At What Risk Will We Resist?
Why you can trust us
Relentless kidnapping of immigrants by ICE. Universities handing over names to the state for investigation. Steps toward regime change in Venezuela. Prosecution of Trumpโs political opponents. Looming military deployment to cities across the country. Threats of mass state repression against the left in the wake of Charlie Kirkโs assassination. Thousands of workers fired from federal agencies (so far) amid a government shutdown with no clear end in sight.
Amid these authoritarian times, a question arises: At what risk will we resist?
Fran Korten, the former publisher of YES! Magazine, raised this sobering question after Donald Trump first won the presidency in 2016. Her piece from 2017 perhaps carries more urgency now as the U.S. moves further down an authoritarian spiral:
We are entering a time of testing.
Much that we hold dear appears under threat. We will be asked in new and sometimes frightening ways, โWhat do we stand for?โ โWhat do we care about enough to risk ridicule, funding, a job, our lives?โ
Many of us have not had to face such choices before. Sure, we act for what we believe in. We march. We write letters to the editor. We call our elected officials. We speak up at council meetings. We join committees. We donate. But at what risk? Often very little.
That may change.
โFran Korten
Read the full article: The Trump Era Will Test Us. What Are You Willing to Risk?
A Note to New Subscribers
Earlier this year, YES! Magazine, a legendary independent publisher of solutions journalism, ceased regular publication. The work produced by YES! did not merely shine a light on injustice; it emphasized the brilliant and creative ways that people were challenging it.
You are currently reading the second edition of a monthly newsletter produced by Truthout featuring content from the YES! digital archives and new solutions journalism from independent media. Truthout is producing this newsletter and stewarding these archives because we believe YES!โs work continues to provide much insight and hope for the years ahead. If you wish, you can support the newsletter here.
Now that youโre up to speed, enjoy!
From the Archives: Antifascists Are the First Line of Defense
After Donald Trump designated โantifaโ as a โdomestic terror organization,โ corporate pundits failed to clarify that it is not a centralized organization, but a broad, decentralized movement against fascism. Clearly, the administration is attempting to build consent for crushing all opposition.
But not everyone has been fooled by attempts to malign โantifaโ in the past. Consider the perspective of Barbara Roose, a Holocaust survivor who counterprotested a hate rally in 2017. Roose praised โthe young militant antifascists who have been vilified in some of the media for their tactics.”
โI feel gratitude to these young people for being our first line of defense, for being willing to stand up to the hateful actions of neo-Nazis and white nationalists,โ Roose wrote.
Roose died earlier this year.
Read the article:ย Iโm an 80-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor. Antifas Arenโt Scary. Neo-Nazis Are.
From the Archives: Getting Real About Winning
With each day carrying the risk of further repression from the state, the pressure to defend โ and broaden โ our democratic rights is mounting. Mobilizing for protests and one-off actions will be crucial, but winning will also require that we build lasting infrastructures of dissent.
Earlier this year, Arun Gupta, a long-time journalist and organizer, offered YES! readers his hard-won wisdom for building enduring organizations in these times. โPlaying nice ainโt going to cut it with people who want to kill you and your community. We need principles that build power now and for the long term,โ Gupta wrote.
Read the article:ย 10 Organizing Principles for Defeating Trumpism 2.0
New Content From YES! Contributors
- Sonali Kolhatkar, former racial justice and civil liberties editor at YES! Magazine and the host of Rising Up With Sonali, has a new article exploring how a vibrant, grassroots, bottom-up movement was behind the victory for universal child care in New Mexico.
- Julia Luz Betancourt, former associate editor at YES! Media, has written a new report about the troubling growth of a private corporation that is building mass surveillance throughout the United States.
- David Korten, co-founder of YES!, and Fran Korten, former publisher of YES!, have co-written a new piece pointing out how Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s speech to the highest ranks of the U.S. military earlier this month exposed the utter recklessness of the Trump administrationโs foreign policy โ and raised the question of whether military leaders will comply.
New Solutions Journalism From Independent Media
๐ข We Said โWe Will Block Everythingโ and We Did: Inside Italyโs Strike for Gaza โ Truthout
๐ชงJimmy Kimmelโs Reinstatement Shows the Power of Noncooperation – Waging Nonviolence
โ These Tenants Are Going on Strike Against โRent Debtโ – In These Times
๐ฅ Baptism By Fire: Leadership Insights From Reproductive Justice – Convergence
โ๏ธ Meeting Community Information Needs Can Build Community Power – The Objective
Rising Up With Sonali
Remember to subscribe to Rising Up With Sonali if you havenโt already! Hosted and produced by award-winning journalist Sonali Kolhatkar who worked as YES!โs senior editor, the weekly TV/radio/podcast show sustains YES!โs solutions journalism legacy. Rising Up With Sonali is funded entirely through small-dollar subscriptions. For $4 a month, you will get 3-4 interviews per week in multiple formats โ audio, video, podcast, and transcript โ leaving you feeling more hopeful about the world and inspiring you to action. At a time when the state of the nation sparks deep despair, Sonaliโs topics remind us that solutions exist and plenty of people are fighting to realize them.
In recent weeks, she interviewed Tariq Khan, a historian who learned firsthand what it was like to be targeted by Charlie Kirkโs goons, and how that has informed his unequivocal opposition to fascism. She spoke with Angela Gonzales-Torres, the daughter of a deportee, who is running for Congress. She covered how New Mexicoโs grassroots organizers made their state the first in the nation to win universal childcare, and how a Universal Basic Income gave a young woman the space to follow her dreams.
Taking Risks Together for a Better World
Please share this newsletter with others and encourage them to subscribe. Our next edition from the YES! digital archives will be sent in November.
If youโre excited about this continuation of the YES! tradition and want to support the newsletter, you can do so here.
And if youโre moved by Fran Kortenโs words to take bolder steps, just remember to stay connected to others while taking action โ rooting yourself in interdependence. Weโre in this together, we change the world together, and we keep each other safe.
Best,
t r u t h o u t
