It is beyond doubt that free speech, integral to the First Amendment and one of the most fundamental rights of any free society, is under attack in America. 

The assault on freedom of expression didn’t start with the Trump government’s attacks on the most tepid critics. Censorship is built into the very fabric of our corporate-owned media system. And one odd thing about the so-called liberal media in the US is that it is often profoundly conservative.

Media consolidation has proceeded at a dizzying rate. Today a handful of massive corporations own and control almost everything that people see and hear. And this monopolization of media extends beyond broadcasting. Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, three of the richest people on the planet and owners of sprawling media empires, are now counted as Donald Trump’s allies.

Free speech is a left-wing issue, and that the Right should never have had an opportunity to claim the free speech mantle. Attacks on our most fundamental rights of expression hurt the Left the most.

We do not own the media industry. We do not have access to the Oval Office to argue for the need for Medicare for All, affordable housing, and taxing the rich. We have to achieve these things through a mass movement composed of ordinary people. And ordinary people rely on their fundamental right to free expression.