Movement Memos

We have witnessed the evolution of a social and moral binary in the United States: vaccinated and unvaccinated. Immersed in a culture of blame and condemnation, around the spread of COVID-19, we have also seen the rise of a brand of humor that Kelly characterizes as “recreational dehumanization.” So how should we be talking about vaccination and mass death, and how can we be constructive? In this episode, Kelly talks with activist Johnny Dangers, about overcoming vaccine hesitancy, and Shana McDavis-Conway, with the Center for Story-Based Strategy, about how we can constructively frame the moment. For a transcript, audio and show notes, you can check out our website.

“Fascist ideologies really rely on systems of bordering and ordering, of deciding who has the right to life and under what conditions,” says Harsha Walia. In this episode of Movement Memos, Kelly Hayes examines the state of right-wing power in the United States, and engages with commentary from authors Shane Burley and Sarah Kendzior, writer and organizer Harsha Walia, and President of the Texas  Civil Rights Project, Mimi Marziani. For a transcript, audio and show notes, please check out our website.

Ten years after Occupy Wall Street embodied the hopes and outrage of people across the country, Kelly and labor journalist Sarah Jaffe talk about what we can learn from a movement that launched a new and unruly era of protest. You can find a transcript, audio and show notes on our website.

“We're talking about a heavily armed populace that's radicalizing itself [and] self traumatizing through its own mythology.” In this episode, Kelly talks with author Shane Burley about the state of fascism in the Biden era, mutual aid, and building movements during apocalyptic times. For a transcript, audio and show notes, you can check out our website: https://truthout.org/series/movement-memos/

“People end up in prison for a reason, but it's not the reason that we're fed by all of these cop shows." In this episode of Movement Memos, Kelly Hayes talks with journalist Victoria Law about prisons, why they don’t work, and what even well-meaning people tend to get wrong about incarceration. You can find a transcript, audio and show notes on our website: https://truthout.org/series/movement-memos/

"The goal of a supremacist state is to have a monopoly on the legitimacy of violence," says Palestinian writer and organizer Lea Kayali. In this episode, Kelly and Lea Kayali explore the history of Israeli violence against Palestinians – and the colonial dynamics that enable it – and discuss what you can do about it. For a transcript, audio and show notes, you can check our website: https://truthout.org/series/movement-memos/

Republicans are waging a nationwide attack on voting rights and the right to protest. Kelly compares these efforts with the laws and conventions that ushered in the Jim Crow era, and talks with voting rights organizer Toni Watkins about how targeted communities are fighting back. For a transcript, audio and show notes, you can check out our website: https://truthout.org/series/movement-memos/

After a year of upheaval and pandemic, and the unlikely conviction of a police officer, Minneapolis organizers Jonathan Stegall and D.A. Bullock talk with Kelly about what they have built and learned in the last year, what Derek Chauvin’s conviction does not accomplish, and what they hope people will do now as the struggle against policing continues. For a transcript, audio and show notes, you can check out our website: truthout.org/series/movement-memos/

“There are so many ways the system robs people of life, and police are out there daily, enacting that theft.” Kelly talks about the Chauvin verdict and the murder of Adam Toledo, and discusses the history and current state of policing with Alex Vitale, author of the book, The End of Policing. You can find a transcript, audio and show notes on our website: truthout.org/series/movement-memos/

Our pre-pandemic "normal" was a deathtrap. So what should we be building instead? And how should we talk about it? In this episode, Kelly talks with artist and organizer Jayeesha Dutta about letting normalcy die and creating something new. You can find a transcript, audio and show notes on our website.