Staff Writers

Candice Bernd

Senior editor and staff writer Candice Bernd dove into the environmental, Indigenous and human rights injustices surrounding Enbridge Line 3 – the 337-mile, $4 billion tar sands pipeline in Minnesota. She investigated the links between sexual assault and exploitation of Indigenous women and the pipeline industry, specifically by Line 3 pipeline contractors; reported from the White Earth Reservation on treaty rights; reported first-hand on the brutal crackdown against the Water Protectors and the subsequent treaty encampment established by Indigenous leaders and allies; and led an in-depth investigation on the trumped-up felony prosecutions of Water Protectors. 

Amid the escalating climate emergency, Bernd interviewed the Ukrainian activists who called the surge in import of U.S. fracked gas to Europe (50 billion cubic meters through at least 2030) a disastrous answer to the need for independence from Russian fossil fuels, and appealed for a dramatic, wartime mobilization for a transition to clean energy; covered West Virginia Rising's planned "coal baron blockade" at Joe Manchin's coal plant; and, in a special collaboration with the Texas Observer on the anniversary of the Texas blackout, Bernd wrote about how Texans are navigating climate trauma, which is partly a result of the ability of the state's oil and gas companies to operate with near total impunity.

As labor movements and unionizing efforts gained momentum across the country, Bernd covered a critical Teamsters election; reported on Starbucks baristas in Buffalo who were poised to unionize, becoming the first Starbucks in the country to do so; and broke the story about the union drive at Amazon's JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island.

Kelly Hayes

Podcaster and contributing writer Kelly Hayes covered a wealth of topics this year, from the ongoing battle fought by Water Protectors to the activists resisting U.S. militarism, the attacks on trans youth to the work being done by incarcerated organizers, and much, much more. She also brought hope and optimism to Truthout's pages, encouraging weary organizers to come back stronger, and helping to envision a better world.

Mike Ludwig

Staff reporter Mike Ludwig covered the worsening climate crisis, reporting on how landfills are a serious source of climate-warming pollution and what steps are needed to estimate – and then mitigate – the damage; and on the largest federal offshore drilling auction in United States history, held by the Biden administration less than a week after the United Nations COP26 climate conference. As host of the Truthout original podcast Climate Front Lines, Ludwig put out episodes on the fracking boom in the Permian Basin in Texas; on the Louisianians who, even in the wake of Hurricane Ida, continue to face rising seas and intensifying storms with bold ideas for resilience; and interviewed Brazilian activist Romulo Batista on the ongoing destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

Ludwig also continued his coverage of the so-called war on drugs, writing about how deep racial disparities in health care and a lopsided response to the overdose crisis are now associated with an alarming spike in death, especially in communities of color. He offered readers critical analysis of Biden's harm-reduction policies and Republicans' exploitation of the overdose crisis to call for more policing. And he reported on the harmful anti-LGBTQ policies spreading across the country in Florida and Louisiana, uplifting the voices of trans youth activists agitating for queer and Black history to be taught at their schools.

William Rivers Pitt

In his 20th year at Truthout, senior editor and lead columnist William Rivers Pitt brought his wisdom and insight to our readers on numerous pressing political issues: He wrote about how capitalism worsened the COVID-19 pandemic — and about the lasting, disastrous effects of the crisis; the horrific tide of gun violence in the U.S.; the looming demise of Roe v. Wade ahead of the 2022 midterm elections; Russia’s war on Ukraine and the U.S.'s involvement in the conflict; and the climate crisis, a pressing topic that commanded coverage as fire season and the megadrought rose in the West. He also kept readers up-to-date by covering the January 6 investigations; the alarming rise (and implications) of Trumpism; and the influence of the far right on midterm elections.

Chris Walker

News writer Chris Walker reported on the January 6 commission’s public hearings and findings, and shone a light on Republican lawmakers’ involvement in the attack on the U.S. Capitol building. He also wrote about the GOP’s ongoing attempts to roll back civil rights for marginalized groups across the country, keeping a close eye on dangerous legislation targeting trans youth; “Don’t Say Gay” bills that would deny LGBTQ kids the right to assert their identities in K-12 classrooms; Republican fear mongering about critical race theory and the wave of legislation and censorship that has followed; and Republican attempts to erode voting rights and disenfranchise communities of color.

He also covered Democratic attempts to end the filibuster rule once and for all. Finally, he wrote about the right wing’s attacks on abortion and reproductive rights across the country — coverage that stands apart from what’s seen in corporate media, both for its inclusive language and for its refusal to advance anti-abortion talking points under the guise of journalistic “neutrality.”

Sharon Zhang

The news in the last half of 2021 was dominated in large part by fights over Democrats' marquee reconciliation bill. Sharon Zhang covered this fight extensively, following what would ultimately be named the Build Back Better Act from its conception as a $6 trillion social and infrastructure spending bill; to its watered-down $3.5 trillion form; to its $1.75 trillion proposal; to its eventual death at the hands of conservative, corporate-funded Democrats. As Zhang reported, the fights over basic labor and health care proposals clearly exposed the fundamental struggle within the Democratic Party between its left-leaning factions and party leaders’ desire to uphold capital at all costs.

Meanwhile, Zhang documented conservative efforts across the country to follow up on Trump’s Big Lie with a wave of voter suppression bills. She covered a major anti-voting push in Texas led by far right Gov. Greg Abbott, and brought attention to Republican officials’ nationwide plan to suppress voters – while Democrats futilely tried and failed to protect voting rights, once again thwarted by the efforts of conservative Democrats and their own seeming weakness on the issue.

Within the advancement of fascism, however, the labor movement was planting seeds of hope for the left. In December of 2021, Starbucks workers in Buffalo voted to form unions at two stores – votes that would kick off a huge movement across the country, helping to light a fire under the modern labor movement. Just weeks after that initial win, dozens of stores began filing for unionization, reaching 150 filings by the end of March 2022. Meanwhile, workers at other national retail chains like REI followed suit as a new generation of union organizers began to seize their collective power.

Podcasts

Movement Memos is an ongoing call to action for movement work and mutual aid efforts around the country. Kelly Hayes connects with activists, journalists and others on the front lines to break down what’s happening in various struggles and what listeners can do to help.

Don't miss: Activists Are Building a Counterculture of Care in Apocalyptic Times

Climate Front Lines explores our rapidly changing planet with experts and activists from frontline communities across the world. Hosted by Truthout reporter Mike Ludwig.

Don't miss: Thermal Videos Reveal Heavy Pollution From the Texas Oil Boom

Series

Russia's War on Ukraine in an Age of Escalating Imperial Tensions offers in-depth analysis of the context and effects of Russia’s war, examining how global geopolitics are currently shifting, dynamics surrounding the resettlement of Ukraine’s refugees, rising nuclear threats, and more.

Don’t miss this perspective on war beyond the war of the moment: Chomsky: Let’s Focus on Preventing Nuclear War, Rather Than Debating “Just War”

The Struggle for Caregiving Equity sheds new light on systemic injustices related to childcare, caregiving and parenting in our society. This series makes space for reporting and analysis around these often-overlooked issues and lifts up bold ideas for a world in which caregiving is honored, valued and prioritized.

Don't miss this in-depth look at caregiving in the U.S.: Socialists Take Up Critical Fight for Universal Child Care in the United States

The Road to Abolition gathers together some of our most important work on the abolition of policing and prisons, pieces that can help us to envision abolition — both the imagination and the practice of it — and move together toward a more liberated future.

Don't miss this very personal essay on the need for abolition – now: My Sister Died of an Overdose. Defunding the Police Might Have Saved Her.

Struggle and Solidarity: Writing Toward Palestinian Liberation covers the struggle for Palestinian liberation in all its forms, from protests within Palestine to international solidarity efforts and intersections with other movements. This original series also delves into the context and history of Israel’s settler-colonial violence, and possibilities for a liberated future built on foundations of equity and justice.

Don't miss this important analysis of the public debate about Palestine: We Must Commit Ourselves to Long-Term Solidarity With Palestinian Liberation

The Policing of Pain: Inside the Deadly War on Opioids follows the war on drugs into the pharmacy and doctor's office, where a crackdown on prescription painkillers has deadly results. This original series reveals how medical racism fuels the overdose crisis in Black and Native American communities, and how law enforcement intervention in the medical system leaves pain and addiction patients without medications they rely on, forcing some to turn to illicit opioids that vastly increase the risk of overdose.

Don't miss the deadly consequences of policing health care: The War on Drugs Comes to the Doctor’s Office

Editorial Highlights

Education & Youth

Truthout paid particular attention to the intensifying right-wing war on education — and the resistance to it — highlighting book bans and the authors fighting back against censorship, as well as attempts to stop public and school libraries from promoting racial justice and queer acceptance. We covered the parents, teachers and educators who continued to inform children about race, gender, sexuality, and the true history of the United States, even as GOP lawmakers and dark money groups continued their multipronged siege on public education.

LGBTQ Rights

This year was marked by rising attacks on trans and queer rights, fueled by ongoing Trumpism, and Truthout was there to report on every new assault. We reported on the "Don't Say Gay" bills that serve to muzzle teachers and students and foster an environment of intolerance at school for LGBTQ youth and students with gay, queer, trans and nonbinary parents. We covered the dark money "women's groups" who use anti-trans scaremongering to oppose the Equal Rights Amendment. We chronicled the threats to trans youth and to parents who connect their trans children to supportive health care, including potentially life-saving gender-affirming treatments. And, importantly, we also shone a light on the LGBTQ communities and organizers who are fighting back, finding joy, and reimagining a better, safer future. 

Immigration

When the Biden administration took over in January 2021, we watched closely to see how the new president would approach U.S. immigration policy after Trump left the system in shambles. We followed the administration's handling of one of the Trump era’s most destructive anti-immigrant policies, Title 42, which led to 1.5 million deportations on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. We reported on the unfulfilled promise to repair the refugee resettlement program and covered the administration's aspirational but inadequate response to Russia's war on Ukraine, which resulted in at least 8.2 million refugees. We also closely followed the movement to defund and abolish immigration jails, and highlighted calls for immigration reform. 

Racial Justice

In recent years, the United States has seen an intensified, multipronged right-wing agenda targeting marginalized communities. While it would be impossible to summarize everything we published, we offered readers critical, nonsensational analysis of white nationalist and white supremacist violence, from the massacre in Buffalo, New York, to the "legal phase" of American fascism brought forth by Republican lawmakers. We covered right-wing attacks on critical race theory – an attempt to spook voters and stir up a moral panic in order to win elections. We published meaningful coverage of the more insidious threats to the lives and wellbeing of people of color, including medical racism, the public health crisis, student debt and food apartheid.

We also published stories of healing, survival and resistance, including an interview between Indigenous organizers Kelly Hayes and Morning Star Gali about the Indigenous abolitionists organizing against the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit relatives; Mike Ludwig's report on the activists in Minneapolis who have maintained a powerful movement to end racist policing and violence; Ella Fassler's highlight on the "Drop the Charges" coalition, which is working to help free demonstrators for Black lives from trumped up charges; and a piece by Nadine Naber, Souzan Naser and Johnaé Strong on the mother-survivors who have experienced forced separation from their children or loved ones by the state and are organizing to harness the healing power necessary to reshape this country and our planet.

War & Peace

As U.S. militarism expanded, so did our coverage; Truthout remained a decidedly antiwar voice among hawkish corporate media competitors. Stephen Zunes reported on the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, the ensuing collapse of the U.S.-backed regime, and the devastating (but foreseeable) impacts of the decades-long occupation spanning multiple presidential administrations. At the time of Colin Powell’s death, Zunes criticized Powell’s war-mongering in advance of the Iraq War and the bipartisan cooperation that enabled it; and he kept the Democrats under further scrutiny by reporting on the controversial Israel Relations Normalization Act, a bill that would strengthen U.S. diplomatic ties to Arab dictatorships and grow the recognition of Israel among Arab states. Nadine Naber examined the domestic impact of these foreign policy stances in the Middle East, providing a retrospective on the violent state surveillance of American Muslims and Arabs in the last 20 years of the Patriot Act.

Soon after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, we launched a new series, "Russia's War on Ukraine in an Age of Escalating Imperial Tensions," in which we highlighted antiwar voices in Russia that risked arrest for speaking out; reported on how Russian dissenters helped Ukrainians escape Putin's war, how grassroots groups established supply chains and long-term aid hubs for fleeing Ukrainians, and on Ukrainian armed resistance and pacifism.

Culture & Media

We kept a sharp watch on threats to a free press, from attacks on journalists to the harm caused by corporate media through omission and distortion and questionable, and continued to raise the alarm of rising white nationalism on media platforms.

We also covered media freedom abroad, with Marjorie Cohn reporting on the Israel Defense Forces' assassination of beloved Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, just two weeks after a formal complaint was made to the International Criminal Court accusing Israel of systematically targeting Palestinian journalists.

Human Rights

Even as many declared the COVID-19 pandemic "over," Truthout continued to cover the deeply felt and far-reaching effects of the pandemic in our series "Despair and Disparity: The Uneven Burdens of COVID-19." We looked at the politics of COVID and how capitalism continued to worsen the crisis; reported on COVID in prisons and jails; covered the risk and reality of tenant evictions after the end of the moratorium; and reported on disability justice during the pandemic and mutual aid efforts across the country.

We also kept a tireless watch on the right-wing Supreme Court and its many cruel decisions. Marjorie Cohn covered the Shinn v. Ramirez and Jones case, which could — and probably will — lead to the execution of innocent people; and kept readers updated as SCOTUS drove a stake through the heart of the historic Voting Rights Act.

Economy & Labor

Amid an uptick in unionization across the U.S., Michael Arria analyzed “the Great Resignation” and the effects of a tight labor market on workers’ ability to organize and leverage that power to secure better work conditions, and Sharon Zhang offered near-daily updates on unprecedented unionization efforts at corporations, including Starbucks, Delta, Amazon, REI, and Apple.

We also launched a special series, "The Struggle for Caregiving Equity," featuring stories such as Candice Bernd's report on the push for universal pre-K in Colorado and the national campaign for universal child care; and Katie Rose Quandt's investigative piece on the broader national picture of profit-generating senior care.

And we covered the intersection between the economy and the issues that affect the vast majority of Americans, particularly those already marginalized; issues such as student debt, soaring inflation, and the climate crisis. 

Reproductive Rights

We reported repeatedly in 2021 that SCOTUS was a threat to Roe v. Wade; and that the fight for access to abortion would be waged at the grassroots level because the fight couldn't be limited to the courts. We also covered how abortion rights activists fought back with mutual aid and direct action, and warned of the many other privacy rights that would be in jeopardy, including the right to contraception and same-sex marriage, among others.

We also wrote extensively about the reality of reproductive abuses in prisons, from being shackled while giving birth to medical abuse and forced sterilizations. 

And, as Roe was set to be overturned, Chris Walker addressed the inevitable criminalization of anyone who seeks or provides an abortion, while Kelly Hayes interviewed Meghan Daniel about decriminalizing pregnancy and the role of prison and police abolition in the fight for reproductive justice. 

Politics & Elections

Truthout writers William Rivers Pitt, Sharon Zhang and Chris Walker covered immense ground this year, offering readers daily coverage of the latest news coming out of Washington, D.C. They reported on the Biden administration's first year in office and the critical decisions that lay before him; the formation and investigations of the January 6 commission; the threats to democracy; the “politicization” of Trump’s Department of Justice; the rising danger of Christian nationalism; the end of bipartisanship; and much more. We also continued covering right-wing voter suppression — including an investigation by Greg Palast into an effort to suppress over 300,000 primarily Black voters in Georgia — and the very real threat to elections in 2024 and beyond. 

Prisons & Policing

Now in our third decade of chronicling the injustices within the prison and court systems, we continue to build a body of work investigating unconscionable human rights abuses inflicted on incarcerated people. Victoria Law reported on the horrifying tactics police used to coerce a false murder confession out of abuse survivor and mother Melissa Lucio in Texas, resulting in Lucio's incarceration and planned execution; and brought to light Black women’s experiences of sexual violence and criminalization within a racist, sexist judicial system. Meanwhile, James Kilgore analyzed carceral surveillance practices (so-called "alternatives" to mass incarceration); and Candice Bernd highlighted the direct action campaign by Forest Defenders against the "Cop City" project, an 85-acre, $90 million police militarization and training complex planned atop Atlanta's most marginalized and largest watershed.

Our "Road to Abolition" series continued to grow, with Lucien Baskin and Erica R. Meiners writing "Looking to Get Cops Off Your Campus? Start Here."; Lameka Smith writing about youth prisons from her perspective as the mother of a son who was incarcerated at age 13; and Ella Fassler amplifying the incarcerated organizers who planned mass actions at ICE concentration camps, higher learning institutions with ties to prison labor, and jails and prisons across the U.S. 

Environment & Health

We continued decades of climate and environmental reporting, confronting the catastrophe of climate denial head-on, with every inch of our journalistic muscle. And we reached out to activists on the front lines of the struggle for climate justice, giving them a chance to share their strategies and visions with the world. Leanna First-Arai analyzed the harrowing fires in the Western U.S. and spoke with farmers in the Great Plains whose lands were seized as eminent domain in service of pipelines for fossil fuel companies; Jen Deerinwater wrote extensively about Indigenous resistance to pipelines; our podcast, "Climate Front Lines" featured interviews with global climate activists from Appalachia to Brazil; and we examined the intersection of the climate crisis with Russia’s war on Ukraine, with William Rivers Pitt writing about the threat of nuclear war and John Knefel addressing the threat to the climate from increased fossil fuel production and military spending. 

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