In this month’s newsletter: communities are reshaping how empire is remembered in public life. Plus, holding royalty to account in Jamaica and repairing centuries of harm in California• Don’t get Cotton Capital delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereHello and welcome to the Cotton Capital newsletter. I’m Nadine White and this month we’re asking: after the toppling, what comes next?Britain spent much of 2020 arguing about what should come down. Statues of enslavers and colonial figures were toppled
In this month’s newsletter: communities are reshaping how empire is remembered in public life. Plus, holding royalty to account in Jamaica and repairing centuries of harm in California
Beto Coral held up banners in Florida warning fellow Colombians to not vote for Abelardo de la EspriellaIn the week before Colombia’s presidential election, Beto Coral, a well-known activist living in the United States, travelled to Florida to persuade fellow Colombians not to vote for the far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella.Coral held banners outside polling stations in Miami warning that the millionaire lawyer, whose candidacy was endorsed by Donald Trump, would “help deport all of yo
Beto Coral held up banners in Florida warning fellow Colombians to not vote for Abelardo de la Espriella
In the week before Colombia’s presidential election, Beto Coral, a well-known activist living in the United States, travelled to Florida to persuade fellow Colombians not to vote for the far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella.
Coral held banners outside polling stations in Miami warning that the millionaire lawyer, whose candidacy was endorsed by Donald Trump, would “help deport all of you”.
A movement with safety, dignity and equality at its heart may now be blamed for the rightwing backlash. But within it were principles worth carrying forwardsEvery once in a while, the discourse gods send a tablet down to the people, announcing that a previous era is dead and a new age is upon us. Recently, it was the “vibe shift” – a post-pandemic change in culture that encompassed everything from fashion to politics. The vibe shift consolidated with Donald Trump’s second election, a harbinger o
A movement with safety, dignity and equality at its heart may now be blamed for the rightwing backlash. But within it were principles worth carrying forwards
Every once in a while, the discourse gods send a tablet down to the people, announcing that a previous era is dead and a new age is upon us. Recently, it was the “vibe shift” – a post-pandemic change in culture that encompassed everything from fashion to politics. The vibe shift consolidated with Donald Trump’s second election, a harbinger of the end of fragility and of movements for racial and gender equality – a rejection of the long 2010s with their hashtags and pink pussy hats and women’s marches and protests. The vibe shift has recently been followed by a calling of time on what has come to be known as “Woke 1.0” – a term that represents what is now seen as a culture of hysterical overreach triggered by the momentary breakthrough of movements such as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. “Woke 1 was crazy,” said Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez this month, quoting a New York City councilman. And there we have it, time to walk back some things said and done in the giddy heat of those moments. It was crazy!
This rush to the future away from what some perceive to be an embarrassing past groups together various disparate phenomena. But I’m afraid it’s not that simple. Woke 1.0 (or “peak wokeness” – I wish the gods would use less trivialising ways to refer to roiling social tides, but there we are) was about politics and culture and also about the behaviours and trends it triggered. It was about concrete problems: policing of minority communities, the right of women not to be sexually harassed or violated, the systemic racism and sexism that damaged both. And it was about reforming the cultural structures that created and perpetuated those systems; asking university curricula to expand and diversify intellectual sources, recognising the long shadow of glorified imperial histories, and updating institutions – from the media to the academy – in order to enfranchise change. None of this is “crazy”.
Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist
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Wynd Kaufman, 69, chained and locked the front doors of OpenAI’s headquarters last year with members of StopAIAn activist who blocked the entrance to one of the world’s biggest AI companies is believed to have become the first person jailed for protesting against artificial intelligence as supporters dub her the “Rosa Parks of AI risk”.Wynd Kaufman, 69, surrendered herself on Friday to authorities in San Francisco. She was found guilty by a jury for her role in an action last year that saw membe
Wynd Kaufman, 69, chained and locked the front doors of OpenAI’s headquarters last year with members of StopAI
An activist who blocked the entrance to one of the world’s biggest AI companies is believed to have become the first person jailed for protesting against artificial intelligence as supporters dub her the “Rosa Parks of AI risk”.
Wynd Kaufman, 69, surrendered herself on Friday to authorities in San Francisco. She was found guilty by a jury for her role in an action last year that saw members of the group StopAI chain and lock the front doors of OpenAI’s headquarters in protest against the pursuit of artificial superintelligence.
The FBI from the 1950s to the 1970s tried to infiltrate and discredit leftist organizations. Trump seems to be repeating that sordid practiceIt is bad enough that the Trump administration blocked a federal criminal investigation when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent killed Renee Good as she was turning her car away from him in Minneapolis the past January. Just before the shooting, Good and her partner had been observing and protesting against ICE officers.Instead, it turns out
The FBI from the 1950s to the 1970s tried to infiltrate and discredit leftist organizations. Trump seems to be repeating that sordid practice
It is bad enough that the Trump administration blocked a federal criminal investigation when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent killed Renee Good as she was turning her car away from him in Minneapolis the past January. Just before the shooting, Good and her partner had been observing and protesting against ICE officers.
Instead, it turns out the administration has been investigating progressive and even mainstream groups that have been involved in protests against Donald Trump’s sweeping deportations, according to newly released government documents.
The fatal shootings of two men, both killed in their vehicles by ICE agents, have rekindled anger over the US’s militarized deportation pushLorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, was driving to work with his brother and two other passengers in Houston, Texas, when immigration agents began tailing his car. They pulled him over and fired a fatal shot through the open passenger-side window.Six days later in Biddeford, Maine, Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, 26, was driving around his neighborhood when agents st
The fatal shootings of two men, both killed in their vehicles by ICE agents, have rekindled anger over the US’s militarized deportation push
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, was driving to work with his brother and two other passengers in Houston, Texas, when immigration agents began tailing his car. They pulled him over and fired a fatal shot through the open passenger-side window.
Six days later in Biddeford, Maine, Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, 26, was driving around his neighborhood when agents stopped him at an intersection – right outside the laundromat where he’d often go with his three-year-old daughter – and shot him dead.
Hundreds of masked members of the white supremacist organization marched and chanted in the US capitalHundreds of masked men carrying banners, including the Confederate flag, marched through Washington DC on the Fourth of July, the 250th anniversary of the US’s inception.The group appeared to be led by Thomas Rousseau, founder of the neo-fascist, white supremacist organization Patriot Front. Members of the group wore white masks and gathered in front of DC’s Union Station. They later marched tow
Hundreds of masked members of the white supremacist organization marched and chanted in the US capital
Hundreds of masked men carrying banners, including the Confederate flag, marched through Washington DC on the Fourth of July, the 250th anniversary of the US’s inception.
The group appeared to be led by Thomas Rousseau, founder of the neo-fascist, white supremacist organization Patriot Front. Members of the group wore white masks and gathered in front of DC’s Union Station. They later marched towards Capitol Hill, WTOP reported.
Activists accused of being part of antifa get long prison terms in case seen as test of Trump’s crackdown on dissentA group of Texas protesters convicted of terrorism charges received unusually harsh sentences of at least 50 years in prison on Tuesday in a closely watched case that was widely seen as a test case of the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on dissent.After a three-week jury trial, the nine activists were all found guilty of a slew of criminal charges in March, stemming fr
Activists accused of being part of antifa get long prison terms in case seen as test of Trump’s crackdown on dissent
A group of Texas protesters convicted of terrorism charges received unusually harsh sentences of at least 50 years in prison on Tuesday in a closely watched case that was widely seen as a test case of the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on dissent.
After a three-week jury trial, the nine activists were all found guilty of a slew of criminal charges in March, stemming from a Fourth of July protest at an immigrant detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, south of Fort Worth. The demonstrators arrived late at night with a plan to set off fireworks as part of a noise demonstration to show solidarity with those detained inside. A few of the protesters spontaneously broke off from the main group and vandalized cars in the parking lot, a guard shack, slashed the tires on a government van and broke a security camera. When a police officer arrived on the scene and drew his weapon, one of the activists fired an AR-15 from the woods, hitting the officer in the shoulder. The officer survived.
A Newark detention center has been at the forefront of anti-ICE protests – and now counterprotestsProtests continued on Saturday in front of the Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey, as a hunger and labor strike inside reached its ninth day, with detained immigrants demanding improved conditions and medical care.On Saturday morning, a small group of rightwing counterprotesters in Trump hats began demonstrating outside the facility waving signs and chanting slogans in s
A Newark detention center has been at the forefront of anti-ICE protests – and now counterprotests
Protests continued on Saturday in front of the Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey, as a hunger and labor strike inside reached its ninth day, with detained immigrants demanding improved conditions and medical care.
On Saturday morning, a small group of rightwing counterprotesters in Trump hats began demonstrating outside the facility waving signs and chanting slogans in support of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The protesters supporting the detained immigrants and the counterprotesters supporting ICE yelled at each other across barricades set up by state police.
Organizers rally outside Delaney Hall, facing violent clashes with agents, as over 300 detainees are on hunger strikeChaos breaks out at New Jersey immigration detention center – in picturesWednesday marked the sixth day that more than 300 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees were on a hunger and labor strike at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey. Meanwhile, the mood amid the dozens of organizers and community members rallying outside the facility was tense but energized with supp
Wednesday marked the sixth day that more than 300 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees were on a hunger and labor strike at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey. Meanwhile, the mood amid the dozens of organizers and community members rallying outside the facility was tense but energized with support.
Masked protesters circulated, handing out water bottles, personal protective equipment and oranges. A few attenders who travel across the country to ICE protests wherever they occur – such as a man with a karaoke machine in a giraffe costume – trolled the ICE agents, successfully getting a giggle out of one of the few agents with his face exposed. Passing tractor-trailers on the busy industrial road punctuated protest chants with long, extended honking in solidarity.
My activist group is about 80% women. Where did all the men go – and how can we get them back?In Donald Trump’s first term, my Brooklyn-based activist group had the peculiar dynamic of being started by two men while being composed of about 65% women. Since November 2024, our group has doubled in size, and the gender imbalance has tipped even further: we are now about 80% women.Almost 18 months into Trump’s second term, it is abundantly clear that the appetite for anti-Trump, pro-democracy activ
My activist group is about 80% women. Where did all the men go – and how can we get them back?
In Donald Trump’s first term, my Brooklyn-based activist group had the peculiar dynamic of being started by two men while being composed of about 65% women. Since November 2024, our group has doubled in size, and the gender imbalance has tipped even further: we are now about 80% women.
Almost 18 months into Trump’s second term, it is abundantly clear that the appetite for anti-Trump, pro-democracy activism has not dimmed at all. And yet, there is a substantial portion of the populace that, in my experience as an activist, seems to have lost its fervor for the fight.
Police forcibly broke up protest outside hospital where federal immigration agents took detainee for evaluationSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and other local officials on Monday condemned Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after federal officers dragged a man out of a hospital building where he had been taken following an arrest, prompting a crowd of protesters to gather outside, where they clashed with police.The incident over the
New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and other local officials on Monday condemned Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after federal officers dragged a man out of a hospital building where he had been taken following an arrest, prompting a crowd of protesters to gather outside, where they clashed with police.
The incident over the weekend has also drawn scrutiny from critics questioning the New York police department’s response at the scene, in relation to New York City’s sanctuary laws, which bar local police from assisting federal immigration authorities in civil immigration enforcement.
Walkouts, marches and other gatherings planned for ‘May Day Strong’ demonstrations across the countryThousands are expected to join an economic blackout for International Workers’ Day , as part of 3,500 “May Day Strong” events across the country today. Organizers are calling for “no school, no work, no shopping” with walkouts, marches, block parties and other gatherings planned into the evening.On the east coast, protests were already under way by the early morning. In Manhattan, a group of Amaz
Walkouts, marches and other gatherings planned for ‘May Day Strong’ demonstrations across the country
Thousands are expectedto join an economic blackout for International Workers’ Day , as part of 3,500 “May Day Strong” events across the country today. Organizers are calling for “no school, no work, no shopping” with walkouts, marches, block parties and other gatherings planned into the evening.
On the east coast, protests were already under way by the early morning. In Manhattan, a group of Amazon workers, Teamsters and local politicians marched from the New York public library’s main branch to Amazon’s nearby corporate offices to demand the corporation cut its contracts with ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In the nation’s capital, protesters with the organization Free DC shut down intersections across the city, holding handmade banners reading “Workers over billionaires” and “Healthcare not warfare”.
A timely exhibit at NYU celebrates the anti-fascist folk artist – despite the university’s recent suppression of campus protestsBea Esteves Mendez knew as much about Woody Guthrie as most people her age – which is to say, she knew This Land is Your Land – when one of her professors put on a recording of All You Fascists last semester. It’s an upbeat folk anthem written at the height of the second world war that connects the forces of oppression abroad with those, like Jim Crow, that festered at
A timely exhibit at NYU celebrates the anti-fascist folk artist – despite the university’s recent suppression of campus protests
Bea Esteves Mendez knew as much about Woody Guthrie as most people her age – which is to say, she knew This Land is Your Land – when one of her professors put on a recording of All You Fascists last semester. It’s an upbeat folk anthem written at the height of the second world war that connects the forces of oppression abroad with those, like Jim Crow, that festered at home. “Well I’m a gonna tell you fascists, you may be surprised, people in this world are getting organized,” Guthrie sings, shouts, whoops and whistles in his distinctive Oklahoma twang. “You’re bound to lose. You fascists bound to lose.”
“It was our first time really sitting down to listen to a Woody Guthrie song, and we were like, ‘Wow,’” said Mendez, 19, a sophomore at New York University. “‘This could have been written today.’”
People won’t join us just because we’re right. They’ll join if we make them feel like they belong“Settle your quarrels, come together, and understand the reality of our situation. Understand that fascism is already here, that people are already dying that could be saved, that generations more will live poor, butchered lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done, discover your humanity and your love in revolution.”George Jackson wrote these prophetic words more than 50 years ago. At that time,
People won’t join us just because we’re right. They’ll join if we make them feel like they belong
“Settle your quarrels, come together, and understand the reality of our situation. Understand that fascism is already here, that people are already dying that could be saved, that generations more will live poor, butchered lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done, discover your humanity and your love in revolution.”
George Jackson wrote these prophetic words more than 50 years ago. At that time, he and his comrades were enduring unimaginable violence inside California’s prisons – a microcosm of the fascism already alive in the United States.
Show up, even when it’s uncomfortable.
Talk to people whose politics aren’t perfect.
Work with those still in process because they, too, have revolutionary potential.
Refuse to turn on the people closest to us and focus on the real enemy.
In prison, I witnessed the gap in accountability between the poor and the elite. A banker’s message to Epstein is racist and reductiveHere is an email that should bring shame to Jes Staley:you want to know why we are not São Paolo, watch the TV adds on the Superbowl. Its all about hip blacks in hip cars with white women.The group that should be in the streets, has been bought off. By Jay Z Continue reading...
The No Kings protests affirmed widespread opposition to Trump’s actions. As the midterms approach, we have an opportunityLast weekend, millions of us once again affirmed the foundation of the common good.Across America, people showed their solidarity – in opposition to Trump’s ill-considered war in Iran, with immigrants being targeted by ICE and border patrol agents, with current and former public officials whom Trump is prosecuting, with the students and universities whose freedom to learn and
The No Kings protests affirmed widespread opposition to Trump’s actions. As the midterms approach, we have an opportunity
Last weekend, millions of us once again affirmed the foundation of the common good.
Across America, people showed their solidarity – in opposition to Trump’s ill-considered war in Iran, with immigrants being targeted by ICE and border patrol agents, with current and former public officials whom Trump is prosecuting, with the students and universities whose freedom to learn and speak continues to be threatened by Trump, in favor of the earth and stopping climate change, and with every American who’s determined to reject dictatorship.
Target vulnerable Republican senators and House members. Either get them to switch parties or become independents who caucus with Democrats, or flip their seats.
Republican majorities are razor-thin in both chambers, and some Republicans who represent purple districts and states are struggling to keep their Republican supporters behind them. (They’re also struggling with their own consciences in continuing to support Trump’s authoritarian fascism.)
Begin organizing and mobilizing now to get out the vote for November’s midterm elections – aiming for Democratic takeovers of both chambers of Congress by wide margins, which will severely limit what Trump can do after January 2027.
The key will be to get out the vote. Make a plan. Use phone trees. Write postcards. Arrange transportation for people who need it.
Root out and challenge any Trump Republican attempt to intimidate likely Democratic voters or manipulate the election process.
It’s important that neither Trump nor his state lapdogs diminish the turnout of likely Democratic voters in the weeks leading up to the November midterms – by stationing federal agents near polling places, interfering with the counting or certifying of ballots, or altering laws and rules to make it harder to vote.
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now in the US and in the UK
As Cesar Chavez Day becomes Farmworkers Day, we must remember that the hero is the movementThe way we commemorate history is often – too often – by celebrating an individual with a statue, a place name, a holiday. While some have been torn down – statues of Gen Robert E Lee have given way in some parts of the US to statues of Harriet Tubman – Republicans are trying to reverse the shift in statuary. To that end, the Trump administration recently plunked down a Columbus statue on the White House g
As Cesar Chavez Day becomes Farmworkers Day, we must remember that the hero is the movement
The way we commemorate history is often – too often – by celebrating an individual with a statue, a place name, a holiday. While some have been torn down –statues of Gen Robert E Lee have given way in some parts of the US to statues of Harriet Tubman – Republicans are trying to reverse the shift in statuary. To that end, the Trump administration recently plunked down a Columbus statue on the White House grounds, a replica of one thrown into the harbor in Baltimore in 2020 as the Black Lives Matter protests addressed racism and colonialism.
Still, maybe the age of individual heroes is fading. This year, Jon Wiener, a retired history professor and current Nation magazine editor, nominated Minneapolis for the Nobel peace prize for its residents’ valor and solidarity in opposing ICE and defending their neighbors. The magazine’s editors wrote: “Through countless acts of courage and solidarity, the people of Minneapolis have challenged the culture of fear, hate, and brutality that has gripped the United States and too many other countries. Their nonviolent resistance has captured the imagination of the nation and the world.” The Nobel is a longshot, but the Twin Cities – both Minneapolis and St Paul – got the John F Kennedy Profile in Courage award “for risking their lives to protect their neighbors and immigrant community members ... with extraordinary courage and resolve”.
Saturday’s protests drew millions of people across the US and around the world. The Guardian spoke with some of them to see why they were there and what’s nextSo you went to a No Kings protest. Now what?Saturday saw the greatest number of protests in US history, when more than 8 million people at 3,300 No Kings events took to the streets to oppose the policies of Donald Trump.In the past few months, the Trump administration has sent more than 3,000 federal immigration agents into Minnesota’s Twi
Saturday’s protests drew millions of people across the US and around the world. The Guardian spoke with some of them to see why they were there and what’s next
Saturday saw the greatest number of protests in US history, when more than 8 million people at 3,300 No Kings events took to the streets to oppose the policies of Donald Trump.
In the past few months, the Trump administration has sent more than 3,000 federal immigration agents into Minnesota’s Twin Cities, causing fear and havoc that was only furthered when agents killed two residents. Trump has also launched strikes on Venezuela and waged a war in Iran that has so far cost the US about $30bn to $40bn. That is on top of the US continuing to fund Israel’s war in Gaza; the ongoing immigration raids in other US cities, towns and rural regions; and the threats to trans rights, voting rights and more.
Officers fired pepper balls and teargas into group of about 150 on Saturday night, arresting those who did not disperseThird No Kings protest draws 8 million worldwide to push back on Trump administrationPolice arrested dozens of protesters and shot teargas into a crowd on Saturday night at a No Kings protest in Los Angeles.The conflict is the latest of many that have taken place outside the Metropolitan detention center, which has become a focal point of protests since the Trump administration
Police arrested dozens of protesters and shot teargas into a crowd on Saturday night at a No Kings protest in Los Angeles.
The conflict is the latest of many that have taken place outside the Metropolitan detention center, which has become a focal point of protests since the Trump administration launched an immigration offense on Los Angeles last year.
Anmelden
