On LABOR DAY.

 

LULAC ON LABOR DAY: AMERICA IS BUILT BY THE HANDS THAT EARN THEIR WAY Nation's Oldest and Largest Latino Civil Rights Organization Proudly Joins the Nation and Salutes a Workforce Strengthened by Every Generation WASHINGTON — The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) marks Labor Day 2026, on the nation's 250th birthday, by honoring the working men and women whose strength, will, and endurance are the foundation of everything the United States has built. These generations of workers, through their perseverance, bones, sinews, and muscles, raised the nation's cities, fed its families, defended its shores, and carried its children forward. This is their day, and LULAC salutes them. "Labor Day belongs to every U.S. worker who ever earned a wage with their hands, their back, or their mind, and also to the immigrants who came here asking for nothing but the chance to work," said Roman Palomares, LULAC national president and chairman of the board. This country was not built on fear of the newcomer. It was built by the many contributions of the newcomer, generation after generation, and LULAC will not allow that history to be rewritten by those who profit from division. If you are willing to work, follow the law, and give your best to this nation, you belong here, and America is stronger because you came." LULAC joins with the organizations that give working people their voice: the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union and the United Farm Workers. We share a conviction that this country's strength rests on the people who teach its children, care for its sick, harvest its fields, build its infrastructure, and keep its economy moving. LULAC is working closely with these organizations and the millions of members and families they represent. Together, we see tremendous opportunity ahead, today and in the years to come, to ensure that Latino workers and every working family share fully in that future. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, foreign-born workers made up 19.1% of the nation's civilian labor force in 2025, and Hispanics or Latinos accounted for nearly half (47.3%) of that foreign-born workforce. Foreign-born men participated in the labor force at a rate of 76.9%, well above the 65.8% rate of their native-born counterparts. The bureau also reports that Hispanics, now roughly one in five American workers, accounted for about two-thirds of the net growth of the U.S. labor force over the past two decades. "The numbers do not lie. One in five American workers was born somewhere else, and nearly half of them are Latino. Hispanics have supplied two-thirds of the growth in our labor force for a generation," said Juan Proaño, LULAC chief executive officer. In 2024, the U.S. Latino GDP growth reached $4.4 trillion. In 2026, that number continues to increase, outpacing China's GDP growth by nearly 1%. Strip that contribution out of the economy and the country does not merely slow down; it stops. Labor Day is the right moment to say plainly that a workforce this multifaceted is not a problem to be managed. It is the competitive advantage every other nation wishes it had." Today's workforce is multifaceted in age and origin. The Pew Research Center reports that roughly 19% of Americans 65 and older, about 11 million people, remain employed, nearly double the share of the late 1980s. Women now make up 46% of that older workforce. At the same time, 19% of workers ages 25 to 64 are Hispanic, compared with 9% of those age 65 and older. The lesson is plain: the generation now stepping forward to carry the load looks different from the one it is relieving, and the nation's prosperity depends on both. "Women have always done the work that makes all other work possible," said Elida J. Martinez, LULAC national vice president for women. "The mother on the overnight shift, the daughter who cares for an aging parent and still clocks in, the grandmother who is still on the job at 70 because her family needs her there. Nearly half of the workers over 65 in this country are women, and the number is climbing. On Labor Day, LULAC honors them not as an afterthought but as the backbone of the American workforce." Yet some who make up the Latino workforce are still stereotyped through false narratives, narratives of the past that reflect neither our present need nor our future. A closed-minded society denies itself a greater opportunity. LULAC rejects the premise that one worker's victory is another's defeat. A neighbor's success is not a threat; it creates the conditions for everyone to succeed. The nation's immigration system was built to manage that opportunity through law and process. Through proper management of immigrants' labor contributions, along with those of All Americans, in appreciation and not fear, the U.S. economy can continue to thrive. "Every generation of immigrants and U.S. citizens has produced sons and daughters who put on the uniform of this country, and many immigrants did so before they were even citizens," said Lawrence "Larry" Romo, LULAC national vice president for military and veterans affairs and a retired Air Force officer. The same determination that brought their parents across an ocean or a river is what carried them through basic training and into combat. When they came home, they went straight back to work. Anyone who questions whether newcomers are willing to sacrifice for America should visit a veterans cemetery and read the names. LULAC honors all of our active duty personnel and veterans for their heroic work that makes 'One Nation Under God, With Liberty and Justice for All' a reality." LULAC calls on Congress and the administration to honor the American worker this Labor Day not with speeches alone but with a modern, functioning immigration system that serves the nation's economic needs, protects labor rights for all who work and serve, and reflects the all-inclusiveness in America that has always been the source of the country's strength.

Educators Resist

 

View this email in your browser TL;DR What We’ve Done Understanding that voting in November in numbers that cannot be ignored is one way we can protect democracy we focused our attention in August on learning about a variety of ways we can help strengthen our voices with our votes.   What We’re Up to Next It’s STILL all about voting and registering folks to vote. Instead of a regular meeting this month, we’re hosting a Postcard Party — come celebrate democracy and enjoy camaraderie, music, snacks and libations while we write postcards urging like-minded sometime-voters to be sure to vote this time. Come join the fun! Details below.

Taking It Up to Party Level! If you’re anything like us, the troubled times we’re in can feel a bit heavy. And while we don’t ever want to deny the gravity of what’s happening, we also know that a good party can be balm for the soul. And so can collective action. So we’re gonna do just that: come together in community to write, decorate, address, and stamp postcards encouraging voters to vote.  We’ll supply the postcards, music, snacks, and drinks.  You bring pens, markers, highlighters! Bring stickers and stamps! Bring a friend or two. Bring a snack or beverage to share, if you’d like.  Or just show up. The door’s open and we’ll have plenty of all the above to share.  Don’t want to write postcards but feel like hanging out with like-minded folks? Come on by and see what we’re all about.  When: Monday, Sept 14th from 5:00 to 7:00 (come for both hours, or for 15 minutes— we’re happy to have you for as long or little as you can be there!) Where: South Land Park. Register at the link below for exact location. RSVP to the Postcard Party Protecting & Strengthening Democracy Takes ALL of Us. Here’s a guide published by Hands Off Our Vote to help each of us learn what more we can do. Check it out. It feels good to use the tools. Our Next Meeting Interested in finding out more about what we do? Want to share your ideas about how we can all support education in these troubling times?  We meet each month to discuss ways to fulfill our stated current goal: to create a thriving community where students and families affected by immigration feel safe and empowered.  Please join us at our next Educators Resist! meeting on Monday, October 12th at 5 p.m. We hope to see you there! Click the button for details and to sign up. Educators Resist!                 October Meeting A Pint of Politics Every second Sunday at Oak Park Brewing Co., there’s a big gathering of a wide range of people who are all dedicated to preserving democracy AND who enjoy a good, cold beverage! Join us Sunday 9/13  from 2:00 to 4:00 to meet, converse, and learn what’s going on in the Sacramento Democrat community.  Don’t be shy— it’s a friendly bunch :-)

Want to help but don’t have a lot of time? NorCal Resist is conducting a School Supply Drive. If you’ve got the wherewithal, please consider donating some of the items listed below. You can donate at NorCal Resist (address on flyer below) or by contacting Jocelyn at the email address on the flyer, or by bringing donations to our monthly meeting.  Looking forward to seeing you again and to working together for students, families, and our democracy!! Who Are We?? We’re a diverse group who believes EDUCATION is a vital pillar that supports any democracy; AND we believe it’s up to us to fortify that pillar so that democracy may stand. We RESIST any attempt at weakening the foundation upon which democracy is built. Join us! We welcome all who share our conviction that with education we can make a difference. To learn more about Educators Resist! please click the link below.    About Educators Resist! Copyright (C) *2026* *Educators Resist!* All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe Note: A new resource cite for Teachers in Resistance is under development . Watch this  blog site.

ICE Creates a NewData Base

 

A new day, a new fascist plot by the Trump admin. This time the threat is coming via ICE. And no, it’s not the threat DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin issued earlier this week to deploy ICE agents at polling locations this November. It’s much worse. A new bombshell report dropped revealing that ICE is building a national voter database, compiling every American's name, address, and party affiliation into one giant searchable system.

It hands the federal government's most murderous agency a powerful new tool to commit heinous crimes with.  ICE has acted as Trump’s gestapo. It is a federal agency operating outside of the law, equipping racists with masks and guns, lining their pockets with $50,000 in taxpayer cash, and unleashing them in American cities to murder with impunity. And now, if Congress doesn't step in, they'll have a new tool to pair with their extensive access to surveillance technology such as Flock cameras, one that shows them every American's name, address, and party affiliation. What could go wrong? Democrats can’t afford to lose this November. We must retake both the House and the Senate and put a collar on Trump’s rabid dogs at ICE before more innocent Americans get murdered. But we're facing a full-blown coup attempt from this administration, using multiple federal agencies in concert, including ICE, to rig the upcoming elections.

1.2 Million texas Vpters place on Suspense List

Recent news has created massive confusion across Texas because 1.2 million registered Texas voters have been placed on the voter “suspense” list.

When voters see headlines like this, many people assume that their registration has been cancelled or that they can no longer cast a ballot. This confusion is extremely dangerous, and it plays in Greg Abbott’s favor.

I want to be clear about what this news means. Being on the voter suspense list does not mean your voter registration has been purged. It simply means that local officials need an updated address before October 5th – the voter registration deadline here in Texas.

Abbott and Republicans know that confusion can discourage people from the polls. And they do these deliberate tactics so that people are discouraged from showing up, because they know that the stakes of this race couldn’t be higher.

And Abbott also knows that when Texans turn out, his time in office is up. That’s why we can’t allow a single eligible voter to be sidelined by confusion or bureaucratic red tape.

This is what fascism does. 

 

 

Opposition Is Not Enough

Why our authoritarian crisis requires the vision of a movement that votes

WILLIAM J. BARBER, II AND JONATHAN WILSON-HARTGROVE

SEP 04, 2026

3.5% is a data point that has become popular among people who want to build a movement to defeat authoritarianism and reconstruct democracy in the United States. It comes from great research by Erica Chenowith at Harvard University on nonviolent movements for social change - work we cited in our 2024 book, White Poverty. 

After studying people’s movements across the globe in different cultural contexts and at different moments in history, Chenoweth has concluded that a social movement that wins the active support of around 3.5% of a society’s population wins its demands. The prospect of organizing a hundred million voters into a moral fusion movement in the United States is daunting, but it turns out that the movement itself doesn’t need to be anywhere near that size. Because movements move people far beyond their immediate reach. By accelerating the active engagement of a relatively small portion of the population, a moral fusion movement can change the political possibilities for everyone.

It’s true. We always have more power than we realize. 

But it’s also true that we all like to use numbers to reinforce what we already believe. Every number tells a story, but it never tells the whole story. 

Take, for example, the authoritarian Nazi regime that controlled Germany from 1933-1945, a story we’ve spent considerable time reflecting on here this summer. The numbers are sobering. From the very beginning of Hitler’s regime, the Nazis set up concentration camps in Germany. While the first official one was at Dachau, empty basements and warehouses were re-purposed as concentration camps from early in 1933. These were not death camps for Jews. Those emerged later, and primarily on the Eastern Front after Germany invaded Poland. Concentration camps were the “re-education” centers the Nazis used to punish their opposition and instill fear in the German people. They were populated by trade unionists and Communists, Social Democrats who had held political office and clergy who objected to Nazi extremism. Most Germans interned in concentration camps were not killed, but the Nazis held hundreds of thousands of Germans in these camps.

Eric Boem, a German-Jewish man who fled Germany and served in the US Army, added up the numbers after World War II to try to understand the resistance. “Over a period of 12 years, almost 3,000,000 Germans were in and out of concentration camps and penitentiaries for political reasons,” he noted. In 1930’s Germany, that was almost 5% of the population - and that’s just the people who were arrested and detained. While those who opposed the regime were not nearly as active or vocal as many Germans wanted to claim after war, we know from the research of the German Resistance Memorial Center that many underground networks and individual acts of resistance were never detected by the Gestapo. If there were three times as many Germans who actively opposed the regime as were arrested for doing so, that would mean more Germans resisted the Nazi Party than ever joined it. (At its peak, the party had 8.5 million members.)

Still, the Nazis held power and terrorized the world, murdering more than 11 million people and waging a war that killed tens of millions more.

More.

https://ourmoralmoment.substack.com/p/opposition-is-not-enough?

Indivisible Campaign s

 It’s go time. We are going to crush this regime electorally in November, and the wave we build together is going to overtake battleground House districts and Senate states across the country. Sure, I’m just manifesting this at the moment, but it’s not a fantasy. We’ve got a grassroots army that has quadrupled in size since 2024. Quadrupled. 

We are going to need it. We need thousands upon thousands of volunteers across the country to fuel a grassroots landslide and an election protection force to beat back Trump’s inevitable attempt at sabotage.

And we are going to need grassroots dollars. A lot of grassroots dollars.

In a sentence, my pitch boils down to this: If you are going to invest any amount of money between now and November in an effort to prevent the fascists from consolidating power, I’d humbly suggest that Indivisible is among the biggest bang-for-buck investments you can make. 

And we’ve proved that time and time again over the past 22 months.

After the 2024 election, the Democratic ecosystem was collapsing. The establishment was falling over itself to capitulate as fast as possible. You know who wasn’t doing that? We weren’t. Days after the election we launched the new Indivisible guide to 50,000 people -- an organizing guide to fight back against this regime.

Then we started doing it.

When Elon Musk looked unstoppable, who organized hundreds of Musk or Us town halls? We did.

When Trump’s goons continued to ransack the government, who helped launch the first mass Hands Off protests? We did.

When Chuck Schumer caved to Republican demands, who was the first national organization to call for him to step down from leadership? We did.

When we needed to up the ante against an increasingly blatant authoritarian regime, who brought together a coalition for the first No Kings? We did.

When Republicans drove us into shutdown, who helped build an even bigger national coalition for the second No Kings ahead of the off-year elections? We did.

When Trump sent his ICE goon squads to overwhelm the Twin Cities, who worked together with our friends to mobilize 1,300 rapid response ICE Out for Good protests nationally? We did. 

Who tripled down again with the No Kings III earlier this year? We did.

Who won competitive primaries all over the country to transform the Democratic Party into a pro-democracy fighting force? We did. 

You might not always agree with Indivisible, but it’s hard to argue we lack the courage of our convictions. We take big swings. We lead with integrity. We put grassroots investments to work. And we make history. 

This November, we’re going to make history together again. 

Making history takes a lot of grassroots energy and grassroots money. Indivisible doesn’t take donations from corporations or special interest PACs. We’re grassroots led and grassroots funded -- that’s how we can remain so damn strategically focused on impact. We don’t answer to some power player in some smoky backroom -- we organize and fundraise in the open.

An investment in Indivisible now is an investment in winning 9 Senate races across Michigan, Ohio, Alaska, Texas, Iowa, North Carolina, Georgia, Maine, and Florida. It’s an investment in winning 31 House races all over the country. It’s an investment in phone banks, text banks, neighbor-by-neighbor organizing -- voters talking to voters. It’s the most impactful way to actually move votes.

But it’s more than an investment in just winning those races -- it’s an investment in defending against the election sabotage coming our way. We will not take a nap on November 3. We will run through the tape. We’ve already launched a national election defense campaign for our high-risk states through our battlegrounds program and trained thousands of volunteers on election defense across red, blue, and purple states through Hands Off Our Vote. Indivisible will be the grassroots backbone of election defense this year, and lord knows we’re going to need some backbone.

From Extreme to Establishment

Excellent source from the Southern Poverty Law Center

SPLCenter.org

When the Hard Right Comes to Campus.

The Media Issue

The midterm elections are just over two months away, and Donald Trump appears to be on his way to a stinging defeat.

But there’s one big problem that’s keeping me up at night: Republicans are STILL running circles around Democrats on the big social media platforms where Americans increasingly get their news.

Let me explain.

Four in 10 young people regularly get their news from YouTube, and a recent study found that Republicans outnumber Democrats by a nearly 2 to 1 margin among the top 100 biggest political YouTube channels.

It’s a similar story on TikTok, where Fox News’ account has exploded from 500,000 followers to nearly 11 million in less than two years. The situation is even worse on Facebook and Twitter/X.

You might be wondering, why is this such a big problem? Especially if Democrats are already leading in the polls? 

I’ll tell you why. Because while people like you and me might follow the news closely on a regular basis, most voters haven’t even begun to tune in to the midterms — and if all they see on social media between now and Election Day are MAGA talking points, the encouraging polls we’re seeing now won’t matter at all.

The good news is that the team here at Inequality Media Civic Action has spent years building our audience on these platforms, and since the start of 2026, our YouTube views have more than doubled to over 10 million a month.

Robert Reich.

 

What Is the Far Left ?

What is the Far Left ?

The growing visibility of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and victories by some DSA-backed candidates has triggered an upsurge of redbaiting by Republicans and fear-mongering by moderate Democrats. 

 

Sanders has said, “I don’t believe it is a terribly radical idea to say that someone who works 40 hours a week should not be living in poverty.” Most Americans agree with him. 

If anything, it is right-wing Republicans who are the extremists and whose views are out of sync with most Americans. In contrast, progressives and democratic socialists are in accord with the vast majority of Americans, regardless of how they define themselves. For example, according to recent polls: 

80% of Americans consider wealth inequality a serious national issue.

82% view the influence of money in politics as a threat to American democracy.

80% believe that the rich have too much political power. 

65% think the American economy is rigged to advantage the rich. 

77% support increasing taxes on billionaires and 63% (including 43% of Republicans) support higher taxes on large corporations. 

80% (and 70% of Republicans) support a tax on corporations whose CEOs make 50 times more than their median employees

73% think that members of Congress and their family members should be prohibited from owning or trading individual stocks. 

74% support requiring oil and gas companies to pay a share of climate-related costs. 

 69% (including 58% of Republicans) think that the government should do more to regulate grocery chains that raise prices to maximize profits. 

82% say that the profits made by pharmaceutical companies are a “major factor” in the high price of prescription drugs. Perhaps surprisingly, 89% of Republicans share this view, compared with 78% of independents and 84% of Democrats. 

88% want Congress to allow Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to lower prescription drug prices 

62%  think it is the responsibility of the federal government to make sure all Americans have health care coverage. 

90% think Congress should add dental, vision, and hearing benefits to Medicare coverage

59%  support a single-payer or Medicare for All system (27% oppose the idea and 14% had no opinion). 

57% want Congress to pass legislation to codify nationwide rights to abortion, contraception, and in vitro fertilization

68% support labor unions, a significant increase since the 1960s. 

67% (including 53% of Republicans) support federal legislation to make it easier for Americans to form unions and negotiate for higher pay and better benefits

77%  (including 75% of Republicans) support raising the federal minimum wage from the current $7.25 to $15, while 70% think it should be increased to $17. 

75%  (including 64% of Republicans) think Congress should guarantee 12 weeks of annual paid family and medical leave to all employees. 

73% support government-funded universal childcare.

81% (and 74% of Republicans) support a guarantee of at least 10 days of paid vacation for full-time workers. 

70% (including 62% of Republicans) embrace the idea of making two years of community college tuition-free nationwide.

72% (including 63% of Republicans and 61% of gun owners) think that a person should be required to obtain a license from local law enforcement before they can purchase a gun. 

58% of Americans who have heard about the recent killings by ICE agents support abolishing the agency. Only 25% of Americans think that most or all of the people being deported are criminals.

57% believe that police treat people unequally based on their race and 58% don’t think that the courts treat everyone equally. 

A majority support reforms such as banning chokeholds, curtailing no-knock warrants, expanding the use of body cameras, conducting independent investigations of officer-involved shootings, launching a national database for police misconduct, and appointing civilian oversight boards as watchdogs over police departments. Many Americans support shifting some funding toward community crime-prevention and using mental health workers to deal with non-violent incidents, but very few Americans, across all races, want to “defund” or dismantle local police departments. 

 

Peter Dreier.

More.

 some of the challenges and opportunities facing DSA.  https://portside.org/2026-08-20/what-far-left