monday good news: hope can be hard to come by
thanks for welcoming me back into your inbox. like so many other writers i respect, i haven't felt compelled to add my voice to analysis of genocide in Palestine, Congo, Sudan and other places beyond what's been said in this newsletter in the past. we are witnessing things that are horrific, the darkest part of humanity, unfold across the globe as perhaps they always have, but it is a particular sort of maddening to be watching them in real time, have so much information, and know that the people who could stop these things at any moment have the same information and do not.
i am holding simultaneously the ideas that this is deeply depressing and should hurt, makes hopelessness a logical response and that my hopelessness is a contribution to the world as it is, a barrier to working towards the world as it could be.
this is why i started writing the monday good news in the first place three years ago. as i start to work through how i can best shove at this thing, i want to ground in the creativity, collaborative work, and victories happening all around me.
if hundreds of people can fly Palestinian kites above Khan Younis and a family can bring a tomato plant from Rafah and cultivate its fruit, surely i can organize and grow things in my own life that will help to bring down capitalism, white supremacy, and all the systems that serve them. i hope you can find some inspiration here too.
unions, housing wins, & legal pardons as material hope
Jeff Duncan-Andrade talks about how teachers can provide material hope in classrooms by "connect[ing] schooling to the real, material conditions of urban life." in organizing, our wins can provide this sort of material hope, tangible benefits of not giving in to despair. here are some recent examples:
tulane's non-tenured faculty voted to unionize
Tulane Workers United is the first federally recognized union of academics in Louisiana. As state employees, faculty and staff at public universities are excluded from federal labor protections and not federally recognized by the NLRB, but many schools across the state have chapters...The vote at Tulane follows a trend of non-tenured faculty at private institutions across the U.S. who have formed unions...A decline in tenured positions at colleges and universities across the country has prompted many non-tenure track professors to organize, Herbert said. Most of the elections have gone overwhelmingly in favor of unionizing, with faculty across the country voicing concerns about job security and low wages.
hawaiian organizers suceed in pushing governor to limit airbnbs and increase affordable housing
By addressing the issue of illegal short-term rentals, SB 2919 aims to alleviate Hawaiʻi’s housing crisis and increase housing levels throughout the state. This bill provides counties with home rule authority to see that vacation rentals are not allowed in communities that do not want them. It will help clear up any issues of state preemption, but counties will still need to craft their policies to avoid other legal or constitutional issues. This will help against the adverse impacts of non-resident ownership of short-term rentals, which impedes housing supply for residents and emphasizes the unique needs of each county in regulating such accommodations. During the signing, Governor Green also provided an overview of the administration’s recent efforts to expand affordable housing options. “We are on track to build more than 13,000 housing units by 2026 and more than 60,000 units in the pipeline across more than 235 projects,” Governor Green said. “This commitment reflects our dedication to creating more affordable housing statewide.”
Grace Toohey
maryland governor pardons people convicted of a crime for utilizing a plant's medicinal benefits
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore is absolving people convicted of more than 175,000 cannabis-related crimes, in what the governor called “the most sweeping state level pardon in any state in American history.” The large-scale absolution comes a year after Maryland legalized recreational marijuana use. The lion’s share of the cases are misdemeanors: More than 150,000 convictions are for possession of cannabis, and more than 18,000 convictions are for possession with intent to use drug paraphernalia. “We cannot celebrate the benefits of legalization if we do not address the consequences of criminalization,” Moore, a Democrat, said before signing an executive order issuing the pardons on Monday.
Bill Chappell
parenting as revolutionary hope
i've been thinking a lot about parents living through genocide and how revolutionary it is to insist on more life in a global economy that profits from death and disposability. this video from Claudia Karina, presidential candidate for the Party for Socialism and Liberation is furthering my thinking.
BDS victories as validation
boycotts are one of the most powerful actions we can take in a capitalist society and so no company will admit that they have influenced their decisions, will ever acknowledge their own complicity or the power of consumers to tell them what to do. there are examples of this all throughout history and to hear that Intel is pulling the plug on a $25 billion dollar investment in the zionist entity is encouraging.
Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC).jpg)
Reuters
if you want to easily identify if products you are buying are contributing to genocide in Palestine or Congo, i recommend this app. it's super easy and transparent.
it's good to be back. my hope is to return to sending good news regularly on mondays. is the monday good news useful to you? if it is, let me know in a comment or email. your readership means so much to me.
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with hope,
katie wills evans