Well, there's a bit more to it, like increasing its control of resources, markets and labor; and keeping them out of the hands of its competitors like Russia and China.

San Francisco indie bookstore, The Booksmith, collectively chose to stop selling Jk Rowling's books in June, 2025 after she launched a “women’s fund” in May aimed at dismantling transgender rights and proclaimed that the proceeds from the sales of her books would go toward these transphobic efforts. “There’s a direct throughline between what [Rowling’s] doing with the money she’s making on book sales as a living author who’s still collecting royalties and something that, frankly, harms us and our trans siblings and people that we care about in our community,” said Booksmith co-owner Camden Avery. Many have accused them of censorship, cancel culture and book banning. Avery responded by saying "It’s false pearl-clutching and a misapprehension of what censorship is. .. We’re exercising our First Amendment right to operate a private business in line with our values.”

SF bookstore embraces backlash after removing Harry Potter books

Booksmith said that "internet warriors" attacking it for not stocking J.K. Rowling's novels have driven more attention to its cause.

#transphobia #transrightsarehumanrights #lgbtq #pride #pridemonth #jkrowling

Today in Labor History June 26, 1975: Two FBI agents and one member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) were killed in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Undercover FBI agents framed AIM activist Leonard Peltier for the two FBI deaths. During the trial, some of the government’s own witnesses testified that Peltier wasn’t even present at the scene of the killings. Nevertheless, a judge him to two consecutive life terms. Peltier admitted to participating in the shoot-out in his memoir, “Prison Writings, My Life in the Sundance.” However, he denied killing the FBI agents. He became eligible for parole in 1993. Amnesty International, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, and the Dalai Lama, all campaigned for his clemency. President Obama denied his request for clemency in 2017. On January 19, 2025, the last full day of his presidency, Joe Biden commuted Peltier's life sentence to home confinement. Peltier’s health had been declining for several years. #workingclass #LaborHistory #americanindianmovement #aim #leonardpeltier #FBI #prison #pineridge #politicalprisoner #indigenous #nativeamerican #memoir #books #author #writer #bookstadon

Today in Labor History June 26, 1894: The American Railway Union (ARU), led by Eugene Debs, called a nationwide boycott in solidarity with their striking members at Pullman, Illinois. The Pullman Railroad Strike began as a wildcat strike in Chicago, when 4,000 railway workers walked off the job. It quickly escalated into the largest industrial strike the U.S. had ever seen, with 260,000 workers participating. Most of the workers lived in the company town of Pullman, just south of Chicago. When George Pullman slashed wages and jobs, he didn’t lower rents. Consequently, the workers called a strike. In addition to fighting for increased wages and union representation, they also wanted democracy in the autocratic company town. When the strike started, the Pullman workers were not yet organized in a union. However, Eugene Debs, who created the ARU in 1893, came in to organize the men and they quickly signed up. He called a boycott which halted much of the rail transport west of the Mississippi. Worker sabotage caused $80 million in damages. The government sent in federal troops to suppress the strike, killing at least 30 strikers. They also arrested Debs for conspiracy to block U.S. mail. Clarence Darrow defended him. However, he still got six months in prison. Debs would go on to cofound the IWW, in 1905, along with Lucy Parsons, Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood, James Connolly, and others. #workingclass #LaborHistory #strike #union #wildcat #eugenedebs #pullman #chicago #prison #IWW #motherjones #lucyparsons #jamesconnolly #BigBillHaywood #boycott #conspiracy #sabotage

In Euskadi (Basque country), solidarity with Palestine is super high. Saw Palestinian flags and solidarity graffiti everywhere, in working class neighborhoods, as well as many of the tourist hot spots. Sometimes the majority of windows in a single apartment complex displayed Palestinian flags. This should come as no surprise in light of the history of colonialism and oppression of the Basque people by the Spanish state, in general. And, in particular, the mass slaughter of Basque civilians in Guernika on April 26, 1937 by Hitler's Condor Legion, in support of Spanish Fascist leader Francisco Franco. This can be seen in the accompanying mural, which includes the portion of Picasso's famous Guernica painting depicting a grieving woman holding her dead child, reminiscent of so many of the horrifying images we are seeing coming out of Israel's genocide in Gaza. #freepalestine #gaza #genocide #israel #euskadi #basque #fascism #nazis #hitler #franco #solidarity #picasso #guernica #colonialism

Today in Labor History June 10, 1971: Mexican police, and paramilitary death squads known as Los Halcones, killed 120 student protesters, including a 14-year-old boy, in the Corpus Christi Massacre, also known as El Halconazo. In 1968, the government had massacred up to 500 of students and bystanders in the Tlatelolco massacre. The Halconazo started with protests at the University of Nuevo Leon, for joint leadership that included students and teachers. When the university implemented the new government, the state government slashed their budget and abolished their autonomy. This led to a strike that spread to the National Autonomous University of Mexico and National Polytechnic Institute. To suppress the strike, the authorities used tankettes, police, riot police, and the death squad, known as Los Halcones, who had been trained by the CIA. Los Halcones first attacked with sticks, but the student fended them off. Then they resorted to high caliber rifles. Police had been ordered to do nothing. When the injured were taken to the hospital, Los Halcones followed and shot them dead in the hospital. Silvia Moreno-Garcia writes about these events in her 2021 novel “Velvet Was the Night.” It is also depicted in the 2018 film Roma.” #workingclass #LaborHistory #students #protest #massacre #mexico #repression #freespeech #police #tlatelolco #cia #film #books #novel #writer #author @npub1wceq...lzu8

Protester in LA throwing a rock at ICE gestapo, invisible behind a wall of tear gas smoke #la #losangeles #ice #gestapo #immigration #protest #fascism