This Week in People’s History, August 19–25, 2026

NY Daily News with "Airline Strike Snarl Spreads" headline
Big Strike Wins Big (1966), Radical Idea No Longer (1866), Haiti Gives Slavery the Boot (1791), Jury’s Verdict: Freedom! (1781), Greenhouse Effect? Forget About It! (1856), Ugly Moment, Uglier War (1636), Workers Lose Big on Blair Mountain (1921)

Democratic Voters Are Fired Up

2018 was a historic blowout for the Dems. This year, primary turnout is much higher.

Ocasio-Cortez Rewrites the Rules

“We need more depictions of women having full lives,” AOC said on Instagram, while documenting freezing her eggs. She is refusing to disappear the reality of maintaining a female body, working instead to fuse body and mind on the public stage.

Mamdani and Barry: Int'l Solidarity and Local Gov't

As Mayor Mamdani seeks to build solidarity with the Palestinian people he should look to the example set by another activist-turned-mayor, Marion Barry. The D.C. Mayor used his office to support the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.

The Jeju Massacre A Hidden Crime of America’s Cold War

In 1948, a US-sponsored dictatorship in South Korea launched a brutal campaign of repression on the island of Jeju. Having killed up to 30,000 people — one islander in ten — Washington’s Korean clients covered up the evidence of the crime for decades

A New Kind of Cosmic Object – A Black Hole ‘Star’

The body is the size of the entire solar system and glows with a brilliant red light billions of light years from Earth

Food First, Morals Follow: 70 Years On Bertolt Brecht

Brecht criticized social injustice, denounced National Socialism and envisioned more humane, socialist society. Remembering Brecht means revisiting his insistence that art should question existing power relationships and imagine a different society.

Black Families Face Worsening Security and Stability

While the overall financial well-being of most adults held steady in 2025, the financial well-being of Black adults declined, more likely to experience layoffs, and more likely to report major concerns about making ends meet.

Judge Orders Pentagon To Lift Freeze on Wind Power

Since April, the Defense Department has halted all military reviews for wind projects, stalling dozens of projects nationwide.

Trump’s Constitutional Dictatorship

Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s inside account of the Trump administration portrays a president with a vast appetite for power but who repeatedly backs down when the costs of his actions become too high.
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Culture

food

What Does It Take to Work on a Cauliflower Crew?

David Bacon The Reality Check: Stories and Photographs by David Bacon
Today several hundred thousand Indigenous farmworkers from southern Mexico labor in fields, not just in California, but all over the U.S. Their culture, and their political and labor activism, are changing rural communities profoundly.

poetry

Road Sign on Interstate 5

Robert Peake
Poet Robert Peake asks us to consider what a road sign says about the lives and needs of migrants.

food

Fight Hunger and Make Food More Affordable.

Ralph Palladino Submitted by the author to Portside
Given today’s challenging economic landscape and recent federal policy rollbacks, publicly run food stores are a practical, common-sense idea worth pursuing.

Labor

labor

A Union of Unions: Revitalizing Labor Councils

Whitney Washington Convergence
Labor councils are important but often overlooked for building working-class power. This article takes us from Tennessee to Vermont to examine how these vital organizations are faring today, while honoring one of their champions, Vonda McDaniel.

labor

Daimler To Close Portland Truck Plant

Don McIntosh NW Labor Press
The plant closure is a sad end to the high hopes of five years ago, when Daimler chose the Portland plant to make new electric versions of its Class 8 heavy truck and smaller box trucks.

Friday nite video

video

Donavan McKinney on his Primary Upset

Donavan McKinney, Democratic nominee to represent Detroit/Wayne County in Congress, on democratic socialism, corporate money, data centers and the need for Medicare for All

video

Can Baldness Be Reversed?

New research could lead to breakthroughs in how we understand how cells grow and divide… and that means a cure for /baldness/ could help us study /cancer/.

video

Steal This Story, Please!

A riveting portrait of the iconic independent journalist Amy Goodman by Oscar-nominated Directors Tia Lessin and Carl Deal. Executive Producers Rosario Dawson, Jane Fonda and Tom Morello.

video

India’s Internet War

A decade after Modi’s digital-first political campaign, an internet-fueled youth movement called the Cockroach Janta Party (or the Cockroach People’s Party) is using social media platforms to organize protests