Hello All – News reports lead us to expect that this week the Trump administration will double down on its military invasions of America’s big cities. Chicago is expected to be the next target, building on the invasions of Los Angeles and Washington, DC. Baltimore, Boston, and several other cities have been “mentioned,” building expectations that some kind of white-supremacist civil war is unfolding.
Sadly, the urban invasions with all their dire consequences, won’t go away if we ignore them. But based on the experiences of Los Angeles and Washington so far, it is clear that people will fight back. Those resisting frame their activism in terms of defending their homes, communities, and neighbors. The tenor of the fight back in LA and DC, and the rumblings in Chicago, strongly affirm the refusal of tens of thousands not to let the Trump people divide us on the basis of class or color, “legal” or “illegal.” I think it is possible that out of the coming conflict will emerge a renewed interracial, cross-class movement towards real democracy, greater equality, and an end to oligarchic rule.
American democracy has always been imperfect. White supremacy, inequality, less power for women, the rule of very wealthy – there are many ways in which our democracy needs a boost. We don’t “defend democracy” - we demand full democracy.
Now, under Trump, we slide deeper into autocracy – the rule of a tiny elite of the very rich and the very white. Violence and the threat of violence rule. The invasion of our cities by military force, the arrest and demonization of immigrants, the attack on science and our universities – all these can be seen as part of the consolidation of fascism. We could call the Trump policies domestic terrorism. The Trump policies target not only immigrants, universities, or dissent – they are also carried out in broad daylight to frighten and threaten us. Trump’s domestic terrorism spreads the fear that “we can be next!” It asks for our surrender, our cooperation. In addition to terrorizing people and institutions, Trump’s fascism is an attack on our minds, on our memories. Fascism wants to re-shape our memory of the past, of who we are. Slavery was not so bad. Dissent is “communist” thing. Our country was once great and can be made great again if ….
The fight against fascism is a war on many fronts. In the institutions and in the streets. With our voices and by our actions. We can begin by refusing. By refusing to stop thinking. By refusing to be afraid. By finding others of like mind and working together. By building a broad, united front. We can do it.
ILLUMINATING THE WEEK THAT WAS
(Video) “Uniting for Peace”: How U.N. Could Override U.S. Veto, Send Peacekeepers to Gaza, Block Arms & More
From Democracy Now! [September 5, 2025]
---- The Trump administration is facing growing criticism for suspending visas for Palestinian passport holders, including for Palestinian officials set to attend the annual U.N. General Assembly this month. When the U.S. denied a visa to Yasser Arafat to address the U.N. in 1988, the General Assembly was moved to Geneva — the U.N. faces similar calls now. The move by the U.S. is “an indication of the unprecedented degree to which the U.S. government has handed the levers of its foreign policy over to the Israeli regime,” says Craig Mokhiber, an international human rights lawyer who formerly served as the director of the New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. He resigned in October 2023 over the U.N.’s failure to adequately address large-scale atrocities in Palestine and Israel. Mokhiber also says there is more the U.N. could do to stop the genocide in Gaza. The General Assembly has the ability to circumvent the Security Council with a “United for Peace” resolution that could force “concrete action” in Gaza. [See the Program]
How to Stop Israel from Starving Gaza
By Jeffrey Sachs and Sybil Fares, Other News [September 1, 2025]
---- Israel has crossed the clear line into the darkest crimes. Israel, with US complicity, is committing genocide in Gaza through the mass starvation of the population as well as direct mass murders and the physical destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure. Israel does the dirty work. … The scale of the starvation is staggering. Israel is systematically depriving food to more than 2 million people. Over half a million Palestinians face catastrophic hunger and at least 132,000 children aged under five are at risk of death from acute malnutrition. … Israel’s thuggish government now counts solely on US support, but even that may not be there for long. Despite Trump’s intransigence and US government attempts to stifle pro-Palestinian voices, 58% of Americans want the UN to recognize the State of Palestine, compared to only 33% who do not. Moreover, 60% of Americans oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza. Here are practical steps that the world can take. [Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “A Global Awakening: How People Power is Reshaping Western Policy on Palestine,” bu Ramzy Baroud, Counterpunch [September 5, 2025] [Link]; and “Manufactured Famines in Gaza began almost 2 Decades Ago, So why Haven’t they been Halted?” by Dan Steinbock, Informed Comment [September 2, 2025] [Link]
THE FREEDOM FLOTILLA TO GAZA - UPDATE
Global Sumud Flotilla sets sail for Gaza
By Susan Price, Greenleft [September 3, 2025]
---- The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) — the largest maritime mission to Gaza since Israel’s illegal siege began 18 years ago — officially set sail from Barcelona, Catalonia, on September 2. The flotilla of more than 50 ships is carrying much-needed humanitarian aid and attempting to open a “people’s humanitarian corridor” amid Israel’s illegal siege. … Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, a member of the GSF steering committee, posted a video on social media prior to the flotilla’s departure saying: “The question we should be asking ourselves is not why we are doing this, but why is this mission needed? Why are our governments failing to step up and uphold international law? “We don’t just need aid and food to be delivered to Gaza,” she said, and called for an end to Israel’s occupation, apartheid system and genocide of Palestinians. [Read More]. To follow the Flotilla on the group’s “tracker,” go here.
THE MAMDANI CAMPAIGN
Why Does the New York Times Keep Ignoring Polls Showing Mamdani Leading with Jewish Voters?
By Adam Johnson, In These Times [August 27, 2025]
---- In the months leading up to New York assemblymember Zohran Mamdani’s surprise win in the June 24 Democratic primary, the New York Times used innuendo, sectarian framing, and a heavy dose of weasel words to repeatedly imply that Mamdani was uniquely struggling to win the support of New York’s Jewish voters. … A more accurate description the New York Times could have printed is that Mamdani was struggling with pro-Israel organizations, but this would come off unduly political, so instead the outlet simply used “Jewish voters” as a stand-in for Zionist advocacy groups. Indeed, two recent polls show Mamdani well ahead with Jewish voters. ... No public polls released since the primary show Mamdani trailing among Jewish voters. [Read More]
These Billionaires Have Already Spent $19 Million in a Bid to Defeat Mamdani
By Mike Ludwig, Truthout [August 29, 2025]
---- As the housing crisis and wealth inequality emerge as top issues for voters in New York City, mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani has called for higher taxes on the rich to pay for services and famously suggested that billionaires should not exist. Mamdani’s viral campaign handily defeated Andrew Cuomo, New York’s former governor, in a Democratic primary earlier this year. As expected, billionaires and billionaire-owned companies such as Airbnb and DoorDash are now spending big to defeat Mamdani and influence the race. An analysis of new campaign finance filings by influence trackers at the nonprofit public interest research organization LittleSis found that multiple billionaires and their companies have funneled more than $19 million into political action committees (PACs) that support Cuomo or oppose Mamdani and other candidates. [Read More]
NEWS NOTES
Labor Day brought forth surge of news about the state of the US labor movement. A Gallup poll, analyzed here, “reveals that Americans continue to support organized labor at historic levels, even as the Trump administration and its Republican allies in Congress take a battering ram to union rights and the nation's working class.” For example, “Gallup's annual survey, released Thursday, shows more than two-thirds of people in the US (68%) approve of labor unions and the economic security and prosperity they provide working families. The popular support matches record-high numbers of recent years after a long decline from the 1960s through the early 2000s.
More polling news. This week the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported on a survey of opinion about the Gaza war showing that “Most Israelis, Including on the Right, Back Hostage Deal That Ends Gaza War.”
In London yesterday, opponents of Israel’s war on Gaza joined forces with defenders of civil liberties to protest the Labour government’s ban on any public support for the protest group Palestine Action. 890 people were arrested by a very aggressive police force. To read about this and see some action videos, go here.
Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants and an insightful commentator on labor movement tactics and strategy, is interviewed here by Laura Flanders. ““There Are No Illegal Strikes,” she says, “Only Unsuccessful Ones.”
CFOW NUTS & BOLTS
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. Weather permitting we meet for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, at 12 noon at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) The Northwest Yonkers Neighbors for Black Lives Matter holds a Monday afternoon vigil at 5:30 pm at the corner of Warburton Ave and Odell. The CFOW newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com, and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook group. Another Facebook group focuses on the climate crisis. If you would like to join one of our Zoom meetings, each Tuesday and Thursday at noon, please send a return email for the link. If you would like to support our work by making a CONTRIBUTION, please make out your check to “Frank Brodhead,” write “CFOW” on the memo line, and send your check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks.
REWARDS!
The Rewards for stalwart readers this week come from the album produced by Max Roach, Oscar Brown, and Abby Lincoln in 1960 called “We Insist” and subtitled “The Freedom Now Suite.” I only learned about this work recently, and I’m sorry I missed it, coming as it did with the magnificent upsurge of the southern civil rights movement back in the day. Wikipedia describes its origins thus: “Brown and Roach began collaborating in 1959 on a longer piece that they planned to perform at the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1963. However, the urgency of civil rights issues steered them towards a new project in 1960 – the album that would become the Freedom Now Suite. This urgency was sparked by the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the rapidly spreading momentum of the civil rights movement aided by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Listen to the full album here. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
The Responsibility of Intellectuals in the Age of Fascism and Genocide
By Robin D. G. Kelley, Boston Review [Summer 2025]
---- Fourteen years ago, Noam Chomsky published “The Responsibility of Intellectuals, Redux” in these pages. He used the occasion of the tenth anniversary of 9/11 to revisit his classic 1967 essay on the subject, although the immediate occasion for the piece was the assassination of Osama bin Laden by U.S. Navy Seals. … By the time Chomsky revisited his essay in 2011, he had not only become a much sharper critic of liberalism. Neoliberalism had also reshaped higher education. The university’s embrace of market fundamentalism is now totally complete, and the creeping privatization of public universities has seen corporate donors, higher tuitions, and questionable investments replace shrinking state funding. Top administrators are no longer beholden to students and faculty, the pursuit of knowledge, or the public good but to donors, trustees, and government. … Under these conditions, the possibilities that Chomsky saw in the power of truth-telling from privileged intellectuals are vastly diminished. But more than that, our situation helps us to see that there was always something misformulated about Chomsky’s question, however forcefully it exposed the moral bankruptcy of the “value-free” experts who perpetrated war in Vietnam. Those intellectuals aligned with the state were always going to lie, since they had chosen their side. The real questions before us are: What is the responsibility of intellectuals committed to fighting fascism and genocide? How do we refuse and resist complicity when our own institutions are complicit? And what might we learn from earlier antifascist and anticolonial struggles? [Read More]
(Video) An Interview with Angela Davis – 50 minutes
From Peter Beinart, Substack [September 7, 2025]
---- The Renowned Activist and Educator Reflects on Freedom Struggles Past and Present [See the Program]
Chicago Could Be a Powder Keg
By Robert A. Pape, New York Times, [September 5, 2025]
---- With Department of Homeland Security agents preparing to assemble in Chicago for an expected crackdown on undocumented immigrants, the Trump administration is starting down a dangerous road. Its incursion into Chicago may begin with pursuing undocumented immigrants, but with its threat to also deploy National Guard troops or active-duty military to combat crime more broadly in the city — over the objections of Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois — the administration risks provoking large-scale civil unrest. … Occupying forces rarely, if ever, call their activities an occupation, but they are widely perceived as such by the local population. Occupation often lasts longer than expected and leads to involvement beyond its original stated purpose. Protests happen. Suppression of protests happens. The occupying forces must withdraw in disgrace or double down in hopes of pacifying the uprising. Things usually escalate. This kind of exercise of military force, regardless of the legitimacy of its aims, inevitably intrudes on the political rights and economic livelihoods of ordinary people. Even if an occupation starts out with apparent success, it typically leads to chaos and generates defiance in the local community. [Read More]
How the UN Can Act Decisively to End Genocide in Gaza
By Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies, Code Pink [September 3, 2025]
---- One year ago, the UN General Assembly demanded that Israel must end its occupation of the Palestinian Territories within twelve months. The General Assembly voted, by 124 votes to 14, with 43 abstentions, for a strong resolution that not only “demanded” an end to the occupation within a year, but called on all countries to refrain from trade involving Israeli settlements and from transfers of weapons “where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” The General Assembly was meeting on September 18th, 2024, in an Emergency Special Session, invoking the “Uniting For Peace” principle to act where the UN Security Council has failed to do so. The General Assembly had asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule on the legality of the Israeli occupation and the legal consequences arising from it, and the new resolution was triggered by the court’s ruling, on July 19th, 2024 that the Israeli occupation is unlawful and must end “as rapidly as possible.” A year later, Israel has failed to comply with any of the demands of the 124 states. … As world leaders gather again in New York for another UN General Assembly beginning on September 9th, how will they respond to Israel’s ever-escalating genocide and continued occupation and expansion of settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem? Grassroots political pressure is building on all of them to turn the strong words in ICJ rulings and UN resolutions into meaningful action to end what the vast majority of the world recognizes as the most flagrant genocide of our time. [Read More]
THE WAR ON PALESTINE
Gaza postwar plan envisions ‘voluntary’ relocation of entire population
By Karen DeYoung and Cate Brown, Washington Post [September 2, 2025]
---- A postwar plan for Gaza circulating within the Trump administration, modeled on President Donald Trump’s vow to “take over” the enclave, would turn it into a trusteeship administered by the United States for at least 10 years while it is transformed into a gleaming tourism resort and high-tech manufacturing and technology hub. The 38-page prospectus seen by The Washington Post envisions at least a temporary relocation of all of Gaza’s more than 2 million population, either through what it calls “voluntary” departures to another country or into restricted, secured zones inside the enclave during reconstruction. … Called the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust, or GREAT Trust, the proposal was developed by some of the same Israelis who created and set in motion the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) now distributing food inside the enclave. Financial planning was done by a team working at the time for the Boston Consulting Group. [Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “The full Seizure of Gaza: A Path toward Isolation and Collapse,” by Timothy Hopper, Middle East Monitor [September 4, 2025] [Link]; “The new Israeli map proposing to annex 80% of the West Bank, explained,” by Qassam Muaddi, Mondoweiss [September 4, 2025] [Link]; and “Israel might annex the West Bank—what would that actually mean?” from Infinite Jaz, [September 4, 2025] [Link].
A New Settler Hut Popped Up in Hebron. What Followed Confirmed the Palestinian Neighbors' Worst Fears
By Gideon Levy and Alex Levac, Ha’aretz [Israel] [September 6, 2025]
---- When you leave the building, the metal shed outside catches your eye – a rickety shack decorated with small Israeli flags, blue and white. The shack has been here for some four months, ostensibly marking its builders' territory and sovereignty. A larger Israeli flag stuck in the land owned by these Palestinians is even closer to their homes. Judea and Samaria is here, on the privately owned land of the extended Tamimi family, who live in Jabal Jales, a southwestern neighborhood of Hebron, in the West Bank. The entire valley of olive groves that is spread out in front of their home, stretching all the way to Route 60, belongs to the family – but since the war began almost two years ago in Gaza, they have not been able to approach the trees for fear of the settlers. Since the shack was put up, they are even afraid to leave their own home. Not long ago, when two members of the family, a father and son, nonetheless dared to go to their fields and gather the berries from which they make the sumac spice, settlers showed up and beat them. [Read More]
The Price of Genocide: How US Funding Sustains an Unraveling Israeli Economy
By Ramzy Baroud, Antiwar.com [September 1, 2025]
--- In an important step toward the economic isolation of Israel due to its genocide in Gaza, Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global has decided to divest from yet more Israeli companies. … Taking a leading role along with Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia, Norway has been a vocal European critic of the Israeli genocide and man-made famine in Gaza, actively contributing to the International Court of Justice’s investigation into the genocide, and formally recognizing the state of Palestine in May 2024. … The Israeli economy was already in a state of freefall even before the genocide. The initial collapse was related to the deep political instability in the country, a result of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist government’s attempt to co-opt the judicial system, thus compromising any semblance of “democracy” remaining in that country. This resulted in a significant lowering of investor confidence. The war and genocide, beginning on October 7, 2023, only accelerated the crisis, pushing an already fragile economy to the brink. [Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “You Can't Be Selectively Moral: Why Israel's Hostage Protest Movement Ignores Palestinians in Gaza,” by Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz [Israel] [August 31, 2025] [Link]; and “Homeless and Hungry, Gazans Fear a Repeat of 1948 History,” by Raja Abdulrahim, New York Times [September 7, 2025] [Link].
THE WAR IN UKRAINE
Fascists: Notes from a frontline factory in eastern Ukraine
By Timothy Snyder, Substack [September 7, 2025]
---- Today I visited a factory in southeastern Ukraine. Tonight, with a moment to myself during an air raid, I want to give voice to a worker I met, A. The factory is an impressive tube-rolling mill in Nikopol, on the Dnipro River. The Russians are on the other side of the river. The factory makes pipes for export and employs about three thousand people. The Russians try to destroy it. Russian attacks on the factory are part of a campaign of murderous destruction that is visible from the rubble of the big supermarket at the edge of Nikopol to the damaged old town. There is no Ukrainian military presence. … The Russians have been trying to destroy the pipe mill in Nikopol for three years. It has been hit by drones and it has been hit by shells. Provisions have been made, however, for its repair and its defense. The damage is visible, but so are the improvements and precautions. The factory runs and people come to work. [Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “The Way Forward for Ukraine,” by Jonathan Steele, The Nation [September 5, 2025] [Link]; and “Blitzkrieg Blowback: Nazi Warlord Primed To Lead Post-War Ukraine,” by Scott Horton and John Weeks, Antiwar.com [September 1, 2025] [Link].
WAR WITH CHINA?
Cold War 2.0 Is Against China
By Gary Olson, Dissident Voice [September 5, 2025]
---- On September 3, China staged a grand gathering of over 20 foreign leaders to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. ... Before the parade in Beijing, the Summit Meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) took place in Tianjin from August 31 to September 1. The meeting was the largest in the group’s decade-old history. In his Keynote Address, President Xi called on SCO member states to continue to resist “hegemonism and power politics,” and instead advocate for “an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive globalization.” Each of these meetings takes the multipolar world a step further, as they transition from a “talk shop” to substantive and cooperative projects that “bypass the US-led system toward one that protects these countries from the West.” This formidable coalition is saying, “You can bully your European vassals into obedience, but not us.” All available evidence suggests that we are witnessing the emergence of a new coalition, the end of Western domination of the global system, and the advent of a new era — provided the world remains intact. [Read More]
THE CLIMATE CRISIS
Climate “Post-Apocalypse” and the Utopian Imperative
By Brian Tokar, New Politics [Summer 2025]
---- Images of climate-driven disaster have come to dominate our awareness on nearly a weekly basis. This is true even in North America, which was one of the last places on earth where climate disruptions were widely seen as a problem for future generations. Images of rural towns and urban neighborhoods devastated by wildfires across California may now be permanently etched into our minds. Places once seen as climate refuges, from Vermont to North Carolina and beyond, have experienced repeated cycles of destructive flooding. The intensity of tropical storms, tornadoes, and even midwinter blizzards sometimes far exceeds our accustomed norms. … For several decades, climate activists believed that once the evidence for anthropogenic climate changes and their impacts became widely apparent, public alarm would be aroused and viable climate solutions would be legislated into effect. This happened to some extent, with the emergence in the 2010s of global campaigns such as Extinction Rebellion, the student-led Fridays for Future movement, huge demonstrations in major U.S. and European cities, and the significant albeit insufficient scaling up of climate-protective policy measures. … Unfortunately, though, the popular response to continuing climate disasters has become disturbingly muted, especially in the aftermath of the global Covid-19 pandemic. [Read More]
CIVIL LIBERTIES
(Video) Judge Blocks Trump’s Late-Night Deportation of Hundreds of Guatemalan Children
From Democracy Now! [September 2, 2025]
---- A federal judge stopped the Trump administration from illegally deporting as many as 700 Guatemalan children over the Labor Day weekend, ordering a last-minute block on their removals even as some children had already been boarded onto planes. The National Immigration Law Center filed an emergency request to stop the deportation flights, arguing that the children would face harm and abuse if they were returned to Guatemala. The children arrived in the United States as unaccompanied minors, and many are now living in shelters or foster care. The Trump administration insists it is acting at the request of the children’s families and the government of Guatemala. “There are protections for unaccompanied minors that provide how a child can be released from custody, to whom, and the process if they want to go back to their country,” says Efrén Olivares, an attorney representing Guatemalan unaccompanied minors. “If this were a benign repatriation to send children back to their parents, it wouldn’t be happening at midnight on Sunday of Labor Day weekend.” [See the Program].
ALSO OF INTEREST - “Trump’s Immigrant Gulags: A Bonanza For Private Prison Corporations,” by F. Douglas Stephenson, Counterpunch [September 2, 2025] [Link]; “The Military Has Officially Entered the Deportation Business,” by Elie Mystal, The Nation [September 4, 2025] [[Link]; and “Federal Judge Said Trump Can’t Be National Police Chief. Will His Word Be Final?” by Marjorie Cohn, Truthout [September 4, 2025] [Link].
THE STATE OF THE UNION
RFK Jr., American Psycho
By Gregg Gonsalves, The Nation [September 4, 2025]
---- Last week at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we saw this predator in action. Over the past few months, RFK Jr. has brought the internationally renowned agency to its knees. He has proposed cutting the agency’s budget by close to 50 percent, destroyed programs responsible for monitoring maternal health and lead poisoning of children in the US at CDC, disbanded the Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics and the Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice within the National Center for Environmental Health, which is meant to keep our water safe to drink and address environmental causes of childhood asthma. ... But all of this was a mere prologue to the Wednesday Night Massacre at CDC last week, in which RFK Jr. tried to fire the new CDC director, Dr. Susan Monarez, whom he had selected to run the agency and had just been confirmed by the Senate earlier this summer. The precipitating events here concern vaccines. … The case is clear: He should never have been let anywhere near public health, healthcare and biomedical science in this country. Congress needs to act. And we need to make them do it. RFK Jr. needs to go. Now. [Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “Bernie Sanders: Kennedy Must Resign,” from The New York Times [August 30, 2025] [Link].
OUR HISTORY
(Video) Labor Day Special Featuring Howard Zinn & Voices of a People’s History of the United States
From Democracy Now! [September 1, 2025]
---- In 1980, historian Howard Zinn published his classic work, A People’s History of the United States. The book would go on to sell over a million copies and change the way many look at history in America. We begin today’s special with highlights from a production of Howard Zinn’s Voices of a People’s History of the United States, where Zinn introduced dramatic readings from history. Alfre Woodard reads the words of labor activist Mother Jones; Howard’s son Jeff Zinn reads the words of IWW poet and organizer Arturo Giovannitti; Marisa Tomei reads the words of the women’s suffrage leader Harriet Hanson; and James Earl Jones reads from Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. [See the Program]
Fred Ross Changed Community Organizing
By Peter Dreier, Jacobin Magazine [August 2025]
---- Community organizer Fred Ross Sr was a key figure in progressive activism during the 20th century. He started in the 1930s farmworker camps that inspired John Steinbeck’s novels and went on to pioneer methodical tactics that transformed American organizing. A good organizer is a social arsonist,” Fred Ross Sr once said. “One who goes around setting people on fire.” Ross may be the most influential political activist you’ve never heard of. This anonymity was intentional. Carey McWilliams of the Nation called Ross “a man of exasperating modesty, the kind that never steps forward to claim his fair share of credit for any enterprise in which he is involved.” He believed organizers should be behind the scenes, getting others to take leadership in their unions, community organizations, and civil rights groups. Ross was a California community organizer for the better part of the twentieth century. He started in the 1930s farm worker camps that inspired John Steinbeck’s novels and went on to pioneer methodical tactics that transformed American organizing. [Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “The Orwellian Echoes in Trump’s Push for ‘Americanism’ at the Smithsonian,” by Laura Beers, Counterpunch [September 2, 2025 [Link]; and “Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale Belong in the Labor Movement Hall of Fame,” by Peter Dreier, The Nation [September 1, 2025] [Link].
