Dear Progressive Reader,
The Electoral College has cast its votes. The results of the election of November 3 have yet again been confirmed. But, as Mark Fiore illustrates, as far as Donald Trump is concerned, it’s not over yet. “I’m beginning to think,” Fiore says, “President Trump’s ‘path to victory’ is really nothing more than a path to relevance and continued fundraising.” To support this project, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson even held hearings this week to “sow further doubt” about the already decided result. And, as Bill Lueders reports, many of the judges who declined to accede to Trump’s unfounded assertions are now facing verbal and written harassment.
Meanwhile, with Congress yet to address the actual needs of the American public during the severe economic crisis resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, everyday people are stepping up to fill the gaps. Eve Upton-Clark interviews Dean Spade, whose new book Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (And the Next) describes this movement. Annie Levin writes about many of these mutual aid collectives. “They are establishing hubs of solidarity and community that could continue long after the pandemic comes to an end,” she says. Tina Gerhardt explains, “Mutual aid is not only about addressing the crisis at hand but also about undoing the injustices of colonialism and imperialism.” And Eleanor Bader reports on grassroots housing justice activists, noting: “With the pandemic making shelter more crucial than ever, activists are fighting for everyone’s right to a place to live.”
December 17 was the tenth anniversary of the self-immolation of Tunisian fruit seller Mohamed Bouazizi that led to the movement that brought down that country’s dictator and launched uprisings across the Arab world. Alessandra Bajec examines the Arab Spring victories and losses ten years on. And we also reprint the 2017 interview that James L. VanHise conducted with Gene Sharp. Sharp’s 2002 monograph From Dictatorship to Democracy was reprinted in dozens of languages and served as an inspiration to many Egyptian activists in the years leading up to the events of 2011 in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Meanwhile, Ed Rampell reviews a new documentary film of Iranian activist attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh who is currently in prison for her work.
Today would have been the eightieth birthday of political folksinger Phil Ochs. Ochs died in 1976, but his topical songs of the 1960s and 70s are as relevant as ever in this era of political corruption in the White House and struggles for racial justice in the streets. A new book of Ochs’s non-musical writing (as a journalist, poet, and critic) is just out this month. I provide a brief review of I’m Gonna Say It Now (Backbeat Books) in this month’s “Favorite Books of 2020” segment in The Progressive. There will be a commemorative musical event tonight hosted by the Woody Guthrie Center in Oklahoma. Details of this free event are at: https://woodyguthriecenter.org/events/phil-ochs-song-night/.
Keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.
Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher
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