Electoral campaigns can feed workplace struggle by politicizing people, raising their expectations, bringing activists together, and giving them experience organizing others. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaigns did all four.
US Meddling in Brazil May Decide Latin America’s Future
Brazil’s presidential election is on a knife-edge. Right-winger Flávio Bolsonaro has powerful interests on his side but is also counting on the Trump administration’s help to push him over the line.
The Battle of Cable Street Was an Antifascist Landmark
Ninety years ago this Sunday, antifascist demonstrators routed Oswald Mosley and his supporters when they tried to terrorize the Jews of London’s East End. It’s an important anniversary in a year when a new far-right movement is gathering strength.
Congress Must Investigate War Profiteers Once Again
Ninety years after the original Nye Committee exposed the arms industry’s corruption, the Pentagon and its contractors are bigger, richer, and more unaccountable than ever.
The Stakes Are High in Brazil’s Upcoming Election
During Jair Bolsonaro’s term as president, he faced a liberal establishment that acted as a bulwark against his worst excesses. If his son Flávio beats Lula in the presidential election, he will encounter much less resistance from state institutions.
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.
Against the Politics of Communal Fear
We can take antisemitism seriously without making communal identity the organizing principle of public life.
West Point’s Honor Code Taught the Military to Lie
General Douglas MacArthur was determined that West Point graduates would uphold the most romantic definitions of honor. Instead his credo fostered a culture of duplicity and institutional subterfuge, leading to real-world military fiascos.
A Decade After His First Presidential Run, Bernie Isn’t Alone
It’s a mark of the influence of Bernie Sanders’s first presidential campaign that the American political landscape before he ran looks unrecognizable now. Most of the hundreds of socialists who now hold power across the country were directly inspired by it.
Jordan Bardella Isn’t Such a Friend of Jews After All
New revelations allege French far-right leader Jordan Bardella was once an obsessive antisemite who wrote that Jews dominate and rob other peoples. While his National Rally party has airbrushed its image, the conspiratorial worldview remains at its core.
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.
A Decade of Bernie Sanders’s Transformation of America
It’s been ten years since Bernie Sanders’s first presidential run — a run that transformed the Left and our sense of the possible in this country. It should be remembered as one of the most consequential electoral campaigns in US history.
Obama’s Monument to Empty Liberalism
The Barack Obama Presidential Center promised to be more than an ode to the former president. In reality, it’s an $850 million monument to the vacuousness that defined Obama liberalism.
American Capitalism Isn’t Just Billionaires
Middling capitalists such as auto dealers, beer distributors, and niche manufacturers control a substantial amount of American wealth, which they often use to advance right-wing political priorities. Their size and power shouldn’t be neglected.
Eric Hobsbawm Owed His Success to Mass Culture
Eric Hobsbawm was a master of what he self-deprecatingly called haute vulgarisation, Oxbridge-inflected confident generalization based on selectively chosen data. He combined this elite education with popular appeal in a way few had done before.