Dear Progressive Reader,

This final week of 2024 was marked by the somewhat unusual convergence of Christmas and Hanukkah. But, 2024 was marked by a number of unusual events—the emergence of two broods of periodic cicadas, sitting President Joe Biden stepping aside to allow his Vice President Kamala Harris to enter the race, two assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump within close proximity, and of course, the November election of Trump with wins in the House and Senate as well as both the popular vote and the Electoral College. Sadly, many of the issues we face are not unusual nor “once-in-a-lifetime” rather they are the ongoing issues of trying to make the world a better, more peaceful, more just, and more sustainable place for human beings to live together. Those are the stories we will continue to cover in our magazine and on our website in the coming year.

This week on our website, Nicolas J.S. Davies looks at the current situation Syria, where, as many celebrate the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, military powers in the region—especially Israel—are taking advantage of the changes to secure their foothold in the region; Eleanor J. Bader visits an annual event to provide blankets for unhoused people; and Nourdine Shnino provides a firsthand report from a refugee camp in Gaza as winter moves in. Plus, Mike Ervin worries about the future of a new proposed rule to eliminate sub-minimum wages for workers with disabilities; Peter Greene analyzes a federal school voucher bill in Congress that Trump is expected to support; and Ed Rampell reviews the new biopic, A Complete Unknown, about singer Bob Dylan’s early years in New York City. Finally, Emma Lucía Llano reports on the recent holiday strikes by Amazon workers around the country. The Amazon strikes were complemented by a series of strikes by Starbucks workers at more than 300 stores in forty-three states nationwide, also timed to coincide with holiday shopping. (Thanks to longtime labor cartoonist Gary Huck for the great graphic at the top of this newsletter.) Our Hidden History calendar reminds us that this is a grand tradition. December 30 marks the anniversary of the legendary 1936 strike by GM workers in Flint, Michigan, which energized the mid-twentieth century labour movement.

At this time of year, we often publish a “progressive wish list” for the coming months. In 2017, after the initial year of the first Trump Administration, I penned the following words, “It has been a tough year for progressives. Even before his inauguration, Donald Trump was announcing plans to dismantle many government agencies and much of the social safety net woven over the previous decades. Many of those plans have come to fruition, as the Trump Administration has dismantled hundreds of long-standing protections, Obama-era rules, and pending regulations in its first eleven months. The most public of these concern pollution and mining, accessible health care, and an open Internet. And many smaller changes occur almost daily, either deliberately or due to shortages of staff and funding, and agency heads who are downright opposed to the mission of the agencies they run.”

However, I continued, “there have been successes. Beginning the day after Trump’s inauguration, the huge women’s marches across the country showed the world a spirit of resistance. While Trump has chosen numerous mean-spirited advisors, many have been unable to remain in their positions even through a portion of their first year in office. Victories by Democratic candidates in staunch Republican strongholds in Virginia and Alabama reveal that the President’s perceived popularity does not carry the weight he hoped it would. The success of the #MeToo movement opened a national conversation on sexual harassment and abuse. There are also a growing number of women seeking elected office—ten times as many female candidates are challenging Senate incumbents next fall than in 2012 and 2014.”

We can only hope that 2025 brings similar successes and a new awareness of all of these issues and more. As I concluded, seven years ago, “As we head into the new year, let us remember that our nation’s values are better than its present realities. Let us honor those values and set a course for a progressive future.”

Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.

Sincerely,

Norman Stockwell
Publisher

P.S. - The new 2025 Hidden History of the United States calendar is now available. You can order one online and have it mailed to you. Don’t miss a minute of the “hidden history” of 2025. Just go to indiepublishers.shop, and while you are there, checkout some of our other great offerings as well. There is still time to get your items delivered for the holidays.

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