Consent Isn’t up to the Court
The US legal system was never capable of bringing Bill Cosby to justice.
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Insurrection & Abolition: Ida B. Wells and the End of the Convict Lease System
Once slavery was abolished, capitalists rebuilt an industrialized South using a new form of racialized slavery: the convict lease system. It would take multi-racial insurrectionary action to ultimately abolish convict leasing.
Out of the Lobbies, into the Streets
Over the past couple weeks, multiple attacks on Chicago abortion clinics show that it’s do-or-die time for abortion access in America. Defending and expanding reproductive rights depends on grassroots mobilizing.
Ambe: The Space Between Us
Colonial systems and modes of thought shape and sever our relationships to one another and the world around us. Black and Indigenous literatures point toward a different kind of relationship.
Black and Palestinian Solidarities
The oppression of Black people and the oppression of Palestinians are linked, but so are their resistances to colonization and US empire. Khury Petersen-Smith speaks with Eve L. Ewing about Black and Palestinian solidarity.
Assad Has Not Won
Deep economic and political crisis in Syria under the Assad regime shows that the conditions that gave birth to the Syrian revolution have far from resolved.
How Wall Street Trapped American Cities
City budgets are key targets of local organizing and Defund campaigns, but cities themselves are bound by much larger financial forces. A recent book by Destin Jenkins details how cities became trapped by banks and credit rating agencies intent on austerity and racism.
Introducing the Sprout Slate
As DSA members prepare for their bi-annual convention this summer, the Sprout Slate in Chicago has emerged as a prominent contender. Rampant sat down with “the slate the uprisings produced” to discuss their thoughts on abolition, mutual aid, multiracial organizing and the future of the movement.
Between Grief and Anger, I Will Take Anger
A Palestinian in Gaza describes the pain, fear, and anger of life under Israel's bombs.
Myths of White Supremacy and Black Radicalism
From “race reductionism” to “dupes of Moscow.” many myths about Black radicalism and white supremacy still circulate today. In this roundtable, Charisse Burden-Stelly, Robin D. G. Kelley, and Barbara Smith provide an important counter.
Repression and Black Radical History
The socialist movement in this country was at its strongest when it developed deep ties to the movement for Black liberation. In this roundtable, Charisse Burden-Stelly, Robin D.G. Kelley, and Barbara Smith reflect on key moments of this historic connection.
It’s Been Nothing but Fight
Dorothy Holmes describes her fight for a special prosecutor and carrying forward the citywide struggle for an end to police violence.
A Revolution Imprisoned by Assad
A Syrian activist describes her struggle to free her father and other political prisoners arrested and disappeared by the Assad regime for the simple act of protesting for freedom.
All Good Social Change Comes from Mass Disruption
The New Deal wasn’t won by cozying up to congresspeople, but by workers’ disruptive mass strikes and social mobilizations. We cannot forget that in the Biden era.
There Is No Justification for the Murder of Ma’Khia Bryant
Ma’Khia Bryant deserved a long, thriving life, period. While some have pointed to the circumstances of her murder in order to cast doubt on her right to live, none of these equivocations even have a basis in crisis intervention experience.
Notoriously Immoral: Eugenics, Incarceration, and the White City
Bones discovered in 1989 revealed the gruesome history of eugenics, experimentation, and murder at the Dunning facility in Chicago. Far from an aberration, the brutality of white supremacy was integral to Chicago’s past, showcased at the famous World's Fair that put Chicago on the map.
Adam’s Innocence Isn’t Even the Point
A Chicago cop put a bullet in a thirteen-year-old child, and many are spinning narratives laced with typical racist dehumanization in an attempt to obscure this fact. It’s the cops who should be under the spotlight, disbanded, and abolished.
Syria, Palestine, Solidarity
Palestinian liberation is intimately tied to the liberation struggles of the entire region. Palestine’s dynamic interdependence with the revolutionary struggle against Assad in Syria has important lessons.
Ambe: A Year of Indigenous Reading
Reading Indigenous literature matters because Indigenous people matter. The organizer of a powerful reading group on Indigenous and Black stories and histories reflects on their ongoing experience.
Survival and Revolution: Mutual Aid in Chicago during the February 2021 Polar Vortex
Mutual aid efforts during Chicago’s brutal winter saved the lives of many residents who were willfully neglected by City Hall and attacked by the police. The polar vortex mutual aid effort shows the importance of mutual aid as a site of class struggle.
A Broadened Sense of Abolition
Our understanding of innocence, guilt, victims, and criminals shapes the worlds we are able to build. New books by Mariame Kaba and Harsha Walia pry open political possibilities.
Chicago’s Rohingya and the Myanmar Revolt
The genocide of the Rohingya in Myanmar led many refugees to settle in Chicago. Now, as mass protests roil their home country, Rohingya human rights advocate Imran Mohammad Fazal Hoque speaks to his community’s harrowing experience and the current revolt.
Erasing People through Disinformation: Syria and the “Anti-Imperialism” of Fools
Disreputable writers and outlets, often operating under the aegis of “independent journalism” with purportedly “leftwing” views, are spreading corrosive propaganda and disinformation that aims to strip Syrians of political agency.
Justice for Gerald Reed
This week Chicagoans have a chance to show up for a police torture survivor who is still suffering unjust incarceration.