THE FRONTLINE WORKERS WE FAILED Taking Stock of a Bitter Year
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NHS PUTS U.S. NINA TURNER’S WILL GITMO EVER PLUS: THE 7,081 READERS WHO TO SHAME P. 9 TURN P. 7 CLOSE? P. 56 PUBLISH IN THESE TIMES P. 28 THE FRONTLINE WORKERS WE FAILED Taking stock of a bitter year BY HAMILTON NOLAN + Tina Vásquez on the migrants whisked away in the night APRIL 2021 ADVERTISEMENT The Invention of the Year e world’s lightest and most portable mobility device 10” e Zinger folds to a mere 10 inches. Once in a lifetime, a product comes along that truly moves people. Introducing the future of battery-powered personal transportation... The Zinger. Throughout the ages, there have been many important folded it can be wheeled around like a suitcase and fits easily advances in mobility. Canes, walkers, rollators, and scooters into a backseat or trunk. Then, there are the steering levers. were created to help people with mobility issues get around They enable the Zinger to move forward, backward, turn and retain their independence. 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It is not covered by Medicare nor Medicaid. © 2021 fi rst STREET for Boomers and Beyond, Inc. 85221 VOLUME 45 NUMBER 4 ON THE COVER A Year in the Life of Safeway 1048 16 Is It Nina SPECIAL INVESTIGATION RTW Cleaves the Turner’s Turn? The Disappeared Granite State The Cleveland native hopes Migrants In New Hampshire, the future to move Ohio left The Biden admin continues Trump’s of labor hangs in the air BY NUALA BISHARI expulsions on public health pretext BY C.M. LEWIS 7 BY TINA VÁSQUEZ 6 22 APRIL 2021 = IN THESE TIMES 1 No political movement can be healthy unless it has its own press to inform it, educate it and orient it. “ — IN THESE TIMES FOUNDER JAMES WEINSTEIN ” TABLE OF CONTENTS FOUNDING EDITOR & PUBLISHER JAMES WEINSTEIN (1926–2005) DISPATCHES FEATURES EDITOR & PUBLISHER Joel Bleifuss EXECUTIVE EDITOR Jessica Stites 6 LABOR 16 LABOR EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER Christopher Hass Right To Work Cleaves A Year in the Life of INTERIM MANAGING EDITOR Alex DiBranco the Granite State Safeway 1048 WEB EDITORS Miles Kampf-Lassin, BY C.M. LEWIS BY HAMILTON NOLAN Jacob Sugarman WISCONSIN EDITOR Alice Herman 7 Is It Nina Turner’s Turn? 22 SPECIAL INVESTIGATION LABOR REPORTER Hamilton Nolan INVESTIGATIVE FELLOW Indigo Olivier BY NUALA BISHARI Trump Created a Shadow COPY EDITOR Bob Miller System To Expel Migrants. PROOFREADERS Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin, The NHS Gives Britain 9 Biden Embraced It. Rochelle Lodder a Shot in the Arm SENIOR EDITORS Patricia Aufderheide, BY TINA VÁSQUEZ Susan J. Douglas, David Moberg, Salim BY NATASHA HAKIMI ZAPATA Muwakkil, Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) 28 Special Donor CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Kate Aronoff, Appreciation Section Theo Anderson, Michael Atkinson, VIEWPOINT Frida Berrigan, Michelle Chen, Jude Ellison S. Doyle, Pete Karman, Kari Lydersen, Moshe Z. Marvit, Jane 12 Forever War Once More DEPARTMENTS Miller, Shaun Richman, Slavoj Žižek BY DANNY SJURSEN CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Dean Baker, 4 In Conversation Rebecca Burns, Barbara Ehrenreich, Jeremy Gantz, Leonard C. Goodman, Mindy Isser, Naomi Klein, Chris Lehmann, John CULTURE 7 This Month in Nichols, Rick Perlstein, Micah Uetricht Late Capitalism ASSISTANT TO THE MANAGING EDITOR 48 On Envisioning an Clara Liang 10 In Case You Missed It EDITORIAL INTERNS Brianna Bilter, Maryum Alternative World Elnasseh, Paco Alvarez, Sadie Morris WRITTEN BY ALISSE 13 The Big Idea: Critical Race Theory CREATIVE DIRECTOR Rachel K. Dooley WATERSTON, ILLUSTRATED DESIGN ASSISTANT Matt Whitt BY CHARLOTTE CORDEN CARTOONS EDITOR Matt Bors 54 Comics CARTOONISTS Terry LaBan, Dan Perkins DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR ON THE COVER 56 In Those Times: Lauren Kostoglanis Photo by Farrah Skeiky DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR Jamie Hendry Gitmo Has Got To Go PUBLISHING ASSISTANT Caroline Reid CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Rebecca Sterner IN THESE TIMES BOARD OF DIRECTORS M. Nieves Bolaños, Tobita Chow, Kevin Creighan, Dan Dineen, James Harkin, Robert Kraig, Paul Olsen, Rick Perlstein, Steven Saltzman, Stacy Sutton, David Taber, William Weaver The work of In These Times writers is supported by the Puffin Foundation. Our staff and writers are represented by pms 3015 pms 130 these unions: 2 IN THESE TIMES + APRIL 2021 EDITORIAL Class War in the Senate issing from the Congressio- 65 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, to earn the nal debate over raising the $7.25 feder- $68,808 living wage they need. Some people try al minimum wage to $15 an hour is any to do it; according to the Census Bureau, around acknowledgement that poverty-level 7.8% of workers hold more than one job. wages are integral to a class system that When former enslaved person and abolitionist Mrewards the rich and punishes the poor. Frederick Douglass took his first paying job, he de- With few exceptions, where a person ends up clared, “Now I am my own master.” But by 1883, he in life—in terms of health, wealth and general observed, “Experience demonstrates that there wellbeing—is determined by the economic class into which they are born. People born On March 5, the Senate had another poor die poor. People born rich die rich. This basic, intrinsic feature of American opportunity to lift millions out of political economy is shaded from view by poverty, by raising the minimum wage our culture’s celebration of the so-called to $15. But 50 Republicans and seven meritocracy, the myth that if a person Democrats voted against the bill. works hard enough, they can win at any table, despite the stacked deck. Government can intervene to lift may be a slavery of wages only a little people out of poverty. The 1944 GI less galling and crushing in its effects Bill, for example, enabled the fami- than chattel slavery, and that this slavery lies of millions of World War II vets to of wages must go down with the other.” enter the middle class. Because of structur- The condition of wage workers has improved al racism, however, most of those who benefit- since the depravities of the Gilded Age because ed were white. The legislation did not guarantee of the tireless work of the American labor move- the same housing and educational benefits to 1.2 ment. That movement, however, has atrophied million Black vets. in recent decades, with membership declining On March 5, the Senate had another opportu- from its 1954 high of 34.8% of the workforce to nity to lift millions out of poverty, this time by the current 10.8%. raising the minimum wage to $15. But 50 Re- Though his bill was defeated, Sanders vowed publicans, seven Democrats and an Indepen- to fight on: “If any Senator believes this is the dent voted against the bill sponsored by Sen. last time they will cast a vote on whether or not Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). In doing so, they denied a to give a raise to 32 million Americans, they are raise to the 32 million workers—about 21% of the sorely mistaken.” workforce—including 31% of Black workers, 26% In addition to giving that raise, next on the pro- percent of Hispanic workers and 20% of white gressive agenda should be the Protecting the workers. That number includes the 1.1 million Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which passed the Americans who earn $7.25 or less, and the ap- House on March 9, and now heads to the Sen- proximately 20.6 million who earn a “near-min- ate. If passed, it would enshrine the basic right imum” wage of up to $10.10, according to the of workers to organize without interference from Pew Research Center. their employers. It would also allow workers to Like $7.25 an hour, $10.10 is not a “living engage in political strikes, secondary strikes and wage,” the earnings needed to cover the cost of solidarity strikes—powerful tactics once despised a family’s basic necessities, as defined by the by anti-New-Dealers who sought to rein in worker Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living power with the Taft-Hartley Act.