By K and Sasha “Cop City will never be built!” All of us chanted this at some point. This rallying cry filled our heads with possibilities and invited others to meet our optimism. The movement started off small, at times clumsy and awkward, but with contagious ferocity fueled by that optimism, it took off. Mass
By Dylan J, Frances Fuku, and N.S Ríos Introduction In the Spring of 2024, Columbia University students led an encampment on campus calling on their university to disclose their financial investments and to divest from Israel. After months of sustained but ineffective protests against the Israeli military’s genocide against Palestinians, many were inspired by the
The 2020 uprising was a major event by whatever measure you use. But rigorous analysis of it remains limited.
This position paper was drafted before Trump caught coronavirus. It was approved in a unanimous vote by the majority of Unity and Struggle members. Whether you agree with us or not, we hope it encourages revolutionaries in the U.S. to debate what we can expect in November, and begin making plans. A month out from
This article was originally written in 2015 after the initial Black Lives Matter protest movement had died down. It has not been updated to include a discussion of the current wave of protests and riots. However, there are some insights in this piece that have a bearing on this moment and we believe that this
Unity and Struggle has been an organization for a long time, with some membership roots dating all the way back to the Love & Rage Federation of the 1990s. We have taken many turns and shifted our form of organization many times over the years. Along the way, we have met many other groupings who
On April 18, 2019, organizers to the left of the nonprofits, unions and politicians came together to discuss Sam Stein’s new book, Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State (2019: Verso Press). This was the culmination of a city-wide study group that took place in five locations across four boroughs. The audio of this
After many years of spontaneous protest, many of us share an awareness for the need of durable organizations that can involve millions of people in social transformation. A new generation of organizers is looking to “community organizing” models for answers. But can this playbook be remade to serve revolutionary goals?
Like everybody else, Unity and Struggle members have grappled with how to address abuse and patriarchal behavior in our society, and in left organizations including our own. We don’t have easy answers, but we’ve found it helpful to study the nature of abuse under capitalism and different responses to it. Below is the syllabus for
In the Spring of 2014 a hunger strike started inside an immigrant detention center in Conroe, Texas at the Joe Corley Detention Facility one hour north of Houston. Joe Corley is one of several detention centers and prisons run by The GEO Group, INC which is a private company making millions off of incarcerating prisoners,
