SEPTEMBER 25, 2026

Who Will “Dominate the Streets” in 2029? Notes From Occupied DC (written by a member of Metro DC DSA)

The ongoing occupation of DC by the National Guard and federal police has implications for the next mass uprising which the left needs to consider.

The Safe and Beautiful Task Force consists of an alphabet soup of police officers from various federal agencies, coordinating with the DC government and the MPD both in back-office duties and on the streets of the city. Aligned with the administration’s priorities, the task force is engaged in immigration enforcement activities. Immigration enforcement traffic checkpoints also began popping up on district roads. District residents often encounter the task force in their daily lives in the form of patrols of 2-3 unmarked cars full of armed and often masked federal agents, traveling in a caravan with uniformed MPD officers in a marked vehicle. These caravans conduct proactive patrols that seem to largely be focused on nuisance crimes, harassing and arresting D.C. residents for holding open containers, smoking weed in public, or simply being unhoused. It has become common to see a dozen or more police and federal agents suddenly spilling onto the street from one of these caravans while out in the city. Geese

Democrats With Union Backgrounds Aim To Retake Congress

Meet the candidates with labor ties vying for Senate and House seats in midterm races. Most of the nominees are Democrats as the party looks to rebuild support among working-class voters.

The US labor movement is having a banner election year. More than three dozen nominees for open House and Senate races across the US have backgrounds as labor union representatives or members. Several nominees are running in heavily blue districts, making it almost certain they will win the seat in November’s midterms, while others are in highly contested races that are likely to determine control of the House and possibly the Senate. Most are Democrats, though some are running as independents. The Guardian via Portside

In a world of wars and climate crisis, a new leader could save the UN. But would Trump allow it?

As the organisation meets this week, it remains the best hope for restoring order. But it relies on goodwill from the US president – and that is lacking.

If all goes to plan, at some stage in the coming weeks 15 diplomats will emerge from a small sound-proofed room deep in the bowels of the United Nations headquarters in New York and announce the organisation’s next secretary-general. [Despite wars of choice, accelerating climate catastrophe, AI threats, and genocide,] the UN has effectively been reduced to the role of bystander. All of this is happening in a world in which the very principles of the UN – multilateralism, a rules-based order and international law – are under threat. Secretary-general elections have rarely been this consequential. The UN, and the world it speaks for, desperately needs a new leader who is both charismatic and competent. Yet the five permanent members of the security council – the US, UK, France, Russia and China – hold a veto. Anyone who wants the job will need the approval of Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and, most importantly, Trump. It is not easy for a candidate to argue you are best placed to save the UN when the man you need to persuade would rather it fails. The Guardian

First Principles for a New Progressive Foreign Policy

A new wave of progressive, left-wing, and socialist candidates and elected officials face an enormous challenge in articulating a foreign policy for the future. Here’s a start.

For many years, progressive movements and activists have longed for the moment when we could imagine a real foreign policy rooted in true internationalism and solidarity. But in our efforts to influence actual policy decisions, we’ve settled for important but smaller asks — ending specific wars, blocking the transfer of certain weapons to Israel, reducing military aid, cutting the military budget. That made sense — our movements’ view of the world was rarely fully reflected in Congress, the State Department, or the White House. Now some of those limitations are fading. There are new possibilities rising as we see new candidates with incredibly progressive politics win their campaigns — and even more importantly, we see in recent years the extraordinary shift in public discourse about the U.S. role in the world, especially (though not only) throughout the almost three years of U.S.-enabled genocide in Gaza, Phyllis Bennis writes in Foreign Policy in Focus via Portside

Democrats’ Gaza reckoning: how failing to give Palestinians a voice came back to bite the party

Voters rejected many establishment choices this year in favor of candidates pushing accountability for Gaza.

In Democratic primaries this year, voters rejected many of the party establishment’s choices. The unlikely winners in all those races emphasized empathy and accountability for Palestinian losses in Gaza; Abdul El-Sayed, who won Michigan’s Senate primary, made opposition to the ardently pro-Israel group Aipac central to his candidacy. With 60% of potential Democratic voters in a May poll sympathizing more with Palestinians than Israelis and 48% saying the party has been too supportive of Israel, the base is eager for Democratic leaders to rethink unfettered US-Israel solidarity. When Democrats previously held power, they chose to fuel Israeli violence and collective punishment against Palestinians for 16 months, while never censuring Israel for thousands of apparent violations of international law. Israel [of course] denies wrongdoing. Now there’s a fierce competition over the shape of the party’s evolution on Israel-Palestine among 2026 candidates and likely 2028 contenders. The Guardian

‘Stunning’ Level of Support for Universal Health Care, Jayapal’s poll shows

Even more people want Medicare for All than did last December, a new poll shows.

Medicare for All is a winning policy supported by the vast majority of Democratic voters that can give the party a boost, including in battleground states, according to a new survey from Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and her political action committee. The Medicare for All PAC survey found that not only do 94 percent of Democratic voters support a universal public health insurance program, but so do a majority of moderate and independent voters. It also found that Medicare for All is a winning issue in battleground states, where Jayapal said progressives are constantly told to moderate their messaging on universal health care. Overall, 60 percent of participants said they favored Medicare for All, up from 54 percent in a similar but not identical survey last year. Even in the more conservative battleground districts, support remained at 55 percent, “well ahead of partisanship in those districts,” Jayapal told reporters on a call last week. The American Prospect via Portside