Artist Romare Bearden’s Reckoning With the South
A new biography contextualizes the art of Romare Bearden within the politics of Reconstruction and civil rights.
19250 Articles by: Abigail Torre
Abigail Torre grew up in Chile and now lives in Berkeley, California where she is cochair of the East Bay chapter of Democratic Socialists of America.
For Workers, Hospitals Have Become the New Steel Mills — Minus the Strong Unions
Health care workplaces have replaced steel mills and auto plants as the nation’s big employers. But while industrial workers once had mighty unions, hospital workers have struggled by comparison to win representation and good contracts.
Ron DeSantis Prefers to Call His War on Workers a War on “Wokeness”
Ron DeSantis’s crusade against “woke ideology” was always a thinly disguised assault on the rights of Florida teachers and their unions. His recent “Teacher’s Bill of Rights” only makes it explicit.
The Hopeful Romanticism of John Keats
John Keats’s verse — described by his contemporaries as “mental masturbation” and poetry for bed-wetters — is often dismissed as embarrassingly sentimental. A new book by literary critic Anahid Nersessian finds subversive irony in the English Romantic’s poems.
Equating the Soviet Union With Nazi Germany Is Terrible History
Across Eastern Europe, the war in Ukraine has reinvigorated narratives that present life under Soviet rule as akin to Nazi genocide. It’s bad history — and it indulges the nationalist groups who collaborated with Adolf Hitler.
“Affordable Housing” Schemes Fail Because They Don’t Advocate for Public Housing
We all know that the rents are too damn high and that our cities’ efforts at providing affordable housing have been failures. The reason they fail is because the “affordable housing” playbook does not consider housing as a public good.
How One Left-Led Union Fought the Barbaric Lynching of Emmett Till
The United Packinghouse Workers of America was a beacon of “civil rights unionism.” And in the aftermath of Emmett Till’s grotesque lynching in 1955, the union spearheaded a mass campaign on Till’s behalf in the North and South.
The Terrorism Charges Against Cop City Protesters Are Ominous
Protesters against a massive police militarization complex in Atlanta have been slapped with domestic terrorism charges for throwing bottles and breaking windows. That should be deeply worrisome for anyone who values the right to dissent.
Irish Unity Is Now a Realistic Goal, but There’s Still a Long Road to Travel
Sinn Féin has become the largest party on both sides of the Irish border. But the party’s effort to eliminate that border for good will have to overcome some powerful obstacles that stand in the way of a united Ireland.
Amazon Just Saw Its First Strike in Britain
Yesterday, staff at Amazon’s Coventry warehouse did something no British workers at the company had previously done: they walked off the job.
Russell Banks Was a Working-Class Writer for Our Global Age
Novelist Russell Banks, who died this month at the age of 82, brought to life the brutality of contemporary capitalism and the hardships of workers across the world. He was a writer of and for the working class.
South Korea’s Conservative Government Is Cracking Down on the Country’s Militant Labor Unions
Last week, South Korea’s intelligence agency raided the country’s largest group of independent unions. It’s a blatant attack on workers’ rights that has raised fears the conservative government is resurrecting dictatorship-era methods of bludgeoning labor.
Joe Biden’s Rooseveltian Ambitions Are Officially Dead
Austerity-minded Jeff Zients’s appointment as White House chief of staff signals Joe Biden’s return to the fiscal hawkishness that has always been his sweet spot.
Why George Santos Won’t Resign
In a world where norms and codes of conduct mattered, George Santos’s would be an open and shut case. But as long as he remains useful to the narrow Republican House majority, the chronically dishonest congressman likely isn’t going anywhere.
How British Workers Toppled the Anti-Union Industrial Relations Act
Britain saw a massive wave of collective action in the 1970s as trade unionists opposed a law that limited the right to strike. Revisiting this history provides a blueprint for fighting back against the Tories’ anti-union legislation today.
Molly Nilsson Wants a World With No Billionaires
Synthpop icon Molly Nilsson speaks about the future of creative pursuits in a neoliberal world, her hatred of pessimism, and her admiration for revolutionaries like Rosa Luxemburg.
Joe Biden’s New Immigration Policy Is a Boon to Right-Wing Xenophobia
With its new immigration policy, the Biden administration isn’t even breaking from Trump-era anti-immigrant policies, much less charting a new, humane course for immigrants and refugees.
Right-Wingers Like Steven Crowder Need Billionaire Funders Because Their Ideas Are So Bad
Right-wing demagogue Steven Crowder recently turned down a $50 million offer from Ben Shapiro’s billionaire-funded media organization, calling it a “slave contract.” If only these guys showed as much concern for the conditions of ordinary workers.
How Analytic Philosophers Have Made Sense of Capitalism
Analytic philosophy, a branch of the discipline that emphasizes rigorous argumentation, is often dismissed as a set of abstract puzzle games. But analytic philosophers have reinterpreted Marxism to provide a radical critique of capitalist society.
Poland and Hungary Are Testing the Limits of the EU’s Liberalism
Before their illiberal turn, Poland and Hungary were lauded as postcommunist poster children. Both nations have combined moderately redistributive welfare states with attacks on civil liberties — but inflation is putting their growth model to the test.