After experiencing one of the largest uprisings in recent US history, and as we continue the battle for abolition, fight for the release of new political prisoners and all those kidnapped by the state, and mourn those who have been killed, what lessons can John Brown’s life, philosophy, and strategy have for us?

In the days leading up to the U.S. presidential election, after a summer of anti-racist protest and brutal state response and under a president who has not committed to a peaceful transfer of power, there is an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. Trump supporters have ramped up efforts to terrorize the opposition, shouting at voters, preventing rallies, and shooting into a crowd in Virginia.

Luciano Garbati’s recently unveiled Medusa With the Head of Perseus is supposed to be an homage to the #MeToo movement against sexual abuse. However, by every measure this statue misses the mark and shows a complete lack of understanding of the causes of and solutions to sexual violence.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death is seen by many as a blow to progressive politics. But that doesn’t mean her record on the Supreme Court is unequivocally praiseworthy. From racial justice to native sovereignty to prisoners’ rights, RBG’s rulings show a deep lack of care for the exploited and oppressed. Moreover, she was a member of an institution that has always been used as a tool against working class people.

Seven months into a global pandemic, in a state with the highest concentration of billionaires in the world, over a third of New Yorkers are struggling to pay rent. Rather than spread the wealth and ensure all New Yorkers have what they need, Governor Cuomo is working to ensure New York’s ultra rich don’t feel any effects from the pandemic and associated economic downturn.

Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency is using pandemic-related public safety concerns as a smokescreen to roll back environmental protections, including Obama-era regulations on methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. 

Between July 23 and July 27, at least 22 protesters from Portland have been added to the growing list of those facing federal charges for alleged crimes during the recent Black Lives Matters protests. All political prisoners should be freed immediately!

Colinford Mattis, Urooj Rahman, and Samantha Shader are political prisoners. In late May, the three activists were arrested for alleged property destruction during the protests that broke out across the country. All three are still being held in jail without bail and are facing life in prison on federal charges.

While liberals want us to believe that voting for Joe Biden is the solution to all the ills of the racist capitalist system, the fact remains that Biden is a dedicated, lifelong racist. He won’t save any of us, least of all the victims of police brutality. 

Building on the existing horrors of the U.S. border, the Trump administration has used the pandemic as an opportunity to continue to enact racist and nationalist immigration policies, to the point of threatening to deport people even after they have tested positive for COVID-19.

Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man, was murdered by white vigilantes while jogging in Late February. His death is part of a sustained campaign of terror and violence against Black people in the United States, carried on for centuries by agents of the settler capitalist state and their white civilian allies.

Flight attendants and other at-risk essential workers are not only being asked to die to protect their bosses’ profits, they are being asked to lie to their co-workers and communities about it, putting even more people at risk.

As most facets of daily life in NYC grind to a halt due to COVID-19, racist police violence against Black and brown New Yorkers on the subway continues. MTA workers who are organizing for their own safety in the face of high rates of infection could join those necessary calls to demands that would keep all New Yorkers safe. The NYPD is inessential during a pandemic and at all times. 

Last year, Democrats in New York, bolstered by their growing left wing, had won control of the New York Senate and passed nearly a thousand bills addressing long-awaited reforms and benefitting the working class. However, the New York State budget passed last week in the midst of the pandemic reversed a number of these laws, showing the precariousness of attempting to reform capitalism and highlighting the steps socialists must take instead.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States government announced a move that would eliminate the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe’s jurisdiction over their own land. It is not an accident that this latest attack on Indigenous sovereignty and land is being carried out at a time when organizing and resistance are difficult, though not impossible.

Luxury construction projects in New York are still in full swing despite Governor Cuomo’s order to halt all “nonessential” construction. Workers should not have to choose between losing income and unsafe working conditions. All luxury construction must be halted immediately and the construction of hospitals and other necessary facilities needed to fight the coronavirus must be prioritized instead. 

Large areas of Canada are being brought to a halt by Indigenous people and their allies across the continent. They are organizing against the construction of a liquid natural gas pipeline through Wet’suwet’en territory. This struggle serves as an example of the possibilities of Indigenous and non-Indigenous worker solidarity, and an object lesson in why socialists should support such efforts across the world.