August 2025

A calendar of events for this month and voter guide for the upcoming election is included in the original issue, available as a PDF or via the Substack. An official website for the journal is coming soon.

Dear Readers,

Though the Journal will continue, I’m sad to say that my time as the designer for the Mobile Bay Labor Journal has come to a close. Thank you so much for the time we have spent together over the past five-ish months.

The work we choose to do has a major impact on who we are. I believe in the work every one is doing here in Mobile, which is to say I believe in the community that you all are going to build with or without me, and am grateful to have taken part in it, at least for a small time and in a small part. Starting the Labor Journal with some close friends of mine seemed like a small passion project at the time, and yet I cannot believe what it has grown into and through what processes it has enriched my life and sense of community, solidarity, and awareness of Mobile and her beautiful soul. I have grown to love this place as I have been here, and I couldn’t have done it without the strength, courage, and feedback of our community. My time in Mobile would not have been the same without the diligent efforts of the Labor Journal and the people that worked to make it happen.

Although I am sorry to leave and with such an unexpected goodbye, I will always be grateful to the Labor Journal for offering such meaningful engagement with the community I live in and encouraging such generous connection with the people around me.

bell hooks said “the heart of Justice is truth telling, seeing ourselves and the world the way it is rather than the way we want it to be”. We have an obligation to Justice, and therefore an obligation to truth telling. My aim for the Labor Journal is to fulfill that obligation to truth telling through shared passions for writing, curiosity, a desire to tell interesting stories, and a wish to build a better world, which is at the heart of liberation for all peoples.

As a last call, I would like to extend an ask to anyone who might be interested in contributing to the design work of the Labor Journal, or supporting our efforts in general. Please feel free to reach out to us at . Thanks again to all.

With Love, Your Designer,

Alex Ames

Sympathy for the Parents: The Truth about Parental and Religious Liberties

by Gracchus

Most readers may already be familiar with the ongoing challenges faced by the Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) and others across the nation. Groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Alabama Policy Institute, Clean Up Alabama, and Moms for Liberty have made a concerted effort over the past four years to alter both the content of public library collections and the rules around the discussion of gender and sexuality in public schools. They pursue these restrictions under the guise of parental rights, religious liberties, and protecting their first amendment right to free speech. While the religious liberties argument is a tried and true dog whistle for the reactionary right (parochial schools during desegregation, denial of services to the LGBTQ+ community, corporations restricting their health plans’ access to contraceptives, etc.), the parental rights argument is somewhat newer.

Until relatively recently, parental rights have been somewhat uncontroversial as they lacked the reactionary connotations of religious liberties and were hitherto mainly applied in extreme or unusual cases, such as an exemption from high schools for the Amish in Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972). The current character of the parental rights movement finds its roots, alongside most of our problems, in the Reagan era neo-conservative revival. Evangelical Christians, bolstered by the first MAGA president, pushed for the restriction of sex education in public schools, in part as a reaction to growing LGBTQ+ rights. In general, parental rights used to be more about the parents’ rights to withdraw or opt-out their children from certain programs or institutions altogether, barring some McCarthyist exceptions. This took the form of alternatives to public education, not rewriting the curriculum of public institutions. From the Reagan era onwards, it has become about broadly constricting public institutions in order to conform to the ideology of parental and religious rights advocates.

This change and its consequences are abundantly clear in the nature of the debate today. Take, for instance, the fight between Read Freely Alabama and Clean Up Alabama / Moms for Liberty in Prattville. Read Freely, regardless of their disagreement, does not dispute a parent’s right to restrict what books their children can read, what books are allowed in the home, how and when parents dictate internet usage for their children, or what values parents impart on their children. Conversely, Clean Up Alabama and Moms for Liberty want to restrict access to some books in public libraries citing “alternative sexualities” and “alternate gender ideology”, labels sex education books intended for teenagers as pornography, and demands the total withdrawal of state funding for libraries who do not follow their diktats to the letter. This isn’t about what their own kids can or can’t read, it’s about censoring information to other people’s children and to the general public at large. As of June 17, the Fairhope Public Library, long under siege, has reshelved five of the fifteen challenged books in their collection after lengthy committee deliberation, but the reactionary extremists who have usurped the APLS at the behest of Moms for Liberty and Clean Up Alabama still refuse to reinstate tax-payer funding. On this issue we must hope that it does not go the way of the Serapeum.

The moral crusade against city and school libraries is not the only damning indictment of parental and religious liberties. It is important to note that in Wisconsin v. Yoder the issue was never the adoption of a curriculum which challenged the plaintiff ’s religious beliefs, but rather the ability to totally withdraw from an institution which did adopt such a curriculum. The recent Supreme Court decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor allowing for parents to opt-out their children from lessons which include LGBTQ+ friendly topics is a travesty and a willful misinterpretation of precedent by Samuel Alito, a longtime ally of the reactionary right. Similarly, Rebecca Watson, founder of the Baldwin County Moms for Liberty chapter, made her initial mark on local politics in 2023 with a tirade against a “public” drag show in Fairhope, which was held in a private venue. The follo ing year, 1819 News published her opinion piece “God Showed Up for Gay Pride” in which she makes clear her opposition to any public display of LGBTQ+ pride, especially on taxpayer funded properties, on the grounds that any deviation from heteronormativity is obscene and unchristian. Watson defends her views by claiming that she doesn’t care if her neighbor is gay, just as long as they don’t talk about it.

The most insidious aspect of this plot against our society is the rhetorical trickery and obfuscation employed by its conspirators. They claim to defend liberty and preserve freedom of speech, in which they are only partially correct. This partiality reveals the true depravity of their argument, its deception, and its true goals. They do not preach freedom, but instead servility. They do not covet liberty, but instead silence. Duplicity is their creed and demagogues their masters. They seek to return Rome to Tarquin.

The main defence employed by Moms for Liberty and associated groups when confronted with criticism is that their critics are overreacting. They claim that woke ideologues are denying them their rights and that they are simply defending liberty. To the apolitical onlooker this initially appears to have some validity. Currently, these groups are not arguing to ban books, but to reshelve them, often into restricted sections. They are not arguing against the existence of the LGBTQ+ community, but their infringement into public spaces where children may or may not be present. Here one should refer back to Lenin, “Freedom yes, but for whom to do what? Bourgeois-liberal democracy is obsessed with freedoms, but without a distinction between formal and actual freedoms. Formal freedom may be understood as negative freedom, freedom from oppression or coercion, while actual freedom may be understood as positive freedom, the freedom of ability for individuals to achieve their goals. To paraphrase Olivier de France from his essay The Contested Concept of Freedom, actual (positive) freedom puts governments into the role of ensuring that people have the resources and opportunities which otherwise may be denied them due to economic or social constraints.

Should the MAGA conservatives and religious fundamentalists have their way, the formal freedom of speech will be preserved while the actual freedoms that underlie it will be reserved for themselves. LGBTQ+ individuals will be formally free to speak and criticize as they wish, but they will be denied any public forum in which they might be heard, lest said forums be populated by overprotected children. In this way the freedom of speech employed by MAGA conservatives and religious fundamentalists effectively means the freedom to oppress those they dislike while silencing minority voices and critics. It is no coincidence that this line of argumentation has coincided with the deregulation of hate speech.

Taken with Simone de Beauvoir’s The Ethics of Ambiguity, this faulty argument becomes more obvious. The most striking assertion Beauvoir makes in her work is that to exercise one’s freedom without regard for or in direct opposition to the freedom of another is to actively engage in oppression. To quote her directly,

“A freedom which is interested only in denying freedom must be denied. And it is not true that the recognition of the freedom of others limits my own freedom: to be free is not to have the power to do anything you like; it is to be able to surpass the given toward an open future; the existence of others as a freedom defines my situation and is even the condition of my own freedom. I am oppressed if I am thrown into prison, but not if I am kept from throwing my neighbor into prison.”

Is this not a stake to heart of the modern parental rights argument? They argue for the suppression of peoples’ actual freedoms while their opponents simply seek to preserve their own. Few, if any, are arguing for the dissolution of private or parochial schools, however distasteful they may be. While there has been a great deal of criticism of the conservative homeschool movement, there has been no concerted effort to do away with homeschooling that is comparable to the nationwide attacks spearheaded by the Alliance Defending Freedom or Moms for Liberty.

Religious fundamentalists have a right to shield their children from the facts of our multicultural society within their homes, even though it is grave disservice to their children. However, to demand that public institutions cater to their conservative snowflake attitude is an egregious violation of the principles on which public education is based. If an individual or group is unable to handle coming into contact with alternative viewpoints which may challenge their worldview or other deeply held beliefs they should opt-out of general society, not bend it to their own whim and will. Rebecca Watson and her ilk are akin to Bram Stoker’s Renfield, a madman who sees in the murder of others a path to his own immortality. They subvert the freedoms of others in order to maintain their own false freedom, a freedom to impose and oppress. Real, radical, emancipatory freedom is not the unchecked terror of Dracula’s reign, but the sunlight which disintegrates and banishes him from this earth.

Mobile Mayoral Candidates Provide Materials for Public Benches

by HollyRose Baker

In a rare cross-partisan agreement, every candidate in the Mobile mayoral election has come together to distribute supplies for public works to strategic points around the city.

These supply drops consist mostly of 6 to 8 foot long 4x4 wood beams, various lengths of 2x4s, sign boards, and a few fasteners (mostly bolts, nails and screws). It is the hope of these good candidates that such materials will be used to provide the public works that they themselves regrettably lack the political will and ability to construct. “It’s a community initiative,” said an anonymous su porter of one candidate, “we want the community to get involved and do it instead of us.”

These materials are perfectly suited to the particular application of bus stop seating and awnings, and many city residents are planning to utilize them to build such structures as soon as each candidate ceases to need advertising.

There have been some concerns, however, that this initiative is public sector government overreach, and that it might displace local multinational corporations’ current market monopoly on roadside squatting opportunities. For the past thirty years, bus goers have relied on the ever giving shopping cart - ‘donated’ by local Greers and Walmarts - for all of their sitting needs.

“When you turn the cart on its side,” said one attempted bus rider, “you can almost sit on it.” After a moment of contemplative reflection, he continued. “That’s why they call it the WAVE, maybe, mayhaps… ’cause when you are on that shopping cart, sliding down its tilted sides, waiting an hour-fifty-five for that big bus to arrive, you can almost imagine you’re surfing. The wind in your hair from the passing cars. The up and down of your butt on the metal grate of the buggy. It’s a spiritual experience. It’s like you’re out in the ocean waiting to drown. Beautiful.” He went on to say that he has never managed to catch the WAVE. Still, he continues towards self improvement, and hopes to rise to the occasion of public transport someday.

Several local realtors have thrown their hat into the ring, trying to prove that business can outdo government any day. They have provided free branded tarps for the use of any homeless person or truck owner who can simply acquire a boxcutter to separate the ziptie packaging from the buried metal T-stakes they are mounted on for display. Others have given nice 6x6 painted wood beams, with dangly decorative chains and sign boards, free to anyone with a shovel and a dream. They have kindly placed these signs outside of all empty homes and unused properties in case local squatters need help finding places to stay.

The dark twin shadow version of the soon-to-be-retired Mayor - Standy Simpson - has added that he hopes community members will put aside their petty needs and personal hopes for public services, and instead focus on their civic duty to the civic center. He plans to be buried there like a pharaoh of old, alongside the ill-gotten gains of his family’s sordid fortune, which he will take with him to the afterlife. He said “We want to conserve as much cash as the city has, just because, just out of prudence,” presumably in reference to the massive burial chamber he has constructed for himself and his wealth underneath the upcoming Civic Center.

The selection of a new Mayoral God-King is a time when many rise to the occasion and do the hard work for their community, and we here at the Mobile Bay Labor Journal are happy to see that the candidates have all teamed up so diligently to provide such meaningful resources as campaign signs. We encourage our readership to use these resources wisely, because, without a doubt, this is the last time we will see such a giving attitude from any of the candidates.

Instructions for Bench Building

  1. Gather campaign signs and the wood they are mounted on,

  2. Check for damage,

  3. Find a bus stop that needs a bench,

  4. Go to urbanistsociety.com, and look over their illustrated instructions for building public benches out of scrap wood (called Chattanooga Benches),

  5. Pop open a cold beer, and chill on your nice new sick ass bench for a few hours while you wait for the bus.

A Native Flower for your Yard!

by HollyRose Baker, cofounder of the Lower Alabama Native Plant Society

Why Plant Milkweed?

The Asclepius family (milkweeds) are the host plants for monarch butterflies. Monarchs migrate across North America throughout the year in a journey that takes several generations. Part of how they know where they are, and where to travel, is based on which milkweed species are present. Having the wrong milkweed species in the wrong area can also spread more diseases among monarchs. This is why it’s important to only plant milkweed species native to our area.

Wild Growing Conditions

This plant can be seen growing in areas that have experienced a controlled burn. Historically, this plant was common in Spring Hill, Cottage Hill, Satsuma, Semmes, and elsewhere in North and West Mobile County, especially in the rolling hills and sandhill subtypes of the longleaf pine savanna ecosystem. It cannot survive well in closed canopy forests.

How to Purchase and Plant

It’s widely available, but you want to make sure you aren’t getting the Northeastern or Midwestern subspecies. There is also a lot of milkweed fraud, selling tropical milkweed and claiming it’s local, so buying from a trusted source is an absolute must. It does not transplant well. Buy either seeds, dormant roots, or very young plugs. When growing from seed, follow the Prairie Moon germination guide. We recommend Kim’s Nursery in Wilmer Alabama for buying this plant.

Planting Details

Asclepius Tuberosa gets 1–3ft tall, and likes plenty of sun. It needs a dry, well-drained location. It comes back year after year, and flowers throughout the summer. It has a long tap root that can extend down many feet, which makes it drought tolerant as it gets older. It’s not aggressive. The orange flowers look good beside pink swamp milkweed, roundpod St. John’s wort, and mallow.

Butterfly Milkweed

Asclepias Tuberosa

varieties tuberosa and rolfsii

Learn more by looking at the Flora of the Southeastern United States webpage!