The IndypendenT #250: SepTember 2019 • IndypendenT.org

bernIe’S SecreT Sauce p16 puerTo rIco: afTer The uprISIng p18 The 21ST cenTury femInIST p20

unlockIng our TIFFANY PAI SchoolS The cITy IS relaXIng gIulIanI-era polIcIeS ThaT have crImInalIZed a generaTIon of publIc School STudenTS. crITIcS wanT Them Scrapped. p8 2 COMMUNITy The IndypendenT CAlENDAR

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Ellen Davidson, Anna Gold, records and other Alina Mogilyanskaya, Ann music related good- Schneider, John Tarleton ies all day. SMORGASBURG EXECUTIVE EDITOR: SEPTEMBER East River State Park, John Tarleton Bklyn MANAGING EDITOR: THRU SEPT 29 THE GREEN NEW DEAL and collectives, small presses, Peter Rugh THU 1PM–9PM, FRI–SUN 12PM– Join renowned author Naomi institutions, galleries, antiquarian SAT SEPT 21 5PM • FREE Klein a public discussion of her booksellers and distributors. 12PM–3PM • FREE CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: EXHIBITION: RESISTANCE RADIO latest book, On Fire: The (Burning) MOMA PS1 PROTEST: BURY THE PLAN NOT Ellen Davidson, Alina Learn how grassroots move- Case for a Green New Deal, which 22-25 Jackson Ave., Queens THE PARK Mogilyanskaya, Nicholas ments use the people’s airwaves. gathers for the fi rst time more The city’s plan to demolish East Powers, Steven Wishnia Features talks and fi lm screenings than a decade of her impassioned FRI SEPT 20 River Park and bury it under eight about rebellious broadcasters. writing about the climate crisis. 12PM–3PM • FREE feet of landfi ll has sparked an ILLUSTRATION DIRECTOR: INTERFERENCE ARCHIVE THE COOPER UNION PROTEST: CLIMATE STRIKE uproar on the Lower East Side. Frank Reynoso 314 7th St., Brooklyn 7 E. 7th St., Mnhtn Ahead of the UN Climate Summit, Opponents of the plan will march demand action to address the at noon from Tompkins Sq. Park to DESIGN DIRECTOR: Mikael Tarkela MON SEPT 9 WED SEPT 18 climate crisis with a march and the Labyrinth just north of the Wil- 9PM • $35–$60 5:30PM–7:30PM • FREE rally featuring Fridays For Future liamsburg Bridge where there will DESIGNERS: MUSIC: GHOSTFACE KILLAH TALK: STANDING WITH STAND- founder Greta Thunberg. be songs, speeches, art for kids Leia Doran, Anna Gold, Evan The Wu-Tang cofounder takes ING ROCK Foley Square to Battery Park, and a mock burial of the plan. Sult the mic. Dispatches of radical political Mnhtn East River Park, Mnhtn SONY HALL engagement from people taking a ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER: 235 W. 46th St., Mnhtn stand against the Dakota Access FRI SEPT 20 SUN SEPT 22 Dean Patterson Pipeline. 1PM–5PM • $17.50 7:30PM • $69 FRI SEPT 13 PEOPLE’S FORUM HISTORY: SLAVERY AND UNDER- MUSIC: JOAN JETT & THE INTERN: 7PM–9:30PM • $20–$25 320 W 37th St., Mnhtn GROUND RAILROAD TOUR BLACKHEARTS Garret Reich MUSIC: LOUISIANA DANCE Follow the Freedom Trail, where a Catch hard-rocking legend Joan PARTY WITH THE REVELERS WED SEPT 18 band of brave men and women in GENERAL INQUIRIES: Jett, the voice behind such classics [email protected] Get freaky on the dance fl oor 7PM–9:30PM • FREE NYC formed the hidden networks as “Bad Reputation,” “I Love Rock with the Revelers, Louisiana’s LIT: LGBTQ LITERATURE that became the Underground ‘N’ Roll” and “Crimson and Clover.” SUBMISSIONS & NEWS TIPS: Grammy-nominated supergroup THROUGH THE AGES Railroad. BERGEN PERFORMING ARTS [email protected] that combines swamp pop, Cajun, Scott Alexander Hess celebrates Bowling Green to City Hall Park, CENTER country, blues and zydeco into a the launch of his newest LGBTQ Mnhtn 30 N. Van Brunt St., Englewood, N.J. ADVERTISING & PROMOTION: powerful tonic of roots music that historical novel River Runs Red [email protected] could only come from Southwest with an evening of sizzling read- FRI SEPT 20 SAT SEPT 28 Louisiana. A brief dance lesson for ings and discussion with author 7:30PM–9:30PM • FREE 10AM–5PM • FREE VOLUNTEER CONTRIBUTORS: beginners will be offered at 7 p.m. Robert Levy and writer Darley MUSIC: ¡VAYA! 63: BOBBY SPIRITUALITY: NYC PAGAN Linda Martín Alcoff, Charlyne with music and dancing to follow. Stewart. The trio will talk about SANABRIA PRIDE DAY 2019 Alexis, Bennett Baumer, Sue STARR BAR Hess’ novel, set in 1891, as well as Bobby Sanabria and his Multi- Meet pagans, Wiccans, Druids, Brisk, Valerio Ciriaci, Rico Cleffi , Renée Feltz, Lynne 214 Starr St., Bklyn the evolution of queer fi ction. verse Big Band pay tribute to the Voodoo practitioners, Thelem- Foster, Emma Gaffney, BLUESTOCKINGS BOOKSTORE, mecca of all Latin dance halls, the ites, etc. for multi-denomina- Esteban Guerra, Lauren Kaori SUN SEPT 15 CAFÉ, & ACTIVIST CENTER legendary Palladium Ballroom, tional rituals and workshops. Gurley, Theodore Hamm, 12PM–6PM • FREE 172 Allen St., Mnhtn where the fusion of big-band Experience tarot card readings or David Hollenbach, Manvi PARADE: 50TH ANNUAL AFRI- mambo with jazz reigned supreme. join a drum circle. Jalan, Sophia Lebowitz, CAN AMERICAN DAY PARADE SEPT 19–SEPT 22 DAVID RUBENSTEIN ATRIUM AT Battery Park City Park, Mnhtn Derek Ludovici, Leonardo Celebrate black culture in Harlem. Times vary • FREE LINCOLN CENTER March, Gary Martin, Lydia Marching bands, dancers, fl oats, LIT: PRINTED MATTER’S NY ART 61 W. 62nd St., Mnhtn SUN SEPT 29 McMullen-Laird, Farid Nassif, the works. BOOK FAIR 2019 12PM–4PM • FREE Brady O’Callahan, Tiffany 111th St. to 136th St. along Adam An international gathering cel- SAT SEPT 21 FESTIVAL: BRONX NATIVE Pai, Donald Paneth, Libby Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd, Mnhtn ebrating the full breadth of the 11AM–6PM • FREE AMERICAN FESTIVAL Rainey, Mark Read, Reverend art publishing community. This MARKET: BROOKLYN FLEA RE- A celebration of the indigenous Billy, Chelsey Sanchez, Steven Sherman, Naomi Ushiyama, TUE SEPT 17 event welcomes more than 350 CORD FAIR peoples of the Western Hemi- Isobel van Hagen, and Chris 6:30PM–8PM • FREE exhibitors from around the world, Record labels, stores, plus sphere. Native music, dance, Wright. BOOK LAUNCH: NAOMI KLEIN ON including a broad range of artists vintage collectors will be selling storytelling and vendors. Featured

VOLUNTEER DISTRIBUTORS: Erik Anders-Nilssen, Eric Brelsford, Chris & Pam Brown, Hank Dombrowski, Joseph Epstein, Kim Frazcek,

September 2019 Lew Friedman, Mindy Gershon, Tami Gold, Priscilla Grim, Laura Kaplan, Michael Korn, Jane LaTour, Dave adverTISe In The Indy Lippman, Ashley Marinaccio, unIQue audIence • affordable raTeS • perSonal aTTenTIon Christine Miller, Saul Nieves, for more InformaTIon, emaIl [email protected] or call 212-904-1282 Caroline Rath, Liam Reilly, Norm Scott, Carol Smith, and The IndypendenT Becky Vaughan. The IndypendenT 3 IN THIS ISSUE

The newS In brIef, p4 Getting a message across the Atlantic, A-list schools get an F, Cops lose their cool, tennis bums and silent soccer hooligans. no counTry for old men, p6

AFRICANAMERICANDAYPARADE.ORG A 77-year-old vet from Woodstock, NY has been stuck in Ireland for six months awaiting performers: the trial for protesting the U.S. Silvercloud Sing- ON THE MARCH: The nation’s military’s role there. It’s unclear ers and Cetiliztli largest African-American parade streams when he will return home. Nauhcampa. through Harlem once again on Sept. 15. Pelham Bay Park SchoolS aren’T JaIlS, p8 Watt Ave. & A new initiative in NYC aims Middletown Rd., HARRy SITUATIONS: Blonde’s to clarify this matter. Will the Bronx front woman Debbie Harry releases her new NYPD play along? memoir at a Town Hall shindig this month. MON SEPT 30 JewS agaInST cageS, p10 8PM • $44–$56 Activists across the country are BOOK LAUNCH: DEBBIE copy of Face It. standing up to the paskudnyak HARRY: FACE IT THE TOWN HALL in the White House and Join Blondie frontwoman 123 W 43rd St., Mnhtn those abetting his attacks on Debbie Harry as she intro- immigrants. duces her long-anticipated memoir. She’ll be joined by buIldIng wallS, TearIng Blondie co-founder and re- down homeS, p11 nowned photographer, Chris Israel continues its ethnic- Stein, and multidisciplinary cleansing project with U.S. artist and director, Rob Roth. blessing. All tickets include a signed

RAPH_PH/FLICKR communITy makeS IT poSSIble, p12 Newspapers are dying all around, but we’re beginning our 20th anniversary year with issue 250. warren vS. SanderS, p16 Some progressives may be ready for one or the other, but the two presidential candidates have very different philosophies and political bases. whaT dId you do over The Summer?, p18 In Puerto Rico, they overthrew their corrupt president and parTy wITh islanders aren’t stopping there. eco-faScISTS, p19 Meet the far-right environmentalists in Germany who want to keep more than the air “unspoilt.” The Indy There IS power In a unIon, JoIn uS In celebraTIng p20 In Steven Greenhouse’s new 250 ISSueS of The IndypendenT book, teachers play hooky for and The begInnIng of our 20Th annIverSary year. The parTy wIll feaTure their pupils and culinary workers reverend bIlly & The STop ShoppIng choIr carve up their bosses. mulTIple bandS & more. eraSIng The redlIne, p21

A new exhibition explores 2019 September histories of housing segregation SaTurday ocT 19 7pm–1am in order to build a new future. SIXTh STreeT communITy cenTer modern-day manIa, p22 Jia Tolentino tackles the

638 e. 6Th ST., manhaTTan IndypendenT The internet, reality TV and the $10-$20, SlIdIng Scale wedding industry in her new essay collection. STay Tuned for addITIonal deTaIlS In TheSe pageS, vIa IndypendenT.org and SocIal medIa. Trump help hoTlIne, p23 The Indy’s spiritual adviser Rev. Billy on youth-led activism and See you There! the legacy of Occupy Wall Street. 4

bluestockings and radical bookstore | activist center | fair trade cafe 172 ALLEN ST • 212-777-6028 Law bluestockings.com Disorderradio Mondays at 9am

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Download Podcasts at EVERY THURS • 9–9:45AM lawanddisorder.org YOGA: Start your day with sun salutations and a vinyasa fl ow. “Our basic constitutional rights are in jeopardy. "Law and FRI SEPT 13 • 7–9:30PM Disorder” is an excellent BOOK LAUNCH: In Queer Terror, C. Heike magazine format radio show, Schotten draws on political, queer and hosted by progressive lawyers indigenous theory to reframe the idea of who analyze the state of civil SUE BRISK ‘terrorism.’ rights in this post-9/11 period. FromFr attacks on Muslims at home to torture abroad, "Law WED SEPT 25 • 7–930PM and Disorder” puts these ON A MISSION: PARTY: Celebrate of Tina Horn’s new constitutional attacks into BRIEFING Swedish climate activist kinky, queer, dystopian comic book series perspective” Greta Thunberg (sitting), SfSx (Safe Sex) with a special fetish - AMY GOODMAN cake-sitting by Lindsay Dye. HOST, DEMOCRACY NOW! ROOM takes a break during her By INDyPENDENT STAFF visit to New York.

GRETA THUNBERG opponents point out that upper-middle- SAIlS INTO CITy class parents often game the admission Teenage environmental activist Greta system by buying their children test-prep- Co-founded by: Thunberg arrived in New York from Swe- aration help. De Blasio says he is review- Michael Ratner (1943-2016) den on a sailboat August 28. “It is insane ing the recommendation. President, Center for Constitutional Rights; that a 16-year-old would have to cross the and hosted by movement lawyers: Atlantic Ocean to make a stand,” she told Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, A. Muste Memorial Institute; the crowd that greeted her at Battery Park, WHAT A RACKET calling climate change “the biggest crisis The U.S. Open tennis tournament at Ar- and Michael Steven Smith, New York City attorney and author. that humanity has ever faced.” She plans thur Ashe Stadium in Forest Hills gener- to participate in a youth-led “climate ates hundreds of millions of dollars worth NOW ON FACEBOOK.COM strike” on Sept. 20 and attend the U.N.’s of economic activity every August and Climate Action Summit on Sept. 23. September, but the U.S. Tennis Associa- tion owes the city $311,000 in back rent, according to an audit conducted by Comp- COMMUNITY FORUM POlICE UNION troller Scott Stringer. The association’s GOES BONKERS lease on the stadium says it’s supposed to On Aug. 19, more than fi ve years after give the city a cut of its revenue, but the WHY THE police offi cer Daniel Pantaleo was fi lmed audit found that it under-reported its pre- putting Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold expense earnings to the tune of $31 mil- on Staten Island, Police Commissioner lion between 2014–2017. Locals also com- James O’Neill fi red him following a dis- plain that the USTA charges nearly $70 an 2020 CENSUS ciplinary hearing. Patrick Lynch, head of hour in court fees to those who wish to the Police Benevolent Association, was in- play at the facility it operates in nearby censed. Speaking to reporters in front of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. MATTERS an upside-down Police Department fl ag, he said the union’s rank-and-fi le were in “distress” over the decision to dismiss KEEPING QUIET WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16 • 6:30 - 8:30 PM Pantaleo, and that “the streets are falling FOR FREE SPEECH into chaos.” Calling for the resignation of Major League Soccer has successfully at- The 2020 census will begin in a few months! Join us to learn: O’Neill and Mayor Bill de Blasio, Lynch tracted a young, diverse audience — but suggested offi cers initiate a work slow- many fans are too vocally left-wing for the • Why our community members need to be counted down, which might help reduce the kind tastes of team owners who fear alienat- • How the census will impact immigrant communities of encounters that led to Garner’s death. ing advertisers and conservative fans. The league banned fans from displaying “po- • What issues immigrants may face with the questionnaire litical” fl ags or banners before this sea- • What we can do to ensure a fair and accurate count DE BlASIO son, and Portland Timbers management MUllS ‘GIFTED’ specifi cally barred fl ags with the three- In conversation with: PROPOSAl arrowed symbol of the “Iron Front,” a Divya Sundaram of Community Voices Heard NYC’s schools are among the most seg- German socialist anti-Nazi, anti-Stalinist James Tillmon of the U.S. Census Bureau regated in the United States, especially its group banned in 1933. Timbers fans have top public high schools: Only seven black adopted the logo, but management said it applicants were admitted to Stuyvesant was associated with violent antifa actions. UNITED COMMUNITY CENTERS, High School this year out of nearly 900 So when the Timbers played their Pacifi c available seats. Earlier this year, Mayor Northwest rivals the Seattle Sounders on WHERE: 613 NEW LOTS AVENUE, BROOKLYN NY 11207 Bill de Blasio proposed eliminating the August 23, the “Timbers Army,” their Light refreshments will be provided | Child care will be available test used to select entrants to the city’s hardcore fan group, worked out a protest Easily accessible by B15, B83, and #3 train to Van Siclen Ave eight elite high schools, in order to admit with the Sounders supporters: Silence. more black and Latino students, but ran For the fi rst 33 minutes of the match, the Sponsored by: Brooklyn For Peace and United Community Centers into opposition from Asian-American par- crowd of 25,000 was largely quiet — and September 2019 ents, whose children comprise more than then it erupted with cheers, waving rain- 70 percent of Stuyvesant students. In late bow and Iron Front fl ags. Both teams’ August, a diversity panel he appointed starters posed for a photo with pennants FIND US ON: recommended eliminating all gifted and reading “anti-fascism” and “anti-racism” BROOKLYN FOR PEACE talented programs from city schools, and before the match. BROOKLYNPEACE.ORG replacing them with magnet schools. The [email protected] | 718-624-5921 At brooklyn4peace programs’ defenders say they provide es-

The IndypendenT sential enrichment for bright kids, while 5 September 2019 September The IndypendenT The 6WAR & PEACE

SIGN OF THE TIMES: Stranded peace vets Tarak Kauff (left) and Ken Mayers MIA IN IRELAND hang a banner from a freeway overpass. SEND OUR TROOPS HOME! UP TO HIS USUAL TRICKS: Tarak Kauff hands out copies of a pro-peace By Derek Ludovici until trial. Horgan, newspaper. who himself was ar- hough they have received little media attention here in rested for a similar the United States, two American peace activists have action at Shannon in April 2017 has only recently learned that his been legally barred from leaving Ireland since March. trial will be in May 2020. Three years waiting for a trial would be an Tarak Kauff, 77, of Woodstock, New York, and Ken extreme burden on the activists. Mayers, 82 of Santa Fe, New Mexico, were arrested on “We have families and loved ones and we have responsibilities TMarch 17, St. Patrick’s Day, for entering the tarmac at Shannon Air- in the States and people are taking up the slack for us,” says Kauff. port in Limerick, Ireland. Members of Veterans For Peace, the pair “It’s not fair to them. It’s not right that we were denied our right to were protesting the role that the civilian airport has played in the go home.” U.S. military’s global War on Terror, in particular the transportation In the meantime, Irish human rights lawyer Michael Finucane, of troops and arms to bases in the Middle East, including Iraq. They whose renown comes partially from investigating the murder of his were there to ‘drive the snakes out of Ireland.’ father at the hands of British loyalists in 1989, is defending the activ- Kauff and Mayers are charged with trespass and criminal dam- ists. Finucane and the defendants are mounting a “necessity defense,” age for allegedly cutting through the fence surrounding the airfi eld claiming that trespassing on the airfi eld was necessary in order to and entering the premises. They face a maximum year in jail and expose violations of Irish neutrality and prevent more serious war a fi ne of $1,000 each. However, they have become enmeshed in crimes from occurring. prolonged legal proceedings that will likely last longer than their “Other people who have done very similar things, gone onto the potential sentences. airfi eld, have actually successfully used [this defense] and have been The two activists had traveled to the Emerald Isle with six other acquitted,” Davidson says, citing the Pitstop Ploughshares, members VFP members to protest what they say are repeated violations of Irish of the radical Catholic Worker Movement who did upwards of $2.5 neutrality. Kauff and Mayers say they entered the airfi eld to inspect a million worth of damage to a U.S. Navy aircraft and were acquitted. U.S. military-contracted plane parked there. Despite the uncertainties, Kauff and Mayers are not backing “Part of the whole fi ction that the U.S. and Ireland maintain in down. They have used the national spotlight to bring more atten- order to keep violating Irish neutrality is that there are no weapons on tion to the cause of peace and neutrality with weekly trips to Dublin, these planes,” said Kauff’s partner Ellen Davidson, who traveled with where they protest on the steps of the Dáil (Irish Parliament) and are the veterans. “Two of the guys [in our delegation] had fl own through often able to speak with members of parliament directly. Shannon to Iraq with their weapons, so we know this is a lie.” “A big issue here right now is if Ireland is going to participate in Ireland has been a neutral country since 1939. Although the pre- this European army and the Dáil is tending to go along with it,” says cise defi nition of neutrality has been challenged many times in court, Mayers, referring to the joint forces who work together under the a majority of Irish support it remaining neutral. EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy. “There is large public “Since 2001, the United States has ferried some 3 million troops opposition to it, so what we are doing also helps support the effort to with their weapons through Shannon Airport,” says Kauff. “They keep Ireland out of the European army.” were going to wage war. They were going to kill people. They were “We are doing everything we can to give a voice to those who are going to destroy a country. Up to a million children have been killed opposed to U.S. militarism and abuse of Irish neutrality, to those who because of these U.S. wars. So this was a chance to oppose that.” are opposed to warfare, to those opposed to Ireland joining the EU’s Both activists explain their actions as an act of international soli- military,” Kauff says. darity against U.S. militarism. A large number of Irish want their As they await the day they can return to the United States, the pair country to be neutral and the government is not following their wish- are taking it one day at a time. es, says Mayers. “It’s just a reality we need to face,” says Kauff. “Fortunately “The importance of Ireland in one sense is that if Ireland were to we have a huge support network here. People have just been stand up to the United States, to confront the bully, it could set an tremendous.” example for other countries that would like to set a neutral status, Irish activists have so far provided free lodging and a GoFundMe or at least not be handmaidens to American Imperialism,” he said. page has been has raised nearly $13,000 so far to help cover their While he and Kauff had expected to be arrested, they were not expenses. Organizations such as the global social and environmen- prepared for the legal proceedings that have continued to plague tal justice group Action from Ireland (AFRI) are also helping to them since March. The two activists were held without bail for two raise funds. weeks in Limerick Prison. The High Court in Dublin released them Never ones to idle, the pair plan to begin a series of “Boots on on March 28 on $2,750 (2,500) bail each. As part of their bail con- the Ground for Freedom” walks through Ireland, holding speaking ditions, they have surrendered their passports and may not go near engagements at stops along the way. They begin at Limerick Prison, September 2019 Irish airports. where they were initially held, and they will end September in Malin “This process is a clear attempt to punish the two VFP activists Head, approximately 230 miles away at the country’s most northern before any trial takes place,” said Ed Horgan, coordinator of VFP tip, on the banks of an Atlantic Ocean they cannot cross. Ireland. “We are calling on all peace and human rights activists in Ireland and internationally to campaign not only on behalf of Ken For more information, see stopthesewars.org and Mayers and Tarak Kauff, but, more important, on behalf of all the shannonwatch.org. innocent people being killed and injured by the U.S.’s illegal wars.”

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ONE YEAR SEPTEMBER BUILDING A PEOPLE’S INTERNATIONALISM 2019

AFROFEMINISTS ON CARING FOR LIFE IN COLOMBIA INTERNATIONALISM PANELIST: SOFÍA GARZÓN PANEL DISCUSSION THE GREENSBORO MASSACRE AT 40 TUESDAY, SEPT 17 SATURDAY, SEPT. 28

6:30PM-9:00PM | FREE 2019 September 4:00PM - 6:30PM | FREE Join survivors of the Greensboro Massacre Rev. Nelson Johnson, Joyce Johnson, and Paul Bermanzohn as they reflect on the forty-year anniversary and make sense of the current confrontations with fascism and white AN INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ nationalism. The con-versation will be moderated by Roz Pelles. HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE IndypendenT The FRIDAY, SEPT. 27 #peoplesforumnyc 6:30PM | FREE 320 West 37th Street, New York, NY 10018 | [email protected] | peoplesforum.org 8PUBlIC EDUCATION pluggIng The School- To-prISon pIpelIne The nyc deparTmenT of educaTIon IS TakIng a new approach To SafeTy ThIS year, buT polIce wIll STIll be rovIng The hallS.

By Peter Rugh and brown youths have found themselves ensnared in what criminal-justice reform t fi rst it was jarring, but An- advocates refer to as the “school-to-prison drea Colon got used to it pipeline” since 1998, when then-Mayor — the surveillance cameras, Rudolph Giuliani presided over a memo- the offi cers standing guard, randum of understanding between the going about their rounds, al- NYPD and the Board of Education that Aways watching you. She wasn’t an inmate opened schoolhouse doors to police. exactly but she was doing time, at least un- Overnight, 3,200 school safety workers

UYC til she graduated. who had previously been employed by the Then one day Colon, a junior at Rocka- school board became deputized members way Park High School, saw something of the NYPD. More than 5,000 offi cers that snapped her out of it. There was a now walk the halls of New York’s public commotion in the hallway and she stepped schools. They greet students at doorways out of her classroom to see what it was all that are often framed by metal detectors about. A fi ght had broken out between and respond on-call to mete out classroom fi ve or six boys, all of whom were black or discipline, handcuffs slung from their brown, she recalls. belts. More cops loiter just outside schools, Colon watched as an NYPD school should they be called upon to haul a student safety agent pressed one of them against a away to a station house for processing. wall, choking him. One of her teachers, a With 1.1 million students, New York big guy who was an Army reservist, body- City’s public school system is a virtual slammed another to the ground. When one city of juveniles, bigger than San Jose, of the fi ghters attempted to walk away, the California, smaller than Dallas. But while assistant principal told a safety agent to put New York has 5,000 cops deployed in its him in handcuffs and announced he was schools, Dallas, with 1.3 million residents, calling the local precinct. Any student who has a force of 3,000 offi cers to cover the was in the hall when backup arrived would whole city. San Jose, with about 1,050,000 be leaving in a squad car too, he said. denizens, has less than 1,000 police. “It was just about criminalizing students “You increase the security apparatus, of color,” says Colon. “They were going to you increase arrests,” said Dr. Anne Grego- get arrested, get suspended and then they ry, a Rutgers University psychology profes- were going to come back to school where it sor who studies alternative approaches to could happen all over again.” discipline in schools. “You wear those kind That revelation led her to volunteer of glasses and you see the world through with the Rockaway Youth Task Force that lens.” (RYTF), a grassroots advocacy group on Students are often arrested or receive the Rockaway Peninsula led by young court summonses for offenses that aren’t people of color. Now studying economics even crimes. A landmark 2017 report from

MICHAEL APPLETON/MAYORAL PHOTOGRAPHY OFFICE at Baruch College, Colon is also on the the Center for Popular Democracy and the organization’s staff. Urban Youth Collaborative (UYC) noted As the new school year begins, RYTF, that there had been “1,310 arrests, sum- which for years has been part of a move- monses, or juvenile reports for non-crimi- ment pushing for New York City to re- nal violations” in the city school system in think its approach to safety in its public the previous year, including “‘trespassing’ schools, might see some of what they’ve for being on the wrong fl oor of a multi- been demanding put into place. There will school building, or ‘disorderly conduct’ for be more counselors roving the hallways. using obscene language or participating in And under a new agreement between the a peaceful protest.” (“Juvenile reports” are city Department of Education (DoE) and issued for alleged offenses by students un- Police Department, offi cers will refrain der 16 that would otherwise lead to an ar- from making arrests for low-level offenses rest. Students are detained while informa- such as graffi ti, disorderly conduct and tion is collected for such reports.) marijuana possession. Yet the original 1998 agreement that “Safety doesn’t necessarily mean po- served as a permission slip for the police to lice,” says Colon. “Safety means feeling enter New York schools expired in 2002. supported. Safety means feeling like you’re What were they still doing there? In 2003, in a community, and it is hard to feel that then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, heir way when you are constantly being policed to Giuliani’s “tough-on-crime” policies, and watched. It makes you feel like you’re a joined with then-Schools Chancellor Joel criminal and that’s all there is to you.” Klein and quietly renewed the agreement. Both the NYPD and the Department of Ed- September 2019 ucation denied the document existed until BuilDiNG the School-to- 2009, when inquiries from Karim Camara, PRiSoN PiPeliNe then a state Assemblymember representing central Brooklyn, brought it to light. There’s no literal pipeline extending from New York Civil Liberties Union (NY- New York’s middle and high schools to CLU) executive director Donna Lieberman the prisons on Rikers Island and upstate. called the denials “baffl ing” and indicative MICHAEL APPLETON/MAYORAL PHOTOGRAPHY OFFICE The IndypendenT But tens of thousands of mainly black of a “confused, inconsistent and misguided 9 pluggIng The School- approach to policing our schools.” it. We’re all equals, so we’re all sitting The document was not made avail- down together. We take turns talking RAISING THEIR VOICE: Urban Youth Collaborative activist protest the police able to the public until 2017, when the about how we felt about the situation presence at the High School of Fashion Industries in Manhattan. To-prISon pIpelIne education news outlet Chalkbeat ob- and how we can move forward from tained a copy from the Mayor’s Office the situation.” The nyc deparTmenT of educaTIon IS TakIng of Criminal Justice. Restorative justice can also pre- MAKING THE ROUNDS: Members of the NYPD’s bloated school safety detail. By then Bill de Blasio was running vent violence. St. Omer recalls how a a new approach To SafeTy ThIS year, buT City Hall. He had been elected years rumor was circling around Channel earlier in 2013, running on a promise View that two groups of girls were PARADIGM SHIFT: Students demonstrate what restorative justice looks like polIce wIll STIll be rovIng The hallS. to end “the tale of two cities” and bol- planning to fight one another in the while Police Commissioner James O’Neill (far left) looks on. stered by television ads that featured cafeteria during lunch. The potential his multiracial family, including his row was over gossip. St. Omer was Afroed son, Dante, then a junior at Brooklyn Technical High called in by the principal to mediate before things got out of ment was developing. “There was a lot in that [agreement] School. Both the mayor and his son have commented fre- hand. “The girls decided to tell each other, ‘You know what? that was very much law-enforcement centric,” he told the quently since on the racial dynamics between people of color I think maybe we should just not talk bad about each other. Council. “We’ve been pushing back, and we’ve actually been and law enforcement. I’ll stop talking about you and you stop talking about me.’” having great conversations with NYPD.” Suspensions, summonses and arrests have declined since de More broadly, Chou says restorative justice also encom- As Carranza addressed the lawmakers, students stood Blasio took office, but racial disparities in the school system passes “the way that teachers interact with students in their up in the back of the room holding signs demanding more — including who has access to A-list academies like Brooklyn classroom. It’s the way that schools interact with parents. It’s social workers and “culturally responsive education.” The Tech, where the police presence is minimal, and who receives about shifting the way schools fundamentally think about protest was one of dozens students and young adults have an education from the stiff arm of the law — have persisted. punishment and discipline, from a way that is punitive to an- orchestrated over the years, urging elected officials and Black and Latinx students make up 76.5 percent of the other approach where you honor the dignity and sovereignty school administrators to act to close the school-to-prison school population, according to city data from the 2017–2018 of students.” pipeline. Andrea Colon and Roberto Cabanas even flew school year compiled by the NYCLU, but they accounted for Schools involved in the Community Foundation pilot saw a Iowa to confront de Blasio at a meet-and-greet hosted by 88.5 percent of arrests and nearly 92 percent of summonses 53 percent reduction in the number of suspensions over three his presidential campaign on June 8. Two weeks later, he issued. Black students, 26 percent of the student body, ac- years when compared to the three years preceding the pro- announced the discipline reforms. count for about 60 percent of those arrested and more than 50 gram, said Dr. Gregory, who was in the midst of compiling “We’ve had these demands for a while, but it feels like percent of those who are issued a summons. Black pupils also a report detailing the pilot’s results for the foundation when the mayor just recently started listening to us a lot more,” account for nearly half of all suspensions, which increases the she spoke to The Indy. Based on student surveys, there was says Colon. likelihood of dropping out by more than 15 percent, accord- also “documented progress in creating more equitable school Yet the police have not retreated from the city’s schools. ing to the Popular Democracy-Urban Youth report. climates,” she added. The city is taking a parallel approach to safety. There will be “It’s a racist policy,” UYC youth coordinator Roberto The Education Department also began a separate restor- more restorative circles like the ones St. Omer facilitates this Cabanas says. “There’s no other way to talk about it with- ative justice program in 2015 in Brooklyn’s District 18, which year, but handcuffs will remain an option for disciplinarians. out talking about race.” Year after year, even if arrests stretches from Flatbush to Canarsie. Suspensions fell by a “I have two main concerns,” Dr. Gregory says of the and summonses go down, black and dual approaches. “One of which is Latinx students continue to receive resource allocation as a society. Are the bulk of them, he notes. “It’s the you going to put your funds into an- same statistic, time and time again. other security agent, or are you go- It hasn’t changed.” ‘SAFETy DOESN’T ing to put your funds into a guidance counselor or school psychologist? These funds come out of different ReStoRative JuStice NECESSARIly budgets but ultimately we’re talking about taxpayer money.” This school year, it just might. There are 285 social workers in At a June 20 press conference, de MEAN POlICE.’ the Education Department’s employ, Blasio, with his wife, Chirlane Mc- at a cost to the city of $30 million Cray, and Schools Chancellor Rich- this year with the new hires. When it ard Carranza at his side, announced a new agreement on quarter in the program’s first year and by 11 percent last year, comes to maintaining the 5,000-plus in-school police force, policing. Under the arrangement, teachers and staff are to according to City Hall. Racial disparities in discipline also the city spends $350 million annually. The additional social refrain from involving in-school cops with non-criminal of- dropped: Citywide, African-American pupils are 2.6 times cost of policing the schools, including a loss of future tax fenses such as being late, smoking, “making excessive noise” more likely to receive suspensions than other students. In Dis- revenue when students fail to graduate due to suspensions, and “engaging in verbally rude behavior” unless their safety trict 18, they are 1.2 times more likely. come to $350 million a year, the Popular Democracy-UYC is threatened. When it comes to discipline for behavior con- Meanwhile, the department is reducing the maximum study found. sidered criminal, such as trespassing or disorderly conduct, number of days students can be suspended from 180 days, Moreover, there is a “fundamental, philosophical clash, the involvement of the police is at educators’ discretion, but the length of a full school year, to 20 days. It is hiring an around social control and policing versus trying to correct they are encouraged to “utilize, whenever possible, diver- additional 85 social workers, an acknowledgement of what and repair a wrong,” says Gregory. sionary responses and protocols.” observers have long noted is the source of many of the in- The Education Department did not respond to requests There, however, is a fine line between being rude and noisy, fractions that feed students into the school-to-prison pipeline: for comment, including to written questions a spokesperson normal teenage behavior, and being disorderly; between tres- mental health crises. asked The Indypendent to provide. passing and wandering onto the campus of another school, es- “Police don’t make schools safe, period,” said Cabanas. “Doing restorative justice practices doesn’t happen over- pecially when those schools share a building. Some educators “There’s no such thing as dangerous kids in schools. There’s night, but I feel like it would really benefit schools if they took consider the option of turning to law enforcement to resolve kids who have social-emotional needs, but because schools the time and actually practiced it and learned from it and classroom disputes to be an asset. lack social workers, guidance counselors, mental-health ser- worked together to do it,” St. Omer says. “Having a heavy Now at least they have the option of a different approach. vice workers, a lot of those needs are never addressed. We’re police presence in schools doesn’t help anybody. It’s the same The Education Department is also launching a citywide dealing with young people in poverty.” thing repeating every year.” restorative-justice initiative, an alternative to suspensions, For young activists like St. Omer, Colon and Cabanas, the summonses and arrests that several city schools have already reforms don’t go all the way but nonetheless signify the begin- been exploring. PaRallel PathS ning of a major change. Time will tell how the new approach

Restorative justice asks “after a harm is committed, how to safety plays out, given that it leaves much to the discretion 2019 September do you repair the harm that has been done by bringing all The departure from zero tolerance and toward restorative jus- of educators and safety agents, who aren’t going anywhere. parties into a conversation,” says Amy Chou, project offi- tice wasn’t a smooth one. It comes after the mayor convened The Urban Youth Collaborative wants the metal detectors cer for a restorative-justice pilot program launched by the a “School Climate and Discipline” task force in 2015 that put gone and a full ban on arrests, summonses and juvenile re- Brooklyn Community Foundation at two high schools and activists and civil libertarians in the room with the representa- ports for minor infractions and misdemeanors. a middle school. tives of numerous city agencies, including the police and the “We still have a long way to go,” says Cabanas. “We “Let’s say two kids get into a fight,” Alliyah St. Omer, an Education Department. One year later, the task force issued have to prioritize the kinds of things young people are ask- IndypendenT The RYTF activist and a senior at Channel View School for Re- its recommendations, but the de Blasio administration didn’t ing for: more restorative justice, social workers and police- search in Rockaway who takes part in a “restorative circles” announce that they would be implemented until this June. free schools.” program there, tells The Indy. “Everybody will be in a circle. Chancellor Carranza, appointed in 2018, now refers to There will be two peer mediators there [and] the kids who got himself as a “realist” but initially pledged to boldly tackle civil in an argument. Maybe a staff member can be involved if he rights violations within the school system, among the most wants to, but normally the students take control over the cir- segregated in the nation. Testifying before the City Council cle. The point of the circle is that there’s no start and no end to in March, he said he was not satisfied with the way the agree- 10HUMAN RIGHTS ELI VALLEY/TWITTER

love and protect the stranger.’” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez At the Newark federal building, pointed out (correctly) that PRIME as at the Midtown Amazon store, ICE detention facilities are COllABORATOR: amaZon drawS texts from the Book of Lamenta- concentration camps, some Amazon software helps tions — documenting the disastrous politicians were shocked ICE track and deport events surrounding the destruction that anyone would say such immigrants. of Solomon’s Temple in 586 BC — a thing. Earlier this August, were read alongside accounts of President Trump and Israeli heaT for Ice TIeS children and parents suffering in Benjamin Prime Minister Netanyahu teamed up to deny progreSSIve JewISh groupS proTeST ICE camps. Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib entry “Tisha B’Av is a day of fasting into Israel based on fl imsy accusations of anti-Semitic and mourning for catastrophes and sentiment. ImmIgranT abuSe tragedies that have befallen the Jew- One week later, on August 21, Trump declared him- ish people,” Rabbi Salem Pearce, an self “King of Israel” on Twitter, claiming that American By Mike Newton activist with T’ruah who helped organize the Midtown Jews would be foolish not to support him. That same day demonstration, told The Indypendent. “It’s very hard to his administration unrolled plans to indefi nitely detain n the bookstore, next to those familiar signs — “Best look back on these tragedies and not also see this tragedy migrant children. Sellers” and “Customer Favorites” — there were oth- of immigration that’s unfolding right in front of us. Throughout all this chaos, there’s been a persistent ap- er signs, made by hand and propped up on cardboard “We did this action as American Jews,” Pearce added. peal from right-leaning pundits: that comparing the experi- poles. “Never Again is Now,” read one. “If you are “Many of us have in our families experiences of being tar- ences of recently-detained immigrants to those of Jews dur- neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen geted in the countries we lived in and of being denied entry ing the Shoah is anti-Semitic in nature since, by this logic, theI side of the oppressor,” read another. The sounds of to countries as we tried to migrate. The same rhetoric that’s it minimizes or trivializes what those millions of Jews went cheery, retail-friendly dance-pop mixed with testimonials, being used right now was used against us.” through. They claim that our American detention facilities read aloud, of migrants held prisoner in U.S. detention fa- The Midtown demonstration was a mournful one, with are, in other words, not that bad. cilities. Demonstrators crowded between bookshelves and rally goers casting their eyes downward and marching But, no, they are that bad. That was the message of this magazine racks to try and view the somber prayer service quietly through the streets on the way to Amazon Books. past Tisha B’Av. By integrating spiritual practice and sol- happening at the center of the sales fl oor. Outside, on 34th Walking through Herald Square, people asked demonstra- emn ritual into protest, Jewish communities are respond- Street, tourists stopped to peer at the packed crowd of pro- tors why they weren’t smiling. Toward the end of the cer- ing specifi cally as Jewish communities, with all that this testers and the steadily-growing police presence. emony, the crowd sang traditional songs while NYPD of- entails, to the threat Trump’s policies pose to immigrant The demonstration at the Midtown Amazon Books was fi cers dragged protesters outside of the bookstore. Several families. Tisha B’Av is a day of mourning, of bearing wit- one of many similar rallies that took place on August 10 dozen were arrested. The police marshaled a literal city bus ness to historical catastrophe, from the fall of the First and 11, planned around the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av. to haul people away, including eleven rabbis. In what may Temple to the Shoah. The point is to bring these tragedies The protests were organized by T’ruah, in partnership with have been a grim attempt at humor on the NYPD’s part, into the present moment, to draw a clear line from then to other progressive Jewish groups like Jews for Racial and most of them were given court dates on Rosh Hashanah, now. On Tisha B’Av, mourners do not simply move on from Economic Justice and Bend the Arc. Immigrants rights the Jewish New Year. past tragedy but sit instead with the pain and sadness in organizations, including United We Dream and Make the At issue was not the bookstore itself, but Amazon’s con- order to fi nd transformation, healing and growth. Road New York, together with numerous local Jewish con- nections to ICE. Amazon works with software fi rm Palan- The catastrophe of U.S. immigration policy — based gregations and community groups, also took part. tir to provide essential tech services to the agency, making as it is in racism, carcerality and cruelty — fi nds ant- More than 50 demonstrations took place around the it possible for ICE to track and deport immigrants. Accord- onymic resonance in some core principles of Jewish faith. country, though broadly speaking, they didn’t receive much ing to the Washington Post, the massive Mississippi ICE “The Bible suggests that the experience of the immigrant mainstream media attention. In Newark, members of over raid on August 7 in which over 680 migrant workers were is a unique entry point for coming to understand God,” 15 New Jersey congregations held a morning Tisha B’Av detained — a raid on the fi rst day of school in the rural observes Tepperman. “Being an immigrant or being con- service outside of the Peter Rodino Federal Building, home region and seemingly planned to do maximum damage to cerned for immigrants are both paths to holiness.” to regional Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) local communities — was carried out with Palantir soft- “What is happening right now is a humanitarian crisis, offi ces. In Houston, #JewsAgainstICE occupied roads and ware. As several demonstrators noted, the situation recalls and I use that word carefully because I think this is about blocked traffi c outside of a detention center for unaccom- IBM’s role in the Shoah, when the company provided data the dehumanization of people,” says Pearce. “In Jewish tra- September 2019 panied immigrant children. In Los Angeles, a coalition services for the Nazis to effi ciently fi nd and imprison Jews. dition, there’s the phrase b’tzelem Elohim, which is how of local synagogues held a service and vigil outside of the “We’re asking these companies to have the moral cour- humankind was described as being created in the image Metropolitan Detention Center. age to say, “No, we’re not gonna allow our technology of God. That then dictates a certain kind of behavior that “The Bible is obsessed with the rights of the stranger, to be used in such a way,’” says Pearce. “We know where is owed each person, as a condition of their being human. the non-citizen resident,” says Rabbi Elliott Tepperman this leads.” To mistreat human beings, then, is a desecration of God.” of Bnai Keshet, one of the organizers of the Newark rally. For the past few months, the concept of anti-Semitism “It says, fl at-out, ‘If you want to know what God wants, has been an uncomfortably prominent vector of right-

The IndypendenT just as God loves and protects the stranger, you too must wing political discourse. In June, when Congresswoman PAlESTINE 11 MEGAN GIOVANNETTI

IMPUNITY IN PULLING THE incident in Wadi Hummus. ‘SECURITY CARD’ “It’s completely illegal, by BUllDOZED: almost every article of the Levelled homes in Sur aparTheId In After the 1993 Oslo Accords be- Fourth Geneva Convention, Baher, East Jerusalem. tween Israel and the Palestine Liber- what Israel is doing,” said ation Organization, the West Bank Halper. However, “you can- was partitioned into three areas. not enforce international law, only the Security Council Eighteen percent is Area A and is can enforce it and obviously the U.S. has veto power. Israel acTIon meant to be under full control of the knows it will never be sanctioned.” recenT home demolITIonS a remInder Palestinian Authority (PA). Twenty- “It’s gotten worse since Trump became president,” Obei- two percent is Area B and is under dah said. “Day after day we become more sure that America PA civil jurisdiction and Israeli mili- is a partner with Israel.” In ISrael Some people have more tary jurisdiction. Most of the Pales- tinian population in the West Bank, rIghTS Than oTherS 2.8 million people, live in Areas A A LEGAL VENEER and B. The remaining 60 percent are under complete Israeli military con- Though Israel cited security reasons in carrying out the op- By Megan Giovannetti trol, in a region that is also home to almost 450,000 Jewish eration in Wadi Hummus, most demolitions of Palestinian Israeli settlers. homes are carried out under civil law because they were built n the early hours of the morning on July 22, hundreds Sections of Wadi Hummus are in Area A, others in Area without Israeli-issued building permits. of Israeli military and police personnel descended B, but the neighborhood is surrounded by an Israeli separa- “[Israel] uses zoning, planning law and administration into the Wadi Hummus area of the East Jerusalem tion barrier. This detail is signifi cant, as the strategic weav- mechanisms of control,” explained Halper. It has zoned al- neighborhood Sur Baher. After the forceful removal ing of the barrier includes areas Israel wishes to annex and most 70 percent of the West Bank as “agricultural land” and of four Palestinian families — complete with the use excludes existing Jerusalem neighborhoods that have high most of East Jerusalem as “open green space,” both of which ofI pepper spray and a few arrests — the Israeli authorities Palestinian populations. are set “for future urban development, which always means proceeded to destroy 12 buildings made up of roughly 70 “When we look at these policies and put them in the big- Jewish-Israeli” development. residential homes. ger picture,” Rania Muhareb, a legal researcher at the Pales- In Jerusalem, Palestinians make up 40 percent of the pop- “That day was a black day. A really black day,” Ismail tinian think tank Al-Haq, explained, “this is part of a sys- ulation, yet have access to only 8 percent of municipal land. Obeidah, 48, told The Indypendent. He and his family of tematic plan to change and to alter the status of Jerusalem, Of that 8 percent, only 1 or 2 percent is empty and available eight had lived in one of the now-destroyed apartments to alter the demographic composition.” for construction. Through Israel’s zoning laws, it is nearly for two and a half years. “Everything I did for our future In the West Bank, in Gaza, in East Jersualem and inside impossible for Palestinians to acquire a building permit. was destroyed this day,” Obeidah said with a lump in his the borders of Israel itself, Palestinian homes are being de- Meanwhile, Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East throat. “Everything we owned was in that house and ev- molished almost constantly. For stickier areas, like Wadi Jerusalem are deemed legal by Israel because those areas erything is gone.” Hummus, “Israel pulls the security card,” Halper said. were rezoned to be residential — just not for Palestinians. The home demolitions in Wadi Hummus received ample “They made a rule after the houses [in Wadi Hummus] were Palestinians living in East Jerusalem are not Israeli citi- media coverage for their ferocity. But the fact of the matter being built, a military order, saying you can’t build within zens and are unable to vote in national Israeli elections. They is that forceful evictions of Palestinian families is a sys- 250 meters of the wall.” are not members of the Jerusalem City Council nor of any tematic policy on the part of Israel — and one that is on “There is no military necessity that justifi es the demoli- city planning committee. Yet they must play the game with- the rise. According to a recent United Nation’s report, the tion of residential homes of civilians,” Muhareb said. The in the Israeli legal system. fi rst four months of 2019 already saw more Palestinians demolitions are illegal under international law, as is the wall “Israel wants to appear democratic [so] everything is displaced by home demolitions than in all of 2018, 193 itself, she added, noting that since 2004, the International done legally,” Halper said. “It’s true, Palestinians can get 2019 September compared to 178. Court of Justice has called on Israel to destroy the separation lawyers, go to the court, but they can never win.” In almost “It has to do with displacing an entire people, with tak- barrier, citing it as a political, not a security, measure. 30 years of activism, Halper does not recall a single Palestin- ing their lands,” Jeff Halper, founder of the Israeli Coali- Two weeks after the Wadi Hummus demolition, Israeli ian legal victory involving house demolitions. tion Against House Demolitions, explained. “Through activist organization PeaceNow reported that 194 units “We have to pay taxes as much as a [Jewish-Israeli per- house demolitions, we’re able to show how the occupation would be added to the neighboring Ganei Modiin settlement son] pays and we get zero rights, we get nothing,” Abu Tair works. What the intentions are and, of course, the costs, and would run exactly along the perimeter of the wall, well said. “There is only one way: go to the Israeli government IndypendenT The the human costs of occupation and oppression.” According within the claimed 250-meter limit. even though we know we are not going to win. It’s the only to Halper, 65,000 Palestinian homes have been destroyed “We know that all these protocols and the excuse of safe- place we can go. If you are Jewish, you have more rights than since 1967, the beginning of Israel’s occupation of the West ty is just to remove all Palestinians from their land,” said us as Arabs. The only demand we have for the Israeli govern- Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. Mohammed Abu Tair, an owner of one of the buildings de- ment is to leave us alone.” stroyed in Wadi Hummus. Meanwhile, the United States blocked a U.N. draft reso- lution condemning the home demolitions shortly after the 12INDEPENDENT MEDIA 13

Issue #133, March 20 – April 16, 2009 #202: December 16–January 19 a Free PaPer FOr Free PeOPLe SAYING NO TO UNCLE SAM, P.5 • SURVIVING UGANDA, P.6 • IRAQ’S WHACK ELECTION, P.7 the indypendent A FREE PAPER FOR FREE PEOPLE

Issue #65, Feb. 9 – March 1, 2005 • a FREE paper for free people THe InDyPenDenT THE INDY NEEDs Your HElp! see P2 & back Page FOr DeTaILs >>>>>

BATTLE IN THE BRONX Labor Makes a Stand in Hard Times ANOTHER Sarah Secunda, Page 10

PHOTO: JOEL COOK

slumdog anti-coal movement colonization, p19 Moving Beyond Bush & Dick heats up, p8 pages 8-15 Lynne Foster protecting immigrant families, p6 bLack LIves maTTer indypendent.org a new mOvemenT FOr racIaL JusTIce begIns, P4 JOURNALISM nyc.indymedia.org • indypendent.org • us.indymedia.org Counter-Recruiting Cuts Supreme Court: Meet the Waking Up to Military Down to Size, p12 Real John Roberts, p13 Occupation, p15 Special Back to School iSSue #209: ocTober 2015

THE INDYPENDENT TheIssue #155, September 8 –Indypenden 28, 2010 T Issue #76, September 14 – October 4, 2005 A Free PAPer For Free PeoPle a FREE paper The IndypendenT from activists and civil libertarians across the po- titles his article “One Thing Before I’m Fired.” for free people a Free paper For Free people Why Our litical spectrum. The legislation subsequently dies in SchOOlS the Senate. Lee would later win a Project Censored IS POSSIBLE Are BrOken Trump, born To be a award for writing one of the 10 most important un- DECEMBER 2014 For 250 issues The Indy has been a bold, progressive newspaper and GATHERING RAGE —and how to fix them p5 der-reported domestic news stories of that year. After protests erupt across the na- Mass destruction in New Orleans, Government to Blame crony capITalIsT One million displaced • Victims treated like criminals • tion in response to the non-indict- Reports from the Gulf Coast, Coverage starts, page 3 hIllary’s FemInIsm 202 Media manipulation • The NYC Grassroots Responds • p6 Test Prep ments of police offi cers who killed Michael Brown website that provides a unique voice in the NYC media landscape. Here Hidden Heroics • The ‘Right of Return’ & much more Madness, p4 blacK panThers reVIsITed, p18 PHOTO: AndrewStern.net Stanley Aronowitz APRIL 2008 and Eric Garner, Nicholas Powers writes in The on Education, p14 edITor’s corner, p2 From one Gulf Why We TenanTs & landlords, p3 Parent Voices, p8 nyc school baTTles, p4 Using the story of a dementia-affl ict- Indy, “We show our hands because we’re scared of are some of the highlights from our journey so far. to another, Protest, michaelweidnernelson.com It’s all p.19 15Th ed, 86-year-old homeowner in Crown being killed by offi cers who have been given license connected annIVersary p.7 The U.S. boat to Gaza, The Audacity of Hope, specIal 119 will join the next Freedom Flotilla to break the secTIon, p9 Heights as a starting point, Joseph Huff-Hannon to kill Black people and go unpunished. I’m asking The act blockade and carry human rights activists to the Help younG lords’ leGacy, p19 Afghanistan: shores of Gaza. Your donation will help purchase FolK cITy, p20 By Indypendent Staff own land; the land I fought for … Sometimes I just of healing a boat and secure a captain and crew. loVe & InFIdelITy, p21 does a deep dive into the predatory practices of sub- you to take this weight from us. I’m asking you to Election Launch eVenTs calendar, p22 feel like picking up a gun and calling it quits … But, is in the Dejection, prime mortgage lenders in neighborhoods like Crown hold your hands up too.” trouble p.14 DONATE aU. S . Boat FALL 2000 something’s got to get better. I didn’t just risk my life p.5 ustogaza.org to Gaza Heights and Bed-Stuy. “If the housing market falls BE THE MEDIA: nyc.indymedia.org

Inspired by the Nov. 1999 Battle of Seattle for nothing. There’s a God out there — somewhere.” ROB LAQUINTA precipitously here as it has across much of the na- and a subsequent wave of anti-corporate A month later, an anonymous donor puts up $18,500 tion,” Huff-Hannon warns, “a cascade of foreclo- OCTOBER 2015

2 A FREE PAPER FOR FREE PEOPLE Issue #83 March 2–March 23, 2006 protests that rippled around the world, The Indy- to cover a year’s rent for a three-bedroom apartment TIME TO OCCUPY WALL STREET, p10 sures is likely to follow. An alarming number of those Soon after Donald Trump jumps pendent launches as a four-page, black-and-white in the Bronx for Noel, his wife and three kids. THE INDYPENDENT losing their homes will likely be black seniors.” to the front of the Republican pri- THEIssue #170, October 5 –INDYPENDENT October 25, 2011 A FREE PAPER FOR FREE PEOPLE #221:The january 21, IndypendenT 2017 • IndypendenT.org 209 newspaper dedicated to covering radical social mary fi eld, The Indy runs a cover story on Trump’s movements in NYC and beyond. It is a part of Indy- career as a crony capitalist. While many pundits at media, a global network of grassroots media proj- FEBRUARY 2005 MARCH 2009 the time assume Trump’s buffoonish campaign will ects that fl ourished in the early 2000s, hence the “y” With the Republicans entrenched in Sarah Secunda captures the zeitgeist soon fl ame out, the piece’s author Peter Rugh warns

CITEPHOTOS, HISTORYSOLEIL & ANALYSIS IN THE CENTERFOLD in our name. 65 the White House for another four long Ballots & Bullets in Haiti Andrew Stern 133 of the Great Recession in her cover- that former reality TV star can very well win the years, The Indy declares it’s “Moving Beyond Bush age of striking immigrant workers at the Stella D’oro White House and if he does “President Trump” will National Raids Nab Eco-Activists, p.5 | A Closer Look at Venezuela’s ‘21st Century Socialism’ p.10 | Iraq, p.6 Why We marCh, p4 and Dick” in its fi rst annual sex issue. Featured ar- Keeanga-yamahTTa bakery in the Bronx who fi nd themselves locked in a morph into King Donald I. Interview TayLor on WorKIng SEPTEMBER 2001 ticles include a look at the working life of a domina- With CLass FemInIsm, p13 bitter labor battle against a private equity company The Indy publishes a four-page special is- trix, boot fetishes, BDSM and the use of safewords, A eILeen myLes on ‘The demanding deep cuts in pay and benefi ts. New A LOTTA BULL revoLuTIon,’ p19 sue within 48 hours of the 9/11 attacks and a how-to guide for making dildos and a fi rst-person by COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS, p9 … and more Orleans LOUJOE JANUARY 2017 11 RED-BAITING CUNY, p16 another 12-page special issue a week later. As the piece on fi ghting back against the police harassment Preacher Millions of people in hundreds of cit- Bush administration rushes to exploit public rage of queers cruising in Central Park’s Ramble area. p.4 InauguraL SEPTEMBER 2010 221 ies took to the streets in women-led and fear following 9/11, The Indy becomes a mag- 3-Way Tangle The Women revoLT In a special back-to-school issue of marches on the day after Trump’s inauguration. In p.14 of Reggae POST OFFICE IN PERIL, p4 MEXICO HEALING, p12 speCIaL Women’s marCh on net for New Yorkers who are alarmed by where the p.13 WashIngTon edITIon The Indy, we hear from activist par- conjunction with marches, we published a 20-page INDYPENDENT.ORG CHRISTINE LARSEN David Hollenbach Gino Barzizza 155 country is headed. SEPTEMBER 2005 ents, teachers, students and radical education schol- Women’s March special edition that amplifi ed the The Indy publishes a post-Katrina spe- ars on the pitfalls of corporate school reform, over- voices and concerns of the most progressive wing of are you america’s next top terrorist? find out, page 6 cial issue that looks at the blatant dis- #236: JUne 2018 • IndypendenT.ORG reliance on standardized testing, the importance of the movement. Issue #112, November 15 – December 5, 2007 THEIssue #181, November 22–DecemberINDYPENDENT 19 76 the indypendentA FREE PAPER FOR FREE PEOPLE A FREE PAPER FOR FREE PEOPLE NOVEMBER 2002 regard for Black lives in the response of the govern- teachers unions and the misuse of “gifted and tal- A who’s who of leading Democrats in- ment and the corporate media as well as the hidden rumble in el barrio The IndypendenT ented” programs to maintain a system of de facto Zapatistas vs. cluding Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden heroics of people coming to each other’s aid. “I’m in capitalistas segregation in New York City’s public schools. JUNE 2018 22 page 8 can’t fi gure it out. But four months before the Unit- the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, the only “Holy SMOKES!” Alexandria ed States invades Iraq, The Indy publishes a special part that isn’t fl ooded,” writes former New Orleans Ocasio-Cortez tweets on June 2, A TeACheR’S LIFe 236 issue titled “Why War? Why Now?” The issue de- Black Panther and community organizer Malik Ra- p7 FALL 2011 2018. “Our campaign is the FRONT PAGE STORY ROJAVA UndeR SIeGe bunks offi cial rationales for war, offers a fi rst-hand him. “The water is good. Our parks and schools p20 The Indy publishes of NYC’s classic monthly.” JeSUS, BLACK & glimpse into the lives of ordinary Iraqis, and covers could easily hold 40,000 people and they’re not us- TRAnS three special issues The Indy’s profi le of AOC’s under-the-media ra- p22 170–172 the growing antiwar movement. A two-page center ing any of it. This is criminal. People are dying for After the Storm during Occupy Wall Street and its immediate after- dar run for Congress marks her fi rst appearance on SPECIAL POST-SANDY ISSUE Tom Angotti, Sarah Jaffe, Anooj Kansara, Nicholas Powers, John Tarleton & Chris Williams Breezy Point, Queens, three days after a fire destroyed 100 houses on Oct. 30. spread highlights dozens of sites in the United States no other reason than the lack of organization.” DAVE SANDERS math. Coverage ranges from photo essays and fi rst- a newspaper or magazine cover. But it won’t be the where weapons of mass destruction are developed CAnBeAT ThIS FORMeR The BeRnIe MAChIne ORGAnIZeR TOppLe The person pieces to analysis of the relationship between last after the 28-year-old democratic socialist goes KInG OF QUeenS? Congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez By JOhn TARLeTOn & LydIA MCMULLen-LAIRd, p14 speaking outside a subway and produced. station in Elmhurst, Queens. Occupy and labor unions, the police and the 99% on to win a historic primary victory over Queens

OCCUPY SANDY RISING REBUILDING A GREEN CITY EXTREME ENERGY MAP ELIA GRAN MARCH 2006 P5 P12 P10 and why taking over public squares in major global Democratic Party boss Joe Crowley. With Special Guests Frack Action Natalie Merchant Choice Building a Movement to Ban Fracking and Filmmaker Photojournalist Andrew Stern spends a Meet the Words Jon Bowermaster cities is such a powerful tactic. Special NYC Screening of Antiwar escalations Calendar Makers page 14 New York Society for Ethical Culture SUMMER 2004 month living in Cité Soleil, Haiti, in the page 5 page 3 DEAR GOVERNOR CUOMO 2 W 64th St at Central Park West MIC CHECK! Suggested Donation 10 dollars LET OUR AUTHORS READ THEIR ARTICLES TO YOU ON Nov, 29, 2012 ITUNES, STITCHER OR SOUNDCLOUD. 83 nyc.indymedia.org • indypendent.org • us.indymedia.org 7pm - Doors Open at 6PM frackaction.com While corporate media push unsubstan- run-up to the country’s fi rst elections since former MAY 2019 tiated scare stories about protesters and President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was toppled in a NOVEMBER 2012 “Take Down The Landlords” 52 THE INDY WINS BIG AT THE IPA PRESS AWARDS! SEE P3 terrorists besieging New York during the upcoming 2004 U.S.-backed coup. Stern’s photo essay captures SPECIAL ISSUE: NEw DEmANDS for A NEw TErm The = HoUsing JUsTiCe sPeCiAl ediTion = We publish a 20-page, post-Sandy spe- screamed the headline of the May THEINDYPENDENT 246 Republican National Convention, The Indy trum- the spirit of a sprawling urban slum on the edge of Issue #62, December 22, 2004 – Januray 11, 2005 • a free paper for free people THE INDYPENDENT cial edition that includes latest news on 2019 Indy, a 24-page affordable housing special edi- Issue #183, January 21 –February 17, 2013 A Free PAPer For Free PeoPle 181 pets the rights of dissenters and reports on the myri- Haiti’s capital city, where repression by and resis- IndypendenT relief efforts and how to get involved, a look at the tion. A month later, tenants rights advocates did just wE fIrED obAmA’S CAbINET AND #246: may 2019 • IndypendenT.org ad reasons they are taking to the streets. Two August tance to foreign troops is a part of daily life. APPoINTED oUr owN. real estate industry’s drive to build on the water- that winning sweeping rent law reforms in the NY 2019 September Bill McKibben • Laura Flanders marchIng issues have print runs of 100,000 and 150,000, the Michael Ratner • Nancy Goldstein on alBany front and a deep-dive (so to speak) piece on the im- state legislature that stunned the real estate industry. Invisible Cheri Honkala • Brian Jones p6 largest circulation in decades for a radical, grass- AND MORE! play ThIs pact of rising ocean levels over the coming centuries. Soldier Board game roots newspaper. NOVEMBER 2007 Iraq vets are landing on the streets. More are on the way. p12 When the House of Representatives ap- SEE PAGE 4 lucy valkury where The power lIes p16 proves the Violent Radicalization and ; THE JANUARY 2013 September 2019 112 INDYPENDENT THE DECEMBER 2004 Homegrown Terrorism Act by a vote of 400–6, it Take down The As Barack Obama begins his second ANTRIM CASKEY SHADOW John Tarleton profi les Harold Noel, a seems a sure bet that the measure will sail through ©ANDREW STERN/ANDREWSTERN.NET term as president, The Indy appoints UGANDA landlords 183 Brooklyn-born Iraq War vet who fi nds the Senate and be signed by President George W. PEACE ON wIll ThIs Be The year ThaT TenanTs wIn a Shadow Cabinet of visionary thinkers and do- 62 ONE SMALL TERM sweepIng renT law reforms? himself fi ghting mental illness and sleeping outside Bush. However, when Jessica Lee’s reporting reveals PATRIOT ACT II ers. Each Shadow Cabinet member writes a short CORNER coverage sTarTs on p6 ROB LAQuiNTA OF EARTH BIG at the onset of winter while his family falls apart how the legislation could be used by the government PAGE 8 BROTHER essay about what she or he would do upon taking JUST GOT THE ONLY around him. Noel’s story is subsequently picked up to target people engaged in First Amendment-pro- BIGGER MUSICIAN offi ce. Shadow Cabinet appointees include Secretary PAGE 5 MAY 18. THAT WHO SAYS RADICALS CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS? TURN TO PAGE 23 FOR MORE... by a number of national outlets. Noel tells The Indy, tected activity and traditional forms of nonviolent indypendent.org MATTERED of State Laura Flanders, Attorney General Michael PAGE 10

THE INDYPENDENT “I walk around crying every day. I feel lost in my civil disobedience, a fi restorm of criticism ensues Ratner and Secretary of Energy Bill McKibben, who 14INDEPENDENT MEDIA whaT The Indy meanS To me From college campuses to labor union halls, from rent-stabilized apartment buildings to public libraries to outdoor news boxes across NYC, tens of thousands of New Yorkers pick up and read The Indypendent every month. Here is what a few of our favorite readers are ERIK RIST saying about The Indy and its impact as the paper marks its 250th issue.

JUlIA SAlAZAR BROOKlyN STATE SENATOR

The Indypendent is an extraordinary publication because it actively engages readers and contributors. The Indy doesn’t stop at reporting, but motivates us to become actively involved in the greater movement for social justice. When I was a freelance writer, The Indy empowered me to collaborate with other writers and editors to pursue our com- mon political project. The Indy’s work has a lasting and meaningful impact because it’s a publication that inspires readers to take action. The Indy has shaped my political development as a community orga- nizer by demonstrating the importance of amplifying the stories of

DAVE SANDERS those who are directly impacted by inequality and oppression. In New York’s political climate, power is too often consolidated in the hands of the very wealthy, and that power is used to dominate the public narrative. For 250 issues, The Indy has played an indispensable role in countering that narrative by speaking truth to power, serving as a platform for the struggles of everyday New Yorkers. From reporting on the statewide movement for housing justice to investigating the me- chanics of the Queens political machine, The Indy has been a leader in the popular education of the public. The Indy is a model for what it means for a news publication to provide a crucial public service and to operate with integrity.

State Senator Julia Salazar (D-North Brooklyn) is the fi rst socialist elected to the New York state legislature in nearly a century and the youngest woman to ever serve in the legislature.

AlEX VITAlE AUTHOR OF “THE END OF POlICING”

The United States is experiencing a national crisis in policing. But the fi ght to end abusive policing is primarily a local struggle targeting

ERIC MCGREGOR local political actors. Unfortunately, across the country, local report- ing has either gone out of style, or is under the control of a shrinking number of news conglomerates with little interest in directly challeng- ing the “thin blue line” politics that stands in the way of the changes we need to implement to create safer communities without aggressive and invasive policing. That’s why it’s imperative that we have a source of independent local news like The Indypendent. And part of what makes The Indy so powerful is that it doesn’t just report on events that are relevant to our movements, it directly works to help build those movements. It does that by including the voices of people doing the organizing for an audience of politically engaged readers. It’s a sound- ing board for ideas and analysis that is essential to any real movement. And, because our movements are becoming more powerful, a growing group of mainstream journalists and political insiders are watching what’s happening in The Indy. It’s that diverse audience of movement activists, journalists, political insiders and yes, the general public, that makes The Indy an appealing place for me to share my ideas about September 2019 how we create a world without police and prisons.

alex S. vitale is professor of sociology and coordinator of the Polic- ing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn college and author of The End of Policing.

The IndypendenT 15

whaT The Indy meanS To me that The Indy will help advance that power through its insightful and ac- curate coverage. Because they know NANCy ROMER the power of the broad movement, not just its smaller parts, ClIMATE JUSTICE ORGANIZER The Indy will help us move forward together. Happy 250th issue, Indypendent! Since its launch almost two decades ago, The Indypen- dent has been a crucial voice for the NYC left. It gives Nancy Romer is a co-founder of the NYc People’s climate us news, opinions and connections to each other that we Movement would have great diffi culty establishing without it. For the climate justice movement that has meant that The Indy, in its print and online versions, consistently covers the actions JUDAH FRIEDlANDER and concerns of the movement. It covers the small, local COMEDIAN & ACTOR actions that are never covered by other citywide media; it covers the big demonstrations and actions that are barely When I open the pages of The Indypendent, I’m reading covered and often dismissed or misinterpreted by the cor- the cutting edge stuff of today. This is print. This is real. porate media. When I was a kid, this is the kind of coverage I would The Indy has “followed the story” of the climate move- hope to fi nd in the big city — rebellious, really thinking ment as it has ebbed and fl owed over the years. The Indy about stuff. You have to get points of view that are not just knows that the thick thread that connects one environmen- being directly dictated to you from corporate-owned news tal effort to the next is essential for the movement to un- sites. Otherwise, what are you getting? derstand itself more fully and for the broader public that Today, so much of New York feels like this dull, slowly may not be directly engaged in climate work to be better creeping corporate oppression encroaching in on everyone. informed. It knows that the depth of the movement is mea- From the corporate chain stores everywhere to skyrocket- sured by its importance to people of color and working ing rents and cost of living. It’s more important than ever people. to fi ght back, and this paper does it. Because The Indy is a movement journal, it helps us to see the movements we are most invested in in the broader Judah Friedlander is a comedian and actor best known for context of progressive organizing. We read about our own his starring role in the hit television sitcom 30 Rock. work and about the work of the other progressive move- ments too. That helps to give us good ideas for future or- ganizing, to make contact and connections with groups we didn’t know existed, and to broaden our understanding of how the left is progressing in general. I believe the left is on the verge of becoming more pow- erful and effective than it has been in decades, and I know

ThankWE’VE PUBLISHED 250 ISSUES OF THE INDY BECAUSE you! OF THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF READERS LIKE YOURSELF. HOWEVER, OUR FINANCIAL CHALLENGES HAVE NEVER BEEN GREATER. TO MAKE A ONE-TIME GIFT TODAY OR BECOME A RECURRING MONTHLY DONOR, VISIT IndypendenT.org/donaTe OR SEND A CHECK TO The IndypendenT//388 aTlanTIc ave, 2nd fl//brooklyn, ny 11217

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the proto-fascist leader who prom- She’s right. In 2016, Bernie was everywhere. A pop ises to fi x everything and save the culture fever remade him into every one of us. Gay Ber- people. It is the neo-liberal tech- nie. Hip Hop Bernie. Captain America Bernie. He was weIgh The nocrat studying data to splice the a vehicle for frustrated hope at the end of the Obama electorate into niches. It is the far presidency. We wanted what we were promised in the left, which thinks as Lenin did in heady days of the 2008 campaign, a historic moment to What Is To Be Done that the work- unify and transform the nation. Obama did not do it. ing class defaults to bourgeois re- Clinton would not. Bernie could. dIfferenceS formism and needs the direction of Trump’s victory turned that Obama era liberal opti- noT all progreSSIveS are alIke, a vanguard party. However much mism into a scared defensiveness. Now we ask, who can they talk of serving the people, in- beat Trump? If the Democratic nominee is too liberal evitably the top-down model sees will they lose swing voters? If he or she is too centrist, eSpecIally when IT comeS To bernIe them as a means to an end. will we fall into the same trap as before and lose voters What unites Trump, Biden and who despair of seeing real change? How one answers SanderS and elIZabeTh warren even Warren is that none of them that question, determines which one of the Holy Trin- envisions a role for the people be- ity — Biden, Warren or Sanders — is seen as “electable.” yond voting. Bernie is the only one The energy in both parties is coming from their re- By Nicholas Powers practicing a mass line, who calls for a political revolu- spective bases. The deepening divide in wealth and tion that involves millions of people. He wants you to America’s increasing diversity is causing stronger and hen you see a government that works protest and strike, run for elected offi ce or go out and stronger reaction. In 2016, Bernie rode that wave to the “ great for the rich,” Sen. Elizabeth knock on doors and phone bank for someone who is. He near tipping point of victory. Now his progressive plat- Warren shouted at an August 25 wants you to grow larger than the silos of identity. He form has been split by a fi eld of ambitious candidates mass rally in Seattle, “that is corrup- wants you to join with others and act. who are younger, many are women and two are Black. tion, pure and simple.” The audience He seems outdated. Bernie served a useful role but the Wcheered her on. Afterwards, she smiled in the bright implicit media messaging is that it’s time to shift that fl ash of selfi e photos. the BeRMuDa tRiaNGulatioN loyalty to, say, Warren, who if Biden stumbles badly is Days later, Sen. Bernie Sanders stops his stump speech positioning herself to pick up the pieces. Lightning can’t to ask people what they need. Did your healthcare plan “I am a capitalist,” Sen. Warren said on CNBC, “I be- strike the same place twice. cover you when you were sick and scared? Can you make lieve in markets. What I don’t believe in is theft.” When But it can. Bernie was never the cause. We were. He it by on $15 an hour? Where is your union picket line she frames her campaign as a moral corrective to capi- was a vehicle for a hope that we could change America. and can he join it? talism rather than an effort to tear down an innately Now he is a vehicle for our hope that we can rescue it. In the 2020 presidential race, two candidates run immoral system, Warren opens a lane between former His explicit mass line politics means that the measure from the left. Warren is a liberal technocrat brandish- Vice President Joe Biden’s centrism and Sen. Sander’s of support he has also measures how ready we are to ing detailed plans to fi x the nation. She appeals to the left-wing populism to squeak past both. It’s working. unite with the most vulnerable among us. And it is why middle and upper class. Sanders is a lifelong left popu- Her rallies are getting larger and more passionate. Her Warren’s appeal to the progressive base is a sign of its in- list. His political revolution attracts the young and the poll numbers rise. Her academic credentials shine ever ternal class contradictions. The middle- and upper-class working class. The dividing line between them is mass more brightly against Trump’s buffoonery. Her status as liberals are breaking her way because she offers “deep line politics. For her, voting is end of the people’s role. a serious woman candidate, especially one who’s been structural change” without the deep change in our lives For him, it’s just the beginning. insulted as “Pocahontas” by a sexist president would that is the price of Bernie’s political revolution. And it is give her victory the taste of sweet revenge. why his support is more solid among the working-class All of it would be a Pyrrhic victory. Warren is doing and younger voters of color. the MaSS liNe a classic political triangulation between the center and We have a choice between a technocrat and a popu- left. She adopted Sanders’ platform of Medicare-for-all, list. The former says, “I have a plan for that!” The lat- What is the role of the people? The question cuts across higher taxes on the rich and free college. In public she ter’s campaign slogan is, “Not me, us.” And he insists, ideologies from the left to neoliberalism and fascism. seems is in sync with Bernie, even hugging him at the “The only way we achieve these goals is through a politi- The answer determines organizing and propaganda, it debate. Behind the scenes, she calls Democratic National cal revolution — where millions of people get involved.” shapes how one envisions the future. Committee members to reassure them she wants to lead It’s not Warren but Bernie who envisions us coming Mass line politics is listening to the people, learning them back to power. The DNC pulled for Clinton over together, listening and learning from each other and what they need, gathering their ideas and using them as Sanders in 2016, it voted down a single issue debate on turning ideas into a blueprint for action. If we see that the blueprint for action. They and not a revolutionary Climate Change and has been the centrist bulwark of then, yes, lightning will strike twice and when it does, it elite or party bureaucracy are the driving force of histor- the party for decades. Warren is signaling that her trian- will strike right down the line. ical change. It is often associated with Chairman Mao’s gulation will fall back to the centrist position. Sure, we slogan, “From the masses, to the masses” but it was a will get reforms. Sure, it will be a deep symbolic victory manipulative tactic to serve his party. An authentic and to have the fi rst woman president. The cost is the loss of homegrown version took shape in the civil rights move- mass line politics and the loss of a presidency that cham- ment in Ella Baker’s “participatory democracy,” which pions a working class movement. put people at the center in the work of groups like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the September 2019 Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. These ordinary the ceNteR caN Not holD Americans were heard. They made decisions in place of a professional activist class. They engaged in direct action. “Elizabeth Warren is Bernie with baggage,” conserva- It was a bottom up practice echoed by today’s democrat- tive commentator S.E. Cupp said on CNN, “She doesn’t ic socialists like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who have the authenticity that voters really seek. What they when asked if she ran from the left replied, “I’m running love about Bernie is that, agree or disagree with him, you […] from the bottom.” know he believes what he’s saying […] In 2016 Bernie

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of 140,000 people just south of San has discontinued its overnight Juan, hundreds of residents gather ev- shift. In case of a medical SIGNING IN: ery other Sunday at dawn in the center emergency, locals now have to Participants in the San afTer The of town to discuss national and local travel about 30 minutes down Juan People’s Assembly political questions. Among the partic- the mountains to the coastal held at Plaza Roosevelt ipants are university students, union- city of Arecibo. Assembly par- register before the meeting ized workers, professionals, long-time ticipants are currently discuss- begins. There are roughly activists and community elders. ing whether to organize a pro- 50 people’s assemblies uprISIng Food is shared. There are recycling test to demand the re-opening active in 20 Puerto Rican aS The “puerTo rIcan Summer” drawS initiatives and sometimes artistic per- of the hospital’s third shift. cities and towns. formances as well. The gatherings, In Luquillo, a coastal town which last from two to three hours, on the east side of the island, To a cloSe, people’S aSSemblIeS begin like this: people arrive with their the people’s assembly has organized protests in San Juan in beach chairs, register their attendance opposition to a government rezoning plan that would allow SprIng up acroSS The ISland and then hammer out an agenda. The industrialization and commercial development in residential assembly splits into working commit- and environmentally protected areas. This could set a prece- tees and later regroups to hear report dent that will be replicated in other parts of the island, further By Juan C. Dávila backs from the committees and discuss next steps. pushing people out of their communities. A recurring question that hovers over these discussions is The assemblies began in the fi rst half of August and CAGUAS, PUERTO RICO — Puerto Rico captured the at- how to harness the energy that moved so many Puerto Ricans are now moving to appoint spokespersons from each city tention of the world this summer when a movement to force to take to the streets to demand Roselló’s resignation and turn or town to continue discussions on a shared national plat- the resignation of the island’s governor Ricardo Rosselló it into political and social transformation. Some asambleistas form and how to continue building the movement from the mushroomed into an unstoppable force. First thousands and propose trying to win approval of a new constitution, others ground up. Jennifer Mota Castillo, 33, a personal trainer then tens of thousands and fi nally as many as a half million are looking to back radical independent candidates in next and marketing consultant, is a spokesperson for one of the people rallied and march in the capital city of San Juan. year’s elections, others are pressing the issue of solving Puer- San Juan assemblies who also travels to Caguas to stay in Rosselló had presided over draconian cuts in government to Rico’s political status and moving toward independence. contact with organizers there. spending to appease the debt-ridden island’s U.S. creditors. Some objectives are long-term, while others are short-term. “It’s very tiresome, but is a task that someone has to do,” His bumbling administration had been of little help when In one recent Caguas assembly meeting, there were discus- she told The Indypendent. “From here, within the next years Hurricane Maria pummeled Puerto Rico in September 2017, sions about how to collectively support a call for a general or the next decade, is going to emerge the Puerto Rico that killing upwards of 3,000 people. But the fi nal straw for Ros- strike proposed by radical feminists if Gov. Vázquez failed to we want and are going to design together, from the people, selló’s long suffering constituents came when hundreds of call a state of emergency that would address the upsurge in from below.” pages of private chats between the governor and his top aides killings of women in recent years. The assemblies face many challenges. Sustaining a large were leaked to journalists. They revealed an arrogant, imma- “We want a country that is safe for all women,” said volunteer-based movement whose members have differing ture leader who attacked Puerto Rican activists, rival politi- Zoan Dávila, 31, a member of the Feminist Collective Un- objectives while operating outside of any established institu- cians and members of his own party. The chats also included der Construction which is organizing for the general strike. tions is not easy to do. Hurricane Dorian’s brush with the homophobic and misogynist jokes, which Rosselló constantly “That’s why it’s important to discuss as people not only island in late August was a reminder that in an era of regular encouraged, and, most unforgiveably, there were jokes mock- forms to remedy this, but also the importance that the state Category 5 storms, people’s lives could be catastrophically ing Hurricane Maria victims. performs its duties.” disrupted again. And should the assemblies grow and become The Verano Boricua, or Puerto Rican Summer, was un- Some assembly participants are urging more of a focus on more powerful, they will have to navigate relationships with der way and no amount of tear gas or baton-wielding cops local issues. “I understand that the people’s assemblies must entrenched politicians, their liberal allies and NGOs that can could stop it. When Roselló, the son of a former governor, have things that pertain to the whole island, but they [also] provide access to resources but often with strings attached. announced his resignation on July 24, the crowds roared. He must be more related to the needs of my town,” said Nancy Whatever happens, the people’s assemblies represent a shift was succeeded by Justice Minister Wanda Vásquez, a member Santiago Candelaria, 60, who proposed the assembly work to in Puerto Rico’s political activism and organization. They are of his own party who vowed not to run for offi ce when elec- address the concerns of downtown car owners who are being the product of organizing by grassroots groups that predates tions are held in 2020. ripped off by privatized parking meters that funnel 96 percent the drive to push Rosselló out of offi ce by many years. They The protests subsided and the international media moved of revenues to the company that runs them and 4 percent to are spaces where people seek to imagine something new, a September 2019 on to the next big headline-grabbing event. It was supposed the city of Caguas. future that has been denied, while combating years and years to be the end of the story. But for some Puerto Ricans it was “If there’s a parking meter in a public sidewalk, that mon- of dissatisfaction with the current political and economic sys- just the beginning as they looked to build power from below ey must go to the municipality, so that the municipality has tem, which has only benefi ted the Puerto Rican elite and U.S. through popular assemblies not beholden to the island’s cor- improvements,” Santiago Candelaria said. corporate interests. rupt political parties. The issues addressed by the people’s assemblies vary from There are now roughly 50 popular assemblies that hold one locale to the next. In Utuado, a rural town in the moun- public meetings in 20 cities and towns. They are promoted tainous central region of the island, residents are concerned

The IndypendenT through social media and word of mouth. In Caguas, a city about deteriorating service at their town’s one hospital, which ENVIRONMENTAlISM 19 when faScISTS competitive agriculture, fi sh- ing, and forestry. If this environmental agenda go green broadly resembles that of right- wing climate denialists, the a far-rIghT ecology movemenT IS AfD has other motives for its environmental concerns: Party on The rISe In germany … and IT’S spokesperson Georg Pazderski recently stated that they are SpreadIng here about protecting the homeland (Heimatschutz). It is possible that Pazderski, who is consid- By Maresi Starzmann ered a moderate, intended that statement as a way to compete with the Green Party, which rose to ith denying the reality of global third place in the May elections for the European heating being as much a core Parliament, winning almost twice as many votes principle of the Trump-era Re- and seats as the AfD. publican party as opposing Pazderski’s use of the word “homeland,” how- abortion and gun control, there ever, evokes an old German right-wing tradition. Wmight seem to be little common ground between The Heimatschutz movement of the late 19th and environmentalists and the far right. But some U.S. early 20th centuries sharply criticized industrial- immigration foes have argued that not letting for- ization, advocating an environmentally and cul- eigners in would protect the purity of both nature turally pristine German landscape. Soon after, and culture. In Europe, this idea is widely circulat- the Nazis’ “blood-and-soil” ideology turned the ed as well — and in Germany, the racial-nationalist concern for the German homeland into one for the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD, Alternative for German Volk. A supposed ethno-racial community Germany) party advocates protecting “an unspoilt of blond-haired, blue-eyed Aryans now claimed a and diverse environment.” natural right to the national territory in which it The AfD, which won seats in the German par- was organically rooted. To guarantee the health of liament for the fi rst time in 2017, contends that the Volk, the Nazis sought to curtail “ecological “nature conservation” issues should not remain stresses” in the form of environmental pollution, the exclusive domain of the left-environmentalist overpopulation and immigration. Green Party. Its platform opposes land specula- Rainer Kraft echoed those sentiments in a 2018 tion, supports holistic forestry management and parliamentary debate, when he accused the Social calls animals “fellow creatures” that should not be Democrats and the Greens of endangering the envi- subjected to inhumane treatment. ronment by “promoting mass migration to Europe, Despite this ostensibly green agenda, the AfD even though the CO2 footprint of the average Eu- continues to deny the basic facts of climate science, ropean is ten times that of someone from Africa.” which show a clear correlation between humans’ Some U.S. far-right groups advocate a similar carbon-dioxide emissions and global warming. nativist vision that seeks to restrict immigration “The greenhouse effect is not real,” party climate to protect both nature and the nation from cul- specialist Rainer Kraft recently declared on nation- tural and racial “pollution.” “Immigration policy al TV. The AfD accuses the German government must be limited to conserve our environment, open and international agencies such as the U.N.’s In- space, and natural resources,” the Federation for tergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of con- American Immigration Reform declared in 2010. veniently omitting “the positive infl uence of CO2 FAIR’s late founder, John Tanton, was a former Si- on plant growth and world nutrition.” It advocates erra Club offi cial who started the group after he withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on reduc- was unable to get much support for anti-immigra- ing emissions and has called 16-year-old Swedish tion politics in the mainstream environmentalist climate activist Greta Thunberg a “sick child.” movement. The man who massacred 22 people in Dismissing climate politics as socially unjust and El Paso, Texas on Aug. 3 referred to environmental economically risky, the AfD aligns itself with the in- scarcity several times in the racist screed against terests of extractive industries and climate-change- the “Hispanic invasion of Texas” he posted online denier think tanks like the German organization just before the mass shooting. EIKE, the European Institute for Climate and En- Using green sensibilities to rally people around a ergy. Two AfD fi gures, energy-committee head Bur- nationalist ideology is also at the core of the AfD’s kard Reimer and parliamentary candidate Michael agenda. The party, which does not seem to see a Limburg, were coauthors of EIKE’s 2014 “Mani- contradiction in its embrace of “a healthy environ- festo on Energy Politics.” EIKE’s annual conference ment” and climate-change denial, fuels fears that is cosponsored by the Heartland Institute, a U.S.- climate politics could threaten Germany’s national based denialist organization. EIKE also appears to sovereignty — for example, if ending fossil-fuel have ties to the Committee for a Constructive To- production would make the country dependent on morrow (CFACT), a Washington-based nonprofi t oil and coal imports. The AfD’s new environmen- that advocates market-oriented solutions to envi- tal agenda is thus not merely a rejection of the Ger- ronmental issues. Both U.S. groups have received man government’s climate policies. It is an attempt funding from the Koch brothers and ExxonMobil. at pushing back against a growing climate justice The AfD, which was founded as an anti-Euro movement and international demands for a global party and is rooted in a neoliberal tradition, uses response to the climate crisis.

green politics to portray itself as the party of the 2019 September “little man.” It rejects government climate policies, such as the Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz (EEG), a series of German laws devised to encourage the generation of renewable energy, because it considers them to be measures of a “state-directed economy.” The AfD wants to scrap the EEG, arguing that it IndypendenT The hurts lower-income households by raising energy prices. It also opposes wind energy on the grounds that “wind turbines present eyesores in cultural landscapes and pose an often fatal risk to birds.” Instead of renewables, the party seeks to devel- op fracking and let nuclear power plants operate

DAVID HOLLENBACH indefi nitely. It also encourages market-oriented, 20 UNIONS labor lIveS Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor lEADING THE By Steven Greenhouse WAy: Striking teachers Penguin Random House, 2019 speak out in Phoenix, Arizona 2018.

By Chris Wright Workers Union, UNITE HERE Local 226, in Las e live in a paradoxical Vegas. “Its membership has more than time. On the one hand, tripled since the late 1980s,” Greenhouse workers and organized writes, “soaring from 18,000 to 60,000 labor are in their worst today, making it one of the most power- state since the early ful and fastest-growing union locals in W1930s. Only 6.4 percent of private-sector the nation.” Dishwashers, waiters, and workers belong to unions. Average hourly hotel housekeepers — most of them im- pay is below what it was in 1973. Forty migrants, blacks, or refugees — have been percent of adults lack the savings to pay raised to the middle class. for a $400 emergency expense. On the The Culinary’s trick was rejecting its other hand, there is more excitement old “business unionism” model and be- and organizing potential on the left, and coming a rank-and-fi le union, starting among many workers, than there has been in the 1980s. With the help of large and in generations. The Fight for $15 has been long-lasting strikes at casino-hotels — one remarkably successful. Hundreds of thou- lasted over six years — it forced one ho-

NEW FROM RANDOM CHANCE RECORDS GAGE SKIDMORE GAGE

sands of teachers have gone on strike il- tel after another to accept “card check” legally and won. Innovative new forms of neutrality (recognizing the union after a organizing are reinvigorating both labor majority of workers signed cards support- and the left. ing it, rather than insisting on an election). Steven Greenhouse, former longtime Even the very anti-union MGM fi nally labor correspondent for the New York changed its tune after the union held a Times, surveys this terrain in his new series of demonstrations and distributed book, Beaten Down, Worked Up: The reports to MGM’s investors warning them Past, Present, and Future of American that a strike could damage the company’s Labor. While he doesn’t provide a detailed precarious fi nances. 7” VINYL “COMES LOVE” B/W “WALKING AFTER MIDNIGHT” FROM history of labor, he covers some of its Other unions could also learn from the most important moments of the past 120 Culinary’s dedication to mobilizing its years with a journalistic fl air for personal members politically. In the 2016 election, stories that’s often absent from academic its members knocked on 350,000 doors, HANNAH FRANk accounts. Much of the narrative, particu- got thousands of people to register to vote, Folk songwriter HANNAH FRANK steps into jazz vocals with this one-of-a-kind release larly of the neoliberal attack on unions, is and brought tens of thousands of early September 2019 featuring top players from Chicago’s blues and jazz scene. A lyricist with an inventive edge, bleak, but in the end Greenhouse’s argu- voters to the polls, as Democrat Hillary Frank interprets a jazz and country standard with deftness. Jazz pianist DENIS LUXION ment is compelling: Labor’s present weak- Clinton carried the state by 27,000 votes adds polish along with GRAMMY AWARD winner BILLY FLYNN on guitar. ness is not engraved in stone. A renais- over Donald Trump. In 2018, the union’s sance is possible. efforts were instrumental in unseating a AVAILABLE ON ITUNES, AMAZON: 45 OR DIGITAL DOWNLOAD The most interesting parts are those Republican U.S. Senator and fl ipping the that lend support to this argument. Too governor’s mansion to the Democrats. RANDOMCHANCERECORDS.COM HANNAFRANKMUSIC.COM few people are aware, for example, of

The IndypendenT the spectacular successes of Culinary continued on page 22 HOUSING 21 color-coded dIScrImInaTIon exhibit, what really makes it pop, is become a part of future ver- that what’s on the walls doesn’t stay sions of the exhibit. TAlKING BACK: Undesign The Redline on the walls. Every time I’ve visited — Redlining wasn’t taught People who attend the By DesIgnIng the WE the show spent a month on the other when Braden was an archi- exhibit are encouraged Hosted by the Gowanus Houses side of the Gowanus Canal before tecture student. “It is not to share their thoughts Through September moving to the Gowanus Houses in something that America really via post-it note on how to mid-August — something interesting wants to talk about” he tells end the harm caused by has been going on. Often it’s strangers me. “Most people who lived banks refusing to extend By Nancy Hoch striking up conversations with each through it, know it, but so credit to people of color, other or with the docent on duty, but many people have been totally a practice encouraged by it’s also the rich programming which isolated from that experience.” the federal government n a hot August day, I make my way to so far has included a neighborhood walking tour and discus- At the exhibit, you can see just for decades. NYCHA’s Gowanus Houses in Brooklyn to sion of Richard Rothstein’s The Color of the Law: A Forgot- how segregated our experienc- attend the opening of “Undesign the Red- ten History of How Our Government Segregated America. es are: some visitors express line,” a national traveling exhibit on redlining Local organizations, welcome to meet in the space, often relief and a sense of validation HISTORy lESSON: created by designing the WE (dtW), a NYC- break to view the exhibit. because their story is fi nally NYCHA resident Karen basedO design studio. The interactive exhibit explains how “It’s really local folks who bring the exhibit to life,” being told, others shock and Blondel draws on the redlining, the once legal prac- Undesign the Redline tice of systematically denying interactive exhibit to mortgages and other fi nancial explain the history of services to black and immigrant redlining in Brooklyn and its neighborhoods, baked pov- ongoing impact to this day. erty and social harm into those communities in a way that has yet to be widely understood, let surprise because they “had no alone undone. idea.” When Braden and dtW Inside the Gowanus Houses co-founder April De Simone community center, a handful started research for the exhibit in of NYCHA residents and local 2015, the only place they could activists have gathered for the view some of the 1930s redlin- opening. A portable air condi- ing maps was in the National tioner and a few standing fans Archives. Now all of the maps are keeping everyone cool, but have been digitized. Earlier this making it harder to hear. Karen year, the Federal Reserve Bank Blondel, a NYCHA resident in of Chicago used those maps to the nearby Red Hook Houses examine the long-term trajecto- and one of the community ries of two areas that were sta- members trained by designing tistically very similar before one the WE to serve as a docent for was redlined. The study found the exhibit, is talking with two lasting negative consequences local police offi cers in front of for the redlined area. a wall-sized “residential secu- The large central panel of the rity map” of Brooklyn. Karen exhibit, an American history is explaining to the offi cers that timeline which begins with the as an area spirals down due genocide of the Native Ameri- to disinvestment, it becomes a cans and comes up to the pres- place where police in trouble — ent, is fi lled with curving arrows offi cers who have psychologi- showing connections between cal problems, get high, or deal seemingly disparate events, drugs — are sent because what movements and policies. The happens in redlined areas often idea, Braden says, is to represent stays below the radar. “I was history “as a kind of cascade, asking them,” she tells us later, one thing leading to the next. “to send us the good police.” A lot of the ‘solutions’ of one The map Karen and the era end up leading to the crises offi cers were examining was of the next era.” Redlining is a created in 1938 by the Home case in point: it was designed to Owners’ Loan Corporation, help solve the 1930s foreclosure a federal housing agency that crisis by encouraging banks to was part of the New Deal. Like give out affordable long-term a color-by-number painting, mortgages to “stable” (i.e.,

each section of Brooklyn has NANCY HOCH white) neighborhoods. been assigned a color to show The fi nal panel in the exhibit whether the area is “safe” for takes up the question of what it investment. Green means the area is a go for mortgages and Braden Crooks, a co-founder of dtW, tells me. “It’s not would take to step off the merry-go-round of crisis-solution- loans. Blue and yellow get cautionary B and C grades. Red meant to be that we’re the experts coming in, and this is crisis and solve problems in an antiracist and democratic way, means the area is unfi t for any kind of investment. In 1938, all the knowledge.” Instead, he says, the exhibit follows “a driven from the grass roots and led by people in the neighbor- the only green neighborhood in Brooklyn is Bay Ridge. Al- popular education model,” in recognition that “we all share hood. This is not an academic question to the people who most all of northern Brooklyn, including Red Hook, Gowa- that knowledge.” live in Gowanus. The city is proposing a rezoning of the area 2019 September nus, and lower Park Slope, is shaded red. Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC), a community develop- and, so far, many community members feel their input is be- The decision to draw a red line around a neighborhood, ment corporation working in the neighborhood since 1978, ing ignored. “This rezoning,” Karen tells me as we leave the the exhibit explains, “was based almost entirely on race.” The has been the major activator of the exhibit in Gowanus. At exhibit, “could be another chapter in redlining.” language government and real estate publications use in the the suggestion of dtW, FAC put together a community advi- “Undesign the Redline” is at the Gowanus Houses com- 1930s is eerily similar to the racist and anti-immigrant lan- sory board made up of local organizations and neighbors. munity center through September. In October it moves to a guage we hear today. Surveyors are told to keep track of “any That board met with dtW for several months with the re- tiny house in nearby Thomas Greene Park. For information IndypendenT The threat of infi ltration of foreign born, Negro or lower grade sult that local history, such as the building of the Gowanus about the exhibit, visit fi fthavenuecommittee.org. For other populations” and to estimate the likelihood of an area “be- Expressway and the creation of the Red Hook Community venues in NYC or around the United States where “Undesign ing invaded by such groups.” Almost all the neighborhoods Justice Center, are included in the exhibit. One large panel the Redline” is being shown, visit designingthewe.com. where “colored people” live are classifi ed as “hazardous.” is devoted entirely to local residents’ stories. Visitors to At fi rst glance, “Undesign the Redline” may seem bland — the exhibit can also weigh in by writing their thoughts or just a series of large red and white panels of text and pictures pointing out what’s missing on sticky notes and attaching mounted on the walls. But the extraordinary thing about the them to the panels. Some of these ideas, Braden says, will 22FEMINISM gaZIng InTo The TrIck harsher, until suddenly we were all people — and characters — work through: childhood, mIrror at the mercy of an online-self that adolescence and adulthood. The beauty in this essay de- had shaped our real-world person- rives from how Tolentino is able to pull something so Trick Mirror: Refl ections on Self-Delusion alities. “Where we had once been clever from something regular and familiar: she starts by Jia Tolentino free to be ourselves online,” she with children’s literature. Random House, 2019 writes, “we were now chained to Referencing The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frank- ourselves online.” weiler — perhaps my favorite book as a kid—she notes the “Reality TV Me” begins as a best thing about the story is that the protagonists aren’t By Isobel van Hagen nostalgic road trip into Tolentino’s afraid to run away and live in the Metropolitan Museum of appearance on a forgotten reality Art. “Childhood heroines aren’t always fearless, but they series in her teens — a look at self- are intrinsically resilient […] sadness and fear are rooms to rick Mirror: Refl ections on Self-Delusion is commodifi cation. The essay is fascinating because while be passed through.” a collection of essays that are all about — in very few of us have ever been on a reality TV show, the Tolentino quickly cuts to our core: the loveliness of read- some way or another — trying to exist in the way Tolentino describes feeling on the show, namely being ing about child heroines is their inherent toughness derived 21st century. Jia Tolentino writes nine pieces performative and observed, is unpleasantly familiar. from a general obliviousness to fear. As we, and characters, addressing drugs, religion, celebrity culture, While rewatching some of the episodes in which she get older, that same fear and existential dread seems to lin- Tmodern-day feminism, and the wedding industry. The in- was cast as the “smart girl” who refused to make out with ger for most, if not all of the time. cisiveness of the disparate, yet In another gesture to her intertwined essays comes not dichotomy theme—perhaps necessarily from the nuanced my favorite essay — “I Thee and precise writing style, nor Dread,” about the wedding the unique content that seems industry, Tolentino, now 30 so frighteningly relevant remembers leaving her Peace you wonder why you hadn’t Corps assignment in Kyrgyz- thought of it yourself. stan exhausted by “the aw- Rather, the importance of ful juxtaposition between my this book comes from Tolen- obscene power as an Ameri- tino’s shrewd portrayal of the can and my obscene power- problems in our internet-rid- lessness as a woman.” This den world, our simultaneously is the fi nal chapter and she self-obsessed and self-hating unwaveringly lays out the de- minds, and then her eventual lusionary aspects of becoming and cruel reveal that there a bride, starting by showing are no solutions after all. She the process of how much wed- reveals the trick. Even if we dings cost — typcally around are aware of our self-delusion $30,000, spent in “the spirit of — our love-hate relationship fun but the name of tradition.” with capitalism, our fears that As you near the end of the

caring about looking beautiful GABRIELLA SZPUNT book, with many phrases un- interferes with our feminism, derlined in ink that are both so our knowledge of how bad In- obvious and so illuminating, it stagram is and how badly we need it — perhaps it makes anyone, Tolentino “can’t tell if, on the show, I was more will occur to you how kind Tolentino has been. Not only no difference. concerned with looking virtuous or actually being virtuous has she neatly laid out all the paradoxes you’re concerned She starts off where every thinker who ponders modern — or if [...] I was even capable of distinguishing between about, but she relieves you by saying your cognitive disso- self-delusion assumes is probably the right place to begin: the two ideas.” nance is understandable. She goes further to say that even the worldwide web. In her fi rst essay, “The I In The In- This dual nature of the self is a problem particularly she, who has thought so deeply about all this —written ternet,” Tolentino examines how the internet has affected relating to womanhood. In “Always Be Optimizing,” To- the book on delusion, as it were — still feels pulled toward her personally, and notes that she has benefi ted from the lentino tackles the aesthetics of the modern woman’s “ide- modern-day mania and looking pretty and barre classes. opinion-based economy that the internet created. She de- al life” — things that are workaday, suddenly seem like “I don’t want to be diminished, and I do want to be scribes being formed online, as an editor and writer for the a creepy sci-fi movie through Tolentino’s perceptive lens. glorifi ed — not in one shining moment, but whenever I Hairpin and Jezebel, before becoming a writer for the New Sweating it out at Pure Barre on your lunch break, then want,” she says, speaking frankly in reference to her aver- Yorker. She doesn’t even bother to try and fully reconcile “refueling” at Sweetgreen with a salad designed to be eaten sion to marriage. this: “You will never catch me arguing that professional in 10 minutes, wearing athleisure the whole time (“a sort And what’s wrong with that? opinion-havers in the age of the internet, are, on the whole, of late-capitalist fetishwear,” she writes) is a perfectly ac- a force for good.” curate picture of modern life. Once examined a bit closer She explores how the once innocent internet became something seems alarmingly off. corrupted, the endless possibilities of the web growing “Pure Heroines” examines the various stages of life

of leadership training sessions, a low-power organized a boycott of Taco Bell until the like the American Association of Working labor unIonS rISIng radio station, weekly skits about farmwork corporation would agree to its demands. In People, in which members would pay dues continued from page 20 and social justice (with the immigrants as 2005, it fi nally did. A few years later, other to an organization that would advocate for actors), and more. By the mid-’90s, the Co- companies followed. their interests. Activists could champion a Greenhouse is especially interested in alition was organizing strikes to press grow- As a result, 35,000 farmworkers have system of worker representation on com- how activists and a “militant minority” of ers for higher pay and better working condi- had their wages and working conditions sig- pany boards, similar to Germany’s. Union workers have adapted to the adverse condi- tions. But that strategy wasn’t working. nifi cantly improved. A workplace-monitor- leaders should be given incentives to do tions of neoliberalism. In chapters on app- So they switched their focus: They be- ing program, which experts have called the more organizing. If the federal government based work (such as Uber, TaskRabbit, gan to pressure tomato-buying chains like best in the United States, ensures that viola- won’t act, states could implement new laws and Mechanical Turk), the Fight for $15, Taco Bell, and later McDonald’s and Burger tions are investigated and punished. “[T]he Greenhouse outlines. viciously exploited farmworkers in Florida, King. They had two demands: that these tomato fi elds in Immokalee,” one researcher Readers familiar with labor history and the teacher strikes of 2018, and “how Los companies require their suppliers to adopt a says, “are [now] probably the best working the recent corporate attacks on unions might Angeles became pro-labor,” he explores the code of conduct, and that they pay their sup- environment in American agriculture.” fi nd the book’s treatment of these subjects a September 2019 novel strategies and tactics that have been pliers a penny more per pound, money that Such stories as these make Beaten little superfi cial, but Greenhouse’s purpose used—in some cases without having any would be passed on to the pickers. With the Down, Worked Up an inspiring read. The is to show ways and examples in which the traditional union. help of university and high-school students, fi nal chapter is particularly interesting, for struggle for workers’ rights is winning. He Conditions for tomato pickers in Im- the National Council of Churches and other Greenhouse gives concrete advice on “how succeeds admirably at that. mokalee, Florida, for instance, once were religious organizations, federal prosecu- workers can regain their power.” Perhaps close to slavery. In 1993, activists founded tions of forced labor on Florida farms, and there could be a major national workers’ the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) highly visible tactics like a hunger strike group comparable to the American Asso-

The IndypendenT to educate and entertain workers by means outside Taco Bell’s headquarters, the CIW ciation of Retired Persons, called something 23 TRUMP Hi Billy, climate change seems scary • • • enough, and now the Amazon is on DEPRESSION fi re. Is it fair to ask these kids — you Hi Rev. Billy, the eighth anniversary of Occupy Wall Street is know, Greta Thunberg, the Sunrise coming up. OWS was one of the most beautiful experiences of my HOTlINE Movement activists and the like — to life. To see how masses of people could legit challenge bankers be leaders? Why should the burden fall and politicians and police and real estate moguls was incredible. to them? Isn’t it up to us adults who But every year the reunion gatherings in Zuccotti Park (Freedom have been screwing up the planet? Plaza) get smaller and I wonder if it all had any impact at all. — BRUCE, Boerum Hill Wall St. is corrupt as ever and Trump is president. You were there. Where’s the revolution we fought for now? Bruce, These kids don’t need our blessing! We don’t “burden” them. — TRISHA, Vinegar Hill Greta Thunberg joins Xiuhtezcatll Martinez and Marlow Baines of the Earth Guardians, Nessa Diab and Colin Kaepernick, Severine Trisha, Fleming from the Greenhorns, Kandi Mossett from Standing Rock, The failure to stage anniversaries is not in any way a measure of Alicia Garza and DeRay Mckesson from Black Lives Matter and the OWS’s impact. Occupy spread to 2,600 communities and it still reso- brave Parkland survivors. nates through the years the way that Standing Rock and Black Lives Among my examples here are some who were radical children a Matter do. The choir and I met veterans of Zuccotti Park in North while ago. But check out how they have in common a highly origi- Dakota and in Ferguson and the Women’s March and WorldPride on nal activism, not fulfi lling the demands of an industry, not even the Stonewall’s 50th. This is a rushing stream of freedom fi ghters that classic characteristics of “protesters.” Generally the kids shaking will soon fl ood its banks. the air have the organizational shape of a swarm. I don’t hear them Where’s the revolution? It isn’t what we thought it would be eight saying that there is a star or “next generation.” I don’t hear them years ago. I believe that we will occupy space by pulling people from using the word “leader” anymore because each of us needs to have their screens. We will cause revolts by employees within fossil fuel and that quality now. weapons and chemical corporations. We will march into the banks My generation can learn from the young activists that our most and pull the people off their screens with the hurricanes in our eyes. basic sacred institutions are not as important as the survival of the Remember we have a lot to remember from Occupy, but each suc- Earth. They go on strike at their schools, for Christsake, which often cessful movement over the years has had its own unprecedented, un- means fl outing their own parents. Our opposition to fossil fuel cor- expected and downright scary qualities. Wait a minute. Did you feel porations and the big banks and fascist governments should take this that? A movement is a starting over. The revolution is minutes away. inspiration and run with it. Strike, block the bastards with our bod- It’s right here. It’s coming. Hear that? Get off that screen! ies, talk to them and win them over — but don’t hesitate to trespass in — REV their space. You see, this struggle shouldn’t be a burden — more like the sensation of weightlessness, of fl ying. Like being a child, Bruce, REVEREND BILLY TALEN IS CO-FOUNDER WITH SAVITRI D OF THE that joy! CHURCH OF STOP SHOPPING, A 40-VOICE ACTIVIST CHOIR. — EARTHALUJAH! JON QUILTY September 2019 September The IndypendenT The