Gustavo Petro’s “economy for life” captures something essential about the planetary crisis. Turning it into a program requires confronting the structures that stand in the way.
Mark Carney’s Trickle-Down Nation-Building
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney touts a new era of industrial policy and state-led development. But instead of rebuilding public capacity, he is turning the state into a guarantor of private capital while asking workers to trust in trickle-down prosperity.
The Bangladeshi Left Won’t Survive If It Doesn’t Change Gear
Left-wing movements and ideas have had a major impact on the history of Bangladesh since independence. But the country’s left has failed to adapt to new circumstances and now faces a choice between wholesale renovation and a slide into irrelevance.
Hollywood Invented the Girlboss
The Criterion Channel’s excellent new “Office Romances” retrospective shows how Hollywood’s classic workplace comedies exposed a deep panic about women who dared to be competent.
No, Bulgaria’s New Premier Isn’t Pro-Kremlin
New Bulgarian Premier Rumen Radev’s Progressive Bulgaria party is more conservative than it sounds. It’s also unfair to call it pro-Kremlin, despite alarmist claims in international media casting the party as stooges of Vladimir Putin.
The Making of the Teenager
The teenager we know today came of age in the postwar era — but she owes her existence to the New Deal.
Socialism cannot mean merely managing capitalism more fairly. It must point toward a society where survival is no longer contingent on the market — and where democracy extends into the economy itself.
Anyone Noting Israel’s Crimes Will Be Accused of “Blood Libel”
Genocide apologists have declared the New York Times’s Nicholas Kristof’s report on Israeli soldiers’ rape of Palestinians is “blood libel.” If that sounds familiar, it’s because they’ve said the same thing for three years about every Israeli war crime.
Russia’s Antiwar Prisoners Are Outcasts in Their Own Land
Over four years into Russia’s war in Ukraine, some of the Russians imprisoned in its early days are still in jail. Even people with no previous political activism have been landed with long prison sentences in order to crush dissent.
Why Capitalism’s Origins Matter
A new book defends a Marxist theory of the origins of capitalism. Along the way it shows why understanding the transition from feudalism can help us make sense of the present.
We Need to Move Beyond Robot Doomerism
“The robots are coming” need not be understood as heralding the apocalypse. An automated society in which states and worker-owned enterprises use technology to serve public ends while meeting individual needs is entirely consistent with the good life.
Neoliberalism didn’t win an intellectual argument — it won power. Vivek Chibber unpacks how employers and political elites in the 1970s and ’80s turned economic turmoil into an opportunity to reshape society on their terms.
Scotland Has No Escape Route From Britain’s Political Crisis
The Scottish National Party won its 5th consecutive term in office last week. But the party’s tepid brand of centrism still looks worn out, and the only big advances came for Reform on the right and the Greens on the left.
Americans: We’re Broke. Donald Trump: No, You’re Not.
Donald Trump and the Republicans are insisting the economy is great and unhappy Americans are deluded. Just like Democrats under Joe Biden, they’re lying to themselves and everyone else — and will eventually pay the price.
Trump’s Deportations of Palestine Activist Students Aren't Over
After successfully challenging deportation orders in court last year, Palestinian student activists Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi are facing renewed attacks from the Trump administration. Their persecution is meant to chill political speech broadly.
Montreal’s Guillotine Gate Is a Tempest in a Teapot
The pearl-clutching hysterics from Quebec’s chattering classes over a labor group’s decapitation of a papier-mâché dummy reveal less about political violence than about ruling-class fragility.