Must-Reads and Thoughts on Fighting for Our Libraries
Everything we cherish must be fought for in these times.
Must-Reads
From a new bill targeting abortion pills in Texas to the inner workings of DOGE, here are some of the most important articles I’ve read this week.
- A New Texas Bill is Coming After Online Abortion Pills by Shefali Luthra. “The 43-page bill targets tech companies that allow patients to order abortion pills online and nonprofit funds that help them travel out of state for care and gives new power to the state’s attorney general to prosecute abortion providers.”
- Pro-Israel Groups Urge Trump to Sanction Palestinian NGOs Out of Existence by Theia Chatelle. “A coalition of 45 pro-Israel organizations, led by the Zachor Legal Institute, have sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department, asking that it sanction six Palestinian nonprofits that they allege either directly or indirectly support the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Palestinian leftist movement with both political and armed wings.”
- Trump’s FBI Moves to Criminally Charge Major Climate Groups by Malcolm Ferguson. “The FBI is moving to criminalize groups like Habitat for Humanity for receiving grants from the Environmental Protection Agency under the Biden administration.”
- Social Security Scraps Far-Reaching Cuts to Phone Services After Post Report by Hannah Natanson, Lisa Rein, Elizabeth Dwoskin and Faiz Siddiqui. “The Social Security Administration late Wednesday abandoned plans it was considering to end phone service for millions of Americans filing retirement and disability claims after The Washington Post reported that Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service team was weighing the change to root out alleged fraud.”
- Outraged Conservatives Declare Amy Coney Barrett a “DEI Justice” by Madiba K. Dennie. “Barrett is a dutiful foot soldier of the patriarchy, but she’s still a woman.”
- ‘Startup Nation’ Groups Say They’re Meeting Trump Officials to Push for Deregulated ‘Freedom Cities’ by Caroline Haskins and Vittoria Elliott. “Several groups representing “startup nations”—tech hubs exempt from the taxes and regulations that apply to the countries where they are located—are drafting Congressional legislation to create “freedom cities” in the US that would be similarly free from certain federal laws, WIRED has learned.”
- FEMA Wants the Names and Addresses of Migrants Helped by Texas Nonprofits and Local Governments that Got Federal Grant Money by Uriel J. García, Alejandro Serrano and Berenice Garcia. “The Trump administration has asked local governments and nonprofit organizations that received federal grants to identify immigrants they have housed, suggesting in a letter that they may have violated human smuggling laws.”
- Exposed: White Nationalist Group Responsible for Hate Spree Across Chicagoland by Raven Geary and Steve Held. “Three members of a local white nationalist group have been identified thanks to the work of anonymous antifascist infiltrators.”
- The 200+ Sites an ICE Surveillance Contractor is Monitoring by Joseph Cox. “In all the list names more than 200 sites that the contractor, called ShadowDragon, pulls data from and makes available to its government clients, allowing them to map out a person’s activity, movements, and relationships.”
- Censor, Purge, Defund: How Trump is Following the Authoritarian Playbook on Science and Universities by Christina Pagel. “Universities have long played a pivotal role as sources of resistance to autocracy and, for just as long, been subject to attacks and repression from authoritarian regimes.”
- The Media Treated Trump's Tesla Stunt Like a Car Show, Not Corruption by Parker Molloy. “The press has a responsibility to call this out for what it is, not to treat it as a novelty. But once again, in the rush to cover the spectacle, they've missed the substance of why this matters.”
- Inside Elon Musk’s ‘Digital Coup’ by Makena Kelly, David Gilbert, Vittoria Elliott, Kate Knibbs, Dhruv Mehrotra, Dell Cameron, Tim Marchman, Leah Feiger, and Zoë Schiffer. “Soon it became clear that DOGE wanted [the General Services Administration] to adopt one product in particular: an AI chatbot that could plug into the agency’s main portal, the Enterprise Data Solution. Such a tool would allow a handful of DOGE technicians to ask questions in plain language and get answers from vast stores of government data.”
ICYMI
This week, I wrote about the kidnapping and potential deportation of Mahmoud Khalil,and why this case represents a sprawling threat to so many people. The piece also tackles some relevant histories that people might not be aware of, while also emphasizing what's new and terrifying about this case.
Mass Call for #TeslaTakedown
There is a mass call Wednesday, March 19 at 8:30 pm ET, for people interested in the #TeslaTakedown movement. Experts and organizers will discuss the project’s goals and share their next major call to action. I am a huge supporter of this effort and plan to be on that call. You can sign up here.
Defend Our Libraries
Friday night, Donald Trump signed an executive order that would gut the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The American Library Association responded to this attack on social media, saying, “By eliminating the only federal agency dedicated to funding library services, the Trump administration's Executive Order is cutting off at the knees the most beloved and trusted of American institutions and the staff and services they offer.”
People sometimes describe the world that Elon Musk and his cronies are trying to create as “technofeudalism.” I find this term useful, but as some historians have pointed out, it has a flaw. Under feudalism, peasants had collective access to the commons—forests, fields, and pastures that were available for public use. Anyone could access resources, such as firewood and foraged food, in the commons. In the world that Trump and Musk is trying to create, there will be no commons. There will be nothing that belongs to all of us, and there will be no free access to resources. We would simply be ruled by corporate overlords, without any collective resources to enrich our lives or aid our survival.
Of course, under capitalism, the commons have largely already been destroyed. There are, however, some spaces and services that still belong to everyone. The strongest example of this phenomenon in the contemporary U.S. is the library system. Libraries offer free access to books, movies, music, and the internet—and some even lend out tools, musical instruments and baking equipment.
The first time I ever heard an orchestra play, as a child, it was because I obtained free passes that were distributed at my local library. The first time I heard a musical, it was because I borrowed cassette recordings of The Phantom of the Opera. As a child whose family struggled financially, I was shaped by books and media I could freely access at my local library. It was a space where I could indulge all of my curiosities about the world—from history to sex and my youthful fascination with ghosts—without having any money to spend.
Libraries are cultural and educational hubs. Here in Chicago, they have also provided life-saving shelter to our unhoused neighbors during dangerous weather on many occasions.
Libraries represent the kind of world we want, which is why this administration wants to destroy them.
Libraries must be fought for.
Last year, Mariame Kaba and Emily Drabinski gave a talk explaining the political importance of libraries and why they must be defended. If you missed that talk, this is a good time to listen.
If you are concerned about this issue, you will be comforted to know that there are experienced organizers whose work you can join and support. For The People: A Leftist Library Project (FTP) is “an explicitly political project aimed at building power on the Left(s) to protect, defend, and expand public libraries in communities across the county.” Fill out the Get Involved form on FTP’s website to get plugged in.
FTP also created this Libraries 101 zine that explains how libraries function, are funded, and how and why they must be defended. Please read and share this important resource.
Everything we cherish must be fought for in these times. That’s a terrible reality, but what we are being called to summon in this moment is worthwhile: our deep regard for one another and for everything that is worth saving. This is a time to clarify our sense of what matters and what kind of world we want. This is also a time to throw down hard in defense of whatever we believe must be saved. Our enemies are hoping that in the chaos of so much violence and harm, we will not find our footing. They plan to steal everything we hold dear while we sit with our heads spinning. We must defy their expectations and undermine them in every way that we can. Defending our local libraries and keeping those institutions alive is deeply important. I hope you will do what you can to support that fight.
Much love,
Kelly
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