Keith Rosenthal looks back on the historical record of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia in order to reexamine the relationship between social movements and their elected officials.

Keith Rosenthal discusses the New York City Mayoral race, Zohran Mamdani’s courting of the New York Police Department (NYPD), and cautions the socialist Left against abandoning racial justice demands.

and those resisting ICE, from Los Angeles to New York City, are the modern day abolitionists resisting the Fugitive Slave Act. Read "Defend the LAnd," Spectre, 17 June 2025. Protesters confront police on June 8, 2025, in Los Angeles following recent raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Zhang Shuo/China News Service/VCG via AP The Jerry Rescue

In June 1936, John J. Cunningham, a blind Black man, exposed racial segregation practices at the New York Association for the Blind (NYAB). His campaign, supported by prominent activists, challenged the Jim Crow policies affecting Black blind individuals. Though initially unsuccessful, it contributed to the broader movements for civil and disability rights in America.

We are witnessing one of the greatest attacks on the rights and safety of American Jews, particularly American Jewish students, in modern American history, perhaps since the Red Scare of the early 1950s. Let me say that again, because what I said may strike some people as strange. We are witnessing one of the greatest attacks on the rights and safety of American Jews, particularly Jewish students, in modern history.

"Celebration" I wrote for the late scholar activist, Marta Russell, whose selected writings I edited in Capitalism and Disability (Haymarket Books, 2019).

The piece reproduced in full below was first published by Jewish Voice for Peace under the title, "Hanukkah invites us to bring light into the world." It is a very excellent response to the disturbing notion that the Israeli military machine is the "modern Maccabees." Contributed by the JVP Rabbinical Council Mai Hanukkah – “What is Hanukkah?” asked the rabbis of the Talmud.