Our Top Stories of 2024: 50 Reasons to Support The Indy
Check out 50 of The Indypendent’s best articles from 2024 as we look back at our coverage of a dizzying 12 months that saw college campuses revolt against genocide, the implosion of New York City’s mayor and another spectacular face plant by national Democrats, the many consequences of which we began covering as soon as the ballots were counted.
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NEW YORK CITY
Eric Adams is a Deadbeat Mayor
Eric Adams betrayed the Black and Brown New Yorkers key to his election.
By Nicholas Powers
Why Eric Adams Rose So High
Adams made it easier for centrist Democrats to distance themselves from Black Lives Matter.
By John Teufel
Four City Workers Describe How Budget Cuts Impact the Public Services They Provide
We hear from anonymous workers at the Parks Department, Health + Hospitals, Housing, and the mayor's office.
By Indypendent Staff
Why Daniel Penny Walked
The case against Jordan Neely’s killer was sabotaged by the prosecution’s excessive deference toward the former Marine.
By Eileen Weitzman
Disc Golf Drama: Highland Park Users Dismayed at Being Overrun by Outsiders Flinging Dangerous Plastic Projectiles
New York City has placed its first disc golf course in a park that is already heavily used by local residents of color.
By Sophie Gonick
How Can We Stop National Grid from Using Our Money to Poison Us?
Power company seeks massive rate hikes to continue building fossil fuel infrastructure like Newtown Creek LNG plant.
By Harry Boardman
PALESTINE
Campus Revolt: The Perfect Storm
How a live-streamed genocide, clueless college administrators and heavy-handed policing ignited America’s college campuses.
By John Tarleton
Under Siege, The New York Times and NYPD Are Acting in an Oddly Similar Manner
In the final week of February, two of NYC’s most powerful institutions circled the wagons and doubled down on known falsehoods when confronted by external critics.
By Theodore Hamm
Rafah, Gateway to Gaza
Israel seeks to choke off Gaza's only portal to the world.
By Amba Guerguerian
The Future Taking Shape on College Campuses
In the wake of the spring student encampment movement, universities across the country have rolled out draconian student conduct policies to quell the pro-Palestine movement.
By Adrita Talukder
Welcome to FUNY!
A member of the faculty at the City College of New York describes how the school became the Fenced University of New York (FUNY) in the weeks after the administration sent in the NYPD to dismantle its Gaza Solidarity Encampment and arrest scores of students.
By Dez Paul
Journalists, Martyrs: The Work and Death of Palestinian Reporters in Gaza
Palestinian journalists are being targeted by the Israeli military, and foreign media coverage of Gaza is being tightly restricted by Israel.
By Lane Dibler
CITY OF IMMIGRANTS
Nowhere to Go: Migrants in Flux After Right-to-Shelter Repeal
The City has tightened its shelter rules, leaving many migrants without a home.
By Ariana Orozco
Migrantalujah! The Earth Church Throws Open Its Doors
A radical performance troupe opens its storefront space in the dead of winter as East Village residents rally to aid stranded West African migrants.
By John Tarleton
Washington Heights Woman Welcomes Honduran Family Into Her Home
A migrant family of four from Honduras is building a new life with the help of a New Yorker who invited them to stay with her.
By Keating Zelenke
Life On ICE: Marcial Morales is Still Fighting to Stay Here
Small business owner and father of three on the verge of deportation three years after leading epic hunger strike against immigrant detention.
By Amba Guerguerian
Immigrant Sex Workers Dodge Increased Police Presence on Roosevelt Ave
Advocates argue the mayor's new measures risk over-policing and targeting the community’s most vulnerable members.
By Tanya Raghu
Immigrants on Alert, But Top NY Dems Show No Sense of Urgency
Immigrant-rights groups are preparing for the worst when Trump returns to the White House.
By Ariana Orozco
ELECTIONS
BOE vs. DSA: State Election Authorities Target Socialist Group
The Board of Elections is looking to impose a $312,000 fine on a socialist group that has won eight state legislative seats in recent years.
By Theodore Hamm
Mr.Mayor? Zohran Mamdani’s Mayoral Campaign Has an Army of Supporters Dreaming Big with Him
The Socialist candidate is running on bold solutions to New York City’s affordability crisis.
By John Tarleton
Jessica Ramos Enters Mayoral Race As Feisty Labor Champion Seeking to Become NYC’s First Female Mayor
Queens State Senator Describes Her Campaign as “my love letter to New York City."
By John Tarleton
The Economy of War: Why the Military-Industrial Complex Wins Every Election
The U.S. economy is tied more to the military-industrial complex than we may have realized.
By John Tarleton
Exile in the Promised Land: The Lesson We Should Learn from Kamala’s Crushing Defeat
Harris's defeat is a reminder that empty identity politics can’t defeat Trump’s rightwing populism. Something more radical is needed.
By Nicholas Powers
LABOR, EDUCATION, HEALTH & SOCIAL WELFARE
Labor Breakthrough: Workers Winning Victories Once Thought Impossible
Zoomers and millennials want to turn low-wage retail and service sector jobs into stable, good-paying union jobs.
By Amba Guerguerian
At an Exhilarating Labor Notes Conference, the Working Class is Standing Up
Biannual gathering brings together more than 4,000 labor activists to share experiences and strategies for how to build on the recent surge in pro-union momentum.
By Eric Dirnbach
No Tests, No Grades: The Brooklyn Free School Makes Its Own Rules
The Brooklyn Free School stands out as an alternative. But can it survive?
By Keating Zelenke
“It’s Going to Change Everything:” Bronx Med Students React to Free Tuition Announcement
Students at a Bronx-based medical school will no longer have to pay tuition after a donor gave $1 billion to the school.
By Ariana Orozco
Death By a Thousand Cuts: Community Leaders Unite to Save Stronghold of Brooklyn Healthcare
Central Brooklyn is once again fighting to prevent the closure of SUNY Downstate Hospital.
By Ariana Orozco
Some Republican Leaders Are Looking for Ways to Slash Social Security
A financial lifeline for tens of millions of Americans is at risk of being privatized by the incoming Trump administration.
By Eric Laursen
HOUSING
Under a Brown Ceiling, A Silver Lining: A Bronstein Tenant’s Tale of Perseverance and Collaboration
When tenants form unions, they can use collective power to force change in their buildings.
By Amanda Raker
West Harlem Pushes Back Against Columbia’s Latest Manhattanville Campus Expansion
Amid an affordable-housing crisis in the neighborhood, community members are fighting to stop the university’s ongoing construction of a satellite campus.
By Eric Santomauro-Stenzel
Op-Ed: New York Tenants Need An Enforceable Statewide Right To Counsel
Two tenants explain why it's imperative that we actually have the Right to Counsel.
By Daniel Osagie Inneh & Monica Ordoñes
Life After Landlords: Tenants in Foreclosed Crown Heights Building Seek to Take Over the Property
The residents at 567 St. John’s Place are calling on the City to fund the building’s much-needed upkeep and allow them to run it.
By Amba Guerguerian
POLICING & THE CRIMINAL LEGAL SYSTEM
The NYPD Drops the Mask
The NYPD has morphed into a primary source of bluntly politicized misinformation, even conspiracy theory.
By John Teufel
Eric Garner, 10 Years Later
What happened to the cops who were implicated in the police killing of Eric Garner as captured on cell phone video?
By Theodore Hamm
Why Police Reform Failed
And what we actually need.
By Alex Vitale
Fighting for the First Amendment
How Randy Credico became the “unsung hero” of the campaign to free Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
By Theodore Hamm
Prisons and the Pandemic: Enraging New Book Looks at How Incarcerated Americans Experienced COVID-19
Five people imprisoned in different parts of the country narrate what it was like to be trapped behind prison walls during the COVID-19 pandemic.
By Eleanor J. Bader
Poetry From Behind the Walls
Spoon Jackson has been in prison for 47 years. He recently released an album of spoken word poetry.
By Moira Marquis
INTERNATIONAL
Cuba’s Uncertain Future
A Cuban-American socialist finds hope and heartbreak when he visits the island for the first time.
By Danny Valdes
While the U.S. Descends Into Trumpism, Mexico’s Left Populist Government Flourishes
The success of Mexico’s leftist government that came to power in 2018 reminds us of what might have been if Bernie had won the White House.
By Ariana Orozco
Banlieue Vote Pivotal in French Left’s Upset Election Win
Voters from Paris’s marginalized immigrant communities turned out in large numbers to vote for leftist coalition that championed wealth redistribution and Palestinian statehood.
By Amba Guerguerian
Inside One of Gaza’s Internal Displacement Camps
The Refaat Alareer camp has become a relatively safe place for some of Gaza’s most severely ill and injured residents, but it still can’t protect people from Israel’s violence.
By Amba Guerguerian
Petrostate Stalemate: COP29 Report Back
In Azerbaijan, rich nations and their fossil-fuel industry lobbyists faced off on one side with poor nations and climate activists on the other.
By Renée Feltz
CULTURE
Audre Lorde Reimagined
Alexis Pauline’s new biography of Audre Lorde re-envisions the life story of the legendary “Black lesbian feminist poet warrior mother.”
By Jessica Max Stein
Book Review: Power-Hungry Christian Nationalists Continue to Scale the Commanding Heights of American Society
Talia Lavin’s second book provides a chilling look at the evangelical right’s steady progress in capturing seven key strategic pillars of American society.
By Eleanor J. Bader
A Palestinian Poet Takes Flight
Finan Suwwan Al-Abed is a mother of three who has been writing poetry in her spare time for decades.
By Amba Guerguerian & Finan Suwwan
New York City’s Free Sailing School: Lessons in Avoiding Capitalism
The Free Sailing School, founded in 2022, is located in Queens near Laguardia Airport on a squatted beach plot.
By Moira Marquis
The WNBA is Experiencing a Surge in Popularity… but Does its Fanbase Want It?
The WNBA's 28th season is its most popular so far due to a string of celebrity rookies and a dedicated fanbase who admire the league's celebration of queer and Black women.
By John Tarleton & Ariana Orozco
Reverend Billy's Revelations
Post-election reflections and a fond farewell to the Earth Church.
By Billy Talen