This situation is plain and simple: we are in the midst of an imperialist war to install a US puppet government that will give Venezuela’s oil resources over to the US empire, a global cartel, and to further entrench US hegemony over Latin America. This is a continuation of the Monroe Doctrine. The new “Trump Corollary” is a farcical rebranding of the colonial ambitions found within the early 1800s, and further emphasizes how far the oligarchy will go to impose its ghoulish agenda across the globe. This war is illegal both under international law and the laws governing the declaration of war within the United States.

These imperialist actions in the pursuit of oil and blood were first tested on our immigrant communities here in the United States. The attacks from our President created the permission structure for the escalation towards striking Caracas. This past year, the Trump Administration has manufactured consent for these acts of war, not just by fanning the flames, but by sparking the embers as well.

In March of 2025, the Trump Administration trafficked over 240 men, citing the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, an act that has been used throughout our history to imprison innocent people based on race. Trump claimed that these 240 men were members of “Tren de Aragua,”a Venezuelan prison gang, based on fabricated evidence. These men were trafficked to the El Salvadoran prison, CECOT, where they have and still are being enslaved and tortured. We later found out that only 6% of the men sent to CECOT had any US criminal record, and only 4% had violent criminal records. About 50 of the men were legal residents of the United States.

The Trump Administration hijacked the fears of the American people, connecting Venezuelans with “narco-terrorism,” and providing the social permission to conduct strikes against fishing boats, which further allowed for the bombing of Caracas. Trump’s war has nothing to do with drug trafficking. There is no substantiated evidence that high-level members of the Venezuelan government are “narco-terrorists.” Yet, the Trump administration continues to float this fabrication as the pretext for this imperialist aggression.

This has been done to many different immigrant communities, including Haitians and Somalis. These communities become targets of not only vitriol and hate, but physical and financial attacks as well.

We must not only stand with the people of Venezuela, but also with the immigrant communities of America that have been targeted based on race or ethnicity by the radical right wing of our country. When we attack our own communities, we allow the oligarchy to trample the human rights and sovereignty of all.

It must not be forgotten that while tribalism destroys our local communities, the same colonial degeneracies govern our foreign policy. This war is a violation of true democracy. President Maduro, and the PSUV, preside over one of the most vibrant and transparent democracies in the world. This socialist project, which has lifted the Venezuelan working-class out of poverty and brought the people’s will onto the international stage, is a direct threat to the US empire because it has crushed imperialist ambitions in South America. Make no mistake, the Bolivarian Revolution, democracy in South America, poses a threat to the oligarchy because the working-class has found a way to beat back the capitalist cartel which aims to enslave the entire world.

This is another regime-change war to steal another country’s oil, just like the failed war against Iraq, and to crush any resistance to US imperialism. Do not fall prey to the social media campaign being launched to support the color revolution currently taking place in Venezuela. The Venezuelan people are not celebrating. They are mourning, they are rising up to resist this illegal war, and their volunteer army is being mobilized to destroy the incoming invasion. The Bolivarian Revolution is not a single man, President Maduro is simply a politician, and the people’s will cannot be crushed. Venezuela has shown us that the working-class can rise to the occasion, and they will once again when the United States forces misguided soldiers to die for profit.

DSA demands:

• a return of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores to Venezuela
• an immediate end to the war and an end to all US military violence against Venezuela
• a total withdrawal of all US warships, fighter jets, and military assets from the Caribbean and an end to any operations with intervention purposes driven by SOUTHCOM
• an end to the illegal unilateral sanctions against Venezuela, and the end to the use of unilateral sanctions anywhere in the world, which kill an estimated half a million people every year worldwide
• an end to the failed “war on drugs” framework that has already led to massive human and environmental tragedies in countries such as Colombia and Mexico
• the restoration of diplomatic relations with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, including the reopening of the embassy and consular offices in US territory
• a US foreign policy centered on peace, multilateralism, and respect for national sovereignty and self-determination

Long live the Bolivarian Revolution,

Vicki N. and Patti C.

Last weekend, our chapter took action related to the ongoing genocide in Palestine. From Manchester to Gaza, we must all come together to demand justice. Yes, this action made people uncomfortable, but that discomfort is part of the point. If the Langs have willingly participated in a violent colonial venture, and then make no effort to account for it – or to publicly disavow it – it’s reasonable to ask why they should get to feel at peace every day while Palestinians live through a genocide and face fear, grief, displacement, and death on a daily basis. All we ask for is accountability. The Langs do not have to continue to proudly display the propaganda they’ve helped produce on professional websites. They can say that the genocide is happening and is wrong.

Gazans, including women and children, detained in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood of Gaza City in December (Moti Milrod, Haaretz).

To place yourselves in the shoes of someone who might live here as a refugee from the genocide in Palestine, would you not feel something is needed to be said if you learned a local baker helped destroy the lives of your friends, or loved ones? Some may want to believe that it was only within the past two years that the bloodshed and suffering began, but that is not the truth. This campaign is using a local issue to shine a light on the broader context of the ongoing genocide in Palestine. This is not about a small business or a religion. This is about a colonial project that began in 1948 with the Nakba. This is about IDF soldiers and veterans being complicit in crimes against humanity, and humiliating an entire people. The anxiety the Langs might have felt during the days leading up to this protest pale in comparison to the emotions, violence, and oppression felt by Palestinians dealing with an illegal occupation and decades-long genocide.

Who is Evan Lang? Beyond a Local Business Owner

Evan Lang is the owner of Dishon Bakery, and he is an American citizen that served in the IDF from 2013 to 2015.[1] Many people have attempted to bemoan our action by pointing out IDF service is compulsory for Israeli citizens. While this is true, it is conveniently ignored that Evan Lang was not born in Israel, and joined a foreign military that has been enagaged in a protracted genocide since the mid-twentieth century. During his time in the Spokesperson’s Unit, he served under Brig. Gen. Moti Almoz who oversaw “depopulation” missions within the occupied territories before becoming head of the IDF’s Civil Administration. Almoz has been quoted saying “We’re dealing with people who are not normal. Unequivocally. [Take their land], we should have been harvesting the wheat in Beit Hanoun already.”

During the time the Langs served in the IDF, Israel killed 2,580 Palestinians, injured more than 36,702 Palestinians, displaced over 500,742 Palestinians, built 1,780 illegal settlements, and demolished 539 Palestinian-owned structures. We are not asking anyone to enjoy conflict. We are saying that comfort is not an absolute moral priority when the stakes are human lives.

Some Much-Needed Context

Since this boycott launched on December 12th, Israeli forces have killed over 20 Palestinians, and two babies are included in those deaths. It’s important to note that multiple babies and children have died from exposure to freezing temperatures, starvation or malnutrition within this time frame as well.

We appreciate Manchester Information providing a somewhat neutral perspective on the protest, and including photographs from the event which highlight some very important contextual details. However, other outlets have decided to publish articles related to the protest that either conveniently left out these photographs or other important details. As residents of New Hampshire, we’re very familiar with the journalistic laziness that dominates the local media landscape, and that is why we’ve taken it upon ourselves to respond to Manchester Ink Link and NH Journal. We considered responding to the Granite Grok article and the various fringe influencers that posted about the event as well, but let’s be honest, why even bother? There’s no reason to indulge in their desperate attempts at relevancy.

NH Journal quotes Republican figures like former state Rep. Fred Doucette and GOP congressional candidate Brian Cole defending the bakery, and denouncing alleged antisemitism from protesters.

Two SNHDSA members displaying pro-Palestine signs at the Dishon Bakery picket on December 20th, 2025 (Manchester Information).

Firstly, we would like to point out this action was supported, vetted, and attended by multiple Jewish members of SNHDSA. NH Journal refusing to include this image in their coverage is not only predictable, but showcases a lack of journalistic integrity. We don’t expect much from this outlet, but that decision can only be described as indulging in the pro-Zionism discourse which saturates our local media. When your journalism is purely based on receiving clicks, you’re not going to produce a worthwhile story.

Many of the patrons of Dishon Bakery called us nazis, and in one instance, our Jewish comrade responded by reciting the Sh’ma (The Jewish prayer of commitment to your faith, and accepting Adonai as the one true god). Yes, while carrying those signs, passersby called our Jewish comrades nazis, a deep irony which goes on to serve how disingenuous the claims of antisemitism are. These details are important because it showcases voices within the Jewish community who explicitly reject equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism. This matters because it challenges NH Journal implicitly framing any pro-Palestine stance as inherently antisemitic. Investigators of antisemitism, including Jewish intellectuals and civil liberties advocates, warn against using that charge to shut down debate and shield genocidal policies from scrutiny.

When Zionism, a sadistic colonial ideology, has gone out of its way to co-opt Jewish traditions and holidays, it is important to remind the public that Israel does not represent the Jewish community as a whole. Given the disingenuous media coverage around this event, it would be easy for a well-meaning person to think this was a badly timed protest, but let us set the record straight, this is about reclaiming Hanukkah from Zionism and centering Jewish community members that will not stand idly by while a genocidal government, and its allies, attempts to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

Why Language Matters

In a predictable fashion, the NH Journal article mentions “Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza” only in passing, without grounding the reader in what that war has actually meant for Palestinian lives. You could argue the average NH Journal reader does not have the cognitive ability to understand a nuanced perspective, and holds a sheepish preference for the comforting narratives produced by this rag, but we’re going to talk about it anyways.

Independent trackers and international health authorities report tens of thousands of Palestinians killed, a majority of them civilians, including many women and children, with numbers often exceeding 70,000 deaths since the renewed conflict began in October 2023. Life expectancy in parts of Gaza plunged, dozens of journalists have been killed by the IDF, Gaza’s infrastructure was devastated, and hospitals collapsed under bombardment and blockade conditions.

Many analysts, human rights organizations, and legal scholars describe these sustained attacks, mass civilian suffering, systematic deprivation, and repeated destruction of homes and essential services as a genocide, a term rooted in the 1948 Genocide Convention and invoked by the United Nations Human Rights Council and Amnesty International in official reports.

Whether one agrees with that legal label or not, the scale of death and devastation is not in dispute, and ignoring it is a journalistic failure. This is not a war, this is a genocide and we will not allow that fact to be omitted.

Searching for Relevancy: Former state Rep. Fred Doucette and GOP congressional candidate Brian Cole

NH Journal provided quotes from two men who are in desperate need of attention. To Fred and Brian, we hear you, we’re providing space for you, but your sad attempt at manufacturing consent can only go so far. In fact, your cookie cutter responses serve as a symbol for the political landscape as a whole. AIPAC and similar lobbying organizations exert outsized influence on U.S. foreign policy, pressuring elected officials of both parties to provide unwavering political, military, and financial support to the Israeli government. Supporting Israel, and equating pro-Palestine activism to antisemitism is not a unique or bold position to hold. This soft power tactic helps explain why politicians distance themselves from pro-Palestine organizers, or why states like New Hampshire have adopted anti-BDS laws that preclude state contracts with companies that boycott Israel.

The genocide in Palestine has helped us identify politicians that rather represent lobbyists, and a foreign government, than their constituents. All this to say, Fred Doucette and Brian Cole have more in common with Chris Pappas and the Democratic party than we ever will. Socialists have a deep familiarity with the inadequacies produced by the two liberal parties that control our country, and it’s a real shame very few political figures have the integrity to stand in solidarity with a people suffering through genocide. Supporting Israel is not the grassroots consensus. The oligarchy has shaped what is considered “acceptable” discourse, often at the expense of marginalized voices, and outlets like NH Journal are merely echoing predetermined talking points set by a failing and unpopular liberal establishment.

Why a Local Bakery? Why Not Protest the Government?

Harm is sustained not only by governments, but by the everyday social permission structure around them. We are organizing locally. Our leverage is local. When our community treats participation in genocide as socially neutral and beyond question, that silence becomes part of how the violence continues. We also agree with the core point behind this question. Institutional targets matter. Government targets matter. This action does not replace that work, and sits alongside it.

As we’ve said before, these are the demands of our boycott:

1. The Langs publicly denounce the genocide against Palestinians; or
2. Face a continued boycott by our community until you go out of business

This is About Palestine

We have had Palestinian community members go out of their way to vocally support this boycott. Providing space and support for them is one of our main priorities.

As we stated in the campaign announcement post on Instagram, instead of spending $15 on a loaf of bread baked by an IDF veteran, please donate to the following organizations:

• PCRF
• Gaza Mutual Aid
• World Central Kitchen
• UNRWA
• Watermelonwarriors.io
• Watermelon Relief

In solidarity,

SNHDSA Palestine Working Group

Citations

[1] Clear timeline indicating Lang’s life in the US before choosing to move to Israel and join the IDF.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanlang

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanlang

This bill, the latest in attacks against the transgender community, not only harms gender non-conforming individuals but also cisgender people. There have already been stories from other states that have passed bathroom bills from cis individuals who quote-unquote, “didn’t pass” and were the victim of questioning and harassment by people trying to uphold those laws. While other states have enacted legislation regarding bathrooms, what makes New Hampshire’s proposed bill unique is that it applies to private businesses as well. This is a gross overreach of government power over bodily autonomy in a state that supposedly prides itself on the motto “Live Free Or Die.” Trans people are just trying to live their lives and have the same bodily needs as everyone else. For a state that postures itself to care so much about individual liberties, our lawmakers sure do enjoy enacting authoritarian policies to police people’s bodies.

In addition to the overt transphobia in the proposed legislation, it is also deeply misogynistic, as it only applies to trans women, which also means it perpetuates the erasure of trans men, who constitute roughly half of the trans population. Trans women already face enough discrimination in both public and private life, and this bill only serves to inflict more cruelty and ostracization of the demographic. Feeling unsafe in public bathrooms, and even being barred from entering their preferred restroom, is a primary reason why transgender people suffer from much higher rates of urinary tract infections than the rest of the population, as many individuals would rather hold it in than enter a public restroom. Section 1e of the bill, as well as other proposed bills, also stipulates that prisons be segregated based on assigned gender at birth, but this too will only harm the trans community, as trans women, especially trans women of color, have among the highest rates of being the victims of sexual assault. Being a woman in a men’s prison would needlessly increase that risk.

Time and time again, politicians from both parties have shown their ignorance and bigotry about transgender, non-binary, and intersex people, repeatedly conflating sex and gender, misunderstanding the fluidity of human anatomy, and a flagrant disregard for the history of gender non-conforming individuals. Sex and gender do not refer to the same thing, and both have varying degrees of fluidity. 1.7% of people are intersex, and bills like this completely disregard the differences in sex and chromosomes, even among people supposedly of the “same sex.” Every state representative who votes for HB1442, or any other transphobic legislation, should be voted out of office during the next election.

While HB1442 is certainly the most egregious of the proposed bills, it isn’t the only upcoming piece of legislation targeting the queer community. Some examples include HB1132 which prohibits the display of pride flags in schools; HB1165, which prevents the altering of gender markers on government identification materials; and multiple House and Senate bills restricting trans people in sports, locker rooms, changing rooms, and prisons (HB1299, HB1447, SB459, SB552).

We must resist the passing of these bills with every tool we have: Call and write your representatives, protest, share information and resources, educate people on the harms of anti-trans legislation. Trans solidarity is class solidarity.

Appendix:

HB1132 - This bill prohibits the display of any flag, including pride flags, at any public school other than a select few officially sanctioned flags, as indicated in the bill.
https://legiscan.com/NH/bill/HB1132/2026#
https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/legacy/bs2016/bill_status.aspx?lsr=2315\&sy=2026\&sortoption=\&txtsessionyear=2026\&txtbillnumber=HB1132

HB1165 - This bill will prevent the altering of gender markers on state-issued identification including birth certificates.
https://legiscan.com/NH/bill/HB1165/2026#
https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/legacy/bs2016/bill_status.aspx?lsr=2450\&sy=2026\&sortoption=\&txtsessionyear=2026\&txtbillnumber=HB1165

HB1217 - Title: Permitting classification of individuals based on ‘biological sex’ under certain limited circumstances. No text for this bill is available.
https://legiscan.com/NH/bill/HB1217/2026#
https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/legacy/bs2016/bill_status.aspx?lsr=2710\&sy=2026\&sortoption=\&txtsessionyear=2026\&txtbillnumber=HB1217

HB1299 - This bill permits the public and private classification of individuals based on ‘biological sex’ in multi-user facilities, athletic and sporting competitions, and correctional and treatment facilities. This bill [also] establishes that these forms of separation based on ‘biological sex’ do not qualify as discrimination.
https://legiscan.com/NH/bill/HB1299/2026#
https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/legacy/bs2016/bill_status.aspx?lsr=2833\&sy=2026\&sortoption=\&txtsessionyear=2026\&txtbillnumber=HB1299

HB1345 - This bill adds requirements for the display of flags on school property, restricts the flags which can be flown on school property, and requires schools to designate students as the school’s color guard to manage the display of flags on school property. It also establishes penalties for any violation of the section.
https://legiscan.com/NH/bill/HB1345/2026#
https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/legacy/bs2016/bill_status.aspx?lsr=3118\&sy=2026\&sortoption=\&txtsessionyear=2026\&txtbillnumber=HB1345

HB1356 - This bill extends the time period to file a claim for violation of the prohibition on medical procedures intended to change a minor’s gender from 2 years to 10 years from the date the minor reaches the age of majority.
https://legiscan.com/NH/bill/HB1356/2026#
https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/legacy/bs2016/bill_status.aspx?lsr=3064\&sy=2026\&sortoption=\&txtsessionyear=2026\&txtbillnumber=HB1356

HB1376 - This bill exempts child rearing consistent with the child’s ‘biological sex’ from being considered within the definition of abused child and child endangerment, removes child rearing consistent with the child’s biological sex from being a basis for findings relative to family law determinations, including: adoptions, child-placing agency licensing, and best interests of the child determinations. This bill will allow parents to send their children to conversion therapy.
https://legiscan.com/NH/bill/HB1376/2026#
https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/legacy/bs2016/bill_status.aspx?lsr=3035\&sy=2026\&sortoption=\&txtsessionyear=2026\&txtbillnumber=HB1376

HB1442 - Modifies statutory construction of the term ‘gender identity’, modifies the enforcement of civil rights to provide protections on the basis of gender identity only for certain purposes, requires bathrooms and locker rooms in public schools and municipally owned buildings to be used on the basis of sex, permits owners and operators of places of public accommodation to restrict the use of bathrooms and locker rooms on the basis of sex. This bill will make it a criminal misdemeanor for transfemmes to use women’s restrooms.
https://legiscan.com/NH/bill/HB1442/2026#
https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/legacy/bs2016/bill_status.aspx?lsr=2729\&sy=2026\&sortoption=\&txtsessionyear=2026\&txtbillnumber=HB1442

HB1447 - Defines the term “sex” within statutory construction, requires the state of New Hampshire and all political subdivisions of the state to adopt policies that classify the use of restrooms, locker rooms, changing areas, and sleeping quarters by sex, authorizes private entities to adopt the same policies relative to biological sex, and establishes that all public or private policies adopted pursuant to the section shall not constitute discrimination.
https://legiscan.com/NH/bill/HB1447/2026#
https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/legacy/bs2016/bill_status.aspx?lsr=2754\&sy=2026\&sortoption=\&txtsessionyear=2026\&txtbillnumber=HB1447

HB1564 - This bill removes all references to gender identity from NH statutes, with the exception of RSA 332-M:2, III-a, which is the state ban on gender affirming care for minors. This bill would eliminate gender identity as a protected status in New Hampshire, effectively erasing equal protection for trans, non-binary, intersex, and gender non-conforming individuals.
https://legiscan.com/NH/bill/HB1564/2026#
https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/legacy/bs2016/bill_status.aspx?lsr=2415\&sy=2026\&sortoption=\&txtsessionyear=2026\&txtbillnumber=HB1564

SB459 - This bill requires school athletics and the associated use of locker rooms be designated based on a participant’s ‘biological sex’ as assigned at birth. The bill also requires that inmates in New Hampshire state prisons be housed separately on the basis of inmates’ ‘biological sex’. This Senate bill will forbid transgender children from participating in school sports, and place trans inmates at increased risk.
https://legiscan.com/NH/bill/SB459/2026#
https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/legacy/bs2016/bill_status.aspx?lsr=2222\&sy=2026\&sortoption=\&txtsessionyear=2026\&txtbillnumber=SB459

SB464 - This bill changes the standard for civil rights enforcement by requiring that prohibited conduct be substantially motivated by hostility toward the victim’s protected characteristics. This bill would make it extremely difficult for victims who’s characteristics are no longer protected to bring forward a case where their civil rights have been violated. See also: HB1564.
https://legiscan.com/NH/bill/SB464/2026#
https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/legacy/bs2016/bill_status.aspx?lsr=2245\&sy=2026\&sortoption=\&txtsessionyear=2026\&txtbillnumber=SB464

SB552 - This bill permits discrimination based on ‘biological sex’ in certain specified areas: bathrooms and similar facilities, sports, and facilities in which individuals may be housed involuntarily.
https://legiscan.com/NH/bill/SB552/2026#
https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/legacy/bs2016/bill_status.aspx?lsr=2149\&sy=2026\&sortoption=\&txtsessionyear=2026\&txtbillnumber=SB552

Additional resources:

Legislature contact information:
https://legiscan.com/NH/roster

Erin Reed’s article:
https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/new-hampshire-bill-would-create-first

What has precipitated the creation of this article is the need to explain why being anti-Zionist is a requirement to truly defend the rights of immigrants. The best way to do this is in long-form, I believe, as to not come off as petty troublemakers but rather to demonstrate that this position is the only position a principled socialist organization like ours can take by understanding that immigration rights and the genocide in Gaza are not separate, but interconnected issues brought into our world by the material demands of global capital. Our position is brought about by analysis, not a reflexive need to be annoying. This writing is not for the people who are onboard with the genocide in Gaza, it would be a waste of our time, but rather for the sympathetic parts of our coalition which might find it frustrating that we refuse to reach across the aisle to “combat fascism.” It is simply not possible to combat the rising tide of reactionary rule at home if we don’t also stand against it abroad. The reason for this is that, fundamentally, both of these things (deportations by ICE and the genocide in Gaza) are fueled by the logic of an ethnostate, fueled by white nationalism.

Let’s take for example one of the most visible recent ICE detentions, likely the first one that signaled we were living in a fundamentally different regime – the one which targeted Mahmoud Khalil. It’s not a coincidence this violent deportation apparatus was first used to target campus protesters who voiced their support for Gaza. Mahmoud Khalil in particular provides a view into how this is all connected. Khalil’s family was expelled from Gaza following the Nakba, the first ethnic cleansing of Gaza that Israel’s founding settlers enacted on the Palestinian population. As a result, he and his parents lived in a refugee camp in Syria. Syria, being a war-torn country thanks to countries such as Israel and the United States constantly destabilizing it (and yes, that is also related to Israel’s attempts at disciplining, replacing, and genociding Palestinians – Syria was where the Palestinian diaspora went and would provide aid to Palestinian liberation movements), was needless to say not a great place to be. Khalil ended up emigrating to the United States in search of a better life, like many other people. This story is similar to many others. The genocide in Gaza is an abomination, but it is logical. Think of the soulless AI slop Donald Trump has “truthed” about turning Gaza into a Riviera. It is about capital. The genocide and settlement of Gaza is a business opportunity. It fuels the military-industrial complex here, while bolstering the housing market in Israel. On the graves of dead Palestinians, a luxury condo
will be built for a landowner in Tel Aviv to accrue yet more wealth while companies like Elbit Systems and BAE win more government contracts and skyrocket on the stock market from the bombs used.

This is no different from how our immigration system serves to function. Our immigration system is broken, but that is not a mistake! Immigrants leave countries that the US has forced into subservient roles, some war torn just like Syria, looking for a better life. Once here, they maintain their desperation and willingness to accept low paying work by maintaining the precarious uncertainty of their legal status, which greatly benefits capital, who are free to exercise total power over a helpless and desperate workforce. It is
often said that we need to “fix” our immigration system and offer more pathways to citizenship. While that is certainly true, the system isn’t broken at all. It is operating entirely as intended. Desperate immigrants are easier to exploit, and the US is responsible for a lot of the conditions that make people immigrate here in the first place.

Then there is, of course, the reason why these crimes against humanity are appealing in the first place. Both Israel and the United States were founded on similar principles. They were (and in Israel’s case, are) both settler colonial ethnostates that make new money and new markets by slaughtering the indigenous populations, while using racial castes as a way of reinforcing legal control over the territory. It is easy for many people to see that the current immigration crackdown is one fueled by racism and nativism. The pollsters and hucksters of the Democratic Party seem to have all of the data that Palestinian liberation is popular, but lack the will to commit to it. At the DSA, we are not going to sell out Palestinians for the sake of not “rocking the boat” or “combating fascism.” The genocide in Gaza should make anybody understand this but it goes beyond moral outrage. “One struggle, one fight” is not an empty aphorism. We will stand against the exploitation of the working class here in the United States no matter who they are, and we will stand against the genocide of the Palestinians for the same reason. As we have seen, it’s even possible those targeted by ICE lay at this exact intersection!

Goodlander, your “solidarity” with our immigrant community is empty as long as you allow Israel to remain an ethnostate that denies Palestinians equal rights. The two-state solution is a farce. Israel controls what and who gets to enter all Palestinian territory yet somehow we have to pretend that there’s even the possibility it could govern itself? If someone else can take your land, turn off your water, cut off your food supply, and prevent the open movement within your own borders, it’s hard to call that anything
but an occupied territory. That is fundamentally what it means for Israel to remain “Jewish.” This becomes clear when applied to other countries. Should Germany remain German? Should the UK remain British? Nevermind that it is impossible to define neat borders around ethnicity; these are also often the statements used by the far-right for the same reasons that ICE is cracking down mostly on people of color with “Hispanic sounding” names. It’s white nationalism, not anything else. Why should anyone trust that you mean it when you say you don’t want white nationalism here when you’re comfortable with it elsewhere? As things stand, it comes off as nothing but political opportunism.

As such, Southern NH DSA has no interest in the Know Your Rights trainings hosted by Goodlander, despite the fact that we think that it’s important work. We will instead work with those who stand by our principles, unlike the Democratic Party who, to this day, has yet to find the courage to stand up for Palestine and, by extension, our immigrant population. You cannot be for one and not the other.

Born in 1956, Judith Butler (They/Them) is a feminist philosopher and ardent civil rights activist. Their body of work is vast and has come to form the bedrock of modern queer theory. We owe a whole lot to Judith, from their groundbreaking work in describing gender as a performance, as can be seen in one of their earliest works, (Performative Acts and Gender Constitution, (1988)) to their latest bestselling work, Who’s Afraid of Gender (2024) which dives into the roots of the anti-gender movement. There is value in knowing exactly who the enemy is, but Judith Butler takes it a step further by asking the question, “why?” Who’s Afraid of Gender? is said to be their most accessible book; we heartily recommend you give it a read, I’ll let you in on the gist of it: You see, Butler has noticed a pattern, and I’m sure you have too, that anti-transgender rights, anti-abortion rights, and general anti-feminist rhetoric follow right wing, authoritarian movements around, making things miserable for everyone.

This is not an accident. Butler argues that this rising tide of bigotry presents an opportunity for politicians, corporations, and sadly, many people like you and me are a lightning rod for the feeling that we all share: that something is not quite right with the world. This can be any number of things: insecurity, precarity, even climate anxiety. They all lead to one thing and that is fear. Fear is perhaps one of mankind’s most powerful motivators, says Butler, and one that they will do anything to escape. This makes the people benefiting from those not-quite-right-things naturally afraid themselves and leaves them with little choice but to point the finger at anything else. And so, in the tradition of fascists of all stripes throughout history, they have pointed their fingers at a ghost that they have conjured for themselves of “gender ideology”. I don’t know about you, but I feel like a person, not an ideology, and I deserve rights! Judith Butler would agree.

Butler is not only a philosopher, but a driven rhetorical speaker on civil rights of all sorts. Butler continues to be outspoken in their support of economic justice; as seen when they attended the Occupy Wall Street protest in 2011, voicing strongly their support for Black Lives Matter, racial equality, and for the dignity of all oppressed people. They have made powerful remarks in support of the people of Gaza and they condemn the use of antisemitism as a shield for acts of genocidal fascism around the world. If Judith Butler sounds like someone you’d like to hear more from you can see them speak online, or pick up one of their books at your local library. You won’t be disappointed!

Leslie Feinberg

Groundbreaking lesbian author, leading transgender rights advocate, fighter for workers’ rights, all these things are encapsulated in the person of Leslie Feinberg. Born in 1949, Leslie first found her way into the world of activism through the Workers World Party when she was in her twenties. As a member of the party, she took part in protests against the treatment of the Palestinian people, the handling of the AIDS epidemic, and even mobilized against the KKK, struggles that still resonate with activists of today. In the 1970s her activism turned to writing. Feinberg was a long time writer and eventually editor for the Worker’s World, the party newspaper for the WWP. In its pages, she wrote and later edited the political prisoner pages, a segment that with the opening of Guantanamo Bay to immigrants and other such politically minded incarcerations, is sadly still in use. From journalism she moved into novel writing and non-fiction, penning Stone Butch Blues (1993), a fictionalized autobiography of her experiences as a queer member of the working class. The book has won several awards, most notably what is now called the Stonewall Book Award for LGBT fiction.

But Leslie is not just a world class news and fiction writer. She is also a pioneer in transgender identity theory. In her work of non-fiction, Transgender Warriors (1996), Leslie posited that the term transgender is less of a strict category and more of an umbrella for those that present counter to or in challenge of traditional concepts of gender and sexuality. This definition would extend the concept of transgender identity to several gender non-conforming groups throughout history, from modern butch lesbians, as Leslie identified, to the practices of European pagans and some Native American tribes, to even figures such as Joan of Arc. In Transgender Warriors, Leslie applied for the first time the lens of historical and material analysis to the representation and also the repression of gender non-conforming people. Through this expansion, Leslie drew the connection of the development of transphobia to the parallel development of classism, patriarchy, and homophobia. All methods of control. All ways to assist in the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a few. In later sections of the book, Feinberg highlights the often centered position of Trans rights activists in many of history’s civil rights struggles from Weimar Germany to the Stonewall Riots in the US.

Leslie Feinberg was also outspoken on the matter of support for the people of Palestine, famously saying in 2007 “I am with Palestinian liberation with every breath in my body; every muscle and sinew.” As a Jewish author, she stated that as far as she was concerned, the question of the occupation of Palestine “went to the heart of what it means to live and authentic life in a period in which this really historical crime is taking place in their name.”

Sadly, Feinberg died in 2008, ill with a case of tick-borne Lyme disease that had gone untreated since the 70s due to the difficulty being seen and cared for by a doctor when you are gender non-conforming. In the last years of her life, Leslie ran a blog focused upon the experience of being disabled and how it intersected with class, as well as centering disability art.

Magnus Hirshfield

With his birth in 1868, Magnus Hirshfeld is one of the earliest advocates of gay and transgender rights in recorded history. A doctor in Germany both during and after the First World War, Hirschfeld was the founder of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, the world’s first LGBTQ rights campaign, and the World League for Sexual Reform, which sought to break the societal stranglehold around the subject of sex. In 1919, he also opened the doors to the Institute for Sexual Science, the first of its kind. At the Institute, Magnus pioneered the field of Sexology, the study of human sexual attraction, behaviors, and function. It was here that even as the grip of the Nazi party tightened around Germany, Hirschfeld bravely performed groundbreaking procedures in the field of gender-affirming surgery. In fact, it was Magnus that first coined the term “transsexual” in an essay in 1923, putting a name to what had previously only been referred to as “extreme crossdressing”. Over the years, the Institute would develop procedures for hormone therapy, vaginoplasty, facial feminization and masculinization, and even a primitive form of hair removal treatments. Hirschfeld was also a pioneer in the study of the inborn nature of homosexuality and of Intersexuality. Truly a man ahead of his time!

Unfortunately for a gay German man living in the 1930s, Magnus drew the ire of Hitler’s Nazi Party. Much like the fascists of today, the Nazis were obsessed with trans people, seeing them as a threat to the toxically masculine culture they had invented for their Germany. They considered the nascent acceptance of gay and trans folks as an outgrowth of what they called “Judeo-Bolshevism,” a name that should sound familiar if you’ve heard a right-winger speak any time in the last decade. Don’t let them fool you, when they say things like cultural Marxism, you’ll now know what they truly mean. The Nazi’s also loved to remove books from libraries out of fear for the children. In fact, that famous image of the book burnings of the early thirties is the very same library built by Hirschfeld for the Institute of Sexual Science. After the raids that led to these bonfire rallies, the Institute was declared “un-German” and shut down. While Magnus managed to escape to France, where he died in 1935, many of the staff and clients of his Institute did not. It is sobering to remember that many of our gay, lesbian, transgender, and intersex brothers and sisters were also a victim of the concentration camps alongside those society had considered unfit, infirm, foreign, and dangerous. But there have always been those who fought, those who resisted, and even those who carried both the day and the banner of liberation into the future, passing the torch of human rights from one generation onto the next until we all can be free. It is our job to be the next link in this long chain passing back into history, so that everyone, queer or no, may one day live lives of open and happy authenticity.

Lou Sullivan

Born in 1951 in Milwaukee, Lou Sullivan was a trans author, activist, and diarist. Having kept a diary from the age of ten, Lou would document his life starting from his rebellious Catholic school “girl” days, to becoming one of the most noted trans and gay activists in San Francisco. In one of his earlier entries in the sixties, he notes “I want to look like what I am but don’t know what someone like me looks like. I mean, when people look at me I want them to think—there’s one of those people (…) that has their own interpretation of happiness. That’s what I am.” It would come to light that his desire was to live as a man.

By 1973, Lou was living as a “Female Transvestite” while working as a secretary for the Slavic Languages Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. It was there when he broke into activism by joining the Gay People’s Union, which was hosted by the university. By 1975, he fully realized that he was a transgender man and sought a life in San Francisco: one of the few places in the country at the time that had “more understanding” and proper access to hormones for his transition.

Unfortunately, he would hit a major roadblock: despite receiving lots of support from his friends, family, and cis male boyfriend, Lou was frequently denied gender affirming care and surgeries due to him identifying as a trans gay man. This forced him into a three year period of regressing to live as a cisgender female and trying to mask his trans identity. It wasn’t until he met transgender teacher and writer Steve Dain, in 1979, that he received the encouragement and doctors and therapists he needed from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality.

Lou would channel his hardships and transitioning experience into the booklet “Information for the Female-to-Male Crossdresser and Transexual”. This book was most notable for being the first piece of trans research to distinguish the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity. Though written specifically for the transmasculine community, it quickly caught on in mainstream queer-centric spaces. Though trans gay men have, of course, existed earlier, Lou became the most notable example to bring attention to how it was not a contradiction.

Throughout his life, he led grassroots movements in making trans healthcare more accessible. He lobbied for medical professionals to remove sexual orientation from the criteria of Gender Identity Disorder. He fought for counseling, endocrinological services, and reconstructive surgeries to be more available outside of gender dysphoria clinics. Lou would also go on to establish FTM International: one of the first orgs to specifically advocate for the rights and welfare of trans men.

Lou died of AIDs in 1991. It is with his contributions, that we as trans individuals have easier access to the care we need as well as the beautiful sexuality-diverse community we’ve come to be known for. We really were lucky to have him in our lives and we encourage all to give him his long deserved flowers.

CeCe Mcdonald

Born in May of 1989, CeCe Mcdonald is a black trans woman, convicted killer, LGBTQ activist and prison abolitionist. In June of 2011, in Minneapolis, she was involved in a racist and transphobic-driven altercation with Dean Schmitz. The incident occurred while CeCe and her friends were on their way to buy late night groceries when Schmitz stepped out with his girlfriend and ex for a cigarette. While CeCe initially tried to ignore the verbal abuse thrown at her and her friends—which involved a slew of terms such as ‘f*ggots*’, ‘n***er lovers and ‘tr*nny’—Schmitz instigated a fight between him and CeCe. After a brief but violent struggle, the fight ended with CeCe having a scratch across her face that needed 11 stitches and Dean Schmitz with a pair of scissors in his chest, stabbed by McDonald. He died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

After turning herself in, a decision she regretted, CeCe was charged with two counts of second-degree murder. Her arrest and impending trial quickly caught media attention, including from author Kate Bornstein, who compared how CeCe’s arrest differed from George Zimmerman’s killing of Trayvon Martin; particularly how the media focus was shifted away from self-defense in her case.

After accepting a plea bargain in May 2012, CeCe was sentenced to 41 months in prison the following month. She was imprisoned in the Minnesota Correctional Facility - St. Cloud as a man, despite identifying as female. Though initially denied HRT in prison, it was only after a petition and mass campaigning that she was finally granted her proper hormone treatment in prison. She was released in January of 2014.

During her imprisonment, national attention was brought to the treatment of black trans women and the treatment of transgender prisoners, sparking the hashtag #FreeCeCe. American trans actress Laverne Cox noted that Mcdonald served as the inspiration for her performance as her iconic character of Sophia Burset in Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black.” A documentary that detailed her imprisonment titled “Free CeCe” was released at the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival in 2016.

She was profiled by Mother Jones, Ebony.com, and Rolling Stone in 2014 and heralded as an “LGBT folk hero for her story of survival and for the price she paid for fighting back.” That same year, CeCe was the recipient of the Bayard Rustin Civil Rights Award by the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club. She has since gone on to work as an artist, serve as an activist-in-residence at the Barnard Center for Research on Women, and publicly shared her letters from prison, calling for a political revolution against the U.S.’ prison industrial complex.

For too long, CeCe has been overlooked and it’s time we give her the recognition she deserves!

Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR)

In the aftermath of the Stonewall Riots, the gay rights movement kicked into high gear. Two young trans women of color took advantage of the momentum to build and strengthen the underclass community of New York City.

Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, both people of color and both living as drag queens in Manhattan, saw first-hand the conditions minority groups lived under and sought to change that. In September 1970, they formed an organization called Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, or STAR. It should be noted that the word ‘transvestite’ was considered an acceptable term for transgender people at the time.

The organization was devoted to feeding and housing the queer and homeless communities in Manhattan as well as fighting for gay and trans rights. Their manifesto outlines their socialist vision for an end to oppression, outlining how that oppression is baked into society’s sexist values and how that discrimination manifests itself in various forms, from harassment and violence to denial of jobs and basic services.

Many of the struggles the queer community faced in 1970 are still applicable today, and their manifesto’s goals still ring true, calling for bodily autonomy, an end to job discrimination and police crackdowns, malpractice from the medical industry, and a call to action for free education, healthcare, clothing, food, transportation, and housing.

Notably, the manifesto ends with a powerful statement:

“We want a revolutionary people’s government, where transvestites, street people, women, homosexuals, Blacks, Puerto Ricans, Indians, and all oppressed people are free, and not fucked over by this government who treat us like the scum of the earth and kills us off like flies, one by one, and throws us into jail to rot. This government who spends millions of dollars to go to the Moon, and lets the poor Americans starve to death. Power to the people.”

STAR’s manifesto, while using some dated language, is still as relevant as ever, with the queer community and workers across the country and world still facing immense struggles. To achieve these goals, the queer community and its allies must work with like-minded organizations, putting the people first, just as STAR had done, fighting to provide access to basic and essential rights for all oppressed peoples.

The NHCEH primarily used data from two sources: The Point In Time (PIT) Count and the Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS). The PIT Count is performed by the state on one day in January to count the number of unhoused people living in New Hampshire on the day of the count. The HMIS counts the number of unhoused people across the year who receive services or assistance from the state due to their personal circumstances.

The Data

First, let’s take a look at the national data so we can have a baseline, and then we’ll go into the statistics for the Granite State. In 2023, the number of homeless people in the United States during the night of the PIT Count was 653,104. Which is an increase of about 70,000 from 2022’s 582,462. That’s about 20 out of every 10,000 people in the United States being homeless during the PIT Count. 41 of the 50 states saw an increase in unhoused persons. This continues a decades-long trend of rising rates of homelessness in the United States, much of which can be attributed to the worsening economy, a housing market crisis, low wages, no rent control, and on top of that, COVID.

New Hampshire’s statistics are more dire than the national rates. The Granite State saw the largest increase in PIT Count numbers in the country by percentage in 2023. NH saw a massive 52.1% increase in PIT Count numbers, rising from 1,605 in the year prior to 2,441. Meanwhile, nationally we saw an average increase of 12%, an already large jump now dwarfed by NH. This was the biggest jump in PIT Count numbers for New Hampshire in recent history, with the previous notable jump being in 2020, seeing a 20% increase from 2019.

Additionally, there was a 150% increase in chronic homelessness from 2019 to 2023, which is defined as people being unhoused for twelve months or more. One-third of that number came in 2023 alone, from 359 to 545 people, or 51.8%. While the Granite State’s rates of homelessness were slightly below the national average, with 17.4 out of every 10,000 people in the state being unhoused compared to 19.4 nationally, NH had the biggest increase in the country and gives us the 14th highest rate in the country.

The PIT Count is just a snapshot of homelessness rates on a single day of the year. There’s also the Homeless Management Information Systems, or HMIS, conducted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The HMIS counts the number of unhoused people across the year who receive services or assistance from the state due to their situation. This data is collected from various Continuum of Care branches, of which there are only three in New Hampshire: Manchester, Greater Nashua, and the rest of the NH being under Balance of State.

In total, the HMIS counted 6,806 unhoused people in 2023, which is a 12.9% increase from the previous calendar year and 49.5% increase from 2020. This is a larger sum than the populations of the vast majority of New Hampshire’s towns. For example, the town of Plymouth has a population of 6,682 people. This adds up to 49 out of every 10,000 Granite Staters being unhoused in 2023. A quarter of those people were in Manchester alone, with the city registering a staggering 161 per 10,000. 13% of the HMIS count came from the Greater Nashua CoC, with the remaining 60% coming from the rest of the state.

This trend looks to increase in the future, with preliminary data already suggesting another massive jump in 2024. With a new Republican administration, we need to look at what the future holds for New Hampshire’s homelessness crisis.

What’s Next?

With the new Trump administration, a Republican majority in the Senate, House, and Judiciary, as well as the newly inaugurated governorship of Kelly Ayotte, the future looks grim in the United States and New Hampshire. With the Republican Party with Democrats alongside them consistently dehumanizing homeless folks and pursuing policies that will exacerbate the problem and make lives worse for unhoused people and those at risk of being unhoused. We cannot expect the downward spiral of homelessness in New Hampshire to change course without direct action.

During the 2024 gubernatorial debates, Kelly Ayotte supported Manchester’s ban of outdoor camps on public property, a policy that only harms homeless people by forcing them to move camp in service of “cleaning up the city,” and echoed dehumanizing talking points broadly associating homeless folks with drug addiction and filth. Meanwhile, refusing to enact any policies that would actually clean up the streets such as more public trash cans, public restrooms and more affordable housing. Ayotte has yet to detail a plan to prevent homelessness and has only offered vague solutions to the housing crisis by reducing costs for homes with no clear policy and vision on reducing the problem.

What about President Trump? Trump’s policies are already looking to have a severely negative impact on the issue. During his opening flurry of executive orders, Trump terminated federal DEI programs, immediately putting an unknown number of federal workers out of a job. This puts disadvantaged minority groups at an even greater risk of being unhoused in the near future. With Trump looking set to double down on ending so-called DEI programs, and pairing that with the repealing of several Civil Rights era executive orders banning hiring discrimination, this problem will only grow worse during the next four years.

Trump and Elon Musk’s federal funding freeze will slash budgets for agencies like the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which is essential to keeping track of and managing the homeless population in America. Numerous other federal agencies getting their funding cut will only serve to exacerbate the issue. Additionally, the new administration is attacking the National Labor Relations Board, which will directly harm American workers by making unionizing even harder. It is a fact that unions guarantee better benefits and pay for their workers and preventing unions does the exact opposite leading to more unstable work and compensation.

What Are Some Short-Term Solutions?

While our current politicians and lawmakers might not care to address the homelessness crisis, there are still policies we can push them on to help improve the lives of currently unhoused people and prevent people from becoming homeless in the future.

For starters, we should demand our lawmakers pass higher minimum wages and decrease the power landlords have. Landlords unfairly and unreasonably raising rent is a large contributing factor to poverty, so by enacting tighter policies regarding rent control, we can help out low income households. On that note, we should also push for more unionization, both in the workplace and in rented houses and apartments. With strong workers and tenants unions, we can use our collective power to get higher wages and lower rent. We do this by withholding what greedy bosses and landlords need most, our labor and our rent.

We can also demand that local businesses have restrooms accessible for all and people should boycott those that don’t. One shouldn’t have to be a paying customer or an employee in order to use a bathroom. Denying people the ability to use a restroom under the guise of “maintaining cleanliness” of the establishment is an inherently selfish and antisocial act. No matter the class or backround, everyone has the same needs, and some have more than others. Public restrooms should be a utility for all to use.

We should also make our voices heard for funding of drug clinics and healthcare. There are many homeless people that have turned to drugs as an escape from their homelessness. Unhoused folks have become addicted through other reasons such as inappropriate prescription of opiates at the behest of pharmaceutical companies that then lead to financial ruin. Our society has let these people down and refused to efficiently help them for far too long. Having people be able to check in at a drug clinic, dispose of paraphernalia, and get the help they need will mitigate the effects of the ongoing drug crisis in America. These health clinics should provide amnesty for those who abuse illegal drugs and not report them to the police. Addiction is a medical issue and we as a country should not make certain medical issues a crime because it makes us uncomfortable, this only serves to further harm those addicted and increase the problem. In addition, having guaranteed healthcare can help to prevent people from becoming unhoused in the first place. This will not only free the health system from unethical influence by pharmaceutical companies, but also will cut costs by running for the people, not for profit. Many people are homeless because of chronic health issues, both mental and physical, that come with a flurry of unaffordable bills. Having free healthcare and a more serious and modern approach to mental health can help put people on the right path.

What We Need To Build Towards

While having short-term and temporary solutions to the homelessness crisis is good, it’s also important to have long-term ideas for systemic change to minimize or even eliminate homelessness.

For starters, having universal healthcare and free education is essential. Not only will this improve the quality of life of the country, but it will also remove two big barriers to stable housing. Many people are unhoused due to crippling medical or educational debt, and many more remain unhoused due to a lack of affordable education, and thus more difficulty applying for living wage jobs. We can also implement more sweeping welfare programs and universal basic income.

Criminal justice reform is another way to decrease rates of homelessness. By decriminalizing drugs use and possession, decreasing prison time, ending systemic racial injustice, and making it easier for people with criminal backgrounds to be reintegrated into society, we can give more checks and balances for stable housing. These people need help, not to be locked away from society as a way to hide our shame. These are our brothers and sisters in our community and we must help them like we would our actual brothers and sisters.

And lastly, we can work towards a future in which we have socialized housing in the United States. One can look towards Vienna’s Gemeindebauten as inspiration. The Austrian capital has a great model of socialized housing that comes from decades of socialist work. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, Austria transitioned to a parliamentary republic, and the capital municipality came under the control of the Social Democratic Workers’ Party of Austria, or SDAP. Until 1934, the SDAP addressed the housing crisis in Vienna and pursued a policy of housing as many people as possible.

Throughout their time in power, they built tens of thousands of large residential blocks and prioritized moving refugees, the disabled, and other disadvantaged people in as the first tenants. By 1934, 200,000 people, one-tenth of Vienna’s population, was living in a municipal residential block. These blocks have no landlords and are owned by the city itself. Rent is very affordable, with a 54 square meter two bedroom apartment costing €596, or $615, a month, about a third of the rent cost for a similarly sized apartment in much of Europe and the US. This makes moving into a block affordable for people across many different economic backgrounds, from students to the elderly. Today, around 60’s of the city’s population lives in a gemeindebau.

For us in the United States, it’s a worthy goal to work towards in the future.

What Can You Do?

While the issue of homelessness is here to stay, there are steps that we can take on an individual and community level to help mitigate the issue. The first thing we can do is bring more awareness to the issue and demand lawmakers and representatives to push for more humane policies. Legislation won’t pass overnight, if it even does at all, but we, both as a community and as individuals, can help in a variety of other ways.

First, if you are in a financial state to do so, consider offering a local homeless person the opportunity to stay at your home for a time. Naturally, this would require a certain level of trust among both parties, but given the chance to be fed and sheltered for a time can help give the individual the means of acquiring a more stable life once their residence passes. Help them to put in job applications, get them physically cleaned up and potentially cleaned up of drug habits, get them acclimated back into society, and help them find more stable and permanent housing. This is not an easy task to undertake, but if you have the will, commitment, and finances to make it happen, consider letting an unhoused person stay with you for a time. If this is something you are unwilling or unable to do, then stop for a second and give a few bucks to the next homeless person you drive past. They likely need the money more than you do.

Secondly, consider making donations to local organizations and charities.. If you have clothes that you don’t want or need anymore or food that you can spare, consider donating them to the local free stores in Manchester and Nashua, run by the NH MARF (Mutual Aid Relief Fund), with their stores in Dover, Manchester, Nashua, Concord and Rochester.

Lastly, end the stigmatization of homeless people. While many people reading this will be ahead of the curve on this front, there’s still a systematic dehumanization of unhoused people in our nation’s discourse. Many of our politicians associate homeless folks with filth, disease, crime, laziness and drugs. When our politicians and lawmakers use that language to imply that all homeless people live that way, it’s easy for them to sweep the issue under the rug and implement policies that ignore the needs of impoverished people for the sake of keeping a city ‘clean.’ And on the note of language, refrain from using words like ‘bum’ and ‘hobo’ to refer to people in situations beyond their control. Again, these are our fellow community members and we must look at them as such. It is all of our responsibility to uplift everyone in the community. When members of our community are suffering and there is no one to help them we are all suffering. If we want beautiful happy communities we cannot run off to the suburbs and hope the cops take away anyone who reminds us of our shame, we must build that community together by uplifting one another.

By chipping into our local communities and raising awareness, we can make a difference and change lives.

Sources:

https://www.nhceh.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024-Edition-State-of-Homelessness-in-NH-Annual-Report-online-version.pdf

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/jan/10/the-social-housing-secret-how-vienna-became-the-worlds-most-livable-city

https://nlihc.org/resource/impacts-trump-administration-executive-orders

On Inauguration Day, Elon Musk, close associate of the president, gave a speech at the Capitol One Arena in Washington DC. Hopping towards the podium, he gave an impassioned speech expressing his excitement for the future of America under the second term of Donald Trump. While the content of his speech was nothing out of the ordinary nor news-worthy, a single gesture performed twice captured the attention of the country, in some ways overshadowing the rest of the news of that eventful day.

About one minute into his four minute speech, he thanked the American people for electing Donald Trump to a second term, though he expressed his gratitude in a way that shocked the world: He performed a Nazi salute.[1] Without witnessing it happen, the layman may be skeptical to believe that such a blatant symbol of hate could be at the fore of American politics, but they would be mistaken. What happened on Inauguration Day was undeniably exactly what it looked like, and yet millions of Americans have rushed to deny it for what it is. Why is that? First, some historical context.

History

The Nazi salute is an allegedly Roman gesture that was appropriated by the Italians in the early 20th century, though there is no historical basis for such a salute existing in Ancient Rome. Salutes involving an outstretched arm were common in various ancient Mediterranean civilizations, though they rarely, if ever, had a formalized structure to them. It is a natural and common gesture to make, both in professional and military life as well as in everyday greetings. Even today, we raise an arm to greet others with a wave, as have every other civilization in history. When speaking to a crowd, one extends an arm towards the crowd without thinking.

The French Revolution of 1789 saw a complete upheaval of French society, with the nation ditching old norms and establishing new ones while the French monarchy clung to its millenia-old ideals. This included a wave of artists producing nationalistic paintings, often using the old Roman Republic and Empire as aspirational symbols for the glory of Europe. One French artist in particular could very well be seen as being the originator of this myth about the Roman salute. In 1784, five years before the French Revolution, Jacques-Louis David was commissioned by the government to paint a Roman scene depicting loyalty to the state. With discontent growing in France at the increasingly inept monarchy, the crown commissioned a series of paintings in an effort to use culture to sway the people towards remaining loyal. Jacques-Louis David’s painting, Oath of the Horatii, depicts the leaders of a rebellious city capitulating and falling in line with Roman hegemon.

Oath of the Horatii, (Le Serment des Horaces), Jacques-Louis David 1784

The painting clearly depicts a now familiar gesture: Right arm outstretched pointed at head-level with the palm down and fingers straight. During the crisis of the Revolution and its aftermath, Jacques-Louis David was commissioned by the French state for two more loyalty-themed paintings, with The Tennis Court Oath in 1791 and The Distribution of the Eagle Standards in 1810. Artists will commonly use recurring symbolism and styles, and this gesture is no exception. Jacques-Louis David again used the outstretched arm as symbolic of loyalty to the state.[2]

The Tennis Court Oath, (Serment du Jeu de Paume), Jacques-Louis David 1791

The Distribution of the Eagle Standards, (Serment de l’armée fait à l’empereur après la distribution des aigles au champ de Mars, 5 décembre 1804), Jacques-Louis David 1810

Following this, the so-called Roman salute was adapted to the emerging medium of film, with the salute being present in the 1914 Italian film Cabiria, partially written by Gabriele d’Annunzio, an Italian nationalist who would later go on to have a role in Benito Mussolini’s government. Italy, being one of the Entente powers, was on the winning side of World War I, but that didn’t mean they were immune from losing territory. The 1919 Paris Peace Conference saw the Kingdom of Italy lose its ownership of the Adriatic city of Fiume. Gabriele d’Annunzio, an officer and veteran of the Great War, sought to reclaim control of the city and sent 2,500 Italian troops to occupy the city without the authority of the Italian government or military. Italy rejected this rogue annexation, but the city held de facto independence for fifteen months.[3]

This taste of power gave an already nationalistic Gabriele d’Annunzio an appetite for even more power, leading him to craft an ideological framework in his rulership of Fiume that would later inspire Benito Mussolini’s fascism movement. Mussolini and his Blackshirts gained control of Italy in 1922, and they brought with them the ideologies and practices of d’Annunzio, including the Roman salute. It wouldn’t be long until the salute was compulsory in Italian society.

Benito Mussolini saluting in front of a Roman statue, 1935

Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party in Germany, based much of his ideology of Nazism around Italian fascism, and as such, embraced the salute as a gesture of unquestioning loyalty to the state and its cult-like leader. It would often be accompanied by a short chant, the most common of which being “heil Hitler!” and “sieg heil!”, or “hail Hitler!” and “hail victory!” respectively. Much like in Italy, the Nazi salute quickly became compulsory in German society.

The Reichstag performing the Nazi salute in celebration of the Anschluss 1938

Europe wasn’t the only region in which this ancient yet new gesture took hold. In 1892, American author Francis Bellamy wrote the Pledge of Allegiance. Within half a century, it was being recited in every school in America. Francis Bellamy paired this Pledge of Allegiance with a salute to be held up during the entire recital of the Pledge, this salute being identical to those in Jacques-Louis David’s paintings. Usage of the Bellamy salute grew increasingly unpopular during the 1920s and 1930s, but the United States’ entry into World War II permanently ended the practice in American schools, being replaced with putting one’s right hand on their heart instead of pointing towards the flag.[4]

Jewish school children performing the Bellamy salute Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1934

After the horrors of the Second World War and the Holocaust, countries affected by the war were quick to make the Nazi salute illegal to perform, including Austria, Czechia, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine. The Germans in particular do not take the Nazi salute lightly. As an example, in 2017, an American tourist in Dresden was beaten up for drunkenly performing the salute.[5] Plenty others have been detained and even imprisoned for the gesture.

Elon Musk And The Normalization of Fascism

To tie this back into the present day, Elon Musk, who has been gradually declining deeper into the abyss of anti-Semitism, excitedly ran onto the stage of the Capital One Arena to celebrate Donald Trump’s inauguration in front of a crowd of his supporters. As is often the case with Musk, his behavior prompted speculation that he was under the influence of one or more drugs, but that is an insignificant footnote compared to his next action. The world’s richest man thanked the country by firmly pressing his right hand to his heart and aggressively extending his arm out straight, palm down, fingers parallel, all while the crowd cheered. To put any doubt that it may have been an unfortunate and unintentional fluke, he turned around and did it again and followed it up by thanking the American people again, saying his heart goes out to them. What we saw was undeniably a Nazi salute. Every person who witnessed it should be in unanimous agreement of what it is: A blatant symbol of hate. And yet, despite the clarity of it, conservatives across the country rushed to excuse it away with a variety of responses: He’s autistic, he’s awkward, he was extending his heart out to the world, us leftists are just seeing phantom sieg heils, the list goes on.

Funny how conservatives have never once cared about autism awareness, yet they suddenly do once it’s politically convenient for them. I am autistic myself and know plenty of other neurodivergent people and we’ve never accidentally performed a Nazi salute. Have you ever seen a socially awkward person unintentionally throw up hate symbols? Do you recall ever seeing someone express thankfulness by performing a straight-armed salute?

The first step to allowing fascism to continue unchecked is to deny it’s there, and that’s exactly what Fox News did. In a quite unsubtle move, they abruptly cut the camera to show the audience at the exact moment he signaled to his fellow fascists.[6] This tactic was repeated on The Megyn Kelly Show where she also repeated the excuse that he was simply expressing his gratitude.[7] Conservative media has been twisting itself in knots trying to rationalize, justify, and normalize fascism. One could spend several paragraphs discussing the conservative mental gymnastics, but if there’s anyone who would recognize a Nazi, it’s other Nazis.

Rolling Stone magazine compiled far right reactions to the incident, and unlike mainstream conservatives, they didn’t deny it; in fact, they cheered it on. Various white nationalist and extreme right organizations and figures have come out in support of the salute, including the Proud Boys and Blood Tribe. The leader of the white supremacist organization White Lives Matter wrote on Telegram “Thanks for (sometimes) hearing us, Elon. The White Flame will rise again.” If the Nazis are calling it for what it is, then there is no excuse for the rest of the country to not recognize one of the most infamous hate symbols.[8]

In the aftermath of the incident, mainstream media has been a mix of ignoring the issue and treating it as it should be treated, but the damage has been done. Elon Musk has been in a downward spiral of extremism and buffoonish antics, and the normies of the general public are starting to connect the dots. In my opinion, while the increasingly overt fascism coming from the Republican Party benefits the left by exposing the party for who they really are, it is an unfortunate sign of a troubling four years.

This is the defining political moment of our lifetimes, and we cannot allow fascism to continue unchecked. We must resist tyranny at every turn, whether it’s abandoning now fascist-friendly social media platforms, boycotting corporations, shunning authoritarian states, or simply connecting with your local community to build support networks and organize resistance. Fascists can only take as much as we’re willing to give.

It should not be shocking to most people why this is difficult. When people look to socialist movements, especially in the United States, it is work which is often somewhat uninspiring canvassing for the Democratic Party, or an endless series of meetings that don’t seem to be producing much. This experience is no doubt variable, both in time and place. In the context of the Democratic Socialists of America, it can highly depend on the chapter you’re organizing with.

With all that being said, I want to make it clear to every reader that it is more possible to start organizing in meaningful ways than you’d think.

This past May, I finished my graduate degree and returned to the state of New Hampshire. As recently as then, there were not a lot of ways to get involved with socialist groups. The summer when I returned home, I started looking to things in the area I thought I could contribute to. I found NHMARF, a mutual aid group based in Manchester but with other stores along the seacoast. During my later college years, I was still learning to organize. It was hard. I was often busy, and I had a hard time making it to organizing events without reliable transportation. However, I did manage to spend some time with a mutual aid group similar to NHMARF, Food Not Bombs.

There was one frustration I had when helping NHMARF, and it was the fact I had to go all the way to Manchester, New Hampshire to help out with something. Now granted, I live in Nashua, so it isn’t that far, but it felt like my city should be just as capable of mobilizing something like the free store in Manchester. For a while, there was little I could do. I decided I would take a box of bread back down to Nashua and drop it off at some encampments I had spotted in the area. I was incredibly nervous to do so. It may sound odd, but it took a little bit of courage from myself to force myself to talk to these complete strangers out in the woods. Eventually, it became a lot easier. I developed some rapport with the folks staying in the “tent-city” as they had dubbed it, and was able to ask them questions about places in the city that serve food, when they serve food, and if we were to get a free store started in Nashua, where they would want it.

There was not a lot I could do with this information for a while. All I did was try to stay keyed in on the goings-on of the DSA chapter and NHMARF. Eventually, two things happened that made creating a free store in Nashua possible. First, the DSA decided to do a flyering event in Nashua for a Queer Liberation March they were hosting in Manchester. I have to imagine part of their decision to do so was because they knew they could get at least a couple of people in Nashua to actually help, including myself. There I met the first person willing to help me, who I will refer to as R. Not too long after, I attended a tenant right’s meeting hosted by the Socialist Party where I met two other folks that eventually became regular helping hands at the store.

It still took some time for things to get rolling. I had been handing out bread to people every weekend for a few months at this point, so I was used to going out there to people. At first I would have a small rotation of people helping me, and then it became a bit more established week after week. With R, we were able to do good local outreach, and overtime it became a project that, while I may have gotten the ball rolling on, was moving all on its own with our without me. Most weeks we have a dedicated group of people showing up to hand out food and supplies. Everyone is still working in some way to figure out how to improve our capacity and ability to do what we do. Not to mention, now when someone in the Nashua area joined the DSA chapter for one reason or another, there was a way for them to “get organized” with a lot less work than I had to do.

Only four months ago, there was nothing like it in the city. Now, we have a fully fledged mutual aid project.

This story is meant to illustrate a basic lesson: do not be discouraged. If you feel like you are the only socialist around, that’s alright. Start small. Get involved in local groups even if you don’t feel that they’re everything you want them to be. Learn how to organized in the smallest ways you can. The method I’ve offered here is only one of many, there are no doubt many other ways to get organized all from different starting points. Be patient with yourself, and have just a little bit of courage each time you try. In no time at all, you’ll find you’re capable of a lot more than you first thought. You ultimately only learn how to organize by doing it.

Our burgeoning DSA chapter is only getting started. I have been a member of the DSA for some time and many members of this chapter would agree, even at the start of 2024 our chapter was still coalescing, despite on paper having existed for many years prior. There are many more projects being crafted as we speak, projects that extend beyond mutual aid. So, when we say “Get organized,” it means to start building. It’s best if you can plug into somewhere first, but if not, take inspiration from existing projects in mutual aid, labor organizing, tenant unions, and so on. Organizing only seems daunting when you’re starting, but once you’re in it, you realize that the steps you need to take are intuitive ones, and you’ll find yourself more capable than you could’ve imagined

Starbucks Workers United represents over 10,000 workers in over 500 unionized stores across the United States. They have engaged in hundreds of hours of bargaining with Starbucks, but the company has refused to bring a comprehensive economic package to the table. This is while hundreds of unfair labor practice (ULP) charges on unionized baristas by Starbucks remain unresolved (totalling in over $100 million legal liabilities).

With that in mind, an overwhelming 98% of union members voted to authorize a strike. These workers want to send a message to Starbucks that they are serious about not only winning a strong contract but also (and just as importantly) to protest those hundreds of outstanding ULP charges. One example of unfair labor practices committed by Starbucks happened during the first year of bargaining with SBWU, when Starbucks (while refusing to bargain in good faith) implemented some of the public demands made by the union at non-union stores.

On the ground, some of these workers wanted to make that point clear, saying that “it’s not just about the wages, but about the unfair labor practices, and lack of respect shown to them by the company and (some) management.” At the Epping location, customers were supportive, honking their horns and waving as they drove by. The ones who did try to enter get coffee from the store were met with either a locked door or an unattended drive-through. Most of these customers while disappointed, were understanding and supportive of what the baristas were fighting for.

Southern New Hampshire DSA proudly stands in solidarity with Starbucks Workers United baristas and the fight for just working conditions, fair wages, immediate access to withheld benefits, and much, much more.

Follow SBWU on their socials to keep up with their negotiations and find ways to support them!

SBWorkersUnited

SBWorkersUnited

SBWorkersUnited

SBWorkersUnited