“The Black Panther Party’s embracing of socialism was clearly with the acknowledgement that this was an alternative to the present condition, but it was independent. What I see today with people is they’re trying to bring socialist politics into this bourgeois democratic political arena.”

“…if Baltimore don’t tell its story, we’ve seen time and time again, people will come and tell the story and the story will be told in a way that gets them more and more dollars. And people love crime and violence and sensationalism.”

“This idea that you’re trying to gain popular consent, you’re trying to win elections, you’re trying to create coalitions by promising a certain degree of force exercised against a target population,” says Alberto Toscano (@alfatau.bsky.social)

Locked up by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in 1926, the prison writings of Italian Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci remain essential and terrifyingly relevant 100 years later. @alfatau.bsky.social @inthesetimes.com @versobooks.bsky.social

"We won’t stop until they’re free:" outside New Jersey Delaney ICE facility where organizers face violent clashes with agents. Over 300 detainees are on hunger strike inside, with key demands: immediate release of all, quick adjudication of their cases, end to pressure from ICE to self-deport.

Some liberals are OBSESSED with "private" prisons as though the problem is not simply PRISONS. Folks, the vast majority of prisons in the U.S. are PUBLIC NOT PRIVATE. And they are HELL HOLES. OK? I need folks to stop and actually focus on the PROBLEM which is PRISONS AND JAILS.

Immigrants detained inside Delaney Hall, the notorious Newark, NJ, facility demand freedom. They have stopped eating & working to draw attention to inhumane conditions, @taliajane.bsky.social reports on the ground.

Updated list of prisoner organizing and uprisings across Turtle Island: perilouschronicle.com

"We must learn to resist a singular focus on ICE as a rogue agency, looking instead to how the sprawling border policing apparatus has been built up over years as a bipartisan effort. We certainly do need to abolish ICE, but that cannot be the only goal." - @harshawalia.bsky.social

In 2026, fascism in the US is rising while “the left” descends further into powerlessness, goofiness, and irrelevance—but, author @williamcson.bsky.social argues, it doesn’t have to stay that way.

Instead of a call for resentment-filled “unity” or traditional fronts, we can look to what former Black Panther, Black Liberation Army member, and political prisoner Russell Maroon Shoatz called “the mosaic:” by @williamcson.bsky.social

Half the red states are. I think things are turning pretty fast. 🌊🌊🌊🌊

I never miss voting in Alabama. Even though I know that my candidate will not win, I plan to at least give them my best.

Come on Alabama You can do it!

ORGANIZE ORGANIZE ORGANIZE

✔️

Good luck to you all, I'm hoping Florida turns purple, too.

✊🏽

👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾

Take note:

“We’ve got to show up like never before… take control of our government and then we can finally do the work of the people.”

“It’s a war against my people. Genocide didn’t start just in Gaza in 2023. The genocide against us started since 1948,” award-winning Palestinian author and former political prisoner Basem Khandakji tells TRNN.

Author @williamcson.bsky.social has been documenting the erosion of the Voting Rights Act since its first major blow was struck in his hometown of Shelby County. (1/2)

13 years after Chief Justice Roberts invoked a "Post-Racial" America to justify Shelby v. Holder, Louisiana v. Callais serves as a final, sobering confirmation: the dismantling of civil rights legislation isn't proof of progress—it is a calculated reversal of Black political empowerment. (2/2)

Do books have a future? Do we have a future without them? A conversation with radical publisher and former Baltimore Black Panther Paul Coates @rattlingthebars.bsky.social therealnews.com/do-books-hav...

Check this documentary out! I had the honor of narrating and it was special because the creators really captured so much powerful, inspiring work. Host a screening and watch with friends. More chapters to come!

🚨 May 1: Unions, community orgs plan nationwide ‘ECONOMIC BLACKOUT’ against billionaires and authoritarianism. For @therealnews.com I spoke with labor organizers who are all involved in organizing May Day events this week from Philadelphia to Chicago to Iowa... What are YOU doing this May Day?

🚨 Alec Baldwin Backs Union Drive at Starbucks “Starbucks became Starbucks because they were not unionized & they could exploit labor,” the legendary actor & producer of the new documentary “Baristas vs. Billionaires" tells me @therealnews.com @sbworkersunited.org therealnews.com/alec-baldwin...

Migrants at the GEO Group-run facility demand their right to due process, edible food, and an end to sleep deprivation.

“I am a survivor incarcerated in Texas, where the television you have access to in state prisons is not determined by your curiosity, your education, or your hunger to understand the world,” writes Kwaneta Harris. “It is determined by your security classification.”

Shit's going down this Friday... "May 1: Unions, community orgs plan nationwide ‘economic blackout’ against billionaires & authoritarianism" I speak w/ labor organizers from Philadelphia, Chicago, & Iowa about what’s on the line this May Day... @therealnews.com therealnews.com/may-1-unions...

Former Panther, BLA member, and political prisoner Russell Maroon Shoatz described “the mosaic” as a model of what’s possible. It helps us see beyond the posturing and corniness that pervades US left sects, which remain stuck. Here's my latest for @prismreports.org. prismreports.org/2026/04/28/l...

"We don’t have an oppositional or even functional left. We have “leftists” and “leftism,” and there’s a difference.” @williamcson.bsky.social for @prismreports.org prismreports.org/2026/04/28/l...

“America at 250” celebrations rely on a national mythology about the American Revolution that only really includes Patriot and Loyalist elites. Through the eyes of enslaved people, the story of the birth of the US looks very different.

"With more urban farms developing in West Baltimore and around the city, it brings more trees which contributes to having better quality air," Shae McCoy writes. baltimorebeat.com/from-west-ba...

Anti-Data Center organizing is really ramping up especially in the South.

In this blockbuster episode of Rattling the Bars, Mansa Musa—a former Black Panther and political prisoner in the US—speaks with Palestinian political prisoner Mahmoud al-Arda after his release from Israeli prison.

“There is one law for Israeli Jews and there is another law for Palestinian Arabs.”

We love our partners Washington County Indivisible! Check out this great The Real News Network interview with HRR and WCI about our collective fight to stop this #ICE detention center from opening! youtu.be/2APsP48RggQ?...

🚨 New from me @therealnews.com Trump is turning warehouses into ICE detention camps. Can Maryland stop him? Never thought I'd be writing headlines like this when I got started in media, but here we are... therealnews.com/trump-is-tur...

I went on @therealnews.com to discuss Black anarchist history and US politics, among other things. It was great to have this exchange with former Black Panther elder Mansa Musa on ‘Rattling the Bars.’

From the 1970s to 2018, Louisiana’s ‘Angola’ prison was notorious for suicides, fighting, extreme heat & isolation. After its closure, it served as housing for incarcerated individuals infected with COVID-19, then Gov. Jeff Landry reopened the unit to hold immigrants, @vevalenz.bsky.social reports.

"Instead of sending people back to their communities, the state is spending millions on new buildings" No matter how hard the system tries to rebrand it, prison construction will never be about "rehabilitation" or ending mass incarceration.

“The prison facility itself is maximum security, but society is just an extension; it’s a minimum-security prison. And that [radical insight] is at the core of Black anarchism.” - @williamcson.bsky.social

The passing of the recent Israeli death penalty law aimed at Palestinians formalizes what Israel and colonial powers have always done: creating new laws to legalize colonial violence.

PJI Sr. Staff Attorney, Samantha Pourciau recently discussed VOTE v. LeBlanc, our class action lawsuit to end Angola Prison's dangerous and degrading practice of the Farm Line, with Mansa Musa of @rattlingthebars.bsky.social (@therealnews.com).⁠

Last year, agencies like ICE & Border Patrol cost the U.S. $41 billion. That's taxpayer money that could be better spent on investing in communities — not tearing them apart.

If you weren't able to make it to our talk at @redemmas.org last month, here's a clip from @therealnews.com covering some of it!

“She was very much ahead of her time… this is a formerly enslaved Black woman who was speaking with an unfettered, unrestrained radicalism.” - @williamcson.bsky.social

“Criminalization is what got us here, criminalization is what is keeping us here, and more criminalization will definitely not get us out of here.”