing, no benefit. social service organizations where people might access “In light of the fact that reopening may not occur for the internet or get help applying for benefits.” several more months, all of my clients have universal- But the need for disability benefits has not gone away. ly agreed to go with a telephonic hearing,” Ortiz says. “In fact,” Cloyd says, “as we learn more about the health The transition to the virtual environment may make effects of Covid-19, we may see SSDI applications from some aspects of the process easier for some (transporta- those who survived it but have severe and long-lasting tion, childcare and appropriate clothing become less of impairments as a result.” an issue), but it has created new challenges. Cloyd notes that advocates have heard from many “One main hiccup is the greater chance for technology individuals who have submitted an initial application failures,” Ortiz says. “When you are connecting five to but hit technical issues that halted their progress, or who six individuals together via a conference call, there can needed in-person assistance that is no longer offered. be audio problems or other technical problems. One issue The pandemic has also led to slowdowns on the we’ve had on a few occasions was audio cutting in and agency side. out. That hearing had to be continued to another date.” Nick A. Ortiz of the Ortiz Law Firm in Pensacola, Fla., Another issue, Ortiz says, is privacy. “It is hard to en- has handled thousands of disability claims over the past sure that all parties are taking adequate precautions to 15 years. In late May 2020, he noted slowdowns for both ensure that there are no third parties listening in to the initial application responses and reconsideration ap- hearing or recording,” he says. “The judges are rely- peals, the first step after being denied. ing on the claimant’s representation on the record that “We estimate that Covid delays are adding an there are no third parties listening in or assisting in the

additional 20 to 60 days to processing times,” Ortiz says. claimant’s testimony.” PHOTO BY STEVE RHODES/FLICKR

32 IN THESE TIMES + FEBRUARY 2021 INVESTIGATION

where the backlog may not be as heavy, this broader geographic distribution has helped speed up some pro- cesses, Ortiz says. An update posted to the SSA website notes that it will also begin offering online video hearings via Microsoft Teams. Claimants can attend these hearings using a smartphone, tablet or computer. But these small steps are not enough to overcome other setbacks. Claimants often sit in a holding pattern, sometimes waiting more than a year for a decision. The SSA acknowledges that waiting is a problem, and one it is working on. “Our priority is to reduce the average wait for a hearing decision to 270 days in fiscal year 2021,” an SSA spokesperson tells In These Times. As of the end of March 2020, according to the agency, the average waiting time for the fiscal year to date was 408 days. “We have made significant progress by reducing the average wait by nearly 9 months since September 2017,” the spokesperson says. “While to date we have continued to decrease the average wait during the Co- vid-19 pandemic, our inability to hold in-person hearings has slowed our progress toward elimination of the backlog. While we still plan to eliminate the backlog next year, we continue to work through the potential impact of Covid-19.” As of October 2020, the SSA is “doing very limited Still, there are reasons for optimism. walk-in appointments in their field offices,” Cloyd says. “SSA has published contact information for its field However, “the Office of Hearing Operations has not be- offices on the ‘office locator’ tool on its website, cre- gun offering in-person hearings yet and has no public ated a coronavirus [resources] web page, and finally time frame for doing so.” switched from paper fax machines—which often ran Meanwhile, for people on the edge like Dunham, just out of paper or memory while staff was out of the of- the prospect of attempting this process more than once fice—to machines that put faxes directly into SSA em- is difficult. “I will likely need to start all over again, ployees’ computers,” Cloyd says. “Although there are [which] is frustrating,” Dunham says. still policy changes and IT modernizations that would Dunham did get some heartening news recent- help claimants and their representatives, SSA deserves ly: She’d been approved for a low-income apartment, credit for the work it has already done to help serve the meaning she’ll have access to more stable housing. But public in challenging times.” the arduous process of trying to access disability bene- Ortiz also notes the remote SSA working environ- fits has made her even more frustrated with the stigma ment has eliminated some of the geographic restric- and skepticism attached to them. tions that, in the past, often contributed to delays. “The system is so difficult to navigate that it “Our hearings with administrative law judges are wouldn’t be beneficial for anyone looking for a quick typically assigned to a particular Office of Hearings buck who doesn’t want to work,” Dunham says. “I can’t Operations (OHO),” Ortiz explains. “For example, our imagine anyone who would go through the SSDI appli- cases in Northwest Florida are typically assigned to the cation process because they thought it would be easier Mobile, Ala., OHO. However, as most of the hearings than working.” are now conducted by phone, we are seeing more cases being handled by OHOs outside of our area. Several of This article was supported by a grant from the Leonard our cases are being heard by a Montgomery, Ala., OHO, C. Goodman Institute for Investigative Reporting. Fact- and several other cases have been assigned to the Na- checking was provided by Janea Wilson. tional Hearing Center.” By allowing cases to be spread out among areas BOBBI DEMPSEY is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Harper’s, The New York Times, The Guardian, Parade, Above: Activists gather in California in 2009 to protest past and other outlets. She is also an economic justice fellow at proposed cuts to disability benefits. Community Change.

FEBRUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 33 CULTURE

Against Loving Your Job

BY SARAH JAFFE

he “labor-of-love mation into work of the activities and re- myth”—the idea that certain lations that satisfy our desires.” work is not really “work” and Capitalist society has transformed therefore should be done out work into love, and love, conversely, into of passion instead of pay—is work. But we are beginning to change our cracking. minds about our priorities, whether capi- There are occasional plea- tal likes it or not. Surveys find more peo- sures to be had on the job, cer- ple rating “working hours are short, lots tainly; we should take any opportunity of free time” as a characteristic of a desir- Tfor happiness and connection that we able job over time, while their desire for get. I do believe, however, that our de- “important” work went down. This was sire for happiness at work is one that has true among the highly educated as well been constructed for us, and the world as the less educated. that constructed that desire is falling A side effect of all this love for work apart around us. has been that talking about love be- Work itself no longer works. Wages tween people has lost its importance. have stagnated for most working people Instead, our personal relationships are since Reagan and Thatcher’s time. A col- to be squeezed in around the edges, fit- lege degree no longer guarantees a mid- ted into busy schedules or sacrificed en- dle-class job. The pandemic exposed the tirely to the demands of the workplace. failures of the U.S. healthcare system and Love was understood for a long time to the brutality of “essential” work for those be the opposite of work. Love was for who had no choice but to keep going to the home, for the family, for the couple; their jobs despite the heightened danger. the workplace was where you earned A society where we must work the ma- what you needed to sustain that love. jority of our waking hours will never de- Love was also presumed to be more im- liver us happiness, even if we are the portant for women than for men; the lucky few who have jobs in which we do home was women’s sphere, the work- gain some joy. As feminist activist and place men’s. In reality those lines were scholar Silvia Federici wrote, “Nothing so always blurred; plenty of women always effectively stifles our lives as the transfor- worked, for one thing, even from the

34 IN THESE TIMES +FEBRUARY 2021 very beginnings of industrial capitalism, and bly demanded access to career-track work for plenty of bosses wanted to extend their con- women, seeing it not only as a path to finan- trol into the home. Henry Ford, for example, cial independence, but to something more in- famously sent investigators into the homes of teresting to do with one’s day than clean the his workers to make sure they were upstand- house and feed the children. And love, as soci- ing, straight and monogamous, and therefore ologist Andrew Cherlin has documented, has deserving of higher wages. undergone a transformation from married mo- As the workplace has changed, our ideas nogamy to something more open, flexible and about love have also changed. The feminist often, of course, not heterosexual at all. Yet the revolution known as “the second wave” nota- way we talk about partnership—even the word “partner,” increasingly popular as a gender- ILLUSTRATION BY GALINE TUMASYAN neutral term, but also one oddly reminiscent of

FEBRUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 35 the workplace, the boardroom, the law firm—still friends and the union. Not the work itself. reflects the origins of the family as a complemen- Work will never love us back. But other people will. tary institution to the job. When our relationships fall apart, we still blame ourselves rather than oncurrent political and eco- looking to all the social, institutional pressures logical crises can seem overwhelming, but that make it nearly impossible to continue them. they have also done something else for us: Love is still just another form of alienated labor. They have created the possibility of imag- It’s not just romantic relationships that have suf- ining ourselves in a different world. If it fered under neoliberalism. Friendship, too, is a ca- Cwas previously easier to imagine the end of the sualty of the way our working lives are organized. world than the end of capitalism, we have now A 2014 study found that one in 10 people in the glimpsed both, and must now begin to think up United Kingdom did not have a close friend; in a something new. 2019 poll in the United States, one in five of the As Alyssa Battistoni, a fellow at Harvard’s Cen- millennials surveyed reported being friendless. ter for the Environment, wrote, we cannot move The extended lockdown period of the coronavi- forward “without tackling environmentalism’s rus pandemic only exacerbated feelings of isola- old stumbling blocks: consumption and jobs”— tion that so many already had. People have tried to and our culture of work itself contributes to the blame the internet for our collective loneliness, but problem. Massive reductions in working time are in fact it comes alongside the change in our work- not only desirable (as work is increasingly miser- ing lives and the decline of unions and other insti- able); they are necessary. tutions that gave people a sense of shared purpose Instead of turning our desires to the objects we and direction beyond just the job. When I asked can buy with the proceeds from our endless work, the union activists at the Rexnord manufactur- what if we turned our desires back onto one an- ing plant in Indianapolis what they’d miss when other? Spending time with other people has the it closed down in 2017, they all mentioned their potential to disrupt the entire economic system.

“For us to build power, we need to be able to tell our own stories.”

EDDIE CONWAY EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Marshall "Eddie" Conway, a former member of the Black Panther Party, was an internationally recognized political prisoner for over 43 years.

THEREALNEWS.COM

36 IN THESE TIMES +FEBRUARY 2021 The process of organizing, on the job and off it, is, The teachers’ strikes that rippled across the after all, a process of connection. The first hesi- United States after 2012 created anew the spaces tant hello and the chat in the break room are ways of connection. The picket lines in Los Angeles and of bridging the artificially created gaps between Chicago featured dance routines and new songs. us to gesture toward the power we can have to- The strike itself is a means of reclaiming time from gether. A union is only meaningful if the workers work, a way to demonstrate the workers’ impor- in it believe and act like a union, if they are willing to take risks to have one another’s backs. To reclaim that space in which to find the con- nections that matter, we need something more than slight improvements in our individual work- While we have to do our places or even massive overhauls of labor laws, though we need both of those things desperately. jobs for a living, we should We need a politics of time. A political understand- always be making demands ing that our lives are ours to do with what we will. Society will always make demands of us, and a to reclaim our time. world that we built to value the relationships we have with others would perhaps make even more of them. But it would be a world where we shoul- tance by halting business as usual, but also a way dered those burdens equitably, distributed the to stake claim to one’s time and creations. In the work better, and had much more leisure time to midst of the strike, utopia is briefly visible. And the spend as we like. It would be a world where tak- mass strike, as Rosa Luxemburg wrote, has the po- ing care of one another was not a responsibility tential to turn the world upside down. sloughed off on one part of the population or one These moments and spaces are insufficient, per- gender, and it would be a world where we had plen- haps, to completely overhaul the system. ty of time to take care of ourselves. Imagining love alone as capable of change is While we have to do our jobs for a living, it makes idealism, it’s true. Freeing love from work, then, sense to make demands for better conditions. But is key to the struggle to remake the world. And alongside those demands, we should always be people are already reclaiming spaces to experi- making demands to reclaim our time. ment with what it means to love one another without the demands of capitalist ne of the things that the work patterns. Love, Silvia Federici ar- many social movements of the past gued, is a power that takes us beyond decade or so have in common is ourselves: “It’s the great anti-individual- a reclamation of public space in ity, it’s the great communizer.” which to be with other people: the Capitalism must control our affections, Ooccupied squares of Spain and Greece; our sexuality, our bodies in order to keep Occupy Wall Street; the protests of 2020, us separated from one another. The great- exuberantly reclaiming public space after WORK WON’T est trick it has been able to pull is to con- months of lockdown to shout “Black lives LOVE YOU BACK vince us that work is our greatest love. matter!” Sarah Jaffe Those spaces were spaces of debate and This article has been adapted from Work of action, yes, but they were also spaces of care. Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs The “food” and “comfort” committees at Occupy Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone by Sar- made sure not just that people’s basic needs were ah Jaffe © 2021. Available from Bold Type Books, an met but that they felt good in the space. There imprint of Perseus Books, a subsidiary of Hachette was singing and dancing, a library for borrowing Book Group. books. “The media often deride the carnival spirit of such protests, as if it were a self-indulgent dis- SARAH JAFFE is a Type Media Center fellow, co-host (with traction from the serious political point,” Barbara Michelle Chen) of Dissent magazine’s Belabored podcast, Ehrenreich wrote in Dancing in the Streets: A His- and a columnist at The New Republic and New Labor Fo- tory of Collective Joy. “But seasoned organizers rum. She was formerly a staff writer at In These Times and know that gratification cannot be deferred until the labor editor at AlterNet. Her previous book is Neces- after ‘the revolution.’ ” sary Trouble: Americans in Revolt.

FEBRUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 37 COMICS

ERIC HAVEN

38 IN THESE TIMES +FEBRUARY 2021 COMICS

SARAH MIRK CHARIS JB

MATT BORS

FEBRUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 39 THESE TIMES THOSE TIMES PERSON COMMUNITY THIS MONTH LATE CAPITALISM ADALBERTO ROQUE /AFP /GET TY IMAGES CUBAN DISSIDENTS LOG ON n a neighborhood of Old Havana, They work as independent agents whose whose name I do not care to remember, a existence heralds a civic re-activation that blogger lived for some time. After years of will modulate the Revolution’s Realpolitik— exclusion, defamation and violent, arbitrary or is that Raúlpolitik? arrests, he escaped from the Island of Utopia In just the past two years, when least expected, to the citadel of capitalism on March 5, 2013. that 2009 assessment has become obsolete: Cu- It was me, one of the founders of Cuban bans are now allowed to pay in hard currency for digital dissidence. A text-based (more than slow (and closely monitored) internet access. But an action-based) movement, we were freelance that access was enough for younger generations I journalists who hoped to democratize to speak up, challenging the guardians of the old the ancien révolution, that living fossil orthodoxy, aware that the world is now their wit- Ivable!' chomsky on obama's nobel • 'Inconce

December 2009 from the Cold War. ness in real time. Jews on J Street Pitbullies of the Right I wrote in the December 2009 In An action-based (more than a text-based) collec- These Times special issue, “Inside tive then began to organize in a neighborhood of Cuba, Voices from the Island”: Old Havana, the name of which I do want to recall: THOUGH THEIR WORK GENERATES CON- San Isidro. Despite the attacks of the official press (owned by the Communist Party) and the recent troversies and awards worldwide, accusations that they are “mercenaries” of Donald Cuban bloggers are largely unknown here. With Internet access Trump promoting a sort of “soft coup,” the group in Cuba restricted to the very few, Movimiento San Isidro (MSI) has expanded its cul- The Revolution at 50 speciAl edition tural influence beyond just the eight members list- An In These TImes the nation’s bloggers function as a kind of guerrilla underground. ed on its website to promote freedom of expression

in Cuba, among other things. PHOTO COURTESY OF WWW.HACER.ORG

40 IN THESE TIMES +FEBRUARY 2021 Of course, these activists will not topple Castro’s Today, the Cuban regime’s laws are being ma- military model. No American citizen, regardless of nipulated to charge the members of MSI with their personal views on U.S.-Cuba policy, should crimes. On November 11, the rapper Denis Solís imagine that MSI intellectuals will do (with a cou- was summarily sentenced to eight months in a ple of mobile phone recharges from abroad) what maximum-security prison for “contempt.” Solís Pentagon hawks couldn’t (with billions of dollars). first ran afoul of the state after publishing his But in 2020, in response to the Cuban govern- 2018 protest song “Sociedad Condenada” (“Con- ment’s authoritarian approach to Covid-19, many demned Society”) online. This time Solís called a Cubans joined MSI’s provocative campaigns. The policeman who had entered his house without a campaigns were aimed at the heart of Cuba’s dra- warrant a “chicken in uniform,” an encounter he ma, which is not the affairs of its northern neigh- captured on his phone and posted to social media, bor but the frustration with a fundamentally for which he was incarcerated. conservative single-party regime. The government’s treatment of Solís helped Susan Sontag once dismissed Communism as spur hundreds of peaceful protesters to gath- “Fascism with a human face.” In 2009, like a Don er outside the Ministry of Culture in Havana on Quixote who dreamed the Plaza de la Revolución Nov. 27, 2020, all day long until midnight. The was his windmill, I wrote: campaign, calling itself 27N, came together to THE STATE HAS NOT YET PASSED SPECIFIC LAWS demand respect for independent cultural spaces, as well as a stop to all censorship and coercion against a phenomenon as new as blogging, against Cuban citizens. A delegation of demon- although the habit of accusing critical voices of being “capitalism’s useful idiots” or “mer- strators was reluctantly received by Vice Minis- cenaries of enemy propaganda” can serve as ter Fernando Rojas, and promises were made in a brake on free expression. … There are also exchange for clearing the crowd. legal warnings issued for “peligrosidad pre- The next day, however, that verbal agree- delictiva,” or “dangerous inclination toward ment was broken on national television by Ro- criminality” that [have] been used to arrest jas himself, who ridiculed MSI and threatened and harass, but not yet convict. to prosecute its members. The leaders of the Cu- ban Revolution never directly respond to public pressure. Instead, they de- monize dialogue as a sign of weakness. Consequently, the harassment has in- Above Left: tensified—including the illegal confine- Bicyclists ride ment of MSI members in their homes, past a mural of Che Guevara who are now detained if they attempt to with Fidel and step outside. Raúl Castro in I am proud knowing that what bloggers Holguín, Cuba. tried 10 years ago has been taken up by Far Left: Orlando MSI. But I also fear that the new genera- Luis Pardo Lazo tions might be forced to “commit exile,” wrote “Inside as I was. Small “d” democrats have a mor- Cuba, Voices from al duty to engage. Otherwise, efforts like the Island” for the MSI and 27N, whose desires defy despo- December 2009 issue of ITT. tism and whose poetry challenges power, Left: A billboard will collapse under the repression of the in Havana reads Western Hemisphere’s most undemocrat- (in translation), ic government. “The truth cannot — ORLANDO LUIS PARDO LAZO be blockaded.”

FEBRUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 41 One community. One planet. One greener future.

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