For decades, Dolly Parton, who died yesterday at age 80, wrote about poverty, hard work, and the defiant pride of working-class women. The Left should steal a page from her songbook.
For The Economist, Mentioning Workers’ Interests Is Heresy
Daron Acemoglu, who won the Nobel Prize in 2024, is no heterodox economist. But now The Economist magazine has damned his work, because it challenges the untrammeled power of Big Tech elites.
The Daycare Wars Are a Trap
The harshest critics and the biggest boosters of childcare programs are trapped in an unproductive debate. We need much more generous funding for both daycare and at-home childcare so families can choose the option that works best for them.
Camp Miasma Is More Theory-Head Satire Than Horror
The new slasher film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma promises “a frenzy of psychosexual mania.” What director Jane Schoenbrun delivers is tamer but considerably funnier.
FIFA’s Gianni Infantino Must Resign
Ever more footballers are pressuring FIFA chief Gianni Infantino to resign after he plotted to sell off the World Cup. Removing him should be the first step in a root-and-branch reform to put the game back in the hands of players and ordinary fans.
American Freedom Was Built on Endless Conquest
The Founders made expansion the precondition of American freedom. We must find an alternative.
Jonathan Chait’s Atlantic essay claims the Democratic Socialists of America has betrayed the legacy of its founder, Michael Harrington. It gets DSA’s history, and what the organization is today, wrong.
Centrists Despise Hasan Piker More Than They Want to Win
Democratic Party centrists’ well-funded and single-minded war on socialists is leading them to take increasingly contorted, absurd positions against figures like leftist streamer Hasan Piker.
The Return of Industrial Policy
Industrial policy is back in vogue in recent years — but without the working-class power to discipline capital, it’s just public money flowing to private profit.
Put AI Under Social Ownership for Social Purposes
Public ownership may seem like the most obvious solution to the problems posed by AI. But purpose trusts could offer a more pluralistic form of social ownership — one that subordinates profit to a variety of public purposes.
Goodbye to the Grifters Harry and Meghan
America gave Prince Harry and Meghan Markle streaming deals, sunshine, and an insane amount of money. What it couldn’t give them was a personality independent of the monarchy.
Mainstream economics cannot accept the concept of contradiction that is foundational for Karl Marx’s analysis of capitalism. David Harvey explains why we need the Marxist perspective if we want to make sense of capital’s latest mutations in the age of AI.
Berlin’s Election Can Make Socialized Housing a Reality
It’s been five years since Berliners voted by referendum to expropriate the big corporate landlords. The ruling parties blocked the move, but next month’s state elections could produce a left-wing government that can finally honor the vote.
Yes, Let’s Talk About the Cookshops of the Future
Karl Marx’s anti-utopian line is often used to avoid discussion about what socialism would be like. But engaging in the nuts and bolts of how a postcapitalist economy might work is also necessary, to make it more than a distant dream.
Class Traitors Are Welcome in the Socialist Movement
New York media has had a field day digging into the backgrounds of socialist leaders like NYC-DSA Cochair Gustavo Gordillo. But what exactly is the “gotcha” — that some people who lead comfortable, secure lives want security and comfort for everyone?
6 Ways to Rebuild Unions at the State and Local Levels Now
The new crop of pro-worker legislators who have recently been elected at the state and local levels can pass laws that can rebuild the labor movement, even with Donald Trump as president. Here are six ways they can do it.