Our fight and freedom are connected.

In this week’s news we’re seeing the entanglement of our suffering. How interconnected the many threats we are facing are - from fascism to environmental catastrophe to runaway capitalism to the mental health crisis.

Society would have you believe that your suffering is your fault. But as long as we remain distracted by the simple (individual) solutions they are selling us, we won’t discover the power and potential of our collective action.

Many of us are waking up to the understanding that our fight and our freedom are interconnected. And when we can organize from that place, we can do what is needed to resist oppression, reduce harm and save our own lives.

Kerri (she/her)

Art by Earth Justice

NTK

• The media’s framing of measures like Florida’s African American studies ban is a dangerous falsification of reality. Banning ideas and authors is not a ‘culture war’ – it’s fascism

• Why Do So Many Men Destroy What They Can’t Control? The patriarchs are not okay, and it’s doubtful they ever have been. Their benevolent dictatorship kills, and it’s time to let the toxic institution go.

• After a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, leaked noxious chemicals, residents in the area are still trying to recover. Life After the Ohio Train Derailment: Trouble Breathing, Dying Animals, and Saying Goodbye.

• If it is true that racism and capitalism are in a mutually supporting relationship, then we should expect that any potentially effective anti-racist and anti-capitalist struggles will also be mutually supporting. Racial capitalism offers us a framework to understand the world.

• Social media companies face legal scrutiny over deteriorating mental health among teens. America’s youth mental health crisis is worse than you think.

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SOLIDARITY

An alarming environmental disaster is happening in Ohio right now. Last week, a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio released large amounts of toxic fumes. The tankers were full of hundreds of thousands of gallons of vinyl chloride, a flammable ant toxic carcinogen that can be fatal. This is one of the deadliest environmental emergencies in decades and no one is talking about it. And it will likely happen again unless we take action now.

• Hold Norfolk Southern accountable. Railroad companies like Norfolk Southern, the owner of the freight train that derailed in East Palestine, OH, have been cutting costs and endangering its workers. Instead of improving conditions and safety measures, they’re using their money to lobby against regulations and hoard profits.

• Support unions. Union rail workers have warned of this “ticking time bomb” for years now. Meanwhile, railroad companies are seeing the highest profits in the history of railroading.

• Regulation matters. The disaster in East Palestine OH is the result of years of deregulation and anti-labor practices. We are here because the rail industry invested in stock buybacks instead of safety and their own workers. Trump rolled back train breaking rule meant to keep oil tankers from exploding near communities. No citizens in Ohio and the surrounding states are paying the price.

• Abolish Capitalism. The religion that is at the core of this disaster (and most others) is a system of capitalism that colludes with white supremacy, patriarchy and ablism to hoard and accumulate resources on the backs of other people. There is no “conscious capitalism”; there are only regenerative economies rooted in care and cooperation.

Art by Celeste M. E. Hogan

WHAT WE ❤️

What is harm reduction with a liberatory vision? Saving Our Own Lives by Shira Hassan offers a blueprint to healing, harm reduction and how we can save ourselves and each other. In this interview with Movement Memos, she says “Liberatory Harm Reduction is concrete. It is a framework, but it is also a daily practice, and it is also a set of strategies. So what strategies do we need that prioritize self-determination and body autonomy right now? And how can we come up with whatever it is that we need collectively to get us through?” It speaks to the many ways we can practice harm reduction now and create the conditions for real change. This conversation (and book) is a powerful call to finding each other again through community accountability.

Art by Indigo Bridge Ink

WE-NESS

We heal together.

Art by National Equity Project

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