
Our Top Stories of 2018: 52 Reasons to Support The Indy
Highlights from a year full of yellow vests and Brazilian fascists, extinction rebellion and women stampeding the halls of Congress, sit-ins, power outages and #MeToo punk rock, children in cages and wall-busting activism, the rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the fall of many powerful old white dudes (with many more to go).


Our annual winter fund drive is underway and to get things started we’re sharing the best of this year’s hard-hitting reporting, insightful analysis and deep-dive cultural criticism — all of which you’ve come to expect from The Indy. Each article on this list represents another reason to support New York’s left-wing newspaper.
New York
Alexandria vs. Goliath
John Tarleton & Lydia McMullen-Laird
Government for Sale: The real estate industry is Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s number one backer and it is getting its money’s worth.
Georgia Kromrei
Why the State Senate Matters
Ross Barkan
Over Half a Million Dollars from Trump-Related Donors Has Flowed to Andrew Cuomo
Decca Muldowney
As Developers Blackball Unions, #CountMeIn Breeds Solidarity
Steven Wishnia
Rats in the Hallway: Working-class women of color and young white socialists join forces against a private equity slumlord.
Georgia Kromrei
For The Birds: An Uptown art project highlights the perils of climate change.
Nancy Hoch
National
Gearing Up for a Green New Deal: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the plan to change everything.
Peter Rugh
Six Months on, Many of Hurricane Maria’s Refugees Still Have No Place to Go
Erin Sheridan
The Trump Administration is Dismantling the Refugee Resettlement System
Richard Salame
Saudi Inc: The US’s Controversial Ally Is Buying Up America
Rico Cleffi
You’ve Got Mail: After Supreme Court ruling, union members are receiving ‘stomach-turning’ messages from right-wing groups.
Steven Wishnia
International

Illustration by Daniel Fisher.
Life After Deportation: Their father was returned to Haiti. Now what?
Lydia McMullen-Laird
Rojava, a Socialist-Feminist Bastion in Syria, is Under Siege
Meredith Tax
In Palestine, Go to Hospital, Go to Jail
Jaclynn Ashly
The Ghost of Maurice Audin: After decades, French authorities admit to the torture and execution of a young activist in Algeria. But the mystery is far from solved.
Youcef Oussama Bounab
Mexico’s AMLO Bucks The Right Wing Trend, But Will He Buck The System?
Laura Carlsen
Jair Bolsonaro, the Trump of the Tropics, Prepares to Take Power in Brazil
Michael Fox
Dawn of the Yellow Vests
Richard Greeman
Commentary
We Will Be Heard: #MeToo After Kavanaugh
Linda Martín Alcoff
Fear of a Black Planet
Nicholas Powers
It’s The Other Way AroundCentral American immigrants aren’t invading us. We invaded them.
John Tarleton
What Our Drivers Need: The leader of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance weighs in on the crisis afflicting ride-for-hire employees.
Bhairavi Desai
Building The City We Need
Bennett Baumer
The Long Game: What The Left Can Learn From The GOP’s Rise To Power
John Tarleton
Why Old, Rich, White Guys Are So Pathologically F’d Up: And other musings from our advice columnist.
Reverend Billy Talen
People

Zephyr Teachout. Credit: Elia Gran.
Zephyr Teachout: ‘The Wrong People Are in Jail Right Now’
John Tarleton
Judah Friedlander: World Champion
Peter Rugh
Raiders of the Lost Art: Intricate works of art produced by Guantánamo detainees have been allowed to trickle out of the prison camp for years. The Trump administration has other plans in mind.
Nancy Hoch
Meet Marty Stolar, a Lawyer Who Carries Protests into the Courtroom
Apoorva Tadepalli
Brother of Douglas Schifter, Livery Driver Who Took His Own Life in Protest at City Hall, Speaks Out
Peter Rugh
Alsarah: The Sounds We Smuggle Inside Us
Charina Nadura
Shea Diamond Speaks Her Truth
Camille May Baker
Truth, Lies, Wrestling and the American Way
Philip Yiannopoulos
Class Struggles:For CUNY’s working-class and immigrant students, making their way through college often means navigating challenges that extend well beyond the classroom.
Mohammed Kabir | Anthony Pascual | Cheyenne Short
A Teacher’s Education
Farid Nassif
Vallery Lomas is Sweeping Up the Crumbs: Meet the most talented baker you’ve never heard of. And try her recipe for pumpkin chocolate swirl bread.
Manvi Jalan
Tech
Unfriending Mark Zuckerberg
Peter Rugh
The MTA Website Leaks Private User Data Due to Basic Technical Flaw
John Bolger
The DIY Gaming Revolution
Chris Rasa
Bargaining with Robots
Nathan Schneider
Criminal Justice
The People’s P.I.: Manuel Gomez is using the skills he picked up as a Bronx cop to get the wrongly accused out of jail.
Simon Davis-Cohen
Why Is The Brooklyn DA Still Keeping John Giuca Behind Bars?
Theodore Hamm
After 47 Years Behind Bars, Will Jalil Muntaqim Go Free?
Messiah Rhodes
Rumblings in the Belly of the Beast: Prisoners in multiple states carried out a prison strike.
Libby Rainey
Reviews
Australia’s #MeToo Punks
Brady O’Callahan
Why Reds Were Better in Bed
Ann Schneider
Laboring in Vain: The history and the nature of work are put under the microscope in two books 2018 must-reads.
Lauren Kaori Gurley
When Karl Marx Was Young And Dashing
Michael Hirsch
Capitalism for the People?
Steve Sherman
Michael Moore’s ‘Fahrenheit 11/9’: A Call to Challenge American Despotism
Mark Read
Coming Out On the Field: ‘Mario’ Confronts Taboo in Men’s Sports
Gordon Glasgow
This is all — all of it! — reader supported news. Make a contribution.
Photo credit (top): Roven Images.