The American Civil War is a key moment of US history. If you grew up in the US, you almost certainly spent a good chunk of time in grade school learning about the Civil War. It is also likely the case that this education was boring and unengaging. This is a tragedy, for in fact the Civil War era had profoundly radical and revolutionary dimensions, and should be a source of education and inspiration for the modern Left and the US socialist movement. Case in point: after Abraham Lincoln’s re-election victory in 1864, Karl Marx himself helped pen a letter of congratulations to Lincoln, celebrating the Union cause as a universal interest of the working class, and encouraged him toward complete victory over the Southern slavers. It is not often that we think of Marx and Lincoln as being contemporaneous – but they were, and while it is unknown if Lincoln actually read Marx’s letter, it is likely that Lincoln read at least some of Marx’s many articles in the New York Daily Tribune.

The Civil War was the culmination of the abolitionist movement, which emerged out of free Black communities of the North, and the slave revolts which rocked the South in the 1830s. And the abolitionist movement is where the US Left was truly born; it was in this fiery struggle against slavery that many of the ideas we hold dear today – anti-racism, democracy, anti-imperialism, and anti-capitalism – went mainstream and became a permanent part of American politics. There is a grand history for how this happened, with many moving parts. But one fascinating thread is the way in which the abolitionist movement in the US was connected with the emerging revolutionary socialist movement in Europe. Abolitionism being the birthplace of the American Left wasn’t just a matter of converging values, but based on a direct exchange of ideas and militants between the US and Europe – and in particular, the cohorts of revolutionary German exiles who immigrated to America in the 1850s.

Historical Context

The abolitionist movement started in earnest in the 1830s, after Nat Turner’s Rebellion in 1831, which galvanized free Black communities across the North and put an end to any doubts that enslaved people were happy with their lot in life. Over the course of the next few decades, it grew dramatically in popularity, organization, and militancy; its electoral expression was the Republican Party, founded in 1854, while its more revolutionary tendency was expressed via the likes of John Brown, Harriet Tubman, and other insurgent figures. By the 1850s, the question of slavery was the defining political issue in the US, fostering an intense amount of political and civil unrest.

At the same time, Europe was also undergoing convulsions. In parallel to the growth of the abolitionist movement in the US, the revolutionary socialist movement was growing, and founding figures like Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels were coming into the spotlight. The tremors finally erupted into an earthquake in 1848, when a wave of uprisings and revolutions shook the foundations of Europe, particularly in Germany. Workers, peasants, and other parts of a “revolutionary citizenry” assaulted and overthrew centers of monarchical and feudal power. Marx and Engels wrote and published The Communist Manifesto during this tumult; Engels himself was in the streets as a revolutionary soldier.

Unfortunately, the revolution in Germany gets crushed, and millions of Germans escape to Western Europe and beyond, fleeing harsh counter-revolutionary reprisals as well as general economic ruin. Many of these refugees and exiles end up in the United States; about one million Germans emigrated to America in the 1850s. And among this number, roughly 4,000 were hardcore revolutionaries, socialists and communists, organizers and militants, in addition to tens of thousands more supporters, followers, and sympathizers. This cohort was known as the “Forty Eighters”, exiles of the 1848 Revolution. And once in the US, the Forty Eighters immediately bolstered the ranks of an increasingly revolutionary abolitionist movement. This was a natural alliance; the nature of the Southern slaver elites was an uncanny mirror image of the tyrannical aristocrats that they had attempted to overthrow at home. And for the abolitionist movement, these veterans brought military experience, organizational discipline, and expansive ideas about liberty, labor, and capitalism, which coupled well with the parallel works of the leading abolitionist intellectuals.

Colonel Weydemeyer and General Willich

Two figures in particular represent the radical edge of the Forty Eighter abolitionists: Joseph Weydemeyer and August Willich. Both of these men were German communists and revolutionaries, who eventually ended up as high-ranking military officers in the Union Army.

The initial trajectories of the two men were similar. Both were Prussian military officers in the 1840s, who became radicalized by Marx’s writings about capitalism, class, and revolution. They rebelled in 1848 on the side of the Revolution, and fled west when the revolution was crushed. They made personal acquaintance with Karl Marx in London, and joined the Communist League and helped further develop revolutionary socialist politics in Europe. After a few years, both men emigrated to the United States, where they planted themselves among fellow Forty Eighters and made a living via political organizing and radical intellectual writings. And when the Civil War began, they enlisted along with large numbers of fellow Germans, and quickly rose up the ranks due to their previous military experience and their political fervour.

Compared to Willich, Weydemeyer was more of an intellectual type. He was a friend of Marx and Engels; in fact, it was Marx who directly suggested to Weydemeyer that he emigrate to New York City. Once there, he quickly got to work in left-wing journalism and organizing, joining a growing cohort of revolutionary Marxist voices that joined the abolitionist movement. He was a co-founder of what was arguably the first socialist organization in the United States, the American Workers League (which, despite its broad name, was almost entirely an organization of radical German immigrants). This group would later become the New York Communist Club.

When the Civil War began, Weydemeyer enlisted and quickly ended up as a technical aide to General Fremont, an abolitionist and a radical rival to Abraham Lincoln. Within a year, Weydemeyer was a Lieutenant Colonel and in charge of a volunteer artillery regiment. Later on in the war, he served as a Colonel of the 41st Missouri Infantry Regiment. Amusingly, throughout his active duty service, Weydemeyer kept up his intellectual pursuits, exchanging letters with Marx and Engels about the war, writing opinion pieces for local newspapers near his posts, and engaging in local debates. In 1864, when Marx helped found the International Workingmen’s Association (a.k.a., the First International), Weydemeyer printed out copies of the inaugural address and passed it out to his men (it is unclear how many of these Missouri infantrymen subsequently joined the cause of international communism).

After the war, Weydemeyer remained in politics, winning an election for the St. Louis County auditor. He ran the office as a Marxist, using his powers to strengthen tax laws and chase down war profiteers. Unfortunately, his tenure was short-lived; Weydemeyer passed away in August 1866 from cholera.

August Willich led a similarly colorful life, albeit one more oriented around military affairs.

An excellent book on his entire life, only a tiny fraction of which can be discussed here, is Radical Warrior: August Willich’s Journey From German Revolutionary to Union General.

Like Joseph Weydemeyer, Willich also knew Marx & Engels; indeed, Engels was Willich’s right-hand man during several battles in the final stages of the 1848 Revolution. But unlike Weydemeyer, Willich did not like Marx at all. Willich led the left-wing faction of the Communist League, and thought Marx was too conservative and was not eager enough to wage revolutionary struggle; for his part, Marx was not impressed by Willich’s intellectual standing. There may have also been some more personal animosity at play; Willich apparently was quite interested in Marx’s wife, Jenny, and would regularly come visit her at their home in London and engage her in long conversations about theory and politics. As Jenny Marx described, “He would come to visit me because he wanted to pursue the worm that lies in every marriage and coax it out.” It’s not clear if Willich ever coaxed out the worm; within a few years, he emigrated to the United States, engaged in radical writing, and organized among other German immigrants and Forty Eighters in the midwest.

When the Civil War began, Willich played an important role in recruiting fellow Germans into the military; he would become a Colonel, and then a General in command of an all-German infantry unit, the 32nd Indiana Infantry Regiment. Willich and his men quickly distinguished himself on the battlefield, helping win one of the few Union victories in 1861 at the Battle of Rowlett Station in Kentucky. This battle saw about 500 German infantrymen defeat over 1,000 Texas Rangers and assorted Confederate infantry. This battle is also commemorated in what is the oldest surviving Civil War monument, the Bloedner Monument, which was carved by a member of the regiment a couple of weeks after the battle. It’s a remarkable piece of history, since it’s likely that this battle is mentioned in many Civil War textbooks – but the radical historical context, that this victory was one of a revolutionary communist veteran and other revolutionary exiles, is papered over or ignored.

Willich and the 32nd would go on to fight in other major Civil War battles, including the 1862 Battle of Shiloh, the 1863 Siege of Chattanooga, and General Sherman’s “March to the Sea” in 1864. After the war, just like Weydemeyer, Willich went into government service and was elected as a county auditor in Ohio. In his later years, he went into academia. August Willich passed away in 1878.

Forty Eighters in Texas

The legacy of the Forty Eighters is also present right here in central Texas, where many Germans settled in the 1850s. San Antonio and the Hill Country were particularly popular – a legacy that still continues today, with cities like New Braunfels and Fredericksburg remaining centers of German culture, as well as smaller towns like Boerne and Comfort. Despite being in a southern slave state, just like their brethren in the midwest and the north-east, German immigrants to Texas were generally anti-slavery and pro-Union. In 1854, Germans in San Antonio caused a major political firestorm when they held a convention and passed a resolution condemning slavery. In 1861, during the Referendum on Secession, the counties with the most Germans tended to vote against secession.

As the war progressed, repression against Unionists escalated, with Germans being a major target. In 1862, the Confederacy passed a conscription law to mandate military service, which provoked German Texans Unionists to escalate into armed resistance – which in turn, brought martial law across the Hill Country and waves of violent reprisals. The struggle culminated in August 1862, when a band of Germans gathered up arms and attempted to escape to Mexico. Unfortunately, the Confederates caught wind and chased them down, eventually cornering them on the banks of the Nueces River, and defeating them after a pitched battle. Despite being right at the border, the German Unionist rebels were captured, and 34 executed on the spot. The dead were buried at a cemetery in Comfort, Texas, where after the war a monument was erected – the Treue der Union Monument, or, the “Loyalty to the Union” Monument – to honor them and the pro-Union beliefs that they died for. This monument remains in Comfort to this day.

Conclusion

These stories – of German Texan rebels, communist commanders, and the surprise emergence of Marxism in antebellum America – should make us recognize the importance of tracing back our own political lineage to this period. It was the abolitionist movement that established a long and unbroken legacy of socialist politics and struggle in the United States. Abolitionists went on into different movements after the war, expanding the struggle into labor organizing, civil rights, anti-imperialism, and feminism. After the abolitionist movement, came Radical Reconstruction; veterans of that went on into the Knights of Labor, and then the Industrial Workers of the World; then emerged the Socialist Party and the Communist Party, the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panther Party, and so on. We should look at abolitionists as our own political ancestors, and with the connection to radical German immigrants, appreciate that revolutionary socialist politics has been in this country for a very long time.

And to draw a final parallel to then and now: the Civil War didn’t start out of nowhere. It was preceded by years of civil unrest, violence around elections, and collapsing legal boundaries. And one dynamic in particular, was the escalation of violence in the 1850s by federal agents against Northerners. After the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, federal agents and southern bounty hunters and slave catchers had free legal reign to indiscriminately hunt down Black people to kidnap and enslave. This enraged public opinion across the North and galvanized abolitionists and their allies, who organized Vigilance Committees to track and disrupt federal operations, preventing arrests, staging jailbreaks, and engaging in pitched battle against the feds.

And it is a remarkable parallel today, when we have federal troops engaging in indiscriminate violence with impunity, hunting down immigrants, assaulting and murdering protestors, kidnaping people and whisking them off into a growing network of concentration camps. And in response, just like over 150 years ago, people are organizing and mobilizing, forming rapid response networks, tracking and disrupting federal operations. It is a beautiful thing, and shows how our political ancestors can echo through us today, even without our conscious knowledge. The struggle has been going on for a long time; and if there is to be another civil war, let us make sure we finish it for good this time around.

The post Between Marx and Lincoln: German Communists in the American Civil War first appeared on Red Fault.

In 2025, the United States observed the first proper referendum on the second Trump Administration. Democrats performed well, winning gubernatorial contests in Virginia and New Jersey and prevailing in many local contests. Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York City, received over one million votes in November; Mayor John V. Lindsay was the last person to draw such resounding support in that contest.

Within those local results, I want to highlight some specific victories of fellow members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) – especially given my current run for Justice of the Peace in Precinct 1 of Travis County, Texas. In Minneapolis, Robin Wonsley cruised to re-election on the Minneapolis City Council, and Soren Stevenson won in the first round of a ranked choice system after narrowly losing in 2023. Katie Wilson prevailed in the mayoral race in Seattle, and Denzel McCampbell won a seat on the Detroit City Council. Two democratic socialists in Jersey City, Jake Ephros and Joel Brooks, became the first open socialists elected in New Jersey in a century. Members of our organization celebrated victories from coast-to-coast on Tuesday, November 4, 2025 and Tuesday, December 2, 2025.

America renewed its interest in socialist politics across the past year. After Trump’s re-election, Council Member Mike Siegel, a fellow member of the Austin Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, won a runoff election for Austin CIty Council’s District 7 on December 14, 2024. Facing the various cruelties of many in power in 2025, including endless wars, extrajudicial murders by ICE, deep cuts to the American social safety net, and lawless military strikes, more people find themselves curious about what, exactly, socialism is. At doors and in the community, people continue to resonate with the message that kids don’t need to face criminalization in response to their actions, renters deserve due process in eviction proceedings, and quality of life concerns – such as homelessness – shouldn’t land a person in the court system. Democratic socialists are committed to preserving and building the public infrastructure in this era of mass privatization, with an emphasis on shifting money from carceral systems like prisons to social services like parks & libraries.

My own journey with socialism has been a long and fulfilling one. I first ran for office in 2022 as a democratic socialist, challenging a long-term incumbent. I lost decisively. I was thirty years old during my first election, and the Biden Administration was in power. Circumstances and conditions have changed rapidly in four years. One thing that has remained consistent across this period is my engagement with the Democratic Socialists of America. I joined the organization in 2021; after I was defeated in my first election, I went deeper into my organizing with the chapter. I knocked on doors for Prop A (and against Prop B) in 2023, attended the biennial DSA convention in Chicago, visited Cuba, spoke to voters about the campaigns of Jose Garza and Mike Siegel, and built invaluable relationships with other members of the chapter.

I spoke at Austin DSA’s org fair on Saturday, November 15, 2025. Ahead of my remarks, I noticed excitement all around me for DSA’s campaigns. Through our Austin Against Apartheid work, we’ve gotten scores of businesses in the community to adopt a boycott-divestment-sanctions framework and agree to not sell Israeli products. Our Trans + Intersex Rights and Bodily Autonomy (TIRBA) campaign is uplifting the incontrovertible fact that every person controls their own body; through our work with TIRBA, queer and trans people will experience freedom everywhere, and abortions will be easily available upon demand. We recently launched our Labor for an Arms Embargo work to push for an end to the incessant aid that the U.S. pours into the genocidal settler-colonial state of Israel. We are laboring with a clear vision of what the world will be in fifty years – one where socialism governs.

I must end with a reflection on the material realities of our time. In Austin, a broad coalition of socialists, labor leaders, and mutual aid organizers suffered a loss with the defeat of Prop Q in November 2025. This election occurred while millions of people faced uncertainty with their SNAP benefits. People are hurting in many ways right now, and an increase in taxes simply wasn’t going to fly. However, as we face this austerity budget in Austin – with its $520 million untouched police line-item – I want the public to know that me and fellow socialists are here for our neighbors. We are committed to building a political party that is truly responsive to the needs of people who – like me – live paycheck-to-paycheck, highlighting the harms that masses of workers experience under American capitalism. My second campaign is simply one piece of that puzzle; even if I lose again, I am so glad that I have found a political philosophy that animates me so clearly. As a Black socialist, I am committed to building a multiracial, multigender, and multinational movement for human dignity. I hope you will join us.

Andrew Reginald Hairston is a civil rights lawyer, writer, and democratic socialist based in Austin. He is running for Justice of the Peace in Precinct 1 of Travis County, Texas on March 3, 2026. More information is available at hairstonforpeace.com

The post An Inflection Point for Democratic Socialism first appeared on Red Fault.

“Ten Days that Shook the World” is an account of the Russian Revolution in October and November of 1917. It follows the complex and rapidly changing events, people, and factions of the struggle in detail. The author, John Reed, was a U.S. American journalist and socialist who traveled to Russia along with some fellow journalists and witnessed these events first hand. It’s mostly made up of his first-hand accounts with some second-hand reports from his colleagues and from contemporary written sources.

The book includes a map of Petrograd and a map of western Russia; a forward by Lenin; Notes & Explanations; and background information. These were essential for understanding the main text. I referenced the Notes & Explanations a lot to keep all the parties, factions, and people straight. The end of the book has appendices with extra explanations and source texts; a chronology; and an index. It also includes lots of astounding photographs.

Before I read this book I didn’t know much about the Russian revolution. I knew when it happened, that there were Bolsheviki and Mensheviki, and I knew something about the constituent assembly (which this book stops just short of). This book helped me understand the failure of the constituent assembly because it showed the split of the Right Socialist Revolutionaries and Left Socialist Revolutionaries.

The events of 1917 were so complex, changed so dramatically, and there were so many lies and rumors flying around (spread by the reactionaries to smear the Bolsheviki), that it was easy for things to get twisted, taken out of context, and misreported. This book gave me a really solid understanding of what actually happened and why, and why the actions of the Bolsheviki were necessary.

Before explaining the events of October, Reed summarizes the earlier stages of the uprising which began in February. This uprising, lead by the Menshevik & Social Revolutionary parties and driven by the Soviets—autonomous workers’ and soldiers’ councils—deposed the Czar and put a provisional government in power, with the promise of a Constituent Assembly that would later be elected by the citizens (this was endlessly postponed). This provisional government issued at once ineffective reforms and harsh repression.

The Menshevik & Social Revolutionary parties were the moderates: they believed that this was a bourgeois revolution which should put the capitalist class in power, and that Russia should continue fighting the Great War.
The Bolsheviks were the principled socialists, whose line was summarized by the slogan “Peace, Land, and Workers’ Control of Industry”. After the uprising of February, many Bolsheviks were imprisoned or exiled.

After the uprising came the July Days, a massive demonstration lead by women and the Bolshevik party, which was quickly gaining members and votes in the Soviets and Unions because they refused to compromise with the bourgeoisie and based their platform on the immediate desires of the workers, soldiers, and peasants.
This set the stage for the final uprising that would finish the revolution and place the Soviets in power.

I was surprised to learn just how much the revolutionary consciousness was fueled by the horror of the Great War. The soldiers were desperate for the fighting to end, and the Bolsheviki were the only ones who were willing to demand it.
I was also surprised to discover the dizzying proliferation of organizations and parties. Factory-shop committees, soldiers’ and workers’ soviets and peasants’ land committees, consumer cooperatives, army committees, Mensheviki, Bolsheviki, right and left Socialist Revolutionaries, Cadets… they split and merged and formed alliances here and there as they were tested in struggle.

One surprising thing that I appreciated about this book was how funny it is. Many parts of it read like a novel. John Reed included many anecdotes that give refreshing insight into the real situation on the ground, and I found many of them amusing. Mr. Reed showed the actions of everyday people who came together and organized themselves, not just the bigwigs in the CIK (executive congressional committee), the provisional government, and the dumas. I felt that there were real people getting swept up in these events, that circumstance brought unlikely personalities together, that normal everyday life was continuing somehow in spite of everything. I recommend this book just for the funny bits.

Much of the book consists of accounts of meetings. There were so many of them. I particularly enjoyed the movements when, during one of these meetings, tensions would run high, people would shout over each other and get agitated and confused, and then some noble person would stand up and give a rousing speech that stilled the commotion and united the crowd. Reed definitely had a flair for the dramatic.

A lesson that I took from this book was that any revolutionary party must have its base in the people. The Bolsheviki did this by speaking to the material demands of the peasants, soldiers, & workers, and actually delivering on promises. It was only the principled refusal of the Bolsheviks to collude with the bourgeoisie which brought the revolution to victory, instead seeking alliances with the peasantry. (The German Revolution of 1918-1919 showed the failure and backsliding that happens when moderate socialists are allowed to take charge.) The revolution definitely wouldn’t have been possible without all the autonomous civil organizations that were lead by the workers, soldiers, and peasants, and defended by the Red Guard.

This was how the Bolsheviki won the propaganda war that raged in the newspapers and on the streets, as well as the contest of arms and the stubborn resistance of the bureaucracy and logistical workers. The Bolsheviki cemented their legitimacy by delivering on the demand of peace, land, and power to the workers, by daring to struggle and be bold. They pushed forward as soon as the opportunity came, and met every new challenge without wavering. It’s so inspiring, and I think it is owed in large part to the leadership of Comrade Lenin.

One thing I want to know more about is the origin of the soviets and how they actually worked. I also want to know more about the earlier stage of the revolution which this book summarizes but does not detail, and the failed 1905 revolution.

I’ll end this review with a quotation that I found extremely moving:

“I went back to Petrograd riding on the front seat of an auto truck, driven by a workman and filled with Red Guards. We had no kerosene so our lights were not burning. Across the horizon spread the glittering lights of the city, immeasurably more splendid by night than by day, like a dike of jewels heaped on the barren plain. The old workman who drove held the wheel in one hand, while with the other he swept the far-gleaming capital in an exultant gesture.
‘Mine!’ he cried, his face all alight. ‘All mine now! My Petrograd!’”

All in all, I think this book is absolutely essential reading for anyone who is interested in socialism. And it’s a proper page turner. 10/10!

The post Book Review – Ten Days that Shook the World first appeared on Red Fault.

On November 4, 2025, Austinites will be voting to approve a property tax increase for the city, called Proposition Q. Our chapter is working in coalition with local labor and social justice organizations to win this tax rate election (or “TRE”). We believe the property tax increase will fund city workers and programs that are necessary to care for our neighbors during the worst of the second Trump administration. We’re asking all comrades (those who have campaigned before and those who haven’t) to help us turn out our base citywide: we will be canvassing, tabling, and relational organizing to win this one, and we need your help to get us over the line.

So:

• Get out and vote early! Polls are open 7AM–7PM through 10/31, with select sites open until 10PM on 10/30 and 10/31. You can check your nearest poll site at votetravis.gov and review a rundown of the full ballot here. 
• Come canvass with us! Dates and times are listed on our linktree, we encourage you to RSVP for as many as you can: linktr.ee/PasstheTRE 

What’s a TRE?

A TRE is a tax rate election. Since the passage of a 2019 state law (SB2), cities like Austin have been required to seek approval from voters any time the city budget increases by more than 3.5% in a given year—previously, increases of up to 8% could be passed by council. The city is seeking voter approval for an additional 5¢ of revenue per $100 of property value to continue funding public services that we expect and the workers needed to make it happen. If approved, the TRE would increase local property tax by around $25/month for the average Austin homeowner.

Why are we doing this?

1. Because of the 2019 law, our city has been forced into a structural deficit: in recent years, inflation has been as high as 7%. With budget increases capped at 3.5% and property values flat or in decline, gaps in revenues have been filled from reserve funds, transfers from our public utilities, and fee increases that disproportionately affect the working class. Property taxes are based on the assessed value of people’s homes, meaning people who have more pay more. This is in contrast with other ways of generating revenue like utility rate increases, fees and fines, all of which disproportionately affect the working class. Austin is a majority-renter city, and our policies should reflect that, instead of the preferences of the wealthier, more conservative minority that traditionally dominates off-year elections. 
2. Because of the federal government removing vital funding from cities like Austin as a political punishment for standing up for ourselves. They’re using austerity as leverage to force cities to enact regressive and undemocratic policies and legislation that further criminalize and punish the multiracial working class, those seeking abortion, our queer, trans, and intersex neighbors, the homeless, and people with disabilities. We can take care of us, but we’re not going to get any outside help doing it for the foreseeable future. 
3. Because protecting our neighbors needs sustained investment. We’ve seen the benefits of housing trust funds, family stabilization grants, community violence intervention programs, council at first appearance, food pantries and parent support specialists in schools—Texas and the federal administration don’t want to admit these programs work, so they’re trying to shut them down instead.

What about APD funding?

We know that public safety doesn’t come from policing, it comes from stability and community. The budget we’ll be voting to approve allows us to continue investing in real public safety and stability during an especially turbulent time. The budget we’re voting on includes emergency housing vouchers, 24/7 EMCOT mental health response teams, funding for the Sobering Center, parks, pools, and libraries. The alternative is the carceral and punitive police state, where APD is not just the primary, but the only city agency funded to respond to public safety (through the most destructive, most expensive, most inequitable means available).

As a chapter, we fought hard to prevent city council from increasing APD’s budget last year: we believe that the contract they approved did not provide the oversight we won at the ballot box; we knew the money the city put in there can never be reinvested in real public safety and stability. Our chapter’s NoALPRs campaign in particular understands the danger in unlimited funding for carceral policing and the surveillance state, and that Texas law mandates that cities like ours can never decrease their police budget. 

Who’s opposing Prop Q?

The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, Matt Mackowiak (Save Austin Now), the Real Estate Council of Austin, ATX Servicing LLC (associated with Frontier Bank of Texas), the Sandhill Family Partnership, to give you a sense of it.

What happens if this doesn’t pass?

Austerity, layoffs, service cuts. This would be the first time a tax rate election has been rejected, so there isn’t a clear playbook for how budget cuts would play out here. Many of our comrades who make the city run may lose their jobs, and all of them would be paid even less of the worth of their work. The most likely outcome if the TRE is rejected is that our friends, family and neighbors will suffer, and our shared quality of life as a city will suffer with it. 

What can I do to support?

Austinites want to do the right thing, but historically, off-year elections have been dominated by more conservative, wealthier homeowners instead of the working class. The opposition is spending heavily on misinformative billboards, scare tactics and online ads, but is doing no canvassing. We’ve already generated strong results, knocking thousands of doors and getting strong positive responses from our neighbors. We intend to continue this ground game because we’ve seen it work before, especially in low-turnout elections like this one is likely to be.

We want the results of this election to be a representative reflection of Austin’s majority-worker, majority-renter priorities. We think that by dedicating as much of our canvassing resources as we can to letting working Austinites know what’s at stake in this election, we can win this one and help protect our neighbors for the next four years. 

First, we need you to vote! Polling stations are open for early voting citywide from 7AM–7PM until 10/31, lines are short, and strong support from our full membership could be the deciding factor in this race. You can check your polling location and view a sample ballot at votetravis.gov. 

Second, we need you to talk to your friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers about Prop Q! The more people get to know about what’s in the budget we’re voting on, the more supportive they’ve been. Stay tuned for more on this front as we get closer to the election.

Third, we need you to sign up for canvasses between now and November 4th. This is the best way to have the biggest impact on the race: you can only vote once, but you can canvass as many times as you’d like. Each time you do, you’ll be helping get vital information about this election into the hands of voters we need. If you’ve never canvassed before, we’ll show you how and set you up with a partner. Canvass event links below, and solidarity forever:

• THIS FRIDAY, 10/24 at 3:30 PM
• THIS SATURDAY, 10/25 at 10:00 AM
• THIS SUNDAY, 10/26 at noon
• Monday, 10/27 at 3:30
• Friday, 10/31 at 3:30
• Saturday, 11/1 at 10:00 AM (with Mike Siegel, Vanessa Fuentes and Zo Qadri)

The post Call To Action: Vote Yes On Prop Q first appeared on Red Fault.

It is the two year anniversary of October 7th, of Palestine’s al-Aqsa Flood and the beginning of Israel’s genocidal response. Only two years; has it not felt like a lifetime? And is there anything left to say? It has been two years of mass murder and indiscriminate killings, with full backing from our government. Our protests and mobilizations have failed to halt the genocide, even as public opinion has shifted dramatically. Today, we are even more on the defensive, with domestic repression ratcheting up to unprecedented levels. 

How do we maintain our sanity, our courage, and our commitment to the struggle in such times? How do we maintain hope when faced with such insurmountable evil? 

I have never much liked poetry. But somehow, it has been poems that have brought me the most emotional and spiritual clarity over the past two years. I think this has less to do with the poems themselves, than who they were written by: refugees, prisoners, martyrs. Despite being written in the most unimaginably harsh conditions, their words are still somehow infused with hope and love – and a source of strength for all of us.   

This poem, “I Grant You Refuge”, was written by the Palestinian poet, novelist, and teacher Hiba Abu Nada, on October 10th, 2023 – a few days after the al-Aqsa Flood, as an indiscriminate hail of missiles, bombs, and shells from the IDF were falling across Gaza:

I grant you refuge
in invocation and prayer.
I bless the neighborhood and the minaret
to guard them
from the rocket

from the moment
it is a general’s command
until it becomes
a raid.

I grant you and the little ones refuge,
the little ones who
change the rocket’s course
before it lands
with their smiles.

[…]

I grant you refuge
from hurt and suffering.

With words of sacred scripture
I shield the oranges from the sting of phosphorous
and the shades of cloud from the smog.

I grant you refuge in knowing
that the dust will clear,
and they who fell in love and died together
will one day laugh.

Ten days after she wrote this poem, Hiba was killed in her home in Khan Younis by an Israeli airstrike.   

Countless hundreds of other prominent Palestinian writers, poets, artists, and teachers have been murdered by Israel over the last two years. Thus, one small means of resistance is to defy this attempt at cultural erasure, and to protect and reproduce Palestinian art. In San Antonio, one effort around this that I was pleased to be a part of was the Palestine Cinematheque, which showcased documentaries, films, and shorts produced by Palestinians. On February 25th, 2024, we showcased “Where Should the Birds Fly”, a documentary produced in Gaza, centering on a young girl and her experiences during Israel’s 2008-2009 assault on Gaza. It was a harrowing film, with raw uncut images of death and destruction from Israel’s bombs; but also, of survival and resilience.

The final shot of “Where Should the Birds Fly” is of a little girl, an orphan, who the director met during the course of the filming. She’s playing on the beach with other orphans. The director closes out the movie reminiscing about her own childhood memories of the beach, and a simple poetic conversation that was about nothing – and yet, everything:  

I remember when I played on the beach. Life seemed simple. We had fun. My dad would carry me on his shoulders. 

Once I asked him, ‘where does the sun go?’ He told me, ‘the sun just shines somewhere else, so that others may see. A sunset here does not mean the sun is gone.’

Out of necessity, Palestine has developed an incredible culture of resistance and resilience, particularly around its martyrs. It is very different here in the US, where we can struggle to talk openly about death. But things shifted on that day that we screened the documentary. February 25th was also the day that Aaron Bushnell, an active-duty member of the US Air Force, self-immolated in protest of US complicity in Israel’s genocide. His succinct words about what the genocide in Gaza meant rang out around the world: “This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal”.   

Of course, Aaron was not just another soldier, but an anarchist and a member of San Antonio’s mutual aid network. Some of Aaron’s close friends and comrades were there during the screening that day. I still remember glancing over and seeing their stunned faces as they shared the news with each other. I wouldn’t know until later what had transpired, but I knew it was devastating.

It wasn’t until some time later that I realized I had known him too. I met him once, right when he was getting involved with the Left. He had come to the opening of a local socialist space, and we had struck up a conversation. I learned about his background and interests, and I gave him a quick spiel about the different niches of the Left and different things he could get involved in around the city, such as mutual aid work. I didn’t see him again, or think about him – until he became an international news story. 

This is part of what we can expect, as the flames from Gaza spread, as repression deepens and our movements come under increasing fire. People you know may one day disappear forever; others you met once and forgot about, will suddenly re-emerge in headlines. This is where, as with many things, Palestine has been ahead of the curve; as Alex Birnel said at a speech at Aaron Bushnell’s vigil, Palestinians have always “celebrated, cherished, and remembered their martyrs”. We will have to learn to do the same, to embrace our martyrs, those among us who give up everything for the struggle.  

Aaron had once planned to have a uniform-burning ceremony when he was able to finally quit the military. He wanted to recite the poem “The Empire Raised Me”, from Anansi’s Library:

I was a soldier for her before I knew her name
Raised to die before I fully knew mine
Crafted by hand for eternal war
Raised for combat as the empire’s ward
[…]
Now the muzzle is at my back
The boots are at my door
The guns are all racked
And like my ancestors before
A hail of bullets will set me free
Express one day delivery
From your state god to thee
Expect from your lord no loyalty
For I was raised a soldier.

On September 25th, 2025, Assata Shakur passed away in Cuba, where she had been in exile since 1984. Her time in the revolutionary ‘60s and ‘70s was of an intensity that is hard to imagine in today’s US: a veteran of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, godmother to Tupac Shakur, imprisoned for allegedly shooting down a police officer, broken out of jail by a communist militia. There can often seem a world of difference between Palestine and the US; but the truth is that the parallels have always been here. 

Assata died free. But her vision of freedom and liberation never came to fruition. Was the vision even clear in her youth? Even if it wasn’t, she nonetheless gave the struggle her all. And this is the question we must ask ourselves as well: are we prepared to give the current struggle our all, even if victory will not happen in our lifetimes? Even if we can’t even imagine victory?  

Assata might have posed the question a different way. She may have asked us if we believe in living. From her poem “Affirmation”, from her autobiography:

I believe in living.
I believe in the spectrum
of Beta days and Gamma people.
I believe in sunshine.
In windmills and waterfalls,
tricycles and rocking chairs;
And i believe that seeds grow into sprouts.
And sprouts grow into trees.
I believe in the magic of the hands.
And in the wisdom of the eyes.
I believe in rain and tears.
And in the blood of infinity.

[…]

I have been locked by the lawless.
Handcuffed by the haters.
Gagged by the greedy.
And, if i know any thing at all,
It’s that a wall is just a wall
and nothing more at all.
It can be broken down.

I believe in living
I believe in birth.
I believe in the sweat of love
and in the fire of truth.

And i believe that a lost ship,
steered by tired, seasick sailors,
can still be guided home
to port.

On March 14, 2025, federal agents arrested Leqaa Kordia.  She was a Palestinian student who had attended pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University, and the second one to be arrested, after Mahmoud Khalil. She was born in Jerusalem; over 100 of her family members have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023. She has now been imprisoned for over six months in the Prairieland Detention Facility, about a half-hour drive south of Fort Worth.

On July 4, a small group of anarchists and antifascists staged a noise demo outside of the prison. Something went awry, and shots were allegedly fired; now 17 comrades have been jailed, facing spurious terrorism charges. On September 22nd, Trump signed an executive order declaring “antifa” as a domestic terrorist organization. A few days later, Trump signed National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, declaring a national counter-terrorism initiative for the FBI to uncover and disrupt “anti-fascist” networks.

Five years after the George Floyd uprisings, and two years after the al-Aqsa Flood, there should be no more doubt: we all live under the same Empire. The savagery of the war against Palestine has spread far beyond the region; in the US alone, it is impossible to keep proper track of the pace and scale of state violence, and how quickly basic rights and norms once taken for granted are disappearing. There is no more pretense of human rights or the rule of law; no more pretense of the ruling class wanting to negotiate. As President Gustavo Petro of Colombia – a former guerrilla fighter and revolutionary – said earlier this year at a meeting of the Hague Group: “Gaza is simply an experiment by the ultra-rich…on how to respond to humanity’s rebellion.” Put differently: one way or another, the fate of Gaza is the fate of humanity.      

On June 4, Leqaa wrote a poem and statement from her prison cell. I’ll end with her words. They speak for themselves. As all of our martyrs’ poems do.  

Peace be upon you, and the mercy and blessings of God.
Peace be upon you, O Palestine.
Peace be upon Gaza, the steadfast and proud.

Peace be upon a people who taught the world
the meaning of patience, dignity, and resilience.

Peace be upon the mothers
who buried the remains of their children on street corners
—and still chose to keep Living.

Peace be upon the fathers
whose eyes wept for the first time
—and oh, what a brutal first time it was.

[…]

Peace be upon our noble martyrs, precious and beloved.
Peace be upon our free, glorious prisoners who are
charting the path to freedom.

[…]

To you, the free people across the world,
the rebels, the defiant, the unwavering
—peace be upon you and my deepest respect.

I write to you from a cold place, hoping my words
may carry a little warmth amid the tragedies, the suffering
and the unimaginable stories I witness here.

Still, I write with full certainty that we will all be freed
from this cruel injustice. And I believe, with all my heart
that I will meet you soon as a free woman—God willing.

From me—a granddaughter of the Nakba—to you,
the generation of return and the makers of freedom.
Accept my greetings and reverence.

The post Poems From Our Martyrs first appeared on Red Fault.

“Gather around, kids! I’m going to show you how to use drugs.” – Terrance Zdunich

I watched Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) when it first released. Back then, I enjoyed the music, wacky characters, and gore. Today, the movie hits different. The movie takes place in the not-too-distant future. That future has arrived.

GeneCo is a company that specializes in organ transplants. At first, the organ transplants were necessary because of a pandemic that caused mass organ failure. GeneCo harvested organs from the dead and sold them to the living. Many could not pay for the surgery so they signed a payment plan with the company. Rotti Largo is the founder of GeneCo and should look very familiar to many of us today. He is your typical selfish sadistic billionaire. He lobbied a bill through Congress to make it legal for this private company to murder citizens if they are 90 days late on
their payments. By the time the movie starts, the people are tired of living in fear. Prop 598 would make it illegal for GeneCo to repossess organs. GeneCo gaslights the citizens and says they need the ability to murder your neighbor or else they might run out of organs to save your life. This is a typical billionaire tactic that keeps citizens divided and voting against their own interests.

Working for GeneCo is a more extreme version of what it’s like to work in corporate America today and certain members of government are trying to get us even closer to this dystopian reality. They are attempting to give more power to the employer, less power to the worker, reduce safety in the workplace, and even want to
eliminate child labor laws.

The Repo Man is the one who legally murders citizens to reclaim stolen property. By property, they mean someone’s heart, spine, or any other organ. You would think anyone who would do a job like this must be a monster. Far from it. The movie does a very good job making the Repo Man a sympathetic father. However, his current job of cutting out someone’s heart with no anesthetic while it’s still beating has taken a major toll on his psyche. He develops a split personality to hide behind to do much of the dirty work. This reminds me of slaughterhouse workers of today. They murder animals who struggle and scream for their life all day long. They are paid very little and are often times undocumented workers. This allows the company to abuse and threaten them. Because of the violent and cruel nature of the job, slaughterhouse workers will either quit because of extreme PTSD or develop violent tendencies outside of work. Meat packing factories are also often times staffed by undocumented workers. They have very few safety standards and finger and hand amputations are common there.

Genterns are a type of female worker at GeneCo. You see them perform various jobs such as surgery and inventory. They are expected to perform sexual acts for their employer, dress in very skimpy clothing, and can’t complain if their co-worker is suddenly murdered in front of them. Clearly, Genterns need to form a union. It is not unusual in today’s workplace for a woman to feel pressure to be more sexualized or even perform sexual favors to get promoted. Harassment and abuse are swept under the rug and employees are expected to suffer in silence. Employees at GeneCo can be forced into contracts that prevent them from leaving the company alive. They are in a type of indentured servitude. They work for the company in exchange for a surgery, but if they leave then the Repo Man will kill them. Today, companies want their employees to sign contracts which prevent them from leaving. This type of contract emboldens the employer to abuse their employees, and if the employee chooses to leave then the employer will steal their paychecks.

We are not shown this world’s economy directly, but we get a sense there is the very poor and the very rich with not much in between. GeneCo spends a lot of money advertising for cosmetic surgeries. They encourage people to buy a name brand spine or spleen as a fashion statement. Despite being poor, many people have these surgeries because they sign up for a payment plan. This makes the surgeries more affordable. This is reflected in the Labubu craze going on today. In previous decades, cosmetic sales would rise during financial turmoil and depression. Labubus make you look cool to your friends at a relatively affordable price. People nowadays understand they will never afford a house or have financial security so why not buy a $30 toy? It’s not as if saving that $30 will suddenly allow them to buy a house. Many buy Labubus because they are depressed and these little toys provide a glimmer of joy in their day.

The Genetic Opera in the movie itself is a massive advertising campaign. It is a yearly event that is run like a mega church. There is a band and a lot of spectacle. People testify on live TV to how GeneCo helped them. A single mom needed a kidney transplant and said the company showed her sympathy, but the company will have no problem turning her children into orphans if she is late on her payments. This reflects the constant flood of propaganda we see today. Companies spend millions to develop brand loyalty to keep their customers coming back for decades. None of us are immune to propaganda. Remember, they need us more than we need them.

Repo! The Genetic Opera will be playing at Hyperreal Film Club in Austin on October 6th at 7:30pm.

The post The Goth Rock Opera of Our Present first appeared on Red Fault.

Austin DSA unequivocally condemns the decision of the Texas State University President, Kelly Damphousse, to terminate Dr. Tom Alter from his position at Texas State University.

On Wednesday, 10 September 2025, Dr. Tom Alter, a well-respected educator, published historian, and tenured faculty member at Texas State University, was unceremoniously terminated from his position at Texas State University. This unjust decision came just days after Dr. Alter spoke at the Revolutionary Socialism Conference in his legal and protected capacity as a private individual and not as a representative of the university. Karlyn Borysenko, an online personality with known fascist positions, recorded his talk, livestreamed it online, and immediately began calling for his termination on 8 September 2025. Dr. Alter was summarily fired from his position by university President Kelly Damphousse without notice nor due process. The decision was announced (and communicated to Dr. Alter) via public letter.

Dr. Alter’s firing is the latest in a string of recent firings under similar circumstances: an individual acting in bad faith records the words of professional educators, publishes them online, and conducts a smear campaign against the targeted professor calling for their immediate termination. This is not just an attack on Dr. Alter himself; **it is an attack on the very institution of public education**. Further, it is an attack on the right of all Texans, of all Americans, and of all people around the world, to speak freely without fear of retaliation. It fits the ongoing pattern of right-wing, often openly-fascist, attacks on public and higher education as a means of eroding the trust, legitimacy, and power of the very concept of human knowledge.

From the intense repression of the protests during the Student Intifada last spring, to the direct targeting of immigrant students and educators as with Mahmoud Khalil, Rümeysa Öztürk, and others, to the push for school vouchers from Governor Greg Abbott, the education system is being targeted and dismantled. This sustained campaign against education is being conducted via an inside-outside strategy of institutional repression from university presidents combined with online harassment and smear campaigns by fascist “influencers” on social media platforms. In taking their marching orders from internet micro-celebrities, university administrations show a level of hypocrisy that is unbecoming of those who claim to be educators, circumventing due process and labor rights to enact openly political decisions that go against the right to freedom of speech.

Austin DSA has hosted Dr. Alter for political education events in the past. Many of our members have learned from him and hold him in high esteem. Further, our comrades in Texas State YDSA are directly affected by the decision to fire him without due process and the lack of any guarantee to protection from repression and retaliation for their own free expression. We stand in solidarity with Dr. Tom Alter and call upon Texas State University to:

Reinstate Dr. Alter immediately.
Publicly affirm the constitutional right of all employees to speak as private citizens without retaliation.
Establish clear policies guaranteeing due process before any termination related to off-duty expression.

We ask our comrades to sign this letter from Dr. Alter’s union, the Texas State Employees Union (TSEU-CWA Local 6186), voicing their own support for the above demands.

The post Reinstate Dr. Tom Alter first appeared on Red Fault.

This piece was written 08/15/25

Last week, I had the honor of representing the Liberal Arts and Science Academy chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), at YDSA’s 2025 annual national convention. It was a true honor to be their co-chair, and to serve them once more as their delegate.

Ultimately, however, I came away from the convention concerned for our political future as a movement: We were decisively against organizing students. We failed to pass crucial resolutions that would strengthen the student movement, including R23: Building Campus Consciousness, Democracy, and Militancy through Student Unions and R10: Building an International Student Movement. R23 would have provided crucial support to mass student organizing in the form of student unions, a formation that can mobilize large numbers of students in solidarity in a way that YDSA cannot. The success of the student union formation is outlined below with Students United by LASA YDSA, and I think that failing to bet on mass student organizing via student unions will remain one of the biggest lost opportunities of the convention. Additionally, R10 centered our internationalism around building relationships with student organizations as YDSA, something that must be centered in order to build an international coalition to win student demands and ultimately socialism.

Instead, we focused on gatekeeping durable socialist organizing to only people with “real” ties to the class struggle (current laborers) and building value-pure socialist groups to recruit students into. We passed resolutions like R12: For a Campaigning Internationalism and R18: Recommitting to Running Strategic Campaigns as Unapologetic Socialists, which aren’t obviously bad, but show a clear focus away from larger mass movement organizing of students towards socialist groups. This tendency fundamentally doesn’t believe that students have a claim to power, but rather we must take a backseat to the “real” working class and focus on political education, supporting their cause, and running smaller campaigns as socialists to pressure the campus. It doesn’t believe in the mass student movement or their own claim to power and representation.

This is a mistake. If we want to win material change, at our schools and in the world, we have to be comfortable organizing the people around us, having conversations, and building power. As students, we represent some of the most diverse, progressive and willing bodies of people in America, and our organizations should strive to organize and mobilize as many students as possible to win. Some might argue that students don’t have the correct “class character,” and I must disagree. We are forgetting what the root of working class is – people who are not owners, people who do not control capital. Just as unemployed people are part of the working class, so are students. Additionally, others argue that students inherently aren’t worth organizing because they’re a transient group. The student movement has built some of the strongest organizations and movements in American history, from Vietnam and Students for a Democratic Society, to divestment from South Africa and winning the collapse of apartheid, to fighting for a free Palestine today. Turnover is not a valid reason to avoid organizing – if that were true, we wouldn’t be organizing Starbucks and Amazon. Yet regardless of the excuses people give for abandoning students, none of them give a valid reason to leave them unorganized and retreat to our comfort zone of like-minded socialists. They’re progressive, willing to fight, and have organized throughout history. It would be a shame for YDSA to give up on student mass organizing, let alone for the wider socialist movement to do so, yet increasingly that seems to be the trend.

It’s important that we organize the entirety of the working class by building durable organizations to fight for change, not because that we think only the working class can win socialism, but because we truly believe in each and every one of our neighbors as people. In this time of rising fascism, believing in people is more important now than ever if we want to defeat it. Yet the socialist movement seems to be retreating into hiding, requiring that people come to our doorstep instead of organizing our neighbors en masse for change, because we no longer find hope in them. We vote down student organizing, we vote down protest organizing, we stop committing to the rank-and-file strategy and make connections with the union leaders instead. This is what fascism wants of us: to feel hopeless and that your neighbor is untrustworthy, to build division in order to cement the ruling class. Instead, we must meet neighbors where they are, with organizations that can represent them both to their schools and to the wider world, and build committed comrades out of this bond.

At LASA YDSA, we organized a student union, Students United, to serve as a durable student bargaining representative to fight for fairer learning conditions and mental health support. We currently have over 8% of the student body supporting our bid to unionize by signing Union Authorization Cards. This union attracted a wide range of people because it was rooted in a collective movement, representation, and demands for change – a movement from which we were able to build committed socialist organizers out of. While YDSA could never legitimately claim to be a representative of students and demand bargaining rights, a union could, because a union’s legitimacy comes exclusively from its status as a representative of the students instead of ideology or self-interest. YDSA can lead the movement, YDSA can build organizers from the movement, but YDSA must commit to empowering the working class to seize power for themselves. This is an important distinction because it’s both an optical, political and communal one – it’s the difference between one-party rule and a worker’s state for the people. Democratic socialists should commit to people power and democracy first and foremost, not try to make a utopian socialist society concocted out of thin air and imposed on the people.

We will not win by building a cadre vanguard that people do not feel a connection to. We will not win by treating our neighbors as peasants to be strung along. We will win through class struggle and a mass movement of each and every one of us, that, through solidarity, can be built in any community and especially within students. We must not give up on student and wider working class solidarity. We must not give up on our own communities. We must commit more, organize for power, and organize to win socialism.

The post In Defense of the Student Movement first appeared on Red Fault.

Rights are not rights if we don’t use them, and we must use exercise them openly, frequently, and without reservation.

I don’t usually talk about masking very much, I just do it. I find people talk to me about masking more than I talk to them about it. The act of masking causes others to reflect; perhaps to feel some sort of guilt about themselves, or judgement about me and other maskers. This one time, let me make the case for masking for 2025 and the foreseeable future.

The techno-surveillance police state is already here – its gradually cemented itself in the digital and physical world we navigate our lives through. After 9/11, the normalization of surveillance has evolved from an initial public support for sacrificing freedoms for supposed “public safety,” to the shocking revelations of Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing, to an almost pathetic view of the security theater of going through TSA. Cameras are watching us in the sky – far enough away where we cannot seem them, but precise enough to see details on the ground. Many people tend to feel hopeless about avoiding such surveillance when thinking about this – but hope is not lost. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been fighting for digital privacy rights for decades, paving the way for alternatives to Big Tech such as the Graphene OS android operating system, Proton emerging as a Google suite alternative, and the more widespread adoption of Signal. The use of these digital tools help to shield us from the surveillance state, but the digital privacy community and socialist organizers are failing to discuss how we can protect ourselves from both the surveillance state and fascist forces in public. Being tracked by the state or being doxxed and identified by fascist forces are real threats we must confront head-on.

Historically, bans on facial coverings have a mixed history in the United States. One the one hand, there were some 20th century laws passed in various states in efforts to crack down the Klu Klux Klan, while later being applied to Occupy Movements. On the other hand, In 1845, New York State passed an anti-mask law for “public safety” after a tenants’ revolt, known as the Anti-Rent War, or the Helderberg War. Many states, and the District of Columbia, either already have anti-mask laws on the books, have pushed for them recently, or likely will continue to push for them. While the legal statuses have been challenged and some have been struck down by the Supreme Court, we know these liberal institutions have already failed us, and will continue to enable fascism.

So, what happens when ICE starts going after socialists? Will you wear a mask to a protest or at court watching? What will you do when a police officer or a masked ICE agent claims you cannot wear a mask because you’re hiding your identity and you might be a terrorist? Will you comply, or will you disobey, whether legal or not? Will you start coughing, or will you verbally argue the necessity of masking to protect yourself from a contagious virus that can cause young, otherwise healthy people to become disabled and immuno-compromised? Actions speak louder than words.

I’ve now contracted covid-19 three times, the third leaving me with a compromised immune system and GI reactions to some of my favorite foods – which I had been eating during isolating and recovering from the third infection. Wearing good masks that fit your face absolutely works to protect yourself from covid-19, other viruses, and those brutal Austin allergies, too! Maybe you still don’t care about covid-19, and I don’t think I can convince you with words. But the reality is, you cannot mask only for protection from the fascist forces; you must also mask for your protection from airborne viruses. Otherwise, your masking would be atypical. It would signal a divergence in your regular behavior. Our safety and security practices are for all of the time. We always wear our seat belts, not just right before we get into a collision. Normalizing masking in 2025 and onward is a matter of practice, and just doing it. Do it at the grocery store, do it at your work place. Do it inside, and do it outside. Do it to protect yourself, and do it to remind others to do it – because actions speak louder than words. Exert your right to mask, and do it now – before its too late.

The post Exert Your Right to Mask! first appeared on Red Fault.

A modern industrial society requires a democratically-controlled economy. Here is an outline of why that’s true

Few clearer exhibits of capitalism’s need for waste arrive in the mailbox than the annual Auto Issue of Consumer Reports. In it are listed and reviewed the multiple automobiles overfilling the categories (sedan, pickup, minivan, etc.) that have evolved since the Tin Lizzie went into production generations ago. (“435 Models Tested” in the 2024 edition.) The waste of labor and material involved in the manufacture of numerous candidates to fit each category, and the implications for democracy, are the subject of this brief diatribe, using the ubiquitous Sport-Utility Vehicle (SUV) as an example.

The SUV is a kind of mix of station wagon, minivan, sedan, and sports car. The general type really is useful, whether electric, hybrid or gasoline-burner. But so many of them!

Ten interchangeable models (with romantic names) just among the “Midsized 3-Row SUVs”! This overpopulation situation comes about because manufacturers want to maximize their profit, to fulfill the dreams of their managers and investors. This drive leads them to try to wrest away a portion of the market from one another. In this effort, they must differentiate their SUVs from those of their rivals. The cost in terms of finance they do not hide. But the hidden costs undercut democracy.

Bringing each SUV to reality and ultimately to the driveway of the buyer is not trivial. Each of the ten requires the fabrication of enormous metal-stamping molds for each body panel, of which there are a multitude on each different model. High-strength steel is fashioned into these giant molds, which must withstand the tremendous forces and the friction associated with crushing a big piece of sheet metal into the desired shape, requiring rare alloying elements.

Moreover, each mating mold pair, male and female, must be designed by skilled tool designers and fabricated by skilled toolmakers. And the body panels themselves: their shape emerges from the combined imaginations of Marketing and Industrial Design. Every swoop and curve, every seam, bulge and fin is wrestled over by trained professionals and reviewed by Management before the tooling is released for production…and they must all fit together perfectly, and not look quite like anyone else’s SUV. (A cursory inspection of a few SUV makes will reveal the differences among, for example, the front fenders.)

So thousands of labor-hours and refined talent are expended just on the body of each individual model…and that’s without looking at integration of the seats, the dashboard, the wipers, the door latches and the all-important cup holders. All these features, different for each, for every single, 3-row SUV, and we’ve ignored dozens of body categories (two-row SUVs, small sedans, etc.) Each of these models is dumped into the chaos and uncertainty of the marketplace; the makers must wait to see if their huge bets pay off in sales. Secrecy is crucial to profitability, an imperative of competition; none can afford to actually fabricate and test-market their creations among the public, as would be routine in a democratically-directed economy not dependent on secrecy. In the parts of our society permitted to operate along democratic principles, we discuss publicly and know in advance what policies will be adopted…not so when it comes to the operation of our enormous economy!

Now this is a critique of capitalism. So what’s to critique? Well, the flagrant waste. Among other things, the hoary Principle Of Interchangeable Parts is flung down and danced upon; standardization is spurned. If we as an electorate had dictated this state of affairs back in the Martin van Buren Administration and bequeathed it to our progeny for generations to come, it would be one thing. But that’s not how it happened. Over a century ago, when industrialization was young, people who had money to invest joined with others and built physical plants to manufacture cars. Others sought to compete with them. Millions went to work, of necessity, for the resulting corporations. Those manufacturers and their heirs have dominated our economy ever since. In requiring huge percentages of the population to engage in duplication of effort to earn a living, the economy misuses their labor.

But we are democrats. We believe ourselves capable of making the most important decisions in our society. Given the opportunity, we might not elect to make so many functionally interchangeable, but part-wise unique cars, each with its own infrastructure of parts and dealers. Socialism gives that opportunity.

Only socialism recognizes this silly duplication as a problem and proposes to correct it. Socialism, as a rationalizing force, would place direction and management of such an important part of our economy in the hands of the citizenry, for example through elected managers, like our choice of political candidates in conventional elections. All these manufacturers worked hard to provide us with things we don’t need, wasting resources, clean air and the labor of countless Americans. Socialism, somewhat more fundamentally than police and gender reforms, would impose order and planning, and democracy, on the productive capacities of our economy, and Consumer Reports would become thinner.

Respectable, proud democracy cannot coexist with this wasteful mode of industrial organization.

Henry M is an Automotive and Mechanical Engineer.

The post Democratic Socialism and the Automotive Industry first appeared on Red Fault.