thenation--2020-06-02--To the Class of 2020: You Deserved Better Than This

Class of 2020 , wherever you are , I had planned to address you on this graduation day .
But how can I ?
Yes , I know that former president Obama , Oprah Winfrey , and Tom Hanks all took part in elaborate online graduation ceremonies , offering commentary , advice , and encouragement in our now campus-less world , but I ’ m a hapless old guy with a flip phone from another age .
And , of course , you ’ re not here on this glorious , sunny graduation day .
There ’ s no verdant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to toss in the air .
No gate to walk out of into a future that many of you mortgaged your lives to be part of .
Nor is there a crowd of joyous parents and grandparents , some of whom may even have grown desperately sick and possibly died in these last months thanks to the Trump administration ’ s catastrophic response to a global health crisis .
Nor are there other more eminent speakers to give you hope or inspiration .
Just me .
Just here .
Just now .
All @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wherever you are , perhaps alone or with family , brooding about a world that may never be , about a future that it seems increasingly likely can ’ t be and won ’ t be .
Your future , as previously imagined , is—not to put too fine a gloss on it—no more .
In a sense , it has already become my future and since , at almost 76 , I really don ’ t have much of a future , that ’ s a terrible thing for an old man @ @ @ @ @ @ @ since I ’ m here and you ’ re there , let me address you in my own way by starting with the obvious : You deserved so much better than this .
I ’ m ashamed , deeply so .
Every adult in this country ( except perhaps the frontline caregivers and workers who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic moment for the rest of us ) should be similarly ashamed .
And that brings me to one obvious question : Why aren ’ t so many of us , especially @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Donald Trump ’ s , more ashamed of the world they ’ re preparing to leave you , even as their own worlds crash and burn around them ?
In the end , we could be talking about nothing less than the destruction of the planet as we humans have known it for thousands of years .
To put matters bluntly , that base helped elect , and continues to support , a president who aims to be nothing less than a planet destroyer .
That ’ s been an obvious goal of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sycophants since his election .
It ’ s what they were clearly dedicated to ( however they explained it to themselves ) even before the coronavirus arrived to offer such a helping hand .
But let me say this : At my age , I ’ m still shocked by what ’ s happened in these last months .
It wasn ’ t that I didn ’ t know about the Black Death and the destruction it wreaked on medieval Europe or China in the 14th century or even the devastation and death @ @ @ @ @ @ @ century ago .
Still , never for a second did I actually imagine this happening to us in the here and now , with the dead and dying , the sick and desperate , jobs lost by the tens of millions , businesses destroyed .
I never thought that such a pandemic would descend on us or that it would do so with such a president and crew in power in Washington .
I mean , what else do you need to know about our world at this moment than that a series @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( Denmark , Finland , Germany , Iceland , New Zealand , Norway , and Taiwan ) have more or less suppressed the coronavirus ( at least for now ) ?
Meanwhile , in the viral sweepstakes presently engulfing parts of the earth , the three leading lands when it comes to record numbers of cases are Donald Trump ’ s America , Jair Bolsonaro ’ s Brazil , and Vladimir Putin ’ s Russia .
In other words , it ’ s no happenstance that three autocratically inclined right-wing “ populists ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ themselves than anything else imaginable are winning the race to hell .
There ’ s something about our world growing ever worse amid a Covid-19-induced instant Great Depression that makes you—that is , me—feel so small , so inconsequential , which is , of course , exactly what I am , what just about any of us is in this coronaviral moment .
But why me or you and not him ?
That question ’ s been preying on my mind—and you know just who I mean .
In these last weeks , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ followers , those at the heart of his base , could really do anything they wanted in public , because , following him as they did , they didn ’ t believe in shutting themselves in , social distancing , wearing masks , or anything else that the scientists tell us might help slow down this deadly virus or bring it under control .
So they ’ ve felt free to mix and match and destroy ( themselves above all ) .
The question is : How did we get here ?
How @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leader and such followers in such a crisis ?
We ’ re talking about a man who , unlike President Herbert Hoover , may usher us into a true Great Depression and possibly not suffer a staggering defeat at the polls in November , as that president did in 1932 .
( Of course , to put things in perspective , Joe Biden isn ’ t exactly Franklin Delano Roosevelt , is he ? )
If you ’ re wondering how all this could have happened in such a fashion , and why @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remains so remarkably faithful amid the rubble of our world , I offered my own answer years ago .
After all , there never was much of a question about Donald Trump himself .
He was , without a doubt , a self-aggrandizing , narcissistic , self-absorbed monster of a man and—to give him full credit—he never made the slightest secret of who he was .
Nonetheless , in the middle of election season 2016 , when it became increasingly obvious to me that he had a real shot at beating Hillary Clinton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I started wondering why that might be so .
That June , as the presidential race was heating to a boil , I offered my own pre-answer to all such future questions .
In a piece at TomDispatch , I suggested that , in a country of already grotesque inequality , Yes , even if it collapses on them .
I also pointed out that “ The Donald represents , as a friend of mine likes to say , the suicide bomber in us all , ” adding that a vote for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nihilism , a mood that fits well with imperial decline.
” Nihilism indeed .
Donald Trump , the birther king , was then visibly the opposite of great , despite that MAGA slogan of his .
He was , from the beginning , a degraded ( or , if you prefer , de-greated ) personification of imperial decline .
And now that the roof has indeed collapsed on his base , among so many others , his personal responsibility for the severity with which it ’ s happened should be obvious enough .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Everything about this America of ours suggests that , for a significant minority of the population , it ’ s not .
Not yet , perhaps not ever .
And here ’ s the weirdest thing for me : I answered that question in 2016 , but all these years later , as I address you on graduation day 2020 , I have yet to fully accept it .
At some level , I still can ’ t believe it and I ’ ll bet you can ’ t either .
What @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” in 2020 America One thing is now clear enough to me .
If Covid-19 hadn ’ t helped that roof collapse , something else would have because , even before the pandemic broke out , even before he was in office , Donald Trump and his crew-to-be were already intent on the destruction of the world as we ’ ve known it .
Don ’ t think , by the way , that I ’ m speaking figuratively .
Imagine the three obvious ways our world could be desperately degraded—climate change , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the years before Covid-19 arrived on our shores , Trump and crew were hard at work on all three .
This was , after all , the man who called climate change a “ Chinese hoax ” long before he ever got near the White House .
And erratic as he may look , he ’ s been remarkably steadfast in a deeper way ever since .
Note , for instance , that even then he was already blaming every problem in the world on two things : China and Barack Obama @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Wuhan virus !
” “ Obamagate !
” ) And long before the pandemic hit , he and his crew were deeply engaged in ensuring that this planet would become the hothouse from hell .
Whether by leaving the Paris climate accord or opening the way for methane gas releases , expanding offshore drilling , or encouraging Arctic drilling while freeing coal plants to release more mercury into the atmosphere , he and his associates have engaged in a grim version of “ make it so , ” the famed line of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trek : The Next Generation ’ s USS Enterprise .
In these years , largely in the service of Big Energy , he and his crew have transformed themselves into so many pyromaniacs .
In a similar fashion , Trump and his team have turned their attention to ensuring that this planet would once again be swept up in a nuclear arms race .
In these years , from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty to the Open Skies Treaty , his administration has systematically withdrawn from Cold War–era nuclear pacts .
At the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pouring money into what ’ s euphemistically called the “ modernization ” of the US nuclear arsenal in amounts only matched by the other eight nuclear powers combined .
They are now reportedly even considering restarting underground nuclear testing ( abandoned 28 years ago ) and possibly pulling out of the final significant Cold War nuclear agreement , the New START Treaty , early next year .
Similarly , as with climate change , his administration , especially the Environmental Protection Agency , has worked with striking intensity to roll back environment rules @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Times recently toted up 100 of them—again largely in the service of the desires of Big Energy .
In other words , they ’ ve focused on ensuring that this country has significantly dirtier , more polluted air , water , and wetlands , while far more toxic chemicals are floating in our all-American world .
Meanwhile , he and his people have been similarly hard at work endangering the Endangered Species Act .
And this was all before the president ignored his own scientists and advisers on the coming pandemic , ensuring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( or , in his terms perhaps , extraneous Americans ) would die by shutting down the country significantly too late and remarkably ineptly .
He then guaranteed that yet more would die by reopening it too soon—and by swearing , while he was at it , that no matter what hit this country next , he would never “ close it down ” again .
All of this he recently termed a “ transition to Greatness.
” And imagine what will happen when any of these areas of destruction begin to reinforce @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that in a climate-changing world , the intensity of storms is now on the rise and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ’ s Climate Prediction Center expects an “ above normal ” Atlantic hurricane season this fall .
So check out the cyclone of record intensity that only recently hit India in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic , leaving desperate people anything but socially distanced in shelters , and then think about the coming fall here on the East Coast of the United States or , for that matter , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus with intensifying wildfires in the West .
So that roof I was thinking about in 2016 has indeed come down to varying degrees on just about every American , and yet Donald Trump may not be the new Herbert Hoover .
Or put another way , on this , your graduation day , I ’ m sending you out into his world and that of the Mitch McConnellized party that hitched its wagon to his horse .
( Imagine that , once upon a time , the Republicans were considered the party @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a planet , there is just one thing that matters to those in power—and no , I ’ m sorry to say that it ’ s not you .
It ’ s his reelection , which means so much more than life , liberty , or the pursuit of anyone ’ s happiness other than his own .
If his numbers weaken the slightest bit among aging evangelicals , for instance , then it ’ s time to open the churches NOW !
!
If , however , your numbers weaken , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ If he wants a full-scale in-person convention ( and so the televised extravaganza that will go with it ) for that reelection bid , then make it so and to hell with the delegates themselves or their hosts in Charlotte , N.C. ( or wherever it ends up ) .
And good luck to the Democrats keeping Joe Biden in a basement somewhere and potentially holding a virtual convention !
Donald Trump ’ s base elected a planet destroyer and he ’ s never let them ( or himself ) down .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fulfilling his duties big-time .
So , on your graduation day , welcome to a world in which the ceiling ’ s on the floor .
I know I ’ m supposed to offer you words of wisdom and encouragement today , but how can I ?
Not when we ’ ve now reached the true moment of Trumpian nihilism .
Why not golf while scores of Americans die , even if you did criticize the previous president for his golfing habits ?
( “ Can you believe that , with all of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ States , President Obama spent the day playing golf ?
” ) This is the moment when I would normally say : Class of 2020 , gather yourselves together and , arm in arm , take this path through that gate and off this beautiful campus where you ’ ve just spent four years of your life .
It ’ s time for you to enter our world and make it a better place .
Today , however , there is no path ; there is no gate ; and you can ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re fervent supporters of Donald Trump ) .
You ’ re graduating not into a world but into a conundrum .
I know you ’ ll do your damnedest .
After all , what can any of us do but that ?
Still , my heart goes out to you , though little good that ’ s likely to do .
I ’ m sorry .
I truly am .
You didn ’ t deserve this .

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.
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Class of 2020, wherever you are, I had planned to address you on this graduation day. But how can I?
Yes, I know that former president Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Tom Hanks all took part in elaborate online graduation ceremonies, offering commentary, advice, and encouragement in our now campus-less world, but I’m a hapless old guy with a flip phone from another age. And, of course, you’re not here on this glorious, sunny graduation day. There’s no verdant campus. No gowns. No caps to toss in the air. No gate to walk out of into a future that many of you mortgaged your lives to be part of. Nor is there a crowd of joyous parents and grandparents, some of whom may even have grown desperately sick and possibly died in these last months thanks to the Trump administration’s catastrophic response to a global health crisis.
Nor are there other more eminent speakers to give you hope or inspiration. Just me. Just here. Just now. All alone in this room—and you there, wherever you are, perhaps alone or with family, brooding about a world that may never be, about a future that it seems increasingly likely can’t be and won’t be.
Your future, as previously imagined, is—not to put too fine a gloss on it—no more. In a sense, it has already become my future and since, at almost 76, I really don’t have much of a future, that’s a terrible thing for an old man to have to say.
The Pandemic Shock
Still, since I’m here and you’re there, let me address you in my own way by starting with the obvious: You deserved so much better than this. I’m ashamed, deeply so. Every adult in this country (except perhaps the frontline caregivers and workers who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic moment for the rest of us) should be similarly ashamed. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
And that brings me to one obvious question: Why aren’t so many of us, especially those in that deeply loyal base of Donald Trump’s, more ashamed of the world they’re preparing to leave you, even as their own worlds crash and burn around them?
In the end, we could be talking about nothing less than the destruction of the planet as we humans have known it for thousands of years. To put matters bluntly, that base helped elect, and continues to support, a president who aims to be nothing less than a planet destroyer. That’s been an obvious goal of Donald Trump and his Republican allies and sycophants since his election. It’s what they were clearly dedicated to (however they explained it to themselves) even before the coronavirus arrived to offer such a helping hand. Current Issue View our current issue
But let me say this: At my age, I’m still shocked by what’s happened in these last months. It wasn’t that I didn’t know about the Black Death and the destruction it wreaked on medieval Europe or China in the 14th century or even the devastation and death caused by the Spanish Flu barely a century ago. Still, never for a second did I actually imagine this happening to us in the here and now, with the dead and dying, the sick and desperate, jobs lost by the tens of millions, businesses destroyed. I never thought that such a pandemic would descend on us or that it would do so with such a president and crew in power in Washington.
I mean, what else do you need to know about our world at this moment than that a series of countries led by democratically inclined women (Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway, and Taiwan) have more or less suppressed the coronavirus (at least for now)? Meanwhile, in the viral sweepstakes presently engulfing parts of the earth, the three leading lands when it comes to record numbers of cases are Donald Trump’s America, Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil, and Vladimir Putin’s Russia. In other words, it’s no happenstance that three autocratically inclined right-wing “populists” who give more of a damn about themselves than anything else imaginable are winning the race to hell.
There’s something about our world growing ever worse amid a Covid-19-induced instant Great Depression that makes you—that is, me—feel so small, so inconsequential, which is, of course, exactly what I am, what just about any of us is in this coronaviral moment. But why me or you and not him? That question’s been preying on my mind—and you know just who I mean.
In these last weeks, only Donald Trump’s most devoted followers, those at the heart of his base, could really do anything they wanted in public, because, following him as they did, they didn’t believe in shutting themselves in, social distancing, wearing masks, or anything else that the scientists tell us might help slow down this deadly virus or bring it under control. So they’ve felt free to mix and match and destroy (themselves above all).
Collapsing Roofs
The question is: How did we get here? How did we make it to such a leader and such followers in such a crisis? We’re talking about a man who, unlike President Herbert Hoover, may usher us into a true Great Depression and possibly not suffer a staggering defeat at the polls in November, as that president did in 1932. (Of course, to put things in perspective, Joe Biden isn’t exactly Franklin Delano Roosevelt, is he?)
If you’re wondering how all this could have happened in such a fashion, and why that base of the president’s remains so remarkably faithful amid the rubble of our world, I offered my own answer years ago. After all, there never was much of a question about Donald Trump himself. He was, without a doubt, a self-aggrandizing, narcissistic, self-absorbed monster of a man and—to give him full credit—he never made the slightest secret of who he was. Nonetheless, in the middle of election season 2016, when it became increasingly obvious to me that he had a real shot at beating Hillary Clinton and becoming president of the United States, I started wondering why that might be so.
That June, as the presidential race was heating to a boil, I offered my own pre-answer to all such future questions. In a piece at TomDispatch, I suggested that, in a country of already grotesque inequality,
a significant part of the white working class, at least, feels as if, whether economically or psychologically, its back is up against the wall and there’s nowhere left to go. Under such circumstances, many of these voters have evidently decided that they’re ready to send a literal loose cannon into the White House; they’re willing, that is, to take a chance on the roof collapsing, even if it collapses on them.
Yes, even if it collapses on them. I also pointed out that “The Donald represents, as a friend of mine likes to say, the suicide bomber in us all,” adding that a vote for him would be “an act of nihilism, a mood that fits well with imperial decline.”
Nihilism indeed. Donald Trump, the birther king, was then visibly the opposite of great, despite that MAGA slogan of his. He was, from the beginning, a degraded (or, if you prefer, de-greated) personification of imperial decline. And now that the roof has indeed collapsed on his base, among so many others, his personal responsibility for the severity with which it’s happened should be obvious enough. Still, don’t kid yourself: Everything about this America of ours suggests that, for a significant minority of the population, it’s not. Not yet, perhaps not ever.
And here’s the weirdest thing for me: I answered that question in 2016, but all these years later, as I address you on graduation day 2020, I have yet to fully accept it. At some level, I still can’t believe it and I’ll bet you can’t either.
What It Means to “Transition to Greatness” in 2020 America
One thing is now clear enough to me. If Covid-19 hadn’t helped that roof collapse, something else would have because, even before the pandemic broke out, even before he was in office, Donald Trump and his crew-to-be were already intent on the destruction of the world as we’ve known it. Don’t think, by the way, that I’m speaking figuratively. Imagine the three obvious ways our world could be desperately degraded—climate change, nuclear Armageddon, or massive environmental destruction—and in the years before Covid-19 arrived on our shores, Trump and crew were hard at work on all three.
This was, after all, the man who called climate change a “Chinese hoax” long before he ever got near the White House. And erratic as he may look, he’s been remarkably steadfast in a deeper way ever since. Note, for instance, that even then he was already blaming every problem in the world on two things: China and Barack Obama, as he is now. (“Wuhan virus!” “Obamagate!”) And long before the pandemic hit, he and his crew were deeply engaged in ensuring that this planet would become the hothouse from hell. Whether by leaving the Paris climate accord or opening the way for methane gas releases, expanding offshore drilling, or encouraging Arctic drilling while freeing coal plants to release more mercury into the atmosphere, he and his associates have engaged in a grim version of “make it so,” the famed line of Jean-Luc Picard, the captain of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s USS Enterprise. In these years, largely in the service of Big Energy, he and his crew have transformed themselves into so many pyromaniacs.
In a similar fashion, Trump and his team have turned their attention to ensuring that this planet would once again be swept up in a nuclear arms race. In these years, from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty to the Open Skies Treaty, his administration has systematically withdrawn from Cold War–era nuclear pacts. At the same time, they’ve been pouring money into what’s euphemistically called the “modernization” of the US nuclear arsenal in amounts only matched by the other eight nuclear powers combined. They are now reportedly even considering restarting underground nuclear testing (abandoned 28 years ago) and possibly pulling out of the final significant Cold War nuclear agreement, the New START Treaty, early next year.
Similarly, as with climate change, his administration, especially the Environmental Protection Agency, has worked with striking intensity to roll back environment rules and regulations of every sort—The New York Times recently toted up 100 of them—again largely in the service of the desires of Big Energy. In other words, they’ve focused on ensuring that this country has significantly dirtier, more polluted air, water, and wetlands, while far more toxic chemicals are floating in our all-American world. Meanwhile, he and his people have been similarly hard at work endangering the Endangered Species Act.
And this was all before the president ignored his own scientists and advisers on the coming pandemic, ensuring that tens of thousands of extra Americans (or, in his terms perhaps, extraneous Americans) would die by shutting down the country significantly too late and remarkably ineptly. He then guaranteed that yet more would die by reopening it too soon—and by swearing, while he was at it, that no matter what hit this country next, he would never “close it down” again. All of this he recently termed a “transition to Greatness.”
And imagine what will happen when any of these areas of destruction begin to reinforce one another. Consider, for instance, that in a climate-changing world, the intensity of storms is now on the rise and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center expects an “above normal” Atlantic hurricane season this fall. So check out the cyclone of record intensity that only recently hit India in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, leaving desperate people anything but socially distanced in shelters, and then think about the coming fall here on the East Coast of the United States or, for that matter, what will happen when you combine the coronavirus with intensifying wildfires in the West.
A Conundrum Planet
So that roof I was thinking about in 2016 has indeed come down to varying degrees on just about every American, and yet Donald Trump may not be the new Herbert Hoover.
Or put another way, on this, your graduation day, I’m sending you out into his world and that of the Mitch McConnellized party that hitched its wagon to his horse. (Imagine that, once upon a time, the Republicans were considered the party of the environment!) On such a planet, there is just one thing that matters to those in power—and no, I’m sorry to say that it’s not you. It’s his reelection, which means so much more than life, liberty, or the pursuit of anyone’s happiness other than his own. If his numbers weaken the slightest bit among aging evangelicals, for instance, then it’s time to open the churches NOW!! If, however, your numbers weaken, as indeed they have, tough luck.
If he wants a full-scale in-person convention (and so the televised extravaganza that will go with it) for that reelection bid, then make it so and to hell with the delegates themselves or their hosts in Charlotte, N.C. (or wherever it ends up). And good luck to the Democrats keeping Joe Biden in a basement somewhere and potentially holding a virtual convention!
Donald Trump’s base elected a planet destroyer and he’s never let them (or himself) down. In that sense, he’s been fulfilling his duties big-time. So, on your graduation day, welcome to a world in which the ceiling’s on the floor. I know I’m supposed to offer you words of wisdom and encouragement today, but how can I? Not when we’ve now reached the true moment of Trumpian nihilism. Why not golf while scores of Americans die, even if you did criticize the previous president for his golfing habits? (“Can you believe that, with all of the problems and difficulties facing the United States, President Obama spent the day playing golf?”)
This is the moment when I would normally say: Class of 2020, gather yourselves together and, arm in arm, take this path through that gate and off this beautiful campus where you’ve just spent four years of your life. It’s time for you to enter our world and make it a better place.
Today, however, there is no path; there is no gate; and you can’t join hands (not unless you’re fervent supporters of Donald Trump). You’re graduating not into a world but into a conundrum. I know you’ll do your damnedest. After all, what can any of us do but that? Still, my heart goes out to you, though little good that’s likely to do.
I’m sorry. I truly am. You didn’t deserve this.


thenation--2020-06-02--The Pandemic Has Sent Child Hunger to Record Levels

When Shaquinda Burks came down with flu-like symptoms in mid-May , she braced for the worst .
The 29-year-old single mother of two works in a nursing home in Oak Grove , La.
, a 20-minute drive from her home in rural Lake Providence .
After several days of fever , aches , and chills , she tested positive for Covid-19 ; several days later , her 7-year-old daughter tested positive , too .
Before the pandemic struck , Burks was already finding it difficult to make ends meet , but prioritized putting food on the table .
With SNAP @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her daughter at school—78 percent of Louisiana children qualify for subsidized meals—and help from family , there was usually enough to eat .
But suddenly , Burks was out of work , and home sick with her daughter and 2-year-old son .
At first , her daughter ’ s school offered a grab-and-go program , allowing low-income students to pick up meals during the week , but it was closed after just one week .
Families in Lake Providence , a town in Louisiana ’ s impoverished East Carroll Parish , know hardship @ @ @ @ @ @ @ data on childhood inequality released today by Save the Children , some 40 percent of children in the parish are food insecure—the highest rate in the nation , comparable to Bangladesh and Peru .
The pandemic could pull East Carroll ’ s childhood hunger rate up to 53 percent , according to projections by Feeding America , a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks .
The pandemic has sent child hunger soaring to never-before-seen rates .
The national rate of food insecurity tripled between March and April ; a May study @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of mothers were struggling to feed their kids , the highest rate since such data became available in 2001 .
Research from the Urban Institute shows that the situation is far more dire for black and Latinx families .
Want to Eradicate Hunger in America ?
Take on Racism .
Hunger among East Carroll Parish families and across the country is not just the consequence of a deepening economic crisis or a strained supply chain .
At its core , food insecurity stems from a weak social safety net that the largely nonprofit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Save the Children ’ s report paints a grim picture of childhood in the United States , which trails almost all Western European countries in the organization ’ s 2020 rankings .
In rural America , where resources are already sparse , the impact is particularly acute .
Children face more hardships in rural settings than in cities , the data finds , and two-thirds of the lowest-ranked counties are in the South .
Ninety percent of US counties with high rates of childhood hunger are rural—communities that are emerging as the next @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 12 percent of US counties are majority nonwhite , they make up 74 percent of the report ’ s bottom-ranked counties .
“ In these rural parishes , there aren ’ t large chain grocery stores , and shopping is difficult , especially when it comes to fresh products , ” said Jean Toth , the executive director of the Food Bank of Northeast Louisiana , which serves East Carroll Parish .
Food banks are typically based in bigger cities—hers is in Monroe , over an hour from Lake Providence—and local partners have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first congressional pandemic relief package , passed in March , allowed some families to get additional SNAP benefits , and created an emergency program , Pandemic-EBT , that transfers the value of school meals into grocery vouchers .
But with checkered rollouts and eligibility restrictions , anti-hunger advocates say these mechanisms have failed to meet rising need .
Burks qualified for emergency SNAP benefits , receiving an additional $ 192 a month .
But with record-high food prices , that only goes so far .
“ I ’ m grateful for the extra @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not enough when food is so expensive , when I ’ m not working , and when I have two kids to feed , ” she said .
By the end of the month , her daughter ends up “ doing more snacking than anything else , mostly microwave dinners or hot pockets , not full , home-cooked meals.
” Burks has yet to receive unemployment insurance benefits .
In normal times , school meals are critical in helping low-income kids get enough to eat , according to Lauren Bauer , a fellow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic forced schools shut , “ what ’ s stood up in place of the program hasn ’ t reached all eligible families , creating a huge burden to provide three meals a day when kids are at home , ” she said .
In 45 states , grab-and-go school meals were disrupted or stopped operating , and many parents were concerned about infection .
“ If you think you ’ ll endanger your family by getting the disease when you pick up food , you ’ re not going to pick up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ If you ’ re an essential worker—disproportionately women of color—you can ’ t pick up these meals , and the best way to feed your family is to keep your job.
” An uneven start to the program left many families behind .
By May 15—two months after its passage—only 15 percent of eligible children had received P-EBT benefits nationally , according to The New York Times .
The launch was particularly slow in Southern states .
In Louisiana , where 600,000 children qualify for the program , privacy laws complicated school districts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Department of Children and Families .
And although eligible families will receive missed benefits retroactively , Bauer said “ that doesn ’ t solve the fact that for months after the pandemic bill , they were going without them.
” Some families haven ’ t even been able to apply , said Danny Mintz , an anti-hunger advocate at the Louisiana Budget Project .
Many in the state don ’ t have access to a computer or stable Internet access , and the application isn ’ t mobile-friendly .
P-EBT , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a lifeline for immigrant families ” —low-income children receive free school lunch regardless of immigration status , making the benefit one of few undocumented families can access—but the online application was available only in English .
“ Our concern is that the state may have already gotten the lowest-hanging fruit , but that the people who are most in need are likely having trouble getting a benefit that ’ s owed to them.
” Burks is still waiting on P-EBT , and while she ’ s been able to get by with emergency @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been the case for the neediest families .
That ’ s because , under the US Department of Agriculture ’ s interpretation of the provision , households already receiving maximum monthly SNAP assistance are ineligible for the extra allotment .
“ That ’ s 40 percent of SNAP households , and 5 million kids , ” Bauer said .
“ Five million kids in the most disadvantaged households who received no additional SNAP money , didn ’ t get P-EBT—at least not yet—and haven ’ t been able to get grab-and-go meals .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re seeing massive food insecurity.
” ( In California , a class-action lawsuit is challenging the USDA ’ s interpretation in order to expand the allotment to all families . )
As has been the case with unemployment benefits , states have been unable to absorb the spike in demand for SNAP .
“ Applications increased dramatically in early April , and that totally overwhelmed Louisiana ’ s ability to process them quickly , ” Mintz said , citing a backlog of over 90,000 applications .
Lockdown measures and recent price hikes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ emboldened advocates ’ demands for more federal assistance to families .
“ There ’ s a big drop in the amount of food donated across our entire network , so food banks are looking to purchase more items , which greatly increases our operating costs , ” said Toth .
The supply chain , she added , is bottlenecked , with delivery times estimated at eight weeks out .
In mid-May , the Trump administration launched a $ 3 billion food relief program , giving contracts to distributors to provide fresh produce to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ revealed that many of those contracts were awarded to companies that had no experience in food distribution , from wedding caterers to “ brand builders ” ; distribution has been beset by delays .
“ The biggest concern is getting to a place where there ’ s more food in the pipeline , just in terms of having an inventory of shelf-stable food , ” said Korey Patty , the executive director of Feeding Louisiana .
“ There are purchase opportunities , but prices are through the roof , and we ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we move toward hurricane season .
We usually talk about food banks being the last line of defense.
” Experts on food insecurity say that federal assistance tools like SNAP—not food banks—should be at the forefront of anti-hunger efforts .
For every meal a food bank provides , SNAP provides nine .
Food stamps are particularly important in rural America , where it ’ s harder for residents to get to food banks .
Households in small , rural towns use federal food aid at particularly high rates .
But SNAP is largely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recent Coronavirus Food Assistance Program , and Republicans have consistently rejected Democrats ’ calls for a 15 percent increase across the program , rather than the short-term emergency increase that has helped only some needy families .
Food banks , too , have urged Congress to expand SNAP , including to undocumented immigrants .
“ What ’ s supplied by food banks does not meet people ’ s nutritional needs , ” said Kathleen J. Fitzgerald , an assistant professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina , Chapel Hill , especially @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She stressed that food insecurity is a social phenomenon rather than “ the result of inadequate production , ” noting , for example , that Louisiana produces more than 850 million pounds of seafood each year .
“ The bottom line is this : Simply leaving it up to the market to address food insecurity and hunger is not working , ” she said .
“ We need more robust government programs at the federal level and creative solutions at the state level to address these problems.
” Sometimes , the problem isn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eat ; it ’ s about getting healthy , nutritious food .
For one Louisiana mother I spoke to , who preferred to remain anonymous , food banks have been essential to caring for her 19-year-old special-needs son .
Although she received additional SNAP benefits , the pandemic forced her to leave her part-time jobs—filling in as a substitute teacher and cleaning homes—and she ’ s afraid to take her son to the grocery store .
She relies primarily on frozen meats and nonperishable goods that a nearby church distributes .
“ It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ foods , no fruits and vegetables , nothing like that , ” she told me .
Anti-hunger advocates say that mounting food insecurity is a poignant reminder of the social determinism of health in America—especially as Covid-19 kills people with preexisting conditions that partly stem from poor nutrition .
“ It ’ s a question of resources , especially as it relates to diet and nutrition , and rates of chronic health conditions , of diabetes and obesity , ” Patty said .
“ When there ’ s more available , you ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vegetables.
” Burks , in Lake Providence , is crossing her fingers that her P-EBT will get processed soon .
But she ’ s also afraid that when her emergency SNAP benefits run out , she won ’ t be able to get by—especially if she can ’ t go back to work and schools stay closed .
“ I ’ m worried that things will become tremendously tough , ” she said .
“ I don ’ t want to see my kids go hungry .
”

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When Shaquinda Burks came down with flu-like symptoms in mid-May, she braced for the worst. A 29-year-old single mother of two, she works in a nursing home in Oak Grove, La., a 20-minute drive from her home in rural Lake Providence. After several days of fever, aches, and chills, she tested positive for Covid-19; several days later, her 7-year-old daughter tested positive, too.
Before the pandemic struck, Burks was finding it difficult to make ends meet but prioritized putting food on the table. With Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, free breakfast and lunch for her daughter at school—78 percent of Louisiana children qualify for subsidized meals—and help from family members, there was usually enough to eat. But suddenly, Burks was out of work and home sick with her daughter and 2-year-old son. At first, her daughter’s school offered a grab-and-go program, allowing low-income students to pick up meals during the week, but it was closed after just one week.
Families in Lake Providence, a town in Louisiana’s impoverished East Carroll Parish, know hardship and hunger. According to new county-level data on childhood inequality released today by Save the Children, some 40 percent of children in the parish are food insecure—the highest rate in the nation, comparable to rates in Bangladesh and Peru. The pandemic could pull East Carroll’s childhood hunger rate up to 53 percent, according to projections by Feeding America, a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks.
The pandemic has sent child hunger soaring to unprecedented rates. The national rate of food insecurity tripled between March and April; a May study from the Brookings Institution revealed that one-fifth of mothers were struggling to feed their kids—the highest rate since such data became available in 2001. Research from the Urban Institute shows that the situation is far more dire for black and Latinx families. Related Article Want to Eradicate Hunger in America? Take on Racism. Greg Kaufmann
Hunger among families in East Carroll Parish and elsewhere across the country is not just the consequence of a deepening economic crisis or a strained supply chain. At its core, food insecurity stems from a weak social safety net that the largely nonprofit anti-hunger system is ill equipped to replace. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
Save the Children’s report paints a grim picture of childhood in the United States, which trails almost all Western European countries in the organization’s 2020 rankings. In rural America, where resources are already sparse, the impact is particularly acute. Children face more hardships in rural settings than in cities, the data finds, and two-thirds of the lowest-ranked counties are in the South. Ninety percent of US counties with high rates of childhood hunger are rural—communities that are emerging as the next hot spots for Covid-19. And while just 12 percent of US counties are majority nonwhite, they make up 74 percent of the report’s bottom-ranked counties.
“In these rural parishes, there aren’t large chain grocery stores, and shopping is difficult, especially when it comes to fresh products,” said Jean Toth, the executive director of the Food Bank of Northeast Louisiana, which serves East Carroll Parish. Food banks are typically based in bigger cities—hers is in Monroe, over an hour from Lake Providence—and local partners have had trouble filling the gap. Current Issue View our current issue
The first congressional pandemic relief package, passed in March, allowed some families to get additional SNAP benefits and created an emergency program, Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT), that added the value of school meals to grocery vouchers. But with checkered rollouts and eligibility restrictions, anti-hunger advocates say these mechanisms have failed to meet rising need.
Burks qualified for emergency SNAP benefits, receiving an additional $192 a month. But with record-high food prices, that goes only so far. “I’m grateful for the extra SNAP money, but it’s not enough when food is so expensive, when I’m not working, and when I have two kids to feed,” she said. By the end of the month, her daughter ends up “doing more snacking than anything else, mostly microwave dinners or Hot Pockets, not full, home-cooked meals.” Burks has yet to receive unemployment insurance benefits.
In normal times, school meals are critical in helping low-income kids get enough to eat, according to Lauren Bauer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution. Since the pandemic forced schools shut, “what’s stood up in place of the program hasn’t reached all eligible families, creating a huge burden to provide three meals a day when kids are at home,” she said.
In 45 states, grab-and-go school meals were disrupted or stopped operating, and many parents were concerned about infection. “If you think you’ll endanger your family by getting the disease when you pick up food, you’re not going to pick up food,” Bauer said. “If you’re an essential worker—disproportionately women of color—you can’t pick up these meals, and the best way to feed your family is to keep your job.”
An uneven start to the program left many families behind. By May 15—two months after its passage—only 15 percent of eligible children had received P-EBT benefits nationally, according to The New York Times.
The launch was particularly slow in Southern states. In Louisiana, where 600,000 children qualify for the program, privacy laws complicated school districts’ ability to share student information with the Department of Children and Families. And although eligible families will receive missed benefits retroactively, Bauer said “that doesn’t solve the fact that for months after the pandemic bill, they were going without them.”
Some families haven’t even been able to apply, said Danny Mintz, an anti-hunger advocate at the Louisiana Budget Project. Many in the state don’t have access to a computer or stable Internet access, and the application isn’t mobile-friendly. P-EBT, he added, “could have served as a lifeline for immigrant families”—low-income children receive free school lunch regardless of immigration status, making the benefit one of few undocumented families can access—but the online application was available only in English. “Our concern is that the state may have already gotten the lowest-hanging fruit but that the people who are most in need are likely having trouble getting a benefit that’s owed to them.”
Burks is still waiting on P-EBT, and while she’s been able to get by with emergency SNAP dollars, that hasn’t been the case for the neediest families. That’s because under the US Department of Agriculture’s interpretation of the provision, households already receiving maximum monthly SNAP assistance are ineligible for the extra allotment. “That’s 40 percent of SNAP households and 5 million kids,” Bauer said. “Five million kids in the most disadvantaged households who received no additional SNAP money, didn’t get P-EBT—at least not yet—and haven’t been able to get grab-and-go meals. It’s not surprising that we’re seeing massive food insecurity.” (In California a class action lawsuit is challenging the USDA’s interpretation in order to expand the allotment to all families.)
As has been the case with unemployment benefits, states have been unable to absorb the spike in demand for SNAP. “Applications increased dramatically in early April, and that totally overwhelmed Louisiana’s ability to process them quickly,” Mintz said, citing a backlog of over 90,000 applications.
Lockdown measures and recent price hikes have also affected emergency providers and emboldened advocates’ demands for more federal assistance to families. “There’s a big drop in the amount of food donated across our entire network, so food banks are looking to purchase more items, which greatly increases our operating costs,” said Toth. The supply chain, she added, is bottlenecked, with delivery times estimated at eight weeks.
In mid-May, the Trump administration launched a $3 billion food relief program, giving contracts to distributors to provide fresh produce to food banks. But reporting by ProPublica revealed that many of those contracts were awarded to companies that had no experience in food distribution, from wedding caterers to brand builders; distribution has been beset by delays.
“The biggest concern is getting to a place where there’s more food in the pipeline, just in terms of having an inventory of shelf-stable food,” said Korey Patty, the executive director of Feeding Louisiana. “There are purchase opportunities, but prices are through the roof, and we’re running to find resources, especially as we move toward hurricane season. We usually talk about food banks being the last line of defense.”
Experts on food insecurity say that federal assistance tools like SNAP—not food banks—should be at the forefront of anti-hunger efforts. For every meal a food bank provides, SNAP provides nine. Food stamps are particularly important in rural America, where it’s harder for residents to get to food banks. Households in small, rural towns use federal food aid at particularly high rates.
(Save the Children)
But SNAP is largely excluded from the Trump administration’s recent Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, and Republicans have consistently rejected Democrats’ calls for a 15 percent increase across the program, rather than the short-term emergency increase that has helped only some needy families. Food banks, too, have urged Congress to expand SNAP, including to undocumented immigrants.
“What’s supplied by food banks does not meet people’s nutritional needs,” said Kathleen J. Fitzgerald, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, especially as demand rises and donations drop. She stressed that food insecurity is a social phenomenon rather than “the result of inadequate production,” noting, for example, that Louisiana produces more than 850 million pounds of seafood each year.
“The bottom line is this: Simply leaving it up to the market to address food insecurity and hunger is not working,” she said. “We need more robust government programs at the federal level and creative solutions at the state level to address these problems.”
Sometimes, the problem isn’t only about getting enough to eat; it’s about getting healthy, nutritious food. For one Louisiana mother I spoke to, who preferred to remain anonymous, food banks have been essential to caring for her 19-year-old special-needs son. Although she received additional SNAP benefits, the pandemic forced her to leave her part-time jobs—filling in as a substitute teacher and cleaning homes—and she’s afraid to take her son to the grocery store. She relies primarily on frozen meats and nonperishable goods that a nearby church distributes. “It’s lots of crackers, canned foods, no fruits and vegetables, nothing like that,” she said.
Anti-hunger advocates say that mounting food insecurity is a poignant reminder of the social determinism of health in America—especially as Covid-19 kills people with preexisting conditions that partly stem from poor nutrition.
“It’s a question of resources, especially as it relates to diet and nutrition, and rates of chronic health conditions, of diabetes and obesity,” Patty said. “When there’s more available, you’re able to get fresh produce and vegetables.”
Burks is crossing her fingers that her P-EBT will get processed soon. But she’s afraid that when her emergency SNAP benefits run out, she won’t be able to get by, especially if she can’t go back to work and schools stay closed. “I’m worried that things will become tremendously tough,” she said. “I don’t want to see my kids go hungry.”


thenation--2020-06-02--How to Survive an Apocalypse and Keep Dreaming

An Indian named Cowboy once told a lecture hall full of Frenchmen that us Natives are a postapocalyptic people .
Cowboy is a Blackfoot filmmaker from the Piikani and Kainai Nations near Calgary , in the Canadian province of Alberta .
And like almost every Indian I ’ ve met , he is on a mission to reclaim things .
He even changed his last name to Smithx—a rejection of Smith , the name missionaries imposed on his family , and an ode to Malcolm X .
Cowboy and I were two Natives invited to a literary festival in Paris @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the auditorium .
Maybe we got the big room because the French are still entranced by the myth of the noble savage , but I think , even in a crowd that included luminaries like Colson Whitehead and Michael Chabon , the Indians really did have some of the most interesting and brilliant things to say.1 Although I had never heard it articulated the way Cowboy expressed it , I already knew that we are a postapocalyptic people .
My dad is a recovering-alcoholic Indian artist , and parts of our family story @ @ @ @ @ @ @ novel .
In our language , Secwepemcstin , the traditional way to say “ good morning ” is tsecwínucw-k , pronounced “ chook-we-nook.
” But it doesn ’ t mean “ good morning.
” It literally translates to “ you survived the night.
” 2 One time , after a night at the bar , my dad pulled a buck knife on the police in Red Lodge , Mont .
The cops tased him , and the judge convicted him of a felony .
About a decade later , when I was in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and his long-haired Chihuahua named Angus out of a jail in Goldfield , Nev .
He had been driving too fast in a vehicle that wasn ’ t registered in his name , leaving a trail of purple haze behind—and , well , he was also a large Native man .
A few weeks ago , when the world was on lockdown , one of my cousins got shot in the chest in a drug-related altercation .
He survived .
When I heard about what happened , I called his mom .
After @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our ancestors ’ songs to myself—though not so loud that my white neighbors would hear .
Then I prayed , then I cried .
Who gets shot during a pandemic , anyway ?
Especially in Canada , where gun deaths totaled just 249 people in 2018 .
As Indians , I think we ’ ve been told that we ’ re supposed to be dead and gone so many times that we ’ ve internalized it .
Some of us don ’ t want to be anymore .
In a society built atop @ @ @ @ @ @ @ act of resistance.3 Through my own experience and reporting on postapocalyptic Indigenous people like me , I ’ ve come to believe , like Cowboy , that those who know what it means to lose our world and live might have something to lend to a broader humanity that now faces its own existential crises in the form of disease and climate change .
So when this latest apocalypse , the coronavirus , hit , I picked up my notebook and recorder and contacted a few wise friends and sources across Indian Country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the first people I called was Representative Deb Haaland , a member of the Laguna Pueblo .
Haaland , a Democrat , represents New Mexico ’ s First Congressional District and was one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress .
She assumed office during the presidency of Donald Trump , who hung a portrait of slave owner and Indian killer Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office .
That portrait was stationed behind the lectern when a group of elderly Navajo code talkers , war heroes whose language formed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ helped the United States win World War II , were honored at the White House .
( At the event , Trump also called Democratic Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren , who has claimed Native American ancestry , “ Pocahontas.
” ) When the pandemic struck , the White House initially recommended zero dollars in federal aid to tribes .
And when Congress passed a bill that included $ 8 billion in relief for Indian Country , Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin did not disburse the funds for six weeks .
By then , reservations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cases per capita than Wuhan at the height of the outbreak in China.5 This was the political system into which Haaland was elected and tasked with the dual responsibilities of representing her district and her race .
Amid the pandemic , Haaland has been fighting to stop Washington lawmakers from ignoring and overruling tribes .
I asked the congresswoman how she approaches such a weighty responsibility .
She talked about her Pueblo ancestors , who migrated to the Southwest in the 1200s and planted fields of corn , beans , and squash in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grandparents who lived without running water and electricity .
When they needed water , they hauled it from the only spigot in the village .
And when it got dark , they went to bed .
“ I ’ m grateful that tribes have somebody who they feel like they identify with , ” she said .
“ We have been resilient , and we have soldiered through so much—all the terrible errors of the United States government that took our land and killed us with disease and starved us and kept moving @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” She added , “ It ’ s time for us to make things right .
And I intend to be in that fight until I can ’ t be in it any longer.
” 6 Beyond Capitol Hill , Fawn Sharp , the president of the National Congress of American Indians and of the Quinault Indian Nation in Taholah , Wash. , is already imagining what the Native fight for dignity and rights might look like after the pandemic .
When I called her , it was a Friday evening .
She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Quinault , looking out at the Olympic Mountains .
Right at dusk , she said , the fish started to jump in the lake.7 Sharp was at her wits ’ end .
“ I ’ m at the point of thinking to myself , ‘ Under what circumstances would this administration actually do something to help tribal nations in the face of a pandemic ?
’ ” she said .
“ Is this the time that tribal nations have to file a breach of trust case [ for violation of treaty rights ] @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Quinault are no strangers to that sort of fight .
In the 1970s they joined other Pacific Northwest tribes in a campaign to get the US government to recognize their treaty rights over their ancestral waters .
They purposefully got themselves arrested for fishing , a right guaranteed in their treaties .
Sharp learned from the leaders of those fish-ins—Indian rights legends like Joe DeLaCruz of the Quinault and Billy Frank Jr. of the Nisqually—and has become an outspoken advocate for the environment .
Rising seas have forced the Quinault to relocate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Taholah to higher ground .
Her people ’ s staple food , the sockeye salmon , has almost entirely disappeared .
In the 1950s and ’ 60s , hundreds of thousands of salmon swam up the Quinault River every year .
Last year , there were barely 6,500 , and the tribe had to close its salmon fishery .
“ We had to go through a genocide , and now our relatives in the natural world are also facing a genocide , and they have no voice , ” Sharp said .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ climate policy , and tribal nations are uniquely poised to rise.
” 9 The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party Is a Fight for the Future More in this series On the Yankton Reservation in South Dakota , Faith Spotted Eagle , a Dakota activist and kunsi ( grandmother , pronounced “ koo-she ” ) , has some ideas about what it might look like for Native people to lead such a fight .
The week before I called , Spotted Eagle put a few Dakota youths to work planting gardens @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to dodge barking dogs to plant the corn—a gift from the Mandan and Pawnee people to the Dakota hundreds of years ago—in the yards of homes still damaged by flooding from last year ’ s record rainfall .
One of the girls had lupus , an autoimmune disease that can leave a person vulnerable to the sun , so Grandma Faith gave her a big goofy hat to protect her skin .
And one of the young men was showing leadership potential , so Spotted Eagle had her son Kipp teach him how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ watch , the young people tilled the ground and burned the weeds , replenishing the rich , black soil that lines the banks of the Missouri River .
“ Mother Earth forces us—it ’ s not even in a loving way , it ’ s more like in a tough love sort of way—to appreciate what we can do for ourselves , ” she said .
“ Mother Earth and her tough love.
” 10 When the gardens were planted , she told the young farmers as well as the owners of these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ care of what the earth might give them .
They , like their ancestors , were now stewards of this land .
Dakota were once denied their right to this soil because , according to the US government , they did not practice agriculture like “ civilized ” Europeans .
Against this history , every stalk is a rebuttal.11 This is serious stuff , but it ’ s not without comic relief .
Spotted Eagle recalled that one Yankton resident couldn ’ t tell the difference between the weeds and the corn , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I figured they ’ d make it through it , ” the woman explained to her .
“ They ’ d be tough plants.
” A resilient garden for a resilient people.12 One night , after speaking with Haaland , Sharp , and Spotted Eagle , I thought back to a plan that Cowboy hatched to buy Castle Calgary in Scotland and rename it mohkínstsis , which means “ elbow ” in his language .
It ’ s the original Blackfoot name for Calgary , Alberta .
“ Inverted colonization , ” that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Knock down the gates and invite in our brothers and sisters.
” 13 Then I opened my laptop and scrolled through my Facebook news feed , where I keep in touch with family and friends back on the rez and across Indian Country .
In the first weeks of the pandemic , I noticed Native people posting videos of themselves dancing and praying for a sick world .
The last time Native life seemed on the brink of apocalypse , at the end of the 19th century , the Indians were also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dance .
It foretold a world in which the colonists disappeared , the buffalo returned , and the land was restored to the people.14 That spiritual movement ended on December 29 , 1890 , when the United States military gunned down hundreds of Lakota ghost dancers and buried their bodies in a mass grave .
A week after the massacre , L. Frank Baum , who later wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , penned an editorial in the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer .
“ Our only safety depends upon the total extermination of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Having wronged them for centuries we had better , in order to protect our civilization , follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth.
” Then his nation called us savages and made our people into mascots for their sports franchises .
Maybe they were so haunted by us and what they did to take this land that they had to forget about their crimes—to put it out of their nation ’ s memories and history books.15 As Native people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ darkest chapters in history and emerged knowing who we are , where we come from , and what we stand for .
We ’ ve inherited a vision so audacious , it terrified our oppressors .
It ’ s a worldview that celebrates beauty , defiance , and a playful wagging of the finger at the people who tried to kill us .
After the pandemic but as the climate crisis unfolds , maybe more people will understand what it means to survive and still dream , like us.16

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Nation believes that helping readers stay informed about the impact of the coronavirus crisis is a form of public service. For that reason, this article, and all of our coronavirus coverage, is now free. Please subscribe to support our writers and staff, and stay healthy.
This article appears in the June 15/22, 2020 issue.
An Indian named Cowboy once told a lecture hall full of Frenchmen that us Natives are a postapocalyptic people. Cowboy is a Blackfoot filmmaker from the Piikani and Kainai Nations near Calgary, in the Canadian province of Alberta. And like almost every Indian I’ve met, he is on a mission to reclaim things. He even changed his last name to Smithx—a rejection of Smith, the name missionaries imposed on his family, and an ode to Malcolm X. Cowboy and I were two Natives invited to a literary festival in Paris, where they put the Indians in the auditorium. Maybe we got the big room because the French are still entranced by the myth of the noble savage, but I think, even in a crowd that included luminaries like Colson Whitehead and Michael Chabon, the Indians really did have some of the most interesting and brilliant things to say.1
Although I had never heard it articulated the way Cowboy expressed it, I already knew that we are a postapocalyptic people. My dad is a recovering-alcoholic Indian artist, and parts of our family story would seem over-the-top in a Sherman Alexie novel. In our language, Secwepemcstin, the traditional way to say “good morning” is tsecwínucw-k, pronounced “chook-we-nook.” But it doesn’t mean “good morning.” It literally translates to “you survived the night.”2
One time, after a night at the bar, my dad pulled a buck knife on the police in Red Lodge, Mont. The cops tased him, and the judge convicted him of a felony. About a decade later, when I was in college, I had to bail him and his long-haired Chihuahua named Angus out of a jail in Goldfield, Nev. He had been driving too fast in a vehicle that wasn’t registered in his name, leaving a trail of purple haze behind—and, well, he was also a large Native man. A few weeks ago, when the world was on lockdown, one of my cousins got shot in the chest in a drug-related altercation. He survived. When I heard about what happened, I called his mom. After we spoke, I sang one of our ancestors’ songs to myself—though not so loud that my white neighbors would hear. Then I prayed, then I cried. Who gets shot during a pandemic, anyway? Especially in Canada, where gun deaths totaled just 249 people in 2018. As Indians, I think we’ve been told that we’re supposed to be dead and gone so many times that we’ve internalized it. Some of us don’t want to be anymore. In a society built atop our graves, survival has become an act of resistance.3
Through my own experience and reporting on postapocalyptic Indigenous people like me, I’ve come to believe, like Cowboy, that those who know what it means to lose our world and live might have something to lend to a broader humanity that now faces its own existential crises in the form of disease and climate change. So when this latest apocalypse, the coronavirus, hit, I picked up my notebook and recorder and contacted a few wise friends and sources across Indian Country to check Cowboy’s hypothesis.4
Representative Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) is a member of the Laguna Pueblo and one of the first two Native women elected to Congress. (Tom Williams / CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
One of the first people I called was Representative Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo. Haaland, a Democrat, represents New Mexico’s First Congressional District and was one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress. She assumed office during the presidency of Donald Trump, who hung a portrait of slave owner and Indian killer Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office. That portrait was stationed behind the lectern when a group of elderly Navajo code talkers, war heroes whose language formed the basis of an unbreakable code that helped the United States win World War II, were honored at the White House. (At the event, Trump also called Democratic Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has claimed Native American ancestry, “Pocahontas.”) When the pandemic struck, the White House initially recommended zero dollars in federal aid to tribes. And when Congress passed a bill that included $8 billion in relief for Indian Country, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin did not disburse the funds for six weeks. By then, reservations like the Navajo Nation had more coronavirus cases per capita than Wuhan at the height of the outbreak in China.5 Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
This was the political system into which Haaland was elected and tasked with the dual responsibilities of representing her district and her race. Amid the pandemic, Haaland has been fighting to stop Washington lawmakers from ignoring and overruling tribes. I asked the congresswoman how she approaches such a weighty responsibility. She talked about her Pueblo ancestors, who migrated to the Southwest in the 1200s and planted fields of corn, beans, and squash in the desert. Haaland grew up around grandparents who lived without running water and electricity. When they needed water, they hauled it from the only spigot in the village. And when it got dark, they went to bed. “I’m grateful that tribes have somebody who they feel like they identify with,” she said. “We have been resilient, and we have soldiered through so much—all the terrible errors of the United States government that took our land and killed us with disease and starved us and kept moving us farther and farther from our homelands.” She added, “It’s time for us to make things right. And I intend to be in that fight until I can’t be in it any longer.”6
Beyond Capitol Hill, Fawn Sharp, the president of the National Congress of American Indians and of the Quinault Indian Nation in Taholah, Wash., is already imagining what the Native fight for dignity and rights might look like after the pandemic. When I called her, it was a Friday evening. She was sitting on the reservation beside Lake Quinault, looking out at the Olympic Mountains. Right at dusk, she said, the fish started to jump in the lake.7 Current Issue View our current issue
Sharp was at her wits’ end. “I’m at the point of thinking to myself, ‘Under what circumstances would this administration actually do something to help tribal nations in the face of a pandemic?’” she said. “Is this the time that tribal nations have to file a breach of trust case [for violation of treaty rights] against the United States?”8
The Quinault are no strangers to that sort of fight. In the 1970s they joined other Pacific Northwest tribes in a campaign to get the US government to recognize their treaty rights over their ancestral waters. They purposefully got themselves arrested for fishing, a right guaranteed in their treaties. Sharp learned from the leaders of those fish-ins—Indian rights legends like Joe DeLaCruz of the Quinault and Billy Frank Jr. of the Nisqually—and has become an outspoken advocate for the environment. Rising seas have forced the Quinault to relocate hundreds of residents of the village of Taholah to higher ground. Her people’s staple food, the sockeye salmon, has almost entirely disappeared. In the 1950s and ’60s, hundreds of thousands of salmon swam up the Quinault River every year. Last year, there were barely 6,500, and the tribe had to close its salmon fishery. “We had to go through a genocide, and now our relatives in the natural world are also facing a genocide, and they have no voice,” Sharp said. “There is a long-standing leadership void around climate policy, and tribal nations are uniquely poised to rise.”9 Time to Think Big Covid-19 Is Straining the Concept of the Family. Let’s Break It. Sophie Lewis We Really Need to Tax the Rich Jane McAlevey The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party Is a Fight for the Future John Nichols
On the Yankton Reservation in South Dakota, Faith Spotted Eagle, a Dakota activist and kunsi (grandmother, pronounced “koo-she”), has some ideas about what it might look like for Native people to lead such a fight. The week before I called, Spotted Eagle put a few Dakota youths to work planting gardens on the reservation. The teenagers had to dodge barking dogs to plant the corn—a gift from the Mandan and Pawnee people to the Dakota hundreds of years ago—in the yards of homes still damaged by flooding from last year’s record rainfall. One of the girls had lupus, an autoimmune disease that can leave a person vulnerable to the sun, so Grandma Faith gave her a big goofy hat to protect her skin. And one of the young men was showing leadership potential, so Spotted Eagle had her son Kipp teach him how to drive the tractor. Under her watch, the young people tilled the ground and burned the weeds, replenishing the rich, black soil that lines the banks of the Missouri River. “Mother Earth forces us—it’s not even in a loving way, it’s more like in a tough love sort of way—to appreciate what we can do for ourselves,” she said. “Mother Earth and her tough love.”10
When the gardens were planted, she told the young farmers as well as the owners of these new cornfields to pray and to take care of what the earth might give them. They, like their ancestors, were now stewards of this land. Dakota were once denied their right to this soil because, according to the US government, they did not practice agriculture like “civilized” Europeans. Against this history, every stalk is a rebuttal.11
This is serious stuff, but it’s not without comic relief. Spotted Eagle recalled that one Yankton resident couldn’t tell the difference between the weeds and the corn, so she just watered everything. “I figured they’d make it through it,” the woman explained to her. “They’d be tough plants.” A resilient garden for a resilient people.12
Faith Spotted Eagle is a Dakota activist who received an Electoral College vote in 2016. (Nicholas Kamm / AFP via Getty Images)
One night, after speaking with Haaland, Sharp, and Spotted Eagle, I thought back to a plan that Cowboy hatched to buy Castle Calgary in Scotland and rename it mohkínstsis, which means “elbow” in his language. It’s the original Blackfoot name for Calgary, Alberta. “Inverted colonization,” that’s how he put it. “Knock down the gates and invite in our brothers and sisters.”13
Then I opened my laptop and scrolled through my Facebook news feed, where I keep in touch with family and friends back on the rez and across Indian Country. In the first weeks of the pandemic, I noticed Native people posting videos of themselves dancing and praying for a sick world. The last time Native life seemed on the brink of apocalypse, at the end of the 19th century, the Indians were also dancing. They called it the Ghost Dance. It foretold a world in which the colonists disappeared, the buffalo returned, and the land was restored to the people.14
That spiritual movement ended on December 29, 1890, when the United States military gunned down hundreds of Lakota ghost dancers and buried their bodies in a mass grave. A week after the massacre, L. Frank Baum, who later wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, penned an editorial in the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer. “Our only safety depends upon the total extermination of the Indians,” he wrote. “Having wronged them for centuries we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth.” Then his nation called us savages and made our people into mascots for their sports franchises. Maybe they were so haunted by us and what they did to take this land that they had to forget about their crimes—to put it out of their nation’s memories and history books.15
As Native people, we have endured some of the darkest chapters in history and emerged knowing who we are, where we come from, and what we stand for. We’ve inherited a vision so audacious, it terrified our oppressors. It’s a worldview that celebrates beauty, defiance, and a playful wagging of the finger at the people who tried to kill us. After the pandemic but as the climate crisis unfolds, maybe more people will understand what it means to survive and still dream, like us.16


thenation--2020-06-02--5 Ways to Rebuild Labor and Transform America

Organized labor is paralyzed at precisely the time when collective action is needed most .
Since the election of Donald Trump , most unions have done little more than protect their own jurisdictions , offering no guidance on what must be done during the pandemic.1 Yet the spread of Covid-19 and its economic fallout have created an opening for labor to lead a mass movement .
These events have shown how little remains of the social safety net the working class helped build nearly a century ago .
Unions can now push the country toward a Third Reconstruction , an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ notably the historian Manning Marable .
The term invokes both the Reconstruction era after the Civil War and the civil rights movement of the 1960s , a Second Reconstruction .
While weaker than in the past , trade unions are still among the few groups with enough resources to advance a transformation that addresses not just racial injustice but also economic inequity , environmental catastrophe , and imperialism .
Calling this effort a reconstruction is not overstating the case : Unless something dramatic is undertaken , the aftermath of Covid-19 will be economic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Third Reconstruction , there are five areas where labor needs to come together and fight.3 First , unions need to unite to eradicate all forms of social Darwinism , the debunked 19th century view that the rich are rich because they are superior .
The Trump administration and its minions are openly suggesting sacrificing hundreds of thousands of people—disproportionately from First Nations , Latinx , and black communities—to save capitalism .
Texas ’ s Republican Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick , for instance , said seniors should be prepared to die in order to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ To sustain communities and challenge social Darwinism , unions should build networks of support , such as mutual aid groups among members and their families and friends .
By modeling an alternative vision to the barbaric world of social Darwinism , organized labor can help defeat this racist , classist scourge.4 There is another concern : In the aftermath of the pandemic , there will be serious psychological and emotional injury brought on by the long period of isolation , anxiety , and fear .
Unions and other people ’ s organizations should @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aid may help to mitigate some of this long-term pain.5 Second , labor must recognize that the crisis is not just about trade union members .
There have been endless debates within organized labor over whether the movement should attempt to represent the entire working class or only dues-paying members .
Those debates must end .
Unions need to internalize the goals of what is known as bargaining for the common good , whereby they address issues facing the larger community .
The Chicago Teachers Union modeled this during its 2012 strike , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their students central to their demands .
National Nurses United has been at the front lines from the beginning of this crisis—not only with its calls for personal protective equipment for medical personnel but also in highlighting the dangers of irresponsibly reopening the economy .
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union has been fighting to keep its members in the meatpacking and retail industries safe and is also speaking out on behalf of the health of shoppers.6 Unions should , of course , defend the health plans that they have , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has a right to health care .
This will have to be both a local and national struggle that necessitates building coalitions .
And since at least 20 percent of the workforce is now jobless , the need for that health care to be free has become even more urgent.7 Third , unions must lead a coalition that opposes austerity .
For years , neoliberal economic policy has been strangling the public sector .
If nothing else , this crisis demonstrates the result : People are left to fend for themselves .
Congressional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the growing numbers of the unemployed , and in a move that would make even the most cynical among us blush , they are also seeking to destroy the US Postal Service .
The USPS is a critical public good at all times , but it ’ s especially vital during a pandemic .
Wherever there is potential profit , the proponents of neoliberalism will appear like roaches scurrying around a kitchen at night .
Unions must beat back the infestation and work to reenergize the public sector.8 Fourth , unions must @ @ @ @ @ @ @ organizing done on a strategic basis .
The greatest growth of organized labor in US history occurred during the Great Depression .
Provide workers with a strategy for victory , and they will organize and join unions—even under adverse conditions .
While there are semi-spontaneous eruptions underway in workplaces across this country , including at Amazon and meatpacking facilities , remaking the US economy will require a dramatically different scale .
It ’ s a challenge that can not be met by a handful of small organizations ; it requires national unions .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ organize Walmart ?
How about an effort to organize the entire public sector in the South and the Southwest ?
In these cases , this would not be the work of only one or two unions .
Rather , there needs to be national coordination that includes the work of so-called alt-labor , such as worker centers .
To carry this out , much as in the 1930s , volunteers will need to enter workplaces to organize from the inside .
Some of this is being done—as it was by leftists in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There will surely be objections by some unions that the recession has reduced their war chests , but it is exactly in moments like these that workers need to be mobilized in creative ways.9 Fifth , workers will be in a far better situation if unions support organizing the unemployed .
As Michael Goldfield documents in his new and important work The Southern Key , organizing unemployed workers beginning in 1930 ( led first and foremost by the Communist Party ) was instrumental in building a labor renaissance .
With at least 23 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the unemployed is more important than ever , and it must take various forms .
Given the constraints imposed by Covid-19 , social distancing will need to be factored in , but immediate relief , including food provision and eviction resistance , is crucial .
Organized labor must also demand that the government provide longer-term assistance such as a guaranteed income .
At the very least , unions should support the organizations already doing great work , like the Right to the City Alliance and Grassroots Global Justice.10 This is a partial wish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be realized , there needs to be a revolution within membership regarding its understanding of 21st century trade unionism .
One of the assumptions that many leftists make is that what labor unions do ( or do not do ) is the result of good or poor leadership .
While that is undoubtedly part of the equation , there also needs to be a critical mass of members who get that the old way of operating has failed and that a new approach is needed .
The founder and first president of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A. Philip Randolph , said , “ The essence of trade unionism is social uplift.
” That idea must be at the center of organizing .
Labor can not just defend its dwindling membership ; it must fight for a Third Reconstruction and become a movement unafraid of exposing the myths and horrors of the so-called American experiment.11

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Nation believes that helping readers stay informed about the impact of the coronavirus crisis is a form of public service. For that reason, this article, and all of our coronavirus coverage, is now free. Please subscribe to support our writers and staff, and stay healthy.
This article appears in the June 15/22, 2020 issue.
Organized labor is paralyzed at precisely the time when collective action is needed most. Since the election of Donald Trump, most unions have done little more than protect their own jurisdictions, offering no guidance on what must be done during the pandemic.1
Yet the spread of Covid-19 and its economic fallout have created an opening for labor to lead a mass movement. These events have shown how little remains of the social safety net the working class helped build nearly a century ago. Unions can now push the country toward a Third Reconstruction, an idea developed by several writers, most notably the historian Manning Marable. The term invokes both the Reconstruction era after the Civil War and the civil rights movement of the 1960s, a Second Reconstruction. While weaker than in the past, trade unions are still among the few groups with enough resources to advance a transformation that addresses not just racial injustice but also economic inequity, environmental catastrophe, and imperialism. Calling this effort a reconstruction is not overstating the case: Unless something dramatic is undertaken, the aftermath of Covid-19 will be economic and social collapse.2
To bring about a Third Reconstruction, there are five areas where labor needs to come together and fight.3
First, unions need to unite to eradicate all forms of social Darwinism, the debunked 19th century view that the rich are rich because they are superior. The Trump administration and its minions are openly suggesting sacrificing hundreds of thousands of people—disproportionately from First Nations, Latinx, and black communities—to save capitalism. Texas’s Republican Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, for instance, said seniors should be prepared to die in order to get the economy back in gear. To sustain communities and challenge social Darwinism, unions should build networks of support, such as mutual aid groups among members and their families and friends. By modeling an alternative vision to the barbaric world of social Darwinism, organized labor can help defeat this racist, classist scourge.4
There is another concern: In the aftermath of the pandemic, there will be serious psychological and emotional injury brought on by the long period of isolation, anxiety, and fear. Unions and other people’s organizations should anticipate widespread post-traumatic stress, and mutual aid may help to mitigate some of this long-term pain.5 Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
Second, labor must recognize that the crisis is not just about trade union members. There have been endless debates within organized labor over whether the movement should attempt to represent the entire working class or only dues-paying members. Those debates must end. Unions need to internalize the goals of what is known as bargaining for the common good, whereby they address issues facing the larger community. The Chicago Teachers Union modeled this during its 2012 strike, when the teachers made the needs of their students central to their demands. National Nurses United has been at the front lines from the beginning of this crisis—not only with its calls for personal protective equipment for medical personnel but also in highlighting the dangers of irresponsibly reopening the economy. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union has been fighting to keep its members in the meatpacking and retail industries safe and is also speaking out on behalf of the health of shoppers.6
Unions should, of course, defend the health plans that they have, but they must also insist that everyone has a right to health care. This will have to be both a local and national struggle that necessitates building coalitions. And since at least 20 percent of the workforce is now jobless, the need for that health care to be free has become even more urgent.7 Current Issue View our current issue
Third, unions must lead a coalition that opposes austerity. For years, neoliberal economic policy has been strangling the public sector. If nothing else, this crisis demonstrates the result: People are left to fend for themselves. Congressional Republicans are refusing to provide additional assistance to the growing numbers of the unemployed, and in a move that would make even the most cynical among us blush, they are also seeking to destroy the US Postal Service. The USPS is a critical public good at all times, but it’s especially vital during a pandemic. Wherever there is potential profit, the proponents of neoliberalism will appear like roaches scurrying around a kitchen at night. Unions must beat back the infestation and work to reenergize the public sector.8
Fourth, unions must recognize the urgent need for massive worker organizing done on a strategic basis. The greatest growth of organized labor in US history occurred during the Great Depression. Provide workers with a strategy for victory, and they will organize and join unions—even under adverse conditions. While there are semi-spontaneous eruptions underway in workplaces across this country, including at Amazon and meatpacking facilities, remaking the US economy will require a dramatically different scale. It’s a challenge that cannot be met by a handful of small organizations; it requires national unions. So why not launch a campaign to organize Walmart? How about an effort to organize the entire public sector in the South and the Southwest? In these cases, this would not be the work of only one or two unions. Rather, there needs to be national coordination that includes the work of so-called alt-labor, such as worker centers. To carry this out, much as in the 1930s, volunteers will need to enter workplaces to organize from the inside. Some of this is being done—as it was by leftists in the 1970s—but we must expand these efforts. There will surely be objections by some unions that the recession has reduced their war chests, but it is exactly in moments like these that workers need to be mobilized in creative ways.9
Fifth, workers will be in a far better situation if unions support organizing the unemployed. As Michael Goldfield documents in his new and important work The Southern Key, organizing unemployed workers beginning in 1930 (led first and foremost by the Communist Party) was instrumental in building a labor renaissance. With at least 23 million people out of work, organizing the unemployed is more important than ever, and it must take various forms. Given the constraints imposed by Covid-19, social distancing will need to be factored in, but immediate relief, including food provision and eviction resistance, is crucial. Organized labor must also demand that the government provide longer-term assistance such as a guaranteed income. At the very least, unions should support the organizations already doing great work, like the Right to the City Alliance and Grassroots Global Justice.10
This is a partial wish list, but for any of this to be realized, there needs to be a revolution within membership regarding its understanding of 21st century trade unionism. One of the assumptions that many leftists make is that what labor unions do (or do not do) is the result of good or poor leadership. While that is undoubtedly part of the equation, there also needs to be a critical mass of members who get that the old way of operating has failed and that a new approach is needed. The founder and first president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, A. Philip Randolph, said, “The essence of trade unionism is social uplift.” That idea must be at the center of organizing. Labor cannot just defend its dwindling membership; it must fight for a Third Reconstruction and become a movement unafraid of exposing the myths and horrors of the so-called American experiment.11