Weekend Reads for January 27

Teachers rejecting book bans, residents fighting chemical plant expansions, and grannies mobilizing against the right in Germany

This week we’ve talked a lot about the power of labor and mass movements to create change, and we’ve heard from a lot of you about your own desires to get involved in movements — to find a way to work together in your communities to take political action with real effects. On that note, in coming weeks we’re going to be bringing you ideas for IRL actions. Stay tuned.

In that spirit, we have some great weekend reads for you today. About the power of engaged people, from principled individual stands against power to large-scale collective actions. About teachers taking on book banners in Florida, about labor’s renewed ability to put real pressure on corporations and government, about grassroots efforts against the German right, and about how local environmental and racial justice advocates in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” have banded together to fight industrial expansion.

And being in the business we’re in, we’ve been reading about what it will take for journalists to stop shooting themselves in the collective foot in a misguided quest for balance — and start telling the stories that need to be told.

For our subscribers, we’ve pulled together a collection of links on these topics and others that we think will be well worth your time this weekend. Thanks as always for reading The Ink and continuing to support us (and if you’re not a paid subscriber already, we encourage you to join us).

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A teacher says no to Florida book bans

“Why did so many people comply with authoritarian regimes? And what I always want my students to learn from my class is that the only morally legitimate response is disobedience. As always, the best way to teach is through example.” [Perspectives on History]