Are Trump Voters a Lost Cause? by Mindy Isser

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

ARE TRUMP VOTERS A LOST CAUSE? BY MINDY ISSER

+ Clarissa Donnelly- DeRoven investigates a Covid outbreak at an ICE jail JANUARY 2021 INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS 2040 NORTH MILWAUKEE AVENUE • CHICAGO, IL 60647 PHONE (773) 772-0100 • WEB INTHESETIMES.COM

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P.S. If you are unable to make a contribution today, we understand, and we hope you’ll consider supporting In These Times in the future. We are all in this together. VOLUME 45 NUMBER 1

ON THE COVER Are Trump Voters a Lost Cause? 14

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION Space: The Final LABOR Inside an Outbreak (Profitable) Workers Resist at an ICE Jail Frontier Pandemic-Era ICE’s Covid strategy? Throw The future belongs to Elon Musk. Disaster Capitalism immigrants in solitary confinement. BY ELEANOR PENNY Ecuador rolls back labor protections. BY CLARISSA DONNELLY-DEROVEN BY KIMBERLEY BROWN 26 20 9

JANUARY 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 6 MAGA March 14 LABOR (ON LEAVE) Jessica Stites EXECUTIVE EDITOR Toward Oblivion Are Trump Voters (ACTING) Diana Babineau BY HAMILTON NOLAN a Lost Cause? EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER Christopher Hass BY MINDY ISSER WEB EDITORS Miles Kampf-Lassin, 7 LABOR Sarah Lazare Growing Food, But 20 Space: The Final GUEST EDITORS Jack Mirkinson, Susan Rinkunas None for Them (Profitable) Frontier LABOR REPORTER Hamilton Nolan BY ALLISON SALERNO BY ELEANOR PENNY INVESTIGATIVE FELLOWS Alice Herman, Indigo Olivier 9 LABOR 26 SPECIAL INVESTIGATION COPY EDITOR Bob Miller PROOFREADERS Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin, Workers Resist Pandemic- Inside an Outbreak Rochelle Lodder Era Disaster Capitalism at an ICE Jail SENIOR EDITORS Patricia Aufderheide, BY KIMBERLEY BROWN BY CLARISSA DONNELLY-DEROVEN Susan J. Douglas, David Moberg, Salim Muwakkil, Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Kate Aronoff, Theo Anderson, Michael Atkinson, Frida VIEWPOINT DEPARTMENTS Berrigan, Michelle Chen, Sady Doyle, Pete Karman, Kari Lydersen, Moshe Z. Marvit, Jane Miller, Shaun Richman, Slavoj Žižek 12 LABOR 4 In Conversation CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Dean Baker, Restoring Antitrust Rebecca Burns, Barbara Ehrenreich, in Each Other 7 This Month in Jeremy Gantz, Leonard C. Goodman, Mindy Late Capitalism Isser, Naomi Klein, Chris Lehmann, John BY MOE TKACIK Nichols, Rick Perlstein, Micah Uetricht 9 By the Numbers: EDITORIAL INTERNS Frank Carber, U.S. Supreme Court Hannah Faris, Clara Liang, Janea Wilson CULTURE CREATIVE DIRECTOR Rachel K. Dooley 10 In Case You Missed It DESIGN ASSISTANT Matt Whitt 34 For Crying Out Loud The Big Idea: CARTOONS EDITOR Matt Bors 13 CARTOONISTS Terry LaBan, Dan Perkins BY RENEE SIMMS National Popular Vote DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR 38 Comics Interstate Compact Lauren Kostoglanis DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR Jamie Hendry 40 In Those Times: PUBLISHING ASSISTANT Caroline Reid A Beef with Pandemic ON THE COVER CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Rebecca Sterner Response IN THESE TIMES BOARD OF DIRECTORS Supporters listen as President Donald M. Nieves Bolaños, Tobita Chow, Kevin Trump speaks at a campaign rally Creighan, Dan Dineen, James Harkin, Robert Kraig, Paul Olsen, Rick Perlstein, on October 26, 2020, in Lititz, Penn. Margaret Rung, Steven Saltzman, Stacy (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images) Sutton, David Taber, William Weaver

The work of In These Times writers is supported by the Puffin Foundation.

pms 3015 pms 130 Our staff and writers are represented by these unions:

2 IN THESE TIMES + JANUARY 2021 EDITORIAL New Kids on the Bloc he Democratic majority in the expulsion. In addition, members must attend CPC House is shaping up to be one of the most meetings and respond to requests from the cau- progressive—and partisan—ever, as mem- cus whip (currently Minnesota’s Rep. Ilhan Omar) bers of the 117th Congress assume office about where they stand on issues. January 3. While some moderate Dems If some CPC members find the new rules unac- Tlost their House seats, the Congressional Pro- ceptable, no sweat. Jayapal made clear she “would gressive Caucus (CPC) gained members, includ- rather have people who are really committed to the ing Reps. Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.) and Cori Bush Progressive Caucus in the caucus and participating (Mo.), both members of the Democratic Social- rather than sort of just having it as a label.” ists of America. Bowman greeted news of the reforms Yes, Beltway pundits will bellyache about the death of cross-party comity. But in The Congressional Progressive Congress, bipartisanship does not serve Caucus has restructured itself into the interests of the majority of Democrats, a disciplined, small-d democratic especially those who suffer the effects of structural racism and generation- political operation. al poverty. Look no further than three “crowning” bipartisan achievements with a tweet: “Ready to flex our mus- of the 1990s: the 1994 crime bill, the cle and join the era of collective pro- Welfare Reform Act of 1996 and the gressive power.” 1999 repeal of Glass-Steagall bank reg- Jayapal, who entered Congress in 2016 ulation. The latter came home to roost in (after a 20-year career as a community organizer), 2008, enabling the financial crisis. The George admits in an interview with Seattle’s alternative W. Bush administration’s subsequent $700 billion weekly, The Stranger, that it will become all but im- bank bailout rescued Wall Street but did nothing possible to pass progressive legislation should Re- for the 10 million families who lost their homes. publicans control the Senate. “Then we have to use Fast forward 12 years and we are again head- an inside/outside strategy like the one I was part of ed toward economic catastrophe. The Covid-19 when we got Obama to agree to [the Dream Act],” pandemic and the expiration of pandemic-relat- Jayapal says. “We may have to be the wind behind ed unemployment benefits will move 14 million the sails that helps Joe Biden and Kamala Har- Americans one step closer to deep poverty and ris deliver change through executive action, if we homelessness. This level of economic destitution can’t do it legislatively.” has not been seen since the 1930s. Because the Democratic majority in the One difference between the Covid-19 Reces- House is so slim—just 13 seats—a united CPC sion and the 2008 Great Recession is that pro- could even extract the concessions from House gressives in Congress have since gotten their leadership so desperately needed right now: act together. The CPC has restructured itself eviction moratoriums, student debt relief, un- (starting January 3) into a disciplined, small-d employment assistance. democratic political operation that will push pro- These types of policies are anathema to par- gressive legislation on the inside while helping ty centrists, who apparently would rather captain raise a ruckus on the outside. a sinking ship than surrender any control to parti- Under new rules approved in November 2020, sans in steerage. But providing actual economic re- the CPC will no longer be led by two co-chairs. For lief is essential to prevent Democratic losses in the the 117th Congress, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.) midterms and 2024. Movement-backed Democrats will lead. Another change requires members to must be disciplined and organized in working with vote as a bloc on issues supported by two-thirds of the new president, who inherits a crisis. the caucus. Should a member fail to adhere to this Otherwise, a shipwreck is imminent. rule at least 66% of the time, they could face — JOEL BLEIFUSS

JANUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 3 IN CONVERSATION

Conservative Democrats. A PEOPLE’S ACTION THE FEELING’S MUTUAL There is nothing sensible This project sought to This interview (“It’s To- about them, which is what understand why some gether That We Sur- “centrist” implies. They working-class white com- vive Disaster,” December are exactly where the old munities went from voting 2020) is one of the best Republican Party used to for Obama to Trump, and and most important reads, be—before it moved to the it seems like it was the lack especially on the intima- extreme right. of an incarnate leftist (or cies of “cultivat[ing] a — Kenneth even liberal) political proj- desire to be beautifully, William Ogle ect of analysis and action exquisitely ordinary just Via Facebook (“How We Are Flipping like everybody else.” This Trump Voters,” November piece and Dean Spade’s LET’S GO, JOE 2020). Unions have been new book, Mutual Aid: UNDO “VOTE BLUE”? Rick Perlstein’s article is a weakened; the Dems left Building Solidarity During The moment is now for all great piece on the need for these places. In the wake, This Crisis (And the Next), progressives—struggling in President Joe Biden to use right-wing media offered are absolute must reads! the right-wing Democrat- the power he has as soon as answers. —Harsha Walia ic Party—to start an exodus, he can (“Biden’s First Prior- This group had some suc- Via Twitter leading the way to build a ity: Undo the Damage,” De- cess in old-school door-to- new, strong, left-wing par- cember 2020). We on the door knocking, in finding THE BIG ONE ty (“Inside-Outside, a Win- progressive side of things common ground with other Wow, you’ve reinvented ning Strategy,” December need to be making this case working-class communities the Industrial Workers of 2020). We cannot miss this very loudly. Voters will re- from different back- the World (“The Big Idea: historic opportunity! No spond to action, not promis- grounds, as well as address- Sectoral Bargaining,” No- more “lesser evil,” no more es of future action. ing racial issues (including vember 2020)! My hat is “this is the most important —Dave Kamper migration, which is funda- off to you. But seriously, election in history.” Those Via Twitter mentally a racial issue). industrial unionism—or excuses end up supporting —Cesar Rodriguez what you’ve called sectoral a neoliberal, capitalist, pro- We have to “undo the dam- Via Twitter bargaining—is still needed war, imperialist party. age” not only by reversing now as much as ever. —Pablo Cuevas all the wicked executive or- Is it really flipping Trump While better laws would Via Facebook ders Trump issued but by voters? Or is it getting non- help (and we should agi- passing new laws that make voters to show up? I’m tate for them), what has al- These Democrats aren’t of- improvements in every way guessing it’s more of the ways made the difference fering us a choice. As pro- possible. Of course, that latter. Liberals love to ste- is workers joining togeth- gressives make gains in would depend on having reotype and poor-shame er fearlessly—not to ask local and national elections, power in Congress, because people in rural states, and for concessions but to take moderates are getting their a president can only do so it has not worked out well what is theirs, including hats and asses handed to much. It will also take the for them. There are allies living wages, healthcare, them. Younger progressives concerted efforts of caring in these places—they are childcare and workplace will simply outlive these in- lawmakers. Unfortunate- not monoliths. democracy. transigent “centrists.” ly, there are still too many —Joe Sedlak —Bruce Arnold —Jeff Woodring “Repugnicans” in Congress Via Facebook New Bern, N.C. Via Facebook who care absolutely nothing for their constituents, only Q TELL US HOW YOU REALLY FEEL CENTRAL TO WHAT? about lining their own pock- Do not call them “centrists” ets and filling their cam- Tell us what you like, what you hate and what you’d like to by emailing [email protected] or tweeting (“Beware the Neoliberal paign war chests. see more of @inthesetimesmag, or reach us by post at 2040 N. Milwaukee Backlash,” December 2020). —Claire Johnson Ave., Chicago, IL 60647. Call them what they are: Via Facebook

4 IN THESE TIMES + JANUARY 2021 IN CONVERSATION

ɯ BE LIKE AOC—READ ITT EVERY DAY LETTER FROM THE DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR With the holiday season upon us, it is time to reflect on what the past year has wrought. For too many, that means fear, uncertainty, grief and righteous anger. When we look for answers in the corporate media, that anger is only fueled. And while anger can be an important agent for change, it can also deceive us into thinking we are not only isolated, but powerless—unable to grasp how we fit into this historic moment. As you read this issue of In These Times, you will be re- minded that power comes in the form of community. Only together do we have the ability to advance the progressive values we all share. Only together can we build a better world. In these pages, I hope you find your power. Because within you, In These Times finds ours. Every time I speak with our supporters, I realize how ongresswoman Alex- ITT readers, she stays cur- powerful the In These Times community of readers real- andria Ocasio-Cortez, rent with the media narrative ly is. Reader Bernie Sanders first appeared in these pages in a self-described night coming out of mainstream 1981, when he was elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont. C owl, starts her day sources like the New York And we interviewed reader Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez long around 7 or 8 with a cof- Times and the Washington before she became a leader of a new generation of progres- fee or a matcha tea—and In Post, but then turns to stories sives. But I am also talking about you. These Times. from independent publica- Readers like you are the most essential part of In These As part of Vanity Fair’s “In tions like ours. Times because you make our work possible. No matter who a Day” video series, the New “My job is responsive to you are, or how long you’ve been with us, we need you. And York democratic socialist— what the public and what for that reason, you are powerful. I hope, today, you will con- who just won her second our communities and people sider putting your power into play by term in the House with 68% need,” Ocasio-Cortez says. making a tax-deductible donation to of the vote (and funded her ITT’s mission—of “informing In These Times. campaign through more than movements for a more hu- Thank you for standing with us $13 million in small contri- mane world, and providing an this year and beyond. In These butions)—gave the rundown accessible forum for debate Times could not publish with- on what gets her up and about the policies that shape out you. Lauren Kostoglanis keeps her going. Like many our future”—aligns perfectly. Development Director

IN THESE TIMES PUBLISHING CONSORTIUM SUBSCRIPTION QUESTIONS For subscription inquiries, address changes, back issues or classroom rates, call 800-827-0270 or email CHAMPIONS Grant Abert, Leonard C. Goodman, Collier Hands, James Harkin, [email protected]. Polly Howells and Eric Werthman, Samantha Kooney-Collins and Daniel Collins, ADVERTISING For advertising inquiries, contact Christopher Hass Chris Lloyd, Beth Maschinot, A. Paul Olsen, The Park Foundation, The Puffin Foundation at [email protected]. (Neal Rosenstein, Gladys Miller Rosenstein and Perry Rosenstein), David Rathke, Abby SPONSORSHIPS & PLANNED GIVING For information on Rockefeller and Lee Halprin, Jenny and Trevor Tomkins, The Estate of David Schwartz sponsorships or including In These Times in your will, contact Joel Bleifuss at 773-772-0100 or [email protected]. PARTNERS Elizabeth Brackett and Fred Olson, Nancy Fleck Myers, Leslie Noblitt, Alex Payne, The Peggy Meyerhoff Pearlstone Foundation, Lois Sontag, In These Times (ISSN 0160-5992) is published monthly Public Affairs, a 501(c)3 nonprofit. Nothing in this maga- Ellen Stone Belic, The Warner Fund (Kitty and Lewis Steel), The Libra Foundation by the Institute for Public Affairs, 2040 North Milwaukee zine should be construed as In These Times supporting or Avenue, Chicago, IL 60647. 773-772-0100. Periodicals opposing a candidate for political office. None of this maga- COLLEAGUES Theresa Alt and Wayles Browne, The Bella S. and Benjamin H. postage paid at Chicago, IL and at additional mailing offices. zine’s content may be reproduced in any manner, either Garb Foundation (Maggie Garb), Ralph Edgar Eakins, Francis Hagan, The Victor and Postmaster: Send address changes to In These Times, P.O. in whole or in part, without permission of the publisher. Box 6347, Harlan, IA 51593. This issue (Vol. 45, No. 1) went Subscriptions are $36.95 a year ($59 for institutions; Lorraine Honig Fund (Lorraine Honig), Betsy Kreiger and David Kandel, Terry Rogers to press on December 7, 2020, for newsstand sales from $61.95 Canada; $75.95 overseas). Newsstand circulation and Stephen Kosokoff, Robert McChesney, Robert Nixon, Judith Rhinestine and Michael January 5, 2021 to February 2, 2021. The entire contents through Disticor Magazine Distribution Services, at 905- Stein, Alisse Waterston and Howard Horowitz of In These Times are copyright © 2021 by the Institute for 619-6565. Printed in the United States.

JANUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 5 DISPATCHES

Freedom Plaza, where the faith- ful gathered, had the quality of a funhouse maze, with flags in place of mirrors. It was disori- enting. A flash of red, a flash of blue, and a sea of coronavirus in every direction. The situation was built to instill the sort of overwhelming patriotism one might feel right before going off to war to die. On the sunny morning of Sat- urday, November 14, 2020, downtown D.C. was even more de- serted than usual, save for knots of bustling, red-hatted tourists gravitating toward the White House. As gangsters say during dangerous times, “Only cops and fools were on the streets.” Closer to noon, the plaza took on the at- mosphere of a county fair written by Stephen King; all the barbe- cue stands were replaced with MAGA vendors and the square dance tent was an endless loop of Lee Greenwood. Women

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES sang along to “I’m Proud to Be an American” as they waited in lines for Porta Potties. Mega- up. The young man on an elec- phones shouted about Joe Biden MAGA March tric unicycle toting six full-sized being a pedophile, to widespread flags on a towering, bending acclaim. There were various Toward pole seemed impressive, until I MAGA-world speakers, but they saw another young man on the were beside the point. This event Oblivion roof of a monster truck blast- was a revival, a march, a place for WASHINGTON, D.C.—Flags are ing pro-Trump rap music and believers to bond. “My sister said an important part of fascism. I waving a gargantuan Trump her kids are gonna be ridiculed at Above: never realized how important flag, framed by the sunset over school and have to fight for their Phalanxes of until I was enveloped by them. the U.S. Capitol. The bed of the morals and values,” one mid- flags convene Red Trump flags, blue Trump truck was full of more flags. dle-aged woman confided to her at the Million flags. Red, white and blue The Million MAGA March in neighbor. “Oh, honey,” a young- MAGA March in American flags. Red Confeder- Washington, D.C.—not orga- er blonde woman in a red Trump Washington, D.C., ate flags. Blue police flags. Yel- nized by the White House, but beanie commiserated. “We live on November 14, low “Come and Take It” flags billed by supporters as the “big- in Delaware. It’s scarier there.” 2020. Supporters of President Don- and “Don’t Tread on Me” flags. gest Trump rally ever”—did not The men looked as if they ald Trump claim Flags on sticks, flags on jackets, have a million people, but it hoped for violence, embodi- without evidence flags wrapped around shoulders had about a million flags. You ments of America’s martial that he won the like shawls. Big flags, and bigger couldn’t take two steps without fantasies. There were lots of 2020 election. flags, and multiple flags stacked one smacking you in the face. helmets and body armor and

6 IN THESE TIMES + JANUARY 2021 DISPATCHES THIS MONTH tactical vests and tactical gloves visitors at a zoo. I stood around and tactical pants with lots of for an hour and saw nothing pockets and carabiners. Some more violent than a college girl IN LATE CAPITALISM men looked like they missed taunting a very embarrassed- their days in the military; oth- looking riot cop for having what ers, just like they played a lot of looked like cocaine in his nose. ? SHELL OIL COMPANY IS FINALLY ON TOP OF Call of Duty. All seemed like they After I left, bands of Proud Boys CLIMATE CHANGE, despite knowing the sci- might become jail guards just to marauded through downtown, ence behind global warming for at least 30 beat people. There were the Oath beating people up. Someone got years! The fossil fuel giant’s Twitter account reached out in a November 2020 poll to ask Keepers (hulking soldier types) stabbed. It was all amplified what people are “willing to change to help and the Proud Boys (the yellow- frantically on Twitter (and then reduce emissions.” What, you thought we and-black-wearing celebs of the by the president), but it was not meant Shell was taking some responsibility far Right, whom people wanted out of the ordinary by the grim for once? No, no—that might actually make selfies with) and little huddles of standards of 2020 street politics. a difference (read: impact their stock price), lesser gangs—the skinny Amer- Also downtown Saturday and as we all know: It’s not them, it’s you. ican Guard (white supremacists morning, I saw a tiny homeless carrying homemade shields) and woman wrapped in a Trump ? FORCED INTO WORK AT A PANDEMIC HOT SPOT, old men with Sheepdog Nation 2020 flag bigger than she was. A TYSON PORK PLANT, more than 1,000 em- hoodies (advertising itchy trigger She had hand-lettered card- ployees contracted Covid-19 and at least five fingers) and bikers in “Born To board signs up on the bus shel- died. A wrongful death lawsuit filed Ride For 45” vests and “Hillary ter where she was lying. One against Tyson alleges supervi- Clinton American Traitor Bitch” read, “How in the Hell do un- sors were running something patches. There were young, tat- documented people get Housing akin to a death pool, bet- tooed guys walking around with in the USA and Americans are ting money on how many boxing mouthguards, and rant- homeless.” None of the MAGA workers would catch the ing middle-aged men in QAnon people paid her any attention; corona, proving once again that casino shirts, and countless thousands neither did anyone else. capitalism is, indeed, in baseball hats, beards, wrap- HAMILTON NOLAN is a labor report- a death cult. around shades and camo, the er for In These Times. uniform of the delusional “pro- ? WHILE WALMART AND MCDON- tector” class. Growing Food, ALD’S ARE SEEING SOARING PROFITS, One couple’s Doberman millions of workers at these and other sported a harness that read corporate giants only survive because of “SECURITY.” The dog was But None food stamps and Medicaid—and that’s even clearly not security. It was part before the Covid-19 pandemic began, ac- of the fantasy. for Them cording to a new report commissioned by By late afternoon, the MAGA LAKE WORTH, FLA.—Hundreds Sen. Bernie Sanders. Apparently, Walmart’s people trickled away, some mis- of families—many of them poor “Save money. Live better.” slogan only ap- takenly walking through Black farmworkers, jobless during the plies to CEOs. Lives Matter Plaza, where they Covid-19 pandemic—gathered FRESH OUT OF BANKRUPTCY, LUXURY DEPART- were jeered. As darkness fell, a in the parking lot of the Farm- ? MENT STORE NEIMAN MARCUS has finally line of police cut off access to worker Coordinating Council released its annual “Fantasy Gifts” holiday the plaza. Two more lines of bike of Palm Beach County (FWCC) catalog. You lucky shoppers can nab the cops stood on K Street, keeping on November 4, 2020, just 10 $345,000 trip to Alaska, but $870,000 a small group of antifa people a minutes from President Don- of diamonds and gems are up for block away from the Trump peo- ald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club. grabs, too! Finally, ple. A block north, at the Cap- The temperature had reached something to spend ital Hilton, more cops stood into the 80s by 8 a.m. They were all those big, fat guard as a group of MAGA peo- waiting for food. stimulus checks on. ple peered out at the streets like By noon, four FWCC staff Oh, wait…

JANUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 7 RESIST

PARIS—About 46,000 people demonstrated throughout France on November 28, 2020, after the National Assembly passed a new global security law, which would ban photographs of police officers from being published in certain circumstanc- es. Violators could face jail time and tens of thousands in fines. The United Nations Human Rights Council and French media unions warned the law could undermine human rights. On November 30, 2020, in response to the protests, the French Parliament said it would rewrite a new security bill. (Julien Mattia/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

and three volunteers distribut- and Mexican immigrants. letries, clothes and household ed milk, eggs, frozen meat, fresh “Anyone that needs food, they items, and helped enroll the Per- vegetables, rice and beans, pas- just show up,” FWCC executive ez children in Medicaid. ta and easy-open canned goods director Carlos Perez says. Felix Rodriguez, an immigrant (for those living on the street). Dilma Perez, 38, was one of from the Dominican Repub- That day, 294 households—rep- those people. She and her hus- lic, has managed the Bravo Su- resenting 1,365 people—were band, Cirilo, immigrated from permarket near the Lake Worth served, some walking home with Guatemala two decades ago. FWCC with his wife for six years. shopping carts loaned from the Their first jobs were picking to- As the pandemic set in, Rodri- nearby Bravo Supermarket. matoes. “There wasn’t any oth- guez watched as hundreds of The FWCC operates two er option when we arrived here,” farmworkers lined up across the sites: one in Lake Worth, where she says. As their family grew, street. Rodriguez started donat- most workers are Guatemalan Cirilo pivoted to landscaping ing food from the grocery and of- immigrants, and one in Belle for better pay and conditions— fered use of his shopping carts. Glade on the shores of Lake but Covid-19 has taken its toll on Covid-19 has hit Florida farm- Okeechobee, where farmwork- landscaping, too, Dilma (no rela- workers particularly hard. Doc- ers tend to be a mix of Black tion to Carlos Perez) says. FWCC tors without Borders found, for Americans as well as Haitian helps the family with food, toi- example, that the farmworker

8 IN THESE TIMES + JANUARY 2021 u.s. SUprEmE courT community of Immokalee, Fla., off-season jobs (such as cleaning had a positivity rate of 36% in and landscaping) are scarcer, he BY THE NUMBERS June. Meanwhile, historic dis- adds. Some of the farmworkers are crimination has left farmwork- permanently shifting to construc- years is the average tenure of a ers excluded from many state tion work because demand for new 16 U.S. Supreme Court justice and federal worker protections houses is still fast-growing in Flori- through the practice of agricul- da, according to Antonio Tovar, ex- of Americans do not want Su- tural exceptionalism, according ecutive director of the Farmworker 77% preme Court justices to have to Bruce Goldstein, president of Association of Florida. lifetime appointments, according to Farmworker Justice, an advocacy Goldstein says a broken immi- the nonpartisan group Fix the Court group in Washington, D.C. gration system and laws prevent- The Fair Labor Standards Act of ing federal funds from providing of the most recent 20 justices were 1938, which established minimum legal assistance to undocumented 16 chosen by Republican presidents, even wage, child labor and overtime immigrants has left many workers though Democrats won the popular vote in standards, excluded farmworkers with fewer labor protections and seven of the past eight presidential elections and domestic workers after Presi- with a fear of deportation if they dent Franklin D. Roosevelt com- speak out about their conditions. promised with politicians in the Rodriguez says the challenges justices, of the 115 in the Court’s Jim Crow South—the site of most he experienced as a young immi- 108 232 years, have been white men U.S. farm work at the time, and grant prompt him to help others where most workers were Black. now. He arrived with his mother is the year the first African American “Agriculture employers have and has now helped his eight sib- 1967 Supreme Court justice, continued to have the clout, at the lings immigrate from the Domin- Thurgood Marshall, was appoint- federal level and in most states, ican Republic. “I have a beautiful ed (Justice Ruth Bader Gins- to perpetuate the discrimination family,” he says. “I have a big fam- burg, only the second woman, against farmworkers in labor pro- ily and they’re all doing well. If I was appointed in 1993) tections,” Goldstein says. The av- take three steps and I see some- erage farmworker earns between one one step behind me [who] of the nine current justices $17,500 and $20,000 a year, ac- needs help, if I can help, I will.” attended Harvard or Yale cording to the National Agricul- As long as the people who pick our 8 tural Workers Survey. The federal fruits and vegetables continue to poverty line for a family of four in line up for food to feed their own times the Court of all Court 2020 was $25,750. Many states also families, he and others will con- 6 has changed size, 36% decisions deny them workers’ compensation tinue to help them. 1869 being the most have been unani- recent example mous since 2000 coverage, and most do not have ALLISON SALERNO is a journalist based employer-sponsored health insur- in Georgia and Florida. ance, sick days or vacation days, of Americans (76% of Democrats Goldstein says. Unemployment 55% and 32% of Republicans) think the benefits are limited for farmwork- Workers Resist Court should rule based on a contemporary ers and unavailable to undocu- understanding of the Constitution, while mented immigrants, who comprise 43% want to defer to its “original” meaning most of this workforce. (The fed- Pandemic-Era eral government estimates that of the nine current justices are original- around half of farmworkers are un- Disaster ists: Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, documented, but Goldstein says 4 Neil Gorsuch and most observers believe that num- Capitalism Clarence Thomas ber is a drastic undercount.) QUITO, ECUADOR—Paula had been The number of farmworker fam- in quarantine with her husband ilies seeking food has tripled dur- and two kids for 15 days by the end of Americans did ing the pandemic, Carlos Perez of March 2020 under Ecuador’s 46% not want Barrett says. Not only are agricultural em- strict lockdown, which included confirmed in October 2020, higher than any ployers hiring fewer workers, but a nationwide 2 p.m. curfew. Then, nominee since 1987 (Kavanaugh scored 45%)

JANUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 9 Paula’s boss called. Business Paula quickly fell behind on her across Ecuador have been laid was suffering; he would have to $200 monthly rent. off without severance or have let some people go and cut sala- “What one thinks at this mo- had their contracts changed ries. He asked Paula if she would ment is, ‘Do I go or do I accept?’ ” overnight. Labor groups say the agree to a 40% reduction in her Paula says. “But seeing how the situation was made worse after monthly pay. conditions are, one has to accept President Lenín Moreno’s gov- Paula, who is using a pseud- because being out of work at this ernment used the pandemic to onym for fear of reprisal from point is too hard.” pass new laws that they claim her employer, knew she would Paula says her boss claimed violate the country’s constitu- be fired if she said no, so she the change would be tempo- tional labor protections. These said yes. She is her family’s main rary and she would only work changes include the Organic breadwinner and, at age 58, she six hours a day. Eight months Law of Humanitarian Support didn’t know how easily she would and no discussions about rein- (LOAH) passed in June 2020, find another job. By April 2020, stating her salary later, Paula created on the pretext of boost- Paula’s salary dropped to $320 a has been working eight or nine ing the economy and protecting month, about $80 below the legal hours daily. jobs by lifting employment re- minimum wage and well below As companies struggle to nav- strictions and offering special Ecuador’s $721 average monthly igate the economic fallout of lines of credit and interest rates cost of living for a family of four. Covid-19, thousands of workers to businesses.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ALL THE NEWS THAT WAS FIT TO PRINT— HYPED AND WHAT GOT PRINTED INSTEAD Can we stop talking about “never Trump” Republicans yet? Dems doggedly wooed Climate activists aren’t them and Trump still got 4 million more waiting until Inauguration Day. votes than Obama did in 2008. Along with members of the Squad, “Biden Be Bold” demonstrators lined up outside the DNC for a Green New Deal. More than 250,000 people in U.S. prisons have had the coronavirus, Obama’s new memoir reveals he only read which is why federal prisons Marx in college as “a strategy for picking will be among the first to get vaccine up girls.” Some things never change as he approval—but just for staff.

continues trying to screw leftists. VITAL

TRIVIAL The fly on VP Mike A Black Lives Matter movement is Pence’s head has erupting in Brazil after white securi- been rivaled by Rudy ty guards beat João Alberto Silveira Giuliani’s trail of Freitas, a Black man, to death. sweaty hair dye.

Even Tucker Carlson wants nothing The possibility of a Covid-19 to do with the Trump attorney who vaccine is welcome news— claims Venezuela orchestrated U.S. but Pfizer and Moderna aren’t election fraud. denying potential future price hikes. IGNORED

10 IN THESE TIMES + JANUARY 2021 Despite (or because of) these laws, Ecuador’s unemployment and underemployment rate was still 30% by September 2020. Though those numbers do not include Ecuador’s thriv- ing informal economy (such as street vendors), only 32% of people report having adequate employment. Streets have become tense as workers, unions and students consistently protest. The demonstrations often end in conflict with the police, who have been reinforced and on guard since the 11-day anti- austerity protests in 2019. Hernán Acevedo, a labor lawyer with the Quito-based firm LexArtis, says the firm has seen a 200% increase in labor rights An Indigenous Kichwa man holds roses in peaceful solidarity for labor rights during a claims and lawsuits during the demonstration in Quito, Ecuador, on October 22, 2020. pandemic. The cases have been backed up in the courts for years of uninterrupted employ- legal relationship between work- months. As part of cost-cutting ment), says Richard Gómez, ers and employers,” Bonilla says, measures, almost 500 judicial president of the Central Workers adding that the longer the LOAH staff have been fired or forced Federation (CUT), one of Ecua- remains in place, the harder it into retirement since 2019. dor’s largest unions, which rep- will be to reverse. “The government had an op- resents electricians, teachers, Meanwhile, Carla Navarre- portunity to regulate this in a firefighters and others. te, undersecretary of labor, better way,” Acevedo says of Gómez says the LOAH is “re- told In These Times via email mass layoffs and illegal contract gressive” and goes against Ecua- that the LOAH was “discussed negotiations like Paula’s, “but dor’s 2008 Constitution, which and approved by the National with the LOAH, they legally le- requires the state to respect the Assembly, in accordance with gitimated these actions.” dignity of working people, en- the provisions of the legal sys- The LOAH allows employers sure decent wages and prohibit tem.” Labor Minister Andres to renegotiate contracts, includ- job instability. Isch has declared the LOAH a ing reducing salaries up to 55% CUT is one of several organi- success, tweeting October 19, and working hours up to 50%, zations challenging the LOAH 2020, that it has “saved more without a mediator present and in Ecuador’s constitutional than 73,000 jobs since its issu- for an unspecified duration. court. On October 29, 2020, ance, and created 185,000 new The LOAH also allows em- the court began a public hear- formal contracts.” ployers to use fixed-term con- ing for 20 such lawsuits from Paula says living on a reduced tracts (up to one-year terms), various unions and individuals. salary without an end date has which can be renewed once. No ruling had been made as of been “stressful.” But, she adds, Short-term contracts had been press time. “I try every day to find my own prohibited in Ecuador’s 2015 The banana workers’ union, strength and get ahead because labor reforms as employers ASTAC, also filed a court mo- there is no other way.” frequently overused them to de- tion. The group’s lawyer, Sylvia KIMBERLEY BROWN is a Canadian prive workers of job security, the Bonilla, fears the LOAH will not multimedia journalist based in Ecua- ability to organize and access to be temporary. dor, where she covers regional envi-

PHOTO BY KIMBERLEY BROWN pension funds (which require 25 “It permanently changes the ronment and human rights issues.

JANUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 11 VIEWPOINT

MOE TKACIK night for free. Selling anything indefinitely at a loss is technically illegal, because it crushes Restoring Antitrust competition and thus violates Section 2 of the 1890 Sherman in Each Other Antitrust Act. But no one really paid attention to antitrust he Left has yet ing their own equipment, with- law until a few years ago, when to properly absorb two holding their own payroll taxes, some Beltway wonks disillu- T major revelations of shopping around for insurance sioned by the financial crisis 2020: 1) The ruling class, for all and, inevitably, hiring other gig began laying the groundwork its platitudes, decisively does workers to assist with the un- for a legal crackdown on corpo- not care about small business, manageable workload of the rate concentration. and 2) We are all small busi- 21st-century subsistence entre- The so-called “hipster an- nesses now. To the first point, preneur. The line that once dis- titrust” movement’s big- a court-ordered Small Business tinguished workers from the gest achievement thus far has Administration data dump small-time merchant-farm- been the House antitrust sub- in December confirmed that er class Marx called the “petit committee’s investigation of more than half of the $521 the big four tech giants (Am- billion doled out in April’s azon, Apple, Facebook and CARES Act small busi- Google), which recently filed ness rescue program were a 450-page report outlining snagged by just 5% of well- how Amazon’s monopoliza- heeled recipients, includ- tion of retail has been ruin- ing sectors like construction ous for drivers, workers and and law that were merely in- the wholesalers. Warehouse convenienced—certainly workers in one South Caroli- not decimated—by Covid-19 na county saw their salaries shutdowns. Meanwhile, the shrink by 32% after Amazon clique of gig app developers opened a site. behind California’s success- No group of Amazon work- ful passage of the terrifying- bourgeoisie” will be all but ob- ers has successfully unionized, ly absolutist Proposition 22 in solete, erased by the hands of a for the same reason that many November—which effective- few deep-pocketed data-mining businesses that depend on Am- ly repeals the very concept of conglomerates that are (gener- azon refrained from cooperat- employment for any worker ally) yet to even make money. ing (even anonymously) with who takes orders from a smart- It’s important to belabor that the antitrust probe: They “live phone app—have vowed to na- point: None of the companies in fear,” several said, of an insti- tionalize the law. who brought you Prop 22 is ac- tution they understandably see We can expect the collapse tually profitable; Uber has lost as more powerful than the gov- of the service sector to lead $26.5 billion since 2014. Crit- ernment. Behemoths like Am- millions of displaced sous- ics of capitalism tend to view azon and Walmart can simply MOE TKACIK chefs and bartenders and fish- profit as the system’s original shut down any facility that tries is a senior erpersons to open Etsy and sin, but for gig apps and Ama- to organize. And Amazon’s om- fellow at the LawnStarter accounts, live on zon, the ability to burn through niscient surveillance apparatus American couches while renting out their cash is what actually makes tracks everything from physical Economic apartments on Airbnb, sign up them unstoppable. The rest of worker movements to private Liberties to drive for DoorDash or cook Silicon Valley learned it from Facebook groups formed by its Project and, for a CloudKitchen. Thanks to Amazon, which uses its gro- Flex drivers; in Europe it hired until recently, a the business model codified in tesque cloud-computing earn- the Pinkerton spy agency to in- waitress. Prop 22, they’ll be the CEOs of ings to subsidize the billions filtrate nascent union drives. their own immiseration: sourc- it loses shipping diapers over- Uber also spies on everyone

12 IN THESE TIMES + JANUARY 2021 THE BIG IDEA from executives to “contrac- technically getting rid of it, which would re- tors” to government officials. Na•tion•al quire a constitutional amendment). There is simply no way to win Pop•u•lar Vote + Wait. The states could do against Amazon or Uber with- that? Probably! Each state gets to decide out making them less power- In•ter•state how to award their portion of Electoral ful first. Antitrust at least gives College votes. So if enough states pledged us some tools to do so, and the Com•pact their Electoral College votes to the na- Left should unite behind ef- noun tional popular vote winner—they would forts to use them. Unfortunate- have to collectively account for at least ly, in part because the “break 1. A state-level agreement the 270 votes needed to decide the ’em up” movement is identified that would ensure the na- presidency—then it’s done. And the with Elizabeth Warren, anti- tional popular vote (not bipartisan National Popular Vote the Electoral College) de- trust has few allies on the Ber- group has been lobbying state legisla- termines the presidency nie Left (and I am wearing a tures since 2006 to do it. Bernie 2020 T-shirt as I write). + Remind me: Why For years, socialist intellectu- doesn’t the national “Due to severe racial disparities als—such as Jacobin’s Bhaskar popular vote matter in certain states, the Electoral Sunkara and Nicole Aschoff, already? The framers of and the People’s Policy Project’s the Constitution believed College effectively weighs white Matt Bruenig—have argued the unwashed masses could voters over voters of color, that antitrust law is “extreme- too easily choose the wrong as opposed to a ‘one person, ly limited” at best (in Aschoff’s leader, so the idea of a popular vote was out right from estimation) and counterpro- one vote’ system where all our the beginning. After a series ductive at worst. In Bruenig’s of compromises (sparked votes are counted equally. view, big business is better for ” by protest from powerful, — REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.) labor because “fetishized” people-owning Southerners, small businesses are exempt who wanted a counterbalance against the Various constitutional and legal challeng- from certain labor laws; Sunk- more populous Northern states), the Elec- es would almost certainly arise from the ara believes the larger socialist toral College was born. From that moment, change, but National Popular Vote argues goal of nationalizing the means special electors—not the people—would the compact is within states’ Constitutional of production is accelerated by choose the president. rights. So far, 15 (mostly blue) states and corporate consolidation. Now at least 58% of voters want the Washington D.C. are on board, accounting This view is misguided. Am- Electoral College tossed in the dustbin of his- for 196 votes. azon is infinitely scarier than tory. An agreement among states to pledge + How else could we prevent the the most tyrannical pizzeria their Electoral College voters to the nation- popular vote winner from losing? An- owner, taxis were easier to reg- al popular vote winner could bypass the other workaround would be for every state ulate than Uber, and national- Electoral College system entirely (without to just award its votes proportionally, but ization is meaningless outside that seems unlikely. We could also simply of “big structural change” (and add more congressional districts; not only we know because “we” did it to would more people have more responsive AIG and Fannie Mae). Even if representation in Congress, but we would your goal is to collectivize Am- have more total Electoral College votes to azon by bloody force, the in- go around, which would at least make the formation derived from the nightmare scenario less likely. (The House antitrust clique’s string of sub- hasn’t been expanded since 1929, meaning poenas is your ammunition. the ratio of voters to congresspeople is as Given all of the big business high as it’s ever been.) victories in 2020, the Warren The difficulties of the two most recent Wonks and the Bernie Bros elections add onto the calamity of Bush/Gore would be wise to stop getting in 2000—so political momentum is building. distracted by how annoying they find the other. ILLUSTRATIONS BY TERRY LABAN

JANUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 13 ARE TRUMP VOTERS A LOST CAUSE?

14 IN THESE TIMES + JANUARY 2021 The union members who voted for Trump have to be organized—not ignored

lthough President Don- states in 2016 and 2017, it found that beliefs ald Trump will be leaving the White didn’t map to party lines: Voters believed in House, progressives must reckon both expanding the coal industry and protect- with the fact that 74 million peo- ing the environment; in both universal health- ple—almost a third of whom came care and keeping out “freeloading” refugees; from households making under in both banning abortion and lowering health- $50,000—voted for him. It is alarm- care costs. A 2019 poll from the Kaiser Family ing that so many working-class peo- Foundation and Cook Political Report found ple would vote against their class that, in battleground states, 70% of respon- interests, but perhaps most alarm- dents supported a pathway to citizenship for ing of all are the union members undocumented immigrants and yet 71% felt who were drawn in by Trumpism. Before the it was a bad idea not to detain people who 2016 election, Democratic presidential can- crossed the border without documentation. Adidates had long won union households by Not every issue drives voting behavior: 70% comfortable double-digit margins; but in 2016 of Americans support Medicare for All, and yet and 2020, Trump eroded those margins. If the the presidential candidate championing the Left is to win progressive policies (and the next policy (Sen. Bernie Sanders) came up short. presidential election), it needs a militant labor If the goal of reaching out to Trump voters is movement. Unions, after all, are to activate their progressive be- one of the only effective working- liefs strongly enough to influ- class institutions in this country BY MINDY ISSER ence their voting behavior, then that can engage workers to build union Trump voters should be a power on the job and in society at promising place to start. A good large. We must understand who these union union naturally ties the fate of the worker to Trump voters are, why they voted for Trump, others, a powerful counternarrative to the rug- and what can be done to win them back. ged individualism our society (and Trump) Many on the Left have written off Trump promotes. Union members are also (theoreti- supporters as a lost cause or unworthy of ef- cally) trained and experienced in fighting their fort. This response is understandable, partic- bosses. Being part of a struggle against a boss ularly for people of color and others directly means reliance on fellow workers, regardless harmed by Trump policies. And we should by of race and gender and other social divisions. no means court the vocal subset of Trumpists Unions themselves, of course, need to em- who are virulent white supremacists. bark on a far-reaching program for member- But most Americans hold a confusing mix ship to put these struggles in context—one that Left: A union member listens to Democratic of political beliefs that will never fit squarely doesn’t shy away from tough questions in fear presidential candidate within the Democratic and Republican par- of upsetting a (tenuous) sense of unity. Joe Biden stump in New ties. When the group Working America held Discussions around immigration and Alexandria, Pa., on Sep- in-depth conversations with more than 2,300 racism, for example, are challenging in

tember 30, 2020. working-class voters in so-called battleground their own right but have become especially ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

JANUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 15 charged since Trump took office. Avoiding these topics may of Trump voters rated the economy as “very important” in preserve a sense of unity in the short term but damages the 2020, compared to Biden supporters’ 66%. long-term ability of workers to forge solid bonds of solidari- Lynne (who didn’t want her last name used for fear of so- ty and organize to fight against racism and social programs cial retaliation), 62, is a retired teacher and union member like Medicare for All. in the suburbs of Philadelphia. A registered Independent, To understand how unions might reach the union Trump Lynne voted for Obama in 2008, moved by his message of voter, we can look at how similar efforts have succeeded and hope and change. Like Reitano, she was drawn to Trump in failed—and get to know union Trump voters themselves. 2016 by his economic promises—and voted Trump again in 2020. “You can’t care about other policies if you’re worried THE TRUMP UNIONIST about losing your house or if your children don’t have food or if your heat may get turned off,” Lynne tells In These Times. Tony Reitano, 49, works in maintenance at “Having shelter and food is everyone’s number one concern. a Bridgestone plant in Iowa. He is a member of the United And with Trump, we had the lowest unemployment rate in Steelworkers and voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. Reitano this country … for everyone, including Latinos and Blacks.” tells In These Times, “I liked what [Trump] said about trade Trump clearly understood that a strong economic message deals in 2016; that was a big thing for me … bringing jobs back would be the key to victory, boasting about the unemploy- to America.” He adds, “And this time around, [Trump] did, ment rate on the 2020 campaign trail. But the Trump unem- or tried to accomplish, all of the things he said he was go- ployment rate only decreased slightly before the pandemic, ing to do … like backing away from the [Trans-Pacific Part- and likely because of Obama-era policies. Meanwhile, wage nership].” (The United Steelworkers, which endorsed Biden growth has stagnated or declined for the bottom 70% of in 2020 and Clinton in 2016, opposes the trade deal, on the workers since the 1970s and the Job Quality Index (a proxy grounds that jobs would be lost.) for the overall health of the U.S. jobs market) fell significant- Trump voters often cite their concern with jobs and wag- ly after 2006 and never recovered. es as the reason they voted for him. While most voters rank Amid this uncertainty, Trump parlayed economic the economy as one of their most important issues, 84% concerns into his brand of racism to drive white voters. Of

Demonstrators at a #StopTheSteal rally line the streets in support of President Donald Trump on November 7, 2020, in Carson City, Nev. Despite no evidence of voter fraud, Trump has insisted since the election that victory was stolen from him by various outside forces. Trump made gains against Democrats by winning a higher proportion of union votes—a former Democratic bastion—than any previous Republican candidate since Reagan.

16 IN THESE TIMES + JANUARY 2021 The reliance on so-called diversity programs at best teaches tolerance but does not get at “ the particular role that race plays as a division of the working class. [Unions] need to embark on massive internal educational efforts.” — BILL FLETCHER JR., EXECUTIVE EDITOR OF THE GLOBAL AFRICAN WORKER

course, many Trump voters do not consider Trump an ar- election). And after unions broke that 2016 record in 2020, dent racist. For example, Ernie Justice, 76, a retired coal Biden won union households by 16% (and won those three miner in Kentucky, tells In These Times that “there’s not a states back), but Trump won union households in Ohio by racist drop of blood in Donald Trump.” Like Lynne, Justice 12% (which Obama had won by 23%). Unions can spend huge also voted for Obama and later Trump. Lynne, too, says she amounts of money and mobilize the votes of a (declining) “doesn’t really see the racism.” portion of their members, but to keep those members from But Trump certainly associated the decline in quality of life slipping away, they’ll need to do much more. experienced by white workers with not only the Democrat- ic Party, but immigrants and other people of color. George A BATTLE OF IDEAS Goehl, director of the national grassroots organizing network People’s Action, says “Democrats’ lack of willingness to Each of the three Trump voters who spoke name the enemy—runaway corporate power—just left a huge with In These Times for this story mentioned jobs and the vacuum for the Right to use race and immigration.” economy as big issues, but all independently shared concerns While Republicans authored the so-called right-to-work about open borders, later abortions, and the creep of social- legislation that has undermined union organizing, Demo- ism and communism. These issues are discussed nearly con- crats are the proponents of the free trade agreements that stantly on Fox News and by conservative radio personalities have decreased wages and offshored jobs. Decades of eco- like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. And as trust of the nomic devastation—including loss of good union jobs in the media is at an almost all-time low, many Trump support- Rust Belt, factories moving abroad and stagnant wages— ers only tune into media that reflects what they already be- opened a door for Trump to step through. Goehl says peo- lieve—just as centrist and liberal Democrats watch CNN or ple have “clearly been punched in the gut tons of times by MSNBC. Never mind that the U.S.-Mexico border wall was neoliberalism”—and Trump’s campaign capitalized on that started under President Bill Clinton, later abortions are ex- by promising to bring back manufacturing jobs. ceedingly rare and most socialist organizing is about basic This landscape is difficult for both unions and the Dem- rights, like healthcare and a living wage. ocratic Party. While union leadership has thrown its weight The constant onslaught of hateful messages from right- behind Democrats in hopes of better organizing terrain, es- wing media and the war waged against the working class tablishment Democrats are caught between unions and their by the rich has led U.S. workers into a fog of confusion with- party’s allegiance to big business. And the Democrats have a out an ideological beacon to help clarify and fight back. The history of making labor promises they don’t keep. In 2008, unions that have survived have become more insular, in- Obama ran on passing the Employee Free Choice Act, which creasingly focused on the immediate issues of their own would have made the process of unionization faster and eas- members, taking a concessionary approach that treats boss- ier—but didn’t champion the bill once elected. And unions, es like coalition partners. If the Left and unions hope to make which are no match for lobbying efforts by giant corporations appeals to union Trump voters (and other sections of the like Walmart or Home Depot, couldn’t win the law alone. working class), this strategy must change. Repeated disappointments have led union members to lose Unions need to cut through the right-wing fog of disin- faith in institutions they once held dear. formation by offering educational programs of their own to That loss of faith played out in the 2016 and 2020 elections. explain the systemic problems causing the decline in work- After unions spent record amounts on campaigns to defeat ers’ conditions. One model, offered by People’s Action, has Trump, Hillary Clinton won union households by only 8% shown that talking with Trump supporters about system- in 2016 (to Obama’s 18% in 2012), a small enough margin ic issues can effectively shift attitudes. Beginning in 2017,

TY O’NEIL/SOPA IMAGES/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES to cost her Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin (and the George Goehl and People’s Action embarked on a rural

JANUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 17 The largest group of people living in poverty are white people, and a Left saying, ‘We are not going “ to be in relationship with the largest group of people living in poverty’ … seems nuts.” — GEORGE GOEHL, DIRECTOR OF PEOPLE’S ACTION and small-town organizing project, focused on “deep can- first step toward a broader worker coalition. But People’s vassing,” to show white people how systemic racism is real Action and progressive unionists also believe race and and actively harming them and their communities. (Some class issues are keys to a coherent Left—because if we ig- of these people are union members, though many are not.) nore them, the Right will use them to drive a white, reac- While many (especially nonwhite) people on the Left find it tionary, populist movement. difficult to have conversations with Trump supporters (fear- “[Labor leaders] have to … explain the construction of ing abuse or just afraid of wasted energy), Goehl sees the race and capitalism,” says Bill Fletcher Jr., executive editor talks as crucial. “While you are much more likely to live in of The Global African Worker and former AFL-CIO staff- poverty if you are Black or Latino, the largest group of people er. “The absence of that, and the reliance on so-called di- living in poverty are white people,” Goehl says. “And a Left versity programs, at best teaches tolerance but does not saying, ‘We are not going to be in relationship with the larg- get at the particular role that race plays as a division of the est group of people living in poverty’ … seems nuts.” working class. They need to embark on massive internal People’s Action has had nearly 10,000 conversations in educational efforts.” rural areas since the 2016 election, mostly with Obama Unions should place a higher premium on building solidar- voters who flipped to Trump. While immigration is a con- ity among the working class as a whole, in all of its diversi- troversial issue all over the country (including inside the ty. One example is the 2020 partnership between the United Democratic Party), objection to a wider immigration poli- Electrical Workers (UE) and the Democratic Socialists of cy is higher in rural areas, presumably because of the ease America (DSA). The groups formed the Emergency Work- of blaming immigrants for a lack of jobs. During their deep place Organizing Committee to help workers organize on the canvasses, People’s Action organizers found that the most- job in the midst of Covid-19. It’s exactly the kind of alliance used word was “lack,” and that economic insecurity rever- the Left and the labor movement should forge, amplifying berated through all responses. “When we asked people who both groups’ impacts by organizing new workers and engag- they saw as responsible for the declining conditions,” Goehl ing existing membership. says, “people were able to pick multiple answers, and 41% These types of alliances demonstrate an attitude of “not of people said undocumented immigrants, but 81% [said] a me, us” (to quote Sanders’ presidential campaign slogan)— government encaptured by corporations.” the key to building worker trust and taking on the powerful Onah Ossai, an organizer with Pennsylvania Stands Up, forces ultimately responsible for the economic inequality so which is affiliated with People’s Action, tells In These Times, many experience. Reitano believes strongly in his union, but “People at the top [are] using race and class to divide us so he worries that new hires, who are immigrants, won’t join the that they can turn around and pick our pockets. … Everyone union or won’t fight for higher wages, because they are used [whose door we knock on] agrees with that.” to lower wage standards. “If the union can educate these peo- Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of ple so they understand that we have to stand together, I think Teachers and secretary treasurer of the Ohio AFL-CIO, it’ll be okay,” he says. In a situation like this, a union politi- echoes Goehl, telling In These Times, “It’s hard to get out cal education program could not only engage new members, and have these grassroots-level conversations, but we need as Reitano suggests, but also forge solidarity and trust across to invest in grassroots organizers from the communities the old guard/new guard divide. who can have these conversations and can work [on solu- Currently, however, many unions focus primarily on mo- tions] with the community.” bilizing their members to vote, rather than on a more ro- Unions can follow People’s Action by holding more po- bust political program. In many cases, members don’t have litical discussions with their members about how the labor a mechanism to even offer input on the political endorse- movement (and the Left) fights for working people. But they ments of their locals and internationals. Instead, every union must also show the path forward—how workers themselves shop should have stewards who constantly engage workers in can join the fight to rein in corporate power. educational programs and struggles on the shop floor. Unions Rebuilding unions—organizing more workers—is the launched campaigns like this in anticipation of the 2018 Janus

18 IN THESE TIMES + JANUARY 2021 Tamika Woods and Amir Langhorne, pictured here in Graham, N.C. in 2017, are canvassers with Down Home North Carolina. The group is affiliated with the national organizing network People’s Action and relies heavily on “deep canvassing”—in-depth conversations with voters to shift perspectives on key political issues.

Supreme Court decision, which allowed public-sector em- the coronavirus pandemic with woefully inadequate fed- ployees in union shops to get the benefits of the union with- eral support, Democratic Party leadership has refused to out paying for them. Many unions around the country began go big, choosing to ignore the progressive Dems’ early proactive campaigns to talk one-on-one with their members push for monthly cash payments and expanded Medicare. about the importance of their union. In the conversations, Without these steps, the Democrats should not expect they stressed the power of collective action and exposed the working people to vote for them without question. right-wing forces trying to undermine unions through Janus Without countermeasures from unions and Democrats and other measures. They encouraged members to recommit alike, Republicans will continue to turn the union vote. A to being dues-paying members even though they would soon 2020 Delaware Senate race between Republican challeng- have the ability to become “free riders.” er Lauren Witzke and Democratic incumbent Sen. Chris- None of this work will be easy, but unless unions commit topher Coons offers a glimpse of what’s to come. Though to this educational work, Trumpism will continue to grow she lost (with 38% of the vote), Witzke ran on an “America and the possibility of achieving policy that can actually help First” platform including support for unions and collective working people will diminish. (Left unchecked, Trumpism bargaining, opposition to immigration (on the basis that also could drive an increasingly violent alt-Right.) The Left migrant workers worsen conditions of all workers), and an must support unions in this work by engaging in partnerships anti-abortion stance. (like the DSA/UE partnership) and encouraging workers to While Trump’s racism likely provoked many white profes- organize and unionize. sionals to vote against him in 2020, it did not deter a grow- The Democratic Party, for its part, must prove itself ing group of people of color—and what’s even more alarming worthy of the union vote. Right now, tens of millions of than a whites-only right-wing movement is a multiracial one. workers (both union and nonunion) are suffering through To counter the appeal of Trumpism, we need to build a mul- unemployment, housing insecurity, hunger and a lack of tiracial, working-class labor movement that can arm work- healthcare in a devastating pandemic. The Democrat- ers with solidarity and a renewed commitment to struggle ic Party leadership has barely lifted a finger to put up a for the world we deserve. real fight to win relief that is desperately needed by so many. They could take example from Sen. Sanders, who MINDY ISSER works at the National Domestic Workers Alliance has voiced his opposition to the most recent proposed and is a member of CWA Local 1180 and an In These Times con-

PHOTO COURTESY OF PEOPLE’S ACTION “compromise” stimulus bill. While millions suffer through tributing editor. She lives in Philadelphia.

JANUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 19 SPACE: THE FINAL (PROFITABLE) FRONTIER The future is here, and it’s Elon Musk’s for the taking

BY ELEANOR PENNY Space is our birthright. “Americans should have the right to engage in commercial exploration, recovery and use of resources in outer space,” President Donald Trump wrote April 6, 2020, issuing the “Executive Order on Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources.” In the stroke of a pen, Trump planted the U.S. flag

on “the Moon, Mars and other celestial bodies.” new economic order. No longer held in common, As Trump declared these space lands and resourc- the planet’s resources were parceled off to strictly es open for business, you could hear the cheers— private hands. No longer could peasants scrape by, mostly from “moonshot” corporations that have subsisting on the commons. Instead, they depend- clamored to sweep away the patchy, unregularized ed on the grace and favor of a wage. Cold War-era space law in favor of new, unregulat- Life in feudal times was no bucolic idyll, but enclo- ed corporate plunder of the solar system. sure was synonymous with disaster, destitution and While the institution of private land ownership is death for many people. This model was mirrored in now widely taken for granted, it was—like many so- the capture, theft and enclosure of colony lands, the called natural things—invented. people (and resources) of which fueled the early cap- Before the muddied, grueling transition from feu- italist transition and later the industrial revolution. dalism to capitalism, peasants in Britain and much Capitalism must grow to persist, and as it grows it of Western Europe depended on their right to farm, must transform ripe, unregularized commons into forage and harvest on common, community lands. private fiefdoms—at home and afar. The land was controlled by local lords, but it be- So it seems only “natural” to carve up the moon longed (in a loose, de facto sense) to the communi- into stretches of valuable real estate, just like Man- ties living on it and dependent upon it. Eventually, hattan and the metal mines in the Democrat- common lands were “enclosed” and became the pri- ic Republic of Congo. After all, Earth’s resources vate property of aristocrats. dwindle by the day, and boundless resources be- This exclusive right to land use (to own and profit yond the stratosphere could be a backstop for from land) was the contrivance that established the planetary scarcity. Never mind that our crisis of resources is, in part, the result of this system of pri- Left: In this conceptual rendering of the near future, NASA vate ownership that rewards ruthless, short-term assists U.S. private companies SpaceX and Moon Express to make outer space safe for colonial corporatocracy. profiteering at the expense of the long-term sur- Nearby, Virgin Galactic offers a luxury space tour, and vival of the natural commons. SpaceX’s StarLink satellite system orbits Earth, while This future access to a new natural commons is Chinese private company Origin Space begins mining an asteroid for precious metals. ILLUSTRATION BY BRIAN CHO

JANUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 21 now a stress test on governmental priorities. As Trump pro- Fellow billionaire escapist Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO, claimed, “Outer space is a legally and physically unique has been romanced by the wealth among the stars as well, domain of human activity, and the United States does not founding his own aerospace company, Blue Origin, back in view it as a global commons.” 2000. “We are going to build a road to space,” Bezos said in Trump’s executive order to “encourage international sup- 2019. “And then, amazing things will happen.” port for the public and private recovery and use of resources Bezos has invited us all to cosplay his daydreams with the in outer space” heralds yet another public-private boondog- Amazon-funded, interplanetary sci-fi thriller The Expanse, gle, where nominally public institutions thrash out fresh in which a roll call of stock anti-heroes (the rogue policeman, boundaries of corporate activity. As an example, look no the war-beleaguered pilot, etc.) tumble through a far future further than SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, which suc- when only wise plutocratic innovators can plumb interstel- cessfully transported NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and lar riches and deliver the solar system from interstellar war. Doug Hurley to the International Space Station on May Microsoft, too, has its fingers in the intergalactic pie, 31, 2020. The NASA-SpaceX crossover branding leaves no launching Azure Orbital in September 2020 to enable sat- room for misinterpretation: The next small steps for man- ellite operators on its cloud computing platform, along with kind will be giant leaps for corporate America. a SpaceX partnership the following month. According to Forbes, 2019 was a record year for private TO BIG BUSINESS… space investments, with “venture capitalists [investing] $5.8 billion in 178 commercial space startups worldwide.” ELON MUSK, WHO FOUNDED SPACEX IN 2002, TALKS As Earth’s billionaires burnish the power of new strato- misty-eyed about a relatively near future when humani- spheric tech, Trump launched Space Force, the first new ty will have risen out of the mud, setting its sights on colo- branch of the U.S. military in more than seven decades. nizing Mars—with SpaceX transportation rocketing there. “Space is the world’s newest war-fighting domain,” Trump In 2020, Musk began launching a cavalcade of thousands said. “Amid grave threats to our national security, Ameri- of satellites into low-Earth orbit to form the Starlink satel- can superiority in space is absolutely vital.” lite system. As of November 2020, nearly 900 satellites had Space exploration has long been tied to military ambition. been launched (42,000 are planned in total). This network From its Cold War founding, NASA’s task was to advance will potentially seed an extraplanetary monopoly for key the practical interests of the American state as it squared off economic infrastructure, such as domestic internet access. against the Soviet behemoth. The new field of battle included space-guided missiles and satellite technology. Astro- nauts are still generally selected from the ranks of the military. Grumman (now better known as half of Northrop Grumman) made parts for both the NASA spacecraft that leapt into the great unknown

22 IN THESE TIMES + JANUARY 2021 and the military machines that waged war in Vietnam. As the shadow of nuclear war retreats in the bright light of a digital dawn, the mission of Space Force is to protect the economic and military infrastructure (communications and surveillance technology) seemingly threatened by rival global powers (namely, Russia and China) gearing up their own military space operations. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, signed by the United States, the United Kingdom and the Sovi- et Union, attempted to guard against the militariza- tion and the privatization of our shared stratosphere. The treaty limited governmental (and non-governmental) bodies from sending nuclear weapons into space and prohibited the annexation of the moon and temptingly mineral-rich asteroids. As the treaty outlined, any country could use and explore outer space but there could be no “appropriation” of astral territory. It was, at heart, a disarmament treaty—one whose ropey legalities were enforced by the now-defunct now to secure ownership frameworks in anticipation of Cold War brinkmanship between its main two signatories. mining technology eventually catching up to ambition. The treaty never foresaw the dizzying rise of private en- The SPACE Act slashed that red tape, and things are look- terprise clamoring for a slice of the sky. Nor did it foresee ing up. In November 2020, for example, founder of Trans the slow shelving of publicly funded U.S. space explora- Astronautica, Joel Sercel, said “five years ago was, we tion (especially the manned variety) that would allow ven- think, the wrong time” for asteroid mining, but there is ture capitalists to stake their claim in a new space scramble. reason “to go to asteroids in the near term.” With all new technology, regulation lags behind it, forced to play catch-up. Sean Casey, for example—formerly of NASA … AND BEYOND! and now at Silicon Valley Space Center—has championed a “regulatory framework that allows for the growth of the in- THE HALCYON AGE OF SPACE EXPLORATION, WHEN ALL- dustry.” Congress has obliged, and the purview for private American men took giant steps for mankind, looms dis- commercial space ventures has been wedged wide open. proportionately large in the collective U.S. imagination. The 1967 treaty had been interpreted by the United States In reality, the era was astonishingly brief. After President in a manner akin to maritime law; just as no country owns Richard Nixon ended the Apollo missions, every subse- international waters (making for open fishing), no country quent president promised to renew that muscular spirit of could own space (but loads of moon dust and modest astral idealism and conquest. So far, no one has. bounties could be hauled back to Earth). The SPACE Act of In 2018, Trump instructed NASA to defund the Interna- 2015, however, elaborated on President Barack Obama’s ex- tional Space Station by 2025. NASA is increasingly reliant panded use of public-private partnerships for space explora- on private companies to deliver on its contracts. In fact, the tion, making near-Earth asteroids available to commercial Trump administration’s FY2020 budget included $363 mil- ventures. This law paved the way for the 2017 American lion to “support commercial development of a large lunar Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act, designed to “ensure lander that can initially carry cargo and later astronauts to that the United States remains the world leader in commer- the surface of the Moon.” And NASA’s Artemis program cial space activities.” aims to put people on the moon by the middle of the decade Many of the first asteroid-mining companies have col- as a commercial enterprise. It has also tapped three compa- lapsed; Planetary Resources and DSI, for example, failed nies—Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines and Orbit Beyond—for to raise enough money to build the needed speculative in- a $253.5 million project to develop robotic landers partly for frastructure. But the prize is too big to lose. The race is “commercial enterprises.” Meanwhile, SpaceX has been busily launching people Left: The Crew Dragon capsule from Elon Musk’s SpaceX, illustrated off the planet. With its government contracts, it has grown here, has successfully ferried NASA astronauts to the International from a $52 billion valuation in July 2020 to more than $100 Space Station. Right: Jeff Bezos, better known as the richest man on billion three months later. Earth, showcases the lunar lander from his private spaceflight and NASA still carries out extraordinary amounts of research—

LEFT: SPACEX; RIGHT:JONATHAN NEWTON / THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IMAGES aerospace manufacturing company, Blue Origin. research that has provided the basis for the “genius” leaps

JANUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 23 forward of the Silicon Valley aristocracy. Economist Mari- charge rent. SpaceX formerly acted as a transport service ana Mazzucato notes that private innovation is often rooted for other enterprises’ satellites; today, its Starlink promis- in publicly funded research, to say nothing of the mammoth es a whole new infrastructure of its own. Mining initiatives taxpayer-funded task of building initial infrastructure. In- like the U.K.’s Asteroid Mining are prospecting the estimat- deed, the aeronautic industry was largely dependent on gov- ed $700 quintillion of rare earth minerals in the asteroid belt. ernment haulage and courier contracts until dwindling costs Those materials are key to the manufacture of digital tech- made commercially affordable flights possible, which criss- nology and robotics—rare on Earth, but abundant in our sky. cross our skies today. When it comes to space exploration, “The moon is hot again,” said Jack Burns, director of neoliberalism has reformulated the capacity of public bodies NASA’s Network for Exploration and Space Science, in an (and their spending, organizational and disciplinary frame- interview with the New Yorker. The moon’s low-gravity con- works) into a huge tendering system for the benefit of for- ditions, its proximity to Earth and its natural resources profit contracting corporations. make it a prime hub for further space exploration, refueling Recent years have seen an explosion of spacefaring ven- and commercial operations. ture firms and private spaceflight startups. Spaceflight offers Bezos has expressed an interest in using low-gravity con- “rideshares” for satellites wanting to hitch lifts on bigger ven- ditions for heavy industries, such as mining and manufac- tures. Planet offers digital satellite imagery, and Spire Glob- turing. Made in Space, a California startup, already has al deals in satellite-driven data analytics “so that businesses produced fiber optic cables in space. Moon Express is one of and governments can make smart decisions.” Axiom Space a number of companies planning to send commercial mis- and billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic are two sions to the moon to mine for things like water (precious in of many companies attempting to pioneer—aka capture the space) and platinum (precious on Earth). market—in luxury space travel. Orion Span promises an “au- In 2017, the head of China’s lunar exploration program thentic astronaut experience” in its Aurora Class Space Sta- compared the moon to the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands—a tion, a luxury space hotel complete with high-speed internet collection of uninhabited rocks in the East China Sea with and zero-gravity ping pong, for which it charges $9.5 million enough strategic importance to cause decades of conflict a trip. At the most harebrained extreme, the so-called Space among Asian nations. Many suspect oil is under the sea Nation of Asgardia offers a warped utopian experiment in near the islands. off-world living—part cult, part country club, part time cap- The Artemis Accords, signed in October 2020 by the sule, part political refuge—and another exercise in satellite United States and seven other countries, tries to lay out development and data management. norms and suggestions for avoiding conflict over space Three of the most tantalizing opportunities—and per- resources. Any anxiety about such an agreement has not haps the most competitive markets—are those for commu- dulled the ambitions of the venture-corporate forces that nications infrastructure, asteroid mining and missions to underwrote it. the moon. Anyone who owns or runs a monopoly on satellite com- JUST ONE MORE FRONTIER munications infrastructure can THE EYE-WATERING UPFRONT COSTS OF THESE EXPLOR- atory, high-risk, high-reward endeavors can be absorbed by Silicon Valley venture capitalists and the personal for- tunes of its aristocracy. A concentration of capital stands ready to risk big money to secure a stake in future markets (which will double down on its power in existing ones). The point is to ensure a slice of the territory everyone else will be clamoring for. This form of “creative destruction”—an idea developed by economist Joseph Schumpeter, understood in neoliberalism to describe the boom-bust cycle of innovation—is often packaged in the mythology of moonshot genius that drives human progress. But Schumpeter’s theory has a less discussed under- belly: Such creative destruction is usually twinned with market capture. As competitors are tossed

Left: A NASA engineer in Florida adjusts a moon-mining test robot, space-mining being a goal of public and private companies. Right: The Aurora Space Station from commercial space company Orion Span, illustrated here, prom-

MAX HERMAN/NURPHOTO VIA ZUMA PRESS ises wealthy travelers a luxury space hotel experience. NASA/KIM SHIFLETT

24 IN THESE TIMES + JANUARY 2021 onto the scrap heap of history by their own sudden irrelevance, oligarchies and monopolies flourish. The riches of the asteroid belt make earthly mining look positively VIA ORION SPAN parochial. The problem is that a sudden, vast supply of (formerly) precious metals would make market prices plummet. Thomas Piketty has observed, this phase is accompanied by Journalist Aaron Bastani, author of Fully Automated Lux- a pivot toward rent-seeking as a profit mechanism. ury Communism, notes that satellite-delivered digital infor- In other words, the scramble for space is the scramble to mation has the potential to replace our earthbound Internet own satellites and “starways,” gatekeep the riches of the networks with “space-based global Internet”—the way mu- solar system and charge rent on the moon. Against this sic streaming has replaced CDs and CDs replaced cas- backdrop, Space Force might seem retrograde, a warped settes and vinyl—or to at least render them much cheaper nostalgia for a time when the space race was about petty (through, for example, open-access 3D printing). SpaceX terrestrial wars rather than Musk’s supposedly enlightened and Blue Origin surely share a goal to make space transport vision to colonize Mars. cheaper. The question is, for whom? In reality, the two visions go hand in hand. Military might These ventures train their sights on infinite excess, with physically captures and secures territory, enforces the dwindling marginal costs as the supply of key materials American political and legal apparatus and ensures busi- and digital resources expands. This paradigm is great for ness can function (even on the moon). those interested in the advancement of human civiliza- The darlings of this new space age paint their vision as dar- tion, but not so much for a grinning billionaire’s fixation ing futurism, a wild-eyed libertarian dream of human eleva- on the bottom line. tion. But history repeats and the story is old. Like Bezos and At first glance, expanding industry beyond Earth sounds Musk, Cecil Rhodes—mining magnate and premier villain like a pragmatic fix to the earth-shatteringly simple dilem- of the British Empire—also succumbed to dreams of wealth ma faced by capitalism: that it must grow to survive, but the in the night sky. “Expansion is everything,” Rhodes said. planet it grows upon is finite. But to maintain profit margins “I would annex the planets if I could.” Where technology in conditions of plenty (a demand of industry), legal and opens up the yawning unknown of new territory glittering political fixes are required. If you exclusively own mining with potential profit, private enterprises hustle for domi- rights to asteroids rich in platinum—and precious little plat- nance—backed by the military and legal capacities of earth- inum is left on Earth—you can charge whatever you like for bound nations. platinum. The diamond industry perfected this technique Colonialism in space is not some post-humanist utopia, decades ago. (Elon Musk’s family fortune comes partially but the age-old dominion of land barons and mining mag- from a Zambian emerald mine.) nates, billionaires sloughing off the wreckage of one planet Hence, the focus of the new space race is not on the produc- and setting out for the stars. tion of goods or their most efficient sourcing, but on ownership of land and transport networks. In this latest phase of capi- ELEANOR PENNY is a writer based in London. Her work can be talism, as national growth slows, productive industries dwin- found in outlets including Verso Books, the New Statesman and dle and wealth concentrates in fewer hands. As economist Novara Media.

JANUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 25 REPORTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE INTERCEPT Inside an Outbreak at an ICE Jail When immigrants at Etowah Detention Center showed symptoms of Covid-19—or simply requested tests—they were thrown in solitary

nside his cell at the Etowah County looked around, he realized his worst fears had come true. Detention Center in Gadsden, Ala., Karim Gold- Etowah contracts with the federal government to hold ing began feeling sick one day in June 2020. He people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforce- had a fever, a pounding headache, cold sweats, ment (ICE). Etowah claims (in court documents) it fol- an “onion burning sensation” behind his eyes, lows guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and he was sleeping for days on end. When he and Prevention—including quarantining new arrivals, finally felt well enough to emerge, “the entire implementing social distancing measures and providing unit” was sick, Golding recalls. “Everybody have cleaning supplies. But Golding and more than a dozen some symptom or the other.” other people detained by ICE IThree months earlier, as BY CLARISSA DONNELLY-DEROVEN say the measures taken were The Intercept reported in April, more than just inadequate— Golding, who has asthma, was a lead organizer of a pro- they led to a massive Covid-19 outbreak. test inside the jail, pushing for stronger precautions to Seven of them say people were given a single dispos- stop the spread of the coronavirus. Now, as Golding able mask to last for three weeks. One shares a photo

26 IN THESE TIMES + JANUARY 2021 INVESTIGATION

Bakhodir Madjitov, who was deported in September, wrote that there were cockroaches and flies in the solitary detention unit. Karim Golding wrote that he was fed uncooked frozen food and didn’t have access to drinking water.

“So you have Africans, you have Jamaicans, you have El Salvadorans—you have different groups,” Golding explains. “What I did was say, ‘Hey, listen, you talk to your peoples, you tell them this.’ ” Many people were apprehensive about asking for a test, as guards had already placed the few who were pre- sumed positive into solitary confinement, a treatment of what he says were the only “cleaning supplies” he considered by the United Nations to be torture. In soli- received—a toothbrush, toothpaste, comb and com- tary, detainees say they were locked in cells without air bo shampoo/body wash—which came inside a gift bag conditioning for around 23 hours a day. The average high emblazoned with the words “Merry Christmas” from temperature in July in Gadsden is 91 degrees. the Salvation Army. Nevertheless, by July 4, everyone in the unit—more Immigrants detained inside Etowah also say many than 80 people—had put in requests for a Covid-19 test, new arrivals were quarantined for only five days or eight according to interviews with Golding and another im- days—rather than the recommended two weeks—po- migrant detained by ICE, as well as the affidavits of tentially allowing the virus to spread inside the jail. nine detainees included in a petition for a writ of habe- According to a partial Etowah roster obtained by The as corpus Golding filed on his own behalf in the North- Intercept and In These Times, ICE transferred at least ern District of Alabama in September. 24 people into the facility in June. By the second half of Two days later, according to those 11, Etowah Coun- July, the agency reported that 21 people—nearly a quar- ty Sheriff’s Office Capt. Mike O’Bryant called a lock- ter of those housed in Etowah’s ICE unit—were sick. down of the unit. O’Bryant then read the names of the When Golding finally emerged from his cell, the or- 10 most vocal detainees calling for mass testing, includ- ganizer part of his brain clicked back on. “I’m looking at ing Golding. These 10, O’Bryant said, were going to soli- people that’s literally looking pale in the face,” he says. tary. At the time of their transfer, none had tested positive “And medical is doing nothing for them.” So Golding for Covid-19. All 11 sources say they felt this was punish- told everyone in the unit to request a test for Covid-19. ment and retaliation for requesting the coronavirus tests. “I noticed that all of us who were randomly picked Above: Long-time U.S. resident Shemoi Edwards looks on were the ones who were vocal, outspoken and shown after release from immigration jail. Edwards, like many others, desire to be tested,” Stanley Walden wrote in an affi-

PHOTO BY CYDNI ELLEDGE was locked in solitary confinement because of Covid-19. davit dated August 7.

JANUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 27 “He handpicked cells and made an example, in front of everyone, that he really meant to throw anyone who get tested into a dungeon,” Sebastian Abalo Cunna wrote in an affidavit dated July 28. “It feels like punishment for standing up for our right to health and safety.” After locking down the unit, O’Bryant and other staff members went from cell to cell asking whether anyone still wanted a Covid-19 test, according to Golding and the affidavits of nine others. Most declined and signed waiv- ers saying as much. In a recorded conversation involving two Etowah em- ployees obtained by The Intercept and In These Times, one employee described the events of July 6 as an attempt to “bully” people into not getting tested. Afterward, both em- ployees said in the recording, immigrants inside Etowah appeared too scared to seek even basic medical care. Four of those who went to solitary say they were unable to communicate with family for days. Some of their concerned family members called the facility. The relatives of one detainee say jail staff assured them that their family member was fine. At the time, he was in solitary confinement, having developed symptoms of Covid-19. Golding’s mother says she was told there was no evidence of the virus at the facility, even as Covid-19 at Etowah was listed on the ICE website. According to the family members interviewed for this story, neither ICE nor Etowah ever reached out to tell them their loved ones were sick. The Etowah County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to detailed questions from The Intercept and In These Times about the jail’s Covid-19 precautions, the detainees’ alle- gations of retaliation and whether detainees had autho- rized the release of their medical information to family members. “The health, safety, and welfare of those in our care remain a top priority and concern for the agency,” a spokesperson for ICE wrote in an emailed statement. “Since the outbreak of Covid-19, ICE has taken extensive steps to safeguard all detainees, staff and contractors, including: reducing the number of detainees in custody by placing individuals on alternatives to detention programs, suspending social visitation, incorporating social distancing practices with staggered meals and recreation times,

and through the use of cohorting and medical isolation.” INTERCEPT THE

“A form of punishment” CE’s own guidance on how detention centers should respond to the Covid-19 pandemic says “facilities must ensure that medical isolation is operationally distinct from administrative or disciplinary segregation, or any punitive form of hous- Iing.” And yet, a previous investigation by The Intercept found that a number of ICE detention centers have failed to adhere to this requirement. According to immigrants detained at Etowah, solitary confinement was used not Top: Karim Golding poses with his dog, before his incarceration. only as leverage to discourage requests for testing, but to Bottom: The Etowah County Detention Center issued these “cleaning isolate people with Covid-19.

supplies” during Covid-19. The Intercept and In These Times spoke with five men TOP PHOTO: COURTESY OF KARIM GOLDING, BOTTOM: COURTESY OF

28 IN THESE TIMES + JANUARY 2021 Shemoi Edwards, now free at his home in Flint, Mich., says he was locked in solitary for a week before his positive Covid-19 test result.

who tested positive for Covid-19 while detained at punishment that they’re putting us in.” Etowah. Each says he spent weeks in solitary. Edwards received the results from his coronavirus Shemoi Edwards developed Covid-19 symptoms just test July 8, after he had been in solitary for more than a days before Golding. At first, Edwards hoped to quietly week; he was positive. One day later, Golding received sweat out whatever illness he had picked up, but he soon the same bad news. hobbled over to an officer and said he felt like he’d been In isolation, the men say, their phone access was lim- hit by a truck. With a history of bronchitis and a recent ited. They could make calls only during a brief daily free diagnosis of sickle-cell trait, Edwards was too scared to period (no more than 75 minutes), which occurred on an ride out the illness on his own. Not long afterward, Ed- irregular schedule. Sometimes, they say, it popped up in wards says, he was transferred to solitary. the middle of the night. The men universally describe conditions in the sol- Before he got sick, Edwards would speak with his itary confinement unit as squalid. In their affidavits, mother and brother—Nickoy Edwards, a police offi- many expressed distress that they no longer had ac- cer in Flint, Mich.—a few times each week. Nickoy, af- cess to mental health professionals, the law library, ter not hearing from his brother the first week of July, sunlight or fresh air. “Civil detention have turned into decided to call Etowah. After finally getting someone torture,” Falaye Kourouma wrote. to talk to him, Nickoy says, “that person answered and Bakhodir Madjitov, who was deported in September, told me that they looked in the computer and they told wrote that there were cockroaches and flies in the unit. me, ‘Shemoi is OK. He’s on the floor. And nothing is Golding wrote that he was fed uncooked frozen food wrong with him.’” and didn’t have access to drinking water because the Nickoy believed the facility—at first. Then, weeks lat- sink in his cell didn’t flow properly. er, his brother finally called, telling Nickoy he was in “No one wants to be treated how I am currently being solitary confinement and had the coronavirus. treated,” Dawa Sherpa wrote in his affidavit. “I fear that Nickoy called Etowah again. “And they told me the I may die here at Etowah County Detention Center.” same thing: ‘He’s OK.’ One man says he spent 21 days in isolation. Another “I felt like they weren’t telling the truth,” Nickoy says. counted 35 days, a third 54. Edwards says he was put in “I was a little upset, you know, and concerned because, isolation June 29 and released July 28—29 days. Gold- you know, I want him to be OK.” ing says he was in solitary confinement from July 6 to Their mother, Tyson Mills, also began to worry. August 28—53 days. When she was finally able to get through to Etowah, “We was getting the same treatment as [when] you Mills explained who she was and asked about her son. get in trouble,” Edwards says. “Even though it’s prob- “Ma’am, he’s OK,” Mills says she was told. “He’s al-

PHOTO BY CYDNI ELLEDGE ably a different word—it’s ‘isolation’—it’s still a form of right. Nothing to worry about.” She says it was sug-

JANUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 29 People detained in the Etowah County Detention Center in Gadsden, Ala., crowd to watch a protest of ICE programs Dec. 3, 2011, organized by Occupy Birmingham.

gested her son didn’t have enough money on his handle the pandemic does not mention how (or commissary account to call. “It wasn’t nice,” Mills whether) facilities should notify family members of says. “I was like breaking down in tears.” immigrants who get sick. Golding’s mother, Mervine Duhaney-Metzgar, says Jessica Vosburgh, an attorney at the Adelante Al- she called Etowah six times after not hearing from her abama Worker Center, has represented immigrants son. At first, her calls were transferred around. “And it seeking release from Etowah because of medical con- happened that I called again, and they told me that ev- ditions that put them at risk during the pandemic. “Be- erything is OK, and there’s no evidence of any illness cause the jail is a healthcare provider, HIPAA applies being there. And I know that wasn’t true,” she says. “It to them,” Vosburgh says, referring to the Health In- was very disturbing as a mother.” surance Portability and Accountability Act. “They have to respect patient privacy, which means not dis- “An act of racism” closing someone’s medical information without their icholas Phillips, Edwards’ attor- consent.” ney, is not surprised by the lack of commu- “When I need to get someone’s medical records nication experienced by the families of these from Etowah, I need their signed consent and then detained men. “ICE is essentially kind of a [the jail] can share it with me. And I think it would closed book to us,” Phillips says. “Etowah adds work similarly for a family member,” Vosburgh says. Nanother level of complexity to it because Etowah is a “There’s [nothing] in HIPAA that would require or county jail. And so it’s not really run by ICE. It’s run allow people to lie or provide false information about by the Etowah County sheriff’s department.” someone’s health. That’s different than not disclos- According to a 2015 agreement, Etowah is respon- ing, right? If there’s something they can’t disclose, sible for medical care inside the facility. But ICE’s they just have to say, ‘I can’t disclose.’ ”

36-page guidance on how detention facilities should “Even if someone is being imprisoned, they have the AP PHOTO/THE GADSDEN TIMES, SARAH DUDIK

30 IN THESE TIMES + JANUARY 2021 INVESTIGATION right to proper health, to proper medical attention,” Nothing to his name Golding’s mother, Duhaney-Metzgar, says. Before dwards was just shy of hitting one Golding got sick, she had put in a complaint to the of- month in isolation when his third Covid-19 test fice of her congressperson, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D- came back positive. Medical staff at Etowah had N.Y.), asking for an investigation into how her son had informed everyone that they would need two been treated in ICE custody and requesting that he be consecutive negative tests to leave solitary and transferred to a facility closer to home. Ereturn to the general population—so when a guard lat- “My office has repeatedly reached out to follow up er woke Edwards up and told him to pack his things, on the case for Mrs. Metzgar’s son Karim, and it has Edwards was confused. “I thought I was going back been months since their last reply,” Meeks says of to my original unit,” he says. But a sergeant appeared ICE. “ICE’s response time is simply unacceptable, es- and told him he was being released. pecially now during a pandemic when it’s a matter of “And I’m like, OK!” Edwards says. “So I just got to health and safety.” packing, you know, packed all my legal work, and I gave “I am so hurt deep down with what’s going on,” Du- all my commissary away to everybody.” haney-Metzgar says. “Behind it, I strongly know that Phillips, Edwards’ attorney, had won a case just two it’s an act of racism.” weeks earlier (on July 16, 2020) on behalf of Jervis The criminal justice system and the immigra- Glenroy Jack, a lawful permanent resident. The fed- tion system are deeply entangled, with harsh conse- eral government had sought to deport Jack because of quences for Black immigrants in particular. One out a conviction on unlawful gun possession in New York of every five people facing deportation because of a state. The judge Jack saw in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court criminal conviction is Black. of Appeals, however, ruled the state-level gun convic- As of July 2020, about half of the people detained tion did not qualify as a deportable offense. by ICE at Etowah were Black, including Golding, Ed- Edwards’ case was nearly identical to Jack’s: Edwards, wards and many of the other men interviewed for this a longtime permanent resident, served two and a half story. Several are lawful permanent residents, but years in prison on a similar conviction in New York. lost their green cards and became “deportable” after When Edwards was out on parole, immigration author- criminal convictions. ities took him into custody. “[The Trump] administration, in my view, does not Doing his own legal research, Edwards came across give a shit about detainees,” says Phillips. “So how the Jack case in 2019, then reached out to Phillips, who does it fit into the kind of larger discussion about racial justice and Black Lives Matter? Edwards reviews his release documents from Etowah Detention Center I think it’s an integral aspect of that. I mean, after returning to Flint, Mich. PHOTO BY CYDNI ELLEDGE immigration detention is, in many ways, simply an extension of the kind of mass incarceration crisis that America has gone through.” Rather than accept deportation, many immigrants remain at Etowah for years as they fight their cases, often because they have nothing to go back to. Golding and Edwards were both born in Jamaica and came to the United States as children. Edwards, now 30, arrived at 15 on a green card; most of his family now also lives in the United States. Gold- ing, now 36, arrived at 9 to reunite with his mother, who had fled an abusive relationship; he has never been back to Jamaica. Before being incarcerated by ICE, Golding served a 10-year sentence in federal prison. He and his family say they didn’t know there would be immigration consequences for his criminal conviction and that he has served his time. “I just want my son to get to come home,” Golding’s mother says. “Every one of us has the right to be forgiven.”

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JANUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 33 CULTURE

For Crying Out Loud Both personal and political, wailing disrupts the social order

BY RENEE SIMMS

hadn’t thought much carried down the aisle, past the second about public wailing before my wife and the pew where auntie sat with uncle’s funeral. His sudden death her adult children, decades of pain and from a heart attack in 1990 shocked alienation exploded from her throat. It our community, because for many was a sharp sound in a high register, like people Uncle F’s life seemed im- a starling’s scream. Her cry was both per- mune to tragedy. He was the kind of sonal and deeply political—reflecting the 20th-century man for whom even loss of a loved one as well as a long and Blackness seemed a noble grace. His tangled history of trauma. Ichiseled features made him resemble Soon after my auntie started to yell, the actor Percy Rodriguez, who played other women also began to cry out. Commodore Stone in the original Star Trek series. And he wasn’t old when his Q Q Q heart stopped, but robustly middle-aged and at the peak of a prominent legal ca- In 2012, I became obsessed with reer. Uncle F and his second wife lived in wailing women. This was after the death a Michigan suburb, in a nice house with of Trayvon Martin, and then Michael their young kids. Then he was found un- Brown and then Jordan Davis. I watched responsive on the couch. the public appearances of their grieving I remember the moment my auntie be- mothers with mixed emotions. I told close gan wailing at his funeral. She was my un- friends that if one of my children were cle’s disgraced first wife. For over an hour murdered by police, I would not be sto- she’d sat among the mourners in the Epis- ic for anyone. “Instead,” I said, “I will go copal church on West Seven Mile Road, mad. I will scream until I have everyone’s listening to the somber prayers and songs. attention and retreat from anything re- Years before, some of these mourners had sembling normalcy ever again.” known that my uncle had a white mis- Since the police-murders of George tress; when he married her, some of them Floyd and Breonna Taylor in the midst had attended the wedding. My aunt nev- of a historic pandemic, I’ve had a recur- er recovered from the shame. So, when ring dream. I’m standing in the middle the coffin that held her ex-husband was of a winding, residential street not unlike

34 IN THESE TIMES +JANUARY 2021 the twisting, dark roads where I live in the Pa- working-class neighborhood populated by the cific Northwest. I stand alone and I’m scream- underemployed and unemployed. ing. I scream until I am hoarse, at which point Lee encourages his viewers to be optimis- my screaming turns into sobs. People pull their tic about this fictional Brooklyn community; cars onto the shoulder of the road. Some peo- his Bed-Stuy is bathed in sunlight and primary ple step out of their homes. This is where the colors. This filmic grammar shapes the mov- dream always ends, on the verge of assembly. ie’s trope: the American neighborhood, the set- Above: Mamie Till- ting for dozens of stories about the American Mobley weeps in Q Q Q dream. The genius of Do the Right Thing is that Chicago at the it centers racism in the dream, but it does so casket of her son, There’s a scene late in Spike Lee’s within the context of that familiar feel-good Emmett Till, 14, Do the Right Thing where Mother Sister (Ruby trope. By the time police murder Radio Ra- lynched while Dee) screams as her neighborhood erupts in heem and the looting of Sal’s begins, we under- visiting family flames. Before we get to this scene, we watch stand the riot was inevitable, but we’re still sad in Mississippi in as ordinary events transpire over the course of that this ideal neighborhood could not hold. August 1955. one day. We see young people talking shit on That moment is when Mother Sister begins (Illustration by Lindokuhle Brooklyn stoops, eating flavored ice and star- to wail. Her cry opens us up to feel the longue Mawala based ing down racist police. We witness Buggin’ Out durée of a community’s suffering. She’s cry- on the famous and Radio Raheem bargain for extra cheese ing for Radio Raheem, but the depth of her Chicago Sun- at Sal’s Famous Pizzeria. This is Spike Lee’s emotion suggests she’s reacting to an act of Times/AP file dream world: a polycultural, immigrant and genocide. photo)

JANUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 35 Q Q Q is a tradition found in Judaism, Christianity and many cultures and religions across the world. The The usual occasion for public wail- Bible includes several passages in which public ing is death. In his research on ritual wailing in cries are the prescribed response to a community’s Amerindian Brazil, anthropology professor Greg trials, injustices or sins. The Book of Isaiah says, Urban found that wails capture listeners’ atten- “Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like tion in part because they are structured like mu- a trumpet; declare to my people their transgres- sic, with “sing-song intonations” and “a pattern of sion.” Wailing women are a frequent biblical trope. parallelism.” This structure can include the repeti- The trope appears in secular literature as well. It’s tion of words. In Do the Right Thing, Mother Sister in classics like Antigone, which pre-dates the Bible. repeats the word “no” as she wails. For my auntie, It’s in Toni Morrison’s Beloved, from 1987. it was “It’s alright” and “You don’t have to worry In 1955, the photograph of Mamie Till- anymore.” But Urban found another function to Mobley crying out beside her 14-year-old son Em- ritual wailing: communicating a desire for social mett Till’s casket created momentum for the civil connection and acceptance. rights movement. Even in the absence of an audi- Where it still exists, public wailing is a ritual in ble cry, the published image of Mobley’s distressed decline. Researching ritual wailing in Yemenite- face did the work that the sound of wailing can do. Israeli culture, anthropology and sociology pro- It communicated the depth of her suffering while fessor Tova Gamliel found that young people moving a nation to respond. considered it backward and embarrassing. This Still, the wailing woman does seem like a relic decline, she argues, is part of the general weaken- from another time. The closest I’ve come to pub- ing of tradition in both Israel and Yemen. As one lic lamentation myself is when I read Lucille Clif- young Yemeni woman said, “[We’re] a generation ton’s poem “jasper texas 1998” at an online vigil that doesn’t recognize its God.” for George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. The poem is In fact, you can’t understand public wailing about the 1998 lynching of James Byrd Jr., written without understanding religion. Ritual wailing from the perspective of the deceased Byrd. As I read

“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 +JANUARY 2021 it aloud on Zoom, this line sounded like a cry: “why of general alienation is suicidal for a communi- and why and why / should i call a white man broth- ty.” For Riggs, our alienation was directly related er?” If we understand Clifton’s poem as a wail, it is to our inability to see our neighbors as ourselves. striking that the wailer is a murdered man crying Like Lorde and Collins, Riggs believed what we for himself. Why would Clifton write the poem this fear most is the chaos within ourselves. In anoth- way? Why does a dead man speak? Clifton destabi- er interview from the 1990s, he argues for a dif- lizes our thinking about whose life is recognized, ferent conception of social identity, “a conceiving who survives and who has license to speak, when of self that’s not premised on ‘the other.’ … With- she writes, “who is the human in this place, / the out ‘the other’ we would have to really look at thing that is dragged, or the dragger?” Her point: Historically, the definition of human has been cor- rupted by anti-Black racism.

Q Q Q When women tap into that

Wailers disrupt the social order creative power “born of Chaos,” through the public use of their voice. They re- fuse to remain silent about tragedy or loss. Black we assert our “lifeforce” and feminists have long argued that the powerless become empowered through their voices, especially reclaim our language, history, through expressions of emotion and desire. This is because “all systems of oppression rely on har- work—and our entire lives. nessing the power of the erotic,” as social theorist Patricia Hill Collins points out. The poet Audre ourselves and see the chaos within.” Well, here Lorde defined “erotic” as “a measure between we are in 2020, still grappling with the chaos cre- the beginnings of our sense of self and the cha- ated by white supremacy, still alienated from our- os of our strongest feelings.” According to Lorde, selves as well as each other. when women tap into that creative power “born In dealing with my own chaos, I dream of wailing of Chaos,” we assert our “lifeforce” and reclaim in the streets. I romanticize an act of courage I wit- our language, history, work—and our entire lives. nessed inside a church. I convince myself that I don’t In hindsight, my aunt’s act of wailing at the fu- need to cry, that public protests will be enough. But neral was an assertion of her standing within our deep down, I know neither dreams nor protests can community. She dared to speak about her love for provide the spiritual catharsis that I crave. I know her ex-husband when everyone wanted her silent. that I should unleash my grief; I know I need to Despite attempts to shame her about her failed scream. I imagine there’s freedom in a public wail. marriage, she publicly mourned her loss. Her cries But I can’t imagine the space or occasion where it proclaimed that what had been done to her had could happen, or who I would be afterward. been done to all of us. By piercing the silence of the In the meantime, I muddle through another day church and daring to be vulnerable, she made us and another chat via Zoom. I read messages from feel our connection to each other. Within minutes, my white friends who wonder how I am. What other mourners began openly weeping or talking, can I say? I am not fine? None of us is doing well? and embracing my aunt. They acknowledged her Without meaningful rituals or social identities not pain and belonging. Through vulnerability, she as- premised on “the other,” we are caught in a fright- serted her power and reestablished the communal ening loop called race. And it’s there that our emo- ties that sexism and racism had torn apart. tions remain as unexpressed lamentations, as hard In 1992, filmmaker Marlon Riggs described the knots lodged deep in our throats. social alienation caused by classist and geograph- This piece was adapted from an essay originally pub- ic snobbery. “I mean, people just seem so discon- lished in Guernica magazine. nected in general,” he said two years before his death. “If you just talk to people, what goes on in RENEE SIMMS’ debut story collection Meet Behind Mars New York is utterly foreign to what goes on here was a Foreword INDIES Finalist and listed by The Root as in California. … A school district fails in this state one of 28 brilliant books by Black authors in 2018. She teach- or in this district and it does not matter to me as es at the University of Puget Sound and in the Rainier Writ- long as I seem to be getting mine. … And that kind ing Workshop.

JANUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 37 COMICS

RUBEN BOLLING

38 IN THESE TIMES +JANUARY 2021 COMICS

NICCOLO PIZARRO PIA GUERRA

MATT BORS

JANUARY 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 39 THESE TIMES THOSE TIMES PERSON COMMUNITYA BEEF WITH PANDEMIC RESPONSE rioritizing profit over public health is nothing new in the United States, Covid-19 notwithstanding. THIS MONTHIn the late 1980s, an outbreak of mad cow disease (otherwise known as bo- vine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE) LATE CAPITALISMPspread rapidly among cattle in the U.K., and the in- curable, brain-wasting disease was known to cause a fatal variant disease in humans who ate infected beef. While the import of British cattle was banned in the United States in 1989, the U.S. Department Right of Agriculture generally ignored broader calls to and below: prevent a mad cow outbreak here, deferring to in- A cow looks on, dustry over science. unafraid of mad In These Times editor and publisher Joel Bleifuss on our domestic markets for beef and dairy.” cow disease examined the dismal U.S. response in our April 15, ... The department seems to believe that (much like the 1996, issue: American public), what the public doesn’t know can’t hurt it. despite living THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (USDA) And to that end it appears to be doing all it on the very appears to be following in the footsteps can to avoid discovering scientific evidence farm where the of the British Ministry of Agriculture, that would contradict the government’s offi- first U.S. case Fisheries and Food, which, after years of cial position, that BSE “does not exist” in the was confirmed downplaying the human health risks stem- United States. in 2003. Joel ming from mad cow disease, saw the issue … According to [Richard] Marsh [a veteri- Bleifuss wrote erupt into a public health crisis. nary scientist at the University of Wisconsin “What’s in the ... Prodded by this alarming prognosis, and a member of the government’s Scrapie/ Beef?” for the the USDA has decided to institute some long BSE Consultants Group], the [USDA] is ex- April 15, 1996, overdue regulatory reform. Yet questions re- amining the wrong cows and using the issue of In main. Has the department done too little too wrong diagnosis when it does so. For more These Times. late? Is the department acting out of than 10 years, Marsh has been trying to con- concern for public health, or is it pro- vince government officials that the United tecting the affected industries from an States is very much at risk for mad cow dis- outbreak of public concern? ease—and that, indeed, a form of the malady In 1991, the USDA prepared contin- may already be circulating through the U.S. gency plans dealing with the possibil- cattle population. ity that mad cow disease could rear its Sure enough, in 2003, a case of mad cow in the ugly head in the United States. The de- United States was finally confirmed. Trade out Big partment, keenly aware that any battle Ag for Big Tech and Big Pharma, and the present would be fought in the court of public pandemic profiteering landscape feels familiar. opinion, drew up a strategy paper ti- President Donald Trump and other elected officials tled “BSE Public Relations.” That plan have repeatedly downplayed the pandemic, insist- reads in part, “The mere perception ing instead on “reopening” the economy—despite that BSE might exist in the United

more than 274,000 dead Americans at press time. JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES States could have devastating effects — FRANK CARBER

40 IN THESE TIMES +JANUARY 2021 A MISTAKE FROM OUR PAST. A VOTE FOR OUR FUTURE.

“People have been arguing against the Electoral College from the beginning. But no one, at least in recent years, has laid out the case as comprehensively and as readably as Jesse Wegman does.” —THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Jesse Wegman is a shrewd analyst, brilliant researcher and passionate writer, and here he tackles an issue important to our system’s legitimacy.” —NICHOLAS KRISTOF

“Combines in-depth historical analysis and insight into contemporary politics to present a cogent argument that the Electoral College violates America’s ‘core democratic principles’ and should be done away with.” —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

New York Times editorial board member Jesse Wegman draws upon the history of the founding era and modern presidential campaigns to make a powerful case for abolishing the Electoral College. In Let the People Pick the President he shows how we can at long last make every vote in the United States count—and restore belief in our democratic system.

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