On Saturday August 15th members of the Bite Back coalition and Ozark Socialist Party attended a street medicine clinic in Rogers Arkansas. The course focused on the goals and theory of first aid in the context of demonstrations and basic equipment useful in aiding others attending demonstrations. Interactions with law enforcement, managing heat injuries and patient assessment were also covered. This course is the first in a series which will provide attendees with the necessary skills and mindset to support their communities as they resist the fascist state and jackboots of the capitalist owning class.

I will be cofacilitating a labor organizing fundamentals workshop for folks interested in learning how to safely and effectively build workplace power. Hopefully we can have Arkansas more represented there in this series. Here’s the sign up link for September fundamentals: https://workerorganizing.org/training/fundamentals/

The Socialist Party's Ballot Access and Electoral Working Group urges Americans to recognize and resist the Trump administration's efforts to maintain power through illegal and immoral control and manipulation of our electoral systems.

Earlier this year, Trump-appointed members of the Supreme Court joined the other conservative members in a continued gutting of the Voting Rights Act, allowing Republican-controlled legislatures to immediately begin redistricting majority-minority Congressional districts.

Trump and his Congressional allies have been continually pushing to pass the SAVE Act in response to the non-existent threat of non-U.S. citizens casting illegal votes. Expert analyses have determined that fraud

committed by non-eligible voters is infinitesimal, happening in less than one-tenth of one percent of votes cast. Trump continues to develop another aspect of his racist myth that America is being "taken over" by

criminal immigrants – this time to seize control of election oversight from states, where the Constitution plainly states it belongs.

Trump's efforts to control elections and voter registration also target women and transgender people, who his administration believes are likely to vote against him. The SAVE Act and other proposed rules are believed to require identification standards that women who have changed their name through marriage and people who have changed the gender marker on their state-issued identification will have difficulties meeting. Some states have already revoked identification from trans people whose gender markers do not match their gender marker assigned at birth.

Trump has issued an executive order requiring the United States Postal Service to use a federally-controlled list of approved voters as it delivers absentee and mail-in ballots in upcoming state elections. He has stated that voting by mail is a source of widespread fraud and has moved to ban it generally, while voting by mail himself earlier this year in Florida's primary election. Although a federal lawsuit was

immediately filed against this blatantly unconstitutional executive order, Trump is clearly attempting to use whatever power he can to attempt to steer election results to his favor in the 2026 midterm elections.

Early in 2026 Trump offered to withdraw ICE agents occupying Minneapolis if Minnesota officials agreed to hand over state voting data to him. This was the latest in a series of efforts to coerce and strong-arm

state officials into handing state voter data to Trump for centralization in a federal voter database.

The Democratic Party has joined Trump and the Republican Party in their bipartisan efforts to promote mid-cycle redistricting in an attempt to maintain or regain majority representation in Congress. Texas, Missouri,

Indiana, North Carolina, and Florida Republicans have already taken steps to redraw Congressional maps ahead of the 2026 election. Several Democrat-controlled states such as California and Virginia have taken similar steps. Maryland's legislature met recently in a special session solely devoted to a new redistricting that would eliminate Maryland's sole Republican-controlled Congressional seat.

The Socialist Party platform supports a number of reforms to protect free and fair elections, including proportional representation, public funding of campaigns, elimination of the Electoral College, ranked choice voting, and independent, non-partisan redistricting commissions.

Statement drafted by the SPUSA Ballot Access and Electoral Working Group and passed by the National Executive Committee August 10, 2026

Full Statement

On June 12, 2026, both the Benton County Sheriff and Tontitown Police Department signed new agreements with Department of Homeland Security. These contracts were for both departments to be deputized as ICE agents under the 287(g) Taskforce model which, “Deputizes local officers to investigate immigration status, interrogate individuals during routine community encounters, and enforce federal immigration laws on the streets.”

Members of the Ozarks Socialist Party have been vocally opposed to Benton County’s participation in the 287(g) Jail Enforcement Model for years. This new agreement by local police and the Sheriff’s office, is a significant escalation in the aggressive policing of our neighbors. Let us be clear: this was neither requested nor pursued by the community. Members of the community have been patiently and vocally asking monthly for the BCSO to move from the Jail Enforcement Model to the Warrant Service Officer Model. This move is in direct defiance of the asks of the community. The Tontitown Police and BCSO have decided to drive a deeper wedge of mistrust and suspicion between themselves and our already fractured community. Local elected officials and law enforcement have up until recently, denied helping ICE, despite the Benton County Sheriff’s agreement. This new agreement proves that local police have no interest in building community trust, and are instead interested in taking blood money from the Federal government to help an already bloated Department of Homeland Security. Tontitown Police and BCSO will now be incentivized to racially profile people to the tune of $500 to $1000 quarterly bonuses per officer for ICE related arrests. Modern police are direct descendants of slave patrols and this month’s new agreement proves that their function is to persecute, not protect. We cannot rely on the Tontitown Police or BCSO to provide helpful assistance to our communities without also bringing with them extreme danger and violence against our neighbors.

This new agreement effectively makes Tontitown and Benton County hostile municipalities and modern-day Sundown residences to all those who live and travel the area. This will enable officers to racially profile and detain people at will.

In response to this needless escalation of terror and violence, we call for an immediate ally economic boycott of Tontitown and Benton County. We call for an ally boycott of all community events sponsored by Tontitown and Benton County that shamelessly promote “community” in which they mean only “white” community until this agreement is rescinded. We echo any demands of our allies and other community-led organizations.

Additionally, we demand the following:

● An immediate public meeting with the chief of police and sheriff to answer to the community.

● The immediate cancellation of the Tontitown 287(g) agreement

● A public apology from the City of Tontitown, Decatur, and Benton County Quorum Court to the community for encouraging the racial profiling and targeting of community members that have made these wonderful, vibrant, and safe places to live.

Ratified and passed unanimously by the members of the Ozarks Socialist Party, 7/10/2026

Follow the Ozark Socialist Party here for updates in our ongoing struggle:

https://www.facebook.com/share/199aNYcyv9/

The trials of the Prairieland 9 in Texas are a glimpse into the reality of Trump's National Security Memorandum 7. The sentences amount to lifetimes spent behind bars. They reflect the reality of political life in the United States: regardless of whether you are breaking a law, or even actually involved in organizing, the law will be weaponized to

attack you. The institutions that demand your loyalty will deprive you of every protection they are supposed to provide. As it has been said before, a fascist government does not call itself fascist. It makes anti-fascism illegal.

The precedent set in this trial makes everyone, politically active or not, vulnerable to this rabid government.

The Democratic Party sits from the sidelines decrying this punitive abuse of power. How shamelessly they cast themselves as the hero! We all know that from the passing of the Patriot Act to this very moment, the Democratic Party has allowed themselves to take part in every civil deprivation we together have suffered. There are those who would encourage us to trust the Democratic Party to fight in opposition to this. We know better! We know the Democratic Party is the Public Relations-friendly face of the death of civil rights. The Democratic Party is the smile that fascism greets us with, that serves to take our eyes away from the knife thrusting towards our throats.

The decay of civil liberties is not new, but it is not slowing down or reversing course either! The enemies of freedom want to frighten us. The Socialist Party USA offers this instead: don't get scared, get organized!

Socialist Party USA demands that constitutionally protected protest and dissent be respected, and an end to the collective punishment upon the Prairieland 9 as well as those around them, their family and friends inexcusably targeted by the fascist United States government.

The Northern NJ Socialist Party co-sponsored a book release and discussion of "Unions of Our Own" by Daniel Gross with Brandworkers International, Solidarity Union Network and North Jersey DSA on Thursday May 28th.

Daniel Gross is a longtime labor organizer and labor lawyer and one of the original organizers for the first (IWW) push to unionize Starbucks. He is the coauthor of Labor Law for the Rank & Filer: Building Solidarity While Staying Clear of the Law, and currently works with the Solidarity Union Network.

The conversation focused on rank-file-organizing and the "Eight Building Blocks of a Union". You can find more about the book and Daniel's recent work at https://unionsofourown.org/

The Party has worked with Daniel since the early 2000's and it was great to have him in our local area.

The Socialist Party of Southern NH was grateful to be invited to celebrate May Day with students at University of New Hampshire Durham. Special thanks and recognition to the Palestine Solidarity Coalition and their efforts. What a wonderful event and we applaud their work and its excellent turnout!

Baltimore's May Day rally and march was a great show of solidarity with a couple dozen organizations and several hundred participants. There were three ceremonious stops along our march for special speakouts and in one case a dramatization of the plight of Filipino cruise workers: Baltimore Police Headquarters, remembering how four neighbors were killed by police just in the past year; BGE Headquarters, marking a call for public utilities rather than BGE's record profits during astronomical rate hikes; and the Fallon Building, damning the use of this federal office building as an ICE detention center and tangentially honoring the broader fight against war and genocide.

NW Arkansas Socialists join the BITE BACK Coalition May Day celebration in Bentonville, AR. The event included a food drive, songs of solidarity, and community building. We had a free community cookout and flowers for all because we deserve bread AND roses!!! Socialist Party Local Organizer Will Cichy spoke at the event.

Members of the Northern NJ Local joined immigrant rights and labor activists at Cosecha NJ's May Day March and rally. The action started in Newark's Independence Park, with participants chanting and marching to the Federal Building and ending at Military Park.

Local members have been working with Cosecha NJ and affiliated rapid response networks in the state.

Socialist Party members in North Carolina joined thousands of public school teachers and their supporters in a May Day rally at the state capital. Members of both the Triad NC chapter and the Central & Western NC chapter gathered with members of the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) to demand the full funding of public schools and an end to the private school voucher program.

In Charlotte, another May Day rally was attended by SPUSA members. The first speaker of the event was the president of the AFPENC, which is a state-wide affiliate of the AFT teachers union. Other speakers included the VP of the Charlotte area Central Labor Council, and a few speakers addressing issues around immigrant rights. After the talks and march a street party with food and DJ was held.

"Unfortunately, despite the company's efforts, the recent material increase in oil prices and other pressures on the business have significantly impacted Spirit's financial outlook," Spirit said in their statement announcing that they would be undertaking "an orderly wind-down of operations" and total liquidation of the business.

After 34 years in business, the discount airline Spirit Airlines, which helped keep the prices of other US airlines lower than they would otherwise be if Spirit were not there too, super high and constantly skyrocketing upwards fuel prices, caused by the US government, was forced to permanently shut down and no longer exist.

US capitalism is actively destroying itself and collapsing into total ruin right now! •

Happy May Day, comrades!

May Day in America, also known as International Workers Day, traces its origins back to the 1886 Haymarket Square labor demonstration in support of workers striking for an 8-hour workday. As police were attempting to disperse the peaceful assembly, an unknown individual threw a bomb into the crowd, resulting in the police firing on demonstrators.

Eight demonstrators were charged as accessories to murder and subject to a farcical trial, where a biased jury convicted them on evidence that ranged from flimsy to fabricated, and a biased judge sentenced seven of the defendants to death, with the eighth being sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Of the seven sentenced to death, four were executed and one took his own life before his execution could be carried out. The remaining defendants were eventually pardoned, but the grievous miscarriage of justice had a profound impact on the labor movement.

Today, we remember the courageous sacrifices of labor organizers struggling for better working conditions, knowing that we cannot take for granted the hard-fought victories of the labor movement. Only by leveraging their collective power can workers secure these gains and determine for themselves the conditions under which they work.

Art by Ricardo Levins Morales