For more, see “Meet Some of The Indypendent’s Distribution Heroes” by Indypendent Staff.

How would you like to travel around the world for less than the cost of a subway fare? Actually, for no cost at all. 

In our final issue of 2024, we take you to:

• The Daniel Penny trial in Lower Manhattan where longtime lawyer and activist Eileen Weitzman says the case against Jordan Neely’s killer was sabotaged by the prosecution’s excessive deference toward the former Marine, who was filmed placing the homeless Black street performer in a lethal chokehold for nearly six minutes. 
  
• Washington, D.C., where Social Security — a financial lifeline for tens of millions of Americans — is at grave risk of being privatized by the incoming administration.
  
• The Central Asian petrostate Azerbaijan, where a major U.N. climate conference was recently held. With the world getting hotter and the climate more unhinged every year, rich nations and their fossil-fuel industry lobbyists faced off on one side with poor nations and climate activists on the other. 
  
• Cuba, where the weight of U.S.economic sanctions weigh heavier every day on that socialist nation while activists here urge the Biden administration to ease the sanctions before leaving office.
  
• Cairo, Egypt where The Indypendent’s Amba Guerguerian reports on the efforts of local residents who have formed mutual-aid groups outside of the eye of their dictatorial government to help Gazan refugees stay afloat.  
  
• Back to New York City, where we look at efforts by a cross-campus alliance of students at Columbia, NYU and the CUNY to claw back $327 in annual tax breaks from the two very wealthy private universities. The money would be redirected to the cash-strapped CUNY system, which serves more than 200,000 students, mostly from poor and working-class families.
  
• And, we get the latest on our increasingly MAGAfied mayor.

That’s only the half of it. We have a cover story on a candidate and a democratic-socialist movement that are shifting the mayor’s race to the left with bold, easy-to-understand proposals for addressing our city’s cost-of-living crisis. We have Nicholas Powers reflecting on how neoliberal politicians drained the moral capital left by MLK Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement one “ATM withdrawal” at a time, Bennett Baumer on global economics, and more revelations from Reverend Billy’s latest advice column. 

• • •

While we freely share this paper with all who read it, we still have expenses to cover. And this time each year when we ask all our readers who can do so to chip in. When you give extra, you are standing in solidarity with those readers who can’t afford to send us anything. From each according to their ability and to each according to their needs, as the saying goes. 

Your donations cover our printing bills, which average out to about 10 cents per printed copy. It’s an amazing bargain when you think of what’s contained in these 20 pages. You also help cover the modest salaries of our small team of staffers and various incidental expenses that come with running a news organization, from website server fees to insurance for our outdoor news boxes. We can’t do it without you. Whether you can give $27, $50, $100, $200, $500, $1,000 or more, it makes all the difference. 

We need to reach $50,000 in this year’s winter fund drive to be on solid footing as we head into 2025. I haven’t said the word “Trump” yet — I thought you might like a break — but we all know what’s looming on the horizon. 

As one legacy media company after another bends the knee and social media titans travel to Mar-a-Lago to pay homage to King Donald, one thing we can be certain of is that liberals are going to liberal. The left will be largely on its own, fighting to save everything that can be saved — and to carry forward the vision of a decent and humane society for all of us, not just a privileged few. If you think the next four years are going to be tough, imagine for a moment if The Indy isn’t there to cover the movements that matter in a city that will be in the crosshairs of Trump and the MAGA movement. 

Please give today so we can continue doing the work tomorrow, the next day and the day after. 

You can contribute via Patreon, Substack, PayPal, or Venmo (mobile only) or send a check or money order to:

The Indypendent
388 Atlantic Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11217

Thank you from all of us for your support.

Onward,

John Tarleton
Editor-in-Chief
The Indypendent