Forced Prison Labor Is on the Ballot
It’s shocking for many of us to learn that forced labor is actually legal as punishment for a crime. Ballot measures in Nevada and California this Election Day would outlaw forced labor in prisons.
7 Articles by: Scott W. Stern
Scott W. Stern is the author of There Is a Deep Brooding in Arkansas: The Rape Trials That Sustained Jim Crow, and the People Who Fought It, from Thurgood Marshall to Maya Angelou.
The Right Uses College Campuses as Its Training Grounds
Conservatives love to bemoan their supposed status as oppressed minorities in universities. But the college campus has long been a key site for the Right’s recruitment and training of future reactionary leaders and foot soldiers.
The Story of Palm Oil Is a Story About Capitalism
Palm oil is in everything: what we eat, wear, read, drive. And like so much else that we consume and can’t disentangle ourselves from, palm oil is enmeshed in global supply chains that rely on brutal working conditions and the destruction of the planet.
Rikers Island Has Made Us All Prisoners
New York City’s infamous jail on Rikers Island is one of the most brutal institutions of incarceration in America. Its conditions are the product not just of “tough-on-crime” policies but also of the best intentions of liberal criminal-justice reformers.
Despite Everything, Queer Leftists Survived
The history of queer liberation movements is often talked about as distinct from the history of the Left. But in the first half of the twentieth century, queer people were abundant among American radical leftists — decades before the rise of an organized mass movement for gay rights.
Remembering Margo St James, a Pioneering Sex Worker Organizer
The legacy of Margo St James, the trailblazing sex worker organizer who died earlier this month at 83, is more than her brazen personality, more than her bold and flamboyant tactics. She recognized that economic exploitation and gendered harassment are inextricably linked to police violence.
Just Pack the Damn Courts
The Left shouldn’t wring its hands about whether we should pack the courts or not. Just pack the courts.