Bill Fletcher Jr.

2 weeks ago | f.mtr.cool | Bill Fletcher Jr.

One of the principal difficulties facing the Democratic Party establishment and most leaders of organized labor is a failure to accept a fundamental reality: there is no normality. The failure to grasp this state of affairs has led to strategic paralysis and a tendency to believe that by being the ​“adults in the room,” the Democrats — or the trade union leadership — can embarrass the Republicans and force them to engage in good faith behavior. That is not the case.

2 weeks ago | znetwork.org | Bill Fletcher Jr.

MLK was murdered 57 years ago today…and many of us have still not come to grips with the fact that there is no one leader of the Black Freedom Movement (or, for that matter, any movement!). King represented a symbolic unity within the Black Freedom Movement—and its allies—that was not quite accurate. Due to the way history has been written, one can erroneously conclude that the Black Freedom Movement was lined up behind Dr. King and that it fell apart (plateaued, declined, etc.) due to his murder.

1 month ago | dissentmagazine.org | Daniel Luban |Pablo Stefanoni |Joseph A. McCartin |Bill Fletcher Jr.

Fissures in Trumpworld? There will surely be turf wars and palace intrigue within the administration, but there is little reason to think that its core figures will fracture in the pursuit of their basic goal: to break the twentieth-century state. ▪ March 13, 2025 The onslaught of the first weeks of Donald Trump’s second term was predictable, if no less unsettling for that.

1 month ago | thenation.com | Bill Fletcher Jr.

Books & the Arts / March 12, 2025 Across a Continent Andrée Blouin’s revolutionary lives. Andrée Blouin’s Revolutionary Lives The African political leader’s autobiography, My Country, Africa, also offers a larger story of empire, oppression, and resistance on the continent. Ad Policy Illustration by Andrea Ventura. This article appears in the April 2025 issue.

2 months ago | newpol.org | Carl Davidson |Bill Fletcher Jr. |Shannon Ikebe

In this exploration, we want to advocate a new strategic narrative about our future. All futures, especially one tangled in the complexities of fascism and socialism, are best rooted in a deep exploration of our past. And since all narratives require a good use of metaphors and analogies, as well as uncovering new facts, we want to start with an unusual but powerful one.