social movements

A Deal with the Devil: Nonprofits, Social Movements, and Your Taxes

by Rebecca Gordon

As taxpayers tallied their contributions to nonprofit organizations last month, few probably reflected on the fact that the tax code, by shielding large wealthy foundations from taxes, has historically allowed funders to capture social movements, often stopping them from making demands for drastic change in society. 

Recovering the Core Radicalism of the Civil Rights Movement: An Interview with Glenda Gilmore

by Robert Greene II

Cold war histories of civil rights have obscured the key role of communists and other radicals in establishing the economic demands of the movement and the practice of interracial mobilization. 

How Poland's Solidarity Rejected the Temptation of Violence

by David Richards

The Polish Solidarity movement is an instructive study in how a coalition of workers, intellectuals and spiritual leaders maintained a commitment to nonviolence and dialogue in the face of repression. 

Despite the Cultural Differences, There's Common Ground Between Boomers and Zoomers

by Joseph Preston Baratta

Despite the differences in their cultural touchstones, Gen Z faces the yet-incomplete challenge of the Baby Boom generation: uniting the world in novel ways to solve global problems. 

The Fatal Siloing of Abortion Advocacy

by Meaghan Winter

It was a strategic mistake for abortion rights advocates to emphasize the right to individual choice instead of the vast issues of economic justice, workforce quality, educational equity and personal safety that are impacted by whether women can control their own reproduction. 

Footage in NYC's Archives Sheds Important Light on the Northern Civil Rights Movement and Police Efforts to Undermine It

by L.E.J. Rachell

Surveillance footage in the New York City Archives helps to highlight the importance of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to the northern civil rights movement – and the techniques the NYPD used to disrupt it. 

These Books Tell of Change Happening Slowly, then Suddenly

Historians Lynn Hunt, Adam Hochschild, Kate Clifford-Larse and Keenaga-Yamahtta Taylor are among the authors whose books dig beneath the surface of famous leaders to describe how social movements built the strength to change laws, institutions and ideas. 

The Beginnings of Queer Citizenship in West Germany

by Samuel Clowes Huneke

An emerging gay activist culture in West Berlin in the 1970s made substantial gains in building cultural spaces and expanding tolerance, but struggled to build political solidarity out of sexual identity amid other social divisions.

The Truth About Prohibition

by Mark Lawrence Schrad

American historians have often identified Prohibition with a coalition of social reformers, nativists and religious fundamentalists. Looking at the international temperance and prohibition movement tells a different story of a fight against exploitation of workers and minority groups through addiction.

Rise And Fall Of A Movement — A Review Of “The Young Lords: A Radical History”

by Leo Valdes

Johanna Fernandez's history of the Puerto Rican activist organization reconstructs the movement's roots and shows that an organization formed in 1969 still offers a useful diagnosis of an "urban crisis" rooted in experiences in housing, schools, hospitals, and jails. 

Historian Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on the Structures of Racial Inequality and Social Movements Fighting It

“In the United States, it’s very stark that the past is not yet past. Problems that we think of as historical in fact continue to impact our lives on a daily basis.”

When the Young Lords Took Over a Hospital and Changed Public Health Care

by Emma Francis-Snyder

"The dramatic takeover of Lincoln Hospital produced one of the first Patient’s Bill of Rights, changing patients’ relationship with hospitals and doctors nationwide."

Climate, Peace, and Health Require International Solidarity. Is it Possible to Build It?

by Lawrence Wittner

"Although there are no guarantees that social movements and enhanced global governance will transform our divided, problem-ridden world, they should provide us with at least a measure of hope that, someday, human solidarity will prevail."

An Oral History of the Lesbian Avengers

The Lesbian Avengers organized and demonstrated in the 1990s to fight homophobia and sexism within the movement for queer liberation.

The Future of L.A. is Here. Robin D.G. Kelley’s Radical Imagination Shows Us the Way

Historian Robin Kelley discusses the work of his mentor Cedric Robinson, whose discussions in "Black Marxism" offer a way to circumvent the reductionist tendencies of the class- and race-oriented wings of the left today. 

Fight To Vote: The Woman Who Was Key In 'Getting Us The Voting Rights Act'

Historian Carol Anderson explains the contributions of Amelia Boynton to the Selma movement and the erasure of women's organizing work from many histories of the movement. 

A Scholar of American Doom Doesn’t See How Capitalism Can Fix This Crisis

"There are probably a billion and a half people, maybe more, maybe 2 billion, in the informal working class who have simply been triaged already in advance. So the fate of a very large minority of humanity has been determined now."

The Case to End the Supreme Court as We Know It

by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

The Supreme Court has historically supported democratic and egalitarian change only when forced by social movements. People must stop looking to the power invested in the court and start looking for the power latent in themselves. 

The Forgotten Feminists of the Backlash Decade

Lisa Levenstein's book assesses a shift in the women's movement in the 1990s into digital spaces and professionalized issue organizations. A reviewer considers what that shift enabled women to achieve and what it cost. 

Scholar Robin D.G. Kelley on how Today’s Abolitionist Movement can Fundamentally Change the Country

"Part of defunding the police is a recognition that the police, as constituted, make life more dangerous for vulnerable populations even as it creates a sense of false safety for white people."