Last video about NITW, I swear

Hasbara is a Hebrew word defined by the Israeli government as “public diplomacy” that seeks to “influence the perception of Israel abroad.” Critics like Noam Chomsky, meanwhile, have described hasbara more bluntly as a “sophisticated system of propaganda.” On the internet, hasbara now includes a network of websites and users dedicated to manufacturing pro-Israel posts and manipulating social media platforms to remove content sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2024/04/israels-propaganda-machine-is-filling-the-internet-with-misinformation/

"we must begin to gain control of housing and force its de-commodification. We need to create large funds to acquire said housing and we need to house our own. The management of this housing needs to be self-managed by occupants in a federated system of housing cooperatives. Municipal social housing efforts should wage this fight in tandem."

Second, we must begin to gain control of our employment. There are two main ways to do this — unionization and cooperation.

Resources should be dedicated to both the bottom-up founding of self-managed worker cooperatives as well as the conversion of existing business into self-managed worker cooperatives.

Community defense should be encouraged whenever and wherever possible, with measures taken to limit legal risks to the overall organization. Medic work and survival-based mutual aid are also critical here.

Recruitment efforts must be taken. It’s not enough to only bring in new members to an organization. There must be ongoing engagement. We need mentorship. We need accessibility. We need a formal education program that covers not only theory, but also the practice of participating in our organization and, most especially, in organizing as a general practice.

Restorative Justice. We need a group that dedicates itself to learning this, training others, and establishing best practices.

Finally — and this really is lucky number seven — people need to embrace the social. Have hobbies. Treat people as friends — normal friends — not just “comrades in arms” or potential debate partners or whatever you want to call the current state of Left expectation setting and infighting. Maybe drink a beer once and a while. Play some board games. Do sports. This past Sunday was Easter so, for Christ’s sake, break some bread with comrades. It was also Trans Day of Visibility. Be visible, be a part of your community — your neighborhood, your school, your workplace, etc. — and show kindness even more than militancy. If the people who know you are fond of you, you’re winning half the battle right there.

https://dsa-lsc.org/2024/04/02/democratic-socialists-of-america-and-the-2024-elections-forging-a-new-path/

In 1968, Harold Wilson’s Labour government ended free milk in secondary schools and three years later, Margaret Thatcher, then Conservative Education Secretary, stopped free milk for primary school children, earning her the taunt “Thatcher Thatcher, milk snatcher!”

In 1980, she also abolished the minimum nutritional standards for school meals and the statutory duty of local education authorities to provide a meals service. The standard of school meals fell so dramatically that a 1999 survey found that, despite food rationing, children in the 1940s and 1950s had a better diet than children growing up in the 1990s.

[...]

The current #FeedTheFuture campaign is calling on the government to expand free school meals to 900,000 children in England living in poverty who are not currently eligible. But Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming, go further, calling for universal free school meals across England, arguing that just like desks, books and bathrooms, we should give free school food to every child.

The British government could do well to look at countries already providing universal free school meals, including Brazil, India, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and a number of states across the USA, with Kenya and Benin making firm commitments. Indeed, London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, made the news by introducing free school meals to all children in London’s state-funded primary schools. Today, 418 million children receive free school meals worldwide.

https://sussexbylines.co.uk/business/economy/school-meals-an-investment-in-future-health/

- Less than 30% of Democrats emphasized the need for more high-quality jobs.
- Less than 5% campaigned on bold progressive economic policies to help workers, such as raising the minimum wage or a jobs guarantee. Despite polling that demonstrates the popularity of these progressive economic policies across the ideological spectrum, and especially among working-class voters, most Democratic candidates did not focus their campaigns on these issues.

Almost no candidates campaigned on polarizing cultural rhetoric. Despite the popular association of progressive politicians with such causes and slogans, Democratic candidates overwhelmingly avoided defending diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, critical race theory in schools, and the like. They also avoided terms often associated with the party’s progressive wing.

Few candidates campaigned on anti-elite rhetoric. Less than 20% of candidates employed economic populist talking points targeting large corporations, billionaires, or Wall Street price gouging.

Economic populists performed especially well in districts with majority-white, non-college-educated populations and in highly working-class districts. Their average vote shares were, respectively, 12.3 and 6.4 percentage points higher than other candidates’ in such districts. Economic populists also performed better than other candidates in rural and small-town districts, where their average vote share was 4.7 percentage points higher.Despite evidence showing that they are particularly appealing to working-class voters, working-class candidates were vanishingly rare. Only 2.3% of Democratic candidates worked exclusively in blue-collar jobs before entering politics. If we also include pink-collar jobs such as teachers and nurses, this figure is 5.9%.

When they made it to the general election, candidates with working-class experience performed about as well as other candidates. The small group of candidates with primarily working-class occupational backgrounds who made it to the general election performed poorly, largely because almost all competed in deep-red districts.

https://jacobin.com/2024/03/left-populists-working-class-voters/

- focusing on a handful of issues that immediately affect the day-to-day lives of working people — with a particular emphasis on the question of affordable housing.
- Yet rather than just use their platform to highlight a specific set of issues, KPÖ politicians in both Styria and Salzburg practice a form of politics that emphasizes face-to-face contact with constituents. To this end, they hold regular office hours where they point people toward relevant social services, assist them with bureaucratic matters such as filling out application forms for welfare programs and even provide those in financial emergencies with direct aid from a fund to which all KPÖ elected officials donate a portion of their monthly salaries. Based on this practice, the KPÖ managed an unprecedented jump from 0.4 percent of the vote in the 2018 Salzburg state parliament election to 11.7 percent in 2023. In the capital, the Communists even earned 21.5 percent, finishing behind only the ÖVP.

Yet entirely in keeping with their formula for success in recent years, the Communists did not let their opponents’ rhetorical mudslinging distract them from the actual issues. With impressive message discipline, they continued to concentrate on demands such as a rent cap and increased public housing — and thereby succeeded in controlling the political discourse. With the pending runoff election for the city’s new mayor, it appears this dynamic will continue for another two weeks.

https://jacobin.com/2024/03/austria-salzburg-communists-far-right-election/