KPFA - Against the Grain

Our era is marked both by mass protest and the increasing criminalization of protest — driven by private interests, as well as states and the federal government. Annie Leonard, longtime activist, discusses the rich tradition of protest in this country and why we need to defend it, in the face of SLAPP suits, anti-protest bills, and diktats from the Trump administration.
Annie Leonard and Andre Carothers, Protest: Respect It Defend It Use It Patagonia, 2026
Photo credit: Angus McIntyre
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We live in a time, says Brazilian political philosopher Rodrigo Nunes, where it feels like things cannot go on as they are — while at the same time, we can’t imagine anything else. Nunes discusses how such sentiments have fueled the ascendancy of the far right around the world and in Brazil, where the authoritarianism may return to power.
Rodrigo Nunes, Anatomy of Disintegration: What Brazil Reveals About the Global Far Right Haymarket, 2026
Photo by Tutz Dias on Unsplash
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Elites, especially in tech, in recent years have overtly espoused the repugnant idea that extreme social inequality is not only inevitable but desirable. Acclaimed historian Kim Phillips-Fein argues that there is a long US tradition promoting wealth inequality that has once again moved from the shadows into the mainstream. And historian Steve Fraser reflects on the class war of the Gilded Age. (Full-length presentation.)
Kim Phillips-Fein, Country of Lords: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight against Equality in America W. W. Norton, 2026
The post The Long Struggle Against Equality appeared first on KPFA.

How should we organize while the planet is burning and authoritarianism is intensifying? Chris Dixon reflects on lessons for the present, drawn from decades of activism on the left – for a moment where interest in left politics has grown significantly, yet while the organizational infrastructures of the left are greatly diminished.
Chris Dixon, For the Long Haul: How to Stay in the Fight for a Better World AK Press, 2026
Photo credit: Lori Shaull
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What was the most powerful technology introduced into schools in the past century? You might answer the computer, or something like Zoom, or even the slide projector. But scholar Antero Garcia argues that it was the humble yellow school bus. Buses have been central to the struggle to desegregate education. And school buses are a zone — and mainly an unnoticed one — in which many working class children and children of color spend a significant part of their day. (Encore presentation.)
Resources:
Antero Garcia, All through the Town: The School Bus as Educational Technology University of Minnesota Press, 2023
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