Michelle Z Chen

@BronxZoo Will you be open on 2/25?

WEATHER ALERT: Due to the winter storm, all WCS Parks—the Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, Queens Zoo & the NY Aquarium will remain closed on 2/24. No rescheduling is required. Admission tickets for 2/24/26 will be honored for any daytime visit through 4/1/2026.

Across the country, neighbors are working together to protect one another from Trump’s immigration crackdowns. @meeshellchen writes about the grassroots movements to protect communities from ICE. thenation.com/article/activi…

I started reporting for this weeks before the recent crackdowns in Minneapolis. It's important to remember that the nationwide organizing context of the uprising in MN is not just about protesting, but mobilizing whole communities to protect the most vulnerable. #stopice

When ICE comes to the neighborhood, communities fight back. @meeshellchen takes inside the grassroots defense against deportation raids. thenation.com/article/activi…

@AllOfItWNYC @thedogist @francismorrone @TheAtlantic @chlothegodd @WNYC Is there a Cattist?

Today: @thedogist's new book; architecture scholar @francismorrone on Art Deco in NYC; @TheAtlantic's Sophie Gilbert on feminism in 2000s pop culture; @chlothegodd performs Live at noon on 93.9 FM, AM820 or @WNYC.org

On the history of political deportations since the postwar Red Scare. progressive.org/latest/the-dar… #Immigration

Expelled Columbia student Grant Miner, president of UAW Local 2710, which represents thousands of student workers, joined NYC protests demanding Mahmoud Khalil’s release. He says the crackdown on the student movement for Palestine has only strengthened their resolve.

TCAT Bus Operators make Ithaca move. So why can't they afford to live there? Whether it's a living wage, better benefits, or a schedule they can rely on, UAW bus drivers at Local 2300 are revving up the fight for a fair contract — and they're willing to authorize a strike to win. @UAWregion9

I’m free! I wrote this on the plane and I’m posting it just after landing at Istanbul. On Monday evening I was brought to Zurich airport in handcuffs, in a small metal cage inside a windowless prison van and led all the way to the plane by police. This is after three days and two nights in a Swiss prison cut off from communication with the outside world, in a cell 24 hours a day with one cell mate, not even permitted to contact my family. On Saturday in a police interview in the presence of my lawyer they accused me of “offending against Swiss law” without ever telling me what crime I had committed in Switzerland or listing any charges. As far as I know I have not been charged with any crime whatsoever and I was held in “administrative detention.” On Sunday morning, they took me from my cell for questioning by Swiss defense ministry intelligence agents without the presence of my lawyer, and they again refused to allow me to contact her or my family. I refused to talk to them without my lawyer and told them take me back to my cell. During my imprisonment I refused every meal and every cup of coffee or tea they offered me except the last meal, after I knew I would be going home. I accepted only water, which is the right of every human being. All of this was after I was abducted off the street around 1:30pm on Saturday while on my way to the Palestine teach-in by undercover agents, handcuffed, forced into an unmarked car and sped straight to the prison. My “crime”? Being a journalist who speaks up for Palestine and against Israel’s genocide and settler-colonial savagery and those who aid and abet it. I came to Switzerland at the invitation of Swiss citizens to talk about justice for Palestine, to talk about accountability for a genocide in which Switzerland too is complicit. But while I was hauled off to prison like a dangerous criminal before I even had a chance to say a word, the Israeli president Isaac Herzog, who declared at the start of the genocide that there are no civilians in Gaza, no innocents, received a red carpet welcome in Davos, a carpet soaked in the blood of the more than 47,000 known victims of the genocide and the thousands more still under the rubble, or who died of deliberately inflicted starvation and denial of medical care. And on this very day Netanyahu freely travels to Poland to make a mockery of the Auschwitz commemoration despite an outstanding ICC arrest warrant. That is the perverse, unjust world we live in. This ordeal lasted three days but that taste of prison was more than enough to leave me in even greater awe of the Palestinian heroes who endure months and years in the prisons of the genocidal oppressor. More than ever I know that the debt we owe them is one we can never repay and all of them must be free and they must remain our focus. The police gave me my phone back only at the gate of the plane so I’m only seeing now the extent of the overwhelming support and solidarity from all over the world. I’m deeply grateful to each and every person who stood up for me. I’m especially grateful to my lawyer Dina Raewel and her team, to our friends in Zurich who I learned afterwards demonstrated outside the prison, to my family and my colleagues at EI and so many others. I honestly had no idea what was happening outside that concrete room! Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I want to tell the whole story of what happened, perhaps in an @intifada livestream in the next day or two, because I think it’s important for people to know the depths to which their Western so-called “democracies” have sunk in the abject service of genocidal Zionism. Right now I’m glad to be on my way home. I’m looking forward to hugging my mom and dad, taking a shower and sleeping in my own bed. Journalism is not a crime! Speaking out for Palestine is not a crime! Standing against racist genocidal Zionism is not a crime! Say it with me: From the River to the Sea Palestine Will Be Free! ❤️🇵🇸✌️

A product of abolition affirmed by resistance to Chinese Exclusion, #BirthrightCitizenship is a perfect target for politicians who want to attack constitutional protections against racism as much as they want to dismantle constitutional rights of #immigrants and their families.

Listen to more from us and @akscsfba on Hindu Supremacy in the diaspora and caste in the United States in our new podcast episode hosted by @meeshellchen on @APFRadio

"They claim to be a model minority, not an oppressed minority. This distinction is critical, they do not advocate for social justice, or justice for all. On the one hand Hindu Supremacists align with pro-democratic organizations by creating the optics of representing minorities. On the other hand they deny social justice using the model minority narrative to align with right-wing groups."

New episode of @APFRadio is out, with interviews with . @ProfJanelleWong and .@WeAreSavera, about #AAPI politics, the intersections of the Hindu far right and domestic politics, and organizing under #Trump. #Election2024 #affirmativeaction #Hindutva open.spotify.com/episode/5k12v5…

New episode of @APFRadio is out, with interviews with .@ProfJanelleWong and .@WeAreSavera about #AAPI politics, the intersections of the Hindu far right and domestic politics, and organizing under #Trump. #Election2024 #affirmativeaction #Hindutva open.spotify.com/episode/5k12v5…

New episode of @APFRadio is out, with interviews with @ProfJanelleWong and @WeAreSavera about #AAPI politics, the intersections of the Hndu far right and domstic politics, and oranizing under Trump open.spotify.com/episode/5k12v5…

I wrote about #prison #slavery and why it will persist in 2025. #prop6 #ReparationsNow #labor truthout.org/articles/other…

I wrote about the #Palestine solidarity protests in higher education and what it tells us about "academic freedom" today. #Gaza #HigherEducation #cornell #academia #StudentProtest #Labor #Union @Cornell_GSU @AAUP truthout.org/articles/its-b…

In solidarity with the #MakeAmazonPay Coalition striking for better pay and working conditions on #BlackFriday, read the always relevant Amazon worker-organizer series we supported at @inthesetimesmag in Oct 2020: inthesetimes.com/article/amazon… ✍️@meeshellchen 🎨@mollycrabapple

In Rochester, New York, photograoher Susan Meiselas returns 10 years later to a century-old clothing factory, documenting the stories and legacy of union workers and their role in the country’s labor movement. With reporting by @meeshellchen. thenation.com/article/econom…

I wrote about one of the oldest unionized garment factories in the US. A testament to the power of immigrant labor, and of excellent tailoring. @WorkersUnited