SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
south africa
A Counter-Campaign for Democracy from Below
How the left can fight Trump’s authoritarian crackdown.
Oct 10, 2025
President Donald Trump is done pretending. In the past few weeks, the administration has made its intentions plain: Critics will be punished, media will be silenced, and the left will be targeted as an enemy to be crushed.
The pattern is crystal clear. As of this writing, at least 145 people have been fired or suspended across K-12, universities, corporations, and nonprofits for exercising freedom of speech related to Charlie Kirk’s death. In one of the highest profile examples, The Jimmy Kimmel Show was briefly suspended after a tame joke.
Trump has openly threatened to strip licenses from broadcasters that dare criticize him. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Brendan Carr, a longtime opponent of net neutrality and author of the telecommunications section of Project 2025, is saying coercive things such as, “These companies can find ways to change conduct to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” He has stated that reporting that critiques him is illegal, demonstrating a clear opposition to the First Amendment.
These moves come as he has run over university students for exercising free speech such as Mahmoud Khalil, invaded majority Black cities like DC and Chicago with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other law enforcement agents connected to a massive deportation machine, and directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute his political rivals despite a lack of evidence.
The Authoritarian Playbook
Trump’s crackdown isn’t just about silencing dissent—it’s about shoring up his base through racism. The administration has turned Charlie Kirk into a martyr of white grievance, celebrated openly by white supremacists. It is attacking immigrants and poor people to justify ICE raids and threats to Medicaid and SNAP. This is the oldest trick in the authoritarian playbook: Use racism to divide, then use division to dismantle democracy. Groups like Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) organize the white working and middle class because we are clear that we have more to gain by rejecting this politics of scapegoating and joining a multiracial fight for freedom.
How do we build a mass movement that isn’t just symbolic protest but concretely defends and expands democracy to fully meet the needs of the multiracial working class and shift the conditions that led us here?
The Trump administration has been signaling escalation: using RICO charges, injunctions, and going after unions, nonprofits, and movement organizations. This isn’t “cancel culture.” It’s not the “culture of consequences.” It’s authoritarianism. What’s happening now isn’t just an attack on a late-night comedian or a few unlucky workers. It’s a campaign to dismantle the infrastructure of dissent itself.
We’ve seen this before. Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s blacklist destroyed the livelihoods of radicals and artists. COINTELPRO infiltrated and dismantled Black freedom organizations. Each time, repression worked best when the left was fragmented and unprepared. Each time, resistance gained ground when people refused to be isolated by organizing and fighting back together.
So what the hell do we do about it now? How do we build a mass movement that isn’t just symbolic protest but concretely defends and expands democracy to fully meet the needs of the multiracial working class and shift the conditions that led us here?
South Africa: Democracy from Below
For historical inspiration, let’s look to South Africa under apartheid. In 1955, the African National Congress (ANC) and its allies—including socialists, trade unionists, and township organizations—convened the Congress of the People and adopted the Freedom Charter. The Freedom Charter was based on the demands of millions of South Africans, collected by the ANC and allies.
The charter declared, “The people shall govern!” It demanded not just the right to vote, but to publish freely, live without racial segregation, the right to organize unions, and share in the wealth of the land. This was a vision of radical multiracial democracy written under conditions where simply handing out a leaflet could land you in prison.
The South African Communist Party played a central role in pushing the liberation struggle to link democratic rights with economic justice. Despite repression, arrests, and bannings, they built underground newspapers, coordinated legal defense, and organized international solidarity. Their insistence on a mass, united front strategy meant that democracy was never reduced to just elections, but tied to social and economic transformation. The front pushed for inclusion of working people’s demands in the charter.
Even as the apartheid state criminalized dissent through surveillance and treason trials, the Freedom Charter kept alive a positive vision of democracy worth fighting for. And when the system finally cracked in the 1990s, it was that vision that helped shape South Africa’s transition.
What the US Left Must Do
The South African lesson is both simple in concept and hard in making: Repression can be survived if the left insists on turning defense into a broader offense. It means looking beyond this crushing moment to the horizon.
- Make Freedom a Mass Issue. We can’t let Trump define this as a spat among elites. The left should hammer home that attacks on free speech and association aren’t abstract: They mean workers losing jobs for speaking their mind, neighborhoods losing organizations that fight evictions, and entire communities being silenced. Defending these rights is defending bread-and-butter survival.
- Defend the Infrastructure of the Left. The administration is betting that nonprofits, unions, and grassroots groups will fold under pressure. Instead, we need to treat their survival as a collective responsibility. That means legal defense funds, rapid response networks, solidarity actions, and mutual aid across organizations. An injury to one really must be an injury to all.
- Use Elected Allies Aggressively. Progressive elected officials have a role to play beyond issuing statements. They can pass city and state resolutions protecting targeted organizations, refuse cooperation with federal crackdowns, and put the administration on notice that repression will be met with political consequences.
- Escalate and Broaden the Fight. Every authoritarian move should be met with resistance that is both robust and expansive when red lines are crossed. If workers are fired, organize walkouts. If nonprofits are hit with injunctions, mount solidarity strikes and mass protests. The goal is not just to defend ourselves, but to show millions that democracy itself is under attack.
- Build Cross-Movement Solidarity. Democratic Socialists of America, unions, immigrant rights groups, racial justice campaigns—we can’t afford siloed struggles. What we need is a Defend Democracy united front that can mobilize thousands at short notice: rallies outside TV stations, pickets at workplaces where critics are fired, coordinated campaigns against companies that kowtow to White House threats.
- Build a Mass Multiracial Working Class Base. We must organize working class people who have the most to gain from ending authoritarianism into a self-conscious bloc that can drive deep change. This will require confronting white supremacy in order to inoculate against the right’s attempts to divide the working class, and building a shared interest in winning a world where we all live full lives.
Beyond Defense: A Democratic Offensive
For years, SURJ has organized white communities to recognize our collective shared interest in rejecting racism and authoritarian populism. The white working class has more to gain by defending a multiracial democracy that centers tangible public goods than it does by clinging to the false promises of MAGA strongmen. One of the strongest tools the right uses against us is white supremacy to divide the working class and convince white people we have more in common with billionaires than with neighbors. Authoritarianism offers division, scapegoating, and declining standards of living. Multiracial democracy offers solidarity, higher wages, and genuine freedom.
Trump’s strategy is clear: Isolate the left, silence its organizations, and terrify people into submission. Our response must be just as clear: Unite, defend one another, and broaden the fight for real democracy. It can start in the here and now: organizing in cities, counties, and states politically and in the streets.
That means not only resisting repression but demanding more democracy. Public funding and democratic guarantees for independent media. Expanded protections for whistleblowers. Real rights for workers to organize unions without retaliation like the PRO Act.
The choice is between authoritarianism and a revitalized democracy rooted in working-class power. We cannot wait this out. We must have a counter-campaign now —not just to survive, but to fight for the kind of freedom that can’t be canceled.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Trump to Slash Refugee Numbers to Record Low, With White South Africans Taking Most Spots
While the president spreads false claims about a "genocide" against white people in South Africa, "more than 100,000 refugees from Afghanistan, Sudan, Ukraine, etc." are stranded in refugee camps.
Oct 04, 2025
Reports of the Trump administration's plan to slash refugee admissions to an even lower number than previously stated—with the majority of spots given to white South Africans descended from French and Dutch colonists who arrived in the country in the 17th century—represents "a moral failure and a dark hour for our country," according to one refugee policy expert.
As The New York Times reported late Friday, a presidential determination dated September 30 and signed by President Donald Trump showed that the president aims to cap refugee admissions at 7,500 in 2026—a significant decrease from the 40,000 that he previously discussed with officials, and from the 125,000 cap set by the Biden administration last year.
A White House official told the Times that the refugee limit would be final only after the administration consults with Congress, as it's required to do under the Refugee Act. They added that consultation with the House and Senate Judiciary committees will be possible only after Democrats and Republicans reach a deal to fund the government and end the shutdown that began October 1.
But advocates and Democrats have pointed out in recent days that the White House's deadline for consulting with lawmakers on refugee limits for next year was September 30, before the shutdown began.
As the deadline passed this week, Democratic leaders said that "in open defiance of the law, the Trump administration has failed to schedule the legally required consultation."
“Despite repeated outreach from Democratic and Republican committee staff, the Trump administration has completely discarded its legal obligation, leaving Congress in the dark and refugees in limbo," said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee; Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement; Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee; and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), ranking member for the Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration.
The president effectively suspended the US State Department's 40-year-old refugee resettlement program on his first day in office. The program requires refugees fleeing conflict, famine, and persecution to pass background checks and medical exams before entering the country, and often involves yearslong waits in refugee camps before they are resettled in the US.
"What began as a so-called ‘suspension’ has now stretched into an eight-month shutdown, betraying the nation’s promise as a refuge for the oppressed," said the Democrats. "Nearly 130,000 people facing persecution abroad who have already passed the rigorous vetting requirements of our refugee program have been abandoned by this administration, left to languish in refugee camps around the world after being given the promise of safety and a new life in America."
But for white South African farmers, also known as Afrikaners, Trump carved out an exception earlier this year that will reportedly be extended into 2026—allowing them "to skip the line and rigorous vetting as countless others are shut out of the US," said the Democrats.
Trump and his billionaire megadonor, South Africa-born Elon Musk, have helped spread false claims that the country's democratically elected Black government has systematically oppressed white Afrikaners, who enforced a racist apartheid system until 1994, and has allowed white farmers to be murdered—saying white people in the country face a "genocide."
White South Africans hold 20 times the wealth of Black people in the country despite making up just 7% of the population, and control the vast majority of land.
"Poor Black citizens of South Africa are far more likely to be victims of violent crime and murder than white people," wrote Joe Walsh at Current Affairs last year, noting that during one period, "when there were 49 murders on farms across the entire country, one of Cape Town’s predominantly Black townships called Khayelitsha recorded 179 murders, at a rate of approximately 116 per 100,000 people."
While Trump plans to open the door to thousands of white South Africans, said Danilo Zak, director of policy at Church World Service, "more than 100,000 refugees from Afghanistan, Sudan, Ukraine, etc., who have been through years of vetting, approved, [are] now left stranded."
With Trump's determination on refugee numbers "already signed and dated," said Zak, it's impossible for Trump to have completed an "appropriate consultation" with Congress to approve the abandonment of refugees across the world.
Trump previously set a record low number for refugee admissions during his first term, imposing a cap of 15,000 slots for resettlement.
The new plan was reported as the US Supreme Court ruled for the second time in four months in favor of allowing the president to revoke Temporary Protected Status for 300,000 Venezuelans, putting them at risk for deportation—despite an earlier ruling by a federal judge who found Trump had acted illegally when he moved to revoke TPS.
"This decision threatens not only the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who will lose legal status and face deportation,"
said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, "but also a basic sense of fairness."
Keep ReadingShow Less
16 Nations Warn Israel Against Attacking Gaza-Bound Global Sumud Flotilla
The countries' foreign ministers urged Israel to "refrain from any unlawful or violent act against the flotilla" and "to respect international law."
Sep 16, 2025
The foreign ministers of 16 nations on Tuesday implored Israel to not attack the Global Sumud Flotilla, a fleet of around 40 boats attempting to deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid to the embattled Gaza Strip, where Palestinians are suffering 22 months of US-backed genocidal war and forced famine.
"The Global Sumud Flotilla has informed about its objective of delivering humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and raising awareness about the urgent humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people and the need to stop the war in Gaza," the foreign ministers of Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Ireland, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Pakistan, Qatar, Oman, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, and Türkiye said in a joint statement.
Many of those nations are supporting South Africa's genocide case against Israel currently before the International Court of Justice.
"We therefore call on everyone to refrain from any unlawful or violent act against the flotilla" and "to respect international law and international humanitarian law," the ministers continued. "We recall that any violation of international law and human rights of the participants in the flotilla, including attacks against the vessels in international waters or illegal detention, will lead to accountability."
Hundreds of activists from dozens of nations participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla—"sumud" means perseverance in Arabic—have set sail toward Gaza from ports around the world since August. More than two dozen vessels arrived in Sicily on Tuesday after departing the Tunisian port of Bizerte following an 11-day delay caused in part by multiple drone attacks on flotilla boats.
Israel—which has attacked past flotillas, including in a 2010 raid that killed nine volunteers aboard the MV Mavi Marmara, among them Turkish-American teenager Furkan Doğan—has not claimed responsibility for the drone attacks.
“Pulling off the largest grassroots maritime mission to break Israel’s siege has posed many challenges, but through it all we remained determined, steadfast, and united,” Global Sumud Flotilla said Tuesday on Instagram.
Prominent flotilla participants include Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, American actress Susan Sarandon, Irish actor Liam Cunningham, leftist Portuguese parliamentarian Mariana Mortágua, former Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, and Mandla Mandela, the grandson of former South African President Nelson Mandela.
“We’re carrying a lot of humanitarian aid, but we’re also carrying a message of support from the peoples of the world that we are with the Palestinian people,” flotilla spokesperson Bruno Gilga told Middle East Eye.
Earlier this year, Freedom Flotilla Coalition vessels Conscience, Madleen, and Handala each separately tried to break Israel's blockade of Gaza but were thwarted by Israeli forces in international waters, an apparent violation of maritime law. Flotilla activists were beaten, kidnapped, jailed, interrogated, and deported by Israel.
Global Sumud Flotilla's attempt to break Israel's siege comes as Israeli forces push deeper into Gaza City as they execute Operation Gideon's Chariots 2, a campaign to conquer, occupy, and ethnically cleanse the strip. At least 64,964 Palestinians—mostly civilian men, women, and children—have been killed by Israeli forces over the past 711 days, although experts say the actual toll is likely far higher.
On Tuesday, a commission of independent United Nations experts became the latest in a growing number of individuals and groups to accuse Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular