Block & Build Strategy Comes to CUNY, with Alethia Jones

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain minor errors.

[00:00:00] Cayden Mak: Welcome to Block and Build, a podcast from Convergence magazine. I’m your host and the publisher of Convergence, Caden Mauck. On this show, we are building a roadmap for the movement that’s working to block the ascent of authoritarianism while building the influence of a genuinely progressive trend in the broad frontiers.

[00:00:24] Before we get started, I want to acknowledge our newest Movement Builder and Movement Champion subscribers, Sarah Hunter and Linda Roman. Thank you both for supporting Convergence. If you want to join these folks who make our work possible, you can become a subscriber at convergencemag. com slash donate.

[00:00:40] On the show today, I chat with Dr. Alethea Jones, who’s the Director of Civic Engagement and Leadership Development at the Murphy Institute at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. Next week, Dr. Jones and her colleagues are hosting a free one day conference focused on the task of block and build in the current period, and I wanted to talk to her to preview the gathering, as well as understand more about her and her work as a scholar, teacher, and writer.

[00:01:02] But first, these headlines to get us started. A new report from The Economist, supported by data from mapping police violence in the Washington Post, shows that 2024 is on track to be the deadliest year for police killings since mapping police violence started tracking statistics in 2013. Overall, their data shows that extrajudicial killing by police has only increased since the George Floyd uprisings in 2020.

[00:01:26] This points to the uneven nature of reforms, and the fact that police departments are administered at a very local level, creating challenges for movements to enact widespread changes. I’m sure that popular media narratives about crime don’t help either. Many mainstream commentators have declared defund to be unsuccessful.

[00:01:42] The truth is, abolition is more than a one time budget adjustment. For Some cities have even gone so far as to roll back their defund budgets as pressure to address public safety has mounted. As college students return to school for the fall semester, campus protests demanding a divestment from companies complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza have resumed.

[00:02:01] School administrators have also returned to their commitment to, quote unquote, order. On Wednesday evening at the University of Michigan, four protesters were arrested during an action at the university’s festival back to campus event. Striking UAW workers at Cornell University have reached a tentative agreement with the university that raises wages up to 25.

[00:02:20] 4 percent and includes cost of living adjustments, eliminates a two tier wage system, and improves policies on time off, safety, and other issues facing non academic campus workers. Special Prosecutor Jack Smith announced revised indictments of former President Donald Trump this week. These revisions are designed to navigate the Supreme Court ruling that presidents are immune from some criminal legal proceedings which broke along partisan lines.

[00:02:45] It remains unlikely that there will be any hearings in the case before the election on November 5th. And last week, the Supreme Court partially upheld a new Arizona law that requires prospective voters to furnish a document proving their citizenship when they register to vote. Arizona has been working to create additional hurdles for voters to clear regarding proof of citizenship for over a decade, placing it in direct conflict with the National Voter Registration Act, which does require that voters attest to their citizenship, but not provide Those challenging the law worry that because it directly contradicts the NVRA, the law will create confusion and suppress turnout, especially among young people, indigenous people, and other key demographics.

[00:03:28] Convergence Magazine Board Chair, Max Albom, will join our next guest, Dr. Alethea Jones, for a one day event at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, examining the Block and Build strategy and where we are in this election cycle. Dr. Jones was also previously an Education and Leadership Development Director at 1199 SCIU, United Healthcare Workers East, and has a storied career as an educator, and is also the co author, with Barbara Smith, of Barbara’s Movement Memoir.

[00:03:54] Um, first of all, Alethea, thank you so much for joining me today. It’s really nice to meet you, and I know there’s a lot going on, but how are you doing? Good, I’m delighted to be here. Could you tell me a little bit about your experience in the labor movement and also in New York City politics, and also your life, um, how those things have kind of shaped your approach to the moment that we’re in now and, and your understanding of them?

[00:04:19] Alithea Jones: Yeah, of course. The seminal experience is one of my being an immigrant. I’m originally from Kingston, Jamaica, and came to this country, or I was brought to this country. I didn’t have much say in it at the age of 11. And that meant that I grew up in post colonial, post independence, Jamaica and Kingston, Jamaica, and that period, I lived through, um, an era of relative stability and tranquility.

[00:04:55] And then I also saw it upended in the 1981 election, which was the bloodiest election that ever occurred. And even at that young age, um, we had a strong sense of what was happening because Jamaica just doesn’t have power. We don’t have a gun factory, but suddenly our island is flooded with guns. There’s gang violence.

[00:05:16] And what emerged is that Jamaica became a site of a proxy war between the United States and the U. S. S. R. Um, as part of the Cold War, uh, race. And the U. S. was very perturbed about Michael Manley and how close he was to, um, um, to Fidel Castro in Cuba, and they wanted to short circuit that. And so I share that story because, um, that reality of living through that shift as an immigrant really grounds me and informs my approach to politics, sort of, ongoingly.

[00:05:58] And always engaging a certain reality check between what is being said and what are the realities, uh, on the ground, which sometimes don’t get talked about. Don’t make the headlines, but it’s really driving outcomes. 

[00:06:12] Cayden Mak: Yeah, for sure. No, it seems like there’s a lot of threads also that, um, have a lot of resonance with the moment that we’re in now, both thinking about, um, political violence and what it means and also like us empire and what it means.

[00:06:29] Um, and the fact that once again, immigrants and immigration are. Like, continue to be such a, like, pivotal issue, um, in this, in this election cycle. And I think that, like, a lot of the ways in which, uh, the main, like, mainstream discourse is lurching to the right, um, on a lot of those issues is, like, of great concern to folks in our movement.

[00:06:52] So that makes a lot of sense. Let me pick up on that and just say a little 

[00:06:57] Alithea Jones: bit about how it links to, um, my work in the, in the labor movement. Um, the connection between the local and the global is so present in many people’s lived experiences, but tends to be invisibilized in the U. S. Mm hmm. Uh, Context.

[00:07:17] And I often say in my labor and immigration classes, they’re here because the U. S. Is there, right? The U. S. Has a presence in all these places as a global power. Uh, it’s not just through superhero movies, but through how it remakes economies and governments. Um, and usually the dislocation of That, uh, that it can spur, right, also leads to people migrating and seeing the U.

[00:07:48] S. as a destination. Uh, one of the incredible things about 1199 SEIU, it’s the largest healthcare workers, uh, local, it’s the largest local in the country, it has over 400, 000 members, uh, and it started city, um, over 80 years ago, it’s now in five states and DC and the New York City arm is often referred to as a mini United Nations, right?

[00:08:19] Healthcare is, um, one of the largest, um, sectors in our economy. Uh, we represent members, from both nurses and technicians to those who are custodians and cooks and chefs in hospitals and nursing homes and home care. Uh, so we have a real range and the way in which the service industry and the way in which healthcare, uh, is being restructured around services so that low wage jobs.

[00:08:55] are easily degraded and the unions made a real difference all across the country in its early history and where it’s present in making those low wage jobs, stable jobs, good jobs, and actually can be career paths, um, as well. And so really historically and today, it is, doesn’t always win every fight and there are always challenges, but it is really ground zero for seeing the way in which we fight makes a difference.

[00:09:28] It demands respect for the contributions that workers at all levels make, not just the most credentialed. Um, and living with that and through that and contributing to that legacy is one of the, one of the proudest things, um, in my career. 

[00:09:51] Cayden Mak: Yeah, no, I, that makes a lot of sense to me. I, um, In a previous life, I was a part of CWA 1104, uh, the SUNY Graduate Workers Union, and in some of the, some of the organizing that we were doing across SUNY and CUNY, um, I came into contact with some 1199 folks and really just like, so impressed with the work that they were doing and the organizing they were doing.

[00:10:14] So, um, I’ve seen some of it firsthand, for sure. 

[00:10:18] Alithea Jones: Yeah, that’s amazing. And it’s funny that I said the word my career because I actually don’t really think of myself as a careerist. I’m not really. I left a career in higher education as a tenure track academic explicitly to work in the labor movement and to work in social movements.

[00:10:40] Um, and so contributing to the power of movements and to organizers. Through leadership development and education that builds power is what’s really important to me, not necessarily. the title or the location of it. 

[00:10:54] Cayden Mak: Yeah. Yeah. It is, it is funny. I do think that like, sometimes we slip into talking about it that way, but I hear you.

[00:11:03] Um, can you talk a little bit about, I guess, the genesis of this event that we’re putting together on the 6th? Um, where did it come from and, uh, what kind of speaks to you about the, the block and build syllabus that Convergence has put together? 

[00:11:20] Alithea Jones: Yeah, of course. So I’m here at the City University of New York in a role that is otherwise known as a professor of practice.

[00:11:31] Um, CUNY makes it possible for practitioners to serve as full time faculty, uh, and to both teach and to host projects that are Be of benefit to the CUNY community. And that’s both the immediate students, but, um, people in the city and in the world writ large. So in that role, I direct the civic engagement and leadership development project at the Murphy Institute.

[00:12:03] And every spring. We host a speaker series where we bring in political analysts and educators and operatives and we have a conversation with them, with our incredible participants from all over the city and the country online to talk about political strategy and the role of labor and the role of workers and the working class and building power.

[00:12:34] And this spring we had Max L. Baum as a guest along with Maria Poblet of the Grassroots Power Project. And we talked about block and build. As you know, Max and Maria, along with Linda Burnham, co edited Power Concedes Nothing, which is a lovely book. It’s my Bible. It’s terrific. Um, I, I teach it as often as I can.

[00:13:06] Uh, and so that was the, that was the, the genesis. I was very familiar with the book. I’ve seen Max and Maria talk in different venues. really appreciate their long term strategic thinking approach and how grounded it is in experiences all over the country. And so subsequent to that conversation, uh, in the spring, we just started talking like, what else could we do?

[00:13:33] And we arrived at this one day conference.

[00:13:40] Cayden Mak: I’m also curious, especially because you touch so many, uh, folks in organizing in the New York City area, how have you kind of seen some of this analysis show up in, in the work that you’re seeing, um, around you? Uh, like how have, how have the sort of things, how have these ideas kind of rippled out? 

[00:14:01] Alithea Jones: So I think there are ways in which, you know, people may be engaged in electoral politics, but they may not necessarily use the vocabulary of block and build.

[00:14:12] And so I take it as a sign of a really good tagline when you’re giving, you’re allowing us to name something that’s already present, but we didn’t know that we were necessarily, um, doing it. And. In approaching this, we, you know, initially thought about, oh, we should reproduce the syllabus, create a forum where, you know, folks can have an experience of the syllabus.

[00:14:45] The more we talked about it, we realized that maybe it’d be more helpful to Create a space that would get us away from the day to day. So what we see are unions, right, on full throttle, um, sending members locally and to swing states. right, to knock on doors. We see, um, smaller organizations with, working with the Working Families Party or other entities gearing people up to go to, to, um, to swing states to really act on their values in ways that they see as important to, to them.

[00:15:30] But there aren’t that many spaces where folks can step back from the day to day and just talk to each other and talk to each other across different organizations and reflect on what they’re learning and what they’re seeing, right? What are their surprises? What are the disappointments? And so having some space to process.

[00:15:52] is what we hope will be a real contribution here. You know, there’s a, a saying amongst educators or, and others as well, right? It’s not what happens to you is what you make it mean. Right? And we can also see this so much in our politics now, like facts used to matter. Fact free zones. Right. But it’s also, it’s like, it’s not what the facts are.

[00:16:17] It’s like, what do you make it mean? How do you interpret it? So we wanted to create. Uh, an environment that would allow people to kind of. think together and process together. 

[00:16:29] Cayden Mak: Yeah, that seems huge. I also think that like, you know, now that we’re inside, uh, you know, less than what, 80 days or something like that before the election that like having an in a cycle where things have been moving so quickly and changing so rapidly and like, Some very dramatic ways having that space feels like such a magical privilege, honestly, and like, I don’t know, it’s, it’s, it’s honestly what I love about what I get to do day in and day out is like, I do get to like, take a little step back, talk to people who are thinking about the big picture, but like, you know, you don’t get to do that unless you make space for that kind of thing.

[00:17:10] Alithea Jones: Yeah, and that’s why I love what I get to do both in the classroom and in forums like this and in workshops is how do you get everyday people to have an opportunity to learn and reflect and bring their wisdom into the conversation and have it be really honored and in dialogue with, um, with other trends and analysis.

[00:17:34] Right. So, yeah, I also love, love creating and hosting those kinds of spaces. When we started this project, we had no idea we would be in this situation, right? Biden was a V candidate and everyone was limping along to the finish line. And that was another component of it, right? It feels like such a slog, you know, last, Last year, um, we hosted, uh, Nse Ufot in our civic engagement leadership development program.

[00:18:06] And we talked extensively, uh, with her and with another colleague from Georgia about how they did the win in Georgia, right? What does it mean to turn a red state into a blue state, which delivered two senators And Biden, the election, and of course, folks who are on the ground to know this going in, that’s the result of a 10 year project, right?

[00:18:33] Yeah, right. They didn’t start in January of that election year and produce the result in November. It takes foresight to to do this kind of project. And so we wanted to really speak to that 10 year building of an infrastructure of learning from successes as well as mistakes. We often learn more from our near misses and far misses and allow us to recalibrate, um, to create systems that can work fairly well, but also systems that can adjust, right, to shifts on.

[00:19:18] on the ground. And so being able to do to to Senate elections back to back like that’s a huge and heavy lift. And so for us, because the times we’re living in extend well beyond like decades in the past before us and extends decades right ahead beyond us. And what does it mean to bring a sense We do that long term view and yet have a full conversation about this moment, but it’s tied to those bigger, bigger patterns and systems.

[00:19:53] Cayden Mak: Yeah, that, that resonates for me. I mean, actually this morning I was talking to Max, um, a group of us were having a meeting and he mentioned that the sort of like place we are with the block and build framework is the result of about seven years of sort of like, uh, assessing results of elections, trying to understand where we’re at in terms of like, as you say, this like multi decade backlash against the civil rights era.

[00:20:24] Um, and that it’s seems like also not coincidental that like, this is also, um, this is like the, the project of block and build is also, a long term project in that way. Um, and that like, perhaps like in this moment when like, we’re getting, you know, some attention around it and, um, finding it, it’s resonating with people is like, it also didn’t just, uh, we didn’t start working on this, uh, like at the end of last year, but that like, it’s been part of a much longer term effort to really like, make sense of the conjuncture that we find ourselves in.

[00:21:03] Um, I’ll also say that we cannot take credit for block and build as, as the phrase is, as a tagline. I’m pretty sure it’s, uh, Tarso Ramos from, uh, political research associates. Who’s he’s the first person I heard say it. Um, I’m not sure if he’s the originator, but, uh, you know, there’s no new ideas, right?

[00:21:24] Alithea Jones: Yeah, that’s fantastic. You know, the, the, the part of me, um, that is an independent researcher and academic and scholar would, will put the timeline further back, like yes to the civil rights movement. Uh, I’d move the clock back further to the new deal. Sure. Yeah. There is a way in which Um, following the Great Depression and, uh, Roosevelt’s New Deal initiatives, when I was deep in the archives and researching this for my dissertation, I was struck because I researched banking policy.

[00:22:09] and the origin of community banking policy and informal banks and postal savings banks. I was struck by how unapologetic capital was about the Great Depression, and they were offended then by every single New Deal initiative. And they wanted to go back. And then the part of me that’s super interested in ideas and think tanks and all of those things, just seeing the ways in which.

[00:22:37] Through foundations and other initiatives, right, there’s been a steady evolution. Of a strategy of how to roll back, roll back the entire New Deal, including social security. 

[00:22:55] Cayden Mak: Yeah, that is super fascinating. And I think such a like, I mean, that’s, that’s not the history that you learn, right? Because like, also, you know, there’s capitals not interested in us knowing just how resistant they were to all of that.

[00:23:09] Um, but I, I think it does like, I mean, it does highlight again, the sort of like in the, the conditions in which we find ourselves just not even politically, but in terms of like all of our day to day lives where like folks are being pushed further and further to the margins experiencing economic precarity.

[00:23:30] It’s so hard to make space to take a long view when you’re like. Living paycheck to paycheck and worried about a global pandemic that’s still raging and like all of these different things that like yeah are putting very real material pressures on people. 

[00:23:46] Alithea Jones: Yeah, absolutely. And I think the weaponization of people’s emotions that seems to be at an unusual high.

[00:23:56] Because of social media, but the truth of the matter, politics has always been a blood sport, um, and right, is weaponized in every era in different ways. The tools may, may change and the impact and the speed at which those tools can spread may change. Um, but it’s always been a brutal, brutal business. The dynamic of trying to win elections and.

[00:24:22] gain power. Yeah, it seems to me that, um, that we wanted to, if possible, create a space where we can come with strongly felt emotions and commitments. But we, to have a space where it’s not just proclaiming what one believes really strongly, right? Right, right. Right, and being reinforced in how, how right you are.

[00:24:57] We’re really interested in, a dialogue and insights and in just taking a moment to take a deep breath together and say, what are we learning? And what are we thinking? Given this, the longer arc, right? Of, of this fight, you know, of course, in one day we won’t be able to get to everything. Um, and it’s our hope that there will be.

[00:25:26] Right, other moments and other events, right, usually, um, race forward, right, has its own conference that occurs right after the elections. And I think that’s usually a moment where movements get together and can digest. We can only hope that we’ll know. Of the election by that time, right? Because we might be facing multiple lawsuits in so many places.

[00:25:52] We can’t predict reliably right now exactly when we’ll know who is the official winner, right? Especially given changes in laws, changing in election administration that has occurred all over the country. And even what just happened in Georgia, I was reading last night that there’s a nonpartisan electoral board in Georgia that has now a 3 2 Republican majority.

[00:26:22] Uh, the three Republicans are all firmly on the same side. within the election denial camp, uh, and they’re gearing up. Uh, so unless, uh, we see very large margins of victory for either candidate, right, there’s just a lot of disputes that will occur if the margin of victory is, is narrow. So, uh, There’ll be lots of day to day things and lots of emotions about lots of things, but we’re hoping to carve out a space where we’re not rehashing those conversations, right, which people already have on social media and all those other places.

[00:27:00] We’re trying to have a different, a different dialogue. on September 6th. 

[00:27:05] Cayden Mak: Totally. Well, uh, perhaps a good question also then is who’s all gonna be there? Uh, who are some of the folks who, uh, uh, you’re bringing into the room? And, um, you know, like, what are, what are you excited about hearing from some of them?

[00:27:21] Alithea Jones: Yeah, of course. Happy to. Happy to share that. Uh, so we have two, two panels and we’ll be reflecting first with, um, Margie Del Castillo from the State Power Caucus and Seed the Vote, uh, Farhad Ahmed from DCIS Rising Up and Moving, also known as DRUM, and Maria Estefan from the Horizons Project and also Shining Up for Racial.

[00:27:53] racial justice. And one of the things I really, um, appreciate about this lineup of speakers is that it takes us into some very local politics in the city, right? In the, uh, South Asian community and where lessons learned there. It takes us national with seed the vote and state power caucuses and the trends and analysis they’re seeing all across the country, including in swing states.

[00:28:24] And then it also takes us internationally, um, because what we’re experiencing in the United States is part of a global phenomenon, right? Uh, we know Steve Bannon has been across Eastern Europe and across the globe, really doing his part to cultivate an international movement. And they’ve had incredible wins with Bolsonaro in Brazil, uh, in Hungary with Erban, with in Turkey, right?

[00:28:53] So again, this is not going away. This is a long term and global fight. And I think what’s showing up for racial justice also giving us an opportunity to to talk a bit explicitly about racialized and racist politics and what does it mean to, um, not concede that space automatically to one party or to one narrative, right?

[00:29:18] And how do we find other folks of goodwill and to organize explicitly against racism and for a vision of solidarity and multiracial, right, partnership that really cares about a vibrant. Democracy for the long term. So we will also have another panel in the afternoon with Brandon from U. A. W. 9 and Jasmine Gripper from Working Families Party, uh, New York.

[00:29:51] And we are hoping we’ll also have an opportunity to have someone who can speak directly to Palestinian solidarity and the uncommitted. movement and its contributions, um, and this, this particular moment in time. So here again, we’ll have an opportunity to delve deeply into what are labor unions doing?

[00:30:15] What are they seeing? How are they organized? What are some of the promises and the challenges of that, right? We all know there are different traditions and lineages within labor. I heard a clip, um, earlier today of Donald Trump speaking about his administration making, um, military equipment available, decommissioned military equipment available to police departments all over this country.

[00:30:42] And, you know, it’s interesting that the DNC is. in Chicago, where the last cycle of the mayoral race, you really saw teachers unions and police unions, right? Very much lining up behind different, different candidates. So keeping in mind that labor is not one thing, union members are not one thing. Even, you know, we saw with the UAW, there are lots of union members where they’re in unions that have endorsed a certain candidate, but individual members.

[00:31:18] Pluralities of right. Individual members can vote in another another way. So I think it’s to our advantage to keep things complicated and to talk it through and to talk to what this can all can all mean and how the Working Families Party is evolved and grown from New York to what it’s hoping to do as a vehicle across the country.

[00:31:40] Um, we are delighted that, uh, organizations like. Road, the State Power Caucus, uh, DSA, New York City, the Movement Law Lab, Surge, Grassroots Power Project, that they, they and others are co sponsoring this event, so we’re really hopeful that their outreach to their members in the tri state area will be successful.

[00:32:05] will mean, you know, folks will show up en masse. We have over 150 people already registered at this point. And yeah, we’d love more, more folks to register and be there. Uh, the day with the day of the event. 

[00:32:22] Cayden Mak: That’s great. I, you know, I’m, I’m sad that I can’t make it to be honest. Cause like the more you’re talking to where I’m like, Oh, this could be great.

[00:32:28] But 

[00:32:31] Alithea Jones: we, we do want to share some of this of what’s happening. So we will be recording the panel presentations and those discussions and posting those online via our YouTube channel channel. So those will be available a couple of weeks after the event itself. 

[00:32:51] Cayden Mak: Awesome. 

[00:32:51] Alithea Jones: That sounds great. 

[00:32:52] Cayden Mak: Um, is there anything else that you think our listeners should know about the gathering, about the work that you’re doing at CUNY, about, um, any of this context that we’ve discussed?

[00:33:05] Alithea Jones: If you’ve never participated in an election, this is an election to do so. And whether it’s just an afternoon of door knocking or hopping online and getting on the phones or being part of a text message brigade, I’d really encourage folks to get in there and get involved, um, as much as you, you can, um, I think it’s absolutely important for people to, no matter their age, no matter how young, no matter their immigration status, right, there are a whole host of rules about who can show up and vote, but there are no, limitations really on who can encourage other people to vote and be in conversation with folks who are thinking about what they should do and how they should use the franchise.

[00:34:03] This is not an election to sit things out and This is true in every election, especially this one, but I hope folks will get involved in this and other activities because democracy is really what we make it and when we sit on the sidelines, it allows other people to define it. Um, so the more people who can get involved, uh, the better.

[00:34:30] That’s one of the things I would, I would say, uh, and I think we are also looking here at. The School of Labor and Urban Study is how we can support what we call movement education spaces. And I’m starting an initiative that we’re calling the Movement Educators Lab to create a space. where movement educators, both within labor unions and within social justice organizations, can come together, talk to each other, talk about challenges and successes, can host, uh, workshops and training events that might be for folks who are not in their normal purview, uh, and create a space where Members who are interested in learning how to be social justice facilitators can get support to do that.

[00:35:20] So we can create a culture where members can educate other members, um, and they can do so in their churches, at soccer clubs, wherever, wherever they are. So that’s a new initiative. That we’re 

[00:35:34] Cayden Mak: hoping to start soon. Fantastic. That sounds super critical, especially as we think about like, what, what is the character of the institutions that we want to build to build towards true democracy in this country?

[00:35:47] Um, thank you so much for joining me today. It was really great to chat with you, Alethea, and also like, Thank you for the impromptu history lesson. Um, I’m delighted. I’m, I don’t know, I’m just delighted to, to know that we have also these connections and collaborations, uh, with folks who are trying to move different parts of the work in different ways, and I’m really glad that we get to work together.

[00:36:10] So thanks so much. 

[00:36:10] Alithea Jones: Yes, me too. So good to meet you, Kayden, and to partner with Convergence. City University is the people’s university and we just want to keep contributing to that, that lineage and that legacy. So thank you.

[00:36:29] Cayden Mak: This show is published by Convergence, a magazine for radical insights. I’m Caden Mock, and our producer is Josh Stro. Editorial assistance was provided this week by Marcy Ian, if you have something to say, please drop me a line. You can send me an email that we’ll consider running on an upcoming mailbag episode at [email protected].

[00:36:49] And if you’d like to support the work that we do at Convergence, bringing our movements together to strategize, struggle, and win in this crucial historical moment, you can become a [email protected] slash donate. Even a few bucks a month goes a long way to making sure our independent small team can continue to build a map for our movements.

[00:37:07] I hope this helps.