Agathe Dorra is a PhD researcher in political aesthetics at King’s College London
David Brooks, elite pundit par excellence, has been giving a master lesson for years in how to talk about class without actually talking about class. But class is about material realities, not empty cultural signifiers like one’s TV habits or food preferences.
The UAW’s ongoing “stand-up strike” represents an earth-shattering departure from the union’s recent history. It’s the fruit of decades of efforts to transform the union and return it to its militant roots.
Democratic senator Bob Menendez has been indicted for performing favors in exchange for lavish gifts. The Supreme Court justices who will hear his case are guilty of much of the same.
Former Italian president Giorgio Napolitano has died at the age of 98. A longtime member of the Communist Party, he devolved into a staunch establishment figure that made nice with the neoliberalism of the EU and Washington.
Late last night, the Writers Guild of America announced they have reached a tentative agreement with the Hollywood studios. The union’s negotiating committee is calling the deal “exceptional,” but it’s now up to rank-and-file writers to vote on it.
Last April, Hungary’s opposition alliance united socialists, liberals, and conservatives in a common front against Viktor Orbán. But it was crushed at the ballot box — showing that the Left needs to bring voters material gains, not just an anti-Orbán message.
Today the UAW is making headlines for an energetic strike, helmed by new leadership that doesn’t shy away from the language of class war. It’s happening, in large part, because a small group of workers got together four years ago to reform their union.
The recent controversy over Oliver Anthony is only the latest example of conservatives using country music to push their own agenda. But the genre isn’t inherently right-wing — it can also broadcast the struggles and aspirations of the working class.
Canada is claiming that India’s far-right government was involved in the murder of one of its citizens. The extraordinary allegation has set off a diplomatic firestorm.
When two British volunteers died in Ukraine this month, they were duly hailed for selflessly joining its fight against invasion. Yet both men had also faced terrorism charges for supporting the Kurds — showing the double standards of British foreign policy.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen’s “State of the Union” address shows she’s concentrating ever more power in her own hands. Not only are far-right parties on the rise across the continent, but the EU’s leading official is pushing their agenda.
Last week, several leading European politicians visited the Italian island of Lampedusa, presented as a symbol of a continent overwhelmed by immigrants. But there is no “migrant crisis” — just a political failure to create safe routes for people on the move.
After autoworkers in Coahuila, Mexico, organized an independent union at a VU Manufacturing facility, the company shuttered the plant and fired all the workers. Now local business elites have imposed a hiring blacklist on all the former VU workers.
After already securing agreements for deep spending cuts earlier this year, House Republicans are poised to force a government shutdown to demand even more austerity. Democrats seem ill-prepared to stand up to the GOP’s hostage-taking.
Brandon Johnson, the labor-backed mayor of Chicago, is poised to deliver his first major victory: scrapping the subminimum wage for tipped workers.
France’s education minister has banned girls in public schools from wearing the abaya, a loose-fitting Islamic dress. Emmanuel Macron’s government is whipping up conflict over identity — but ignoring the real problems that face France’s underfunded classrooms.
Since inflation started rising, British capitalists have been raking in massive profits while workers have suffered a disastrous wage slump. Yet the Bank of England still wants to boost unemployment in case workers develop their fighting strength.
In July, the European Union announced a deal with Tunisia to police migration. The deal allowed the EU to outsource the dirty work of repressing migrants — but it’s done nothing to hide the mounting numbers of desperate people dying in the Mediterranean.
The UAW strike just got bigger. The union announced this afternoon that workers at 38 GM and Stellantis locations would join the walkout — and the pressure tactics are already working, with Ford making significant concessions at the bargaining table.
The story of the African-American working class is the story of democratic struggle: of pairing the fight against racism with the fight against economic exploitation to push the US to become a freer and more just society.