In These Times

In These Times In These Times is dedicated to covering and analyzing popular movements for social, environmental and economic justice.

Cop City and the Escalating War on Environmental DefendersFrom laws targeting fossil fuel protests to the crackdown on ...
12/31/2025

Cop City and the Escalating War on Environmental Defenders

From laws targeting fossil fuel protests to the crackdown on organizers, corporations are increasingly calling in militarized law enforcement to silence dissent.

This 2023 story examines how the Cop City police training facility in Atlanta became a flashpoint for overlapping crises: climate change, environmental racism, widening inequality, and the criminalization of protest. Tracing how bail fund organizers were targeted, how environmental defenders face extreme charges, and how a largely corporate-funded project—backed by the Atlanta Police Foundation and donors like Amazon and Home Depot—is moving forward despite overwhelming public opposition.

At stake is not just an urban forest in a majority-Black, working-class community, but the future of democratic dissent itself.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/cop-city-atlanta-dissent-police-military-environment-climate

Georgia prosecutors are calling Stop Cop City forest defenders “domestic terrorists.” But as this reporting shows, that ...
12/31/2025

Georgia prosecutors are calling Stop Cop City forest defenders “domestic terrorists.” But as this reporting shows, that move follows a long and disturbing pattern.

Journalist Eric Laursen documented how U.S. authorities used terrorism charges to intimidate and silence environmental activists—years before the Stop Cop City movement and long before the killing of Manuel Esteban Paez “Tortuguita” Terán. Today, the same legal and rhetorical weapon is being deployed again, with activists facing decades in prison for defending Atlanta’s Weelaunee Forest.

As communities mourn Tortuguita and demand accountability, this piece offers crucial historical context: branding dissent as “terrorism” has long been a tool of state power, not a response to public safety.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/calling-tree-huggers-terrorists-decade-after-decade

📬 Privatize USPS? Mail Carriers Have a Better IdeaAfter fighting through years-long contract negotiations, U.S. Postal S...
12/30/2025

📬 Privatize USPS? Mail Carriers Have a Better Idea

After fighting through years-long contract negotiations, U.S. Postal Service workers are now facing a renewed push to privatize the US Postal Service—an outcome they warn would raise prices, weaken service, and harm communities nationwide.

In this interview, Mel Buer of the Working People Podcast speaks with Chicago letter carrier Melissa Rakestraw about what’s at stake: stagnant wages after more than 600 days without a contract, the historic rejection of a tentative agreement, and why privatization would be a bad deal for both workers and the public.

Letter carriers aren’t just delivering mail—they’re embedded in their neighborhoods, checking on elders, watching kids grow up, and keeping communities connected. Their message is clear: defending the USPS means defending a public good we all rely on.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/privatize-usps-mail-carriers-have-a-better-idea

Surendra Tamang was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease while doing construction work in Qatar. He spent six years toi...
12/30/2025

Surendra Tamang was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease while doing construction work in Qatar. He spent six years toiling in temperatures as high as 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Today, he spends 12 hours a week in the clinic for his dialysis treatment.

Natalie Donback reports in partnership with Grist.org and co-published with asian-dispatch.com on workers returning from Persian Gulf countries with failed kidneys, victims of extreme temperatures, grueling labor, and a global system that leaves them unprotected.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/rising-heat-failing-kidneys-climates-hidden-toll-on-migrant-workers

From East Palestine, Ohio, to Conyers, Georgia, residents are still living with the fallout of chemical disasters—long a...
12/30/2025

From East Palestine, Ohio, to Conyers, Georgia, residents are still living with the fallout of chemical disasters—long after the headlines faded.

In this Working People installment, Maximillian Alvarez speaks with displaced residents and a community safety lawyer about ongoing health impacts, lack of transparency, and the shared patterns communities are seeing across America’s so-called “sacrifice zones.” From a 2023 train derailment to a 2024 chemical fire, the story traces how working-class communities are left to navigate toxic exposure, inadequate testing, and limited accountability.

Hear directly from those living with the consequences—and organizing for justice:
https://inthesetimes.com/article/east-palestine-chemical-disaster-working-people-podcast-sacrifice-zones-justice

Who pays the price for “green” products?This in-depth investigation from In These Times, published in March 2021 in coll...
12/29/2025

Who pays the price for “green” products?

This in-depth investigation from In These Times, published in March 2021 in collaboration with VICE World News, examines a fight in Jefferson County, West Virginia—where residents say the pollution costs of an “eco-friendly” insulation product are being borne locally, while the environmental benefits are marketed globally.

Austyn Gaffney, with photos by Farrah Skeiky, tells this story, which follows community members challenging Rockwool’s mineral wool factory, built near homes and schools, and traces their efforts from local permit battles to international pressure in Denmark. It raises broader questions about environmental justice, regulatory gaps, and what happens when “green” manufacturing relies on fossil fuels and lax oversight.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/west-virginia-epa-denmark-pollution-environment-factory

Extreme heat is leaving a devastating, often invisible toll on migrant workers.Across the Persian Gulf, young men labor ...
12/29/2025

Extreme heat is leaving a devastating, often invisible toll on migrant workers.

Across the Persian Gulf, young men labor for years in punishing temperatures—only to return home with permanent kidney failure, their working lives cut short. This investigation, produced by Grist.org and co-published with asian-dispatch.com, traces how climate change, unsafe working conditions, and global labor exploitation collide, turning heat exposure into a lifelong health crisis.

Journalist Natalie Donback centers the voices of workers and doctors in Nepal confronting a growing epidemic—and asks who bears responsibility as the planet warms.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/rising-heat-failing-kidneys-climates-hidden-toll-on-migrant-workers

Employers steal as much as $50 billion from U.S. workers each year, according to the Economic Policy Institute — more th...
12/29/2025

Employers steal as much as $50 billion from U.S. workers each year, according to the Economic Policy Institute — more than the total value of all robberies, burglaries, and motor vehicle thefts combined.

In 2023, Mindy Isser examined wage theft, including unpaid overtime, minimum-wage violations, off-the-clock work, and worker misclassification, and documents how it disproportionately affects low-wage and immigrant workers.

The piece centers on a multi-year case involving non-union construction workers at Unforgettable Coatings LLC who, with support from the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, recovered more than $3.6 million in stolen wages following a U.S. Department of Labor investigation.

Check it out:
https://inthesetimes.com/article/wage-theft-union-labor-biden-iupat

"While Trump’s threats to name protesters as domestic terrorists are legally dubious, the FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organiz...
12/27/2025

"While Trump’s threats to name protesters as domestic terrorists are legally dubious, the FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organization) designation carries enormous discretionary powers, especially when it comes to allegations of material and financial support."

As Donald Trump revives the language and tools of the post-9/11 “war on terror,” antifascism is being reframed as a threat to national security—opening the door to sweeping surveillance, criminalization, and repression of dissent.

Alberto Toscano traces how legally dubious designations can still do real damage: pressuring banks, nonprofits, platforms, and communities into compliance; chilling protest; and turning everyday acts of solidarity into potential liabilities. From leaked DOJ memos to executive orders and high-profile prosecutions, the piece shows how this strategy works—and who it ultimately targets.

These moves are situated within a broader political moment, from local resistance to immigration raids to national debates sparked by leaders like Zohran Mamdani, asking what genuine antifascism looks like when authoritarianism is normalized.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/antifa-everywhere-war-on-terror-cve-material-support-laws-hlf5-terrorism

"It’s a pretty bleak state of affairs... if, even at the 'best' job available, you can’t get stable hours & your bosses ...
12/27/2025

"It’s a pretty bleak state of affairs... if, even at the 'best' job available, you can’t get stable hours & your bosses can crush you when you dare ask for better."

Silvia Baldwin, a bargaining delegate for SBWorkersUnited, explains why more than 3,800 baristas are on strike against “the biggest labor law violator in modern history.”

https://inthesetimes.com/article/working-people-starbucks-workers-barista-historic-strike

What does it mean to live in a “sacrifice zone” in America?From Ohio to Georgia, residents are still dealing with the he...
12/27/2025

What does it mean to live in a “sacrifice zone” in America?

From Ohio to Georgia, residents are still dealing with the health, environmental, and economic fallout of chemical disasters—long after the headlines fade. In this installment of Working People, Maximillian Alvarez speaks directly with people living through the aftermath of a train derailment linked to Norfolk Southern and a chemical fire at a facility owned by BioLab.

Their stories echo what communities across the country—from Hawai‘i to the Midwest—are experiencing: illness, displacement, silence from authorities, and a lack of accountability. As one resident puts it: “It is toxic there. Nothing changed.”

These communities are comparing notes, organizing together, and demanding healthcare, transparency, and justice.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/east-palestine-chemical-disaster-working-people-podcast-sacrifice-zones-justice

In December 1914, in the middle of World War I, something extraordinary happened. British and German soldiers laid down ...
12/24/2025

In December 1914, in the middle of World War I, something extraordinary happened. British and German soldiers laid down their weapons, crossed into no-man’s-land, sang carols together, exchanged small gifts—and stopped killing, if only briefly. History remembers it as the Christmas Truce.

In “The Christmas Truce of 1914 and the Demand for a Cease-Fire in Gaza,” Phyllis Bennis draws a powerful line between that moment and today’s global demand to end the mass killing in Gaza. As protests erupt across the U.S. and around the world—from walkouts and arrests at the Capitol to bridge takeovers and student strikes—the article reminds us of a simple, urgent truth: wars do not end because they must. They end because people force them to stop.

The Christmas Truce wasn’t ordered from above. It happened because ordinary people, caught in an impossible situation, chose humanity over violence. That history matters now—because it shows that a cease-fire is not a fantasy. It is a political decision.

A cease-fire can stop the killing. And when nearly the entire world is calling for it, it can be made real.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/christmas-truce-1914-wwi-gaza-israel-palestine-ceasefire

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