Northwoods Socialist Collective

The Trump administration announced that it was mulling over a new ceasefire agreement with Iran. News commentators say that this agreement would effectively end the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran in exchange for Iran lifting its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for oil and gas shipping that Iran closed in the early days of the war. Of course, Trump has made similar types of promises repeatedly ever since the U.S. and Israel launched the war against Iran on February 28. At the start of the Memorial Day weekend, for example, Trump had promised that the U.S. and Iran had made a deal—only for Trump to order the U.S. military to start bombing Iran two days later. In retaliation, the Iranian regime launched a missile against a U.S. base in Kuwait. Obviously, all of Trump’s false promises are aimed at placating an American public that strongly opposes the war. Even much of Trump’s and the Republicans’ own voting base opposes the war. Prices were ...

For some time Breakwall Indivisible has been holding weekly protests along Hwy 61 in front of the Lakeview Cemetery in Two Harbors.  It's a location that activists have used for anti-war and other protests for decades.  In fact, when Breakwall Indivisible first started holding protests after the 2nd election of Trump, it was suggested by the Two Harbors police that this would be a good location for them since there is a fairly large amount of space between the cemetery and the road, with a sidewalk, a metal fence to protect the property of the cemetery AND ample parking.  Indivisible has held numerous protests there since, and there has never been any problems regarding damage or disruption to the cemetery.  And these protests often attract well over 100 people.     However, now the City of Two Harbors has suddenly tried to make an issue of using the cemetery for parking.  They are citing a 1944 law that prohibits using the cemetery as a "...

On May 14, the U.S. Supreme Court “kicked the can down the road” on medical abortion, saving some votes for Trump cronies in the mid-term elections but signaling to the rest of us that tele-health prescribing of mifepristone remains in danger. The Court decided that a lower-court decision from Louisiana that required patients, including those living in states with complete abortion bans, to visit a doctor’s office to get a mifepristone prescription would remain “paused.”  In the meantime, the issue would continue to be litigated in the lower courts and the part of the Republican base that remains pro-abortion would not be stirred up before voting. This maneuver has allowed the high court to expediently delay, but be ready use its powers to further erode the availability of reproductive health care when it is more politically convenient.  Simultaneously, on another front, the MAGA-run Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, is slow-walking an unnecessary and highly suspect...

Nearly 5000 protesters assembled in Montgomery, Ala., on Saturday, May 16, as part of the emergency mobilization dubbed All Roads Lead to the South.   The Montgomery rally followed the recreation of a segment of the first Selma to Montgomery march of 1965, when 600 protesters were attacked by state troopers on the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, an event that has come to be known as “Bloody Sunday.”   Faith leaders, politicians, and activists joined figures like the “oldest living foot soldier” from that original crossing, 84-year-old Annie Mae Avery, and Sheyann Webb-Christburg, who was an eight-year-old participant and victim of the police assault. These mobilizations were a response to the Supreme Court’s April 29 ruling on the case of Louisiana v. Callais , which granted Louisiana the right to gerrymander voting districts to make Black representation to Congress nearly impossible. Within days of the verdict, other white Southern state governors and legislators rushed to u...

A ProPublica  investigation  revealed a new change proposed by the Trump administration that would cut Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for up to 400,000 Americans with disabilities. The SSI system provides a very modest basic income to adults who are unable to work due to severe disabilities such as Down syndrome, autism, or blindness. The maximum monthly benefit in 2026 is $994 per person, far below the  federal poverty line . Because current SSI benefits are not enough to live independently, many SSI recipients live with their families into adulthood, in order to avoid the alternatives of institutional living or homelessness. People with disabilities benefit from the social, cultural, and structural support of living in a multi-generational home. Family caregivers develop routines that integrate their loved ones, providing individualized support that is hard to replicate in an institutional setting. Families often invest substantially in building acco...

The Global Sumud Flotilla is issuing an urgent international alert of a state-sponsored kidnapping and torture mission currently unfolding in international waters. This alert follows first-hand testimony from released participants confirming that Saif Abukeshek, one of two civilians forcibly taken by Israeli forces, was subjected to torture while in detention aboard an Israeli military vessel while still in Greek waters.  This constitutes a grave escalation and an additional war crime. Following the illegal interception of 22 vessels belonging to the Global Sumud Flotilla by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in international waters less than 80 nautical miles west of the Greek island of Crete, 175 civilian participants were abducted from 21 boats and transferred to the Israeli vessel Nahshon , where they were subjected to physical and verbal violence. Participant eyewitnesses provided harrowing testimony of Abukeshek’s screams echoing throughout the ship as he was subjected to ...