Must-Reads and What I’m Worried About

Your weekly curated list of must-reads is here. But first, there’s a new episode of Movement Memos that I want to put on your radar. I talked with author and organizer Dean Spade about some common traps that activists fall into when discussing repression and how we can strengthen our practice of solidarity. We also discussed the recent wave of scary Supreme Court decisions and how activists can respond to these developments.

“[The Grants Pass is] a real sign of where we’re at with the far right agenda advancing so fully and stepping into such great legitimization in ways that feel very deeply entrenched,” Dean said. “And I think it reminds us that none of what we want is going to come through fighting in the legal system … Our fight needs to be about very bold direct tactics attacking our opponents and supporting each other through the fundamental mutual aid work to survive given these conditions.”

Must-Reads

From Gaza to the RNC and the fascistic politics of the tech industry, here are some of the most important stories I’ve read this week.

This Week’s RNC Highlighted the Right’s Strategy for Courting the Working Class by Schuyler Mitchell. “President Joe Biden and the Democratic establishment have failed to mount a formidable defense, much less an offense, against the far right populism taking hold of the U.S. To do so would require, in part, that the Democratic Party implement a genuinely left-wing, pro-working class platform.”

Horny for fascism by Jamison Foser. “Whether [journalists who are rehabilitating Trump] are mindless rubes who fall for Republican spin like your dog falls for the fake-throw trick or are deliberately trying to put a friendly face on Trump’s fascism is, at this point, a question I find extremely boring.”

'Largest IT Outage in History' Sparks Global Chaos (Common Dreams Staff). "This is basically what we were all worried about with Y2K, except it's actually happened this time," [security consultant Troy Hunt said].”

Gambling In Casablanca by A.R. Moxon. “There's a real trauma for all the rest of us, to have to live in this world of deliberately normalized violence, a world where menace is a daily event, where violence is a campaign promise, where retribution is promised to be delivered to all of the rest of us on behalf of those who demand domination over us, who then excuse any action they take in response when we commit the unforgivable crime of not submitting to that domination.”

Silicon Valley’s dangerous plan for a second Trump term by Paris Marx. “They’re trying once again to recast Silicon Valley as a land of startups instead of the home of some of the largest monopolists in the world. But more than that, they want government — and particularly a future Trump administration — to see the tech industry as integral to making America great again.”

Police Violence Is Also Political Violence — and Deeply Normalized in the US by Lewis Raven Wallace. “Biden’s speech renders invisible a crucial reality: the sun rises and sets over an America in which a different form of political violence – police violence – is normalized in every sense of the word.”

Will Heat Waves Become a Voting Issue? by Heather Souvaine Horn. “Seventy-four percent of people in the U.S. now believe that global warming is affecting extreme heat in the nation … 74 percent is not only higher than the percentage of respondents in a March 2024 Gallup poll who think Trump would make a good president (35 percent), and higher than the percentage who say Biden would make a good president (30 percent)—it’s higher than both of those numbers added together.”

Google, Amazon and the problem with Big Tech’s climate claims by James Temple. “The core problem is that the costs and complexity of net-zero emissions plans, which require companies to cut or cancel out every ton of climate pollution across their supply chains, can create perverse incentives.”

Israel Has Attacked Gaza “Safe Zone” at Least 10 Times Since Rafah Invasion by Sharon Zhang. “Just over two months ago, Israel forced more than a million Palestinians who were taking shelter in southern Gaza to flee, once again, to an area it designated as a “humanitarian safe zone” — an area that the Israeli military has since attacked at least 10 times, new research finds.”

The Supreme Court Just Supercharged the Scariest Part of Trump’s 2025 Agenda by Felipe De La Hoz. “This shockingly fascistic design hasn’t really come into the public consciousness for a number of reasons, including its sheer breadth, but also because it’s easy to wave away as patently illegal. Troops are prohibited from conducting any domestic law enforcement under the longtime principle known as Posse Comitatus, and so this plan is dead before it can start, right? Sort of.”

Final Thoughts

These are such messy, tragic times. In the wake of the attempt on Donald Trump’s life, I have many concerns. First and foremost, I am concerned about how such an attack might be weaponized against protesters and leftists. In 1903, a presidential assassination led to the creation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which systematized the repression of movements in the U.S. over the last century. Whether or not Trump is reelected, law enforcement agencies should be expected to leverage this shooting to justify aggressive attacks on our movements. I am particularly concerned about policing at the Democratic National Convention, which will be held in Chicago next month. In my experience, Chicago’s most brutal police treat major moments of protest as opportunities for recreational violence. I highly encourage people who plan to protest, as I do, to engage in safety planning. The Get In Formation Toolkit from Vision Change Win is an excellent resource for people and groups who are trying to create as much safety as possible in protest environments.

I am also concerned about right-wing retaliation. Even though it appears that the shooter who attacked Trump would have been content to kill either candidate, mythologies about the man’s motives have already caught on among right-wingers. This was to be expected. All movements are propelled by narratives, and all of the MAGA movement’s narratives are myths. Unreality is fundamental to the fascist experience. Facts are not only irrelevant but often held in contempt, just as those who insist upon them (such as teachers, scientists, and social advocates) are held in contempt. I am concerned about potential outbreaks of violence in the run-up to the election and on Election Day. If you share these concerns, I recommend checking out Vision Change Win’s Electoral Safety Toolkit, which provides tips on canvassing safely, building a safety team, vetting a security team, developing safety protocols, and more. (This is also a good time to check out Vision Change Win’s doxxing defense resources and Palante Technology Cooperative’s Zoombombing self-defense guide.)

I also think it is important to continue to emphasize the threat the right poses. The Democrats are infuriating in their own right, and they have handled this shooting in their usual inept style, with talk of “civility” and the need to tone down “heated rhetoric.” The world is on fire, and an arsonist got singed. That’s no reason to downplay the threat Trump poses to our communities and to the natural world. The recent Supreme Court decision that officially elevated the presidency beyond the reach of the law makes a lot of the nightmares summarized in Project 2025 a lot more feasible. While Trump has attempted to distance himself from the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for his presidency, it must be noted that the organization provided Trump with a similar "Mandate for Leadership" in 2016. Then-president Trump enacted nearly two-thirds of the proposals the foundation outlined. Former Trump staffers and operatives who are expected to assume roles in his next administration have played active roles in formulating Project 2025. The president of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, is reportedly in the running to become Trump's new chief of staff should he win another term. Roberts recently stated, "We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be."

If you want an abbreviated rundown of what Project 2025 would mean for environmental law, queer and trans people, pregnant people, educators, librarians, and many others, I sincerely recommend this piece by Kyler Alvord. It’s accessibly written, concise, and a highly shareable resource. (You can find more resources about Project 2025 in this thread.)

I hate Joe Biden, and I am not telling anyone what to do with regard to the election. I realize that there is an ongoing genocide that Joe Biden has facilitated, and I do not argue with people who abstain from electoral politics for ethical reasons. I respect your autonomy. (Time will tell whether or not Biden is the Democratic nominee, of course, given that most Democrats seem to want him out.) I also think it’s important to know the stakes, especially when the Supreme Court has positioned the right to bring their horrid political project full circle next year. 

Now, I also want to emphasize, as I always do, that our political lives must be much more expansive than electoral politics. Right now, regardless of who is elected, we have to organize as though heightened repression and catastrophe are incoming because they are. In Let This Radicalize You, Mariame Kaba and I wrote about the worsening repression activists currently face, including activists in the United Kingdom. This week, five Just Stop Oil activists were sentenced to four and five-year prison terms for participating in a Zoom conversation in which activists discussed plans to shut down of a major roadway. The group had been found guilty of “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance,” and their lengthy sentences are unprecedented in the UK. At her sentencing, defendant Cressida Gethin reminded the court and the world of why her group's actions were necessary, saying:

I want to remind the court once more that my reasons for taking action were not beliefs or opinions. Earth’s life-support systems are breaking down due to human activities, whether we believe it or not. These are not beliefs or opinions and feeling strongly that this is wrong is greatly understandable, I would argue. I deeply regret that this action was necessary … I maintain that it was necessary and I stand by my actions as the most effective option available to me.

Gethin was sentenced to four years in prison.

As we outlined in Let This Radicalize You, criminalization and repression in the United States are trending in similar directions. While that may sound frightening, it is not a reason to abandon our organizing efforts. It is evidence that our organizing is essential in these times. The Earth and our communities must be defended. This is a time to form strong networks, learn together, make connections between movements, and prepare ourselves for the many storms ahead. We need to strategize and build power. So, let’s get to it.

Much love, 

Kelly