Katharina Pistor argues that capitalism is a legal regime we can transform by rewiring private law. But a reform program that ignores the wage relation and the exploitation of labor will leave the core of capitalism untouched.
What Ballot Measures Told Us About America
Last week’s votes on taxing billionaires, abortion and trans rights, and divestment from Israel offer a window into the American electorate’s political mood.
Trump Is Still Attacking Vets’ Health Care
Unlike other Trump administration officials who have gotten, or may soon get, the axe, Veteran Affairs head Doug Collins seems safe in his position. In the absence of legislative and grassroots pushback, he is set to continue dismantling the VA.
A Sewer Socialist Proposal for the Climate: PowerNYC
PowerNYC, a public clean energy developer in New York, could be Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s climate engine, lowering costs and creating a more resilient, greener electricity grid for New Yorkers.
Trump’s Midterm Rout Didn’t End the Threat From J. D. Vance
President Trump’s midterm debacle has weakened the entire MAGA camp. But J. D. Vance, a more disciplined and more ideological far-right figure, is already positioning himself to inherit the movement in 2028.
Is Trump Crashing the Dollar Empire?
Economist Mona Ali on how the United States wields the world’s most powerful currency to shore up empire and its own ruling class — and how Trump’s careless moves might blow it all up.
The real choice is not between globalization and deglobalization, free trade and tariff walls, but between empowering capital and empowering workers.
Whatever Centrists Say, the Left Won Big in the Midterms
Don’t allow centrists to change the terms of debate and the metrics of success. Last week’s midterms saw victories for socialists and other progressives that will allow the Left to grow in the months and years to come.
Providence Built a Winning Movement to Divest From Israel
Providence, Rhode Island, is now the largest US city to divest from Israel and the first to enact a divestment law through popular vote. An organizer on the campaign explains how they did it alongside campaigning for socialist elected officials.
Wild Horse Nine Skewers the Dangerous Fools Behind US Empire
Wild Horse Nine is an irreverent portrait of the dopes who traffic in violence against democracy around the world, all in the service of US empire. But the connection between human callousness and evil has flown over the heads of some critics.
On Strike for a Different Spain
Spain will see a general strike on Wednesday, following mass protests around housing. A member of Marxist group Coordinadora Juvenil Socialista discusses how these protests have cohered a militant class-based movement for more sweeping change.
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s Empire became a campus sensation because it offered a master theory for globalization at a moment when old Marxist categories seemed exhausted. But the capitalist internationalism they saw as permanent has now crashed and burned.
End the Private Health Insurance Tax: Pass Medicare for All
Make no mistake: the thousands of dollars that come out of your paycheck each year to pay for health insurance is a tax, just one paid to a private insurer rather than the federal government. Medicare for All would actually lower your taxes.
An Effective AI Pushback Has to Go Beyond the Local
The midterms made clear that Americans are angry about the headlong rush into artificial intelligence. We are blocked from needed federal action for now, but states and localities have options that can move us toward eventual national regulation.
The Dollar’s Power Never Came From Oil
The emergence of the dollar as the world’s currency was the result of the rise of the US as the preeminent global power. But the slow erosion of US economic and political power will not automatically spell the end of the dollar system.
Reactionary Feminists Offer Bad Solutions to Real Problems
Reactionary feminist writers Mary Harrington and Louise Perry dress up arguments for marriage and sexual restraint in Marxist rhetoric. But they also point to the limits of liberal feminism — limits that the Left needs to grapple with.