COVID-19 - Dissent Magazine

Belabored Stories: Someday the Museums Will Reopen

Sarah Jaffe ▪ March 30, 2020

We will need art “on the other side of this,” says a worker at the Guggenheim Museum.

Belabored Stories: When Gig Workers Are Emergency Responders

Michelle Chen ▪ March 30, 2020

Instacart workers are on strike today to demand the company recognize the importance of their grocery delivery service amid the pandemic.

Belabored Stories: “How Can We Bounce Back From This?”

Michelle Chen ▪ March 28, 2020

Taxi and rideshare drivers were struggling before the pandemic hit. Now, faced with plummeting ridership and high personal risk, they are demanding comprehensive aid.

Belabored Stories: “Let’s Shut it Down”

Sarah Jaffe ▪ March 27, 2020

Fast food workers in North Carolina are on strike today after being deemed “essential workers” yet treated as anything but.

Belabored Stories: Masks Make the Customers Nervous

Sarah Jaffe ▪ March 26, 2020

A Domino’s delivery driver decided to stop working in unsafe conditions. He worries a coworker with respiratory problems “will most likely work until he is dead.”

Belabored Stories: “I Have to Feed My Family”

Michelle Chen ▪ March 25, 2020

Amazon workers face hazardous conditions, but many can’t afford to stay home.

Belabored Stories: Who Counts as Essential?

Sarah Jaffe ▪ March 24, 2020

“Do they plan to just keep replacing people as they get sick, quit in fear or burnout, get quarantined, self-isolate, or die off over the coming weeks or even months?”

Hong Kong’s Fragile Autonomy

Jeffrey Wasserstrom ▪ March 24, 2020

The current crisis has exposed how little remains of the “one country, two systems” framework.

Reclaim Our Homes

Sarah Jaffe ▪ March 20, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic is forcing politicians to act in ways that just weeks ago seemed unthinkable. And activists like the Reclaimers are opening the cracks still wider.

We Must Respond Quickly to the Economic Crisis

Mike Konczal ▪ March 20, 2020

There is little risk in doing too much to stabilize the economy. The danger is doing too little.

It Doesn’t Have to Be a War

Tim Barker ▪ March 20, 2020

The Trump administration appears ready to invoke the Defense Production Act to speed manufacture of essential goods like face masks. What if we didn’t have to resort to the analog of war?