Joe Biden’s Stimulus Is Financing Republican-Backed Tax Cuts for the Rich
Republicans are taking advantage of the White House’s refusal to invoke a law that would ensure stimulus money isn’t used for tax cuts for the wealthy.
19178 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.
The Woodcraft Folk Are the Socialist Boy Scouts
Unlike scouting groups like the Boy Scouts who promote jingoistic patriotism, Britain’s Woodcraft Folk are left-wing, coeducational, anti-militarist, and egalitarian. It’s the type of democratic, cooperative institution kids need.
It’s Time to Nationalize Supermarkets
Supermarkets under capitalism are exploitative and ecologically damaging, shaping what we produce as well as what we consume. In public hands, following a different logic, they could supply the creative core of a democratically planned socialist economy.
The Federal Writers’ Project Fueled the Cultural Ferment of the New Deal Era
FDR’s Federal Writers’ Project employed thousands of out-of-work writers to produce guidebooks, compile local histories, and collect stories of the country at a moment of turmoil. We need an equivalent program today.
Chasing After Big Tech Will End in Disaster for Alberta
Alberta’s politicians want to graft a tech sector onto the province’s unsustainable petrostate economy. Instead of combining Big Oil with Big Tech, they should be using public investment to foster green development and a just transition.
Esther Bejarano (1924–2021)
Esther Bejarano, who died Saturday at age 96, was an Auschwitz survivor and a lifelong communist. A talented musician, in later life she continued to raise her voice against the resurgent far right, setting an example for anti-fascists everywhere.
A New Texas Law Puts a Bounty on Abortion Care Providers’ Heads
Texas’s new “heartbeat bill” offers private citizens $10,000 to successfully sue organizations that help women get abortions. It’s a public subsidy for the anti-abortion movement that harms working-class women.
There Is No Silver Lining to South Africa’s Zuma Insurrection
South Africa’s immense poverty and inequality have been weaponized by former president Jacob Zuma and his supporters through a massive economic sabotage campaign. Any response must address the miseries saturating the country as well as the chaos now unleashed.
A System That Makes Housing a Commodity Can’t Serve Human Needs
Even before the pandemic, America was in the midst of a massive housing crisis. Now, it’s far worse. Our housing agenda has to include investing in public housing, universal rent control, just-cause eviction, and a broad push to decommodify housing.
Big Tech Firms Can’t Be Trusted to Decide Children’s Futures
The rise of online learning during the pandemic has accelerated the already rapid growth of the educational technology sector. But the Silicon Valley firms taking over the classroom remain far too unaccountable — and they’re massively extending the automated processes that unfairly decide children’s futures.
The Billionaire Space Race Is the Ultimate Symbol of Capitalist Decadence
Billionaires like Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk are parasites, worse than socially useless. But they’ve got to justify their existence somehow, so, like five-year-olds, they’re now pretending to be astronauts.
Colombia’s Future Is Up in the Air
After weeks-long massive protests were put on pause, Colombia’s future is more uncertain than ever. The 2022 elections will be critical in determining whether the country will return to the miserable status quo under the thumb of the United States, or blaze a new leftward path.
Haitians, not Americans, Should Decide Haiti’s Future
From a decades-long US occupation to violent foreign-backed coups, Haiti’s history is riddled with disastrous imperial interventions that have helped keep the country mired in poverty. There’s zero justification for more American interference in the country.
We Need a Left Strategy for Confronting the Anti-Abortion Movement
The anti-abortion movement has grown increasingly militant in recent years — and increasingly successful. The liberal pushback isn’t cutting it. We need a leftist strategy to defend abortion rights.
Bulgaria’s “Anti-Party” Wants Even More Power for Corporate Lobbyists
Sunday’s Bulgarian general election saw victory for TV personality Slavi Trifonov’s “anti-party.” This celebrity vehicle talks of replacing corrupt parties with experts — rehashing pro-business dogmas that have already dominated Bulgaria for decades.
Outlaw Ned Kelly Left Behind a Manifesto for the Ages
Ned Kelly is Australia’s most famous and beloved outlaw. He didn’t only defy the colonial police, he also left behind a revolutionary manifesto decrying oppression and poverty that demands to be read.
The Pandemic Will Continue Until We Break Pharma’s Monopoly and End Vaccine Apartheid
Thanks to shortsighted nationalism and corporate power, it’s now expected to take until 2078 to achieve global vaccination. The lesson is clear: COVID can’t be overcome until we put human needs before private profit.
Regime Change Advocates Don’t Care About Cubans
If people like Joe Biden and Marco Rubio actually cared about Cuban lives, they would lift the crippling blockade and end the 62-year-old US war against Cuba.
Leave the Billionaires in Space
The space race playing out among billionaires like Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk has little to do with science — it’s a PR-driven spectacle designed to distract us from the disasters capitalism is causing here on Earth.
How African Americans Fought for Freedom in the Antebellum North
We shouldn’t allow the titanic revolution of the Civil War and Reconstruction to obscure a crucial fact: In the antebellum North, an interracial movement fought for, lost, and then kept fighting for black voting rights and equal citizenship rights.