Blog
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A Page Out of the Neoliberal Playbook: Defunding Public Schools
The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis is seeking to change the Minnesota constitution so that instead of establishing a uniform system of public schools, it “guarantees a quality public education.” On the surface, the Page Amendment seems like an improvement. However, the new language strips away the mandate for the state to fund public schools.…
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Internal Organizing: Being Ready for the Next Crisis
Three political threads swept the Twin Cities this year. Presidential campaigns. Coronavirus. The police murder of George Floyd on May 25. Each of these threads intensified each other and manifested all the symptoms of the capitalist exploitation and racist oppression that characterizes the United States. Every crisis brought out millions of people with demands on…
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The Dems: An Election Analysis
Yes, they won the White House, but down ballot, the Democratic Party did not see the kinds of successes they were counting on. They lost ground in the House, may yet fail to take back the Senate, and left the Republicans in control of most state legislatures. They fell far short of expectations, and they…
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Antifascist Organizing in Minneapolis/St. Paul
The struggle against fascism has not been a pristine contest between it and antifascism. During the past decade, it has become intertwined with issues that many people on the left (and apart from the left) would not have anticipated. But all of these issues are clearly based on political forces that we have been dealing…
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Holidays are Holy
Previously published in Southside Pride, Dec. 7, 2020. “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone,” Joni Mitchell famously sang. I have been thinking about the many local delights that are gone, or may be soon. In 2016 I was still working for Heart of the Best Theater. We put on La Natividad that…
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On “The Ministry for the Future” by Kim Stanley Robinson
The thing I have always appreciated about Kim Stanley Robinson (KSR) is that he never forgets that science is created by humans, and that humans are complicated. He is most known for his Mars trilogy and his futuristic visions of space colonization. For me, however, his books about climate change and its effect on humans,…
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The Squad is bigger than before: electoral gains on the left
Many of us on the Left have mixed feelings about November’s election results. We dumped Trump (or at least he will be out of office, and we hope soon under indictment, come 12:01 am on January 20). But not only is his base still a prominent feature of the American political landscape, we are also…
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Boring means success: poll defense on Election Day
November 3rd, 2020. Election Day. You could not ask for a better day to take part in election defense. It started out chilly, but swiftly warmed to an unseasonably warm 75°. We were some of 150 people recruited by DSA to protect vulnerable voting locations, in anticipation of voter intimidation and disruption at the polls.…
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Could mindfulness be the “cure” for fascism? Exploring the world of Terror Management Theory
On October 31st, the Mental Health Working Group presented a teach-in on an interesting death-themed topic. Presented by acting facilitator Jordan, the teach-in centered on a theory of social and evolutionary psychology called Terror Management Theory, or TMT. TMT is based on the idea that human animals are uniquely knowledgeable about their own inevitable death,…
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Demonstration raises questions over tactics & organization
The events of the past few months have thrown the ruling class into a panic. A massive uprising that surpasses those of the 60s. Increased awareness of the racism and brutality of the police towards the poor, minorities and political dissidents have undercut the liberal establishment of major cities. At same time, large parts of…
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A socialist alternative to the closure of Bethesda, St. Joseph & clinics
Before COVID turned our world upside down, M Health Fairview was ready to close down Bethesda and St Joseph’s hospitals. Once Covid hit, Bethesda was converted to a Covid only hospital, and now that we have a handle on Covid hospitalizations, they have decided to go back to their original plan of closing down Bethesda…
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Social Movements and the Democratic Party
The Great Depression birthed two patterns that the Democratic Party continues to plague us with: the lesser evilism cycle which Katha Pollitt once decried as “that ever downward spiral” which would one day find “liberals in hell organizing votes for Asmodeus because Beelzebub would be worse,” and its conjoined twin, the dynamic that makes the…
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