Autumn 2026 Organizing Reports
Volume 27, no. 3, Public Health
You can find previous organizing reports here. Contact secretary@sciencefothepeople.org to get involved!
Western Mass
On April 9, inside a packed lecture hall at Amherst College, Western Mass Science for the People hosted anti-imperalist environmental documentarian Abby Martin for open discussion of her new film, Earth’s Greatest Enemy.1 In the two weeks leading up to the key event, “Organizing to Stop Militarism,” Western Mass SftP presented seven screenings of Martin’s film at all five area colleges, along with a Unitarian Universalist church in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.2
Early on, our group saw the film screenings and live event with Martin as an opportunity to strengthen the region’s anti-war network. Over the course of many weeks, we worked together to recruit a coalition of more than 30 co-sponsoring organizations from local campuses and the surrounding community. These groups represented a range of causes, including anti-militarism, anti-imperialism, and environmental justice. A number of the organizations brought literature to share at the event.
About 20 organizations kicked off the event with short introductions to their work. The organizations included Demilitarize Western Massachusetts, which has conducted multiple acts of civil disobedience at the local weapons manufacturer L3 Harris and recently had a significant win in court using the necessity defense.3 The standing-room-only auditorium of activists and organizers generated a strong sense of community with a shared urgency to demilitarize the empire in order to save people and the planet.
Undergraduate member Ren Patel then offered introductory remarks to frame the event with respect to SftP’s work. She noted, “Radical science built by and for the people… goes beyond resisting the use of science for exploitation, oppression, imperialism, war, and capitalism. It is also about ripping out all forms of oppression rooted within science’s ontology.”
As Martin underscored during her remarks, “Science cannot save us from climate change when it serves the US Military. Under the current paradigm, science will only reproduce the problems it could otherwise solve.” The discussion also emphasized the need to support STEM students in pursuing careers outside the military-industrial complex.
After the event, organizers stayed to network and browse the literature shared by co-sponsors. Martin communicated her appreciation for the way the event centered the broader movement. She wants the film to be a resource for the grassroots organizations that are already doing the work, and an inspiration for those who are just beginning.
The event made clear the importance of local organizations and associations working together to resist the power structures that bolster militarism. All such groups need to: 1) understand how they fit into this bigger system and 2) determine how they can disrupt it. The film Earth’s Greatest Enemy and associated ‘Organizing to Stop Militarism’ event were important because they forced us to see how our entire environment, even the mundane, is connected to the violent, destructive, and exploitative US military apparatus. We have been excited to learn that two groups who attended the event at Amherst College have decided to work together to present an additional 11 screenings throughout a neighboring county’s public library system.
Chicago
In our first four months of revitalization, the Chicago chapter has continually grappled with the question of what does it mean to do science for the people? This is critical because a Science for the People chapter can be many things—a place for socialists to convene within the academy, a place for us to develop and share our analyses of the role of science in society and in the fight for liberation, a place for us to act in that framework—and often all at the same time! While the initial directions and subsequent changes of direction have been shaped by a recently solidifying membership, our tendency toward the practical can likely be attributed to the tumultuous period over which we have formed. Chicago has suffered the range of struggles inflicted by the Trump administration in the service of the capitalist class and so it is hard to say that this time is a good time to organize or read together. At the same time, this moment has inspired several tendencies so far that are defining the chapter and our actions.
We have wanted to make change here in Chicago. Seeing how capital has sacrificed our environmental and economic wellbeing to develop advanced computing technologies, we grew interested in supporting our neighbors in fighting for their own wellbeing and taking democratic control over installation of data infrastructure. This has manifested primarily through our collaboration with the community organizers in Southside Together against the construction of the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Plant (IQMP) in the South Shore neighborhood of the city. In some ways, this fight is not new. US Steel infilled the land 140 years ago and built a factory on the plot that is now in question. During their tenure at the site, US Steel spilled so much petroleum and let so much waste leach into the ground that nothing has been built there since, not to speak of the chronic effects of pollution during its operations. The current developers, supported by the city and state, are happy to perturb the ground while taking minimal steps toward remediation. All of this while the project being built will serve tech companies and the military but create virtually no jobs for community members. Our members have attempted to extend the capacity of the organizers to understand the science of the project, dispute claims being made to quiet dissent in the community, and prove that the project should be cancelled. This collaboration will continue to evolve along with the campaign, and we’re excited to support the vision of the organizers and develop the experience necessary to take on other environmental justice fights.
We have sought to develop diverse membership. I always emphasize that “for the people” means that we shouldn’t be a group of academics looking out at the world. On one hand, we’re clustered in the University of Chicago (UChicago) community, which is, for those unfamiliar, a social and geographic bubble. On the other hand, active members and meeting attendees have spanned a wide range of careers and ages, including some members of the original SftP. We continue to discuss expanding recruitment and are attempting to develop branches elsewhere in the city. This has been challenging, especially related to how we balance those efforts with other chapter activities, and conceptualizing how we can scale up to match those efforts.
We have also sought to develop a strong network. In lieu of a broad member base, we’ve tried to make a lot of connections. The people I’ve talked to—teachers, socialists, union organizers, and others—are excited to know that there’s a group like SftP. As we continue to develop, we look forward to asking them for support. We considered this in planning our current reading group, centered on the history of environmental racism and environmental justice in the city, but focused on takeaways for organizing strategy and coalition building today. The connections that we are building with Southside Together, Chicago DSA, and campus unions at UChicago, among the broader set of environmental justice and social change-oriented groups in the city, are just the beginning as we develop awareness around the power of science in relation to social change.
As our work comes to fruition and our chapter matures, we hope that these tendencies come together to create an example for aspirational but effective organizing in the sciences and a new source of counter-hegemony capable of inspiring noncompliance in the scientific status quo across the Midwest. Do not hesitate to reach out to sftpchicago@gmail.com if you’d like to get involved or our vision inspires you too!
—Josh Sodicoff
Agitprop Subcommittee
In March 2026, the Communications Committee formed the Agitprop (agitational propaganda) Subcommittee, with the intention of building a space in Science for the People dedicated to the development of agitational art, public interventions, and messaging strategies to support organizing goals. We spent our early meetings discussing the vision for our work and carving out our subcommittee’s unique identity, guiding principles, and purpose within the broader organization.
This included tackling such questions as: “Through which avenues and media will we seek to reach our audiences, and to what ends?” and “How do we define and scope our work so that our efforts feel intentional, directed, and efficient?” In parallel, we took the time to educate ourselves on the history and meaning of “agitprop,” and the many diverse forms that organizations and community actors around the world—including Science for the People—have creatively employed these media towards various political ends. Through the creation of an Agitprop Reading Archive, we have compiled an initial repertoire of agitprop case studies spanning flyering, zine/pamphlets, theater, graffiti, agitational campaigning, electronic civil disobedience, and infrastructural interventions as well as historical, critical, and expository texts on past, present, and future agitprop tactics and practices.
After this initial research and discussion, we came to a guiding statement for the Agitprop subcommittee:
The Agitprop Subcommittee seeks to agitate, activate, and escalate responses across science-worker communities, alongside other communities directly or indirectly affected by the science military industrial complex, in support of Science for the People’s Principles of Unity and movement for a radical transformation of science and society. In order to mobilize against both capitalist scientific institutions and reactive liberal movements, this subcommittee will expand the creative techniques, strategies, and avenues which leftist movements like Science for the People—and our allied organizations—employ to engender action. Finding solidarity with creators/artists/artisans within and beyond SftP’s network, our subcommittee hopes to harvest our organization’s internal multidisciplinary wealth, while also encouraging inventive, resourceful, and responsive actions from SftP members who have not otherwise practiced agitprop or related artistic strategies.
An early initiative of our subcommittee was facilitating communications with the Archive Working Group, which is tasked with digitizing and organizing the vast resources and secondary literature of the original SftP organization. Our groups agree that there is much potential in the understanding and use of historical SftP materials in contemporary agitprop actions, and we foresee fruitful collaboration with the Archive Working Group in the future.
The Agitprop Subcommittee is now in the midst of identifying, selecting, and planning our first projects, which will be prototypes for our future work. So far, we have identified a pressing need for materials to support SftP member recruitment and engagement, particularly for the many chapters and working groups in the midst of start-up efforts. With this in mind, our subcommittee will seek to develop a toolkit of agitprop materials that will: (1) stimulate people disillusioned by or questioning the institution of science in a capitalist and imperialist society; (2) activate these people by providing a clear route of entry into further political education and organizing efforts within Science for the People (or our many allied leftist organizations); and (3) escalate their own internal political development and engagement with organizing. To ensure goals 2) and 3) are successfully met, we will accompany our messaging with clear escalation pathways that channel, recruit, and engage audiences towards intentional next steps, This strategy will also serve to combat the potential pitfall of leading potential members to liberal or apolitical organizations (like Stand up for Science and other like-minded groups holding unnuanced pro-science agendas). Our materials and actions will direct people towards clear next steps, including contact with SftP or allied actors.
Throughout the work of the subcommittee, we aim to train all members in rhetorical compression: distilling complex political issues into straightforward, emotionally resonant, shareable formulations without losing strategic clarity. We also aim to develop the internal solidarity, resourcefulness, and collaborative spirit among our members. Our work will operate through digital and in-person territories and will target specific audiences rather than creating “noise” without real direction.
The Agitprop Subcommittee is open to any members of Science for the People who are interested in joining. We do not seek any specific skillset in new members. If we have learned anything from previous agitprop actions, it is that plenty of successful efforts have emerged from communities of under-resourced non-artists whose resourceful approach to creative messaging utilized whatever spaces, materials, and skills they had on hand. New members need only bring a desire to learn and contribute to a growing effort of agitprop development for the future growth of SftP, the success of our projects and campaigns, and the expansion of our public outreach.
To join us, please email sftp-comms@googlegroups.com with a brief intro and statement of interest. If you are not yet a member of Science for the People, please fill out our onboarding form first. Thank you.
Notes
- Earth’s Greatest Enemy, directed by Abby Martin, (2026; The Empire Files), https://earthsgreatestenemy.com/.
- Western Mass SftP, “Organizing to Stop Militarism,” https://westernmass.scienceforthepeople.org/events/stopmilitarism/.
- Phil Wilson, “Hope in Northhampton: Tiny Protestors Faced Off Against US Military Capitalism…and Won!” Common Dreams, Jan 4 2026, https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/protesters-vs-military-capitalism.
