Catherine Connolly takes office as Ireland’s president today. Her left-wing insurgent campaign took the Irish political establishment by surprise, winning a record number of votes and proving the Left can still triumph even in a bleak political landscape.
How the US Intervened to Sabotage Angola’s Independence
Fifty years ago today, Angola gained its independence after centuries of Portuguese domination. But US officials like Henry Kissinger were already working hard to orchestrate a devastating proxy war that snuffed out the hopes of national liberation.
Cuba’s Role in Angola Changed the Course of African History
When Angola gained independence in 1975, the Cuban military came to the new government’s defense. The mission had global reverberations, from hastening the fall of South African apartheid to reshaping Cubans’ own identity and worldview.
Democrats Caved in the Shutdown Fight. Unions Let Them.
The government shutdown was a test showing where progressive forces are strong and where they’re weak. The results are in after last night’s Democratic capitulation to the GOP: most top union leaders are failing to meet the moment.
Calls for Central Bank Independence Are Myopic
Donald Trump’s attacks on the Federal Reserve have been met with ardent defenses of central bank independence. Yet the Fed has always been vulnerable to political pressure, something that the insistence on returning to a pre-Trump status quo elides.
At a Brooklyn town hall with Bernie Sanders on Saturday, Zohran Mamdani recounted how Bernie “gave me the language of democratic socialism to describe my politics” and called on supporters to keep organizing after Election Day. We reproduce his speech here.
The Broken Promises of the Green Transition
A decade ago, Western governments pitched the green transition as a solution to reindustrialization and economic decline. The failure of these policies to produce well-paying jobs has triggered a right-wing backlash in both the UK and the US.
The Socialist Who Helped Bring Marx to America
The early-20th-century socialist and New York mayoral candidate Morris Hillquit saw liberalism and democracy as providing a foundation for a transition to socialism. Alongside Eugene Debs, he helped to forge a distinct American socialist tradition.
Francesca Albanese and the Palestinian Fight for Survival
The US sanctions against Francesca Albanese are testament to her courage speaking up for the Palestinians. If international law lies buried underneath the rubble of Gaza, truth-tellers like Albanese have implacably defended basic universalist principles.
One Day, Britain’s Monuments Will Fall
Monuments, museums, and cultural institutions were often created in the image of “militarist realism,” presenting colonialism and enslavement as eternal. Undoing this legacy is not erasing the past but combating a pernicious ideology.
Labor organizing can’t succeed at scale without a supportive legal and political environment, created by majoritarian coalitions that can win reforms, confront corporate power, and prove to skeptical workers that progressive governance delivers.
Labor’s Climate Fight Requires Public Ownership
Green politics won’t succeed if they can’t simultaneously speak to questions of affordability. And green affordability will require expanded public ownership.
William Blake Was a Prescient Critic of Capitalist Alienation
Before socialism even had a name, the poet and painter William Blake saw how the Industrial Revolution’s “dark Satanic mills” harmed humanity. His visionary work condemned the forces of commodification and cold calculation in emergent capitalism.
How Sweden’s Social Democrats Abandoned the Working Class
The decline of Swedish social democracy is an illuminating case study in why the Left is losing the working class. It also offers clues as to how the Left might win workers back.
Diane Keaton Was Never Just Annie Hall
From The Godfather to Reds to Something’s Gotta Give, Diane Keaton moved between comedy and drama with ease, turning self-doubt and control into the twin engines of her art. Across decades of self-invention, she built a career that was unmistakably her own.