Dear Friends,
We hope you’re doing well and doing what you can to take care as the coronavirus continues to spread and claim lives. As we have been doing in past weeks, below we share a sample of some of the news, analysis, and tools that caught our attention since last Friday.
UPDATES
“New York Is Merging All its Hospitals to Battle the Coronavirus” by Dylan Scott for Vox
“‘Rain or Shine, We’re Going to Vote’: Thousands Waiting in Line at Washington High Braved Rain, Lightning, and a Coronavirus Hot Spot” by Mary Spicuzza for Milwaukee Journal Sentinel\
“Coronavirus: San Francisco’s Battle to House the Homeless Continues Amid Pandemic” from KGO News
“Food Shortages? Nope, Too Much Food in the Wrong Places” by Dan Charles for NPR
“Immigrant Women Launch Hunger Strike in Tacoma, WA, as COVID-19 Cases Rise in Immigration Jails” from Democracy Now!”
ANALYSIS
African American Policy Forum has been doing a series of webinars focused on COVID-19 as part of Kimberlé Crenshaw’s Intersectionality Matters! You can check out recordings from the Under the Blacklight: The Intersectional Failures that COVID Lays Bare series for analysis from a broad range of activists, academics, and advocates.
#coronasomnia by Wang Xiuying for London Review of Books
Sanctions Are Crippling Iran’s Fight against Coronavirus by Pirouz Hanachi for The Guardian
“A Tale of Two ‘Reservations: Palestine, Indian Country, and the Coronavirus” by Benay Blend for The Palestine Chronicle
“As the World Economy Grinds to a Halt, the U.S. War Machine Churns On” by Sarah Lazare for In These Times
“These Are Conditions in Which Revolution Becomes Thinkable” by Ben Tarnoff for Commune
“The Pandemic Is a Portal” by Arundhati Roy from Financial Times
“Is the Economy Trying to Kill Us?” Francesca Fiorentini for Newsbroke
“‘They Don’t Think Our Lives Matter as Much as Theirs’” an Interview with Terry Miller from Jacobin
“Black Communities Need Support, Not a Coronavirus Police State” by Robyn Maynard and Andrea J. Ritchie for Vice
“The US Should Fight COVID-19, Not Venezuela” by Leonardo Flores for Popular Resistance
“US Far Right Seeks Ways to Exploit Coronavirus and Cause Social Collapse” by Jason Wilson for The Guardian
TOOLS, MOVEMENT INSIGHTS, AND ORGANIZING ASSETS
by Black Workers Rising
Statement on COVID-19, Militarism and Community Safety by People Linking Art, Community & Ecology (PLACE), and supported by Bay Area Organizations
“Rent Strikes & Beyond: Housing Strategies that Work for the South” by Alysia Harris for Scalawag
Public Health Awakened and The Spirit of 1848 are curating a database of information about public health responses to COVID-19.
Managing Anxiety and Stress During the COVID Pandemic by Chicago Torture Justice Center
Mad Maps for the Pandemic by Dean Spade for the Icarus Project
Protect Homeless from COVID Letter from Communities United for Police Reform to Mayor Bill DeBlasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo.
If/When/How’s COVID-19 Policy Platform Demands for Reproductive Self-Determination
Stepping into the Moment: The Coronavirus Crisis as an Opening for Transformative Change by Harmony Goldberg for Grassroots Policy Project
Care Package #3 from Just Seeds
Cooperation Jackson is calling for a general strike on May 1.
COVID-19 Strike Wave Interactive Map from Payday Report
Center for Political Education (CPE) is a resource for political organizations on the left, progressive social movements, the working class and people of color. CPE’s approach is non-sectarian, democratic, and committed to a critical analysis of local, regional and global politics. CPE believes that movements are strongest when their organizing and activism are grounded in historical knowledge, strong theory and rigorous analysis. Learn more at CPE’s website.