Socialism

Supporters of Jack Mazurek gathered on Monday morning at the Fulton County Courthouse—where a hearing was scheduled to take place in Mazurek’s criminal case—to demand that prosecutors drop their political prosecution against Mazurek and all individuals facing charges for their opposition to Cop City.

Mazurek was arrested in February 2024 during an early morning raid conducted by Atlanta Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the FBI. He was then detained without bail in the notoriously deadly Fulton County jail for a month, before spending another month in Cobb County jail. Since then, he has been released pending trial on highly-restrictive 24-hour house arrest.

“People are gathering to support Jack because no one should face these charges alone“ said Charlie, a member of Jack’s support team. “The police have been surveilling and intimidating Stop Cop City activists for years, but no one can scare us away from showing up for each other.”

The prosecution of Mazurek on arson charges, without any meaningful evidence, is part of the state’s broader attempt to repress the movement against the militarized police compound known as Cop City, which has faced broad opposition from Atlanta residents for years.

Over the past two decades, the housing market has emerged as a powerful means by which capitalism can exploit the working class. At our workplaces, capitalists profit from their ability to control our labor; and then we go home, where we are exploited by the landlords who profit from their control over housing. And if the answer to our oppression in the workplace is labor unions, the answer to our oppression in our homes is tenant unions.

From early 2022 to early 2024, I was involved with a tenant union campaign at a large apartment complex in north-west San Antonio, via the now-dormant Tenant Union San Antonio (TUSA). While the campaign failed in its overall goal – to organize the tenants of the complex into a self-sustaining, democratic, and militant union – the efforts nonetheless secured some improvements for tenants, and provided organizers with an important and fulfilling learning experience.

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Hundreds of thousands of people across the U.S. and globe gathered on May 1, or International Workers Day, also known as May Day, to celebrate the international labor movement and resist the agendas of leaders that they say are attempting to divide the working class by attacking unions and immigrant communities. This year, labor leaders in the U.S. made a national call for May Day actions, building on the momentum of the “Hands Off” rallies earlier in April that drew large crowds in all 50 states. People across the country are mobilizing under the call, “​For the Workers, Not the Billionaires.”

Minnesota’s labor movement is participating in a week of actions hosted by labor unions and immigrants rights groups and have been specifically calling out the Trump administration’s anti-worker, anti-immigrant agenda. We will update this piece throughout the week.

I directed/edited/etc a new video for Jacobin Magazine on how and why to form a union in your workplace. Labor battles affect all of us every day, and as someone who hasn’t had stable work in years it makes me particularly angry. Please watch/like/share/etc <3

Part of what I see with 50501/Hands Off protests is that they have a theme of "defending the Constitution" from Trump. This is really a somewhat conservative position and doesn't have much historical rigor to it.

Prof. Aziz Rana of Boston College Law School is having a moment on Jacobin Radio right now. His basic thesis is that the Constitutional order is so deeply antidemocratic that the left argued with itself and the liberals over whether to focus efforts on challenging it in the early 20th Century. In the broad sweep of history since then, Americans have come to view the Constitution as a sacred text, but in fact, that order is part of what gives the Republicans and the far right their advantages despite losing the popular vote.

The shorter interview: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#S250424 (April 24, 2025)
The 4-part long interview: https://thedigradio.com/archive/ (see the Aziz Rana episodes starting in April 2025) - Part 4 isn't up yet.

So why should we venerate the Constitution, when it holds us back from real, direct democracy? I think part of what our liberal friends and family hold onto is a trust in the Constitution and the framers. They weren't geniuses, they were landowners worried about kings taking their property. Use these interviews, or Prof. Rana's book, to handle those arguments.

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