thenation--2020-07-07--Disaster Looms as the Coronavirus Disrupts the Garment Supply Chain

When the coronavirus pandemic shuttered storefronts around the world , fashion outlets abruptly canceled factory orders .
Piles of new clothes now sit idly in the warehouses of Western retailers .
Meanwhile , garment workers across Latin America and Asia face factory shutdowns , mass unemployment , and assaults on their unions .
By late April in Bangladesh , brands suspended or revoked clothing orders worth about $ 3.2 billion .
About 2.3 million of the 4 million Bangladeshi garment workers have been laid off or furloughed .
By early June , export orders had fallen by 40 to 45 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an industry association .
Garment workers in Bangladesh earn a minimum wage of about $ 95 a month , and any interruption in payment can send families into cycles of debt .
“ The companies who make profit out of these workers in the [ garment ] production countries…just left us behind to be starving , ” said Kalpona Akter , a garment worker turned labor activist with the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity .
Although some factories have begun reopening , labor advocates and watchdog groups say that many brands and retailers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ completed or in production .
Scott Nova , the executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium ( WRC ) , explained that brands and retailers typically pay long after the clothes have hit the racks .
He said these companies were effectively “ robbing suppliers to improve their own cash position.
” Nova added that multinational corporations ’ sticking suppliers and workers with unpaid bills is “ one of the most egregious forms of unethical corporate behavior you ’ re likely to ever see , involving tens of billions of dollars essentially being @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and retailers , who are in much better financial position to survive this crisis than the suppliers and the workers.
” In recent weeks , following public criticism from WRC and other advocacy groups , some brands have pledged to pay the full cost of their pre-pandemic orders , including H & M , UNIQLO , and Target .
But as of June , WRC reports that 16 others , including Sears and Gap , have not agreed to pay all their outstanding orders .
( Sears did not respond to a request @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public statement that “ lower than 3 percent ” of orders had been canceled and it is “ working together ” with suppliers to deal with the crisis . )
Christie Miedema , campaign and outreach coordinator with Clean Clothes Campaign , said , “ This crisis has laid bare what has actually always been visible in the garment industry… .
Workers have always been paid poverty wages , have never been able to save up for a rainy day—for a crisis like this—and are now left with nothing.
” For some garment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but management is using the pandemic as a pretext to fire pro-union workers .
Preap Munysovann , an official with the Cambodian union Collective Union of Movement of Workers ( CUMW ) , told me that “ during this Covid-19 pandemic in the world , as well as in Cambodia , the employers take this opportunity to…repress the workers [ by trying to ] illegally terminate or dismiss our union representatives.
” In early April , Cambodian police arrested and jailed Soy Sros , a local union president and shop steward , for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ criticized her employer , Superl Holdings , on social media for its plans to suspend 88 workers—all of them unionized—the company filed criminal charges against her , including for defamation and spreading “ fake news.
” The court then piled on two charges of provocation .
She spent nearly two months in pretrial detention before being released on bail in late May .
After pressure from civil society groups , Superl dropped its complaint , reinstated Soy , and reached an agreement with the union , promising back pay , protection from retaliation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Kate Spade and Michael Kors , two brands that contract with Superl , ignored labor groups ’ appeals for intervention while Soy was in jail .
Will the Pandemic Lead to Better Treatment for Drug Users ?
Your Rent or Your Life Soy ’ s release was a victory , but Cambodia ’ s garment workforce remains gutted .
Another 724 workers , including 11 pregnant women , were dismissed from a factory on June 13 , according to the global labor federation IndustriALL .
The Cambodian government is offering the mostly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 40 percent of minimum wage—well short of a living wage .
CUMW is demanding that brands and employers subsidize those payments to raise them to the equivalent of the minimum wage .
Although several large brands have previously pledged to support unions and improve wages , CUMW says the companies have so far failed to provide workers with any relief .
Andrew Tillet-Saks , a labor organizer based in Yangon , Myanmar , said that employers have claimed that “ they have to reduce the workforce because of Covid-19 related shortages—either in orders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just target the union members in the factory… .
So it ’ s really an example of disaster capitalism.
” The Myanmar government ’ s strict stay-at-home orders have also encouraged factory managers to prevent group meetings , he added .
“ So they ’ re allowed to go to work shoulder to shoulder by the thousands to produce profits for the brands and for the factory owners , ” he said , “ but they ’ re not allowed to assemble if it means protesting the lack of [ personal protective equipment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ union meeting.
” The Myan Mode factory recently dismissed several hundred workers , the vast majority union members .
After news outlets reported on the mass firing , some workers have been reinstated .
Worker-organizer Ye Yint told me through an interpreter that to restore their organization , “ We are holding meetings , and we are doing pamphleting for the workers inside to join the union… .
We have to rebuild the union inside the factory.
” Fellow organizer Ohnmar Myint , who was among a group of 25 workers who won @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The workers use their sweat and blood to make those clothes.… That ’ s what I want to say to the customer.
” As infections surge in poorer countries , the pandemic poses major workplace health risks .
Although the number of known infections is relatively low in key garment-exporting countries , poverty and limited access to health care leave workers vulnerable to outbreaks at factories .
In Bangladesh , the manufacturers ’ trade association reported in early June that 299 garment workers had been infected , but without widespread testing , labor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ likely many times higher .
Akter noted that in the factories that have kept operating , safety measures such as social distancing and mask wearing have often been lacking .
Garrett Brown , an industrial hygienist with the Maquiladora Health & Safety Support Network , a California-based group of occupational safety experts , said that infection control is nonexistent in many of these factories , which , even in normal times , are often rife with safety problems .
As both exporting and importing countries seek to reopen their economies , Brown warned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at odds with workplace safety .
“ It ’ s totally impossible to have an effective infection control system if you expect to have the pre-Covid productivity and output levels right away.
” In the United States , garment factories are facing health and economic crises .
The Los Angeles–based labor group Garment Workers Center said that employers are failing to provide basic hygiene measures , such as soap and allowing workers to stay at least six feet away from each other .
Laura , a pseudonym to protect her from retaliation , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with about 35 workers .
In an interview with Dissent , she said through an interpreter that she faces multiple health threats at her workplace , including “ filthy , ” “ rat-infested ” bathrooms without enough hand soap .
Ironically , her factory has shifted its production line to making face masks , even though workers themselves are not provided with protective gear .
“ We ’ re not given any masks , ” Laura said .
“ You have to bring them on your own.
” In a city with tens @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ I ’ m worried about getting sick and also about not being paid well.
” In addition to pushing for stronger labor protections during the pandemic , advocates for garment workers are trying to use the crisis to spur long-term changes .
One immediate reform would be to compel brands to pay more up front , so suppliers are not left in the lurch when orders are canceled .
Separately , the Asia Floor Wage Alliance , which represents labor groups in South and Southeast Asia , has proposed that corporations provide @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about 2 percent of their total orders at the factory for the preceding year—about the equivalent of two months of wages .
Beyond revamping factory payment schemes , labor groups are pushing brands to invest directly in the social safety nets of garment-exporting countries .
The International Labour Organization ( ILO ) , the International Organization of Employers , IndustriALL , and the International Trade Union Confederation , and several brands issued a joint action plan in late April that encouraged the creation of “ sustainable systems of social protection ” and suggested @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in offering loans and credit to employers .
“ It ’ s long been known that the prices that brands are paying and the way that they ’ re making orders is not sufficient to support the social security system , which is why garment-producing countries haven ’ t been able to do that for garment workers , ” said Jenny Holdcroft , assistant general secretary of IndustriALL .
H & M , one of the signatories , said in a statement that it planned “ to work in collaboration to promote the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” but could provide no details on how those systems would be developed .
Anannya Bhattacharjee , international coordinator of the Asia Floor Wage Alliance , said via e-mail that the ILO plan was “ an important step , ” but could be carried out only with a commitment to “ fair pricing for suppliers that allows for labour rights to be respected in factories.
” She noted that “ none of the Asian unions were consulted or involved ” in drafting the document , and emphasized that no relief program would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ binding framework “ that holds brands directly accountable to their specific supply chains.
” Although many brands have “ ethical sourcing ” initiatives , these tend to be voluntary factory auditing programs that have been criticized as glorified public-relations exercises .
One rare exception is the Bangladesh Accord for Building and Fire Safety , a binding global framework for fashion brands that has made significant strides improving safety conditions in many factories in Bangladesh .
But it was also a specific response to an industrial disaster—the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory compound @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the global economy , affecting both fashion brands and consumers .
For now , Akter will continue organizing garment workers in the streets , but she said change in the industry also has to include a moral appeal to regular shoppers .
“ I know that the whole world is in a devastating situation , ” she said .
But in the fashion industry , “ the consequences for brands , even if this pandemic goes for a few more months , [ is ] losing a fraction of their profit .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But workers…will lose jobs ; losing jobs means no money ; no money means no food… .
The consumer has to understand that .
”

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When the coronavirus pandemic shuttered storefronts around the world, fashion outlets abruptly canceled factory orders. Piles of new clothes now sit idly in the warehouses of Western retailers. Meanwhile, garment workers across Latin America and Asia face factory shutdowns, mass unemployment, and assaults on their unions.
By late April in Bangladesh, brands suspended or revoked clothing orders worth about $3.2 billion. About 2.3 million of the 4 million Bangladeshi garment workers have been laid off or furloughed. By early June, export orders had fallen by 40 to 45 percent compared to 2019, according to an industry association. Garment workers in Bangladesh earn a minimum wage of about $95 a month, and any interruption in payment can send families into cycles of debt.
“The companies who make profit out of these workers in the [garment] production countries…just left us behind to be starving,” said Kalpona Akter, a garment worker turned labor activist with the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity.
Although some factories have begun reopening, labor advocates and watchdog groups say that many brands and retailers never paid for withdrawn orders that were completed or in production. Scott Nova, the executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), explained that brands and retailers typically pay long after the clothes have hit the racks. He said these companies were effectively “robbing suppliers to improve their own cash position.”
Nova added that multinational corporations’ sticking suppliers and workers with unpaid bills is “one of the most egregious forms of unethical corporate behavior you’re likely to ever see, involving tens of billions of dollars essentially being stolen from suppliers and workers by brands and retailers, who are in much better financial position to survive this crisis than the suppliers and the workers.”
In recent weeks, following public criticism from WRC and other advocacy groups, some brands have pledged to pay the full cost of their pre-pandemic orders, including H&M, UNIQLO, and Target. But as of June, WRC reports that 16 others, including Sears and Gap, have not agreed to pay all their outstanding orders. (Sears did not respond to a request for comment. Gap said in a public statement that “lower than 3 percent” of orders had been canceled and it is “working together” with suppliers to deal with the crisis.) 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 A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life 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 A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
Christie Miedema, campaign and outreach coordinator with Clean Clothes Campaign, said, “This crisis has laid bare what has actually always been visible in the garment industry…. Workers have always been paid poverty wages, have never been able to save up for a rainy day—for a crisis like this—and are now left with nothing.” Current Issue View our current issue
Union busting
For some garment workers, the factories are operating, but management is using the pandemic as a pretext to fire pro-union workers.
Preap Munysovann, an official with the Cambodian union Collective Union of Movement of Workers (CUMW), told me that “during this Covid-19 pandemic in the world, as well as in Cambodia, the employers take this opportunity to…repress the workers [by trying to] illegally terminate or dismiss our union representatives.”
In early April, Cambodian police arrested and jailed Soy Sros, a local union president and shop steward, for speaking out against layoffs. After she criticized her employer, Superl Holdings, on social media for its plans to suspend 88 workers—all of them unionized—the company filed criminal charges against her, including for defamation and spreading “fake news.” The court then piled on two charges of provocation.
She spent nearly two months in pretrial detention before being released on bail in late May. After pressure from civil society groups, Superl dropped its complaint, reinstated Soy, and reached an agreement with the union, promising back pay, protection from retaliation, and better working conditions. Still, Kate Spade and Michael Kors, two brands that contract with Superl, ignored labor groups’ appeals for intervention while Soy was in jail. More From Michelle Chen Starbucks Closes Its Ithaca Locations One Year After Workers Unionized May 25, 2023 Exploiting Prison Workers for Cheap Sheets March 10, 2023 Defund the Police Algorithms August 25, 2022
Soy’s release was a victory, but Cambodia’s garment workforce remains gutted. Another 724 workers, including 11 pregnant women, were dismissed from a factory on June 13, according to the global labor federation IndustriALL. The Cambodian government is offering the mostly female garment workers welfare payments of about 40 percent of minimum wage—well short of a living wage. CUMW is demanding that brands and employers subsidize those payments to raise them to the equivalent of the minimum wage. Although several large brands have previously pledged to support unions and improve wages, CUMW says the companies have so far failed to provide workers with any relief.
Andrew Tillet-Saks, a labor organizer based in Yangon, Myanmar, said that employers have claimed that “they have to reduce the workforce because of Covid-19 related shortages—either in orders or raw materials. But then they just target the union members in the factory…. So it’s really an example of disaster capitalism.”
The Myanmar government’s strict stay-at-home orders have also encouraged factory managers to prevent group meetings, he added. “So they’re allowed to go to work shoulder to shoulder by the thousands to produce profits for the brands and for the factory owners,” he said, “but they’re not allowed to assemble if it means protesting the lack of [personal protective equipment], striking, or having a union meeting.”
The Myan Mode factory recently dismissed several hundred workers, the vast majority union members. After news outlets reported on the mass firing, some workers have been reinstated. Worker-organizer Ye Yint told me through an interpreter that to restore their organization, “We are holding meetings, and we are doing pamphleting for the workers inside to join the union…. We have to rebuild the union inside the factory.”
Fellow organizer Ohnmar Myint, who was among a group of 25 workers who won their jobs back, said, “The workers use their sweat and blood to make those clothes.… That’s what I want to say to the customer.”
Safety Last
As infections surge in poorer countries, the pandemic poses major workplace health risks. Although the number of known infections is relatively low in key garment-exporting countries, poverty and limited access to health care leave workers vulnerable to outbreaks at factories. In Bangladesh, the manufacturers’ trade association reported in early June that 299 garment workers had been infected, but without widespread testing, labor leaders say the actual infection rate is likely many times higher. Akter noted that in the factories that have kept operating, safety measures such as social distancing and mask wearing have often been lacking.
Garrett Brown, an industrial hygienist with the Maquiladora Health & Safety Support Network, a California-based group of occupational safety experts, said that infection control is nonexistent in many of these factories, which, even in normal times, are often rife with safety problems. As both exporting and importing countries seek to reopen their economies, Brown warned, the drive for profits will be at odds with workplace safety. “It’s totally impossible to have an effective infection control system if you expect to have the pre-Covid productivity and output levels right away.”
In the United States, garment factories are facing health and economic crises. The Los Angeles–based labor group Garment Workers Center said that employers are failing to provide basic hygiene measures, such as soap and allowing workers to stay at least six feet away from each other.
Laura, a pseudonym to protect her from retaliation, works in a Los Angeles production facility with about 35 workers. In an interview with Dissent, she said through an interpreter that she faces multiple health threats at her workplace, including “filthy,” “rat-infested” bathrooms without enough hand soap. Ironically, her factory has shifted its production line to making face masks, even though workers themselves are not provided with protective gear.
“We’re not given any masks,” Laura said. “You have to bring them on your own.” In a city with tens of thousands of cases of Covid-19, “I’m worried about getting sick and also about not being paid well.”
Fashion labor post-pandemic
In addition to pushing for stronger labor protections during the pandemic, advocates for garment workers are trying to use the crisis to spur long-term changes.
One immediate reform would be to compel brands to pay more up front, so suppliers are not left in the lurch when orders are canceled. Separately, the Asia Floor Wage Alliance, which represents labor groups in South and Southeast Asia, has proposed that corporations provide workers with a one-time supplementary payment of about 2 percent of their total orders at the factory for the preceding year—about the equivalent of two months of wages.
Beyond revamping factory payment schemes, labor groups are pushing brands to invest directly in the social safety nets of garment-exporting countries.
The International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Organization of Employers, IndustriALL, and the International Trade Union Confederation, and several brands issued a joint action plan in late April that encouraged the creation of “sustainable systems of social protection” and suggested that international financial institutions could be involved in offering loans and credit to employers.
“It’s long been known that the prices that brands are paying and the way that they’re making orders is not sufficient to support the social security system, which is why garment-producing countries haven’t been able to do that for garment workers,” said Jenny Holdcroft, assistant general secretary of IndustriALL. H&M, one of the signatories, said in a statement that it planned “to work in collaboration to promote the establishment of sustainable systems of social protection,” but could provide no details on how those systems would be developed.
Anannya Bhattacharjee, international coordinator of the Asia Floor Wage Alliance, said via e-mail that the ILO plan was “an important step,” but could be carried out only with a commitment to “fair pricing for suppliers that allows for labour rights to be respected in factories.”
She noted that “none of the Asian unions were consulted or involved” in drafting the document, and emphasized that no relief program would be effective unless accompanied by a legally binding framework “that holds brands directly accountable to their specific supply chains.”
Although many brands have “ethical sourcing” initiatives, these tend to be voluntary factory auditing programs that have been criticized as glorified public-relations exercises. One rare exception is the Bangladesh Accord for Building and Fire Safety, a binding global framework for fashion brands that has made significant strides improving safety conditions in many factories in Bangladesh. But it was also a specific response to an industrial disaster—the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory compound in 2013—not a pandemic that has pummeled the global economy, affecting both fashion brands and consumers.
For now, Akter will continue organizing garment workers in the streets, but she said change in the industry also has to include a moral appeal to regular shoppers.
“I know that the whole world is in a devastating situation,” she said. But in the fashion industry, “the consequences for brands, even if this pandemic goes for a few more months, [is] losing a fraction of their profit. The manufacturers will be losing their profit share. But workers…will lose jobs; losing jobs means no money; no money means no food…. The consumer has to understand that.”


thenation--2020-07-07--A Summer of Reckoning—for American Racism and Israeli Aggression

“ In fourteen hundred ninety-two , Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
” So began the innocent nursery rhyme I and so many others learned in elementary school about how this land was “ discovered , ” conveniently leaving out the bit about the horrors Columbus inflicted on the indigenous peoples of this land .
Well , in 2020 , Columbus made landfall again .
This time , his head “ discovered ” the ground when protesters in Boston knocked it off his statue .
His was not the only statue to fall .
Confederate monuments and symbols have been coming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more , this public redecorating has not been limited to the United States .
Statues of slave traders and colonialist icons have been torn down in Europe as well .
A moment of reckoning is upon us .
The murder of George Floyd was the spark for an American intifada built on 400 years of kindling laid by colonizers and slave traders .
After countless episodes of police brutality against Black Americans , additional police reform was clearly not a sufficient answer .
The problem was systemic .
The system was built on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of history .
That history has to be investigated , challenged , and rewritten .
This awakening , this public reckoning with our history , which Cornel West referred to as a moment of “ escalating consciousness , ” is long overdue and has a long way to go still .
And it fills this Palestinian American with both hope and a question : Can we also begin to apply this fierce critical introspection to American policy toward Israel and what our support for it has meant for the indigenous Palestinian population ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ that theirs is a colonial project .
As Benjamin Netanyahu told Congress of Israelis several years ago , “ We ’ re not the British in India… .
We ’ re not the Belgians in the Congo.
” And he is right .
Both the British and the Belgians eventually left .
The Zionist project , much more like Australia , New Zealand , South Africa , Canada , and , yes , the United States , is a settler colonial project of replacement , not simply exploitation .
This project was also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supported by , typical settler colonial myths .
Instead of “ settling the wilderness , ” its adherents spoke of “ making the desert bloom.
” Instead of manifest destiny , they tout a biblical covenant .
The indigenous population ( to the extent that it is acknowledged ) is shunted , again and again , across the ever-expanding frontier .
If they resist , their resistance is used to further define them as barbarous savages who only understand force .
Now , Israel is preparing to take the next step in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ annexing further Palestinian territory in the West Bank .
While some have characterized this move as a step too far , for Palestinians it is but the latest step in a century of boots on our necks .
Every generation of Palestinians for the last hundred years has seen this same story unfold .
For my great-grandparents ’ generation , the story took the form of British-facilitated Zionist land acquisition , which led to Palestinian Arab peasant landlessness .
For my grandparents ’ generation , it was the start of the Nakba—the depopulation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s native inhabitants and denial of return .
For my parents ’ generation , it was the 1967 occupation that produced a refugee crisis of its own .
And for my generation , it is continued settlement expansion under occupation and now further Israeli annexation .
All the while , Israel has gobbled up more land , forcing Palestinians into ever-shrinking cantons .
Throughout this process , Americans have embraced a mythologized version of Israel , a projection that allows them to enable and support it .
For conservatives , this version has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to do with religion .
Cloaked in fundamentalism and dispensationalism , the conservative romance with Israel is steeped in ideas about end-times and , frankly , anti-Semitism , and even predates modern Zionism .
But the secular liberal strain of such mythology is also dangerous .
From Democrats and liberals , we hear repeatedly that the United States should support Israel because it is a democracy , even as Israel ’ s military rules over millions of people who have no right to vote .
Or we hear that Israel is “ a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some similar version of this orientalist trope evoking the civilized/savage dichotomy that was echoed as recently as this past week by a so-called progressive Democrat , Ritchie Torres .
But other progressives are beginning to chart a different , albeit long overdue path .
For some time , a growing corps of activists—Palestinian Americans , racial justice activists , left-wing Jews , people of conscience—have been engaged in a reckoning over US support for Israel ’ s oppression of Palestinians .
And now , this reckoning has reached Congress .
Last week , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ calls for cuts to US aid to Israel should Israel go through with its annexation plans , as well as settlement building and other rights abuses .
The letter , which has been signed by 12 members of Congress , all Democrats , as well as Senator Bernie Sanders , sets down a marker for the direction that progressives will take on the US-Israel relationship moving forward .
With international opposition mounting , it remains to be seen when and how Israel will go through with formal annexation—and , in some respects , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ truth is , as the International Court of Justice recognized in its landmark decision a decade and a half ago , de facto annexation exists today .
The current reality on the ground is one of apartheid , and we should not be waiting for any formal Israeli decisions to force us to open our eyes to it .
Still , the words of this congressional letter signal the dawn of an important moment that has been years in the making—that was catapulted into the present by many previous moments , including two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
As Israeli bombs rained down on Gaza for two months , dominating US headlines , the police murdered a young Black man , Michael Brown , in Ferguson , Mo .
The rapid juxtaposition of these events , both featuring state violence against marginalized civilians , helped sharpen the analysis of justice advocates on both sides of the ocean , connecting the two struggles .
This summer triggers flashbacks of pain and hope .
The very same week that Minneapolis police killed George Floyd , Israeli police killed Iyad Hallaq , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the streets of Jerusalem .
And now , global racial justice protests have emerged just as Israel mulls its latest major land grab .
For indigenous people in Palestine and for Black Americans , who continue to suffer under systemic racism in this land , this historical awakening is a first and necessary step to fixing our unjust present .
It is a beginning , an essential move toward challenging systems of injustice and replacing them with systems of freedom and equality for all .

Subscribe to The Nation Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!
Get The Nation’s Weekly Newsletter Fridays. The best of the week. Email By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Fridays. The best of the week.
Thank you for signing up for The Nation’s weekly newsletter.
Repro Nation A monthly newsletter on the global fight for reproductive freedom. Email By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here.
Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue
Subscribe to The Nation Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!
Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter.
Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine?
“In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” So began the innocent nursery rhyme I and so many others learned in elementary school about how this land was “discovered,” conveniently leaving out the bit about the horrors Columbus inflicted on the indigenous peoples of this land.
Well, in 2020, Columbus made landfall again. This time, his head “discovered” the ground when protesters in Boston knocked it off his statue.
His was not the only statue to fall. Confederate monuments and symbols have been coming down as well. What’s more, this public redecorating has not been limited to the United States. Statues of slave traders and colonialist icons have been torn down in Europe as well. A moment of reckoning is upon us.
The murder of George Floyd was the spark for an American intifada built on 400 years of kindling laid by colonizers and slave traders. After countless episodes of police brutality against Black Americans, additional police reform was clearly not a sufficient answer. The problem was systemic. The system was built on history and a certain mythologized public telling of history. That history has to be investigated, challenged, and rewritten.
This awakening, this public reckoning with our history, which Cornel West referred to as a moment of “escalating consciousness,” is long overdue and has a long way to go still. And it fills this Palestinian American with both hope and a question: Can we also begin to apply this fierce critical introspection to American policy toward Israel and what our support for it has meant for the indigenous Palestinian population?
Many Zionist Israelis bristle at the notion that theirs is a colonial project. As Benjamin Netanyahu told Congress of Israelis several years ago, “We’re not the British in India…. We’re not the Belgians in the Congo.” And he is right. Both the British and the Belgians eventually left. The Zionist project, much more like Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and, yes, the United States, is a settler colonial project of replacement, not simply exploitation. Current Issue View our current issue
This project was also founded on, and continues to be supported by, typical settler colonial myths. Instead of “settling the wilderness,” its adherents spoke of “making the desert bloom.” Instead of manifest destiny, they tout a biblical covenant. The indigenous population (to the extent that it is acknowledged) is shunted, again and again, across the ever-expanding frontier. If they resist, their resistance is used to further define them as barbarous savages who only understand force.
Now, Israel is preparing to take the next step in the long process of colonial expansion by formally annexing further Palestinian territory in the West Bank. While some have characterized this move as a step too far, for Palestinians it is but the latest step in a century of boots on our necks. Every generation of Palestinians for the last hundred years has seen this same story unfold. For my great-grandparents’ generation, the story took the form of British-facilitated Zionist land acquisition, which led to Palestinian Arab peasant landlessness. For my grandparents’ generation, it was the start of the Nakba—the depopulation of the vast majority of Palestine’s native inhabitants and denial of return. For my parents’ generation, it was the 1967 occupation that produced a refugee crisis of its own. And for my generation, it is continued settlement expansion under occupation and now further Israeli annexation. All the while, Israel has gobbled up more land, forcing Palestinians into ever-shrinking cantons. 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 A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life 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 A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
Throughout this process, Americans have embraced a mythologized version of Israel, a projection that allows them to enable and support it. For conservatives, this version has little to do with reality and everything to do with religion. Cloaked in fundamentalism and dispensationalism, the conservative romance with Israel is steeped in ideas about end-times and, frankly, anti-Semitism, and even predates modern Zionism. But the secular liberal strain of such mythology is also dangerous. From Democrats and liberals, we hear repeatedly that the United States should support Israel because it is a democracy, even as Israel’s military rules over millions of people who have no right to vote. Or we hear that Israel is “a villa in the jungle,” or some similar version of this orientalist trope evoking the civilized/savage dichotomy that was echoed as recently as this past week by a so-called progressive Democrat, Ritchie Torres.
But other progressives are beginning to chart a different, albeit long overdue path. For some time, a growing corps of activists—Palestinian Americans, racial justice activists, left-wing Jews, people of conscience—have been engaged in a reckoning over US support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians. And now, this reckoning has reached Congress. Last week, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spearheaded a letter that calls for cuts to US aid to Israel should Israel go through with its annexation plans, as well as settlement building and other rights abuses. The letter, which has been signed by 12 members of Congress, all Democrats, as well as Senator Bernie Sanders, sets down a marker for the direction that progressives will take on the US-Israel relationship moving forward.
It reads, in part:
Unilateral annexation in the West Bank is in direct opposition to the principles of democracy and human rights that the United States of America is supposed to stand for. At a time when the American people are taking to the streets to demand justice for all in our own country, there is no question but that such an action would alienate many US lawmakers and citizens. Members of Congress should not be expected to support an undemocratic system in which Israel would permanently rule over a Palestinian people denied self-determination or equal rights.
With international opposition mounting, it remains to be seen when and how Israel will go through with formal annexation—and, in some respects, it is not particularly relevant. The truth is, as the International Court of Justice recognized in its landmark decision a decade and a half ago, de facto annexation exists today. The current reality on the ground is one of apartheid, and we should not be waiting for any formal Israeli decisions to force us to open our eyes to it. Related Article My Grandmother, Icon of Palestinian Resilience Mohammed El-Kurd
Still, the words of this congressional letter signal the dawn of an important moment that has been years in the making—that was catapulted into the present by many previous moments, including two significant ones in the summer of 2014. As Israeli bombs rained down on Gaza for two months, dominating US headlines, the police murdered a young Black man, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Mo. The rapid juxtaposition of these events, both featuring state violence against marginalized civilians, helped sharpen the analysis of justice advocates on both sides of the ocean, connecting the two struggles.
This summer triggers flashbacks of pain and hope. The very same week that Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, Israeli police killed Iyad Hallaq, a 32-year-old Palestinian man with autism, on the streets of Jerusalem. And now, global racial justice protests have emerged just as Israel mulls its latest major land grab. For indigenous people in Palestine and for Black Americans, who continue to suffer under systemic racism in this land, this historical awakening is a first and necessary step to fixing our unjust present. It is a beginning, an essential move toward challenging systems of injustice and replacing them with systems of freedom and equality for all.


thenation--2020-07-08--Why Has Society Failed to Integrate Grief Into Public Life?

In 2017 the Hebrew Home at Riverdale in the Bronx in New York City hired Rachel Kauder Nalebuff to investigate resilience among nursing home staffers .
Why , it wondered , do some people have the fortitude to work alongside death and dying for decades , while most people burn out ?
Kauder Nalebuff is trained not as a social worker or an anthropologist but as a playwright ; her report was to take the form of a play .
In interviews , staffers of every rank and function described their work to her , its challenges , and its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ errands for residents with her own money and on her own time .
Keresha , a cashier in the cafeteria , insisted , “ You can not have a job like this and think it ’ s just a job.
” Compassion and patience emerged as clear through lines , linking all care workers who were able to endure and find meaning in their profession .
But so too did a deep and daily grief , which staffers had little time or support for metabolizing .
Residents die every day , and there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ done .
“ We ’ re losing money with an empty bed , ” an anonymous employee noted bluntly .
In the resulting play , A Knock at the Door , the staffers performed monologues drawn from these interviews , creating space for mourning out of the material of their lives.1 Kauder Nalebuff ’ s new book , Stages : On Dying , Working , and Feeling , interweaves her nursing home interviews with a first-person account of her play ’ s development—or , rather , of the life she was living as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and grandparents become implicated in her research into our society ’ s failure to incorporate death and grief into the fabric of public life .
Stages is not quite a memoir or a performance text or an ethnography ; Elif Batuman says it ’ s “ one of a very few recent books I have read that feels truly revolutionary , in both form and in content.
” 2 I ’ ve known Kauder Nalebuff for 10 years .
She has a great gift for shaking people loose from habitual relation , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and has since begun to drive her from it .
Through her work as director of 3 Hole Press , she has created a home for books that reimagine the relationship among performance , the printed word , and the professional worlds in which each circulates .
In addition to being the author of Stages , she is the editor of My Little Red Book ( Hachette , 2009 ) and , with Alexandra Brodsky , The Feminist Utopia Project ( The Feminist Press , 2015 ) .3 We spoke by phone in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the uprisings that have rocked our nation in rage and grief over the murders of George Floyd , Breonna Taylor , Tony McDade , and a growing list of police killings of other Black people .
We had spent the previous two and a half months learning how to grieve in isolation amid mass death , socially distancing as an expression of care for one another .
A more familiar kind of mourning , for the routine and violent devaluation of Black life , broke our solitude and brought us back into the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ politics of care work , and how each might be rethought in light of Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter.4 am uber : The world has changed since I first saw you read from Stages in February .
Does the book feel different ?
Do you find yourself thinking about it differently now ?
6 achel auder alebuff : I immediately felt a deepened sense of urgency around the political undertones of the book .
The staff I interviewed talked about how underresourced nursing homes are , that people need time and protection around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ death of someone you ’ re caring for is a trauma and needs attention and time and space before you are able to return to work .
But the passages that people are sharing on Instagram are more personal and poetic , the passages where I stumble through my own inability to process grief or am putting the training wheels on to learn how to find the words around grief , and I ’ m noticing the absence of grief in my own life and community and how much that ’ s tied @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been surprising , and I ’ m trying to make sense of it .
It shows me that facts can be really hard to swallow .
Fifty percent of nursing homes were already understaffed before Covid-19 .
One-third of our national deaths have happened in nursing homes .
Median wages for nursing home workers are so low .
They ’ re , like , $ 13 an hour .
Elder care needs to change .
We know these facts , but we still need to feel them .
Maybe it ’ s premature @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my faith in art and performance.8 SH : The part of your book that I find most helpful for thinking through the politics of care work right now relates to the valorization of essential workers , which can be a way of deflecting from material support or labor rights .
In your interviews , the nursing home staffers talk about how much they love their work but they ’ re also always out of time .
They ’ re describing their genuine emotional investment but also expressing needs.9 RKN : With Covid-19 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thanking essential workers to understanding that a real thank-you would mean adequate wages , hazard pay , and sick leave .
The changes that are needed go beyond what a single nursing home can do .
What ’ s required is millions more nurses on the ground , compensating the 43 million unpaid caregivers in this country , and changing the way Medicaid and Medicare are structured so that people can better receive support for home care , as opposed to incentivizing people to be cared for in nursing homes .
Disability justice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out that if the labor conditions were better , more people would want to work in the sector , and we could live in a world with “ more than enough care to go around.
” These changes are really big , and if you want to be optimistic about it , maybe the individual thank-yous can be a foundation for caring about larger systemic change.10 SH : Could you feel that larger systemic horizon during your interviews ?
Was that something that nursing home staffers seemed to have an eye toward ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ little transparency around how the system works .
Things like Medicaid reimbursements are designed to be illegible , so even people on the ground don ’ t have knowledge of it .
I really felt so much resignation from everyone that I spoke to .
People knew what needed to change and also had no hope that it was going to happen .
A lot of people who worked at this nursing home had been there for 30 years and have only seen their pay and their protections go down over the years @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hope ?
12 The only person I spoke to that seemed to have a bigger-picture view was someone who worked in the finance department of the nursing home and really saw that these more local decisions are predicated on state funding and the larger funding structures of elder care .
At the time—this was in 2017 to 2018—I don ’ t think things like single-payer [ health care ] and Bernie Sanders ’ s disability plan were part of the public discourse , and they definitely hadn ’ t reached this nursing home @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if they ’ ve reached nursing home workers .
I work in senior centers , too , and when I ’ ve brought up Bernie ’ s disability plan to staff , it ’ s the first time they ’ ve heard of it .
So I think that these political possibilities haven ’ t trickled down to the people that they would affect directly , but hopefully that ’ s changing now that there is a public outcry around health care and elder care.13 SH : You just mentioned some work with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Stages .
What does that look like now , under lockdown ?
14 RKN : I teach memoir and theater classes at two senior centers in Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn .
Together with a community of other theater artists , I use theater and oral history as a way to get people to share life stories.15 This spring has been really challenging because the senior centers are physically closed , but our programming is running , and seniors need attention and physical activity more than ever .
So we ’ ve made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it ’ s definitely not—a dial-in audio program that seniors can access by calling a phone number , and it guides them through 15 minutes of movement and creative exercises .
It ’ s felt like such a shot in the dark .
At first , no one at the senior centers was picking up their phones .
And we didn ’ t have any of our students ’ phone numbers , so we didn ’ t know how to reach them .
We managed to get fliers out to seniors through Meals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the senior centers are also distributing this phone number .
We ’ re unable to talk , but seniors can leave us messages .
We just got a voice mail from one of the seniors we work with , and it felt so wonderful just to hear her voice and to know she ’ s alive.16 In April , I asked a Meals on Wheels driver , Julia , if she had any news about the seniors we work with .
All she could say was that about half the time , there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could drop off someone ’ s lunch .
It ’ s going to be a really hard year .
It ’ s just the beginning.17 SH : You mentioned earlier that this moment might be restoring your faith in performance .
I ’ ve heard you talk a lot about your ambivalence about theater , and 3 Hole Press works around the edges of performance .
How did your relationship to theater change while writing Stages ?
18 RKN : I think what gives this book some of its velocity is that you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this question , and it ’ s really driven by the fact that I feel unsure of my place in the arts and of the function of the theater .
I was carrying Aleshea Harris ’ s work What to Send Up When It Goes Down with me .
That play is a ritual that can be staged at any time to commemorate the life of a Black person who has been killed by the police .
I saw it for the first time in 2015 , after the death of Sandra Bland @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we needed to come together and grieve and that we also needed structure for that , and this amazing , compassionate performance held the space for that and guided us through it .
That has been a touchstone for me , and I ’ ve kept searching for other works like that in the theater .
But increasingly I just feel like there ’ s no need to have allegiance to a professional field .
I can have allegiance to Aleshea Harris and to other artists , but I ’ m ready for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ home , I was hired to make a play with their staff , and we ended up feeling like the play needed to also hold space for their memories and account for their losses .
Art can create that space for reflection and for feeling , but I also think that so many other things can do that .
Community can do that .
Friendship can do that .
Nature can do that .
Therapy can do that .
A very wise art therapist in the nursing home said that we hurt in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ heal in community , and I think that that ’ s why I keep coming back to theater .
It ’ s the closest thing that I personally know that can do that , but I don ’ t think that is what the institution of American theater was ever designed to do , so trying to do that can feel like working against the grain of the medium .
But I still believe in that thing , wherever it exists.20 SH : I admire how you ’ ve used your platforms to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interviewed New York State Assembly and State Senate candidates Phara Souffrant Forrest and Jabari Brisport for your e-mail newsletter , and you ’ ve used 3 Hole Press ’ s office in Brooklyn to register voters .
I ’ ve been happy to see New York theaters open their lobbies for protesters , which makes good on ideas you ’ ve expressed about material ways that theater might be useful to people.21 RKN : It ’ s both great and so annoying .
This moment is strange because theaters suddenly purport to care @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and needs but they have never before considered opening their doors to house people , to feed people , to be civic spaces .
Are these theaters going to keep their doors open after the protests stop for folks in the city who need to use the restroom ?
I ’ m wary because I ’ ve never seen this kind of commitment in New York before , except from a few smaller theaters like the Bushwick Star , which has been doing the work of investing in its community for a really @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wonder , is it unfair to put pressure on these theaters and their underpaid staff to provide all of these social services that the city should be offering ?
There should just be clean public restrooms .
Where are the theaters that are advocating for that ?
23 SH : Thick Press , which published Stages , is a more sustained experiment in the relationship between art and politics .
Did working with it feel different from other publishers you ’ ve worked with ?
24 RKN : It felt so different .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ is to slowness .
Everything that I ’ m doing at 3 Hole Press feels really urgent , and I don ’ t know how long 3 Hole can last because of that .
But Thick Press was built by a social worker , Erin Segal , and a graphic designer , Julie Cho , who are both working parents , so it ’ s designed around a slower timeline and without any expectations around annual output .
Also , being edited by a social worker is such a fulfilling and provocative experience @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Erin , but I also got edits that were like , “ Would you like to resolve this issue ?
” [ Laughs . ]
“ Do you want to maybe call this person ?
” 25 So many of our editorial conversations were about ethics and responsibility and making sure that this book is built on trust .
We gave all of the nursing home staff permission to edit their own interviews , and a lot of people cut segments that overtly criticize the nursing home , which makes sense because people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ That was hard , because those criticisms are important .
But at the same time , I feel much better about a book that protects its contributors.26 Can I ask you a question ?
Is that allowed ?
I ’ m curious how you ’ ve been thinking about care work .
You ’ ve studied the history of feminism and of movements like Wages for Housework , for which valuing care was at the forefront of discourse .
Where are you in terms of what feels possible now ?
27 SH : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your book is that it shows how thinking about care work requires you to think about everything else .
It ’ s a book about health care , but it ’ s also a book about time and workers ’ rights and intimacy , which is part of what makes it deeply feminist .
And that ’ s daunting in the same way that the gambit of wages for housework is daunting .
By demanding a wage for housework , that movement revealed that capitalism depends on huge amounts of uncompensated labor , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be valued as it should be , then capitalism would fall apart .
We simply couldn ’ t afford to pay what social reproduction is worth .
Capitalism depends on keeping it uncompensated .
Something that seems like a simple demand—wages for housework—actually very quickly requires you to throw everything out and start over.28 RKN : One person in Stages , Agnes , who worked in the nursing home for 26 years , said , “ There is not enough money that could pay for this kind of work.
” How do you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
29 SH : In a bleaker political moment , that might make one very despairing .
But on the other hand , right now we ’ re seeing that people have a real appetite for throwing everything out and starting over if that ’ s what it takes to make the world livable .
Which is cool.30 RKN : I really wish that I could talk with these nursing home workers now to see if they feel any sense of possibility or if they think it ’ s something we ’ ll @ @ @ @ @ @

In 2017 the Hebrew Home at Riverdale in the Bronx in New York City hired Rachel Kauder Nalebuff to investigate resilience among nursing home staffers. Why, it wondered, do some people have the fortitude to work alongside death and dying for decades, while most people burn out? Kauder Nalebuff is trained not as a social worker or an anthropologist but as a playwright; her report was to take the form of a play. In interviews, staffers of every rank and function described their work to her, its challenges, and its rewards. A housekeeper named Rosa ran errands for residents with her own money and on her own time. Keresha, a cashier in the cafeteria, insisted, “You cannot have a job like this and think it’s just a job.” Compassion and patience emerged as clear through lines, linking all care workers who were able to endure and find meaning in their profession. But so too did a deep and daily grief, which staffers had little time or support for metabolizing. Residents die every day, and there’s always more work to be done. “We’re losing money with an empty bed,” an anonymous employee noted bluntly. In the resulting play, A Knock at the Door, the staffers performed monologues drawn from these interviews, creating space for mourning out of the material of their lives.1
Kauder Nalebuff’s new book, Stages: On Dying, Working, and Feeling, interweaves her nursing home interviews with a first-person account of her play’s development—or, rather, of the life she was living as the play developed. Lovers, friends, and grandparents become implicated in her research into our society’s failure to incorporate death and grief into the fabric of public life. Stages is not quite a memoir or a performance text or an ethnography; Elif Batuman says it’s “one of a very few recent books I have read that feels truly revolutionary, in both form and in content.”2
I’ve known Kauder Nalebuff for 10 years. She has a great gift for shaking people loose from habitual relation, which originally drew her to the theater and has since begun to drive her from it. Through her work as director of 3 Hole Press, she has created a home for books that reimagine the relationship among performance, the printed word, and the professional worlds in which each circulates. In addition to being the author of Stages, she is the editor of My Little Red Book (Hachette, 2009) and, with Alexandra Brodsky, The Feminist Utopia Project (The Feminist Press, 2015).3
We spoke by phone in early June, nearly three weeks into the uprisings that have rocked our nation in rage and grief over the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and a growing list of police killings of other Black people. We had spent the previous two and a half months learning how to grieve in isolation amid mass death, socially distancing as an expression of care for one another. A more familiar kind of mourning, for the routine and violent devaluation of Black life, broke our solitude and brought us back into the streets. We discussed Stages, the politics of care work, and how each might be rethought in light of Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter.4
—Sam Huber5
S am H uber: The world has changed since I first saw you read from Stages in February. Does the book feel different? Do you find yourself thinking about it differently now?6 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 A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life 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 A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
R achel K auder N alebuff: I immediately felt a deepened sense of urgency around the political undertones of the book. The staff I interviewed talked about how underresourced nursing homes are, that people need time and protection around their ability to grieve, that the death of someone you’re caring for is a trauma and needs attention and time and space before you are able to return to work. But the passages that people are sharing on Instagram are more personal and poetic, the passages where I stumble through my own inability to process grief or am putting the training wheels on to learn how to find the words around grief, and I’m noticing the absence of grief in my own life and community and how much that’s tied to whiteness and class.7
That reaction has been surprising, and I’m trying to make sense of it. It shows me that facts can be really hard to swallow. Fifty percent of nursing homes were already understaffed before Covid-19. One-third of our national deaths have happened in nursing homes. Median wages for nursing home workers are so low. They’re, like, $13 an hour. Elder care needs to change. We know these facts, but we still need to feel them. Maybe it’s premature, but it does renew some of my faith in art and performance.8
SH: The part of your book that I find most helpful for thinking through the politics of care work right now relates to the valorization of essential workers, which can be a way of deflecting from material support or labor rights. In your interviews, the nursing home staffers talk about how much they love their work but they’re also always out of time. They’re describing their genuine emotional investment but also expressing needs.9
RKN: With Covid-19, the conversation did move pretty quickly from thanking essential workers to understanding that a real thank-you would mean adequate wages, hazard pay, and sick leave. The changes that are needed go beyond what a single nursing home can do. What’s required is millions more nurses on the ground, compensating the 43 million unpaid caregivers in this country, and changing the way Medicaid and Medicare are structured so that people can better receive support for home care, as opposed to incentivizing people to be cared for in nursing homes. Disability justice activist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha has also pointed out that if the labor conditions were better, more people would want to work in the sector, and we could live in a world with “more than enough care to go around.” These changes are really big, and if you want to be optimistic about it, maybe the individual thank-yous can be a foundation for caring about larger systemic change.10
SH: Could you feel that larger systemic horizon during your interviews? Was that something that nursing home staffers seemed to have an eye toward?11
RKN: There’s so little transparency around how the system works. Things like Medicaid reimbursements are designed to be illegible, so even people on the ground don’t have knowledge of it. I really felt so much resignation from everyone that I spoke to. People knew what needed to change and also had no hope that it was going to happen. A lot of people who worked at this nursing home had been there for 30 years and have only seen their pay and their protections go down over the years, so what reason is there to hope?12
The only person I spoke to that seemed to have a bigger-picture view was someone who worked in the finance department of the nursing home and really saw that these more local decisions are predicated on state funding and the larger funding structures of elder care. At the time—this was in 2017 to 2018—I don’t think things like single-payer [health care] and Bernie Sanders’s disability plan were part of the public discourse, and they definitely hadn’t reached this nursing home. I still don’t know if they’ve reached nursing home workers. I work in senior centers, too, and when I’ve brought up Bernie’s disability plan to staff, it’s the first time they’ve heard of it. So I think that these political possibilities haven’t trickled down to the people that they would affect directly, but hopefully that’s changing now that there is a public outcry around health care and elder care.13
SH: You just mentioned some work with elders that you’ve done since Stages. What does that look like now, under lockdown?14
RKN: I teach memoir and theater classes at two senior centers in Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. Together with a community of other theater artists, I use theater and oral history as a way to get people to share life stories.15
This spring has been really challenging because the senior centers are physically closed, but our programming is running, and seniors need attention and physical activity more than ever. So we’ve made a—I call it a podcast, but it’s definitely not—a dial-in audio program that seniors can access by calling a phone number, and it guides them through 15 minutes of movement and creative exercises. It’s felt like such a shot in the dark. At first, no one at the senior centers was picking up their phones. And we didn’t have any of our students’ phone numbers, so we didn’t know how to reach them. We managed to get fliers out to seniors through Meals on Wheels delivery drivers, and now the senior centers are also distributing this phone number. We’re unable to talk, but seniors can leave us messages. We just got a voice mail from one of the seniors we work with, and it felt so wonderful just to hear her voice and to know she’s alive.16
In April, I asked a Meals on Wheels driver, Julia, if she had any news about the seniors we work with. All she could say was that about half the time, there was an ambulance waiting outside before she could drop off someone’s lunch. It’s going to be a really hard year. It’s just the beginning.17
SH: You mentioned earlier that this moment might be restoring your faith in performance. I’ve heard you talk a lot about your ambivalence about theater, and 3 Hole Press works around the edges of performance. How did your relationship to theater change while writing Stages?18
RKN: I think what gives this book some of its velocity is that you can feel me searching for answers to this question, and it’s really driven by the fact that I feel unsure of my place in the arts and of the function of the theater. I was carrying Aleshea Harris’s work What to Send Up When It Goes Down with me. That play is a ritual that can be staged at any time to commemorate the life of a Black person who has been killed by the police. I saw it for the first time in 2015, after the death of Sandra Bland, and it felt so clear that we needed to come together and grieve and that we also needed structure for that, and this amazing, compassionate performance held the space for that and guided us through it. That has been a touchstone for me, and I’ve kept searching for other works like that in the theater. But increasingly I just feel like there’s no need to have allegiance to a professional field. I can have allegiance to Aleshea Harris and to other artists, but I’m ready for institutional theater to burn.19
At the nursing home, I was hired to make a play with their staff, and we ended up feeling like the play needed to also hold space for their memories and account for their losses. Art can create that space for reflection and for feeling, but I also think that so many other things can do that. Community can do that. Friendship can do that. Nature can do that. Therapy can do that. A very wise art therapist in the nursing home said that we hurt in community and so we also have to heal in community, and I think that that’s why I keep coming back to theater. It’s the closest thing that I personally know that can do that, but I don’t think that is what the institution of American theater was ever designed to do, so trying to do that can feel like working against the grain of the medium. But I still believe in that thing, wherever it exists.20
SH: I admire how you’ve used your platforms to also participate in formal politics. You interviewed New York State Assembly and State Senate candidates Phara Souffrant Forrest and Jabari Brisport for your e-mail newsletter, and you’ve used 3 Hole Press’s office in Brooklyn to register voters. I’ve been happy to see New York theaters open their lobbies for protesters, which makes good on ideas you’ve expressed about material ways that theater might be useful to people.21
RKN: It’s both great and so annoying. This moment is strange because theaters suddenly purport to care about people’s bodies and safety and needs but they have never before considered opening their doors to house people, to feed people, to be civic spaces. Are these theaters going to keep their doors open after the protests stop for folks in the city who need to use the restroom? I’m wary because I’ve never seen this kind of commitment in New York before, except from a few smaller theaters like the Bushwick Star, which has been doing the work of investing in its community for a really long time.22
At the same time I wonder, is it unfair to put pressure on these theaters and their underpaid staff to provide all of these social services that the city should be offering? There should just be clean public restrooms. Where are the theaters that are advocating for that?23
SH: Thick Press, which published Stages, is a more sustained experiment in the relationship between art and politics. Did working with it feel different from other publishers you’ve worked with?24
RKN: It felt so different. One reason is that their fundamental commitment is to slowness. Everything that I’m doing at 3 Hole Press feels really urgent, and I don’t know how long 3 Hole can last because of that. But Thick Press was built by a social worker, Erin Segal, and a graphic designer, Julie Cho, who are both working parents, so it’s designed around a slower timeline and without any expectations around annual output. Also, being edited by a social worker is such a fulfilling and provocative experience. I got amazing line edits from Erin, but I also got edits that were like, “Would you like to resolve this issue?” [Laughs.] “Do you want to maybe call this person?”25
So many of our editorial conversations were about ethics and responsibility and making sure that this book is built on trust. We gave all of the nursing home staff permission to edit their own interviews, and a lot of people cut segments that overtly criticize the nursing home, which makes sense because people’s jobs are really precarious. That was hard, because those criticisms are important. But at the same time, I feel much better about a book that protects its contributors.26
Can I ask you a question? Is that allowed? I’m curious how you’ve been thinking about care work. You’ve studied the history of feminism and of movements like Wages for Housework, for which valuing care was at the forefront of discourse. Where are you in terms of what feels possible now?27
SH: One of the things I love about your book is that it shows how thinking about care work requires you to think about everything else. It’s a book about health care, but it’s also a book about time and workers’ rights and intimacy, which is part of what makes it deeply feminist. And that’s daunting in the same way that the gambit of wages for housework is daunting. By demanding a wage for housework, that movement revealed that capitalism depends on huge amounts of uncompensated labor, and if that labor were to actually be valued as it should be, then capitalism would fall apart. We simply couldn’t afford to pay what social reproduction is worth. Capitalism depends on keeping it uncompensated. Something that seems like a simple demand—wages for housework—actually very quickly requires you to throw everything out and start over.28
RKN: One person in Stages, Agnes, who worked in the nursing home for 26 years, said, “There is not enough money that could pay for this kind of work.” How do you even put a dollar value on care?29
SH: In a bleaker political moment, that might make one very despairing. But on the other hand, right now we’re seeing that people have a real appetite for throwing everything out and starting over if that’s what it takes to make the world livable. Which is cool.30
RKN: I really wish that I could talk with these nursing home workers now to see if they feel any sense of possibility or if they think it’s something we’ll get to see in our lifetimes.31


thenation--2020-07-08--Charles Booker Could Have Won

Charles Booker Could Have Won

For a week now , I haven ’ t been able to stop thinking about what just happened in Kentucky , where progressive firebrand Charles Booker almost beat all the odds in the US Senate Democratic primary race .
It ’ s not because I ’ m any stranger to electoral heartbreak .
When I was 20 , I moved from Brooklyn to a town I ’ d never heard of in Wisconsin to help a Democrat named Rob Zerban run a campaign to unseat Representative Paul Ryan , then the chair of the House Budget Committee .
Years later @ @ @ @ @ @ @ work for the first Democratic socialist in modern history to mount a serious campaign for president .
I ’ ve had my share of heartbreak .
It ’ s because I ’ ve seen this happen too many times before .
When a race is decided by a margin that ’ s more than 10 percent , it ’ s easy to blame the media , or fundraising imbalances , or feel like it was fundamentally inhospitable terrain .
But given how close the race came last week , it felt like a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any little decision , any little investment could have made the difference .
I hope the progressive movement takes that seriously .
A pro–Green New Deal , pro–Medicare for All , pro-UBI Black candidate came incredibly close—in Kentucky !
—to beating someone who ran as a Democrat , but who has said she would have voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh ’ s nomination to the Supreme Court .
I met Booker a year ago , when he was first thinking about running , and joined his campaign in April , when he was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The final margin ended up at 2.8 percent , which was unthinkable when he started , with pennies in the bank , firmly in the single digits against the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ’ s anointed candidate Amy McGrath , who appeared invincible sitting on top of a $ 40 million war chest .
At the beginning of his campaign , Booker had only what he likes to call “ faith the size of a mustard seed.
” That and the backing of the Sunrise Movement , who met with him and did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his candidacy before anyone else had heard of him .
If you looked at the numbers back in February , it was easy to think Booker ’ s candidacy was an unwinnable distraction .
It also just felt unwinnable—a Black man running statewide in Kentucky on the Green New Deal ?
Get real .
So most advocacy groups and progressive organizations stayed on the sidelines .
But Sunrise saw it another way : They saw it as their job to take on the slow , difficult fight , not only because we need @ @ @ @ @ @ @ progressive legislation , but also because committing resources early on would ultimately grow and strengthen the movement even in the event of a loss .
So they helped produce his launch video , worked with the team to build the bones of his campaign , devoted e-mail and fundraising resources to it , helped recruit a team , and set up a voter contact operation for the only Black candidate in the race back when everyone else in DC was waiting with bated breath to see if radio host Matt Jones would decide @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Booker ’ s candidacy an opportunity to reframe the debate around the Green New Deal , which right-wing fearmongers had long dismissed as the elitist fever dreams of white liberals , instead of as a truly broad-based populist governing vision .
What would it mean , they wondered , for a Black candidate to run and win on a Green New Deal in the heart of America ’ s coal country ?
A whole lot , as last week ’ s results would prove .
Sunrise ’ s early investment , and Booker @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a candidate , closed the gap from a 50 percent deficit to less than three points .
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , Senator Bernie Sanders , and Senator Elizabeth Warren all backed Booker , and national progressive groups like MoveOn , Indivisible , and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee began to follow suit .
It became the national story to watch and a focal point of the battle between the party ’ s establishment and insurgent progressive wings .
But as the results rolled in last week , I kept wondering : Why did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could it be that Amy McGrath , backed by Senator Chuck Schumer , the DSCC , and their donors , blanketed the Kentucky airwaves with $ 3 million in the final week alone to paper over her weaknesses as a candidate , while major progressive groups on our side sat out the race or endorsed in the final hours before election day ?
All told , Booker ’ s campaign spent $ 1.1 million on TV advertising , while McGrath unloaded a cool $ 12 million onto the airwaves over the course of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ came within 2.8 percent .
Clearly , we didn ’ t need spending parity to win , but what would an extra $ 300,000 in help from outside groups have meant one month before Election Day , while Kentuckians were sending in their ballots by mail , and could it have put us over the top ?
That ’ s a question I ’ ll be asking myself every day for the next several months .
It ’ s hard to keep watching our ascendant movement blow the most winnable electoral contests of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Congress , Tiffany Caban should be the Queens County district attorney , Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez deserves the chance to take on John Cornyn , and it ’ s heartbreaking that Abdul El-Sayed isn ’ t the governor of Michigan .
Falling just short again , watching history continue to repeat itself , compels discussion .
Charles Booker Is Determined to Fight Voter Suppression in Kentucky The truth is : All of these races look unwinnable until they ’ re not .
But isn ’ t that what movement organizations are here to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ turn the improbable into the possible ?
What we ’ ve proven on Tuesday is that these races are winnable if we try , even when we ’ re badly outspent .
But that can ’ t happen if the cavalry arrives five days before Election Day , which is when the biggest pro-Booker independent expenditure came in .
That ’ s too late to make a real difference—and the establishment knows it .
That ’ s why the biggest pro-McGrath independent expenditure came in 48 days before the election .
We need @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and do what Sunrise did with Booker , and what Justice Democrats has impressively done with Jamaal Bowman .
If progressive organizations and advocacy groups keep waiting for candidates to catch fire and have a moment before they hop on board , we ’ re doomed to keep losing winnable races by a few hundred votes .
Put another way , if you wait until you feel thirsty to drink water , it ’ s too late ; you ’ re already dehydrated .
We need more organizations to understand what groups @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : that winning requires showing up early , and doing the hard , tireless work of slogging in the dark—not showing up to cut a check four days before the election and add their logo to a press release .
I hope our movement learns that in time for 2022 .
Because somewhere out there this week , the next Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , or the next Charles Booker , is starting to think about picking up the baton .

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For a week now, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about what just happened in Kentucky, where progressive firebrand Charles Booker almost beat all the odds in the US Senate Democratic primary race. It’s not because I’m any stranger to electoral heartbreak. When I was 20, I moved from Brooklyn to a town I’d never heard of in Wisconsin to help a Democrat named Rob Zerban run a campaign to unseat Representative Paul Ryan, then the chair of the House Budget Committee. Years later, I moved to New Hampshire to work for the first Democratic socialist in modern history to mount a serious campaign for president. I’ve had my share of heartbreak.
It’s because I’ve seen this happen too many times before. When a race is decided by a margin that’s more than 10 percent, it’s easy to blame the media, or fundraising imbalances, or feel like it was fundamentally inhospitable terrain. But given how close the race came last week, it felt like a win really was within reach, and any little decision, any little investment could have made the difference.
I hope the progressive movement takes that seriously. A pro–Green New Deal, pro–Medicare for All, pro-UBI Black candidate came incredibly close—in Kentucky!—to beating someone who ran as a Democrat, but who has said she would have voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. I met Booker a year ago, when he was first thinking about running, and joined his campaign in April, when he was down 50 points in the polls. The final margin ended up at 2.8 percent, which was unthinkable when he started, with pennies in the bank, firmly in the single digits against the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s anointed candidate Amy McGrath, who appeared invincible sitting on top of a $40 million war chest.
At the beginning of his campaign, Booker had only what he likes to call “faith the size of a mustard seed.” That and the backing of the Sunrise Movement, who met with him and did the slow, grinding work of supporting his candidacy before anyone else had heard of him. If you looked at the numbers back in February, it was easy to think Booker’s candidacy was an unwinnable distraction. It also just felt unwinnable—a Black man running statewide in Kentucky on the Green New Deal? Get real. So most advocacy groups and progressive organizations stayed on the sidelines.
But Sunrise saw it another way: They saw it as their job to take on the slow, difficult fight, not only because we need more progressive senators in order to pass progressive legislation, but also because committing resources early on would ultimately grow and strengthen the movement even in the event of a loss. So they helped produce his launch video, worked with the team to build the bones of his campaign, devoted e-mail and fundraising resources to it, helped recruit a team, and set up a voter contact operation for the only Black candidate in the race back when everyone else in DC was waiting with bated breath to see if radio host Matt Jones would decide to challenge McGrath. They saw in Booker’s candidacy an opportunity to reframe the debate around the Green New Deal, which right-wing fearmongers had long dismissed as the elitist fever dreams of white liberals, instead of as a truly broad-based populist governing vision. What would it mean, they wondered, for a Black candidate to run and win on a Green New Deal in the heart of America’s coal country? 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 A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life 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 A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
A whole lot, as last week’s results would prove. Sunrise’s early investment, and Booker’s immense heart and talent as a candidate, closed the gap from a 50 percent deficit to less than three points. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Bernie Sanders, and Senator Elizabeth Warren all backed Booker, and national progressive groups like MoveOn, Indivisible, and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee began to follow suit. It became the national story to watch and a focal point of the battle between the party’s establishment and insurgent progressive wings.
But as the results rolled in last week, I kept wondering: Why did the help take so long? How could it be that Amy McGrath, backed by Senator Chuck Schumer, the DSCC, and their donors, blanketed the Kentucky airwaves with $3 million in the final week alone to paper over her weaknesses as a candidate, while major progressive groups on our side sat out the race or endorsed in the final hours before election day? Current Issue View our current issue
All told, Booker’s campaign spent $1.1 million on TV advertising, while McGrath unloaded a cool $12 million onto the airwaves over the course of the primary. Despite that, we came within 2.8 percent. Clearly, we didn’t need spending parity to win, but what would an extra $300,000 in help from outside groups have meant one month before Election Day, while Kentuckians were sending in their ballots by mail, and could it have put us over the top? That’s a question I’ll be asking myself every day for the next several months.
It’s hard to keep watching our ascendant movement blow the most winnable electoral contests of our time: Jessica Cisneros could be in Congress, Tiffany Caban should be the Queens County district attorney, Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez deserves the chance to take on John Cornyn, and it’s heartbreaking that Abdul El-Sayed isn’t the governor of Michigan. Falling just short again, watching history continue to repeat itself, compels discussion. Charles Booker Charles Booker Is Determined to Fight Voter Suppression in Kentucky John Nichols
The truth is: All of these races look unwinnable until they’re not. But isn’t that what movement organizations are here to do—take on the worthy fights, and turn the improbable into the possible? What we’ve proven on Tuesday is that these races are winnable if we try, even when we’re badly outspent. But that can’t happen if the cavalry arrives five days before Election Day, which is when the biggest pro-Booker independent expenditure came in. That’s too late to make a real difference—and the establishment knows it. That’s why the biggest pro-McGrath independent expenditure came in 48 days before the election. We need established progressive organizations to learn from that, and do what Sunrise did with Booker, and what Justice Democrats has impressively done with Jamaal Bowman.
If progressive organizations and advocacy groups keep waiting for candidates to catch fire and have a moment before they hop on board, we’re doomed to keep losing winnable races by a few hundred votes. Put another way, if you wait until you feel thirsty to drink water, it’s too late; you’re already dehydrated. We need more organizations to understand what groups like Sunrise and Justice Democrats already do: that winning requires showing up early, and doing the hard, tireless work of slogging in the dark—not showing up to cut a check four days before the election and add their logo to a press release. I hope our movement learns that in time for 2022. Because somewhere out there this week, the next Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or the next Charles Booker, is starting to think about picking up the baton.