Sofya Aptekar
@sofaptekar.bsky.social
CUNY prof, proud member of PSC-CUNY, author of Green Card Soldier, Lend & Rule, and The Road to Citizenship, sociologist, urban kayaker @bbpboathouse, "gratuitously politicized"
The Department of Homeland Security, which houses ICE, has over 260,000 employees. The Department of Defense, which houses the military, is the largest employer in the world. Carceral industries are some of the most unionized. Abolition is a labor issue. We need a new economy with different work.
Meanwhile 1,500 soldiers in an Army unit based in Alaska and specializing in arctic conditions is readying for deployment to Minnesota. www.military.com/daily-news/2...
Army Puts 1,500 Soldiers on Standby for Possible Minnesota Deployment, AP Sources Say
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said two infantry battalions of the Army’s 11th Airborne Division have been given prepare-to-deploy orders.
military.com
Sofya Aptekar@sofaptekar.bsky.social · 6mo agoNever mind that no, undocumented parents who entered without inspection will not be able to get a green card if their kid enlists in the military. Even the temporary relief from deportation for military families - Parole in Place - is costly and harder to get now. taskandpurpose.com/news/militar...
Imagine you are a teen in Minnesota, fearing that your immigrant parents will be abducted by ICE. You get an email from a military recruiter, who is also an immigrant, telling you that you can enlist and get a green card for your parents. 1/2 taskandpurpose.com/news/militar...
Recruiter told students that enlisting can lead to Green Cards for parents
The Parole in Place program is not available until after service members enlist, and it often requires a lawyer.
taskandpurpose.com
The public trust that runs Hudson River Park is making money renting space to ICE to park its kidnapping vans on Pier 40. hellgatenyc.com/hudson-river...
Hudson River Park Lets ICE Park Vans at Pier 40
A contract with the Trump administration has been a windfall for the park—plus more stories for your Wednesday.
hellgatenyc.com
New piece on how veterans can find themselves in debt to the VA, including the involvement of predatory third parties. Something I wrote about in my essay for the South Atlantic Quarterly a few months ago. www.military.com/feature/2025...
How Veterans Accidentally Commit Benefits Fraud Without Realizing It
Veterans can unintentionally trigger benefit investigations through reporting mistakes, confusing rules, or bad advice from third parties. Complex VA systems mean honest errors can quickly escalate in...
military.com
Sofya Aptekar@sofaptekar.bsky.social · last yr.I have a new article out in South Atlantic Quarterly: "Indebted Heroes: Debt Extraction and Military Labor in the United States". Here's a link to a free pdf and some highlights below read.dukeupress.edu/south-atlant...
Absolutely stunning that OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft were able to buy off an entire teachers’ union for just $23 million.
Randi Weingarten 🖇️📚✊🇺🇸@rweingarten.bsky.social · 8mo agoWe know students, like the rest of the world, are using AI. Teachers need to be equipped to deal w/all the issues AI creates. Our approach starts with maximizing safety & privacy and empowering educators to make educational decisions, so AI tools can benefit not harm www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...
TWO anti-trans bills are up for a vote this week: ❌ Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's bill that would criminalize providers of gender-affirming care ❌ Rep. Dan Crenshaw's bill that would block Medicaid funds from covering transition-related care (1/2)
Join this Wednesday's webinar WHY PALESTINE IS A UNION ISSUE (12/3) at 5:30—7:30pm ET, hosted by our comrades at Coalition for Action in Higher Ed! Registration: zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Wait, I thought AI and suicide was in the news for something else recently 🤔
ICE garage blockaded in lower Manhattan with dozens of agents stuck inside as more and more New Yorkers gather. NYPD observed staging on Canal & Broadway, expected come over for crowd control.
Wonder how it affects Northwestern's credit rating 🤔
Matthew Eadie@mattheweadie.bsky.social · 8mo agoBREAKING: Northwestern University has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years as part of an agreement with the federal government to restore funding and end investigations into the university Full statement from NU below:
We're gonna need a truth and reconciliation commission and Nuremberg style trials to reckon with all of this evil, and any Dem candidate for office who shies away from a full reckoning in the name of "moving forward as a nation" can get well and truly fucked
Gravel Influencer@gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · 8mo agoI feel much safer today knowing that we deported a Babson College student back to a country where she hasn't lived since childhood. She wasn't even flying internationally. She was flying to Texas.
And likely our pension money and our union reserves are invested in it.
LaborLab@laborlab.bsky.social · 8mo agoThe union-busting industry is massive. Massive and insidious. It’s an industry that thrives in the shadows.
VERIFIED: Fundraiser for the Queens family that had their door busted down & a gun pointed in their face by ICE. The children are all traumatized, unable to sleep. Fundraiser seeks to secure them emergency housing and get therapy for the kids. www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-...
Donate to Help a Traumatized Family Find Safety and Stability, organized by Katherine Gomez
A family in our community is living through every parent’s worst n… Katherine Gomez needs your support for Help a Traumatized Family Find Safety and Stability
gofundme.com
*Nov 19 — The migrant worker Joe Hill was executed — Around the world, wherever working people struggle, he lives on beside them. #1u *Nov 20 — Trans Day of Remembrance, for those lost around the world — as we cherish and champion all of our neighbors. 🏳️⚧️ An injury to one, is an injury to all.
people “embracing” AI in their classroom…you are ushering in the thing that is supposed to replace you not just as instructor but as source of knowledge, after it fed off your blood and guts “embracing the bubonic plague-infested rats in the classroom"
Brooke Newman@brookenewman.bsky.social · 9mo agoMessage to all faculty: your expertise is no longer trusted or valued at this so-called “university.”
Dang, you are a real one @rtfanning.bsky.social "it gets clearer and clearer that “Veterans Day” is nothing more than an attempt to bury the oppressive and deadly agenda of the U.S. ruling class by celebrating our “heroes.” 🔥
Rory Fanning@rtfanning.bsky.social · 9mo agoMy annual 11/11 Occupiers Day article ✊ truthout.org/articles/ice...
This would be transformative. To invest in publicly developed and owned learning management systems at CUNY instead of extractive and shitty Brightspace, Blackboard etc.
Matt Gold@mkgold.bsky.social · 9mo agoHuge thanks to @mattseybold.bsky.social for writing this great post, which highlights CUNY's transformative potential to build open educational infrastructure theamericanvandal.substack.com/p/mamdani-wi...
Every time one of these mass murderers dies without having faced any consequence for the massacres they ordered, the lives they destroyed, the societies they razed to the ground… I realize how far we are from a world with justice. Rest in hell Dick Cheney. Your legacy is death.
How are we already entering November... Amidst it all, it feels a bit weird to do normal things like talks, but here I go: 11/3: Wake Forest sociology department visit 11/13: Baruch College panel on deported vets 11/14: Boston University Law Review Symposium More details in thread
🚨BIG changes happening -- ICE leadership is being purged tonight. The old guard, which prioritized targeted enforcement operations aimed at people with criminal records, is being replaced with Border Patrol and Gregory Bovino's "Midway Blitz" style. Think things are bad now? It'll get worse.
Cool article about public libraries that has some quotes from me. Love to see my work in Spanish (and an unexpected promotion to antropóloga) www.elsaltodiario.com/institucione...
Bibliotecas públicas: un tercer lugar donde ensayar la utopía
Las bibliotecas han sido históricamente objetivo de ataques que no siempre han tomado la forma de incendio o metralla: el desinterés o la censura también son una amenaza para su supervivencia.
elsaltodiario.com
Tomorrow evening! Come to discuss debt struggles, including the debt our public schools are in, abortion debt, and military debt.
Sofya Aptekar@sofaptekar.bsky.social · 10mo agoJoin us for this @debtcollective.bsky.social Jubilee School session on Oct. 21. Ill be talking about military labor and debt (even as footage of military workers in food pantry lines is all over the news) debtcollective.org/event/is-a-d...
✊ALLIES: WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT! > Sign our No Contract No Coffee pledge to commit to not crossing a picket line: bit.ly/NoContractNoCoffee > Donate to our strike fund by purchasing union-made merch from our store or donating directly: sbworkersunited.org/strike-fund/
No Contract, No Coffee Pledge
Baristas are the most important part of the Starbucks experience. Baristas open the stores every morning and close them every night. They greet customers, make the coffee, clean up the spills, a...
bit.ly
The Defense Commissary Agency is pushing its predatory credit card on military workers dealing with food insecurity. Under the debt regime we live in, debt is a solution for every problem, for survival itself. It comes at you seemingly from every side, including from your employer/government.
toastgenders international@toasty.cx · 10mo agoJust throwing this out for anyone who doesn't know: the military star card is a predatory credit card aimed directly at service members so it is not in fact a great option for soldiers across the force as CJ is saying in the screenshot here
I went on the American Campus podcast to talk about the other kind of college debt - the debt that our colleges are in. What does the financialization of higher ed mean for the way colleges and universities are governed? americancampuspodcast.buzzsprout.com/2396665/epis...
The university’s creditors with Sofya Aptekar - American Campus Podcast
On hedge funds, private equity, and the financialization of public colleges.References and suggested readings:The Coalition Against Campus Debt. 2024. Lend and Rule: Fighting the Financialization of P...
americancampuspodcast.buzzsprout.com
Join us for this @debtcollective.bsky.social Jubilee School session on Oct. 21. Ill be talking about military labor and debt (even as footage of military workers in food pantry lines is all over the news) debtcollective.org/event/is-a-d...
Is a Debtors’ Revolution the Way?
Presented by South Atlantic Quarterly Special Debt Issue Authors Jason Wozniak, Eleni Schirmer, Braxton Brewington, Sofya Aptekar
debtcollective.org
This is who @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social is. Brilliant. Fearless. I fucking hate typing this shit out: Free Eman. Amplify amplify amplify please.
Puff the Magic Hater@mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 10mo ago@emanabdelhadi.bsky.social tells these cops about themselves.