J.P.
@leftiecowboy.bsky.social
editor at in these times magazine, dancing cowboy, basketball fanatic
From @redemmas.org in Baltimore to @pilsencommbooks.bsky.social in Chicago, @leftiecowboy.bsky.social reports, radical booksellers are building democratically governed spaces where the public is invited to do more than shop: to gather, learn and organize. inthesetimes.com/article/coop...
Bookstores can be more than retail. @leftiecowboy.bsky.social writes that cooperative bookstores are democratically governed spaces where readers, workers and communities build something together—against Amazon, rising rents and “spoon-fed corporate mush.” inthesetimes.com/article/coop...
Union density in the U.S. is around 11%. Strike funds are uneven. Many public sector workers legally can’t strike. So how could May Day 2028 work? @leftiecowboy.bsky.social breaks down the promise and the obstacles.
Why Everyone Should Be Preparing For May Day 2028
If we’re going to build enough collective power to win universal healthcare and the right to retire with dignity, then we need to tighten up.
inthesetimes.com
“To queer something is to question. It is to turn it on its head and say, ‘I don’t think things actually have to be that way.’ This is one small space where that is normal for an evening. People can just be who they are.” chicagoreader.com/city-life/qu...
Queer Contra’s monthly dances are a crash course in community feeling - Chicago Reader
On the third Saturday of every month, new and experienced dancers move together and connect.
chicagoreader.com
Alongside protests against raids and deportations, small actions of absurdist disruption can also prove to expose the raw violence of those in power. @leftiecowboy.bsky.social presents the magic of guerrilla theater in the streets. inthesetimes.com/article/guer...
A 50% rent hike hit @pilsencommbooks.bsky.social. Instead of closing, the co-op relocated and expanded its role as a radical bookstore, community hub, classroom and organizing space. @leftiecowboy.bsky.social reports. inthesetimes.com/article/radi...
Radical bookstores don’t just sell books. In Chicago, Baltimore, and beyond, they host book clubs, training sessions, meetings, jail support work, and organizing that can shape entire movements. New from @leftiecowboy.bsky.social
Radical Booksellers Do More Than Just Retail
Bookstores fight for communities through activism, despite backlash.
inthesetimes.com
While real abortion clinics are disappearing, Sonia Chajet Wides reports, crisis pregnancy centers mislead patients, dodge medical standards, and siphon hundreds of millions in public funds—even as Medicaid faces historic cuts. inthesetimes.com/article/fake...
"Warnings against rent control policies often come wrapped in dire metaphors about 'destroying cities' and 'halting investment,' but, politically, freezes are popular." @leftiecowboy.bsky.social explains how a thoughtfully designed freeze could protect renters. inthesetimes.com/article/the-...
The Rent Is Too Damn High! Time for a Rent Freeze?
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani campaigned on a rent freeze policy, but what does it actually mean?
inthesetimes.com
With rising grocery prices and increasingly sparse options, more places are considering municipal-owned grocery stores to create equitable access to food. @leftiecowboy.bsky.social explains how this is Medicaid, but for milk and eggs. inthesetimes.com/article/muni...
As fascism’s grip only grows tighter, the popular fronts of yesterday can become blueprints for solidarity today. @leftiecowboy.bsky.social brings to you the next #BigIdea inthesetimes.com/article/the-...
“From fascist Europe to Cold War America, reactionary movements have framed their aggression as self-defense. Today, this persists in appeals to cultural grievance and racial anxiety, obscuring the immense financial and institutional power behind them.” @shaneburley.bsky.social @inthesetimes.com
Charlie Kirk and the Free Speech Hoax
The Right doesn't really care about free speech, and their reaction to the murder of Charlie Kirk proves it.
inthesetimes.com
I wrote about Pete Hegseth, that terrible modern day American Narcissus, for the new issue of @inthesetimes.com inthesetimes.com/article/amer...
Today, @mauriziogro.bsky.social reports on the union shareholders fighting both ICE & the data brokers feeding it information. "With no one stepping in to create some guardrails, [AI] will become harder and harder to regulate." - Emma Pullman of @bcgeu.bsky.social inthesetimes.com/article/ice-...
The Data Brokers Fueling ICE’s Deportation Machine—And the Union Shareholders Fighting Back
"As investors, we are thinking about this as a risk to our investments, but also as a social and ethical issue.”
inthesetimes.com
Pension funds quietly shape our economy, & their power could be used to secure climate justice & worker security. @bradlander.bsky.social, @seiu521.bsky.social Pres Mullissa Willette, & #TeslaTakedown’s Evan Sutton join @leftiecowboy.bsky.social to discuss the pain & possibilities of pensions.
The Pain and Possibility of Pensions
A roundtable discussion with New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, CalPERS board member and SEIU Local 521 President Mullissa Willette and Evan Sutton of #TeslaTakedown
inthesetimes.com
#BigIdea: Universal Retirement Access for All - Every worker, no matter the job, should have a reliable way to build a nest egg. @leftiecowboy.bsky.social explains the past and present of one solution to support our elders. inthesetimes.com/article/big-...
"The U.S. government has long denied farmworkers the protections of basic labor law. While the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 guarantee workers overtime pay and the right to unionize, both laws ... exclude agricultural workers."
J.P.@leftiecowboy.bsky.social · last yr."The real solution, then, is not deportations but full rights for all workers. That means not only citizenship rights but labor rights, too." inthesetimes.com/article/farm...
Today, @leftiecowboy.bsky.social explains the necessity of "ending a system in which only those deemed 'productive' or 'deserving' are allowed to live well." inthesetimes.com/article/heal...
This month’s @inthesetimes.com features Health Communism in @leftiecowboy.bsky.social’s Big Ideas column—we appreciate the care taken in engaging our work & translating it into such a great distillation (no easy feat lol)—health communism is the antidote to MAHA & is needed now more than ever 🖤
In These Times@inthesetimes.com · last yr.Today, @leftiecowboy.bsky.social explains the necessity of "ending a system in which only those deemed 'productive' or 'deserving' are allowed to live well." inthesetimes.com/article/heal...
Liberation Theology—a movement born in Latin America—reads Church teachings through a Marxist lens. @leftiecowboy.bsky.social breaks it down: 🔗 inthesetimes.com/article/libe...
"The real solution, then, is not deportations but full rights for all workers. That means not only citizenship rights but labor rights, too." inthesetimes.com/article/farm...
The Battle for the Future of Farmwork
Trump’s immigration crackdown and a growing union effort are transforming Upstate New York into a battleground over farmwork’s future.
inthesetimes.com
In a state with one of the most challenging referendum processes in the nation, organizers gathered more than double the number of required signatures to give voters a chance to defeat an anti-union bill. inthesetimes.com/article/utah...
Utah Labor Coalition Puts Bargaining Ban on Hold with Historic Referendum
The group collected over 300,000 signatures opposing Utah’s ban on public sector collective bargaining, giving voters the chance to reject it.
inthesetimes.com
NYC used ranked-choice voting in it's mayoral primary. Read about how it works: inthesetimes.com/article/rank...
Big Idea: Ranked-Choice Voting
Ranked-choice elections, which allow voters to express their preference for third-party candidates without "splitting the vote," could help bring disillusioned Americans back to the ballot box.
inthesetimes.com
"Hunger strikes have deep roots in Chicago—and across the country—as escalations in campaigns for justice." inthesetimes.com/article/jewi...
Chicago Jewish Activists Embark on Indefinite Hunger Strike Over Gaza
Hunger strikes have deep roots in Chicago—and across the country—as escalations in campaigns for justice.
inthesetimes.com
"If we don’t use this opportunity to build lasting power, then we’re just blowing off steam," @ufcwforward.bsky.social told reporter @lfelizleon.bsky.social Luis reported on protests in six cities and what's next after the 5 million strong nationwide mobilization inthesetimes.com/article/no-k...
“No Kings” Seeded a Mass Movement Against Trump, Backed by Labor
This weekend’s protests rallied millions in defense of immigrant workers and against authoritarianism. Now what?
inthesetimes.com
By engaging in this very public, and risky, protest tactic, the hunger strikers are picking up on a long tradition of calculated starvation as a method of forcing a public confrontation with crises." @shaneburley.bsky.social inthesetimes.com/article/jewi...
BREAKING: Jewish Leaders in Chicago Embark on Indefinite Hunger Strike
As part of a nationwide mobilization, six members of Jewish Voice for Peace are putting their bodies on the line in solidarity with Gazans suffering from hunger during Israel’s blockade. By engaging i...
inthesetimes.com
My essay about the brilliant, pioneering & shockingly forgotten showrunner-pioneer Gertrude Berg, who invented the family sitcom (pre-Lucy!), then got eaten by the blacklist in the 1950s — a story with disturbing modern parallels www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
The Forgotten Inventor of the Sitcom
Gertrude Berg’s “The Goldbergs” was a bold, beloved portrait of a Jewish family. Then the blacklist obliterated her legacy.
newyorker.com
SEIU was already stepping up for immigrants, but the Los Angeles raids and David Huerta's arrest propelled it to the forefront of the fight against authoritarianism. read @lfelizleon.bsky.social for @inthesetimes.com inthesetimes.com/article/davi...
Trump Has Put a Target on SEIU, and the Labor Movement Is Fighting Back
The arrest of labor leader David Huerta in Los Angeles has put unions on the leading edge of resistance to mounting authoritarianism.
inthesetimes.com
I recently wrote about the importance of just-cause eviction laws, but this is a powerful reminder that renters don’t have to wait on lawmakers to take action. The power to organize—and win—is already in our hands. @rebeccaburns.bsky.social @inthesetimes.com inthesetimes.com/article/rent...
Striking Tenants Withhold Rent for 247 Days and Win
A victory in Kansas City suggests that the tactics of organized labor can work for tenants.
inthesetimes.com
