These are terrible times—escalating wars, racialized police violence, environmental collapse on full display, democratic institutions on life support, bodily integrity under assault. On the other hand—26 million people poured into the streets in response to the police murder of George Floyd, women across a wide political spectrum have refused to accept a medieval definition of their rights, and broad forces are on the march world-wide to resist plunder and extraction, and to preserve life on earth. Charles Dickens would recognize the contradiction: the winter of despair and the spring of hope; an age of foolishness and an age of wisdom. Life is never one thing in isolation of every other thing. Yes, there is oppression, but there is also resistance. And, yes, the predatory heart of capitalism is incorrigibly avaricious, aching to transform everything within reach into a profit-generating commodity: teaching and learning are turned into the education business, human health morphs into the healthcare industry, art is transfigured into the art market. But our imaginations, nourished and unleashed, have the capacity to “light the slow fuse of possibility.” And our resistance fuels our imaginations.

I met up at the Socialism 2023 Conference with Anthony Arnove and Haley Pessin, the editors of Voices of a People’s History of the United States in the 21st Century. It’s the latest in the series initiated and inspired by Howard Zinn’s ground-breaking work. Their subtitle, “Documents of Hope and Resistance” perfectly captures the tone, the feel, and the content of this great book—hope is a discipline, resistance is a necessity.

BONUS: A short conversation with two of the Tampa Five, students arrested and on trial for fighting back against the reactionary attacks on schools, colleges, and universities in Florida.